What ‘Climbing’ Editors Are Watching and Listening to Right Now

Feel like you can’t keep with all the climbing films, podcasts, and stories dropping out there? Same, same. If you’re looking for recs on what’s rising to the top, we’ve got you. Here’s what the Climbing editors are watching right now.

What’s on Maya’s List

All Grown Up, a Himalayan FA Adventure

A first ascent in the Himalaya is serious business, but this 26-minute film is not (in a good way). Impressively, Christian Black managed to shoot during their FA of Brilliant Blue (AI3 M7+). Black and his partners have a solid sense of humor, even when a clogged stove forces them to descend 300-some feet shy of the summit. Cedar Wright’s Dirtbag Fund supported their project (pssst his fund is open for applications through June 9) and you can read the full expedition recap by Black here.

“Struggling With Tom Randall”

Sandbagged podcast host seeks revenge on his pro climbing partner of the day via egregiously long polar plunge. That’s the basic premise of Ryan Devlin’s new YouTube series, riffing off his podcast The Struggle. He came in hot with a first episode featuring Alex Honnold, but my favorite so far features Randall—one cheeky half of the Wide Boyz. After belaying Devlin with a homemade belay device Randall dubs the “Trad Dad 2000,” he forces him to struggle up the Anal Flare (V1) invert boulder problem. Devlin’s also featured Anna Hazelnutt and Ravioli Biceps, and is dropping new episodes monthly.

Policy Rx with the Rock Doc

It’s a wild time to follow public lands—which is why we’re grateful for our friends at Access Fund, who break down the key takeaways and calls to action for the climbing community. Policy Rx is AF’s series designed to do just that. In the newest episode released this week, AF’s Dr. Erik Murdock chats Oak Flat, Bear Ears, and more public climbing land conundrums with fellow advocate Tommy Caldwell.

Five Dot Fun

If you want a quick, feel-good pick me up, this short from filmmaker Eric Bates is for you. It’s all about Chad of the Shawangunks, who doesn’t climb hard—just for fun. He’s also a community cornerstone who likes to open up his couch and home to roving climbers passing through the Gunks. And he’s taken it upon himself to swap out many a sketchy anchor. “I love a rap station that is inspiring,” he gushes. Basically, let’s all try to be more like Chad.

What’s on Sam’s List

Road to Century Crack

For any offwidth climber who dreams of attempting the hardest natural wide crack in the U.S., watching this 2023 Takemi Suzuki documentary will feel like opening a bow-wrapped gift on Christmas Day. In just 31 minutes, the film offers a close-up examination of Japanese climber Yuya Kitahira’s crack training and on-route attempts, with crystal-clear footage that details the route beta in far more depth than the original Wide Boyz (2012) film.

Last year, I met Kitahira on the side of another Moab offwidth roof, Flavor Blasted (5.13-), and was genuinely humbled by his politeness, childlike enthusiasm, and near-religious dedication to Century. The climbing scenes had me and my friends constantly pausing and rewinding the film to point and shout—perhaps delusionally—about how we could possibly get knee locks in that flare right there. But the documentary’s real triumph is how strongly it draws the viewer’s emotional investment to Kirahira’s multi-year quest. I knew the ending, but still found myself holding a tight breath during his final redpoint attempt–-and wishing I could give him a pep talk afterwards.

“Without You”

The first half of this Dirtbag Diaries: The Shorts podcast episode features American climber Alison Kaplan’s first-person story of leaving her long-term relationship, driving alone to Indian Creek, and setting up a new life of crack climbing and desert camping. It’s a delightfully rich story, familiar in theme but utterly restrained from clichés. Without apologizing for her vulnerability, as one might do in conversation, Kaplan narrates her tale of deleting reminders of her ex and walking up to strangers’ campfires with a steady candor, and it takes only a subtle log-popping sound or acoustic guitar strum to wrap the listener in her life.

As I listened, I felt my own, stained-glass memories of moving into my car in 2022 and driving off to the Utah desert reanimate and sharpen. Someday, I hope a TV show can capture what it’s like to live in a campground with dirtbag climbers—and settle into that lost, fireside contentment—even half as well as Kaplan does here.

“The Business of a Professional Mountain Athlete”

Until Adrian Ballinger sat down on this episode of The Duffel Shuffle Podcast and explained how he built up his sponsorships from nothing, I’d always felt that chasing a professional climbing career was like entering a pitch-dark room and feeling around for exits. Unlike, for example, the medical field, there was no flow chart or list of requirements, no guide for certain success—especially for people who started climbing as adults and missed out on the comp scene.

In this episode, Ballinger, an IMFGA guide and professional mountain climber, is refreshingly open about how he secured brand support: intentionally. In a culture that tends to scold self-promoters, it’s refreshing to hear about how a young Ballinger organized his own speaking events, handed out pamphlets at trade shows about why he’d be a great pro athlete, and negotiated his contracts to include only the best gear from each company.

I particularly enjoyed his interpretation of the difference between an influencer and an athlete, including how each approaches sponsorship (hint: influencers try to work with every brand; athletes prefer to stay loyal to just a few). All climbers who aspire to commercial support, plus those who already have it, will benefit from—or at least find inspiring—Ballinger’s one-hour breakdown of how he got exactly where he wanted to be.

What’s on Anthony’s List

Flashed

How did I watch that for free? was the question top of mind after watching Flashed, a new film from Black Diamond about Babsi Zangerl’s historic flash of Free Rider (5.13a; 3,000ft) on El Capitan. Director Eric Bissel pulls out all the stops regarding camerawork, color, and sound during the 30-minute doc, while also capturing the essence of what makes Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher one of the most powerful climbing partnerships of all time. Nearing the 25-minute mark,  I realized I was watching someone live out the most powerful experience of their life—and I caught myself wishing for Flashed not to end.

In Sequence: Katie Lamb and the Craft of Hard Bouldering

I was thrilled to learn on Wednesday that Katie Lamb made the third ascent of The Dark Side (V16) in Yosemite Valley. It is no doubt the hardest block in the Valley, but also the hardest Lamb has climbed in her illustrious career. V16 is a sticky grade for Lamb. She was considered the first female to climb it via Box Therapy last year, but then siblings Brooke and Shawn Raboutou repeated it and called it V15. With this news of Dark Side—which has been called V16 by both Carlo Traversi and Aidan Roberts—I revisited Lamb’s excellent profile In Sequence, where she talks about her life as an athlete, seamstress, and data scientist. It’s a beautiful reminder that grades are merely one part of the climbing experience—and probably the least meaningful.