The footage is shaky, but there’s no doubt what’s in the frame: a man climbing a section of shining white rock. “What in the world,” the guy filming says. “This guy’s fucking insane. He’s soloing, climbing this route, naked, without a rope. He’s out of his damn mind.”

As the camera zooms out, it becomes clear that the soloist is hundreds of feet off the deck. Aside from eschewing clothes and a rope, the climber is also barefoot. All he’s got on is a gray newsboy cap. A twangy guitar lick comes in, followed by the lyrics: You can’t kill me / I will not die / Not now, not ever / No never/ I’m gonna live a long, long time / My soul raves on forever.

The clip, just 1 minute 56 seconds long, ends with a still frame of the climber looking back at the camera and flipping the bird.

Titled “,” the video enjoyed a viral moment in the climbing corners of the internet when its subject, Austin Howell, shared it on Vimeo in April 2015. Howell, then 27, was a sinewy string bean with a permanent dirtbag scruff of a beard. His frizzy shoulder-length locks and the hat, which he was rarely without, belied the quickly thinning hair atop his head.

I remember seeing the clip when it came out. I’d been climbing for five years and was then preparing to take a crack at the 3,000-foot Nose route on El Capitan in Yosemite. I was blown away by the absurdity of the video, which struck me as one part Free Solo, one part Jackass. But I was also unsettled, filled with a kind of macabre awe. I began following Howell on Instagram, where he went by .

Howell was an enigmatic character, and I found it difficult to look away from his antics. His death-defying behavior was complemented by a fun-loving temperament. When he went out soloing, for example, he kept mini Snickers in his puppy-dog-shaped chalk bag. If he came upon a roped party, he’d toss a candy bar in their direction.

I followed along as he soloed 19 different 5.12’s, a grade that many people spend their lives trying to climb with a rope on. Many of the routes were in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge and had little margin for error—an overhanging 5.12 could be as steep as the underside of a church dome; a vertical 5.12 might have grips the width of a dime’s edge. One time he free-soloed over a mile of technical terrain in a single day. The number of people in the world soloing that volume at that difficulty can likely be counted on one hand.

Howell saw his free soloing as the product of careful, sober analysis. He spent hours ahead of each hard climb satisfying what he called his “preflight checklist,” making sure he’d accounted and planned for all the variables that could go wrong. But the annals of climbing, like other extreme sports, are littered with stories of risk-takers who convinced themselves that they could reason their way out of catastrophe.

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California rock climber and guidebook author Charles Barrett has been arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of abusive sexual contact, according to a from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

An unsealed Tuesday afternoon and filed by U.S. Attorney Philip A. Talbert, alleges that on two separate occasions in August 2016, Barrett raped an individual identified as “K.G.”

All three alleged crimes took place within Yosemite National Park, according to the indictment.

Barrett’s arrest comes following an investigation into the charges by the National Park Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly Sanchez, Michael Tierney, and Jessica Massey will try the case.

Representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment.

If he is found guilty of the charges, Barrett could be sentenced to life in prison and fined up to $250,000.

In the press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office requested that anyone with further information about the case or any victims call their tip line at (888) 653-0009, or email nps_isb@nps.gov.

Barrett, 38, has been a fixture in the climbing scene in California for two decades, and associates with many top climbers.

According to an article in , Barrett hails from Santa Rosa, California, and has lived in Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, and South Lake Tahoe. The magazine said that Barrett pioneered some of the most challenging bouldering routes in the state. He is the author of several guidebooks including Bishop Bouldering, Tuolumne Meadows Bouldering, and Mammoth bouldering.

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Alex Honnold and Sanni McCandless are having a kid—a daughter, in fact! For the climbing world, this is the equivalent of a royal birth. I half expect that the guys over at Reel Rock are already working on a father-daughter concept for a film in 2030.

