The fall was unexpected to say the least. With a building momentum from years of experience, the send seemed inevitable. But the crux was hidden in the folds of the future and unfortunately, feature-length climbing films lost their grip, and have taken a huge whipper. I’m just hoping the gear holds. ...

Spring has finally arrived here in the mountains of Colorado and I’m at a popular climbing area observing the outbreak of life. By far the most prevalent call, however, is the cry of the Colorado fussy snivel: it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s toooo hot....

Dr. Tom Willis had been up all night at the Northern Navajo Medical Center, even participating in emergency surgery, but after returning 50 miles home to Cortez he drove over to Road M. At 8:20 a.m. on Saturday, he knocked on a door. A guy in shorts, a cup of coffee in hand, answered. ...

It all started when Tim Mutrie, area writer and ski mountaineer, posted a photo on FB and asked, “What’s the story with this gear?” Ten years ago, while working as a reporter at the Aspen Times, he found a dusty old backpack filled with gear in a back closet of the office building. ...

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....

A simple house chore saves the author from being swept away in an avalanche....

On March 31, the legendary chalk-drawn lightning bolt beneath Yosemite valley's Midnight Lightning (V8) was removed under the cover of night. Claims surfaced that the bolt had lost its magic. Was this true? ...

Tomorrow is May 1, the official beginning of Evere$t $ummit $ea$on. Just as basketball has March Madness, climbers have May on Everest, AKA Mayhem. Like a huge and dangerous soap-opera set, each May the flanks of Everest are overrun with humanity engaging in every sin from rampant fornication to shameless acquisitiveness. ...

That was our corner, where the bombs exploded, where any of us who watched were smiling or crying. Those people are all of us....

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....

Ah…spring is here! And with the thaw of winter, climbers in my neck of the woods (the Colorado Rockies) return to the rock like newborn babes. At least I do. With soft skin, flabby muscles and a wobbly head, I’ll crawl out from the dark cave of winter a born-again gumby. ...

Regardless of how many confirmed 5.14ds there are in the States, to me it’s interesting that a decidedly part-time climber put up one of the most difficult routes on the continent at a backwater crag in Texas. How can that even happen? Well, one reason is Rupesh Chhagan....

What do Lindsey Vonn and Alex Honnold have in common? And what not?...

Last week when the British alpinist Jonathan Griffith linked, solo, in winter, in a day, the North Faces of Aiguille Verte, Les Courtes and Les Droites, down climbing two of the faces and skiing off the backside of the third and final climb, most people skipped the news. ...

Alex Honnold and I have a secret. That’s right. Alex Honnold—the boldest climber in the world—and I (a nobody) share an intimate secret. ...

His axe was still raised. He glanced away, refusing again to connect, his eyes the same color as the ice. The scene was straight out of a Neruda poem, I thought, the one about the cruel wind slaughtering butterflies. Or maybe something from Eliot? Me and the grump were Prufrocks measuring out our lives with coffee spoons, hollow men engaged in an expiring pursuit. How terribly, terribly sad. I sniffed. ...