Climbers are a notoriously picky bunch to shop for, so keep it simple this holiday season. The editors at Climbing have been testing non-stop in 2024, and we’ve highlighted the best new gear that your hard-earned money can buy. We’ve field tested everything on the list below—from cushy socks and comfortable hardshells to innovative belay devices and ropes—and can confidently say these will earn the appreciation of the climber in your life.

Best Gifts Under $75

Camp Nano 22 Rack Pack ($40)

The Nano 22 is billed as the lightest “fully functional” carabiner in the world, and we wholeheartedly agree. There are certainly lighter carabiners out there—but they are typically much smaller and therefore a nightmare to handle when pumped or while wearing gloves. The Nano 22, meanwhile, has a surprisingly deep basket for its featherlight weight (22 grams), enabling us to clip them in a hurry when pumping out on long multi-pitches. These carabiners live on our alpine draws and cam slings when we’re shaving grams.

Arc’teryx Merino Wool Grotto Mid Sock ($30)

All but the least-kempt climbers in your life wear socks and, unlike spoiled children, will be thrilled to receive a fresh set. The Merino Wool Grotto Mid is among our favorites from Arc’teryx: its soft and comfortable Merino wool is blended with nylon for added durability over years of use, and it’s lightly cushioned for long approaches. Whether you’re hiking to the crag, cold-weather rock climbing, or powering up an ice pillar, the Grotto Mid provides a snug, slip-free fit.

Gifts Under $150

Edelrid Pinch ($120 USD/$170 CAD at the link below)

Edelrid’s new assisted-braking belay device, the Pinch, made waves earlier this year with its ability to attach directly to the belay loop—no carabiner required. (To open the Pinch, you must press a small, tilting button while the device is simultaneously rotated 90 degrees from your body.) Climbing testers were initially skeptical of the Pinch’s ability to stay locked while belaying, but after four months of steady testing, we are now confidently catching airy whippers and belaying on big walls without the added weight or clutter of an extra locker. The Pinch feeds rope just as smoothly as other popular assisted-braking devices, and offers a smoother lower and rappel thanks to a beefy handle. An anti-panic feature—which locks the Pinch if lowering too quickly—can be disarmed if preferred.

Petzl Sirocco ($130)

The beloved Sirocco helmet is redesigned for 2024 and—somehow—is even better than before. Petzl has swapped its magnetic chin buckle for a plastic one (greater security), a bulbous forehead for a slimmed down silhouette (greater field of vision), and a better ventilation layout to encourage airflow while limiting the sand and dirt and ice that inevitably falls into big forehead vents while climbing adventurous terrain. Despite these extra features the Sirocco retains its 160-gram weight in S/M, making it our favorite ultralight helmet on the market.

Black Diamond Ultralight Ice Screw ($85-$90)

With instant bite, smooth boring, and easy-action handles, there is no need to run it out while climbing with BD’s Ultralight Ice Screws. The aggressive geometry on the steel teeth gives it a bulldog bite when placed on vertical ice, and the aluminum shaft—an ample 2cm in diameter—let us re-use most screw-holes on popular climbs that resembled Swiss cheese. Add in a snappy, fold-out plastic handle, and these things practically spin themselves in. BD has shaved 45 percent off the weight by pairing aluminum and steel—encouraging us to bring a couple more up that crux pitch.

Petzl Swift RL Headlamp ($140)

The Swift RL is a brilliant headlamp for those needing long-lasting support on their nocturnal adventures. Whether you’re sessioning crispy crimps by moonlight, accepting benightment on Epinephrine, or foregoing bivy gear in Patagonia, the Swift RL’s 1100 lumens and max burn time of 100 hours will surely outlast whatever sufferfest you’ve imposed on yourself. The rechargeable Swift RL is efficient in more ways than one: its 100 grams comes with a “Reactive Lighting” sensor that examines the ambient light and adjusts its brightness accordingly.

Gifts Under $300

Scarpa Arpia V ($169)

Designed for intermediate climbers, the Arpia V is both moderately downturned and asymmetrical, and gets especially high marks in both comfort and edging performance. It’s a supportive shoe, thanks to its full-length midsole and outsole, and should be attractive to heavier climbers who need stiff, supportive shoes while standing on small edges. That said, the Arpia V still has enough shape and toe-box sensitivity (thanks to the asymmetry and downturn) to let you curl into incut edges and feel small deviations underfoot. All in all, the Arpia V is an excellent shoe for intermediate climbers looking for something that will perform equally well on face climbs in the gym or outside.

Mammut 9.5mm Alpine Core Protect Rope ($290 in 60m)

Climbing-rope security has come a long way since the days of stiff hemp cords, and Mammut has taken their ropes to a new level with the Alpine Core Protect: a 9.5mm single rope that has a second sheathe woven with burly Aramid fibers. This rope handles and catches falls just as smoothly and softly as any of Mammut’s other 9.5mm ropes, but in the event of a dangerous fall over a sharp rock edge—as often found in mountainous environments—this Aramid-infused sheath will drastically increase its cut-resistance. We’ve spent five months beating the crap out of this rope—including on Minotaur Direct (5.11+; 500m) in the Bugaboos, Mt. MacDonald’s Northwest Ridge (5.8; 900m), and Buddha Nature Direct (WI 5; 120m)—and have noticed zero premature wear. The Alpine Core Protect also comes in 8.0mm half ropes, if wandery routes are your thing.

