Free climbing with no equipment. Should come with a health warning.

This is a lonly and often desperate activity. It can open your mind either by showing you that you are capable of feats that most mortals would not contemplate, or by scattering it in a large area as you hit the ground (messy).

Not only do you need fingers of steel you also need balls of steel and a heart of a lion, you need to know that you are a god, that you cannot die, that everything in your world, under your immediate touch is in your control.

That said people have died from soloing when a flake of rock has broken or when it rained unexpectedly.

When you solo you put thoughts like this out of your mind.

actually soloing is not "free climbing with no equipment." in reality soloing is climbing, be it free, aid, ice or even alpine climbing with gear but sans a partner. hence the word "solo".

now what siren is referring to is actually what's termed "free soloing" where it's done alone and without gear. there's a good book written by John Long, called The High Lonesome which delves deeply into the world of free soloing.

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