My heart was in my throat the entire time the video clip was playing.
Dan Osman, the climber in the video was one of the greatest rock climbers that ever lived.
He invented the sport of freefalling via a system of ropes that would enable you to freefall and have a very short slowdown period. Like bungee jumping, only you slow down within the last second, not the last half of the way down.
Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago on a failed jump.
Wow, Amazing talent and strenght. I just think it is a stupid thing to do. I am sorry to hear he died, but not at all surprized.
That was incredible. I was almost looking for the support wires; he flew up there like gravity was entirely optional!
Good find.
Phil
Great climbing, but all free climbers die eventually, no matter how good you are, it’s only a matter of time until you slip. Incidentally Catboy you can rig bungee to only decelerate you at the last second, they just don’t do it on public jumps because it hurts. But altering the number and thickness of the attached cords along the line you can tune the profile of the jump for whatever you want to do.
Wow.
A friend of mine died free climbing in the Tetons. He was a unicyclist.
All humans die eventually. 
I wonder how they did the camera work on that.
Dan didn’t invent the roped free-fall, but he did set the world record for longest roped free-fall. Dynamic ropes came into use in the 60’s, and this opened the door for climbers to try much bolder routes, where good protection isn’t always available… falls of 80-100 feet are not uncommon for “big wall” climbers on a daring lead, since dynamic rope “technology” has rendered such falls nonlethal. Dan’s record leap was from the Leaning Tower in Yosemite valley, which lead to a 925 foot fall.
Dan used climbing ropes for protection on his jumps; these ropes have some elasticity, but none like bungee cords. Typical bungee cords stretch 2-4 times their unloaded length, while climbing ropes only stretch 1.2 to 1.4 times their unloaded length… so the free-fall lasts a lot longer, and the “stop” at the end of the fall is much more abrupt.
Technically, free climbing involves climbing with a partner and protecting one’s self with a rope and specialized gear that can be “inserted” into the rock. The term “free” means the climber only uses his/her hands and feet to ascend the rock.
The correct term for what you saw in the video is “free soloing”… a solo climb is when one climbs alone, and free soloing is climbing alone with no gear.
Excuse me for being the grammar nazi, but I hear this term misused a lot, and it just eats me up inside 
No soup for you!
You’ll see a dude on the cliff above Dan on one of the long shots… most photographers / videographers rappel down from the top of the climb and set up a small tripod on the side of the cliff, then climb back up their rope (using gear) to escape the climb.
Wow that was truely insane. That jump was very risky. I think that could be an X-Game sport, but its probably too extreme for the X-Games.
Here’s a story about him from Outside magazine. Tells about his fatal fall.