Patagonia M10 Storm Pants ($279)

The new M10 Storm Pants is this year’s best climbing-apparel innovation. Ice climbers, alpinists, and backcountry rock climbers who need the weather-proof security of hardshell pants have historically had to sacrifice a significant amount of comfort and mobility, since run-of-the-mill hardshell pants stem and lunge about as well as a pair of suit trousers. Such a sacrifice is no longer necessary thanks to the M10, which fuses the mobility-first design of jujitsu pants with various , who has tested prototypes since 2019.

The M10 pants have a generously gusseted crotch—yes, you can do the splits in them—an elastic waistband and cuffs, a thigh pocket, a diagonal zipped fly, and little else. Coming it at just 240 grams in medium, the M10s are surely the lightest fully-waterproof pants we’ve ever worn, and have served us well while battling up ice pillars running with water and racing electrical storms in the rugged Purcell Mountains. Bonus: the M10 series also includes a . We’ve been digging the latter for its unrestricted arm mobility and low-key profile while tucked into a harness.

La Sportiva Mandala ($209)

La Sportiva’s No Edge technology is about as close to the term “divisive” as climbing technology gets: While the majority of climbing shoes have a defined, 90-degree intersection where the sole and rand meet in front of your toes, the shoes in the No Edge line have a rounded front, which La Sportiva achieved by wrapping the sole up around the toe so that it becomes toe-scumming patch on the top of the shoe. This design sacrifices some precision-edging performance, but it maximizes smedging—the ability to smear over edges and into divots—and allows you to extend on the tip of your toe like a ballerina.

With the new Mandala, the No Edge tech is paired with its most supportive shoe yet, making it an attractive choice for boulderers and sport climbers alike. Tester Matt Samet wore his extensively on a 15-degree overhanging 5.14 project in the Flatirons, while editor Anthony Walsh trusted them while onsighting 30-meter 5.11 and 5.12 limestone routes around Canmore. As Walsh put it: “I wouldn’t reach for these shoes for razor-thin edging (hello, !) or Font-style sloper problems (the !), but for everything else, they are in rotation. It’s what the La Sportiva Genius should have been.”

Gifts $300+

Coros Apex 2 Pro Watch ($449)

The Coros Apex 2 Pro is a GPS sports watch that gives mountain athletes of all kinds the ability to accurately track their training and performances. It features a touch screen made of sapphire glass and three low-profile buttons. It’s got all the bells and whistles, including geo-location data from five satellites systems, a topographic map, heart rate data, a barometric altimeter, a 3D compass, a thermometer, an oximeter, and music storage—plus specific activity tracking including the “Indoor Climbing” mode. The Coros Apex 2 Pro takes all the and brings it to a new level with an increased battery life (now 21 days with stress monitoring, and 66 hours with full GPS tracking) and a slightly larger watch face. Climbers who struggle with either over- or under-doing it in the gym will benefit from the insight and accountability this watch can offer.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT BY MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT
Mountain Equipment Oreus Jacket ($449.95)

Endorsed by leading alpinists, the Oreus jacket from Mountain Equipment delivers superior warmth, functionality, and durability in challenging environments. This versatile jacket is crafted with innovative Aetherm Precision Insulation for down-like performance with the durability and weather resistance of synthetic fill. Between warmth, quick-drying performance, low weight, and pack size, it’s perfect for alpine climbing, ski touring, hill-walking and more as an outer layer, warm mid-layer, or lightweight belay jacket.

Black Diamond Hydra Ice Tool ($310)

Ice climbing tools have come so far since the medieval days of straight-shafted instruments that it can be difficult to wade through all the modern-day options. Most ice tools have a balanced swing weight, comfortable grip, and aggressively shaped shaft to minimize pump and bruised knuckles. So where does a would-be consumer go from there? We’d point them toward Black Diamond’s all-new Hydra, which is quickly becoming our favorite tool of all time.

One of our favorite things about the Hydra is how customizable you can make it depending on your objective. Its innovative head weights are the real headline here: Black Diamond sank the weights into the head itself, rather than bolting them onto the pick, simultaneously providing a more balanced swing weight and a lower profile. Thanks to this recessed head, ice climbers can opt for simple 5-gram “spacers” if they’re climbing warm, wet ice and don’t need the extra heft. Or, if swinging into bullet-hard ice in Canada, as we did on the north-facing Stanley Headwall last winter, drop in two 40-gram headweights to let the Hydras do the work. We’ve also been going hybrid—one light spacer, one heavy weight—to achieve that Goldilocks-swing at medium altitudes.

Head weights aside, the Hydra comes with a suit of tools that would make a mechanic jealous, including a long “Alpine” spike for snow plunging, a “Micro” spike, a full-size alpine hammer, micro hammer, adze, and handle spacers. And don’t get us started on their razor-sharp picks


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Basics

dehydrated meals are flavorful, lightweight, and nourishing, with easy-to-pronounce ingredients. All of their meals are gluten-free and are primarily vegan and vegetarian. The meals have a maximum five-year lifespan, are packaged in a durable plastic bag, and require boiling water to prepare.

