Ron Kauk

The 16-year-old climber has sent Ron Kauk’s Yosemite masterpiece (5.13d)—just the latest in a series of impressive climbs.

Kauk dishes on the process of sending one of the hardest traditionally-protected pitches in the world.

A select (not exhaustive!) timeline of many of the major moments in the history of free climbing on the Big Stone.

He first repeated the route in December 2016, but this time he did in the best style possible, upping the grade and thereby making it one of the single hardest pitches in Yosemite.

On February 16, Jim “The Bird” Bridwell, captain of numerous El Cap voyages of physical and psychological expansion, inventor, writer, thinker and fashion setter died of complications from hepatitis C. He was 73.

The most famous boulder problem in the world.

John Bachar was a premier free soloist, legendary Stonemaster and climbing visionary. He died on July 5, 2009. This was his last interview.

I had never kissed a girl, so when a naked one came up to me and started asking questions about the climb I had just tried, I was a little thrown. Painfully shy, I’d always wondered how I would ever ask a girl to go climbing, and now a naked one was here asking me if I knew of a place where she could learn.