Climbing
ArchiveDean Potter and Sean Leary set a new speed record for the Nose route of El Capitan on Saturday. The pair climbed the 2900-foot route in two hours, thirty-six minutes, forty-five seconds, just twenty seconds faster than the record set by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama in 2008. In…
Lucky Chance started getting attention from the mainstream media last year when a video appeared on YouTube of him BASE jumping off the “Death Swing,” a 100-foot-long, clifftop rope swing in Australia's Blue Mountains. Chance, a 27-year-old stuntman, rock…
After ten years of work, British climber Leo Houlding has made the first ascent of The Prophet, a new free route on Yosemite's El Capitan, Deadpoint Mag reports. The Prophet ascends the right side of El Cap, linking up pitches from established routes Bad To…
Flying devils, physics: explained, a record high, a fine wine, and lo-jacked rhinos. We're just getting started. Here's the stuff you should click on this week. “Flying Devils” — Johnny Rooks: 1. National Geographic: 0. How High?Excalibur Billed As The World's…
I was climbing my local favorite, Colorado's Longs Peak earlier this year and noticed a new sign beside the trail. This was near the Diamond, famous for world class big wall climbs from Casual Route, 5.10a to Ariana at 5.12a and more. To be clear I was doing the passive…
Photo of the Himalayas courtesy of ilkerender on Flickr. Joe Puryear fell to his death on Tuesday while climbing Labuche Kang, a 24,170-foot mountain in the Himalayas, the Seattle Times reports. The 37-year old fell 1,500 feet when a cornice…
Chris Sharma has won the Masters Series I Psicobloc, a unique new deep water solo climbing competition held in the Spanish city of Bilbao this weekend, reports Prana. Over 4,000 spectators lined the banks of the Bilbao Estuary to watch Sharma, 29, and over a…
In case you missed 'em, here are the top 10 posts from last month. We dare you not to click on number 5: “Woman Saves Choking Bear”. Number 10: Chrissie Wellington: Riding the Himalayas Number 9: Ironman Champ Chrissie Wellington's…
This year, Reel Rock moved away from its usual feature-oriented format to focus on short films. Co-creators Sender Films and Big UP Productions spent months documenting some of the most talked-about sends and stunts of the past few…
Italy boasts an enduring culture of Alpinism, to-die-for cycling, and hard-core ultrarunning. It's why I planned a trip there this fall. (Yes, there's also…The food! The vino!) I spent a week trekking in Abruzzo, a multi-sport mecca for climbing, trekking, paragliding and mountain biking. It's…
Photo by Didrik Johnck Michael Brown, Erik Weihenmayer, and the Soldiers to the Summit team sent notice that they bagged Lobuche yesterday. It is…
Matt Wilder working Iron Monkey (via ClimbingNarc) Just a few weeks after his surprise second-place finish at the Nor'easter bouldering competition, Brian Kim has made a rare ascent of Eldorado Canyon's hardest trad climb, Iron Monkey (5.14 R),…
By Stephen Regenold The manufacture and sale of artificial rock-climbing holds is a small industry and one of those esoteric tiny areas of dedicated people and passionate companies that makes the outdoors world so neat. An even tinier niche focuses on artificial holds and…
It's a good thing my mom isn't here watching me climb. This is definitely not the safest thing I have ever done.— Eric Larsen, Day 44, Camp 4 Explorer Eric Larsen moved with his team up to…
At 34, Ueli Steck is one of the fastest and most versatile climbers around today. Practically unknown to most Americans, the Swiss alpinist has set speed records on some of the Alps' toughest walls, including the Eiger's infamous north face, and has summited both Gasherbrum II and Makalu.