Pros

No preservatives // Real, recognizable ingredients // Durable packaging // Dehydrating food is less energy intensive than freeze-drying // Delicious

Packaging is not recyclable // Relatively short shelf life—5 years compared to ~25 for freeze-dried foods // Slower to rehydrate and slightly heavier than freeze-dried foods

Our Thoughts

Good To-Go is a worthy option for overnight climbers and campers who want to eat real food with a finite lifespan. The company’s celebrated chefs are on display at each meal, with offerings ranging from spicy Korean bibimbap to hearty Mexican quinoa bowls, providing 13 different entrĂ©es that accommodate a range of ethnicities, taste preferences, and dietary restrictions.

When I first began reading up on “backpacking meals,” as a minimum-wage-earning high-school graduate, my overnight alpine food was little different from what I ate at home: pre-seasoned rice, macaroni and cheese, and baked beans. The cheap food fit my cheap lifestyle, my impatience for cooking, and, most importantly, my utter indifference to nutrition. This “diet”—if such a term can be used here—served me well for the first several years of my alpine-climbing life: I’d slam as much processed food as my budget would allow, climb a long 5.7-or-so ridge, and drink Alberta Premium back at the car.Ìę

As time went on, however, I began to want more output from my body. And my body, in turn, wanted more from me. It wanted vegetables. And protein. And a lighter backpack that didn’t hold a glass jar of tomato sauce and tin cans of baked beans. (There was a summer when I subsisted almost entirely on expired military rations, lightening my pack and saving money, but my digestive system is still recovering from that one.)

These days, having learned the importance of nutrition and recovery, I’ve been reaching for Good To-Go’s meals for overnight trips where I need lightweight, nutritious food that I look forward to eating. Sorry, Spam, we were bound to grow apart.

Good To-Go is headed up by Jennifer Scism, a professional chef of 20-plus years, graduate of Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute, and, in 2005, winner of the TV Food Network’sÌęIron ChefÌęprogram. Scism and I exist at opposite ends of the culinary spectrum (or did at one time) but I can wholly appreciate the effort her team puts into these dehydrated meals. Each of the five meals I ate—bibimbap, mushroom risotto, quinoa bowl, oatmeal, and granola—were thoughtfully flavored, nutrient dense, and preservative free. (The most difficult-to-pronounce ingredient was quinoa!)Ìę

Good To-Go’s meals are handmade in small batches in Kittery, Maine, where they’ve opted to dehydrate their meals instead of freeze drying them like most big-name brands (Backpacker’s Pantry, Alpine Aire, Mountain House, etc.). The main benefit of this: dehydrating food requires less energy than freeze drying it, making for a lower carbon impact. The main counterpoint to this debate is that dehydrating food sucks out its nutrients—and it’s a worthy concern, too. However, Good To-Go brings all of their meals to 165 ° F for several carefully measured seconds, to ensure shelf stability, without reducing nutritional value.

Taste

Before Good To-Go, I’ve never once bought freeze-dried or dehydrated food for the flavor. I’ve lived the good life, remember? Expired ravioli in an “impact-proof” military baggie, electrolyte drinks lovingly named “orange beverage,” the rare on-brand Pop-Tart.
 But now? I am actually excited to tuck in for dinner. The mushroom risotto, well-balanced with basil, walnuts, and white wine, was a satisfying finish to a full day of steep quartzite sport climbing. The next day began with a hearty oatmeal (standout flavors included Zante currants, pumpkin seeds, banana flakes, and cinnamon) and ended with the bibimbap: a spicy yet sweet mixed rice dish with sesame, Gochugaru (a Korean red chile pepper), shiitake mushrooms, and brown sugar. Indeed, I went to sleep that night a happy camper.

Final Thoughts

When shopping for your next lightweight backcountry meal, there are a few drawbacks to dehydrated foods to keep in mind—namely, they are slightly slower to rehydrate than freeze-dried meals. (The average entrĂ©e took about 20 minutes to fully cook, compared to the 10–15 minutes of several freeze-dried brands.) While cooking Good To-Go, I found that the water had to be boiling before dumping it into the pouch—not a moment sooner—for that cooking time to ring true.

Dehydrated foods also have a shorter shelf life than freeze-dried options—some freeze-dried brands boast a 25-year lifespan!—while Good To-Go maxes out at five. This may not be important for most climbers (just go shopping every five years?) and Good To-Go believes this to be a plus. As their website says, “We do not use preservatives in our meals. We believe firmly that real food cannot and should not endure ‘til the end of time!” I tend to agree.

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French climber recently completed what is believed to be the hardest sport climbing route in the United States, sending SuprĂȘme Jumbo LoveÌęat Clark Mountain, California on November 1. The 230-foot route has a , and it is a direct start to (5.15b), which of after just ten days of effort, on October 19.Ìę

SuprĂȘme Jumbo Love was first attempted by Chris Sharma (the first climber to ascend Jumbo Love) in 2010. The route starts on roughly 65 feet of 5.14d before linking into the original line—just in time for the crux of Jumbo Love.

In a press release, Bouin said climbing Jumbo Love had been a goal of his since he began climbing at 12 years old: “Finishing this trip by sending the direct start couldn’t be more perfect,” he said.

