Darwin's at it again.

My deepest sympathies to his family. Very sad.

Reckless decision...Horrible outcome.

Do the parents accept responsibility for the child’s death and for not being parents?

Sadly, Darwin and gravity win.

Sounds like he made a big mistake. Most likely found himself stuck on the top, and when no help came, tried to clime down on his own. I've never seen a video of anyone climbing solo that tried to climb down after they got to the top.

I remember my only climbing experience. I didn't actually climb very far at all. Not very much. It was impromptu and with no equipment. I remember the neat feeling I had after I got back down but I will never do anything like that again. It's just too risky. If I had fallen, which I easily could have, I would have been banged up.

RIP

Well, that sucks.

As several readers have pointed out, climbing down is usually a lot harder than climbing up. One commenter refers to the child as an experienced climber, but he clearly wasn't. If he were, he would have been well aware before going up that coming down would be harder. A real shame he didn't just stay at the top and wait for help.

This is the kind of thing my son would constantly run off and try to do when we hiked. I always felt like people viewed me as an overly anxious mom hindering my son's growth somehow. I am not sorry. I was just trying to keep him alive. My greatest sympathies to this family.

How sad! My condolences to his family and friends.

The young climber made it to the top but couldn't make it back down? Easy to understand. Going up your eyes see where you can grab with your hands and place your feet. Coming down, your eyes can't see where to put your feet safely. Going up is easy compared to coming back down! This young climber must not have learned that lesson yet, Too bad.

What a horrible tragedy. I have a young son and a couple of years ago when he was about this age we went on a trip to Yosemite and I had to constantly stop him from climbing out onto the edge. It was terrifying and incredibly aggravating to have my kid do this over and over again. I finally stopped going to places where there was a dangerous drop, didn't stop at some sights, because I was afraid he'd do something tragic trying to "show me" he could do it.

Daredevils keep trying outrageous things and unskilled people try to copy them.

A friend and I tried this off of a local canyon trail in southern California at around his age. My friend made it to the top; I grabbed a rock set in dirt rather than the rock face, lost my balance and tumbled a good thirty feet back to the rock-based walk/season wash and "credit carded" myself on a raised one. My friend heard me scream as I fell and turned to help, who in turn hit loose dirt at the top and face dived about 15 feet further down(along a lower portion of the rock face), thankfully into a huge pile of dead oak leaves.
He had some scrapes from the sharp edges of the dead leaves and I literally waddled the way down from the hill trail we climbed(about a mile due to switchbacking trails).
We both learned our lessons; sorry for the family... 13 year olds just don't recognize the danger and I know I'd never attempt again or let my two boys do so.
Edited due to autocorrect errors.

I was pretty invincible at 13 too, as I recall.

I suspect there will be a lot of kids trying to 'free solo' after watching the movie. Although what that guy did was an awesome feat, it was extremely dangerous. There's a reason why he is the only one to ever do it.

Godspeed. He was doing what he loved. He was so young. My sympathies to his parents.

I feel sad for the boy's family. Why would a family from Ohio not retain the services of some sort of hiking guide? They just hit the trails without a clue or plan?

At 13, people tend to do very stupid things. Most survive.

So sad, I hope the rest of the family can someday recover emotionally.

Ummmmm.......yeah. Don't do that.