Posts Tagged ‘trad’

  • Climbing Past War by Stacy Bare

    May 26, 19 • 9168 Views • Locations • • 1 Comment

    The uninitiated, those who don’t climb, always ask me why I do. I normally begin my response with the statement that I don’t climb enough. I’m a marginal climber at best and am thankful for many far superior climbing partners who humor me struggling up...

  • Where The Winds Hit Heavy by Matt Spohn

    Dec 13, 18 • 984 Views • Locations • • No Comments

    The granite escarpments of Castle Crags silhouetted the western skyway, massive gargoyles hunched and staring. I thought of my mother’s words: “Don’t do that. You’ll get hurt. Be safe. You’re going to die.” Sentences that salted every conversation...

  • Flirting with The Nose In A Day in The Valley of Stone

    Jun 22, 17 • 10645 Views • Climbing Culture • • 2 Comments

    “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goerte I grew up in the traditions of western science and puritan pragmatism. Success is earned through work, luck is the sum of preparation, a penny saved is a...

  • From Midas’s Touch to A Green Thumb: Remembering Doug Tompkins by Joy Martin

    May 18, 17 • 4708 Views • Dirtbagging • • No Comments

    Doug Tompkins opens the door to a South American summer evening. At seventy-one—stooped and shuffling, a button-down shirt tucked into khakis and held up with a leather belt—he’s not exactly the climbing jock he once was. Looking up through kind, brown...

  • Awake On El Cap by Tristan Greszko

    Feb 21, 17 • 8107 Views • Climbing Culture • • 2 Comments

    Awake. Alone. It’s 3 am. Only two more hours to sleep, the clock is ticking. The world is silent.  Maybe there’s a breath of wind here and there.  Late July in California and it isn’t hot at all – I’m in a big puffy coat, sitting on a...

  • Jugs on Jugs by Gaelen Engler

    Feb 8, 17 • 42395 Views • Climbing Culture • • 22 Comments

    Pulling into The Chief campground in Squamish for my first time, I had to double-check the sign to make sure my boyfriend and I hadn’t driven into the training ground for a traveling circus. Uncoordinated, poutin-hungry tourists from China and Montreal...

  • A Climber In The Winter of His Content

    Jan 28, 17 • 8004 Views • Indian Creek • • 1 Comment

    “You know there’s something special you’re needing. And you know there’s no drug that’ll do the healing, and no liquor in the land to stop your brain from bleeding. You need something special to open up a new door, to show you something you’ve...

  • Sacred Space by Drew Thayer (art by Rhiannon Williams)

    Jul 31, 16 • 2254 Views • Locations • • No Comments

    Right now, this detail is all that matters: the carabiner just fell back into the crack, and you’re staring it down as if it’s the only damn thing in the whole universe. Your middle finger brushes it aside on the first pass, then just lightly levers it...