Bouin described SuprĂȘme Jumbo Love as a “really long” effort: the initial 5.13a/b pitch of Jumbo Love is replaced with a 5.14d; then comes the crux of Jumbo, demanding precise and bouldery pocket pulling; then the meat of Jumbo, “which is really physical and pumpy”; and, finally, 65 feet of inobvious, technical slab that Bouin had fallen on twice before. “The last slab is not that hard, but if you are done, and you don’t know [the beta] quite well
 you can easily fall there,” he said.

The first time Bouin made it through the direct start and into Jumbo Love it was his third try of the day. He said he had no chance of firing the rest of such a monstrous route. But this link was a crucial one, and provided him with redpoint insight: to have enough energy to facilitate any chance of doing the entire line, he would have to send the direct start and the crux of Jumbo Love on his first try of the day.

“Sometimes everything just comes together: shape, conditions, vibes, friends, cameraman, luck,” Bouin said. “I know it doesn’t happen that often, and I am very grateful to live such big moments. More to come about the history of this route, the grade reflection, and our adventures here. But at the moment, let’s enjoy the suprĂȘme love.”

History of Jumbo Love

First bolted as a three-pitch climb by Randy Leavitt in the mid 1990s, Jumbo Love was left largely untried until the mid 2000s when Chris Sharma first envisioned doing the route in a single gigantic pitch (it’s 250 feet long, much of it wildly overhanging). Throughout 2007, Sharma and Ethan Pringle vied (unsuccessfully) for the first ascent. The next year, Pringle was sidelined by a series of injuries, but Sharma returned, living below the cliff for several weeks. When he finally made the first ascent, Jumbo Love became one of just three proposed 5.15b’s (or harder) in the world—alongside Bernabe Fernandez’s Chilam Bilam (established in 2003 and originally graded 5.15c but subsequently downgraded to 5.15a/b) and Dani Andrada’s Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension (which, thanks to kneepads, now seems to weigh in at 5.15a/b). (Tommy Caldwell’s Colorado test piece, Flex Luther, was recently upgraded to 5.15b—but it’s unclear exactly how hard it was when Caldwell climbed it in 2003.)

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Alpinism’s highest honor, the Piolets d’Or, recently revealed the two ascents that won high honors for 2022: the ascent of Saraghar Northwest in Pakistan, and the climb of Moonwalk Traverse in Patagonia.

The award group also gave a special Jury Award to a Ukrainian team’s ascent of 24,780-foot Annapurna III in Nepal. This year the Piolets d’Or jury was comprised of six veteran alpinists: Conrad Anker, Alex Bluemel, Genki Narumi, Paul Ramsden, Patrick Wagnon, and Mikel Zabalza. The group will distribute the actual golden axe awards at a ceremony in Briançon, France, from November 18–20. At that event, Slovenian alpinist Silvo Karo is slated to receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, which celebrates his decades-long career putting up new routes in Patagonia and the Himalaya, and making significant repeats across the globe.

Here’s more information on the two climbs that won, and the special Jury Award recipient:

Saraghrar Northwest (24,000 feet) Hindu Kush, Pakistan

From September 3–10, 2021, climbers Archil Badriashvili, Baqar Gelashvili, and Giorgi Tepnadze of Georgia climbed the northwest face of Saraghrar Northwest, an imposing massif that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, to record the mountain’s first ascent. They called their route the Northwest Face. Like any route of this magnitude, located in such a seldom-visited part of the world, mere numbers do little to describe the week-long ascent.

This new route is best understood through a fantastic first-person account by Badriashvili in the 2022 American Alpine Journal (), in which he writes of climbing in a “natural, ecological style, with a small circle of friends, dishing out a powerful test of our capabilities.” The trio had many unanswered questions before they arrived at basecamp, including rock quality and what the face even looked like. Badriashvili muses in his article: “Steep faces, isolation, undescribed areas, and neither an easy way up nor down—it felt almost like going to our home mountains in Georgia!” On their first day on the northwest face, the team traced a 4,000-foot snow and ice couloir up to 20,000 feet elevation. For the next seven days they tackled the wall’s steep, sometimes overhanging, granite face, pitch after pitch of hard mixed and aid that could take up to seven hours to lead. Sometimes, after a full day’s effort, the team established their camp a mere 500 feet higher than the night before.

In a about the ascent, the Piolets d’Or jury said, “[We] felt the choice of a high, unclimbed peak in a less well-known area, a conventional fair-means approach, a previous unattempted face, a small team, a long climb in pure alpine style with significant technical difficulties above 20,000 feet and a crux section between 22,000 feet and 23,000 feet and the need for a high level of commitment, all exemplify the Piolets d’Or Charter.”

Moonwalk Traverse (11,100 feet), Cerro Chaltén Group, Patagonia

Perhaps equally as badass, but for completely different reasons, was Belgian Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll’s solo traverse of the Cerro ChaltĂ©n Group (Fitz Roy) in February 2021. The ongoing Covid-related travel restrictions had turned the bustling region of El ChaltĂ©n into its former self—a place of few tourists and deserted summits—and O’Driscoll had been happily “stuck” there since March 2020. “If I really wanted to, I could have made it back to Europe
 but all of that seemed like a lot more hassle than it was worth!” following the Traverse. “Things in Europe were bad, and I was in one of the most beautiful places on the planet! I felt like a kid locked up in a giant playground.” With his mainstay partners actually stuck in Europe, “at some point during the long winter nights,” O’Driscoll began to imagine traversing the ChaltĂ©n skyline alone.

