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I've been following climbing since the early 90s. Amongst the pros John Bachar is the only guy I can name who died while free soloing in that time. Dan Osman,

I've been following climbing since the early 90s. Amongst the pros John Bachar is the only guy I can name who died while free soloing in that time. Dan Osman, Alaine Robert, Alex Honnold, Steph Davis, Catherine Destiville, Better Harrington, Hazel Findlay, Will Stanhope, Brad Gobright, Michael Reardon, Peter Croft, Dave McLeod and many others have all accumulated impressive free solo resumes, but did not die while free soloing. (Some of them died, but not from a free soloing fall)

justinator 3y ago
>I've been following climbing since the early 90s. Amongst the pros John Bachar is the only guy I can name who died while free soloing in that time. There was Derek Hersey, who I guess isn't pro, but certainly was prolific. Among other very notable ascents is his triple route linkup on the Diamond of Longs Peak.
Vecr 3y ago
All those people are a subset of people in general who were very good at free soloing. Almost everyone is not part of that group. That's a reasonable argument that it's possible to free solo hard routes multiple times if you are very good at doing so, but it's not a good argument that you should start free soloing. That said I've done some stupid things while hiking that I guess are sort of like free soloing, but on only somewhat inclined surfaces (30-40 degrees? I can't really remember if it was that high) that were only dangerous because of ice or slippery leaves.
- Fricken 3y ago
  The best argument against free soloing is free soloing. Mortals don't usually get very far before it puts the fear of God in them. The one's who do are wired different, and are outliers even within the climbing community. Myself, I'm a bit stupider. I soloed several radio towers as a teen, and have done my share of questionable scrambling, but I didn't get very far at all with free soloing proper before I started to experience PTSD-like symptoms, and stopped.
fingerlocks 3y ago
There’s some literal survival bias here. Those climbers became famous because they didn’t die. Ryan Triplett was a very well known climber in the PNW that died free soloing 15 years ago. Perhaps he would have more name recognition if still alive today. There’s likely a number of semi-pros that didn’t live long enough to make the short list.
- deleted 3y ago
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justinator 3y ago

>I've been following climbing since the early 90s. Amongst the pros John Bachar is the only guy I can name who died while free soloing in that time. There was Derek Hersey, who I guess isn't pro, but certainly was prolific. Among other very notable ascents is his triple route linkup on the Diamond of Longs Peak.

Vecr 3y ago

All those people are a subset of people in general who were very good at free soloing. Almost everyone is not part of that group. That's a reasonable argument that it's possible to free solo hard routes multiple times if you are very good at doing so, but it's not a good argument that you should start free soloing. That said I've done some stupid things while hiking that I guess are sort of like free soloing, but on only somewhat inclined surfaces (30-40 degrees? I can't really remember if it was that high) that were only dangerous because of ice or slippery leaves.

Fricken 3y ago
The best argument against free soloing is free soloing. Mortals don't usually get very far before it puts the fear of God in them. The one's who do are wired different, and are outliers even within the climbing community. Myself, I'm a bit stupider. I soloed several radio towers as a teen, and have done my share of questionable scrambling, but I didn't get very far at all with free soloing proper before I started to experience PTSD-like symptoms, and stopped.

fingerlocks 3y ago

There’s some literal survival bias here. Those climbers became famous because they didn’t die. Ryan Triplett was a very well known climber in the PNW that died free soloing 15 years ago. Perhaps he would have more name recognition if still alive today. There’s likely a number of semi-pros that didn’t live long enough to make the short list.

deleted 3y ago
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