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 Colorado Gold
Old classics and new finds in Colorado's South Platte - Déjà vu—or, what do they call it the third time? Once again, the forecast is 40 and sunny—perfect. It’s January, and all my friends are skiing, save for one. Craig has given up a third powder day to help me slay this goliath of a crack, a 300-foot, four-pitch, offwidth squeeze that leaves my inner thighs so sore I can’t walk right for a week after an attempt. Even so, I can’t leave it alone.  Sporting Life: Let the Right One in
How to rid your house of dirtbags - We've all been there: on the road broke, relying on other climbers to provide a safe haven (read: couch) for a night or two… or 57. I did most of my dirtbagging in my teens and 20s, when I lived on $150 a month, most of which went toward gas money for the next crag. My cut-rate tent leaked, I slept in a double layer of threadbare, $30 Coleman sleeping bags, subsisted on Ramen noodles and lemon-crème cookies, and my Therm-a- Rest deflated about 10 minutes after I lay on it (but I was too penurious to buy a patch kit). I could only afford to shower once a week.  Sand Castles
The mysterious towers of the Ennedi - The fin of rock above me, Aloba Arch, was 300 feet wide, 50 feet thick, and stretched all the way across a sandstone canyon, 700 feet above our heads. Alex Honnold and I were discussing a possible route to its untouched summit when I noticed four young men emerge from the rocks in the back of the canyon. Clad in sandals, with scarves partly covering their faces, they wore large knives in their belts and were holding the hilts as they purposefully strode towards us.  Kings of the Cascades
Step by step up the volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest - All mountains have their majesty, but the home of the mountain kings in the Lower 48 is surely the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest. Beginning in northern California with Mt. Shasta and Lassen Peak, and extending north to Mt. Garibaldi in British Columbia, this chain of (mostly) extinct volcanoes makes up some of the most distinctive mountain topography anywhere. These snowy-headed monarchs, crowned with lenticular halos and caped with glacier and rainforest, stand tall above the lowlands, promising wonder and adventure to mountaineers.  Better than Lucky
Colin Haley's remarkable ascent - I first took notice of Colin Haley in 2003, when a Hot Flashes blurb mentioned that he and two others had done the first traverse of the Southern Picket Range, a tortuous, demanding, and little-known subrange of the Washington Cascades. I figured this 19-year-old rookie just got lucky. But a year later, he and Mark Bunker completed the second ascent of the Waddington Traverse in British Columbia, and in 2005 he made the first winter ascents of several significant Cascades routes.  City to Summit
A summit route is the purest concept in climbing. Your grandmother may not understand the beta of your new project, or how we got from 5.10 to 5.15b, or even how you get the rope up there, but she can understand climbing to the highest point on a mountain. Fortunately, you don’t have to venture far from many American cities to find superb summit routes. Here are 10 worthy peaks, covering the spectrum of climbing: sport, trad, alpine, desert, winter, and summer. And best of all: the trailheads are all within an after-work drive of a major city.  Bloopers
When the shoot hits the fan - When I hang out with other pro climbing photographers, we don’t talk about things like f/stops, shutter speeds, or the newest and lightest camera body. Catching up over drinks by an open fi re at Indian Creek or at some lame industry party at the Salt Lake trade show, we talk shit. Sometimes literally. This is not a story about how professional climbing photographers capture the ultimate climbing moment. These are our tales of comedy and peril—and shit.  First Come, First Served
Four first ascents and the rockers who made them happen - A first ascent is like a good pot of stew. Sometimes you start from scratch; other times you begin with leftovers. The occasion may have been long-planned or spur-of-the-moment. You think you know what you’re trying to cook up, but it seldom comes out the way you expect. Ultimately, the flavor is part art, part chance, totally unique.  5.9: The Crossroads
5.9 is the grade where things get crazy. It was once the top end of free-climbing difficulty, the ultimate on a decimal scale where “five-ten” was illogical and unnecessary. The best climbers in America in the 1950s imagined nothing harder as they pimped up dime edges and ran out dark and desperate chimneys that only the very best and boldest could follow.  Deep Wisdom
A new way of thinking in the old South - If you’ve spent any time in the South, you’ve heard the same old story: Colorado has Rifle and its public beta classes, California has the Valley and its speed junkies, and the Deep South has its secret Edens of virgin sandstone—a quarter of which may be real rock, with the rest being overhanging rumors. The region is full of sandstone evangelicals who testify to the beauty and quality of their secret crags, but quickly revert to whisperings and winks when it comes time for full disclosure.  Rapid Transit
