To me the article pretty clearly indicates that mental illness, and multiple traumatic injuries, play major role in Austin's addiction to free climbing. In the

To me the article pretty clearly indicates that mental illness, and multiple traumatic injuries, play major role in Austin's addiction to free climbing. In the middle of the article is a point where his father tells him he's going to die if he keeps this up and he says he's "willing to take the consequences of his actions." He might be reckless but I don't think he can be called a fool. (Also: The author's credentials are in the article - depressed, took SSRIs, started getting high from free climbing. That's enough of a relation to the subject of the story for me. You're obviously closer to it.)