Three fatalities on this one route alone underscore the seriousness of jugging fixed ropes. Though seemingly simple and safe, this task, like rappelling, is one of climbing’s most insidious killers. The good news is that, as with rappelling, a few simple precautions can minimize the risk.

The cement-bucket drop test, swami belts and the beginning of the end of a fabled climbing club.

Alpinist Steve House gives the skinny on his favorite 5.10

"Good night, Chuck. We'll shoot the gun and throw the hatchet after coffee tomorrow morning," BJ Tilden speaks these last words as everyone around the campfire nods, and retires to tents and sleeping bags. Lander, Wyoming, is cowboy country, where people still varnish holsters, chew tobacco and use horses as transportation, and where unsung climbing talents like BJ Tilden are hard at work sending the climbing projects of the last decade.

Where are all the dirtbags? I'm not talking about these imposter dirtbags, the new-age lurkers taking up all the parking spots at Camp 4, Indian Creek and Miguel's Pizza with their pimped-out, Direct TV-receiving Sprinter vans that look like college dorm rooms on 26s.

CARABINERS ARE THE one piece of climbing gear you can never have enough of. Paradoxically, like socks and beer, they vanish as mysteriously as if they’d been put on a log raft and sent down the Amazon—for every two carabiners I acquire, one runs off.