Though I’ve been dangling off the cliffs of Yosemite for twenty-plus years now, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with intimidation at the base of the roof crack known as Separate Reality. Taylor and I had just rappelled in, and it was his lead, which was just fine with me. Taylor is a relatively…
It’s the same story the crow told me It’s the only one he knows Like the morning sun you’ll come And like the wind you’ll go —Grateful Dead, “Uncle John’s Band” Hunched over, I begin to carve the plaque for the climb I’ve been obsessing over for the last five years. In that…
Standing there, gaping at this monstrous and inhuman spectacle of rock and cloud and sky and space, I feel a ridiculous greed and possessiveness come over me. I want to know it all, possess it all, embrace the entire scene intimately, deeply, totally, as a man desires a beautiful woman. —Ed Abbey, Desert Solitaire (Note:…
Note: this piece is published in Volume 17, and it is an excerpt from his book, The Desert. Both are now available. Now some men will drive to the edges of nothing So they can take a peek at the great abyss Some men avoid love like it was a plague or something So they…
Do only writers cry when a writer dies? Do only musicians cry when a guitar player dies? Do only climbers cry when a climber dies? Lately I’ve cried from my eyes when people I don’t know die And lately there’s been a lot of them by Luke Mehall (note: this piece is…
My dear friend Gregory Pettys insisted I check out Substack, and though I’ve only been dabbling for a week, I get it. Substack seems like a great opportunity for someone like myself: an independent publisher and writer. I’ve been on this path since I published my first zine in 2007. I’ve published five books of…
My phone was blowing up before I even read the editorial. Last week the Dana Johnson of the group Wilderness Watch published a syndicated piece titled, Mountains Don’t Need Hardware. The article strung together a series of falsehoods to argue that the proposed “Protect America’s Rock Climbing Act” was a way for climbers to show…
Just over seven months ago I got a vasectomy, and I promised myself I’d document the process. Surprisingly, I received more feedback, messages, and comments than anything I’ve written in the last year. Most of that came from women, many of them thanking me, which was interesting. by Luke Mehall, banner photo by Jake Burchmore …