The distinction between a “climber” and “someone who climbs” has always fascinated me; it’s a nuance I’ve observed throughout a decade of routesetting, teaching, and exploring anyplace I could find rock. These observations started small, with friends who found the sport around the same time I did. Gradually, one by one, they stopped telling people,…
Our second episode for Season 2. We are continuing on with The Desert, as the author explores the climbing around Grand Junction. Support The Zine + our podcast by picking up a book, zine, sub, merch. This link will get you 25% off anything in our online store: https://shop.climbingzine.com/discount/DIRTBAG%2520PODCAST Read more stories/watch videos/explore: http://www.climbingzine.com
“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 penny earned. Claims that the universe provides if…
We’re back baby! Season 2 kicks off with “The Desert and The Dog” the beginning of The Desert. Support The Zine + our podcast by picking up a book, zine, sub, merch. This link will get you 25% off anything in our online store: https://shop.climbingzine.com/discount/DIRTBAG%2520PODCAST Read more stories/watch videos/explore: http://www.climbingzine.com
Over hundreds of thousands of years, water has trickled, raged, and poured down cracks and creases, winding and weaving through rock rugosities, and worn paths through weaknesses to form (what is now known as) Canyonlands. by Pete Whittaker note: this piece appears in Volume 12. After another trip there this fall, I got to witness…
The Factory Bouldering Gym in Orange, California, was by no means small, but it felt small that day. In addition to us thirty-one routesetters, there were about thirty or so people that were siphoning in for their late-afternoon sessions. The judges had just passed out our results and were preparing to announce the winners and…
I guess you could call it a town. It’s open three or four months per year. Driving east, hues of dark green, azure, and gold flicker along the extended cracks on the windshield. A serpentine road curves through pine forests and atop steep inclines, tracing edges of valleys, the rim of the lake. by Alexa…
I started climbing in Durango, Colorado, a small and isolated burg on the edge of the desert and the mountains, pushing up against the mesa farmlands that run along scarce western rivers. All climbing called to me: Mini routes in the alpine above Silverton, Telluride, and Ouray scared the hell out of me with choss,…