Destinations

In July and early August, the Swiss team of Giovanni Quirici, Francesco Pellanda and Christophe Steck made a near free ascent of Gran Diedre Desploma...

San Diego's premier crag, El Cajon, has been targeted by an individual bent on removing or destroying fixed anchors and bolts. According to local Chris Hubbard, who co-authored the San Diego County Climbing Guide with Dave Kennedy, the vandal has chopped 16 100-foot sport pitches at El Cajon and several routes at Mission Gorge.

There's nothing wrong with spending a summer in Vancouver when Squamish is your backyard, I just wanted more this year. Then the phone rang."Come to California," Trev said. "We'll climb some real mountains. There's a couple of Grade Vs I want to get on."

Mongolia was everything he wanted, until something went wrong. Nathan Smith journeys to Mongolia in seek of first ascents on the crags and boulders there.

Long, airy moderates like Prince of Darkness (5.10c), Epinephrine (5.9) and Crimson Chrysalis (5.8) made Red Rock Canyon famous. But what most climbers don't know about this 196,000-acre national conservation area just outside of Las Vegas is how much more potential it has -- and yet, more unfortunately, how much potential there is to lose.

The thought of a 200-pound cougar lurking somewhere in the old-growth cedars injected a spring into my step as I battled up the steep back-side trail on Squamish Chief. This dome-shaped mountain and its gorgeous granite walls loom over the 100-year-old logging town of Squamish, nestled at the head of an inlet on British Columbia's lush West Coast.

Ice climbers in Montana are getting ready to pull off their gloves: not to clip a screw, but to keep access to Hyalite Canyon.

In late November, Mike Doyle redpointed Lucifer (5.14c), a long-standing project at the Purgatory crag, to establish what is now considered the hardest route in the Red River Gorge.

FOUR YEARS AFTER Dean Potter made the first free ascent of the immaculately cleaved Epitaph (5.13) just outside Moab, Utah, Brian Kimball sacked up f...

ALL-FEMALE TEAM FREE CLIMBS ZION CLASSIC!

RYAN NELSON AND CRYSTAL DAVIS-ROBBINS, both of Colorado, established a 3,300-foot new route on the unclimbed south face of La Aguja de L'S (7,660 feet...

Wharton entering the crux (5.13) of the Black Canyon's hardest free pitch to date, and (below) one move later, the real business.IN AP...In April, Josh Wharton and Mike Pennings completed The Black Sheep (5.12 A0), a new route in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado. Originally Pennings' vision, the line took the two three years to finish.