Inside the Swiss-watch world of alpinist Ueli Steck - In 2007, after several attempts, Ueli Steck finally broke the speed record on the original route up the Eiger north face, climbing solo and belaying himself only for three short sections. No one was really surprised. It is Steck’s backyard mountain (he lives only 30 minutes away), and he had been progressively inching closer to the record, soloing the face for the first time in 2004, in 10 hours, and cutting that time nearly in half by 2006.  Go Green: What To Do With Your Old Gear
I still remember my first rope. It was pink and enormous. When it was time to move on, I kept it around—first as an extra top rope, then as a haul line. But in a few years’ time, I didn’t have just one retired rope coiled in the corner, I had half a dozen. Here’s the deal: You can—and should—make only a limited number of rope rugs. So instead of stockpiling a mountain of worse-for-wear climbing junk in your crowded garage, consider these tips for reusing and recycling your decrepit gear.  10 Things You Didn't Know about Dynos
Call them what you will—“sloppy,” “desperate,” “intimidating,” “amazing”—but dynamic moves are essential to our repertoire. The first climber to dyno? Who knows, but John Gill certainly got the ball rolling with his powerful, dynamic style in the late 1950s. Chris Sharma’s July 2007 first ascent Three Degrees of Separation (5.14d), at Céüse, France, shows that jumping for holds still thrives: The crux lunge, a full body length, took Sharma three days to stick, and the climb remains unrepeated.  The Love Letter
Six weeks in the Sierra high country - The trail disappeared beneath snow. Shielding my eyes with an arm, I squinted through the whiteout to pick a path toward the invisible pass. The Sierra’s white granite blurred with the sky. I looked down at my feet sunk six inches deep in the previous night’s snow. Somewhere beyond us, Matterhorn Peak’s granite flanks were gathering more snow. We were nearing the first of two 10,000-foot passes we needed to cross to get out.  Sleep Easy: America's Best Climber Campgrounds
When it comes to camping, many climbers prefer a no-frills, quasi-wilderness experience, while others like their creature comforts. Whether you see sleeping under the stars as the best part of a climbing trip or a necessary evil, we’ve got you covered. We sifted through guidebooks, called park rangers, and solicited climbers to identify 10 (in no particular order) of the U.S.’s best drive-up climber campsites.  The Hot List
What if a golf course added a new hole every month, or your favorite ski resort cut four new trails each winter? It just doesn’t happen. But for climbers, new routes—even entire new crags—keep popping up. What other sport enjoys so much novelty, such freshness? And these aren’t just crappy, desperate-for-anything-new climbs. Imagination, boldness, and good, old-fashioned hard work keep the good routes coming. The Hot List is Climbing’s inaugural survey of the best of the best.  Lake Effect
On the sharp end and otherwise at the Midwest's most storied climbing area - "If you can lead at Devil's Lake, you can lead anywhere." I’ve heard this mantra many times at Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin. A frazzled leader repeats it under his breath. Two beginning climbers look up at a 5.10 finger crack, and one says it to the other. When you are on lead at the Lake, the ground never seems that far away.  Sporting Life: Sole Fusion
Five top tips for the footwork-challenged - I'll just say it: The only way to improve at climbing is to hone your footwork. All the campusing, manual reading, dieting, periodization, system boarding, hangboarding, stretching, mental gymnastics, colonics, cross-training, yoga, animal sacrifice, visualization, endurance laps, juggling of flaming clubs, tea-leaf readings, Santeria, and so on will come to naught if you have crap footwork.  10 Things You Didn't Know About the Grand Teton
Men first stood on top of the Grand Teton more than a century ago, and climbing the 13,770-foot peak remains a rite of passage for American mountaineers. It’s difficult to get an accurate count of the number of climbers who attempt the Grand each year, but the number is likely in the thousands. The two guide services that have a concession in the park, Exum Mountain Guides and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, took about 1,200 people to their respective high camps for the Grand in 2010.  2010 Golden Piton Awards
Hardest, highest, fastest, best—it’s human nature to submit our “ests” to the test. Is it an ego thing? A crude exercise in nationalism? A magazine scam for commercial interests? You could play it that way. But how boring. And futile. In the end, we appraise others’ achievements and compare them to our own weekend-warrior world for one reason: to be inspired. |
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