Free Soloing is Actually Really Easy | Lincoln Knowles ft. Cedar Wright & John Long | Ep. 029

Lincoln Knowles is 21 years old, lives out of his Jeep, and has the climbing internet at war with itself. To half the community he's a reckless idiot free soloing a harder route every day until he falls; to the other half he's the funniest, most self-aware thing to happen to the sport in years. The truth — as Hayden finds out — is that the kid is a genuinely elite climber (a sub-10-hour Nose-in-a-Day, on-sight free solos in Yosemite, V11 on the board) who's running the most committed satire in outdoor media. This one goes everywhere: Lincoln's Yosemite "tear" and a storm-soaked bail off the Nose, a surprise call to climbing legend John Long, the Alex Honnold text and the Climbing magazine hit piece, and an extended phone-in from Cedar Wright, who makes the full punk-rock case for why this stuff matters. It's funny, it's genuinely unsettling when the talk turns to mortality, and it's impossible to look away from. Whether you think he's the future of the sport or a tragedy waiting to happen, you'll understand exactly why everyone's arguing about him. In this episode, we talk about: The Yosemite Tear: El Cap & the Nose-in-a-Day Phoning John Long About the Nose Record Bailing Off the Nose in a Snowstorm Viral Clips & the Parody of Climbing Ego How Free Soloing Began College Dropout to Content Hustle Courting the Haters Risk, Death, and Mindset Family Silence & Attempted Interventions Honnold's Text & the Climbing Magazine Drama Climbing Idols: Honnold, Croft & Dean Potter Teaming Up with Cedar Wright Lifetime Bucket List: Free Rider to Everest Free Solo vs. Trad: The Pinnacle Debate   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE https://www.instagram.com/lincolnclimbs/ https://www.youtube.com/@UCynU0ZTas1hr6HMg-XAnTBA  Our episode with Jamie Leibert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHdEmyKRQw Our episode with John Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDnVzaNE7g Climbing Magazine Article: https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/lincoln-knowles-going-viral-free-soloing/ Jayme Moye: https://jaymemoye.com/published/   Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #rockclimbing #freesolo #climbing