I first got tendonosis in my right elbow (medial epicondyle) in 2001 bouldering on plastic. Resting, icing and stretching did not work. I tried cortisone, prednisone, a physical therapist who did massage and Ionto-phoresis for a few weeks (which in hindsight was hocus-pocus), with no long-term improvement.

If your forearms inflate like balloons and your fingers always seem to uncurl just before the anchors, then this two-part series on endurance training is just what you’re looking for.

What is the best way to chop a rusty quarter-inch split-shank Rawl bolt? The crowbar is trashing the rock, and the bolt isn't moving. The bolt is placed in a dish, so I can't get a hacksaw in there. Can I use a cold chisel? Any other ideas?

Toproping is so safe it’s virtually foolproof, right? Think again. Just a brief belay lapse can produce high loads, testing the holding power of your gear. Rock and Ice field-tests real-world climbing scenarios.

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.

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.

John Bachar leaves the indelible stamp of the generation active from the mid-1970s into the 1980s. Many of them are gone or retired now, but Bachar, and what he meant to climbing, will remain.