Okay, Alex, who do you think the greatest free soloists of all time are? Oh, it's how many am I allowed to list? It just totally depends on the criteria. I mean... I don't know. How many are there? I don't know. Well, there aren't that many, but I mean, to me, the names that come to mind are Peter Croft and John Backer, but that's partially just where I grew up and, you know, what I was inspired by. I mean, obviously, somebody like Alex Hoover is sold at 14A, so, you know, his name certainly belongs on a list of great solists. Then you have somebody like Henry Barber from the previous generation who also was an incredible soloist. And then tons of other people doing things in the mountains. But I think for me

personally, it's Peter Croft and John Backer. Here's Peter. You know, seeing John Backer solo is just

kind of like, it was just, he was glued to the rock. It was just, it was so incredibly smooth.

It was so far away from any kind of daredevil thing. As far as like of the historic things that John Backer did soloing in Yosemite, when I repeated those,

I just felt like I was on hallowed ground.

For the Stone Masters, soloing could almost be like a shared tradition, like something that

people would do after a day of climbing where they would

gather around the Joshua Tree formations and swap laps. It was not always an intensely personal

experience. It was something that sometimes got shared. And it was typically like single

pitches that were pretty hard. Through time, John Backer with his flowing golden locks and

Hollywood physique rose to be a legend that took

free-souling off the deck, unlocking some of the smaller walls in Yosemite, like the Nabisco

Wall and Arch Rock.

He once posted a note to the Camp Four bulletin board saying $10,000 to anyone who can follow

me for a full day.

He earned the nickname Mr. Narelko after the shaving company hired him as spokesperson. Close shave. Get it. That's so bad. And he pre-sold at 512 in Josh Retreat for the 1980s show. That's incredible. He also had the confidence to on-size solo of roots like the moratorium. Which I think is nuts. No, Onside Soling the Mortarium is psycho.

But I think that is something that he barely got away with.

And I think he also sort of, you know, yeah, realized that that was beyond what he should have done.

But, you know, everybody makes mistakes every once in a while.

That's true.

I kind of think he thought of that one as a bit of a mistake.

But he did send.

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