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 The Project: The Full, Uncut Interview from Climbing 289 and Dawn Wall Topo
Inside the four-year effort to create the world's most difficult rock climb - On October 2, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson will rendezvous in Yosemite Valley to begin their final—they hope—multi-week session of joint effort on the first free climb up El Capitan's biggest, blankest sector: the Dawn Wall. In a 2.5-hour interview at Caldwell's home in Estes Park, Colorado, we asked Tommy and Kevin about their training, how they stay motivated, their tactics for the route, and how they'll define success on the climb.  10 Things You Didn't Know About Knots
Knots: they attach us to ropes, connect slings to trees, substitute for dropped gear, secure tents, create belay anchors. Like the Force, knots surround us, protect us, and bind our galaxy together. Even a sport climber whose shoes close with Velcro knows a few knots. But here are a few things you might not know.  Sporting Life: Plastic Purgatory
The Four Most Appalling Experiences of My Life in Gyms - Believe it or not, not all rock gyms are created equal. I first pulled on plastic in 1987 at the Vertical Club in Seattle. Along with the Colorado Athletic Training School (CATS), in Boulder, Colorado, and the Portland Rock Gym, the Vertical Club was one of the country’s first commercial indoor walls. Even then, in the dark ages, this gym had a good thing going: sculpted bouldering walls with permanent problems, arm-blasting traverses on cobbles, and jam cracks—a solid dose of varied terrain.  Deep South Water Scrambling
I pay my bill at the trendy North Shore Grille and walk out into the muggy night. My shirt is instantly soaked, and I can feel beads of sweat forming on my sloper-blistered fingertips. The oppressive summer heat has made climbing all but impossible in Chattanooga, and it’s making me a little loco. Not as loco as some of my friends, though. There on the sidewalk, hands behind his back, chin out, is my climber friend Lee Means, taunting a big, heavily muscled man. “C’mon, hit me,” says Lee with a boozy Southern drawl.  2010 Shoe Review
So you think your favorite rock shoes are the crème de la crème? Think again. New for this year are 19 models (plus two time-tested Mammut shoes) that will make you reconsider – and perhaps redefine – the perfect rock shoe. We asked 11 companies to send us two of their latest (Acopa sent one) shoes for us to put to the test. Our 17 testers used and abused said kicks for the last few months on plastic, boulders, sport routes, and trad lines across the country in order to give you the bottom line.  The One Thing
Becoming a world-class athlete takes more than simply being genetically gifted or having a rabid passion. It takes sophisticated introspection into how one relates to one’s sport. Rock climbing is no exception, and each top climber dives deep into his or her psyche. We started with a simple, performance-oriented question asked to some of the country’s finest rock climbers. The result was 10 surprisingly unique and genuine answers.  Under Angel Wings
I was born of white pines and crisp air—it’s just taken me a while to figure that out. As a little boy, I spent many a sunny Southern California day indoors in front of Nintendo and Lego sets. I ate Hostess donuts by the pack, and when I once ventured onto a hiking trail, I got kicked by a horse. Why go out? My dad tried his hardest to get me into the mountains and would lure me with lore from the world beyond our pretty-in-pink Palos Verdes house.  Sawtooth Daydream
Joe and I were halfway through an extended road trip, summer 2001, and we had just arrived in the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho. Our intention was to live out of my van for two months, as we had the two previous summers, climbing everything we could get our hands on. It was not to be.  Sky Ladders
Story and photos by Kennan Harvey - My climbing youth was full of typically competitive mind games, raw enthusiasm, and very select objectives. I “hung” around Smith Rocks during Alan Watts’ heyday. I ventured into the Lake Clark National Park with Fred Beckey. I learned about Patagonia from a carpenter buddy, then went down and climbed the North Pillar of Fitz Roy. I was sculpted by great mentors… as well as by one insidious phantom.  10 Things... You Didn't Know About Granite
Granite. Climbers love it, even as it tears their flesh, steals their gear, and makes them feel oh-so-small. You know how granite feels under your hands and feet, how it smells, and the way it turns to gold in the last light of day, but here are a few things you probably didn't know.  40 Years of American Rock
