Culture

As an author, translator, scriptwriter, researcher, and editor, Audrey Salkeld made an immense contribution to adventure literature and filmmaking.

Dan Boozan has a paralyzed arm, one functional lung, and a traumatic brain injury. Here he chats about climbing, invisible disabilities, the importance of community, and why he takes issue with being called an “inspiration.”

Watching next-level sends occur in real-time is enthralling content. I do hope we see more of it from professional climbers. But there are some potential drawbacks.

How Royal Robbins’s first ascent of the 'Regular Northwest Face' of Half Dome transformed the history of American climbing—and its culture.

Not sending was a fate worse than death. Naturally, we were willing to cross the line.

Each January we post a farewell tribute to those members of our community lost in the year just past. Some of the people you may have heard of, some not. All are part of our community and contributed to climbing.

This is the moment my life has been working towards, the last few months of it anyway, and the circumstances are coalescing around something transcendent.

Who they were, what drove them, and the deeper questions that came later.

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

It was what came afterward…

"We pushed on, as if floating in slow motion through a Hieronymus Bosch painting, found by tilting life on edge for 1,200 feet and emptying its pockets."

Sometimes the only way to become a better athlete is to step away—and to never look back. 

Plus a few modern variations of the word...

Strangely, it was Gus and Alvino, a couple of so-called "annoying" and "ugly" climbers, who got them back.

Jerry Gallwas made history when he climbed the Northwest Face of Half Dome with Royal Robbins and Mike Sherrick in 1957. Then the army, raising a family, and a 150-foot fall changed his priorities.

Shmidt, a devoted climber, husband, and teacher, passed away after a fall on San Diego’s El Cajon Mountain in July.

We grouped up in various vehicles and drove straight from Oklahoma to Yosemite, pulled there by the unseeable promise of a salvation only the rock can lay on you. 

A gang of Camp 4’s hungriest showed up for an orthodox affair fielded by the Arise and Shine Pentecostal Church out of Modesto, California. We’d never seen so much grub...

Liza Mills has climbed 25 Grade V (or harder) walls, had epics with Lynn Hill, sailed across the world in a 35-foot sailboat, taught art in a city dubbed its state’s “murder capital,” and, at 48, still climbs 5.13. And she has big plans ahead.

In 1985, Russ Clune, then one of America's leading rock climbers, found himself in South Korea, where the free climbing revolution had yet to take hold. He went on a two-week kick of nonstop new routing.

In the thirty-fourth year of my life, I walked into a ring of oak trees in the foothills west of Carbondale, Colorado, to kill myself.

"Call it what you will—adrenaline, salvation, therapy—climbing represented a form of gravity-defying strength that I lacked but craved."

Silence hung in the evening. I was going to get pulverized. Unless we could maybe decide this whole thing never happened. The hammering started again, and cursing filled the air ...

With bolting hardware so inexpensive, why did we feel the need to steal from each other? The deeds came back to bite us.

Climbers possess a handful of traits that are potentially attractive to your business

After watching ‘Free Solo,’ the social worker knew he wanted to try climbing. Only his own doubts stood in his way.

Prolific Alaskan pioneer David Roberts made a dangerous first ascent on Denali, but after the death of a friend he questioned whether alpinism was worth the risk. 50 years later he found his answer.

What’s a mentor? The author’s quest for self examination puts a disciple in harm’s way, not that it's his fault, it's the way he was brought up.

"I survived the sort of trauma that utterly breaks people, and climbing by itself isn’t a silver bullet for recovery."

Climbing has a knack for teaching hard-learned lessons—especially the ones I didn’t want to learn.

A new film follows two climbers on their quest to normalize the partnerships between able-bodied and adaptive climbers and raise awareness about accessibility barriers

The route is all but in the bag, just as soon as everything starts going my way.

"After those first few days, I noticed that he hadn’t used the bathroom—he’d been too afraid to remove his harness leg loops. On day four..."

A Valley first timer gets a rude awakening on the particular brand of greasy holdless granite that eats the unaccustomed for lunch.

"It wasn’t until now, years later, that I’ve really come to realize what Steph realized all that time. Accidents don’t end during the ambulance ride, or even with apology publications years after the fact."

I think about that fall nearly every day, and wonder if it had had to happen that way. The experience was one of many that have since made me reflect on the “things” going on around us, unseen and unknown.

Put both arms behind your head, and grab a double gaston. It’s not great, but it’s OK. Hang off that and wrap your right leg around the left side of your body. Way further than that.

When Ken Murphy soloed up an overhanging route to help a climber in a dire situation, he said, climbing “never felt so easy.”

For years this was the Mountain Project profile I used until, in late spring 2023, I realized I'd had enough. I killed off Pinklebear coldly and without remorse.

