Screams are a colorful thing. Each one has its own distinct message. An anger, a joy, a pain. The nature of each rings clear somewhere deep in our instincts. From the sound alone, you can practically see the scrunched nose and raised upper lip of a shout delivered in loud fury. Yet slightly muffled as…
I don’t have climbing heroes, because, to paraphrase The Big Lebowski, what’s a hero, anyway? There are a few climbers that I look to for inspiration though, and at the top of that list is the duo known as the Wideboyz: Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker. They have a deep love and commitment to…
In 2016 at the International Climbers’ Festival in Lander, Wyoming, we held a “love letter to climbing” contest. Ana Ally was the winner, this is her letter. Enjoy. Banner photo of the author by Scott Keating Climbing, my love. As I sit here, I struggle to find the right words to describe you. I am about…
Ring the bells in elegy For the last engine Of the last Saturn On (semi) permanent loan From the buddy of the last dirtbag To struggle off rock You were bitching the other day That the artists weren’t starving anymore That the spirit was no longer willing to suffer for it maybe, But the flesh…
Fifteen meters up Rutabaga, a moderate 5.9 splitter at the base of Squamish, BC’s Stawamus Chief, stretches a traverse between cracks. The move crosses jugs and offers fine, slabby feet, but still, I find it exhilarating. In fact, for reasons related only slantwise to climbing, it is exactly the sort of move that I seek…
by Joanna Spindler, published in Volume 16, now available. Banner art by Rhiannon Williams We didn’t have much time Because an evening wind was rising. We didn’t have much time and what was left began to wisp away, suspended in the particles of ice. We didn’t have much time. We searched the fringe of cliffs…
This is the most beautiful place on Earth, but of course, like Cactus Ed Abbey said, every person carries in their heart an image of the ideal place, the right place. This is just the right place for me. But, right now, something is not right, and it’s pitch black anyways, no beauty to be…
