The Climbing Zine is celebrating 15 years of being in print, and we’re kicking off this year’s “Zine Things” in our hometown of Durango, Colorado. Come join us for this free event on Thursday, April 24th. Banner photo of Adam Ferro on the second ascent of “The Love Movement” at East Animas, Durango, Colorado. Photo:…
It’s rare to be told by an editor that you can write whatever you want, but that’s how this essay got started. Since the seed was planted, the publication with said editor didn’t come to fruition, but I wrote out this piece, and I want to share it. by Luke Mehall, publisher of The Climbing…
The Climbing Zine is now accepting stories, photography, and art for our 2025 volume. Below are our loose guidelines. Words The Climbing Zine publishes thought provoking essays, stories, and poetry. Word count can be anywhere from 200 to 10,000. Our aim to publish work that focuses on the essence of climbing; we’ll publish accounts of…
Words are from the traditional song “Wild Mountain Thyme.” The basis of this trip was simple: climb rocks and drink scotch. The weather, being highly Scottish, even in the so-called drier month of May, lent itself more to the latter than the former. But hey, we still managed nine days of climbing out of twenty;…
A second preseason episode before we kick off Season 7. A letter and poem for our dear friend Kurt Blair, who passed away last year. Poem read by Marcus Garcia, and letter read by host Luke Mehall.
Four fingers grip an empty cup. “Go back to your country, terrorist!” a stranger spits, tossing his beer on me as his eyes survey my Middle Eastern features in disgust. Budweiser drips down my cheeks and onto my American flag T-shirt as cars race the Indy 500 track in circles on a hot summer day…
The young buck who offers to take us up Time Wave Zero instead drinks twenty-eight Tecates and keeps the hot tub party going until 2am; The silent and slight European who walks slumped and duck-footed seamlessly climbs 12a and slouches away, unexpectedly the most badass climber in Virgin Canyon; The excitable new guy…
Note from the editor of the Valley of Giants book, Lauren DeLaunay Miller: A book about the women of Yosemite would not be complete without Beth Rodden. From teen comp phenom to freeing El Cap, Beth’s name was synonymous with hard climbing for over a decade. In many ways, her first ascent of Meltdown, one…