“Hey, wake up. Wake up!” Brian whispered harshly. “There’s someone out there.” I half opened an eye and begrudgingly listened to the deafening silence. “I don’t hear anything man, I’m sure it’s nothing.” “SHHHHH!!!!” Brian’s face was pressed against the mesh fabric of the tent, as he peered out into the darkness. I thought of…
For Sara Rosecrans, banner photo of Sara by Meg LaHatte Give me the words to describe the blue I see when my eyes are barely cracked. Give me the tools to plaster my body to the desert wall and watch for centuries as the world is eroded into new meaning. Give me…
Living on the road feels like traveling through space in a spaceship. You are in your car spaceship, flying in your little capsule alongside your fellow space travelers, zooming along the interstates and through infinite emptiness in a martian land. Banner art and story by Marina Hansen, published in Volume 20, now available …
“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…
When life looks like Easy Street There is danger at your door —Grateful Dead, “Uncle John’s Band” I’m sitting here writing on a cold October morning in El Potrero Chico; yesterday seemed to be summer, and today old man winter showed up. It’s the type of weather, combined with all the war and sadness in…
Story/poetry list for our new Zine, Volume 25, which is now printed. Big congratulations to all the writers. Due to the high volume of material we are sent for consideration only 1-2% of the pieces we are submitted are eventually published in The Climbing Zine! You can order/subscribe here. Dirtbag by Sam MacIlwaine Words for…
The beauty is in the simplicity. A hunger fed by nature, a modern way of experiencing nature. We were driven out there for different reasons—some of us introduced to rock climbing at a young age, in a responsible manner. For others, including myself, it was trial by fire. note: this is an excerpt from American…
I won’t say that I’m afraid of heights, but to be standing on the edge of anything looking down more than 50 feet or so gives me a funny feeling in the abdomen from just below the sternum all the way down to where the feeling translates into a moderate concern about bladder control. It’s…