Climb long enough and you’ll have a close encounter ... or several. Mine was in 1986 at Arches National Monument, five minutes up the black- top north of Moab.

Chasing ghosts on Hawaiian sea cliffs.

Remote, unknown and protected by a scarcity of information, Maine's Mount Katahdin, with 4,000 feet of elevation gain, arctic weather and big, bold alpine and rock routes, may be the Northeast's best-kept secret.

For someone who was born without a sense of smell, and especially for a young dirtbag climber who lived out of his van, Ben Strohmeier kept himself remarkably free of offensive funk. Whether he was washing his beloved dog just in case she stinks, or asking someone to pick out a nice deodorant for him the day before his girlfriend arrived, he paid great attention to this particular detail.

The luck of finding the perfect line leads to a fall from grace.

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.