Sport Climbing

The extraordinary career of Puerto Rico's biggest route developer began with a vampire hunt in 1975.

Climbing gyms make fantastic training and learning environments, but they differ greatly from real rock outdoors.

Edu Marín is the first person to send ‘Orbayu’ (8c/5.14b), ‘Arco Iris’ (8c+/5.14c), and ‘Donec Perficiam' (5.14a/b) in Spain.

This isn't a guide to 2025's flashiest new kicks. These are the shoes we return to when we’re not testing the latest and greatest.

If you're going to whip from the chains, at least do it like this.

Raboutou reveals why she wrote a letter to the route—and the beta that unlocked her success

Chase some of the best single-pitch climbing between the Rockies and Appalachia

Coach and elite climber Cameron Hörst explains why climbers might not be strong enough for their project–and what training they should be doing instead.

Maybe it’ll clean up with traffic!

Upside-down whippers are dangerous but almost always avoidable... so learn to avoid them.

Kudos to the filmer for respecting this climber’s privacy while still capturing the drama.

That looked rather exciting.

The inspiration you need going into this weekend’s projects.

Well, that looked exciting.

Coach and elite climber Cameron Hörst explains how sport climbers in the 5.10-5.13 range should train for the crag.

A slow, steady, and multi-phased warmup will prepare your body to work hard and make your training safer and more efficient.

Ratchet up your redpoint grade—and ditch some needless pump—with this flagging primer.

For Tom Bolger, being a pro climber also means being an Airbnb host and an offshore oil rigger. His philosophy: being a pro is about doing whatever you can to climb as much as you can.

Chimneys can be strenuous, runout, and baffling. They can also take you to some pretty incredible places.

If I was going to Céüse or Siurana or the New River Gorge tomorrow, I’d pack the Sigma first.

Unless, of course, you're literally about to blitz up the route in a matter of minutes.

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

Be wary of clipping above your head while close to the ground.

Although staying upright would be nice.

“Looking back, it was a big mistake to not wear a helmet. I totally overestimated the steepness of the wall.”

How do you climb in the cold and how do you stay warm belaying? Heather Weidner shares four strategies.

The second ascent of the world’s first V17 // The world’s third 5.15d gets sent on livestream // James Pearson announces (for a second time) that he’s just done the world’s first E12 // And one of the Himalaya’s most intense North Faces finally see a first ascent.

“It was probably too big of a grade jump!”

“This was my first time ever falling while clipping. A huge but very safe fall.”

“I’ll be back for you, 'Prime Directive.' Hopefully with someone who will hang the draws for me.”

A magazine can dream.

We would have done a few things differently here.

A quick, attentive belay prevented a gnarly ground fall.

We spot boulder problems. Sometimes we spot climbers before they clip their first piece of pro. Now imagine spotting a climber falling 60 feet.

Seriously. It’s not pleasant.

Busy life and can't get to the climbing gym or rocks mid-week? Try this quick strength-building workout.

Faced with a serious pump, this climber tried to clip in a very strenuous position.

Improve faster and avoid injuries by climbing just below your limit—roughly 80 percent of your maximum ability—about 90 percent of the time.

Exploring the small island's tufa-laden limestone sport routes, some requiring hair-raising rappels to precarious stances above the sea.

Climbing is hard when it's hot. But these warm-weather tactics will help you excel. Plus: Here are our 12 favorite warm-weather climbing destinations!

Stick-clipping can be a safe way to start your route. But only if you do it right.

Many a visitor has left our shores with crappy dacks (a quaint piece of slang meaning basically what you'd expect) after an exciting episode with this Aussie icon.

Climbing falls can be disorienting and unexpected. Why not wear a bucket?

Check out Julie Ellison's author page.

So close…

Endurance isn't merely a function of fitness. The best climbers have tricks for fighting off the pump.

There’s a fatal flaw to many climbers’ training regimen: monotony. Get strong by having fun.

What was once grippy, clean stone can devolve to a soapy mess.

"Grades don’t matter as much as we tend to think they do, but at a certain point they have an impact."

And maybe even learning to love them.

Critiques are tough—but so is belaying. Here’s to approaching both with caution.

He lined up for the famous move and launched with gumption, only to latch the edge’s chalky outer rim and face the music of his momentum.

"I’ve been climbing for a pretty long time, long enough that I feel like I shouldn’t still get so freaking nervous when I’m going for the send."

The climber logged nothing but air miles thanks to the cave’s steepness, and called her whip “the craziest air I’ve ever had.”

This week’s whipper is a reminder that geologic time includes now.

Deep in the Cascades, you can top out huge walls without placing gear or pulling 5.10 moves on routes like Flyboys, which climbs 1,800 fully bolted feet at an achievable 5.9. (From 2020.)

A Goldilocks catch: soft, airy, and just right.

Having spent the better part of three weeks in El Potrero Chico, I was emotionally prepared for what might have otherwise been a very disturbing discovery.

How did he get away with that?

“He was completely fine, in a shock to us all.”

Coaches Justen Sjong and Juan Usubillaga offer tips on how to train on plastic to become better climbers both outside and in.

These historic areas are still amazing destinations today.

Just because the rock is bomber doesn’t mean the fixed gear is. 

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.

One very real concern, the filmer said, was the climber’s rope cutting over the sharp ironstone edge.

With perhaps the exception of Rumney, Lone Rock may possess New England’s highest concentration of 5.13-on-up sport climbs for a wall its size.

“Woo was pretty pumped and fixated on the final hard sequence. He forgot to clip the bolt, did the moves, and then slipped off.”

Many sport pitches can be fallen from with abandon. Not this one.

Rifle Mountain Park has a history, reaching back to the canyon’s first sport climbs from the late 1980s and early 1990s, that played a critical role in the modern explosion of difficulty in American sport climbing, especially on overhanging stone.

The climber, miraculously, walks away without a scratch.

Don't know how far it is to the next rappel anchor, and/or your rope is too short to make 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.

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

Most whippees are on their way up before they hurtle down. But that’s not always the case.

Studies point to stress itself as the culprit for accelerated fatigue; not how hard you grip.

“I realized there was no foothold to move across to the bolt and I took a 30-foot whip, face down, one-foot from the ground.”

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

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

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

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