The south-to-north Moonwalk Traverse is over three miles long with 13,000-plus feet of elevation gain, and ticks ten summits in total. Patagonia-climbing fanatics and Reel Rock viewers alike will remember Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell’s 2014 first ascent of the north-to-south Fitz Traverse, where they ticked eight summits total, but weaved around a few satellite ones. (O’Driscoll said these smaller summits don’t really complicate the traverse, “but since I was there I thought I might as well enjoy some extra rock climbing.”)

O’Driscoll rope soloed the vast majority of the traverse, with difficulties up to 5.11b, over the course of five days. Though he core shot his rope in three sections on the first day, and dropped several cams shortly after, O’Driscoll said there were no moments when he began to despair. In fact, when asked if there was ever a moment when he just wanted to be off the climb, he replied, “No, I would have kept going if there was more.”

The 2022 Piolets d’Or jury felt that O’Driscoll’s route “was an elegant and sustained line, which had been attempted or conceived by several parties, although no one appears to have considered it for a solo outing—an adventure unattainable for most climbers. Whilst, apart from a few pitches, none of the terrain was new, the style was outstanding, combining technical climbing, endurance, mental commitment, and considerable Patagonia experience.”

Special 2022 Piolets d’Or Jury Award: Southeast Ridge, Annapurna III (24,700 feet), Nepal

The long-awaited first ascent of Annapurna III’s southeast ridge was about as epic as anyone thought it would be. It took two-and-a-half weeks by some of the high-altitude world’s best—Ukrainians Nikita Balabanov, Mikhail Fomin, and Viacheslav Polezhaiko—who told : “The psychological aspect was really intensive, as every day we faced some new obstacles and didn’t understand until the end if we would be able to climb it or not.”

The route, called Patience, had steep, crumbling chimneys, hard aid, and a psychological crux of “prolonged and creative” ridge climbing and snow shoveling. The trio worked efficiently, however, and after 16 days on the Southeast Ridge they reached the summit. “The descent is another story,” Balabanov said. “At first we planned to go down by way of ascent. But we realized it would be too dangerous 
 and decided to go down the Manang side. But to get to these gentle snow slopes you must traverse three-and-a-half kilometers (2.1 miles) of ridge at 7,300 meters (24,000 feet), which was impossible under 100-kilometer winds (60mph), so we started our descent on the west side, which we hadn’t planned before. We rappelled and downclimbed for two days without any topos or even photos of this side of Annapurna.” The climbers descended to 16,000 feet before calling for a helicopter pickup to bring them to the opposite side of the mountain. As the Piolets d’Or press release notes, “The Jury agrees that from a climbing perspective the new route on Annapurna III is one of the major ascents in recent years. However, it also agrees that it does not comply with all aspects of the Charter.” These aspects, of course, relate to helicopter usage—both getting to and from the mountain. Like three expeditions before them, the Ukranians chose to helicopter into the Sabche cirque at the base of the southeast ridge due to unstable (and landslide prone) approach terrain.Ìę

In its press release, the jury cites the Piolets’ Charter—“style and means of ascent take precedence over reaching the objective itself”—and notes that “those who visit the high mountains see, more than most, the huge toll that global warming is extracting on the environment. 
 It is incumbent on us as mountaineers to act responsibly and limit our impact. The Piolets d’Or would like to send a clear message that the high mountains and the people who live beneath are being increasingly damaged by climate change. It therefore does not support the use of the helicopter for general access.”

Lifetime Achievement Award: Silvo Karo

The Lifetime Achievement Award was first given to Walter Bonatti in 2009 to acknowledge the impact his career had on the following generations of young alpinists. Since then, legendary climbers including Catherine Destivelle, Jeff Lowe, and Reinhold Messner have received the award.Ìę

Silvo Karo’s career highlights include new routes on Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, Cerro ChaltĂ©n, and in the Himalaya; A5 on El Cap (Wyoming Sheep Ranch); the first one-day ascent of on Trango Tower; and countless new and serious routes in his native Julian and Kamnik Alps. In a, friend and climbing partner Rolando Garibotti writes: “When I met Silvo he was in his prime—70kg of motivation and decisiveness, little talk and all action. Over the ensuing years we managed to share a rope on a good number of occasions, in Yosemite, Patagonia, and elsewhere. Climbing with him felt like cheating. Condensed in one man were all the skills one could possibly need in the mountains, from a rope-gun to lead the hardest pitch, to an army of porters for heavy loads, to an entire rescue team if something was to happen. He had the energy of a train, and there was something distinctly reassuring about the way he pounded pitons: the rock would ask for forgiveness. No matter the conditions, when faced with an objective he cared about, his determination was unwavering. Here was an honest, no-nonsense man, for whom I have always had enormous respect. Some of his climbs are the stuff of legend and have inspired climbers the world over. He has left an indelible mark on the sport.”

