2008 Golden Piton Awards
2008 was the year of the winner: Britney Spears won back her sanity; Michael Phelps took eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics; and — oh, yeah — Barack Obama won his bid for the Oval Office. On the climbing front, the bar, pushed almost immortally high in the aught decade, was notched higher yet. Once again, in 2008, the unthinkable — a trad 5.14 up El Cap in 20 hours; a 250-foot, mondo-cave 5.15b; and a free solo of a multi-pitch 5.12+ — has become reality.