Years After My Mentor Died in a Rappelling Accident, I Retraced His Final Footsteps
After losing her friend to a rappelling accident and her father to a heart attack, our writer grapples with what it means to lead a well-lived life.
After losing her friend to a rappelling accident and her father to a heart attack, our writer grapples with what it means to lead a well-lived life.
The tent flap was thrown open and I saw, or thought I saw, a hooded figure, waving a gloved hand and yelling, “Come on. Get over here!” I was worse off than I thought. Seeing and hearing things.
Cat Runner, 24, discusses his victorious effort on the reality show, and the hurdles he’s overcome as a transgender athlete.
Instead of lowering to the ground, you can often “boink” back up to your last quickdraw by pulling up on the rope, unweighting, and allowing your belayer to quickly take in slack.
Alpine environments are infinitely complex—but for Gadd that is part of their allure.
With the help of digital scans, Athos is creating shoes that climbers won’t downsize.
Canada’s Vampire Spires are an impossibly rugged range in a seldom-visited wilderness. Follow contributor Jeff Achey on a rollicking amphibious assault: 100 miles by raft down the rowdy Nahanni River, followed by a first ascent to an untouched summit.
Learning how to build an “anchor in-series” will not only give you a solid option for bad rock, but also offers numerous solutions if you run into any other tricky anchor scenarios.
In 1976, Nanda Devi Unsoeld, the daughter of legendary alpinist Willi Unsoeld, died while climbing the massive Indian peak for which she was named. Decades later, friends, family, and surviving expedition members offer new insights into what went wrong during this controversial adventure, shedding light on an enigmatic young woman who lived without limits.
Turner was a fixture in the Colorado climbing scene, and he helped set a precedent for positive climber-land manager interface that has become a model throughout Colorado, and perhaps America.
Insecure rock climber (and badass alpinist) Nick Bullock gets a little perspective on an everyday trip to his local crag.
Everything's here, from fingerboarding to power, endurance and strength training. Includes expert advice on getting stronger fingers, shoulders, abs, you name it and if you want to train it up, this soup-to-nuts compendium has it.
Honnold is famous for (among other things) cramming as much climbing as he can into each day. To do so, he's developed some efficiency tricks that the rest of us can imitate.
They needed to be prepared for disaster. Fortunately, a real climber stepped in.
There are two miracles in this week's whipper: 1) He survived. 2) He caught the fall on video.
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The fearless American free soloist brought climbing into the limelight, and upped the risk ante so high it may never be surpassed.
Seven essential climbing knots to learn first: The Trace Eight, Prusik, Clove Hitch, Ring Bend, Double Fisherman's, Girth Hitch, and Figure-Eight On A Bight.
They figured they knew enough about climbing to wing it, but took a dangerous risk that could have cost them.
During my senior year of high school, my friends and I were bored. We decided we collectively knew enough about climbing for it to be safe. We went to the local outfitter and bought harnesses, carabiners, and belay devices, but we scoffed at the price of a rope. It was way outside our budget. Instead, we went to Home Depot and bought 100 feet of poly cord that was rated for 200 pounds. We climbed on that rope all day, just easy 5.3 climbing on toprope. I’ve included a couple photos. It wasn’t until I was lowering at the end of the day that I realized what a mistake I’d made. The 100-foot rope had stretched to about 200 feet, shrinking to the size of 8mm cord. I bought a real climbing rope the following week. Wanted to share because we are all new at some point and even with the best intentions mistakes are made. We should collectively work together to improve safety across the sport. I wish someone would have stopped us from climbing on that poly rope.
—Kyle Harris, via email
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LESSON: Modern climbing ropes include a number of climber-friendly features. They can hold thousands of pounds of force. They have durable sheaths that prevent abrasion and cutting. They have the ideal amount of stretch to catch a fall softly, and then bounce back to their original length and diameter. They’re supple and easy to tie and untie. They’re tested to meet rigorous safety standards. And they work great with modern belay devices. A random hardware store rope is not designed with any of these goals in mind, and can’t be expected to meet them. Always use proper climbing gear designed and rated for climbing.
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