Seven years ago, when I started free soloing long, hard routes in Yosemite - climbing without a rope, gear or a partner - I did it because it seemed like the purest, most elegant way to scale big walls. Climbing, especially soloing, felt like a grand adventure, but I never dreamed it could be a profession.

There's a constant tension in climbing, and really all exploration, between pushing yourself into the unknown but trying not to push too far. The best any of us can do is to tread that line carefully.

Yosemite has the most impressive and accessible granite big walls in the world. The rock is amazing. And because of that, it's been the mecca for climbing in the U.S. - and the world to a large degree - for all of climbing history. It's the place to test yourself against the historic routes of the past.

I'm sponsored by the solar company Goal Zero, and they were gracious enough to install panels on my van and a nice battery system for the inside. I have lights and a fridge inside the van. And of course I had panels installed on my mom's house.

I felt unworthy, and it's amazing how God kind of showed me that that's how we act as humans, and that's sometimes how we act in our Christian life.

My own faith was nurtured by my grandmother and her clinging deeply to her faith when she was dying a painful and slow death from cancer.

I believe in incentivizing people. If you can incentivize people in anything, whether it's in politics; in life; in spirituality; in business; just take care of folks. Incentivize them and all of a sudden it's amazing the difference that you'll see.

God knows I tried to make it earlier in life, but with all due respect to myself, nothing I ever did was any good.