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The Evening Sends Guide to Building Your First Trad Rack
Everyone should climb trad—or at least know how. Proficient trad-climbing skills are like having an all-access pass to some of the most badass and iconic cliffs in the world, from Yosemite to Arapiles...
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Why Resistance Climbing Remains Relevant
I never expected that a film about rock climbing in the occupied West Bank of Palestine would ever receive so much attention and acclaim, especially more than a year after its release. The film,...
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A Small, Conditional Defense of Having No Beta
Have you ever gone to a new crag without a guidebook and just picked a route that looks good to you and climbed it? You don’t know how hard it is, what its name is, whether it’s runout or safe, if it’s...
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Don’t Tell Me You’re in Redpoint Mode When You’re Not
New-ish climbers can be myopic in ways that one might call annoying. I really want to be the kind of magnanimous person who can take that big noob energy and help guide it to align with the norms of...
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A Crag Pack That Fits It All: Mammut Neon 55
The category of “crag packs” has come a long way over the past decade, as companies continue to refine and reimagine what a pack should deliver for outdoor climbers. “Cragging” is jargon that refers to...
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How to Make the Climbing Olympics (Even) Better
Monday morning quarterbacking is a time-honored tradition in comp climbing. A lot of people today may not remember this but, years ago, comp climbing was very much up for public comment. All aspects of...
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Not Very Demure: The Limits of Self-promotion in Climbing
Climbers have historically viewed self-promoters with disdain. The idea is that if you climb hard enough, you don’t need to self-promote. The climbs would speak for themselves. Fame, attention, and...
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Selling Out is No Big Deal
Scrolling through the Hunger Games-style dystopia of Instagram recently, I noticed how many influencers are now making sponsored content as a meta/ironic commentary on sponsored content itself. For the...
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Foot of Everest Finally Found
For eons, Mount Everest has inspired awe and respect as the world’s tallest mountain, a symbol of everything that makes the humans who climb it superior to those who don’t. Yet it is also the site of...
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Dave Pegg Tribute: Leading a Wide Life, Even in Death
I originally published this story in spring of 2016, but on the 10 year anniversary of Dave Pegg’s death, I wanted to republish and give people a chance to remember his contributions, personality,...
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Review: The Mammut 9.5 Alpine Core Protect Rope
Once upon a time, my home sport crag was littered with aging aluminum carabiners that had filed down to razor-sharp blades from all the sport-wanking and projecting that goes on here. There were a few...
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New Trend: Rawdogging the Climbing Gym
As climbing gyms continue to expand across America, more and more and more (and more) people are discovering the joy and challenge of using only their hands and feet to climb sets of colorful plastic...
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The Curious Case of a Bolted Petroglyph
Across the border from Dinosaur, Colorado, the northeastern corner of Utah looks like a barren wasteland to the undiscerning eye. In fact, this region is filled with ancient treasures hidden among...
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Bouldering Videos are Too Long
When I started writing about climbing, bouldering had just become “cool.” It was the thing to do, but it was also the thing to shit-talk, especially among climbing’s wise and experienced elders. To be...
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Climbing fiction, AI, and the death of Outside
My friend Duane Raleigh, longtime publisher of Rock and Ice magazine, once rope-soloed a first ascent on a tower in Arches National Park. He reached the top in the dark but didn’t have a headlamp. He...
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Rock Hard Synergy: Who Should Buy Our Public Lands?
Emboldened by the return of Dear Leader, who rose from the smoldering ashes of pronoun sign-offs and fascist diversity trainings, Republicans have charged into this congressional session with their...
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Made from Recycled Ropes: the Mammut Sender IN
I grew up thinking drugs were bad and recycling was good, and it’s only later in life that I’ve learned that both of those things aren’t exactly true. Recycling, in an ideal world, makes sense, but...
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