It’s an addiction. It’s like assuming a crack addict will avoid attachment. He wouldn’t get the same high with a rope, so he decided that his family has to deal with him getting his fix instead.

He’s been free soloing since he graduated high school. It’s basically a part of who he is at this point. I remember watching a Barbara Walters interview with him where she went to Yellowstone where he was staying, and interviewed him in his van that he was living in at the time. I’m not sure he expected to have a family at some point.