Climbing
Archive
No one wants to have the conversation—but no one can avoid it, either
Big wall free solo climber Alex Honnold reflects on why he’s so enamored with El Cap in this recent animated film called Walls Are Meant for Climbing from the North Face.
Wild and Wonderful from advocacy group New River Alliance of Climbers and filmmaker Tara Kerzhner documents the persistence it took to make the PsicoRoc deep water solo competition happen.
In this short documentary from Uninterrupted, climber Kai Lightner takes his skills to the next level as he navigates the world of adult climbing with his sights set on a 2020 Olympic bid.
Steph Davis is an accomplished climber and BASE jumper, so on a climbing outing north of Moab, she combined both skills and made this short video.
In February 2017, Margo Hayes became the first woman to climb a 5.15a when she sent La Rambla, one of the most technical climbs in the world.
So why were most of their major accomplishments also accompanied by a swarm of questions about the routes' legitimacy?
Big-wall climber Quinn Brett fell 100 feet while climbing El Capitan. Now paralyzed, she thinks back to her accident and reimagines her future.
Rob Miller worked for seven years to develop a new line up Yosemite's tallest wall. In the end, it all came down to a few short moves.
Wouldn’t you like to get away? To a place where you can be pampered and just relax? Of course you wouldn’t.
For this Tough Love, by popular request, we're doing something a little different: a semi-noncapitalist gift guide
From director Jon Glassberg and writer Caroline Treadway, this film documents Heather Weidner's attempt at trad climbing China Doll.
The fight over Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments is just getting started
From filmmaker Jon Glassberg and writer Caroline Treadway, China Doll follows climbers Heather and Chris Weidner as Heather attempts to climb China Doll in Dream Canyon.
The Himalayan Database has long been considered the place to find stats about climbs on the region's big peaks. Now, for the first time, that data will be free to the public.
When she was in college, Jack Kerouac’s book The Dharma Bums helped the author find her place in wilderness and in life. She hoped it would do the same for her 16-year-old son as they embarked on a mother-son California road trip retracing Kerouac’s adventures.
Before Amazon and big-box stores, mountain shops like Eastside Sports dotted the West. Now, it's one of the last survivors.
Meet Ray Verseau, widely known as the world's best belayer. Not only has he created a career out of belaying, he's made it into a lifestyle.
Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright are known for sending incredible routes in remote regions around the world.
And why I can't live without personal projects—even if they don't mean anything to anyone else
With its new Walls Are Meant for Climbing program, the company hopes to make climbing accessible for everyone of all ages and abilities
Tip: It helps to build your toddler a mini climbing wall so he can boulder with you
The case for rethinking one of cycling's oldest and most misused components
When he set a new record up Wyoming’s Devils Tower last month, Robert Kelman confirmed what experts say about aging and athletics: use it or lose it
A growing number of outfitters are offering options for adaptive athletes
Beckey, who has often been called the country’s ur-dirtbag—a climber who eschews riches to pursue climbing full-time—was widely recognized as North America’s most prolific mountaineer
Most gyms have more to offer than a big wall
The well-known mountain guide breaks down his 10 essentials
The pro climber's 10 essential travel tools
The ReelRock 12 Film Tour highlights this year's best climbing accomplishments from across the globe.
A few months before Junko Tabei died, she looked back on her summit of Everest, and what drove her to keep climbing
Skip the overpriced food from the concessioner and check out these local restaurants instead
The National Park Service findings, released last week, are troubling. The reality is even worse.
Jim Herrington's book 'The Climbers' is a masterful tribute to the formidable characters who shaped the sport
The 27-year-old Kennedy died by suicide after Perkins, his girlfriend, was killed in an avalanche in Bozeman, Montana
A team of some of the top mountaineers attempt the first ski descent of the world's fifth-highest peak.
And how we can use that data to possibly prevent accidents on the crag
For big projects, I need food that’s tasty, packable, and calorically dense. These blended bars are my answer.
From the North Face and Camp4 Collective, Life Coach follows climbers Alex Honnold and Renan Ozturk in The Ruth Gorge in Alaska.
For 19 years, Keir Beck has been behind some of the most complex stunts in the industry
Writer and climber Jeff Johnson was near the base of El Cap when a chunk of rock the size of an apartment building broke off above him. Here's what he saw next.
