Gear You Ought to Know: Misty Mountain’s Cadillac Harness
I need a new harness. What should I get? When you can finally cough up enough cash to replace your old, worn-to-shreds harness, it can be difficult to narrow down your choices amidst the dozens of options on the market. In my experience, people tend...
The Art of Solo with Matt Bush
For this week's Flick Pick, we're featuring Art of Solo, which showcases the stunning footage of Matt Bush free soloing Casualties of War (6c+/5.11b) on Paarl Mountain in South Africa. Of the route, Matt says, I’ve soloed overhanging routes at 8a+/5.13d repeatedly but...
Climbing Destination Guide: El Chorro, Spain
A post shared by Vladimir R. Zarzuri Arenas (@decksdark_) on May 22, 2017 at 1:49am PDT El Chorro is a tiny Spanish pueblo in southern Spain, and is exactly as quaint as it sounds. A gigantic band of limestone cliff looms above the town and boasts high-quality routes...
Uncut Send Footage of Ethan Pringle on Jumbo Love (5.15b)
On May 17, 2015, Ethan Pringle achieved the second ascent of America's hardest sport climb: Jumbo Love (5.15b) at Clark Mountain in California. It's the most inspiring climb I've seen. It has everything I seek in a sport-climbing project and then some—it's an obvious...
Climber Confessional: Say “On Belay” Like You Mean It
It was a hot summer day, and I was on pitch two of my first major multi-pitch: Cosmic Lazers Space Dust, nine pitches of bolted moderate quartzite in Utah’s oft-overlooked Rock Canyon. People call it choss, and they’re not entirely wrong, but it’s...
Train by Doing — Madaleine Sorkin’s Training Approach
I don't know what the hell you mean by training, Says Madaleine Sorkin, a professional climber who prefers to put her hours in on real rock instead of in the gym. While she does admit to training indoors from time to time, Madaleine primarily employs a train by...
Will You Be My Trad Guru?: The Importance of Apprenticing in the Gym Climbing Era
“Wait, so you’re saying you trust the auto-belay more?” “Yeah, I mean it just seems safer ... you don’t have to rely on someone else, you know?” “Like safer than a real, human, person belaying you?” “Oh yeah, for sure.” While this interaction may seem like a poorly...
British Vs American Climbing
The following content was originally published on VDiff Climbing, which provides simple illustrations for safe climbing techniques. VDiff owners and founders, Neil & Maria, have climbed over 25 big walls, including solo and first ascents, enough alpine summits to...
De-stigmatizing (Some) Supplements for Enhancing Climbing Performance
The world of high-performance athletes in the twenty-first century has seen a remarkable uptick in nutritional supplement usage. In any gym across the country, you can find meaty guys in tank tops guzzling down half their annual income in increasingly complex powders,...
A Look Inside the Gear Sheds of Tommy Caldwell & Cedar Wright
Tommy Caldwell and Cedar Wright are two of the most recognizable climbing adventurers around, and as you might imagine, they've accumulated quite a bit of gear and dirtbagging knowledge over the years. In this feature with Outside, they open the doors to their gear...
How to Test Your Muscle Strength and Monitor Recovery for Rock Climbing
I work with a lot of climbers internationally and many of them want to know how to quantify their muscle strength to determine muscle imbalances. I used to tell them that they had to fly to Los Angeles to see me in the clinic so that I can use my expensive equipment...
Rooftown — Matt Gentile on the Hidden Highballs of Flagstaff, AZ
This week's Friday Flick Pick dives into the hidden river canyon caves and highball limestone roofs discovered in the badlands of Flagstaff, Arizona by climber, Matt Gentile. With just over 20-minutes of incredibly shot footage, this film showcases some of the most...
Best Beginner Climbing Helmet: A Review of the Black Diamond Half Dome
One of the first bits of kit a newbie trad climber will buy is a lid. Gotta protect the melon. As with most climbing gear, it’s very easy to spend a lot of money on a helmet. On the market, you can find an overwhelming amount of designs, materials, colors and fancy...
Joe Kinder’s First Ascent of Bone Tomahawk (5.14d/5.15a)
With somewhere around 200 5.14 redpoints under his belt, gifted sport climber, Joe Kinder, has a solid idea of what hard climbing and immense dedication feel like. And he doesn't just send others' lines, he also has significant experience in establishing exceptionally...
A Look at Lattice Training — Endurance, Power, Strength, and More
Lattice Training, led by accomplished UK climbers and coaches, Tom Randall and Ollie Tor, offers clients with personalized training programs to help climbers reach their specific goals. In a recent collaboration with EpicTV, Tom and Ollie offered their expertise in...
Above the Fray — Beth Rodden on Climbing, Vulnerability, and Motherhood
In this week's Friday Flick Pick, we feature a profile on prolific veteran climber, Beth Rodden, where she shares insight into how climbing has evolved throughout her life, the struggles she faced in coping with her kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan, and lessons learned in...
How to Use Alpine Draws: Use and Efficiency for Rock Climbing
Alpine draws: the very name conjures images of grizzled, bearded men atop a miserable bivy ledge in the Alaska Range or Patagonia. Contrary to the name though, alpine draws, occasionally referred to as “long draws” are an essential part of any rack and understanding...
Of Choss and Lions — Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright in Kenya
Join Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright in their shenanigan-filled winter expedition to Kenya, where they encounter wild animals, chossy first ascents, and a severe bout of elevation sickness on Mt. Kenya—one of Africa's highest peaks. It's entertaining, to say the least....
Climbing Destination Guide: Thakhek, Laos
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCWui80BAN8/ Thakhek is the premier climbing destination of Laos and one of the best in all of Southeast Asia. Similar in style to the heavily featured limestone climbing found in Tonsai, Thailand, you'll generally score lower temperatures...
Essay: How To Climb When You’re Not Alex Honnold
The first time I saw an image of someone climbing they weren’t rising into the vertical world but being lowered on rappel. That image hit me right away. It presented the same semblance of touching the void and hanging in the vastness of space that I experienced when...
Within Reach — Featuring Shelma Jun, Lynn Hill, and Cedar Wright
Sexism, feminism, diversity, and accessibility ... these are among the many complex topics that have emerged within the climbing community (and the outdoor community at large) in the past several years. And while many of these challenging discussions have led to...
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