By Stephen Regenold For virtually any outdoors adventure, the right gear can give you an edge. But in few product categories does this ring as true as it does with lighting. For activities at night, an ill-performing headlamp, flashlight, or other source of…
Climber Daniel Woods has made the second ascent of Jaws II at Rumney, the hardest sport climb in the eastern US, Climbing Narc reports. Originally established by Dave Graham as Jaws (5.14d), Jaws II climbs up a steeply overhanging schist wall in the White Mountains…
In between covering rounds of the UBC Pro Tour at the Nor'easter last weekend, I managed to sneak out and have a look at some of the gear on display in the sponsor village. The exhibitors at the Nor'easter had loads of new equipment to show…
Photo courtesy of Flickr Disaster Airborne Response Teams, a nonprofit, non-governmental rescue unit plans to use its two Cessna 206 planes to improve access to backcountry rescue sites and other emergency scenes in Colorado and the six surrounding states. DARTS will fly emergency first…
Any article about death on a mountain is difficult to write. I am concerned about getting the facts wrong, perhaps offending family and friends. However, it serves a purpose of exploring the reason for incident and reminding everyone that mountains can be deadly. The best source year after year is…
Ethan Pringle and Alex Johnson took first place at the Nor'easter, the final Unified Bouldering Championships event of the season, competing for a crowded audience in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The men's division turned unexpectedly competitive after front-runner Daniel Woods failed to top the first problem, dropping the…
The Nor'easter bouldering competition kicked off today with qualifiers at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire. After an incredible series of snafus including lost rental car keys, a lost phone, and a broken camera, I made it to the comp just in time to…
After spending the morning checking out the Nor'easter sponsor village, slacklining, and trying my hand at artificial ice climbing (more on that later), I got the chance to sit down with climber Daniel Woods. Woods, who crushed all six…
On September 12, Stephen Wampler set out to become the first person with Cerebral Palsy to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan. Joining him were two experts…
The Road to the Nor'easter with Sonnie Trotter & Russ Clune from NE2C…
Outside Magazine offers free photo galleries. See the best in outdoor photography, featuring top pictures of climber Alex Puccio.
For Alex Honnold, 2010 was the summer of speed. The 24-year-old climber, who's famous for his hard free-solo ascents, switched gears this summer, blazing up big walls in Yosemite and Squamish and making the first one-day ascent of the 28-pitch sport route…
The Ronnie Dickson Project: Amputee Climbing from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo. Louder Than 11 recently released this featurette they made about Ronnie Dickson, an amputee climber, Evolv…
It's time again for the Reel Rock Film Tour, the annual climbing film fest put together by Big UP Productions and Sender…
As a Boston-area climber, I really appreciate urban crags, those spunky little cliffs and boulderfields tucked in between housing developments and industrial parks. They may not always be the prettiest or the biggest, but for those of us who don’t have a Hueco in our backyard and can’t take off…
Climber Michelle Smith fell and shattered her right leg while climbing the Grand Teton's Valhalla Traverse on August 26, Ungrounded reports. The 29-year old's climbing partner, Stephen Koch, caught her harrowing helicopter rescue on camera. We don't know what's more nerve wracking: the Traverse…
Heuga Can Do Trailer from Larkin Flynn on Vimeo. This past June I had the chance to hang out in Aspen with Mike Marolt—cpa, dad, high altitude skier, and filmmaker. On that Saturday night in…
Urban climber Daniel Goodwin was arrested today after climbing to the top levels of a 58-story building in San Francisco. After scaling the Millenium Tower using suction cups, the 54-year-old Goodwin put up an American flag. On his…
As It Happens from renan ozturk on Vimeo. The good folks over at Vimeo recently chose As It Happens—a climbing series shot by Renan Ozturk and…
When freeskier Kit DesLauriers dropped in at 29,035 feet on Mount Everest in October, she became the first person to ski off the Seven Summits. Kit, her husband, Rob, and photographer Jimmy Chin—whose exclusive images appear here—also became the first Americans to ski…
John Harlin talks to Anthony Cerretani about his quest to climb the mountain that claimed his father's life and his book about the journey: The Eiger Obsession. Read an excerpt from The Eiger Obsession.
