The 2020 John Long Writing Symposium, hosted by Rock and Ice and sponsored by Adidas in Carbondale, Colorado, will run from July 6-11. Reserve your spot today! Email Rock and Ice editor Francis Sanzaro fsanzaro@bigstonepub.com
Kelly Tufo and Dave Kellogg were making the final moves up a four-pitch route at Tahquitz, California, when things suddenly went awry. Seconds later, both lay dying at the base of the cliff, still roped together, one with an equalized belay sling at his waist. What could have gone so wrong?
Rock and Ice Executive Editor Alison Osius shares her favorite 5.10.
As a climber of decades, primarily aware of what a given sequence would take anyone, I forget about gender differences—until they get me.
Squinting across and up the gully I saw a backlit brown disk, spinning, the size of a couch pillow, heading straight toward me.
“Well, I use my feet a lot better than you do,” my friend Ben said. Well, he was right. This conversation occurred years ago in France, when I was first experiencing sport climbing. Ben was not simply putting his shoes on the rock carefully, but adding an active element: “You can grab with your feet and pull yourself in,” he said. It’s a lesson I’ve passed to many since then, and is crucial on steep ground.
Sasha DiGiulian was the first American woman to onsight 5.14a, and then the first to climb 5.14d. She is often considered one of the greatest female onsight climbers in history. Check out this profile of the little girl that pulls BIG.