1970, picture it: a cherry-red Mustang guns it up the back roads out of a podunk Hudson Valley college town, burning rubber past farmhouses and orchards and around tree-lined hairpins toward a notch in ridge-top cliffs. The driver is sporting James Dean sunglasses, passenger's blonde ponytail flying free, and the radio's cranking out Diana Ross's current number-one hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Yeah, baby.  Buoux: Revisiting France's Crag of the 1980s
Once upon a time in Europe — and perhaps this is still true today — the most gifted climbers battled for one crown: to climb a route that no other could repeat. In that age of dreaming, beginning in the early 1980s, the rules that had defined the sport were cast happily and carelessly to the wind. No longer was a climber required to lower after each failed attempt, or to only install fixed protection from the ground up.  Heidi Almighty
SUMMER 2006: Heidi Wirtz scanned the south face of the Ogre’s Thumb, searching for unclimbed lines up the 3,000-foot granite wall above. She stood awestruck on Pakistan’s Biafo Glacier, surrounded by the wild peaks of the Karakoram, imagining each pitch …till a scream shattered the stillness. It was Lizzy Scully, her close friend and climbing partner.  Green Mountain Manifesto
Sports have rules. But climbing — with its roots in rebellion and anarchy — has ethics, an agreed-upon code outlining which aids are allowed. It’s the first ascentionist’s right to set the bar, one later generations strive to surpass. Regression is frowned upon. Ethics are intractably tied to risk. We all manage climbing’s inherent risks differently. Most commonly, by how we climb: from the free solo, to a well-bolted clip-up, to the helicopter lift to the summit, and everything in between.  Once Upon a Climb
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (OK, Alberta, Canada), a young man stumbled upon an unclimbed wall in a mountain forest. Dotted by 12 silver bolts, it looked like a fine bit of rock scaling, and so with great curiosity, the lad scrambled around and rappelled down.  Gravity Lessons
Visiting the wilderness for recreation is a relatively new development — till recent history, wilderness represented food, resources, and territory, not leisure. The impenetrable, uninhabitable high peaks, with their thunderstorms, blizzards, avalanches, and rockfall, have always imposed limits on life and put fear (awe) in our bellies. This fear is the first step toward spirituality: mountains became home to the gods, the divine and the unanswerable.  The Other Thailand
Deep within the sultry bamboo forests of the Mae On Valley, northern Thailand, looms an outcrop of golden-hued, blackstreaked limestone. Beneath it in the cool shade, you’ll likely find a man — Loong Nan, 53 — hammering away at bamboo huts, painting trail signs, or sweeping paths. This industrious Thai is the busdriving, trail-building, hut-constructing “guardian” of Crazy Horse Buttress. His tireless work ethic has prompted some to joke, “If everyone were like Loong Nan, communism could’ve worked.”  Los Sueños Grandes
El Chonta, Mexico's Dreamy Stalactite Wrestling - An English teacher once taught me to start stories with something attention-grabbing, so here it goes: deep in the mountains of central Mexico, you’ll find a limestone cave so immense, it requires seven severely overhanging pitches to ascend. Got your attention? Then let’s begin. Mexico exists in extremes. Kidnappings, drug lords, corruption, and violence are all too common in Mexico City and the border towns, while along the coasts you’ll find huge, white-washed buildings with thumping night clubs and dolphin shows.  2009 Golden Piton Awards
2009 has been a year of hardship and strife. It would be foolish to ignore the fact that the “recession” (OK, full-blown depression) continues. Or that America seems split down the middle on Big Issues like health care, climate change, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At Climbing, 2009 has spelled diminished resources and staff (only 1.5 editors, an intern, and an art director on the creative side), though more stress. Our story is the same as everywhere.  Open Bivy - METAMORPHOSIS
By Conrad Anker - Losing it in the Kichatnas: a transformative experience - Alaska, 1991: a ptarmigan spoke to me from 90 feet up Middle Triple Peak (8,835 feet), in the Kichatna Range. Seth Shaw and I had just ticked the second ascent of the venerable East Buttress (VI 5.9 A3; 3,300 feet) in grotesque conditions. As we made the last of 20-some raps to the glacier, the Fates dished out more adventure ... |
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