Free solo climbing
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Free solo climbing (or free soloing) is a form of rock climbing in which the climber (or free soloist) climbs on technical terrain without ropes or any form of protective equipment — all they are allowed to use are climbing shoes and climbing chalk (or ice tools and crampons if ice climbing). Free soloing is the most dangerous form of climbing, and, unlike bouldering, free soloists climb at heights where any fall can be fatal. Though many climbers have free soloed routes with technical grades that they are very comfortable on, only a small group free solo regularly and at technical grades closer to the limit of their abilities.
The international profiles of some climbers, such as Alex Honnold, Alex Huber, Alain Robert and John Bachar, have been significantly increased by their free soloing activities, but others question the ethics of this and whether the risks that they are undertaking should be encouraged and commercially rewarded. While "free solo" was originally a term in climbing slang, after the popularity of the 2018 Oscar-winning film Free Solo, Merriam-Webster added the term to their English dictionary in September 2019.
In addition to being done on single-pitch and multi-pitch rock climbing routes — including the even longer big wall climbing that features in the Free Solo film — free soloing is performed in a wide range of other climbing-types, including, for example, in the disciplines of ice climbing and of mixed climbing (which is featured in the 2021 climbing documentary film The Alpinist), as well as in setting speed-climbing records on alpine climbing routes (which is featured in the 2023 climbing documentary film Race to the Summit).