The ascent of Alex Honnold

If you think you can handle some sweaty palms, Alex Honnold, one of the best free solo climbers in the world, lives in his van so he can easily get from park to park and seems to absolutely thrive off the lifestyle -- [VIDEO] There is something that appeals to my personality to live out of a van and just move on a whim but I don't think I would ever have the guts to go for it.

For some more sweaty palm fun, check out professional climber Alex Honnold "free soloing" various rock walls. [VIDEO] The whole video is worth watching, but the meat and potatoes starts at about 11:30

That's psychotic. I don't rope rescue, but I sure do rock climb. You can rock climb with ropes or without. Ropes = a large safety margin, and the majority of people who climb, utilize them, as part of their safety system. Unless you're pushing your own grade level, the actual safety system isn't actuated - you're just using it "just in case" (like, "just in case you fall from a cliff, 500 feet up - gee it's nice I'm tied to something). There are also those who climb without ropes. Perhaps you've heard of some of them [0], and most likely, because they actually climb without a rope. High Risk. Your idea of startups, let's say. But that's just what the public sees. The free soloist has to be absolutely comfortable to go without the safety margin of a rope. Because of that, the majority of their climbing is done, still with a rope. When they go ropeless, the climbs they do are much, much easier. Yes, the risk is there, but also there is the understanding, clearly, what the risk is really about. The death rate of climbers that are unwilling to ever use a rope, because they find that high risk = high reward would be close to 100%. But those who do survive are not going to be doing too well - they're never going to progress. So, perhaps startups have this illusion of high risk, but maybe also they're also kidding themselves. They're burning through their lives, and offloading the real risk onto their safety systems - whoever is putting up the money. And they can do that (the invest

That's what chalk is for :) [VIDEO] The whole video is pretty interesting, but may make your hands sweat even more.

A month or so ago I watched this 60 minutes of his Half Dome climb ... [VIDEO] I seem to recall him saying in it one of the big risks is suddenly being overcome with fear or vertigo from the height.