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Memphis Rox is one of the best climbing gyms in America.Ìę

Sure, it has state-of-the-art bouldering and rope climbing, and enough free weights to build a 5.15 climber. It has a youth team and climbing coaches and yoga classes and fantastic setting.Ìę

But Memphis Rox, more than any other gym we’ve seen, is making real, measurable impacts in the lives of its community. They cater not just to the ĂŒber-psyched gym members who pull down from open till close but to the non-climbing members of the wider South Memphis community. That’s why Reel Rock made a feature film about the gym, and that’s why the Honnold Foundation is right now: to help them keep their lights on despite an expensive and regressive local energy policy.

“Memphis has some of the highest utility rates in the country,” said Pearl Walker, civic engagement coordinator at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, in the film Keep the Lights On. “A lot of people feel like Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) is collecting all this money
and they’re not taking into consideration what’s in the best interests of the people and the planet.”

South Memphis residents spend up to 25 percent of their income on utility bills—a shocking figure, especially when you consider that most Americans spend around 5 percent.

“MLGW is playing the back game,” said Jarmond Johnson, Memphis Rox’s outreach coordinator and gang activist. “They know the people in our community can’t afford solar [if there are no equitable incentives]—it’s too expensive.”

Johnson said the South Memphis community has received many empty promises in the 22 years he’s lived in the area, mostly from “big [social] organizations saying they were going to do a lot for us but never did.” That’s why working with the Honnold Foundation, he said, was such a positive experience: the organization stepped in to provide financial support by installing solar panels to offset the maximum 20 percent of the gym’s energy use. This allowed Memphis Rox to focus on connecting with the community.

“The goal of the Honnold Foundation is that we’re just helping community organizations do what they do, but a little better,” said Honnold himself. “They already have good ideas, they already know how to execute it, all we’re doing is helping them save a little money so they can do their work at an even higher level.”

Honnold added that working with Memphis Rox was especially meaningful because of how stifling MLGW is. “That’s what makes it even more satisfying to do work there, because sometimes you just want to say “FÌę you”Ìęto the man. Utilities that don’t want to get on board and do what’s right for the community
it makes it even more satisfying to [provide solar energy.]”

From providing free-lunch and after-school programs to contributing to a steady decline in the area’s crime rate since its opening, Memphis Rox’s efforts continue to positively impact the Soulsville community. “Memphis Rox grabbed me out of the place I was in,” Johnson said. “You know, without the gym I’d probably be in jail or dead.”

That’s what makes the area’s energy policy all the more frustrating [for Johnson]: money has trumped community impact. Memphis Rox has big goals for the future, including building a wood shop to teach trade skills to its members, a grocery store, and a medical clinic—if it can keep its lights on.

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Italian alpinist Corrado “Korra” Pesce, 41, has died in Patagonia while descending Cerro Torre’s north face. Pesce and his partner, TomĂĄs AguilĂł, established a new route up the mountain, beginning on the east face and finishing on the north, where they crossed paths with the Italians Matteo Della Bordella, David Bacci, and Matteo De Zaicomo, who had also completed a new route on the east face.Ìę

The two parties joined forces for the final 1,000 feet of climbing up the north face with Pesce in front. “[He was] the freshest and the strongest and immediately [took] the lead
. It’s a huge psychological advantage being able to follow [such] a machine,” Della Bordella wrote on .

Once on the summit, Pesce and AguilĂł immediately prepared to rappel. It was 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 27, and the pair wanted to take advantage of the cold nighttime conditions for their descent; loose rock and unstable ice formations were more likely to say in place. Pesce invited the Italian party to join them but they declined. Pesce and AguilĂł chose to descend the Southeast Ridge (commonly known as the Compressor Route) the next morning.

Disaster struck Pesce and AguilĂł a few hours before sunrise. A rime-ice mushroom broke loose from above, sending a torrent of rock, ice, and snow on top of them. AguilĂł was seriously injured but remained mobile, while Pesce was “completely paralysed and unable to move due to the extent of his injuries,” Della Bordella wrote. Most of the pair’s bivy kit was lost, as well as much of their climbing equipment, and AguilĂł began rappelling the steep wall alone to get help. Lower down the mountain he found their InReachÌęin the snow and called for a rescue.Ìę

Kiff Alcocer, an American currently climbing in Patagonia, was in the Niponino base camp when he heard talk of an accident on Cerro Torre. Though unaware of Aguiló’s inReach message, someone had seen a headlamp’s SOS signal high on the mountain and roused a group of ten, including Alcocer and the German alpinist Thomas Huber, to hike two hours to the base of the glacier (Noruegos Camp) to investigate. Alcocer, Huber, and two others continued past the high camp, across the broken glacier, to the base of the east face. Aguiló soon came into their view and they watched him slowly descend to a prominent triangular snowfield, still 1,000 feet of technical climbing above the glacier.

By 5 p.m. on Friday, Della Bordella’s team had finished their 30 rappels down the Southeast Ridge and met up with Alcocer and the rest of the rescue party at the base of the wall. Horrified to learn of the accident, Della Bordella used his drone to pinpoint Aguiló’s location on the wall and readied himself for a rescue mission. “What the Italian team did was remarkable,” Alcocer told Climbing. “To climb a new route on Cerro Torre and then, without hesitation, climb back up for an injured comrade was inspiring.”

