Dear friends,
If you're among the free solo climbers and rope-less ascensionists who navigate vertical rock faces without safety equipment, you live with risks that most people encounter only in documentaries. Every expedition, every day in these extreme environments carries inherent dangers: fatal falls from extreme heights without safety equipment, route-finding errors on unfamiliar rock faces, sudden weather changes during unprotected climbs. These aren't theoretical risks—they're the calculated realities you manage through skill, experience, and deep respect for the forces you engage with daily.
Your final messages should acknowledge the profound call that draws you to vertical rock faces without safety equipment. Your family deserves to understand that you didn't pursue reckless thrills, but rather managed serious risks through training, preparation, and constant awareness. Share what these experiences have meant to you—the moments of profound beauty, the tests of personal limits, the deep satisfaction of successfully navigating challenges that demand absolute focus and commitment. Explain your safety protocols, your risk management philosophy, your emergency procedures. Let them see that every calculated risk was taken with full knowledge and proper preparation.
Consider creating expedition-specific messages that address the unique aspects of your pursuits. Document your most memorable experiences, the lessons learned from years in vertical rock faces without safety equipment, the technical skills you've developed, and the profound meaning you've found in places and activities that test human limits. These details provide context that helps your family understand why you chose this path despite—and perhaps because of—its inherent dangers.
For those who share your life, acknowledge both their support and their unique burden. They've lived with the knowledge of risks most people never contemplate, worried during expeditions in vertical rock faces without safety equipment, and understood that your passion for these pursuits was fundamental to who you are. Express gratitude for their acceptance of a life that includes fatal falls from any mistake on unprotected climbs. Let them know that if the worst happens in vertical rock faces without safety equipment, it occurred while you were fully alive, pursuing experiences that gave your life profound meaning and purpose.
JP, Luca, CJ, 8, and Summer