Hiking - Part 65

Free Climbing

Today's post is not about hiking but about rock climbing, another outdoor activity.  Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber does not use ropes or other tools to help climb, although he may use them as backup for safety.

Above, a 2009 sculpture in Silt, Colorado by Blaine Peters shows a naked free climber, along with various animals.  The sculpture was located in a traffic circle next to the exit of Interstate 70.

Some local residents complained about the naked man on the sculpture, and in 2011 someone knocked off the climber's head (above).  In 2017 the mayor had the sculpture removed to a remote part of town on the pretext that it blocked the view of drivers.  By the way, although it looks like solid rock, it isn't.  It's a steel frame covered by Styrofoam and a coating of cement.

In real life, some people do free climb naked.  This is Eric free-climbing at a beach in Thailand.

Another naked man free-climbing.  What does the shape of the rock formation remind you of?

Li Tongxing free-climbing near Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, China.

Chris Van Leuven climbing Buttermilk Boulders in Bishop, California.

American rock climber Chris Sharma in a photo for the 2013 ESPN body issue.  His pose looks impossibly perilous, but other photos showed that he was less than 10 feet above the ground.  Chris does much higher climbs, but he ensures his safety by using ropes or climbing above water (like an oceanside cliff) where a fall would not be fatal.

Not all free climbers are as safety-conscious.  Above, Spanish climber David Fusté free-climbing a cliff in Spain naked with no ropes or other safety devices.  In the narration he tries to explain why he does it.

We end with American climber Austin Howell, above.

In this video he is on Shortoff Mountain, North Carolina, free-climbing a 350-foot cliff called Dopey Duck in 2015.  He made it to the top.

But in 2019, free-climbing this same cliff (clothed), he slipped and fell 200 feet to his death.  He was 31.