Cover: Noah Bigwood battles the Serpent (VI 5.11+ R), Black Canyon, Colorado. Photo by Kennan Harvey

FEATURES

BOLTS NOT BOMBS
Croatia’s Paklenica National Park is loaded with giant, Verdon-esque limestone walls. So, why haven’t you heard of it? The answer can be found somewhere in the troubled history of the Balkan Peninsula.
BY JULIE GARRISON Frederick • PHOTOS BY BOBBY MODEL

NATURE OF THE BEAST
At 2,200 feet high and in a constant state of flux, the Painted Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is Colorado’s biggest, baddest cliff. The face’s palpable aura has spawned an unrivaled string of nightmare epics.
BY JEFF ACHEY

BACKYARD BACKCOUNTRY
Summertime in SLC means sweltering heat, stifling smog, and trad climbing in the mountains. Take a visual tour of the high-and-wild alpine moderates of Utah’s Wasatch Range.
BY ANDREW BURR

GALLERY
Mixed madness, bouldering burliness, crack addiction,
and 5.13 big walling.

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial
Time to go shoe shopping. Who ya going to listen to?

Letters
“Ketch” me if you can, the “Secret Crag” is out of the bag, cragside screaming, and other musings from the vertical world

Hot Flashes
World’s hardest trad climb, wild Andean glacial-ice route, DG flashes two 5.14a’s, Rands does E8 … again, and dispatches from Patagonia

Off the Wall
Devils Tower leans on, new research reveals true ecological impact of sport climbing, and Doug Coombs dies in La Grave, France

Whipped
Road-trip karma goes south when the author and her boyfriend go on a mouse hunt.
By Majka Burhardt

Tech Tips
Trad: Rapping with an injured partner
Sport: Better Beta for harder onsighting
Alpine: Selecting the right footwear for the job, whatever that job may be

Equipment
Twenty-two of the latest and greatest climbing shoes for 2006

Just Out
Maxim’s 9.1mm Apogee, Misty Mountain Stealth Pad, and a page-turner about global warming

Classifieds

Vantage Point
How do you rekindle things with your Best Climbing Partner? Drag him out on another epic, of course.
By Heather Lea