Soloing is serious business, because you can be seriously dead.
Any guitar solo should reflect the music that it's soloing over and not just be existing in its own sort of little world.
The climbing and soloing aren't worth dying for, but they are worth risking dying for.
The most beautiful experiences I've had climbing are when everything is simplified. Free soloing is the simplest thing, until you learn to fly or to walk on air - which I feel is all possible.
I don't think my playing style has really changed over the years; it's just gotten better. I can hear the improvement in comparing older records and later records. I'm referring to soloing ability, to having a better sound, to knowing chords better, and getting rhythmically stronger. It also has to do with ideas - learning how to edit your ideas and being better able to follow ideas out to a logical conclusion.