A piece of granite "the size of an apartment building" sheared off while 30 climbers were on the wall
Plotting the sport's first ascents and groundbreaking advances
Everything you need to scramble up your local alpine summit
The writer and film producer reveals her favorite tried-and-true women’s gear for the crag
Doug Peacock, Mark Allen, Kris Tompkins, Shaun White, Lynn Hill, Lindsey Vonn, Yvon Chouinard, Conrad Anker, and Laird Hamilton reflect on their passions and their lives outside
No one knew if it could be done. But when Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler climbed Mount Everest without oxygen in 1978, they smashed one of the last barriers of human performance. Almost 40 years later, both legends talk about their first ascent by “fair means”—and the long-running feud that followed.
Change comes for everybody, including a group of adventurous friends who’ve convened for years to climb, swap stories, and hoist a few. These days, their founder is grappling with incurable cancer. On a happier note, their decision to open the doors a little wider has given the gathering a fresh, life-affirming spirit.
12 pieces of essential gear chosen by our resident climber
For climbers Carlo Traversi, Kevin Jorgeson, and Tommy Caldwell, multi-discipline climbing has become a top priority. Emerging from a conversation about pushing limits these three set up a new challenge: climb a 14'er, a 5.14, and V14 all in the same day.
Seven hikers have died on 14ers since May, an unusual string of fatalities that has Aspen officials wondering what measures they're obligated to put in place to keep people safe in the mountains
From Never Not Collective, this the trailer for Pretty Strong which is an upcoming film project starring only women climbers.
The Czech climber continues to dominate the climbing world, sending the world's first 5.15d in Norway
After an injury to his hand, climber Bernd Zangerl tries one of the hardest routes of his life, Into the Sun.
Sometimes people are looking for more than a good belay
A driven, patient, and injured Vanessa O’Brien becomes the oldest woman—and first American one—to summit the Savage Mountain
Andrew “Bob” Harris recently became the first person with Down syndrome to climb the Grand Teton
When alpinist and photographer Cory Richards dug himself out of an avalanche in 2011, he emerged alive but scarred—an ascendant star in a community that tends to shun the very idea that trauma can have lasting effects. As his profile climbed ever higher, his career and personal life imploded. Six years later, one of the world’s best artist-adventurers comes clean about the panic attacks, PTSD, and alcohol abuse that nearly killed him.
I'm as addicted to my phone as anyone. Could three weeks in Madagascar without service provide some sort of lasting digital renewal?
The Ptarmigan Traverse in Washington State’s North Cascades has had the word “classic” pinned to it nearly from the time it was pioneered in 1938. You don’t get much more high-n-wild in the Lower 48 than on this 35-mile-plus mountaineering trip, which starts in North Cascades National Park and immediately dives south into the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
When Daniel Duane was a kid, his father taught him how to climb in Yosemite. Two decades later, when his teenage daughter wanted a valley education of her own, he realized that the old beta no longer applied.
The story of how a confectionary mishap helped Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the world's most famous summit
Margaret Wheeler of the American Mountain Guides Association walks us through the steps it takes to clean an anchor.
While living on a portaledge—a suspended platform about the size of a double bed—you still need to perform basic bodily functions, including, yes, answering calls of nature. This is how it works.
And the very important lessons we can learn from them
Travel is one long introduction to the broadest of humanity. We aren’t perfect, but most members of our species are worth knowing. To meet those neighbors, follow these simple rules.
From hemp oil to ginger tea to earplugs, here’s what the climber and BASE jumper can’t live without
Six bold new products for summer 2018
The teenage phenom on reaching the summit and knowing when to give up
Hollywood screws up a lot of action-sports sequences, but rock climbing continues to make pivotal appearances in films both lousy and excellent. From Christopher Nolan epics to overlooked Disney films, here are our top 10 on-camera climbing scenes.
The focus-demanding sport could affect the brain more deeply than we know
After three days of climbing and bolting in this area, we headed home, convinced that rural Indonesia has the potential to become a dream destination for outdoor enthusiasts
Female athletes deserve the same respect for their athletic abilities as their male counterparts
Our writer visited the 10,000-square-foot facility in Ventura, California, home to thousands of products-cum-talismans, and came away with more than just an appreciation for the brand's gear heritage