Cover: A self-portrait of the late Charlie Fowler, circa 1980.
PHOTO: Charlie Fowler Collection

FEATURES

GALLERY
White, puffy clouds; springtime boulder-blitzing in Utah; an infinite whipper; and loco 5.14 action from El Salto, Mexico.

THE SNOWS OF GENYEN
On December 4, 2006, two of America’s best alpinists, Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff, missed their flight home from China. They sought virgin lines in the eastern Himalaya — this much was known — but where had they gone? Endless weeks and countless man-hours on the ground later, a tragic, perplexing answer would emerge.
By Ted Callahan

CULT OF SOLITUDE
How much alone time with your partner — in the rain, on a towering Newfoundland sea cliff lashed by hurricanes — is too much? Chris Weidner travels with Justen Sjong to the featured granite of Blow-Me-Down, on the isle’s south coast, to find out.
By Chris Weidner • Photos by Celin Serbo

ZEN AND THE ART OF ERIC DECARIA
Rolled smokes, bunched dreads, and more cooled-out than Billy Dee Williams — meet Eric Decaria, a 32-year-old carpenter from Boulder who’s quietly redefining the cutting-edge trad game.
By Rob Coppolillo

DEPARTMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS
Meet the people behind this issue of Climbing.

EDITORIAL
Origins: Taking Climbing back to its roots.

LETTERS

BASECAMP

HOT FLASHES
OFF THE WALL
JUST OUT
TEN THINGS
WHIPPED
ROADKILL
SUSTAINED

EQUIPMENT
The 2007 rock-shoe review: a year of super-tech innovation
and options aplenty.

CLASSIC CLIMBS
Jeremiah Watt shows what Sedona, Arizona, reps in the red
desert — it’s The Mace (III 5.9+), and you’ll wanna skip church
to scale it.

TECH TIPS
Training: Upper-body Tabatas – max out your power endur-
ance with this intense, intensive weight workout.
Trad: Trad ground-up maestro Jeff Achey takes you through
the fine art of hand drilling... on the sharp end.

GEAR YOU NEED
For tackling the Cassin Ridge of Denali.

REVIEWS
The new DVDs Specimen and Security Life, a (Kalymnos)
guidebook of a different ilk, and The Alps in IMAX.

PERSPECTIVE
Chris McNamara: He’s a Yosemite big-wall fanatic, he runs
SuperTopo.com, and he can fly.