But as joyous as it is, I also found myself wondering if this major life event might give Honnold pause in how he approaches his climbing projects in coming years. Plenty of top alpinists and climbers have dialed back—or at least done some serious soul searching about—their most extreme behavior when they become parents. Will Honnold put it in cruise control once the little one arrives? I’m not suggesting he’d be top-roping 5.10’s for the rest of his days. But might he hang up the soloing shoes?

The hypotheticals related to Papa Honnold only get more complex from there. When star athletes become parents, it’s not surprising when their kids follow in their footsteps. But while following a mother into the WNBA or a dad into Major League Baseball is one thing, Alex Honnold’s daughter becoming a free soloist would be something else entirely. For obvious reasons.

So what if Honnold’s daughter did take a keen interest in free soloing? How would he feel about that? Would he support her? Be steadfastly opposed?

These are the types of questions we posed to Honnold in a recent interview. As he always does, he gave clear-eyed, thoughtful answers.

Even as he entertained my what-ifs, Honnold said there’s only one thing he and McCandless are concerned with right now: “First we need her to arrive healthy and whole.”

Check out the full interview, or read more about how pro climbers deal with parenthood, .

Climbing: Tell me the emotions—how excited are you and Sanni to become parents?
Honnold: I’ve always wanted a family long-term, so I’m excited to be starting the journey, but so far I’m not actually feeling a ton. It’s slightly surreal, since I’m not the one actually carrying the baby. And I think that for Sanni so far it’s more about managing the physical challenge of pregnancy than reveling in the excitement. We’re both excited long-term, it’s just not quite thrilling yet.

Did you always figure you’d have kids one day?
Yeah, I always hoped to. I’ve always had a good relationship with my family and grandparents, and I’ve always assumed I would carry that on into the future. We’ll see how it goes!

How, if at all, might becoming a father change your calculus related to risk?
I’m totally prepared for it to rein in my risk-taking a little bit, though I could see it having no impact as well. I already try to manage and mitigate risk as much as possible—I certainly don’t think of myself as a big risk-taker. So it’s possible that not much will change. But I’m open to the possibility that I’ll just want to stay at home and play with my kid as well.

Related to that: Do you think you’ll continue to push your free soloing? Or will you dial it back?
I’m not sure either way. I have no huge soloing goals right now, but I have a few ideas on the back burner that may eventually come together. The biggest difference, I suspect, will have to do with how I spend my time. Having a small child seems more conducive to short bursts of intense training, which lends itself to bouldering and sport climbing. Generally, when I’m soloing a lot I’m spending tons of time outdoors on rock, which might be harder if I’m taking care of a kid. But I’m open to anything, we’ll just see. Seems like the kid will be the priority.

What would you tell your son or daughter about free soloing? Would you discourage or forbid it? Tacitly allow it? Actively teach them if they decided it was particularly important to them?
It’s a girl. The idea of her free-soloing seems so far away that I’m not too concerned. First we need her to arrive healthy and whole, then we’ll just see if she even enjoys climbing. But if she gets into climbing, I’m certain she’ll have a strong appreciation for the spectrum of risk, from hiking to scrambling to free soloing. Most of my rest-day hikes end with some kind of scramble. I’m sure she’ll grow up clambering around on rocks. But whether or not that ever turns into soloing will be a much bigger question. I’m not opposed, as long as it’s done carefully and intentionally by a mature adult.

Let’s say your daughter, years from now, decides she wants to solo the Freerider. What would go through your head?
Well, I’d probably be pretty concerned. But I have a lot of good beta for her. That seems very unlikely though. Hopefully it’s a bridge we never have to cross. But on the other hand, it’s only 12d/13a. In another generation, that’ll be truly easy.

I’m sure you’ll support your kid in whatever makes them happy, whether that’s climbing or something else entirely. But hypothetically, what would be a greater disappointment—if your kid is purely an aid climber, or if they exclusively use hand jammies?
Using hand jammies is still free climbing, so it’s still acceptable for any child of mine. Plus, I suppose I want her hands to wind up a little less ogreish than mine. Hand jammies might help.

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