Free Solo Climber Dies After Fall Into Volcanic Crater

He'd been nicknamed the "Yemeni Spider-Man." Authorities say 30-year-old free solo climber Antar al-Abssi died Friday after slipping while scaling the inner wall of Hardah Dam, a volcanic crater near the central Yemeni city of Damt. Video released by Yemen's Civil Defense Service shows him hanging by one hand near the rim before falling roughly 300 feet into the superheated pool below, reports Climbing. A dive team recovered his body hours later, and the Civil Defense Service released video of the recovery.

Al-Abssi had built a following by posting ropeless climbs inside the crater, notes USA Today—often barefoot and performing showy moves—and once went viral after a comedian dubbed him the "Yemeni mountain goat." Climbing notes that only last month, al-Abssi pulled an actual mountain goat from the crater, saying that "we saved the strongest climber in the world." Recently, he'd urged officials to clean up graffiti and fix an unsafe access ladder at the crater that he termed "a danger to visitors."