Free Solo

Brette Harrington is known for her daring free solos, but she wouldn’t classify herself as a free-soloist. She’s a trad climber at heart and only solos “for fun.”

Dean Potter said he could fly. That was 10 years ago. Maybe he could fly. Who knows? He made so many spacey statements and did so many dreamy things they could seem as natural as a flower opening its petals.

On February 26, Canadian climber Marc-Andre Leclerc soloed three major mixed routes on the Stanley Headwall, B.C. in a single day—bringing solo climbing in the Canadian Rockies to a new level.

Itching for solitude and adventure, Marc-André Leclerc disappeared to Patagonia and found solace on an ice soloing bender in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.

Free soloist and free spirit Dean Potter died yesterday in a wingsuit accident while BASE jumping from Taft Point in Yosemite. For nearly 20 years Potter inspired and expanded the minds of multiple generations of climbers. What follows is a collection of news, interviews and even an article by Potter himself, reprinted here in tribute to one of the greatest—and purest—climbers of all time.

Marc-André Leclerc, 22, has soloed the 4,000-foot Corkscrew route (5.10d, A1) on Cerro Torre—the hardest route ever soloed on the granite tower—in a single day and in terrible conditions.

At the end of the day, this climber decided to take one more run on a 40-foot pitch, but this time without tying in to the rope still hanging on the route...

Alex Honnold is slated to free solo the second tallest building in Asia on live National Geographic TV. But instead of writing off the event as just a publicity stunt, Rock and Ice decided to ask Honnold about the Taipei 101 exploit, and gain a climber's perspective on what may be his biggest free solo ever.

Austrian alpinist Markus Pucher made history by claiming the first free solo of Cerro Torre in Patagonia. "I'd done it, I'd managed to free solo this immense mountain," wrote Pucher, "the mountain of my dreams!"

Free soloist Michael Reardon died in a freak accident, and is remembered by John Bachar.

The kid who soloed BOHICA.