The story of the deadly avalanche in October 2022 on India’s Draupadi Ka Danda II.

After his brother was paralyzed from the waist down, the climber was determined to make big adventures accessible for everyone.

"When I see pads crushing bushes, small trees, and flowers, I wonder if it wouldn’t be more honest just to toprope?"

A Gen Z staffer meets an old-school climber, and the dreaded belay test ensues…  

"The Roach was nonplussed about snagging the route. He didn’t apologize, nor did he brag, and he obviously had designs on other new lines. We considered chopping the bolts."

Mugs Stump spearheaded a fast-and-light approach to alpinism during the 1970s and 1980s when siege-style expeditions were still the norm. His style was a form of artistic expression: He sought purity through simplicity.

In August 2007, Colorado alpinists Micah Dash and Jonny Copp made an alpine-style first ascent of the Colorado Route (1,000m, VI 5.11 M6 Cl) on the east face of the Shafat Fortress (19,500 feet) in Kashmir, India. As Dash's hilarious account testifies, some surprising things went wrong.

Wright recounts that time he and Alex Honnold were sandbagged

The 20-year-old Canadian, a former competitive swimmer, did his first V15 last winter. He’s also at the heart of a vibrant young bouldering scene in Squamish.

Probably not. But they're some of them.

A rare glimpse of the hardware carried by John Salathé, Royal Robbins, Warren Harding and William "Dolt "Feurer to pioneer Yosemite's granite crucibles.

Austin Howell soloed harder and more often than almost anyone else in the country, documenting his exploits on Instagram and a podcast. But behind the scenes his mental health was faltering.

Rest days back then were endless and boring and horrible, but we learned to face our non-climbing purgatory with courage

It’s a quick, dashed-off bit of cheerleading, almost a courtesy, extended to friends, acquaintances, and random climbers at the gym and crags alike. But does it really help the climber? And why do we do it?

The author was mean to his body in the worst ways. But is he really sorry?

Yosemite in the early 1980s was nearly carefree living, but with an undercurrent that could pull you under, suffocate you from not knowing what you were doing or where you were headed.

Climbing was no longer about having fun—it was about fulfilling potential. I was getting stronger, but my ability to connect to anything other than my own small world had withered.

After saving a fallen cyclist, a lifer reflects on his own goals, illogical fears, and life's finite opportunities.

"Twelve years ago, I’d tell my mother climbing was no more dangerous than driving. That was before I’d been to a half-dozen climber funerals in the same picnic area in Eldorado Canyon."

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

Acclaimed author Jeff Jackson gets called to help find Amanda Eller, who was missing for weeks. What he finds reveals true nature in all its forms.

Gotta collect 'em all.

The transgender athlete found his strength in an unlikely place: on the reality competition show ‘The Climb.’

Jesse Dufton recently became the first blind person to FA a multi-pitch. But he’s indifferent to “firsts.”

Most know him for his historic big wall ascents in Yosemite. But in fact, his favorite pastime was always bouldering. Here, he reflects on the discipline's evolution.

Queerness is not a deficit that I was unfortunate to be born with, it’s an asset that both sets me apart from the crowd and connects me to so many others. By embracing myself as both a gay man and an athlete I have the ability to assure young people, who may be feeling the apprehension that I did, that gay people are not only all around us, but we don’t have to hide who we are to get respect.

From high-altitude ATMs to walking up Kilimanjaro backward, here are some of the weirdest alpine records.

How to reach past your shortcomings.

I’d like to propose the following DIY tools for staying fit. By embracing the current hipster ethos of artisanal, hand-built, small-batch wares, we can still stay fit easily and with very little cash outlay.

A meditation on the cracks that divide the walls, yet draw us—wiser, more grown, hopeful—together.

I always knew I wanted to climb, but it feels different for my kids, at least so far.

Nick Bullock and Greg Boswell are attacked by a grizzly bear on Mount Wilson in the Canadian Rockies.

It was a single 2,000-foot corner. Walk-off mandatory. We spent the night in no-man’s land, unable to move up or down.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month we present 12 feature stories about climbers struggling with depression, alcoholism, disordered eating, grief, loneliness, and more.

I took the sweat, blood, and pain, wrapped it up in a ball, and gave it a party theme. All the hard work now glimmered and shined.

Every climber should at least once, put up a new route, get stranded on a climb, go ice climbing ... the bucket list goes on.

These stunts are a good way to pass the time while nominally using some of our climbing skills. But no one ever confused these things with actual climbing—at least, not until recently.

Climbing meme pages are becoming extremely popular, with high engagement and growing follower counts.

Competitions, even the ones that go horribly, can teach you more about climbing than outdoor projects ever could. (From 2021)

He was going to go climbing, but disaster got in the way.

Understand danger to stay out of out of harm’s way