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Climbing is dangerous even when you know what you are doing. It's outright deadly when you think you know what you're doing but don't have a clue.

John Long is one of climbing's most prolific authors. He's also one of its most beloved characters.

Return of the Jedi is found in an abandoned gritstone quarry in the Peak District and is an unmistakable line: a sharpened prow that is intimidatingly tall and “that requires quite a few pads to make safe.”

The climber having the most fun is the one still cranking at sunset. Here's how to keep your energy levels high.

You wouldn't pick up The Creepy hitchhiker, yet you'd gladly let him belay you. Why?

Coaches are easy to find these days. Good coaches are harder to find.

A Himalayan expedition ends in ruin, but leads the author to follow the footsteps of Shipton in a quest to find a real-life monster.

Grupper had a breakout season on the World Cup circuit, nearly taking the overall lead title; but he’s still unsure about how his climbing helps humanity.

Sport climbing trip coming up? Dreams of long trad routes? Here are 9 tips to help you achieve your rope-stretching, enduro-climbing goals.

An ode to the routes that got away—and what they can teach us if we let them.

These upwardly mobile talents were selected from a field of 150 applicants to participate in Climbing’s photo-mentorship program, taught by pro photographers Irene Yee, Randall Levensaler, David Clifford and Duane Raleigh.

An easy day's outing turned nearly deadly when the author set aside his own experience and instead trusted an inexperienced "guide"

When the two Italians Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi started up the Eiger no climber had been rescued alive from the North Face. What unfolded was one of the most Herculean and heroic rescue efforts of all time.

These three hangboarding exercises work strength, endurance, and injury prevention, and can be adapted for climbers of all levels.

Some days everything goes wrong.

It seems simple in theory—throw your heel around a hold or feature to use those powerful leg muscles to pull you into the wall—but it’s much more nuanced in practice. Here's how to perfect it.

Training takes time, effort and dedication—it might not be worth it.

Jim Bridwell once said that it is the mountain, not the climber, who defines the way things turn out. And yet, four basic principles mold the way we experience fate.

The bolt-replacement grants were distributed to nine local climbing organizations.

The filmer breaks down exactly what happened—and what went wrong.

How having too much of an agenda hurts your climbing (but not having one does too)

How should we think about grades? Do they even matter? What are the formulas and rules we should consider? Let’s discuss.

"In our analysis afterward, we agreed that we were extremely lucky."

We’ve gathered experience-driven tips and tricks to create a foolproof recipe for success on pumpy layback pitches.

When an airplane smuggling a load of high-grade marijuana crashed in a Yosemite lake, a gold rush of climbers hauled out a fortune in brick weed right under the noses of the authorities.

In 1954, two Italian climbers were celebrated for their first ascent of K2. But behind their ascent was something worse than betrayal.

Ever.

You can train long or you can train hard, but not both—which is probably why so many of us train power so incorrectly.

“It only takes a few people a year to really do some damage.”

The author, a V3/V4 climber, tries to break out of a multi-year plateau by signing up for a training program.

This was the second call to action by Riverside Mountain Rescue at Tahquitz in as many months, the first involving a double fatality.

Each January we post a farewell tribute to those members of our community lost in the year just past. Some of the people you may have heard of, some not. All are part of our community and contributed to climbing.

Our community has come a long way towards educating climbers about the dangers of disordered eating. But mere progress isn’t enough. 

“You’ve got to find a cool angle or a cool story or something interesting to say.”

The 2022 USA Climbing National Championships took place in Denver, Colorado from November 9 through 13. Here are the results.

“I think we’ve forgotten that in order to be good at climbing, you have to climb.”—Jonathan Siegrist, who is a nicer guy than you or me and climbs harder, too.

If I'd hopped off the ledge or tried to weight the sling, I would've fallen a few hundred feet to the ground. I felt sick to my stomach for a couple weeks after that one.

I asked the old man for advice, and he came through with five tried and true panaceas.

'Love as a Weapon' is a stiff new route in Squamish, BC.

Buster Martin just became the second person to clip the chains of the two routes in contention for being the world’s first 9a (5.14d).

The Access Fund does many things, but one of their most effective strategies has been to help local climbing organizations acquire and protect threatened climbing areas.

The route features hard slab, 5.13+ seams, and a 5.13c finger crack of such high quality that the climbers named the ropelength "As Good as It Gets."

