All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing

Once considered a fringe activity, free soloing entered the mainstream consciousness when Alex honnold scaled El Capitan in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo. Yet people have climbed without ropes for ages for reasons as varied as the individuals themselves. Smoot seeks to understand what motivates them, while examining perspectives on risk, autonomy, and mortality.

Through extensive research and interviews, Smoot investigates the interplay of climbing and risk, exploring psychological theories such as edgework, the evolving ethics of taking chances, and the influence of media coverage. He takes us into the cultural history of free soloing, ranging across the storied climbing cultures of the Alps, Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Joshua Tree, Yosemite, the Gunks, Eldorado Canyon, and several other locales.

Climbing in the same era as Peter Croft and Mark Twight, Smoot shares gripping accounts of his free soloing experiences as well as stories of obsession, fear, and misfortune, featuring George Winkler, Paul Preuss, Emilio Comici, Henry Barber, John Long, John Bachar, John Yablonsky, Alan Watts, Sharon Wood, Dan Osman, Michael Reardon, Dean Potter, Steph Davis, Alexander Huber, Dave MacLeod, Alex Honnold, Brad Gobright, Austin Howell, Marc-André Lecler, Nina Williams, Hazel Findlay, and more.