The construction style “Mussy Hook” has always been one of my least favorite pieces of climbing hardware to see at an anchor. They tend to get sharp quite easily from wear and tear, and their gates often stop functioning properly, leaving an open part of the biner in the system. Reviewed by: Shaun Matusewicz, Senior…
Doing a gear review Climbing Zine style for a rope is difficult. For starters our method for reviewing gear is simple: we use it in our normal day-to-day climbing, as anyone else would. We pay attention to what we like, and what we don’t. by Luke Mehall Ropes are tricky because any rope can get a…
Squish Squash, Squish Squash, Squish, the English mud through my toes feels soothing as I perch 30 feet above a poor cam in rotten rock on this small ledge listening to intimidating ocean waves smash the cliffs below. During WWII, Nazi bombs exploded over this Island landscape spurring Winston Churchill to urge his citizens to…
Hayden, I am just so sad that you’re gone. The news struck me like a train. It literally knocked me off my feet. Since then I have felt waves of sadness and spasms of tears that continue to bring me to my knees. The circumstances of your death still seem utterly impossible to me. I…
Note: this piece was originally written for The Gulch, a fine, free magazine out of Durango, Colorado. Enormocast: climbing’s favorite podcast Reviewed by: Luke Mehall There I was—in a rundown motel in Salt Lake City sitting across from Chris Kalous cracking my second beer of the afternoon. The lighting was dark, but the conversation was…
Dusk comes gold Off the dust of farmlands Where tractors still plow Fields nestled below mountains Dressed in ribbons of ash. Forest fires burn fifty miles away I pray for this landscape The surreal beauty. Dangerous beauty. Gone-in-an-instant beauty Made glorious by this chance of disaster Mount Hood is the color of the…
Volume 12 is now printed and can be ordered here. The story only version is also available on Kindle. Below is a list of the essays included in Volume 12. Cover shot is of Pete Whittaker on the Lamb of God in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Photo by Tom Randall. Back cover shot of Joshua Tree National Park…
Again, this one starts with a crying baby. This time the baby is Isabella, and we’re deep in a wild Mexican canyon called El Salto, an hour from cell service, fifteen minutes from a village where people don’t even have landlines or interwebs. Paradise. I’m watching her sleep, pondering her preciousness and the delicate nature…