Solo climbing

Solo climbing, or soloing, is a style of climbing in which the climber climbs a route alone, without the assistance of a belayer (or "second") or being part of a rope team. By its very nature, solo climbing presents a higher degree of risk to the climber, and in some cases, particularly where the climber is also not using any form of climbing protection, it is considered an extremely high-risk activity (e.g. solo ice climbing, or solo big wall climbing).

The use of the term "solo climbing" is generally separate from the action of bouldering, which is itself a form of solo climbing, but with less serious consequences in the case of a fall. The most dangerous form of solo climbing is free solo climbing, which means both climbing alone and without any form of climbing protection, and was dramatically portrayed in the film Free Solo.^[1]