Though mentally and physically drained, Della Bordella knew he was the ideal person to lead a rescue. He’d climbed that section of the east face just days before; he knew where to go and the gear to bring. Alongside Huber, Roger Schaeli, and Roberto Treu, the rescuers climbedÌęthe first seven pitches of the Maestri Route—including a runout 5.11 slab with bad gear—in just three hours before traversing another rope length to reach AguilĂł and the snowfield. “They really strung it out trying,” Alcocer said of the rescuers. “It’s serious climbing up there.”

Della Bordella reported that it was midnight when Treu and Huber began to descend with AguilĂł. He and Schaeli, a dear friend of Pesce, remained on the wall, unwilling to give up on their rescue attempt. Despite an incoming storm and just one rope between them, they waited on the triangular snowfield until 3 a.m. for any sign of Pesce. Temperatures plummeted. The wind howled. It wasn’t until Della Bordella began to hallucinate from exhaustion that they too began to descend.Ìę

“I realize that it’s time to get off the mountain, because in this state I can hardly look after myself,” he wrote on Planetmountain.com. “It’s a bitter decision, but unfortunately we’re way past our physical and psychological limits; we realize that [Pesce] will remain on that mountain forever.”

By the time Della Bordella and Schaeli had returned to the glacier, Aguiló’s rescue was in full swing. Alcocer estimated that roughly 15 climbers met Aguiló at the base of the east face and took on the nightmarish task of “wrestling a stretcher for hours” down the steep and heavily crevassed glacier. Another 30-odd rescuers waited for Aguiló at the bottom of the glacier, where an Argentinean Army helicopter flew him to a hospital in Calafate—treating him for a punctured lung, a broken clavicle, and broken ribs, among other injuries—where he is expected to recover.

A drone continued to search for Pesce but any further rescue attempt was called off due to the mounting storm. Carolina Codo, head of Argentina’s El ChaltĂ©n Alpine Rescue Centre, told , “Corrado Pesce can no longer be alive. Today, we were able to zoom in on the images of a drone flown near ​​the accident. Pesce’s body can be seen. It slid 50 metres below the platform where he spent the night
. Without adequate protection, death from hypothermia occurs within two hours.”

Pesce was one of the greatest alpinists of his generation, having climbed serious routes throughout the Alps, the Himalayas, and Patagonia. In 2019, in a team of five including Aguiló, he made the second ascent of the immense Psycho Vertical (5.10b A3 M8 90°; 950 meters) on the south face of Torre Egger; in 2016 he repeated Impossible Star (ED; 2,000 meters) on Bhagirathi III (6,454 meters) in the Indian Himalaya; in 2015 he repeated (WI5+ 5.10a A3 80° ED; 1,100 meters) on the Grandes Jorrasses; and in 2014 he climbed Directe de l’Amitie (VII M7/A3 90°; 1,100 meters) on the same mountain.

“[Pesce] was a shining force for climbing and the history of the art,” Renan Ozturk on Instagram. “He was selfless in the hardest alpine moments, stoic, strong
but also soft and hilarious at the end of the day.”

A fundraising page has been created to help support Pesce’s 13-year-old daughter, Leia, in his absence. You can donate .

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Winners of the 2021 Piolets d’Or, mountaineering’s highest honor, were announced October 8 for two significant ascents, one in the Canadian Rockies and one in Pakistan, as well as a special mention for prolific big-wall soloistÌę. The recipients were awarded by a jury of five veteran alpinists—Ines Papert, Kelly Cordes, Victor Saunders, Valery Babanov, and Helias Millerioux; the latter two are themselves past recipients.Ìę

On October 28, the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was also given to Yasushi Yamanoi, a 56-year-old Japanese alpinist with noteworthy rock, ice, and alpine ascents around the world. He is the 13th recipient of the award and joins a heavy-hitting list of climbing greats. The official awards ceremony will be held November 26-29 in Briançon, France.Ìę

This year’s award winners were recognized for feats on the following summits:Ìę

Mount Robson (12,972 feet), British Columbia

From September 30 to October 1, 2020, American Ethan Berman and the UK’s Uisdean Hawthorn established , a 7,500-foot Grade VI route on Mount Robson’s historic Emperor Face. The jury was most impressed by the duo’s commitment to a lightweight and self-supported style; Berman and Hawthorn made the 12.5-mile approach by foot in the pouring rain, bivvied once below the face, climbed virgin terrain on technical ground, bivvied again at the new elevation, and then spent a full day navigating the rime-fused traverse to the summit.

Looking back on the ascent, Berman told ClimbingÌęthat “what stands out the most is how wild and out-there the adventure was—like climbing the final ice pitches to the summit through a tube of rime gargoyles leaning every which way.”

Though not Canadian-born, both Berman and Hawthorn are currently based in Canada and appreciate how accessible Mount Robson is compared to big mountains abroad. “You don’t have to travel around the world and pay a ton of money to get the raw, visceral experience that climbing in the mountains delivers,” Berman said.

In a press release, the that “Berman and Hawthorn were only the second team (and the first for almost 40 years) to climb a new line on the face, and reach the summit, without using a helicopter for the approach or descent.”

