one of the "best climbers" just means "hasn't yet had a catastrophe". even 'with precautions' one mistake and it'd hurt like hell getting smacked and scraped against the front of that rock face, while flailing and trying to control the situation, recover...

its kinda like jumping out of a plane with a parachute. yeah sure 'precautions' but you're still deciding 'yes I should leave a perfectly capable vehicle to plunge towards the earth with comparatively minimal control over the situation'. and in both situations, your safety gear isn't guaranteed...

so yes, very "smart" indeed

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 minutes ago

parachuting is a good comparison as both these activities have a lower accident ratio than driving a car, so it is as smart as driving to work

also at his skill level falling from even this position is not going to result in bruises or scrapes, even people I climb with regularly fall from similar positions and just go back to climbing