The Strange Story Behind Why We Call Ropeless Climbing “Free Soloing”

A quick detour into the etymology of the term—and how climbing language is still evolving

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(Photo: Robert Boesch / Getty)

In 1945, at age 45, John Salathé took a Sierra Club rock climbing clinic at Hunter’s Hill, a beginner-friendly crag in the Bay Area. His guide climbed to the top of a pitch, anchored in, and pulled up the rope.

“Go ahead, John, climb freely!” the guide hollered down to Salathé. The guide couldn’t pull up the slack fast enough, marveling at the speed of this Swiss novice. But when Salathé arrived at the belay, he wasn’t tied into the rope. He had thought “climb freely” meant to climb ropeless.

“I learned this story when I got artifacts from John Salathé,” said Ken Yager, president of the Yosemite Climbing Association, which runs the Yosemite Climbing Museum. Yager relayed the historic tale when I asked him about the origins of the term “free soloing.” Apparently, this mid-century incident is how the term “free” came to reference both the style of climbing without aid, and the act of climbing ropeless.

“They should have figured out it was a problem then,” Yager reflected on the double meaning. “I’m sure it’s just a conglomeration of different terms. It is very difficult to explain to people the difference, even people with a general understanding of climbing.”

Aside from the secondary meaning incurred when Salathé misunderstood his Sierra Club instructor, “free climbing” means using only holds on the rock to move up a route. Conversely, “aid climbing” refers to leveraging gear placed in the rock to move upward. (Yager shared that climbers called this “artificial climbing” back in the day.)

But the story of Salathé only explains half of the term in question. The other half, “soloing,” means to climb without a partner (and thus without a belayer). One can also solo with a rope, belaying themselves—referred to as “rope soloing.” So how did these two words come together?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the term “free solo” appeared in 1977 in the writings of John Gill. Perhaps best known as the father of bouldering, Gill also free soloed his way through the late 1950s and `60s. We reached out to Gill for insights but never got a response.

Whether Gill invented the term or was merely reflecting current vernacular, we may never know. But perhaps the phrase emerged like language often does—randomly and unpredictably, rather than intentionally. This might explain why so many climbers today find themselves correcting non-climbers on what “free solo” means.

Neither “free” nor “solo” imply ropeless. In general, Yager said he is relatively fed up with the evolving linguistics of our sport. “I gave up when they threw in pinkpoint, redpoint, and all that stuff,” he laughed. “And trad—that was another one that I hated. That’s real climbing. There’s sport climbing and real climbing.”

Another term that has changed over time is “power point,” which refers to your main tie-in point to an anchor. Jason D. Martin, executive director of the American Alpine Institute, says that at some point, the term “power point” evolved to “master point.” But using this second-generation term has become uncomfortable for many who recognize its connotations of slavery. Leaders in many fields, from computer science to religion, have chosen to move away from using “master” to describe relationships, including those between objects.

Now, Martin wants climbing to retire the word, too. In every BIPOC program Martin has led, someone calls out the term “master point” as triggering. He’s starting his effort with the second edition of the American Mountain Guides Association Single Pitch Manual, which he’s co-authoring with Bob Gaines. “With the new textbook, we’re trying to change the language to ‘central point,’” Martin said. He estimates that it will take a decade before “central point” becomes the predominant term.

So if our climbing lingo evolves—as it always does—could we come up with a better term for ropeless climbing than “free soloing”? Literal, albeit dry, alternatives make more sense in the binary with rope soloing, including “unroped soloing” or “ropeless soloing.” Gaines suggested “ropeless free climbing.”

We might also take inspiration from France, where, according to prolific free soloist Alain Robert, climbing without a rope is termed solo intégral. The word intégral translates to “whole” or “complete,” as in totally solo or full solo. “At the end of the day, solo intégral is a lot more meaningful,” Robert explained. “The meaning is deeper and more explicit.”

The path of least resistance might just be to remove “free” and call it “soloing”—something many climbers already do conversationally. It’s accurate, makes sense in contrast with “rope soloing,” and conjures up an image of a climber alone on the rock—no partner, no gear, no rope.