John Bachar laces up his boots and cinches the sling on his chalk bag. “Ready?” Only then do I realize he means to climb all two thousand feet solo, without a rope. To save face, I agree, thinking: Well, if he suggests something too crazy, I’ll just draw the line. I was the first to start soloing out at Josh anyhow....

Over four days in May 2012, around 250 Westerners and 270 Sherpas and Tibetans summited Mount Everest. For many, attaining the highest point on Earth was the culmination of endless training, personal sacrifices and hard work to achieve a meaningful and fulfilling lifelong dream....

Years ago, before the invention of the chocolate-covered espresso bean, I started each morning at a bivy by eating coffee grounds, and at times would carry a stove and espresso maker to the crag, both for enjoyment and as a guarantee. It is not far fetched to say that drinking coffee is as important to your climbing success as dusting your hands with chalk. If I could only have one, I’d choose coffee....

Legendary hold shaper Ian Powell comes to grips with addiction, destruction and his own creative form....

Paul Schweizer revisited his old haunt of Yosemite Valley as a guest of the American Alpine Club, representing Scotland and the MCofS....

Three weeks ago, on February 11, Dan Osman would have turned 50. He died 15 years ago this year. A friend remembers adventures in bridge jumping with this climber and rope jumper who went bigger and bigger....

A leading American tours the birthplace of bouldering, Fontainebleau, France, and reports on how for a hundred years “Font” has been the stage for the most difficult moves on rock. ...

The first ascent of the Great Slab on El Cap sparked climbing’s biggest character assassination, a fit that began with chopped ropes and now, nearly 30 years later continues with online vitriol that is piled nearly as high as the Big Stone itself. With the second ascent of the wall completed just this summer after countless days and some 500 feet of falls, redemption for the FA team may finally be at hand....

I had never kissed a girl, so when a naked one came up to me and started asking questions about the climb I had just tried, I was a little thrown. Painfully shy, I’d always wondered how I would ever ask a girl to go climbing, and now a naked one was here asking me if I knew of a place where she could learn....

If you ask climbers what our favorite part of climbing is, we would say solving problems. Well, we might actually say, “slaying the Gnar,” or “sending the chronicles of Gnarnia with advanced kneebar techgnarlogy,” or even just, “taking a dump on a route,” but we all mean the same thing, and that is we enjoy figuring out solutions to vertical challenges....

It is a shocking image. Alone on a snowy trail lies the shapeless form of Cleo Weidlich, her body—it appears—on the verge of fatal exhaustion. Hours before, Weidlich had become the first American woman to make the summit of Kangchenjunga—but now her fight to reach basecamp seems almost lost. Her Sherpa guides are nowhere to be seen.
...

What could ever take the place of skateboarding? A well-landed 180 heelflip down a staircase, a noseblunt slide, a melancholy off a kicker or eating concrete: these esoteric terms could only hatch from a sport that is lived, not played. ...

Johnny Groppenbocher sped through the first few bolts of Pinch Fest (5.12b) in the Ruckman Cave at Rifle Mountain Park. It was 2006, and I belayed as he entered the big moves on slick crimps. He looked strong, but at the crux he started to redline. Groppenbocher was iron-crossed between two holds with elbows chicken winging when his right foot popped off. ...

Jorge Colon took numerous wrong turns but eventually we arrived at the largest slaughterhouse on the island of Puerto Rico. Jorge, a local climber and a dog lover who runs a kennel, had come here so he could purchase an industrial-sized bone cutter and a large bag of bovine tripe to be used for dog food. ...

My home in Colorado is day-tripping distance from the Diamond, but every summer for the last few years I have forsaken the Rockies to answer the siren call of California’s High Sierra. ...

I’m not a badass trad climber. Actually, I don’t own a single cam, tri-cam, nut tool or gear sling. My rack consists of 15 quickdraws and, when I’m pumped and cruxing, I grab them.
I fall. I project. I redpoint. I’m a sport climber. ...

The mossy green forest of Magic Woods radiates upward out of the steep valley until it meets the sharp, snow-capped peaks of the Swiss Alps. The contrast is sublime....

The best bet I ever lost was with Andy Burr over which of us was crazy enough to jump off the 50-plus-foot Henningsvaser, Norway, bridge. At home I jump into the Colorado River after nearly every climbing trip, and at my first look at the bridge, I said, “I’ve run bigger waterfalls than this in my kayak. I’m jumping in.” ...

After years of stagnation, Ice and Mixed climbing take an evolutionary leap forward on Helmcken Falls....

From my vantage beneath a steep bouldering wall at the Movement climbing gym, called by some “the best crag in Boulder,” I sat hypnotized by the sight of a tight little package, all hot with hair full of body and bounce, pumping an elliptical machine. I enjoyed this nice moment until the guy (jerk) next to her diverted my attention....