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His attitude bothers me. He seems to be telling us: "Use the strength of you mind to overcome fear, and you can overcome the rock".

Not a balanced approach. He ignores a strategy for safety.

I say "Phooey!"

Nut's.... totally, completely....

That person is a guide??

gk

I don’t get it. Why would someone make that video in the first place? It doesn’t show him doing any hard climbing, and his movement skills don’t look impressive at all. Then it introduces the next guy as “an amateur climber.” What the heck is an amateur climber.

But he trains his body. Wow.

Kinda reminds of back when so many dudes were wearing “No Fear” T shirts. My buds and I carried one of them down from Tahquitz Rock. He was missing his head though. Not pretty.

What really cracks me up is the end credits, like it is a feature film or something.

OK now I will chime in, and present my own guide to free solo climbing. Sorry I can't show a video, because my solo climbs are ... solo.

First I'll set the scene. I enjoy a variety of outdoor activities -- more correctly I'm opportunistic., I'm a not cross-discipline guy, I just get around.

I enjoy outdoor adventures. Today I live in Calgary, so the Rocky Mountains are accessible. "Adventure" is any outing where I explore the terrain, hands-on (or boots-on). My level of commitment is flexible, but I will include high, or remote, or difficult, but I also include nature, and fun, and serenity. Rocks and elevation are important, but so is lunch and tea. So my disciplines include hiking in valleys or ridges, scrambling off-trail, and peak-bagging. I do sport cragging, multi-pitch rock, and ice. I cannot claim to Alpine, although that might happen this year (2010).

I like to go out with friends, or groups, or clubs. However when companionship is not available, I go out alone. I'm talking remote, challenging, all-weather, four-season.

So what about soloing? Well usually it's an opportunity, as well as a challenge. But it's part of my chosen route. Maybe I planned it, maybe it's a surprise.

Like any scramble challenge, I'll look at the obstacle as part of the route. Like any route, there might be an easier or safer way around it, or maybe not. So that's where I do my three-way decision: go over, go around, or go back. That decision is deliberate and important.

Two examples:
1. Last week I was exploring the rocks at Wasootch, our favorite sport crag. I was looking at a 4th-class gully between two cliffs, so I climbed it. I found that it might give us a great opportunity for training in summer.
2. In summer I was exploring an unnamed mountain above Barrier Lake. I scrambled half-way up (about 400 meters) and encountered a slabby wall, harder than 5.1, less that 5.6. I climbed some of it, but eventually the rock quality changed, and my evaluation of the safety changed. So I climbed back down.

OK for free solo rock climbing, here's my rules:

1. The route must be easy enough for me to climb, within my own limits.
2. The rock quality should be good and clean. Now this is the Rockies, so "good and clean" is problematic, but still it must be reasonable.
3. I need a reason to do the climb. In my first example, my reason was "explore". In my second example, my reason was to gain the summit, 400 meters higher up.

Dan Osmand I ain't.

But I get around, I have fun, I achieve goals, and my skill progresses. Plus, at the end of the day, I get home to my loving wife, who is very good about listening to the fun parts of my adventure stories.