In October 2006, Jackson, Wyoming's Kit DesLauriers became the first woman to ski from the top of Everest—and the first person to carve the Seven Summits. In an Outside exclusive, superguide Dave Hahn went along for the seminal schussing. In this podcast, Hahn talks to Anthony Cerretani about the record-breaking…
Montana-based mountaineer Conrad Anker is no stranger to big mountain challenges. At 44, he's made first ascents in Antarctica and the Himalayas; in May 1999, he discovered the frozen body of British climber George Mallory at 27,000 feet on Everest's North Face. But the question remains: Did Mallory and partner…
Poor Eric Hansen. After heading all the way over to Nepal to take a stab at the Way of the Sherpa, he found out that all those wiry, diminutive porters are actually pretty big badasses, and your average dude probably shouldn't attempt to do their thankless job. But it seems…
You were told that Everest base camp is an insult to the true spirit of mountaineering. But why weren't you told about the excellent bars, the butter people, and that friendly playboy bunny from Poland? Kevin Fedarko spent a month at the world's most exclusive party town for his July…
It seems like dramatic, last-minute sends are coming into vogue forrock climbers. First came Paul Robinson's last-day success last weekin Rocklands. Now, Norwegian climber Magnus Midtbø has managed thefirst repeat of the ultra-hard…
Two hikers on a day trip in Canada's Columbia Ice Fields found the body of an American climber who went missing in 1989, MSNBC reports. The body, found in a melting…
“First Ascent: The Series” Trailer from Sender Films on Vimeo. Sender Films has released First Ascent: The Complete Series, a great new collection of climbing videos starring the likes of Dean Potter, Chris Sharma, and Alex Honnold. The entire…
Above, Payne climbs Castaway. Click here to watch a video of Angie Payne's Automator climb. Last week, Angie Payne pushed women’s bouldering to a new level when she made the first female ascent of The Automator (V13) in Rocky Mountain National…
After almost two months of work, climber Paul Robinson has managed to make the second ascent of Monkey Wedding (V15), an until-now unrepeated problem established by Swiss boulderer Fred Nicole in South Africa's Rocklands. According to 27Crags.com, Robinson called Monkey Wedding…
While the rest of America's top boulderers were battling it out at this month's Unified Bouldering Championships in Salt Lake City, Paul Robinson was out in the sand. Robinson, who this March put up the US' second proposed V16, has…
Courtesy of Flickr It is the mountaineering mystery: what happened to George Mallory and Andrew Irvine when they disappeared attempting to summit Mount Everest? A group of scientists from the University of Toronto claim that the pair were lost in a “perfect storm”…
Enzo Oddo, 15, has repeated ChrisSharma's legendary sport route Realization at Ceuse, France, Kairn.com reports. Oddo, of Nice, workedon the route for months, falling several times on the last moves. InJuly, several holds broke near the start of the route, increasing thedifficulty of the climb. First…
We talk with the adventurer about his memoirs, the climbers he admires, and why he believes harder is better.
On July 31, George Dunn, director of International Mountain Guides, became the first person to summit Mt. Rainier 500 times. He's since bumped that number up one, having just completed his 501st Rainier summit. He began…
Boogie 'til You Poop from Cedar Wright on Vimeo. One of the negatives of having a friend with a new digital SLR that captures great video? Having him record your most embarrassing outdoor adventure moment and sharing it on Vimeo. Warning: This video contains explicit…
Any dermatologist will tell you: Wear sunscreen every day, even if you're just hanging around town. But picking the right one is where it gets complicated. According to a 2009 study by the Environmental Working Group, nearly 30 percent of sunscreens don't have strong enough protection from UVA, the sun's most prevalent, carcinogenic rays. Then there
Courtesy of Wikimedia Three amputees from three different wars recently bagged the summit of Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, NPR reports. Between the three men, there was only one human leg; the rest were prosthetic. “The message we're trying…
Below, Trey Cook's friend, David Schipper, relays information from Cook and the late Fredrik Ericsson's skiing expedition on K2. This morning a memorial service was held for Fredrik at the Gilkey Memorial,just below basecamp. Trey made it back to base camp after a dangerous and challenging descent.Though…
Courtesy of Flickr Brandon Baker has no memory of being struck by lightning last Wednesday, the Star Tribune reports. The 31-year old hiker of Princeton, Minn. was on the summit of 14,259 foot Long's Peak just northwest of Boulder,…
This dispatch was received on the afternoon of August 5. Below, Trey Cook's friend, David Schipper, relays information from Cook and Fredrik Ericsson's skiing expedition on K2. Today at about 2PM Moab UT time and 10 PM French time the remaining 9 climbers at camp 4 plan to begin their…
Chogolisa (Courtesy of David Schipper) Early this morning I was woken by a call from Trey's girlfriend. 'Frippe was killed…' The bottom of my world fell out. Facts and information are impossibly inaccurate at this altitude so I got started making my way through the…
