Climbing
ArchiveIt looks like Adam Ondra isn't the only talented climber in his family. This past week, the two-time World Cup champion's older sister, Kristyna Ondrova, became the second Czech woman to climb a 5.14a route when she sent Kudlanka, near the siblings' hometown of Brno.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2012 Winter Buyer's Guide, including the Cassin X-All -Mountain ice ax
Gear4Rocks Links Cams’ appearance doesn’t inspire trust. With their bare-wire stems and roughly-finished lobes, the cams looks like what they are: cheap climbing gear made by a near-anonymous company in eastern Europe. Sketchy, but at $36 a pop, they’re the most affordable cams on the market. And honestly, they’re…
Glacier from Kili’s Summit Kilimanjaro was all I expected and much, much more. The climb itself was not the hardest but the descent was amongst the toughest when I twisted my ankle and had to be carried down from 15,000 feet. In my normal manner…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FAAqZHR0OGg?rel=0 Dean Potter free solos Heaven Talk about upping the ante. Last week, 26-year-old Alex Honnold completed Yosemite's hardest known free solo to date, Cosmic Debris, a 5.13b overhanging finger crack in the Valley. Apparently not satisfied, later that same day he nabbed another hard free solo…
Top billing. Photo: Adam Roy Last Thursday, some 1,800 people came out for the premiere of the sixth annual Reel Rock Tour at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado. The tour is always popular, but this year,…
Alan on Kilimanjaro Summit While climbing Kilimanjaro was not the most difficult of my climbing life, getting down was perhaps in the top three! We made the summit in good time and style after leaving the Barafu Camp at 15,000′ around midnight. The climb to…
Magnus Midtboe bolting. Photo: Kieran Kolle/Made Earlier this month, Norwiegan climber Jorg Verhoeven made the first ascent of a project called Nordic Flower in Flatanger Cave, a new sport climbing area an hour and a half from the…
Trad climber at Smith Rocks, Oregon. Photo: Maria Ly/Flickr Traditional climbing, where climbers place their own removable protection, is best learned slowly. Which is not at all what I did. My first stab at the sport was a thinly-protected 5.5 route up a tower…
Tonight, Patagonia and eBay announced a new partnership, the Common Threads Initiative. Together, they asked owners of fleece and Gore-Tex everywhere to pledge to reduce consumption, reuse old gear, recycle, repair what's broken, and reimagine a world where people don't stress the earth with…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/L35qBS7XqvI Sender Films and Big UP just released the trailer for the sixth annual Reel Rock climbing film tour, which kicks off in Boulder on September 15. The show will take six climbing films on the road (five by Sender and Big UP, plus Cold, a mountaineering documentary shot by…
Will Gadd on Spray On. Photos: Christian Pondella Will Gadd may be the world's strongest ice climber. Consider: Gadd's latest project, a radically overhanging route in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park dubbed Spray On which he and partner Tim Emmett sent in 2010,…
Big Up Productions latest shows climber Paul Robinson pulling hard in California’s Buttermilk boulders.
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Without a balance bar or safety equipment, Swiss stuntman Freddy Nock walked more than 3200 feet up a two-inch wide cable car wire to reach the summit of Zugspitze mountain…
Quandary: an uphill battle Earlier this summer, my husband, Steve, and I decided to climb one of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks with our two young daughters, ages one and three. This was a tradition we started before they were born, and the last time we did it…
Here's a great video by Camp4Collective about climbing in Yosemite—put together for that other adventure magazine. Jimmy Chin takes you behind the scenes during a dream assignment. –Joe…
Alan on the summit of Elbrus Well, I am back in Southern Russia at my hotel after a very fast and successful summit of Mt. Elbrus at 18,583 feet. As usual I will do a complete trip report but here are the highlights. We…
Back in March, Eric Hansen profiled 87-year-old Himalayan record keeper Elizabeth Hawley for ϳԹ. Now there are plans to film a documentary about the woman whose records contain information about roughly 80,000 ascents of 340 Nepalese peaks. She's the ultimate source on…
“Come on up and stand beside me.” He said confidently. I made a couple more moves and joined him a hundred feet up on a near vertical rock wall in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park many years ago. “OK, let’s make sure you are clipped in, with backup and another…
Living The Dream 2 from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo. This past March, The North Face sponsored climber and videographer Renan Ozturk suffered a skull fracture, partially collapsed lung, and fractured vertebrae when he fell off a cliff while backcountry skiing…
Ashima Shiraishi climbing in Hueco Tanks, Texas (Courtesy Reel Rock Film Tour) Nine-year-old Ashima Shiraishi has a career that a climber three times her age would be proud of. The four-and-a-half-foot-tall New Yorker has sent problems as hard as V11 (until last year, no woman had…
When 28-year-old Kyle Dempster isn’t tending to his Salt Lake City Coffee Shop, he’s scaling some of the world’s hardest routes.
