Honnold is mentioned in the article because he is routinely featured on outsideonline.com (an "old media" personality), Wu is in there as a representative of the social media personalities measured in followers gained through extreme pictures. The fact that she did not die from a careless selfie folly is what forms a chain of closeness between the easily ridiculed thrill selfie crowd and the "serious outdooring" celebrated by outsideonline.com. I read it as an element of self-reflection: "it's not as polar as we might like to think".