As for the award itself, Hawthorn said he was happy to see the restructuring of the Piolets d’Or in 2009 to include multiple ascents and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Before that year, the award received criticism for recognizing only one recipient and for creating a competitive atmosphere in the alpine climbing community.Ìę

Hawthorn said this new multi-recipient format levels the playing field for less media-inclined climbers. “These days it’s easy for certain ascents to receive attention, because of [several] factors,” he said. Did the alpinists make a film about the ascent? What language do they speak? How many Instagram followers do they have? “The [jury] doesn’t take these things into account and considers ascents that don’t make the news at all,” he continued. “The members of the jury, made up of experienced and respected alpinists, [are] people who have committed themselves to alpinism for many years. To give them an opportunity to promote what they consider impressive ascents from the year is important. It’s alpine climbers driving the direction of alpinism—not editors, marketing managers, or film directors.”

Sani Pakkush (22,808 feet), Tolltar Valley, Pakistan

From October 16 to 19, 2020, French alpinists Pierrick Fine, 26, and Symon Welfringer, 28, made the first ascent of Revers Gagnant, an 8,200-foot route (M4+ WI 4+ 90°)—and just the second ascent of the mountain—on Sani Pakkush’s south face and southwest ridge.Ìę

The pair originally planned to visit Nepal that autumn but a bout of pandemic-related restrictions forced them to change objectives. Pakistan was the only country willing to let them enter, so an online photo they found of Sani Pakkush became their last-minute goal.

Theirs would be an exploratory trip through and through. “The south face is big and complex and rises from the head of the Tolltar Valley, the upper part of the glacier almost certainly not reached previously by mountaineers,” the Piolets d’Or press release said. “The odds were stacked against them as October is generally far too late for climbing big mountains in Pakistan.”

“To be honest, until now, the Piolets d’Or was something unreachable for me. I have to admit that it was something I would have loved to accomplish one day,” Welfringer told Climbing. “In alpinism, you don’t really get recognition from what you achieve. The community is quite small, and the public doesn’t always understand the meaning and the difficulty of [creating routes]in remote areas like the Himalayas and other wild ranges.”

Fine told Climbing that he appreciated the jury’s emphasis on rewarding style and ethics, and he pointed to the that inspired his own climbing. Speaking candidly, he said he was surprised to learn of his award; he thinks Revers Gagnant would not receive the Piolets d’Or in a year when more climbers were allowed into the Himalayas. “But this [ascent] is also in the spirit of the award—adventure and daring,” Fine said.

Special Mention: Silvia Vidal

Catalan climber Silvia Vidal has made cutting-edge solo ascents around the world. She received this mention for “doing more with less,” according to the Piolets d’Or press release, and for embodying an authentic lust for adventure while upholding a high standard of commitment. For more than two decades, Vidal, 50, has shown “impressive feats of endurance and hard aid climbing on remote big walls around the world,” the press release said. “Her most notable ascents have been achieved mainly in total autonomy: entirely alone, no radio, no mobile, no GPS, no weather forecasts, no communication. Drilling tends to be minimal, and always by hand.”

Vidal’s new routes, climbed in capsule style, have been in places such as Alaska, Canada, Chile, India, Mali, Pakistan and Peru. The jury recognized significant solo ascents including her 2017 ascent ofÌęUn Pas MĂ©s (1,730 feet, 5.10a) onÌęXanadu in Alaska, which required 36 days of ferrying equipment—someÌę335 miles of walking—both up to and down from the face, and 17 days alone on the wall, and in 2020,ÌęSincronia Magica (3,871 feet, 5.10b) on El Chileno Grande, Chile, which saw 16 days of load carrying and, after fixing the initial 590 feet, 33 days alone on the wall.

The Lifetime Achievement Award: Yasushi Yamanoi

The Lifetime Achievement Award was first given to Walter Bonatti in 2009, to acknowledge the impact his career had on the following generations of young alpinists. Legendary climbers who have since received the award include Catherine Destivelle, Jeff Lowe, and Reinhold Messner.Ìę

Lindsay Griffin and Rodolphe Popier, with input from Hiroshi Hagiwara, chose to honor Yamanoi for his wide-ranging—and ongoing—career: from his initial free-solo forays around his home in Japan to chasing hard crack climbs like Cosmic Debris (5.13a) and Sphynx Crack (5.13b) in America, to becoming the first person to solo Patagonia’s Fitz Roy (11,171 feet) in winter, which he accomplishedÌęin July 1990.Ìę

As noted in theÌę, ‎Yamanoi, 56, first explored the world of high-altitude climbing in the early nineties as part of a siege-style Japanese expedition on Broad Peak (26,414 feet). While Yamanoi didn’t take to the heavy, militant tactics of that climbing style, he became enamored with the greater ranges and returned, time and again, for significant ascents: a new 7,200-foot route on the southwest face of Cho Oyu (21,864 feet), solo; a first ascent of the east face of Kusum Kanguru (20,889 feet), solo; a first ascent of the striking southwest face of Bublimotin (19,685 feet) with Taeko and Daisaku Nakaga; and a proud attempt of the unclimbed east face of K2 (28,251), with the Polish alpinist Voytek Kurtyka.

“Whether solo, as a married couple, or with friends, Yasushi Yamanoi’s climbing has shown great creativity, commitment, and resilience,” the press release said. “His minimalist style and often discreet ascents paved the way for younger Japanese climbers to operate in modern alpine-style. Together with a great respect for the environment through which he travelled, these qualities make Yasushi Yamanoi a worthy recipient of the 13th Career Award.”

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