One of the most harrowing near-miss stories I’ve ever heard came from my friend Jason, an itinerant, sometimes-employed climber from Moab. Jason had taken the German girl he was dating to climb Castleton Tower, a 400-foot sliver of sandstone sitting on a ridge above Castle Valley, Utah. The girl was …
Picture courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service Summer is fire season in the southwest, and we're getting pounded. This year, half a dozen wildfires have ravaged over 1,300 square miles—an area nearly the size of Rhode Island—in New Mexico and Arizona alone. Two blazes are burning…
West Buttress Route on Denali After Everest, Denali was the climb I was most concerned about for the 7 Summits Climb for Alzheimer’s: Memories are Everything. You see, it’s complicated. Dedicating my Everest summit to my mom and all the Alzheimer’s moms out there will…
Director Michael Brown returns from Everestto break down another season of filming.ϳԹ ϳԹ Film School…
Fresh off her third successful summit of Everest, climber Melissa Arnot takes time out during ϳԹ in Aspen Weekend. smalldogonthego.com…
Taking a cold camera inside a warm, moist tent is asking for trouble. So what do you do when filming on Everest? ϳԹ ϳԹ Film School…
You are going to mistakes while filming and climbing the world's highest mountain. Michael Brown shares some of his. ϳԹ ϳԹ Film School…
At the peak, the climbers and videographers will be physically and mentally spent. So how can one ensure good shots? ϳԹ ϳԹ Film School…
Award-winning director Michael Brown talks about how to get the best shots, by staying ahead of climbers.
Award-winning director Michael Brown walks you through his equipment and editing station.
In the first of a new web series, award-winning director Michael Brown and the pros at ϳԹ ϳԹ Film School test out gear before heading to Everest.
A durable approach shoe built for scrambling over rough terrain.
ϳԹ's Grayson Schaffer shows you how to tie a figure eight in a few easy steps.
Freesoloist Alex Honnold joins Jimmy Chin’s Camp 4 Collective on a trip to unclimbed towers in Chad’s Ennedi desert. Read David Robert’s profile of Honnold here.
ϳԹ contributor Alan Arnette discusses his plan to climb the seven summits and raise more than $1 millon for Alzheimer's research—all within a year. To listen to the extended interview click here, or subscribe to our…
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Black Diamond Epic 45 pack.
Whenever adventure goes wrong, more than 5,000 everyday heroes stand ready for wilderness search and rescue. Meet six of the best in the business: unsung pioneers, backcountry veterans, and saviors of last resort who will risk everything to bring you back alive.
The climbing scene at the Teva Mountain Games As a general rule, adventure-sports athletes and dogs get along famously. That wasn’t the case last Friday evening at the Antlers hotel in Vail, Colorado. Nicky de Leeuw of the Dutch National Climbing Team was one of the 2,500 athletes…
Go behind the scenes of ϳԹ‘s April cover shoot with photographer Michael Muller and climber Jimmy Chin of Camp 4 Collective in California’s Death Valley.
Courtesy of Rodale His middle name, Makalani, is Hawaiian for “skilled at writing,” so it's no surprise that Cincinnati Bengals' defensive captain Dhani Jones has a book out this month. In The Sportsman, he chronicles the…
Courtesy of Rodale His middle name, Makalani, is Hawaiian for “skilled at writing,” so it's no surprise that Cincinnati Bengals' defensive captain Dhani Jones has a book out this month. In The Sportsman, he chronicles the…
Alan on the summit of Everest, 5:00AM May 21, 2011 I am back in Lukla on our 3rd of 3 days trek from Everest Base Camp. This is an important time for me to process any Himalaya experience. I love walking the Khumbu trails, sharing…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AV6NgCLWKdU%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 Leading Dutch mountaineer Ronald Naar died on Sunday while descending Cho Oyu, Radio Netherlands has reported. Naar had given up his summit bid and was heading down with his team when he reported feeling unwell and collapsed unexpectedly at 26,200 feet. Naar, 56,…
Photo from ilkerender on Flickr Irish climber John Delaney died yesterday on Everest, according to 7Summits-Club, the team with whom he was climbing. The club's…
Climbers Ueli Steck and Don Bowie have given up their Mt. Everest summit bid after encountering cold and windy conditions high on the south side of the mountain. The pair began their final push from their camp at 25,250 feet at approximately 11:30 pm. According to a text message posted to…
RMI Guide and First Ascent Climber Dave Hahn summited Everest for the 13th time this weekend, adding another climb to his own record of the most summits by a non-Sherpa. Hahn posted an account of the summit on the…
Everest and Nuptse by Stevehicks on Flickr Nepali tandem paraglider pilot Babu Sunuwar, 29, and climber Lakpa Tshering Sherpa, 35, summited Everest on Saturday and descended via paraglider, according to flying magazine…
The route I took from the Balcony to the summit as seen from Lhotse on the same day I summited. I stood on the summit of Mount Everest at 5:00 AM, May 21, 2011. To say this event had a personal meaning is…
Well, we have slipped our summit day by one day to May 21st. We receive our weather report around 8:00 PM daily and once again after most of us had gone to bed, the report showed very high winds localized at Camp 3 for the time we would be there.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=klkduuguvbs%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 American Alpine Club Executive Director Phil Powers is in stable condition after sustaining severe injuries in a rock climbing accident in Colorado. The accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon while Powers was sport climbing with a group in the Highwire…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rGA1vI2HxTs%C2%A0 This Hulk has nothing to do with angry green superheros. It's the second installment of Big UP Productions and Sender Films' Origins series, where young climbers tackle famous routes with the pioneers who did them first. In this…
A mountaineer died on Friday while climbing Alaska's 20,327-foot Denali. The Italian climber, Luciano Colombo, 67, died of traumatic injuries after falling 1,000 feet during a traverse between Denali Pass and a camp at 17,200 feet. Colombo’s death is the second on Denali in…
The intro is a little long, but this video of Adam Ondra on the first ascent of Chaxi Raxi (5.15b) is worth a look. Ondra sent the project–a 160-foot line bolted by Chris Sharma in Oliana–late last month. He called it “probably my hardest route I have ever done” and…
Filmmaker Chuck Fryberger has made a name for himself creating visually arresting climbing flicks with some of the sport's strongest athletes. But high-def sparkle isn't enough to satisfy Fryberger, whose film Core last year became the first rock climbing movie to be released on Blu-Ray.
