Free soloists

Italian mountaineer, adventurer and explorer (born 1944)

French climber and author

Alexander J Honnold is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes. Honnold rose to worldwide fame in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park via the 880-metre (2,900 ft) route Freerider at grade 5.13a, the first-ever big-wall free-solo ascent at that grade, a climb described in The New York Times as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever".

Swiss mountaineer and rock climber (1976-2017)

French rock climber and mountaineer

Dean Spaulding Potter was an American rock climber, alpinist, BASE jumper, and highliner, who invented the extreme sport of FreeBASE. He completed many technically hard first free ascents, free solo ascents, speed ascents, and enchainments in Yosemite National Park and in Patagonia. He won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award in 2003. In 2015, he died in a wingsuit flying accident at Yosemite National Park.

German rock climber (1960–1992)

American rock climber (1963-1998)

American rock climber

Italian mountain climber

French mountaineer (1965–2006)

French rock climber (1960–2012)

Polish mountaineer and rock climber, born 1947.

German rock climber

American rock climber (1957-2009)

Austrian mountaineer (1886-1913)

Canadian rock climber and alpinist (1992-2018)

American rock climber

Austrian mountaineer (1984–2019)

Italian mountaineer (1926–1959)

British rock climber

Italian mountaineer

British rock climber

French rock climber and mountaineer (1957-2004)

Swiss ice and mountain climber

American rock climber

American rock climber and author

American climber

Welsh mountaineer