Solo a Cliff… Call Your Mom (video on climber Alex Honnold)

Written by Stephen Regenold Jun 03, 2013 9:35 a.m. ET

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“Hi Mom.” Rock climber Alex Honnold is dialing up his mother for a check-in from a remote campsite in Utah. This is after free soloing a 500-foot desert face. He has survived again, not a scratch despite a “one slip you’re dead” line that sends at 5.11. His phone? It’s been powered up by a Goal Zero solar panel, the brand that produced this video-advertisement. Take a view, the footage is impressive. The dialog is a tad dramatic — “There’s just something free about it…” — but then again so is everything about Honnold and his rope-less style on the rock. —Stephen Regenold

Stephen Regenold

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Stephen Regenold is the founder of GearJunkie, which he launched as a nationally syndicated newspaper column in 2002. As a journalist, writer, and gear nerd, Regenold has covered the outdoors industry for over two decades, including as a correspondent for the New York Times. A father of five, Regenold and his wife, Tara, live in Minneapolis.