A black fin of sandstone protrudes from the right side of the crack. I pinch it like a tufa and look up at the iron ring. Next stop, ring, I tell myself. Feet up, then hands. I layback the crack for a few moves and then pull in to stand atop the fin. It wiggles…
At some point in my early to midtwenties, I came to the conclusion that life is not about rock climbing. There’s just too much other crazy shit happening every day on this beautiful clump of space dust. The older I get, however, the more I realize that climbing is most certainly about life. At the…
In the late 1300s, experts point to drought and other environmental stressors impacting the Puebloan people in the Southwest leading toward societal collapse. My people, the Diné, the Athabaskan-speaking migrants from the north, also began to place pressures on these societies. Resources like food and water became increasingly scarce, and preventing theft or raids by…
It is like any other start to a day of climbing in the Black Canyon. Dave and I are up before the sun, throwing down coffee and a quick breakfast, and assembling all the hardware needed for the day’s climb. We gently descend down the Cruise Gully, careful not to dislodge any loose rocks, with…
Luke and Gene take The Freedom Mobile to Yosemite, to get a taste of failure and success on big walls. Pooping in a poop tube, hauling, jumaring, lower-outs, and all the other random skills one needs to climb high. Subscribe/ get a copy of The Zine here: https://shop.climbingzine.com/ Read more stories/watch videos/explore: http://www.climbingzine.com Support on…
Acknowledging the roots and conceptualizations of the outdoor activities that we so passionately pursue enriches our participation and ties us to the land, as well as to one another. When we view our industry through a historical lens, we inevitably hear about John Muir, Sir Edmund Hillary, Royal Robbins, and other giants of outdoor recreation.…
To Roy McClenahan by way of The Climbing Zine, Glancing through the pages of Volume 16 of The Climbing Zine in my local climbing gym in Missoula, Montana—a setting that feels a galaxy apart from the rugged hill country of east San Diego County where I grew up—I was stopped in my tracks when…
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