Climbing styles: Free Solo

Inspiration, Lezecké styly

Free solo, or climbing without a rope, is one of the gray practices of the climbing world. This is something where you really can't go wrong. Any mistake, slip or snag means an express ticket back to the ground, which usually the climber will not walk again. Nevertheless, there is a climbing community that often and happily climbs without a rope. You probably all already know members of this community, like Alex Honold.

How does it work?

Soloing is, as the name suggests, climbing on your own. By that we mean without a partner, a seat, a rope and usually without a helmet (because let's face it, it doesn't help much). A common mistake is that people get confused bouldering and soloing. But there is a big difference. Bouldering is climbing that can be practiced on small rocks. It is technical and can be climbed without belaying. The only "safety" device here is a boulder mat to cushion the fall. The free solo style, on the other hand, is 100% without belay. It is performed on routes where you normally climb a rope. The risk is therefore complete.

Magnus Midtbo - Deep Water Solo

Under disciplines

But not everyone is brave (or crazy) enough to climb absolutely without belay, risking death. There are two variations that allow you to fall and one "lite" variation, which is no longer a pure free solo.

(Deep) Water solo

Water solo, jbue free soloing over, as the name suggests, water. The pioneer of this technique is the American climber Chris Sharma. Here, the roads most often turn off above quarries or the sea. When a climber falls here (it is not allowed fear of falling) so it hums relatively pleasantly into the water and can happily keep trying.

This style of climbing is very popular on the Spanish coast and, for example, in Southeast Asia. At the same time, it is a style accessible to anyone who has climbing shoes and knows where to climb safely. Even in the Czech Republic there are several places (for example near Sázava) where you can climb water solo.

Skydiving

The term technikus - parachuting - seems a bit comical. But it's a way to climb solo and not die. Dean Potter was (died in 2015) the main proponent of this method. It is exactly as simple as it seems. During the fall, the string is simply pulled and the parachute jumps out of our backpack. With a bit of luck, the climber is high enough at the time of the fall for the parachute to work. This style of soloing has one advantage over its "puritan" variant. You can also climb on rocks that are not passable from the top on foot, as you can simply jump off.

Dean Potter - Free solo with a parachute

Rope solo

Rope solo is a certain combination of free soloing and traditional climbing. It is a way of climbing alone on a rope. But it requires a fixed rope, a mechanical belay and a lot of experience. Here, the climber works with a rope caught at one fixed point (saline). The rope is sometimes also caught additionally by expressways. Belaying is ensured by a mechanical belay, such as Gree Gree. If you fall here, you only fall as far as your own slack will allow.

Free solo: Climbers

Alex Honold

Alex Honnold is, next to Ondra, Garbret and Ghisolfi, one of the most famous climbers of our era. Honnold probably has the most solo climbs in the world, from Yosemite to crags in Morocco. Alex has a solo ascent of El Capitan, a Free rider route, on his account. He is the only climber on the planet who climbed this rock without a rope. We recommend the (Oscar-winning) film about his journey known (significantly) Free Solo.

Alexander Huber

Alexander Huber is one of the two Huber brothers. This German has not only multi-length ascents and traverses, but also several impressive free solo ascents. Among them, the trip to Mont Blanc or, for example, the Kommunist trip from the Alps rated as 8b+.

Alain Robert

Robert he is french urban free solo climber. Dubbed as the "French Spiderman", Robert has already scaled several skyscrapers and world monuments without a rope or belay. Among them is, for example, the Opera House in Sydney, the Eiffel Tower or the tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa.