Jeff Achey

Learn how to extend your draws to minimize rope drag and rope abrasion while making falls less dangerous.

These gear tips can help you avoid being stranded on the wall... or taking terrible risks to get down... or simply allow you to continue enjoying a climbing day.

Here are a few reasons to haul, tips on how to do it, and some cautions gleaned from years of experience.

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.

Back in 1979, tower trips could be serious business. Spring-loaded cams had yet to debut. Falls were rare, but potential air was huge.

Knots were also used for record keeping in ancient China, and the Chinese Book of Changes, almost 2,500 years old, associates knots with contract and agreement.

You see untold climbing photos nearly every day and most of them suck. The bad news is they're your pics. It doesn't have to be this way. Follow the advice from these five expert climbing photographers and start taking world-class pics you'll be proud to share.

Follow these simple guidelines for better climbing photography. Includes advice for getting the most out of light, how to visualize, use a zoom, and even posing down and how to learn from others' photos.

Sick of being the weakling and the buffoon? Forget excuses. “Discrete tension,” aka DT, can earn you credit for routes significantly harder than you actually redpoint.

Dropped, forgotten, or mysteriously vanished gear can ruin a climbing day. Worst case, it can be life-threatening. But with a little know-how, you can recover from bone-headed mistakes and keep climbing—and also impress friends with your savvy.

There's something magical about doing big routes in faraway places. But on these walls it's important to have your systems and tactics totally ironed out.

Racking them, placing them, threading them, stacking them, trusting them. Here's what you need to know about using nuts.

In the 1920s, British climbers carried pebbles in their pockets, slotting them into cracks and tying them off (with hemp cord) for pro.

Here are nine tips to keep you safe on your next big objective.

A growing danger from aging hardware means standards are on the horizon

How to have big fun at small crags during a short visit to a faraway island

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