Weekend Whipper

"If plumbing had bouldering grades I was a V15 plumber. The Adam Ondra of pipes and turd herding."

Two routes, two climbers, and a shared finish. What could go wrong?

"A hodgepodge of slightly newer hardware dots the cliff, a marker of all the old bolts that have ripped and needed replacement over the years.”

How do you belay “correctly” on a big free route? Well, it's complicated, but this whipper provides several solid tips.

"This particular route has three pegs and an ice screw—which apparently fit really well in a pocket, so there it stayed."

This Weekend Whipper does almost everything right. Almost.

"I went for the wrong move that I knew I couldn't land anyways. That's when the rope flew behind my leg mid fall and flipped me upside down."

This climber's first trad lead nearly ended in disaster.

This Weekend Whipper is a reminder that even the pros take awkward, cringe-worthy tumbles. And, sometimes, their fellow-pro spotter gets squashed.

This Weekend Whipper is lucky he didn't break any fingers—or impale his hand.

"It's very easy to lose track of where the rope is," the filmer told Climbing. "Before you know it, you look behind your leg and there it is. [There's] not much you can do but have a crack."

There are two miracles in this week's whipper: 1) He survived. 2) He caught the fall on video.

James Pearson couldn't be bothered to clip the bolt at his waist, and he logged some serious air miles while climbing above 13,000 feet.

This Weekend Whipper isn't gory or violent, rather it's a reminder that lead falls can be simply awkward, graceless moments.

Hard climbing, spread-out bolts, a botched clip... all the fixings for a classic whipper.

"It resulted in a somersault of Olympic quality and a pretty swollen elbow."

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We published close to thirty stories this week. Here are six that you won’t want to miss.

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"He had enough power left to pull within a move or two of the easier terrain but eventually his fingers gave out and he took the 50-foot ride."

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Do you want to be more comfortable taking lead falls? Mateusz Haładaj shows us one way to expedite the process...

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A botched sequence, a foothold missed, and a long fall over opposed nuts!

Izzy Moore of Costa Rica drops clear out of the frame. It is a massive fall (guessing 40 feet), and at the end his feet are not that much higher than the head of a person on the ground.

You wouldn't want to take this fall. Those falls. So many falls into a roiling sea.

"Much harder than it looks." Daniel Krolop paws at the features in search of a good hold, but eventually ... "First ascents are tough here."

He had done the route before. Why worry? He slung in a nut, expecting to cruise the crux and then place a good #3 cam. Uh-oh, big mistake ...

He places a high foothold that, as he stretches upward, pops. He resets, latches the target hold. But when tries to move his other hand ...

Weekend Whipper shows an upside-down fall from a desert roof, and why it's more important to wear a helmet than a shirt.

A good spot is often taken for granted, but spotters are unsung heroes, our invisible ropes when our feet leave the ground

Even if he were wearing a helmet, this would've hurt.

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Usually the external dangers for climbers are loose rocks and the like. But turns out thorn bushes have it out for us, too.

Who says toprope whips can't be epic?

Some would say dynoing near the top of a highball is a bad idea. Some would also say screw that and huck for it anyway, as our brave whippee did this week.

This Weekend Whipper serves up a double whammy of bone-cracking gnarliness.

In trying to pull off the "Crime of the Century," a classic 5.11c finger crack in Squamish, this climber gets caught red handed and takes a big fall.

Said Max Donovan, "I was lucky to walk away with scrapes and we are all grateful that this was a learning experience and not a tragedy."

Half ropes for the win on this one. If Peter Aarhaug had been on a single rope here... we shudder to think of it.