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Climbing Magazine Feature Articles
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 SPINDRIFT MEMORIES - 30 DAYS ON BAFFIN ISLAND'S WALKER CITADEL
By Mike Libecki - It was 10 years ago that I endured that night on the Walker Citadel, a granite tower stabbing 4,200 feet from Sam Ford Fjord, Baffin Island. Now as I type on my laptop, I sit next to a campfire in the Wasatch with my 5-year-old daughter, Lilliana. We’re on an adventure just as intriguing, but tonight we don’t suffer. At least, not in the way Russ Mitrovich, Josh Helling, and I did those 32 continuous days on the wall.  AMERICAN MEATBALLS - Two Yanks Taste Humble Pie on the Superb Granite of Sweden
By Mike Brumbaugh / Photos by Jonas Paulsson - Sweden: this serene Scandinavian country conjures visions of sweeping granite, splitter cracks, and rounded blocs. Er, I mean, bikini teams, hockey, lingonberry jam . . . and more bikini teams. In short, all things not climbing. And so it is with major trepidation that, in April 2007, I board a plane to Stockholm for a climbing trip.  Boone Sheridan Speed - Photographer, Product Designer, Area Developer, Entrepreneur, Smack Talker; Portland, Oregon
Raised in the Mormon town of Lindon, Utah, Boone Sheridan Speed, 42, never quite fit in. Speed's was a dual world, with artistic parents (his father, Grant Speed, is a renowned Western bronze sculptor) who were also devout Mormons. Click here for a Chuck Fryberger video of Speed at his family foundry.  The Big D - How Rifle Mountain Park Became the "Land of 5.13d"
Something terrible dwells in the East. Eyes sharper than flints, a back rippling with veins and muscle, its arms long and sinewy, knees covered in a thick, black carapace, this horror is, as we speak, hurtling through the icy maw of the mountains. The beast has rolled the stoutest cord of 60 meters into a black bag, the line coiled like an angry cobra.  A Might Ticklist: Nico Favresse’s Top Sends
Estado Critico (5.14d); Siurana, Spain; Que Trabaja Rita (5.14c); El Chorro, Spain; more than 24 5.14b-and-harder redpoints, five 5.13d onsights, 100-plus 5.13b or harder onsights; Leaning Tower West Face (5.13b A0); Yosemite, California; onsighted 35 of 36 pitches; Red Pillar (VI 5.12b); Fitzroy Range, Patagonia, Argentina; Riders on the Storm (VII 5.12d A3); Torre Central del Paine, Patagonia, Chile ...  Fantasyland - A deranged trip up Cerro Torre
By Kelly Cordes - In 2007, Kelly Cordes and Colin Haley linked two monster routes to climb Cerro Torre base-to-summit in 32 hours. And you know what? It's all good, brah. ... Alex Lowe once said that there are two kinds of climbers: those who climb because their heart sings when they're in the mountains, and all the rest. I'd like to fancy myself the former, though sometimes I wonder.  Crack Addiction - Fissures of the West, from seams to bomb-bays
Story and photos by Andrew Burr - In North America, crack climbing means selfsufficiency: gauging size, assessing your rack, and slamming in gear as needed. It also means favoring technique over power, or rather, learning to harness your inner brute to cup and jam, ring-lock and foot torque, armbar, chimney, and chickenwing — because go-for-broke laybacking and praying for face holds often aren’t “technique” enough.  Stone Monkeys - Visions of the modern-age Stonemasters
By Cedar Wright - Photos by Dean Fidelman - The Stone Monkeys are a slightly more inclusive, modern-day equivalent of the “Stonemasters,” the amorphous band of Valley hardmen who pushed the limits of climbing in the 1970s and ‘80s. However, to be a Stone Monkey, you don’t have to climb hard or be famous (though quite a few Monkeys fit this bill).  The Black Dog - Five first-person riffs on the dark side of the climber mind