Here's what you need to know to get stronger without getting injured.

Gym-climbing movements are more varied than ever. And amidst the deadpoint hucks and run-and-jump dynos, the Mantra is perhaps the best new shoe to take on such limitless variety.

Siegrist has an encyclopedic familiarity with America’s hardest routes; he’s skeptical about the recent upgrade to 5.15b.

Big wall permits are here to stay in Yosemite. But what they look like is still evolving. Make yourself heard before November 16.

From the archive: James Lucas finds his way (and our history) at the Virgin River Gorge.

Climbers, particularly climbers who boulder, are at increased risk of knee injury. Here's how to come back from such an injury.

JG gave me some samples. Naturally, I took the little brown pills. 

In 2007 Cedar Wright and Renan Ozturk made an alpine-style FA of the 2,500-foot Northern Cat’s Ear Spire, the last unclimbed spire in the Great Trango Group. In the process he realized a thing or two about "style."

Each January we post a farewell tribute to those members of our community lost in the year just past. Some of the people you may have heard of, some not. All are part of our community and contributed to climbing.

This new climber didn't know how to belay or even lower from a fixed anchor, bungling both in unimaginably awful ways.

"Female climbers are often less confident than their male counterparts, but it’s nurture, not nature. And that’s something we can beat."

Those “easy sends” can still leave a mark. 

Casual cragging is anything but—the law of gravity still applies. Use this four-part checklist to beat complacency and prevent accidents.

"I think over the years—and I couldn’t have told myself this when I was younger—I’ve learned ... not to have my life’s worth be dependent on one thing."

Getting old can be a real mind warp: you train just as hard, you rest more, you clean up your diet. And nevertheless, you get weaker. By the end of the 2021 season, at age 48, I knew something had to give.

Suprême Jumbo Love (5.15c) is a 65-foot direct start to Jumbo Love: America’s first 5.15b.

How headpointing became a legitimate, go-to tactic on Peak District gritstone.

An experience on the purple boulder problem at the gym altered the author's life course in an unexpected way.

“I personally felt that ‘Honey Badger’ (V16) was more of a challenge for me.”

"In a sport that prizes youth and energy and boldness and good health, it is, I realize, anathema to confess to any sort of weakness..." But sometimes embracing your weakness can help.

Have a kid and life as you know it is over. Retire those kneepads and downturned shoes, welcome to strollers and diapers and poos.

Get safety tips and other advice from one of climbing's most prolific and knowledgeable climbers in this three part online video course.

Aconcagua is perhaps the easiest climb of its elevation, but kills climbers each year—and shouldn’t be underestimated.

On October 20, Aidan Roberts made the second ascent of “Alphane,” a V17 established by Shawn Raboutou in Switzerland last spring. We caught up with Aidan to chat about it.

Toothy front points and a super-secure adjustment system make the G22 PLUS EVO a must-have for technical mountain travel

Any time spent helping your partner achieve his goals is time not crushing your projects.

From Red Rock to Acadia, Asheville to Maui, these climbing destination are unforgettable stocking stuffers.

How personality traits and hangdogging can be leveraged to make you a better first-effort climber.

Slovenian athletes Domen Škofic and Jernej Kruder took an early lead in the race. Then the unexpected happened.

Kristin Harila was unable to obtain an entry permit from China to climb Cho Oyu and Shishapangma, putting her two peaks shy of the record.

The big question was when—or even if— a party would eclipse the 24-minute mark on one of the finest multi-pitch climbs in North America.

"Snake Dike is a lovely route on one of the great monoliths of our planet. Had we had more time and more bolts, we would have [placed more bolts] ourselves during the first ascent."

Eating the right foods, staying hydrated and active can keep you out of the sick bed and climbing all season long.

The BLM’s decision, made in acknowledgement of the site’s importance to the Shoshone-Bannock people, will remove hundreds of routes—significantly changing climbing opportunities in southeast Idaho.

Aid climbing is the one sure-fire way to accelerate the trad climbing learning curve

In 1937, Washburn left his cameras and gear behind while attempting to hike out of the Saint Elias Range. Almost a century later, freeskier Griffin Post set out to find the cache.

I walk toward Grandma Peabody, the first boulder we climbed all those years ago. Our friends are with me. We carry climbing shoes and crash pads, sandwiches, Baby, Josh’s ashes.

Some say the most dangerous section of a sport climb is between the second and third bolts.