In 1985, Russ Clune, then one of America's leading rock climbers, found himself in South Korea, where the free climbing revolution had yet to take hold. He went on a two-week kick of nonstop new routing.
Probably not. But they're some of them.
“Maria was a fearsome force, a gravitational body that drew you in with her broad smile, infectious laugh, and sharp intellect.”
A quiet "third-classing" competition took place in the summer of 1985 in the Gunks, culminating in the author's free solo of the ultra-classic "Supercrack" 5.12c.
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.
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