By Matt Samet, Kenneth Long, Fitz Cahall, Majka Burhardt, and Chad Shepard - We’ve gathered five essays linked by a common thread: dark manifestations of the climber mind because many climbers face these issues, but cowed by the cacophony of the dirtbag-chic, free-wheelin’ climbing community, silence themselves.  Steve McClure - The Full Interview
By Abbey Smith - Even facing dreary English conditions, no set training schedule, seepy local crags, all-day routesetting sessions to make ends meet, raising a 20-month-old daughter, DIY house-dismantling projects, coaching, and writing, "Strong" Steve McClure still sets world standards.  Assume Nothing
By Chris Kalous - Photos by Dan Gambino - Rain, Rain, and More Rain in Valle Cochamó: The Yosemite of South America - Dan looked like a wet, grumpy turnip. Katie had the Brown-Frown in full dazzle. I was one nipple hair away from throwing a huge wobbler at anybody who dared make eye contact. And Matt? Well, Matt was stoked no matter what.  THUNDERDOME - Dog of Thunder
Story and photos by Charles Edelstein - Measuring up to the first ascent of Dog of Thunder Grade 30+ A0 (5.13 A0) Blouberg North Wall, Limpopo Province. South Africa has a stormy history filled with metaphorical lightning strikes: apartheid, revolution, poverty-afflicted townships.  Line of Control - Bouldering, Big-Walling, and International Conflict in Indian Kashmir
By Micah Dash - Photos by Jonny Copp - “Hey, Jonny, look over yonder,” I said, pointing at distant figures across the Lang Lang Meadow, our little slice of heaven in Indian Kashmir. We — Jonny Copp and I — came here in July 2007 to try a 3,500-foot unclimbed granite wall on an unclimbed peak.  I Boulderer - Yosemite Bouldering
Granite. Black-and-white-speckled, fine-grained, compact, solid stone. Confident, angular boulders sculpted by time and held firmly in place by gravity. Tall, blunt arêtes, mockingly blank. An obtuse, crackless corner. Overhanging faces carved with blocky edges.  Dumby Dave - The Dark Art of Rhapsody
At E11 7a, Rhapsody requires 5.14c climbing with 70-foot fall potential — Dave MacLeod succeeded only after two years and numerous ankle-smashing rippers. He has free-soloed 5.13d and repeated E-desperates throughout the British Isles. He also has climbed 5.14c sport in Spain and established V13.  Blank Check - A trip up the Eigernordwand
Story and photos by Jonny Copp - We roll into Grindelwald with exactly three days to spare, trundling our duffles onto the open-air platform, jumping out, and looking up. There it is: the 6,000-foot North Face of the Eiger.  The King Of Kings
In professional climbing, where talent burns hot and fast, a decade is a long time. Ankles snap. Shoulders pop from sockets. Fingers calcify. And those rare talents that don't succumb to nagging injuries often falter beneath the mental pressure.  The Full Johnny Dawes Interview
Fiercely intelligent, iconoclastic, dancing to the eternal vibrations of the rock that the rest of us just pull past -Johnny Dawes, 43, the irrepressible English climber who brought solid E8 (Gaia, an E8 6c at Black Rocks) and the world's first E9 (Indian Face, E9 6c, 150 feet of technical, 5.12c death at Clogwyn D'ur Arddu) to the world during his manic blitzkrieg in 1986.  Jacinda (JC) Hunter: The Full Interview
Dwindling daylight obscures the mini-crimps on Barbwire Beard, a V11 traverse established by Adam Osterhoff in 2003 that snakes out of a dark cave in Upper Chaos Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). It's a hot, humid, breezeless Saturday - three days climbing out of four for Jacinda (JC) Hunter.  The Color of Life
The accomplished wall specialist Silvia Vidal, 36, of Barcelona, Spain, recently stuck her neck out (solo) on a new Shipton line: Life is Lilac, completed over 21 days this July (10 through 30) and clocking in at 2,900 feet, 5.10 A4+. |
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