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…
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…
A preseason episode before we launch Season 7. Originally aired in 2020 near the end of Season 1. Season 7 kicks off later this month.
It starts with a plan like a break in the clouds. We set out thinking on the lines, the foods, the sunrises and campfires, the saving up. And then you set to with the forty-second aspen tree planted that day, the twenty-third special with sauce on the side, the eighty-first stone laid, the fifteenth pair…
“Keep dreamin’, stay hungry, and remember that there is no finish line.” This quote by Todd Skinner in the opening pages of the book Hangdog Days by Jeff Smoot gave me chills the first time I read it. In the pages that followed, I felt history come to life as I read tale after…
Dearest Luke, I have been meaning to write to you for some time, but I have Zine 23 fresh on my mind and some spare time, so here it goes. I don’t even know where to begin with this. My name is Tavish, and I’m a twenty-three-year-old climber from Seattle. I managed to end up…
“I am glad / For every thought that puts my memory / On my past time.” —Michelangelo This piece is published in Volume 19 of The Climbing Zine. Banner photo of Layton Kor by Paul Mayrose Nothing slowed Layton Kor. April, 1962, he drove to Yosemite with Jack Turner and wrote me a…
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,…