This year's Himalayan climbing season is in full swing, which to most people means one thing: Everest. Already this season the world's highest mountain has seen the first cellphone call from the summit, a record number of…
Apa Sherpa summited Everest on Wednesday for the 21st time, breaking his own world record of 20 summits, the Alpinist reports. The 51 year old first reached the summit in 1990 and has stood atop the…
Pummeled by gastric illness and facing an incoming bad weather front, Ueli Steck and Don Bowie pulled off an ascent of Cho Oyu (8,201m) last week, knocking off the sixth-highest peak on Earth and ticking another of their expedition's objective. Cho Oyu is the…
The Scene, the latest movie from filmmaker Chuck Fryberger, looks at the varied ways people send by traveling to four of the world's most vibrant climbing communities: the sandstone Mecca of Moab, Utah; the cutting-edge sport crags of Catalonia; the competition scene of Innsbruck,…
Cho Oyu Alpinists Ueli Steck and Don Bowie of the Himalaya Speed project have summited the world's sixth-highest peak, according to Bowie's ground team. Bowie reported in a satellite phone dispatch that he and Steck made it to the…
Rick Hitch, a 55-year-old California man, died Sunday on Everest, according to the Folsom (California) Telegraph. Hitch's wife, Loretta, told the Telegraph that he was climbing to Camp 3 with six other climbers and two guides when he collapsed…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NJo7to7KXrU%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 By his own admission, Ueli Steck is one of the most Swiss climbers out there. He's well-prepared, precise, and functions reliably–“like a Swiss watch,” as Steck himself has said. So it makes sense on some level that Steck would get his own…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vVXdC-PY-nw%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 With his 30th birthday now two weeks behind him, Chris Sharma doesn't seem to have slowed down at all. On Thursday, the climber successfully linked two 5.15 routes–one of them a 5.15b first ascent–in a single day. The takedown began after Sharma had already warmed up and unsuccessfully attempted…
I bought a pair of beginner Evolv climbing shoes and they have fared well, but I'm getting better and need something with aggressive heel and toe. What's the next step for a shoe? Greg Freeport, ME
Niccolò Ceria flashes Jack's Broken Heart, one of the problems Alex Puccio climbed in Magic Wood. Alex Puccio sent two of the hardest boulders of her career this weekend, climbing Jack's Broken Heart (V12) and The Right Hand of Darkness (V11) in Magic Wood, Switzerland. Jack's Broken Heart is a…
Greg and Alan enjoing some rare sunshine outside the IMG communcations tent What a difference a day (or week) makes! I came down from C3 last Wednesday basically shattered. My upper repository lung infection was taking control and I was in a battle for the…
Between presenting slideshows and speaking to audiences during a recent tour of Europe, Dean Potter found the time to take a leap from the previously unjumped Forcellino lookout near Lecco, Italy. Potter wrote on prAna's blog that Fabio Palma brought him to the…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bxejDyDU7Kw%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 The American Alpine Club announced the winners of the 2011 Copp-Dash Inspire Award on Friday, giving grants to expeditions headed for Alaska and central Asia. The Copp-Dash Inspire Award is named for Colorado alpinists Jonny Copp and Micah Dash who died in an…
High winds this week on Cho Oyu, west of Everest So far at Base Camp during the 2011 climbing season, Everest ER has seen 276 patients, a number they say is on target “to break all previous…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5wRUNTg53ZU%3Frel%3D0%C2%A0 Well-known Swiss alpinist Erhard Loretan died on Thursday after a fall in the Bernese Alps, the Chicago Tribune has reported. Loretan, who turned 52 on Thursday, was guiding a client up the Gruenhorn when the accident occurred. The pair had approached…