I've been climbing for 30 years and just noticed a lump forming in the palm of each hand between the bones that extend down from my ring fingers and pinkies. The lump doesn't hurt but it looks like somebody slipped a peanut into my hand. WTF?

Malcolm Smith said, Finger strength is everything and if you lay down a foundation back in 1992 at the age of 18.

It's easier to set an ice screw into an existing hole than to place one from scratch, but does reusing a hole compromise the placement's strength?

No commitment—not even the one to your SO—is as binding as that of the belay. When you hold the rope, your partner’s life is in your hands. Screw up this marriage and you give new meaning to the vow “till death do us part.”

The search for the source.

IN THE UPPER REACHES OF Boulder Canyon, in an area called Upper Dream Canyon, is an awesome crack with a convoluted history.

"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.