Culture

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.

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.

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.

You always choose what you risk. But sometimes, with all the odds stacked against you, it’s difficult to act appropriately.

Our language seems to be richer and more dynamic than ever, but some climbing terms have gotta go.

This new memoir by Ryan Waters, who in 2014 became the first American to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam, focuses more on the adventurer than on his adventures.

The day that nearly did our intrepid explorer in. He wrote it up as soon as he could use his hands again.

"Lucho shouldn’t be up here. Not because this particular situation is dangerous (it is), but because it’s a miracle that he isn’t in prison."

Everyone knows about MoonBoards and Gripmasters… Here are a few under-the-radar, low-cost training products that the pros and I have used for years to get jacked. (Warning: humor column)

R.P. The initials are iconic. For climbers they conjure up all kinds of memories: tiny brass wires sitting new on your rack, shiny and angular and coated in a light sheen of oil...

Two lifelong friends face rockfall and the life-altering aspects of sudden Injury.

For "conquistadors of the useless," climbers sure love getting into bitter disputes about how we enjoy ourselves.

Alpinist, Ridgeway, Colorado.

When a climber dies, friends, family and editors reconstruct a life now gone.

Climbing exists in a weird middle zone between solo and team sport. Sometimes climbing alone is the best way to go.

Climbing Pioneer, BASE jumper (BASE #39), Businessman, Kite Surfer, Big-wave Surfer.

“One of my strengths, I think, is that I have good grace for myself. When I regress, or if I’m not climbing how I feel like I should be, I’m able to step back and look at it a little more objectively.”

Twin brothers Damian and Willie Benegas, world-class Argentine alpine guides and mountaineering phenoms, sent this spectacular ice line on the North Face of Nuptse in 2003.

After losing her life partner, Gisely “Gi” Ferraz learned how to regain her strength as a climber and a person while spreading his ashes from his favorite summits. On Fitz Roy, she confronted death. 

Unbelievable save on Astroman. A once-in-a-lifetime lucky moment of bad luck.

For sale: Offwidth rack, used once.

On December 5, 2011, in Pinnacles National Park, California, Lars Johnson found his legs crushed by a 2-ton boulder. His fast-acting partners saved his life.

If reaching the summit isn't the most important thing in the world, then why do it? This climbing satirist thinks he knows.

Some things are scarier than broken bones.... The author recounts the epics he's experienced throughout his climbing career. The ones that changed him were commonplace.

Sasha DiGiulian, Brette Harrington, and Matilda Söderlund traveled to Spain to tackle 'Rayu,' 16 pitches of biting limestone. For DiGiulian, it signaled a return to the height of her athletic career.

A lot of people love ice climbing. This one is for those of you that don't, but go anyway.

Robert Jasper has spent decades at the top of German alpinism and a year of his life on the Eiger’s notorious North Face. How do you not know his name?

In 2016, shortly before he went missing on the Ogre II in Pakistan, Kyle Dempster applied to the John Long Writers Symposium; but Kyle submitted his application late and the class was full. A few weeks later a slot opened up, but Kyle had just booked his tickets for Pakistan.

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.

Some climbs, we get up out of sheer stubbornness—or stupidity.

Heinz Mariacher has spent four decades creating rock shoes. As a cutting-edge climber of the 1970s and ‘80s, he’s used both his experience on rock and his eye as an artist to catapult footwear from clunkers to the precision tools we use today.

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

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

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.

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.

Some days everything goes wrong.

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.

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."

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 made the first ascent of K2, and were celebrated across Europe. But something happened up there that was a betrayal and worse. It took 50 years for the truth to be believed.

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 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."

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."

"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.

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

"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.

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

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.

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.

Punting on routes is the necessary mental chrysalis we use to achieve the next level as climbers. Everyone does it, and it's OK.

"How do you decide what climbs to write about? What makes a route newsworthy in the first place, and why are the fifth or tenth ascents of a route sometimes newsworthy and sometimes not?"

Soloing can be great, but not everyone should do it.

During the storied 1968 ascent of Cerro Chaltén, five climbers spent 30 days sheltered in two different 10' by 10' ice caves on the mountain.

Most walls will stand the test of time. We as climbers will not.

Five veteran climbers, Peter Croft, Jeff Jackson, John Long, Pete Takeda, and Dougald MacDonald argue the issue of retro-bolting older moderate routes with big runouts.

Not to be confused with the Dawn Wall—a 5.14d on El Capitan—#Dawnwall is actually something less quantifiable and slightly more perplexing for climbers.

In not wearing her hijab, Elnaz Rekabi has become a symbol for the anti-regime movement. We hope she is safe and that her wellbeing is unthreatened, but we fear the worst. 

He just wanted to get on the sweet Maui stone, then someone jacked his truck—that's when the trouble started.

Us 9-5ers want to climb 5.16, but we don’t have the time to get there because of our jobs. Well, let me let you in on a little secret: You can train for climbing all day every day with these simple exercises.

Being alive is mortally dangerous. As climbers we regularly put ourselves at risk. Rocks fall, but miss. We run it out, but make it to the anchor. The avalanche sweeps camp right after we pack up. And hazards are not always occasioned by putting ourselves in harm’s way.

When you reach the Pearly Gates or the banks of the River Styx or Nirvana or wherever, no higher power is going to deny you access because you only sent 29 5.13s instead of 30; there will be no angel with a golden abacus tallying up your 8a.nu points to make sure you merit entry into the Promised Land.

The British Alpinist's abridged career was in many ways defined by his attempts to differentiate himself from his iconic mother's achievements. In the end, the resemblances are eerie.

Sit Starts, Drop Ins, and Things No One Has Thought Of Yet

These are the kinds of excellent excuses we’d make if we were really being honest about our climbing performance.

At 78, climber, hall-of-fame skier, and former mountain guide Dick Dorworth had to make a difficult decision.

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.

World champion climber Lynn Hill once called Katie Brown “the best female sport climber in the history of the sport”—but the meteoric rise of Brown’s climbing career was equally matched by her abrupt departure from the sport.

Short film: Skye Kolealani Razon-Olds rock climbs for the spiritual connection with her ancestors.

Peter Habeler and Reinhold Messner took alpine tactics to the Himalaya, blowing minds and redefining the sport itself. Over 40 years later, they speak about the first oxygenless ascent of Everest, and the rift that broke up the greatest climbing partnership of all time.