Practitioners
The sport has produced a number of well-known practitioners, made famous by remarkable photos of a climber totally alone and unprotected on sheer cliffs. One of the most famous is Frenchman Alain Robert ("spiderman"), who has scaled dozens of skyscrapers around the world — a sport known as buildering (not to be confused with bouldering) — and many rock walls, without using any safety equipment.
Some of the driving forces in rock climbing and free soloing from 1900 to today are: Hansjörg Auer, John Bachar, Henry Barber, Peter Croft, Steph Davis, Derek Hersey, Alexander Huber, Dan Osman, Dave MacLeod, Bill Denz, Tobin Sorenson, Dean Potter, Alex Honnold, Andreas Proft, Ueli Steck, Paul Preuss, Kevin Jorgeson, Patrick Edlinger, Michael Reardon, Alain Robert, Catherine Destivelle, Maurizio "Manolo" Zanolla, Katie Brown and Renaldo Clarke.
Read more about this topic: Free Solo Climbing