John Duran

Free soloing means climbing with no rope, a genre that verged into American consciousness in the 1970s. In 2018 it blew up, with Alex Honnold's mind-bending solo of El Capitan and the award-winning film that chronicled it. Let's take a look back.

60, legendary Southwest climber. FA’ed thousands of boulders up to V10; free-soloed Fainting Imam (trad 5.13a; later 5.12c/d), Dreamscape (5.12a), La Espina (5.12a), Cochiti Mesa, New Mexico. Gifted skier, cyclist. Teacher, lives near Beijing; married.