They’re wired differently than you. They have to do extreme things to get the same enjoyment that you get from doing mundane things. There is a literal brain chemistry difference in adrenaline junkies, or thrill seekers. You can consider them examples of poor decision making, but that’s not going to change who they are or how they’re built. They accomplish some truly miraculous things, and that is what people admire, not their recklessness. That said, Honnold is one of the more responsible freesoloists. He likes to keep the difficulty to 5.6-5.8 when he has no ropes, and he’s capable of doing most of the hardest routes that exist.
“Have to” seems like such an excuse… Why can they not do the same things, but with safety gear? That wouldn’t make it “mundane”. The only reason I can see for not using a harness and safety line is feeling like you’ve got something to prove - either you’re trying to impress yourself or you’re trying to impress other people, and neither is a worthy goal compared to the cost of failure (especially for someone with kids at home).
Frankly you could make this same argument for a meth addict, “they have to do extreme things to get enjoyment”, but I wouldn’t buy it as a good argument for allowing them to keep doing meth.
They’re wired differently than you. They have to do extreme things to get the same enjoyment that you get from doing mundane things. There is a literal brain chemistry difference in adrenaline junkies, or thrill seekers. You can consider them examples of poor decision making, but that’s not going to change who they are or how they’re built. They accomplish some truly miraculous things, and that is what people admire, not their recklessness. That said, Honnold is one of the more responsible freesoloists. He likes to keep the difficulty to 5.6-5.8 when he has no ropes, and he’s capable of doing most of the hardest routes that exist.
“Have to” seems like such an excuse… Why can they not do the same things, but with safety gear? That wouldn’t make it “mundane”. The only reason I can see for not using a harness and safety line is feeling like you’ve got something to prove - either you’re trying to impress yourself or you’re trying to impress other people, and neither is a worthy goal compared to the cost of failure (especially for someone with kids at home).
Frankly you could make this same argument for a meth addict, “they have to do extreme things to get enjoyment”, but I wouldn’t buy it as a good argument for allowing them to keep doing meth.