Yemeni Free Soloist Dies After Falling Into Volcanic Crater

On Friday, June 12, a 30-year-old Yemeni climber named Antar al-Abssi fell to his death while free soloing inside of the Hardah Dam, a volcanic crater near the city of Damt in central Yemen. In a video distributed by the Yemeni Civil Defense Service (CDS), al-Abssi dangles from one hand about 20 feet from the crater’s edge, then loses his grip and drops 300 feet into the scalding hot water at the base. A government search and rescue team has since recovered his body.

The Yemeni Spider-Man

The free soloist, who nicknamed himself “al-Qa’qa” online and has been labeled “the Yemeni Spider-Man” by various media outlets, was not at the edge of the volcano by accident. Over the past year and a half, he has shared hundreds of videos of himself climbing ropeless along the crater’s inner ledges—often running barefoot, performing a bat hang, or swinging one-handed over the edge.

In October 2025, al-Abssi gained international attention after comedian Ismail Abdi called him the “Yemeni mountain goat” in a viral reel, but it did not appear that the soloist’s stunts had yet yielded any commercial partnerships or financial gain. Last month, al-Abssi rescued an actual mountain goat from inside the crater, carrying it over his right shoulder as he traversed back up the slabs.

“We saved the strongest climber in the world,” he wrote, referring to the mountain goat.

The Dhale governorate, which hosts the Hardah Dam, has been one of the worst affected by Yemen’s ongoing civil war and faces ongoing food insecurity, according to humanitarian nonprofit Acted. There are currently a few crags in the capital, Sanaa, and more on the island of Socotra, but no established climbing areas in Dhale and no known climbing gyms in the country.

Several people online claimed that al-Abssi had offered to write their names along the inner edge of the crater, selling graffiti services for a fee. However, on April 20 of this year, al-Abssi publicly asked the governor of Dhale for cleaning equipment so he could personally remove all of the graffiti and make the crater into a suitable tourist attraction. The climber also urged the governor to repair a ladder on the outside of the crater, which he called a “danger to visitors.”

Al-Abssi’s fatal fall on June 12 was reported to the Yemeni Civil Defense Service (CDS), who immediately mobilized a search and rescue team.

A dangerous recovery

According to the CDS, the pool of water at the bottom of the Hardah Dam volcanic crater is 120 meters (393 feet) deep, covered in debris, and painfully hot, with temperatures ranging from 104 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (40 to 60 degrees Celsius).

On Saturday morning at 6 a.m., diver Abdo Muhammed al-Qans and his team members, Saadiqq Abdo Al-Qans and Ashraf al-Ahmar, initiated the search with insulated suits to protect them from the water’s heat. It took more than four hours to locate al-Abssi’s body amidst the sulfuric steam, which impaired visibility. Finally, at 10:30 a.m., al-Qans and his team located his body about 30 meters (98 feet) below the surface and extracted it from the crater. All three rescuers were later honored at a CDS ceremony for their exceptional bravery and professional competence.

In response to the tragedy, CDS has called for citizens “to be cautious while practicing sporting activities in mountainous and rugged areas” and “to adhere to safety procedures to avoid similar accidents.”