Climbing's folk heroes: who are they and why do they qualify

Buhl is the mountaineer to have made the first solo ascent of an eight-thousander. His climbing partner, Otto Kempter, was too slow in joining the ascent, so Buhl struck off alone. He returned 41 hours later, having barely survived the arduous climb to the summit, 4 miles distant from, and 4,000 feet higher than camp V. Experienced climbers, upon hearing later of Buhl's near-death climb, faulted him for making the attempt solo. Regardless, his monumental efforts, along with spending the night untethered, on the edge of a 60-degree ice slope, standing on a tiny pedestal too small to squat upon, have become mountaineering legend. Hermann Buhl is still considered by alpinists and mountaineering historians to be the most complete and advanced mountaineer of his time. Buhl can be considered a pioneer of Alpine style mountaineering in the Himalayas, a style defined by light-weight expedition gear, little to no fixed ropes and the relinquishing of bottled oxygen.

OP: “climbing and the American folk idiom.”