Outside's Sam Moulton reviews Black Diamond's Z-Pole. It's a carbon-fiber trekking pole that weighs in at 260 grams and costs $150. –Erin Beresini…
From August 3, 2010. Below, Trey Cook's friend, David Schipper, relays information from Cook and Fredrik Ericsson's skiing expedition on K2. As I was standing in line to enter the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City UT my phone rang with the familiar 88…. prefix. A few days…
Below, Trey Cook's friend, David Schipper, relays information from Cook and Fredrik Ericsson's skiing expedition on K2. Today's call showed up on my cell phone while I was having coffee before another day at the Outdoor Retailer Show. Trey and I chatted for 7 minutes with excellent clarity and…
Erik Weihenmayer is best known as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 2001. Since then, the 41-year old has climbed the Seven Summits, carried the Olympic torch, graced the…
By Stephen Regenold It's trade-show time again. This week, you'll find me (and thousandsof other “gear junkies”) in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor RetailerSummer Market, a twice-annual exhibition of the latest gear andequipment made for playtime outside. Here's a peek at some of…
With the summit of K2 rising above us so close we feel like we could have touched it, Frippe locked into his skis and dropped into the massive 45-degree face that stretches from The Shoulder at 8000m to below Camp 3 at 7100m. This big, beautiful face…
By Stephen Regenold It is a foreign concept to most climbers in America. But in Europe, a mountaineering discipline called via ferrata — Italian for “iron way” — is an immensely popular way to get off the ground. Developed during World War I as…
By Stephen Regenold Marketing departments rarely dip into metaphysics when promoting a product. But with its new Tree Hugger 32, an eco-minded backpack design, The North Face touts “good karma” as an attribute alongside pack capacity and compression straps. Karmic repercussions or…
Courtesy of RonAlmog on Flickr. Last Wednesday 17 climbers were caught in a lightning storm above 13,000 feet on the Grand Teton, the Jackson Hole Daily reports. All of the climbers were injured in…
1) How’d you get your start?I got a journalism degree from UC-Boulder in 96 and thenmoved to Italy. Before leaving, I called Climbing Magazine and asked if theyneeded any news from Europe.
“Dead man in Camp 2. Bulgarian.” Lakpa’s news was such a surprise, we had a hard time believing it. For one thing, the last three days of warmth and sun without a breath of wind couldn’t have been more perfect. Base camp had been a virtual ghost town, with all…
What did you do on your summer vacation? Well 12 year old Matt Moniz is trying the extraordinary. He and his father, Mike are tagging the highest points in all U.S. 50 States in 50 days. They just completed number 49, Granite Peak in Montana. Next up they leaving for…
Frippe’s voice over radio static: “I’m leaving Camp 2 now. I’ll leave the radio on. Watch for me.” From the avalanche plain at the bottom of the route I looked through the 20x lens of the video camera, straining to pick up any sort of movement, even…
It's 8:00 a.m., -20 F, and the winds are gusting over 60 kph (37 mph). Despite my 8,000-meter down jacket and neoprene facemask, I’m chilled to the bone and my hands are blocks of ice. I need to get moving. Frippe locks into his skis and edges…
One of life’s simple pleasures is undoubtedly snow falling on a tent while you’re dozing inside, enveloped in a cozy, warm, down cocoon. And, oh, how quickly that pleasure turns to pain when the tent is perched at 6,300 meters (20,669 feet) and the snow is being…
Late June 2010, I teamed up with my regular 14er partners, Patrick and Robert to complete some unfinished business. The 14er combination of Castle, 14265', and Conundrum, 14060', stand outside of Aspen at the end of a long mining dirt road. I had completed both in 2009, (see the…
After the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong is scheduled to compete again in this year's Leadville 100, according to Denver's 9news.com. Past champions Dave Wiens and Lance Armstrong will…
We awoke to the sound of driving wind and blowing snow battering the walls of the tent. It wasn’t the kind of storm that made you start scratching out a will on the side of your water bottle, but unzipping the tent door a crack and getting…
A preliminary report has Alex Honnold breaking at least one speed record after solo climbing the Regular Northwest Face on Half Dome and The Nose, according to alpinist.com. For more on the story, check out Honnold Flies Up The…
I’m just about to fall asleep when I hear a sharp crack from the ice directly beneath me. I’m not a huge fan of crevasses, and something like this would normally send me flying from the tent like I was shot from a cannon, but tonight I’m…
Outside in Aspen: Catching Up With Melissa Arnot from Outside Magazine on Vimeo. Climber Melissa Arnot recently became the first American woman to summit Everest three times. (She's bagged Mount Rainier 73 times.) We caught up with her at…
8:30 a.m. The pit, in and of itself, was inconclusive. When pressured with the kind of force that would represent a skier executing a silky smooth jump turn, a layer did, in fact, release, but it wasn’t the kind of sheer that shrinks your cojones and sends you tiptoeing…