Christina Chan died this last Friday after coming off a sheer rock wall about 400 feet off the canyon floor. She was "free soloing" which means climbing without safety gear, ropes, harnesses or other means of arresting downward movements.
Free soloing is an incredibly dangerous technique because there really is absolutely no room for error. You slip, you die. Your grip gives out, you die. You sneeze, you die. It is an unforgiving discipline usually undertaken by only the most skilled of climbers.
Christina was, from all accounts, an incredibly skilled climber. She taught climbing, she lived to climb and died doing the thing that made her the happiest which is something we should all aspire to.
While her life was cut short and we'll never really know what happened to peel her off the rock. In her case, she knew and accepted the risks of free soloing and, in the end, paid the ultimate price for the ultimate thrill.
But there is a part of me that wonders if she wished she'd been roped in as she feel those hundreds of feet to her death?
Rule #318 is Don't Buy The Ride If You Aren't Willing to Pay the Ultimate Price
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