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Climbing Magazine Feature Articles
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 COCHISE WHISPERS
Inner and outer worlds collide in an Arizona granite hideaway - By Fitz Cahall and photos by James Q Martin - Well lubricated with Pinot Gris, “Pig” careened around the campfire like a gyroscope. “Cochise Stronghold is a promised land,” he said, nodding preacherly. Shadows capered on the rock behind him, here in Joshua Tree’s overcrowded Hidden Valley Campground.  Get Shorty - The 5 best miniature sport routes in America
By Matt Samet - “These days, sport routes are getting longer,” says the sport-climbing progenitor Boone Speed. Speed would know: he recently photographed Chris Sharma on his 250-foot mega-pitch Jumbo Love, a 5.15 in California that’s emerged as North America’s longest, most difficult stretch of bolted rock. As Speed says, ultra-marathon endurance, especially on steep terrain, has become all the rage: there’s Jumbo Love; the new 300-foot Ichiban, a 5.14 in Austria’s Zillertal; the 170-foot 5.15a La Novena Enmienda (a 65-foot 5.14c linked into a 105-foot enduro-pig 5.14b), at Santa Linya, Spain.  Almost Free: Mark Hudon Shares Memories of a Bid to Free El Capitan's Salathe Wall, in 1979
Nine years before Skinner and Piana freed the Salathé Wall, two of the era’s top free climbers, Mark Hudon and Max Jones, put in a solid bid that freed all but 300 feet of the route. On P18 — the Double Cracks — freed at 5.13b by Skinner and fearsome enough to be mostly avoided to this day, Jones, lowering after each fall to a no-hands stance, linked all but the final four moves.  The Guidebook Odyssey - Unearthing the epic task of writing a guidebook
Never a fan of guidebooks, I’ve long had a “just pick a route that looks good and climb“ mentality. “It’s supposed to be an adventure!“ I’d tell myself. This attitude carried me haphazardly (yet miraculously without incident) through many climbing trips. Until one fateful day at Colorado‘s Eldorado Canyon.  Sand Blasted - Travel Travails and Epic Limestone in the Taghia Gorge, Morocco
Climbers, mainly French and Spanish, have come here since the 1970s, adding circa 115 routes from 5.6 to 5.13b on walls ranging from one pitch to 12. With the exception of some of the earliest routes, most lines are bolted (the rock doesn’t offer much natural protection). The bulk of the climbing starts at 5.11, with only about 40 single-pitch climbs.  2008 Golden Piton Awards
2008 was the year of the winner: Britney Spears won back her sanity; Michael Phelps took eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics; and — oh, yeah — Barack Obama won his bid for the Oval Office. On the climbing front, the bar, pushed almost immortally high in the aught decade, was notched higher yet.  Eight Confessions of a Climbing Mom
While we worked with the author Susan E.B. Schwartz on her feature on what it’s like to be a climbing mom, we learned that her research was so thorough (and elucidating) that it would have been remiss not to share her other conclusions with readers. The following info is distilled from more than 75 survey responses and 12-plus hours of phone interviews.  Maine Liners - Sea-cliff hunting (and gumby sailing) along Downeast Maine
By Mark Synnott / Photos By Jared Ogden - Fog thickened by the minute, and the weather radio called for an evening squall. Scanning the chart, I saw Birch Harbor, a narrow bay the GPS placed right in front of us. It was mid-June 2008, and we were one day into a weeklong sea-cliff-climbing and sailing trip along the coast of Downeast Maine.  SPINDRIFT MEMORIES - 30 DAYS ON BAFFIN ISLAND'S WALKER CITADEL
By Mike Libecki - It was 10 years ago that I endured that night on the Walker Citadel, a granite tower stabbing 4,200 feet from Sam Ford Fjord, Baffin Island. Now as I type on my laptop, I sit next to a campfire in the Wasatch with my 5-year-old daughter, Lilliana. We’re on an adventure just as intriguing, but tonight we don’t suffer. At least, not in the way Russ Mitrovich, Josh Helling, and I did those 32 continuous days on the wall.  AMERICAN MEATBALLS - Two Yanks Taste Humble Pie on the Superb Granite of Sweden
By Mike Brumbaugh / Photos by Jonas Paulsson - Sweden: this serene Scandinavian country conjures visions of sweeping granite, splitter cracks, and rounded blocs. Er, I mean, bikini teams, hockey, lingonberry jam . . . and more bikini teams. In short, all things not climbing. And so it is with major trepidation that, in April 2007, I board a plane to Stockholm for a climbing trip.  Boone Sheridan Speed - Photographer, Product Designer, Area Developer, Entrepreneur, Smack Talker; Portland, Oregon
Raised in the Mormon town of Lindon, Utah, Boone Sheridan Speed, 42, never quite fit in. Speed's was a dual world, with artistic parents (his father, Grant Speed, is a renowned Western bronze sculptor) who were also devout Mormons. Click here for a Chuck Fryberger video of Speed at his family foundry.  The Big D - How Rifle Mountain Park Became the "Land of 5.13d"
Something terrible dwells in the East. Eyes sharper than flints, a back rippling with veins and muscle, its arms long and sinewy, knees covered in a thick, black carapace, this horror is, as we speak, hurtling through the icy maw of the mountains. The beast has rolled the stoutest cord of 60 meters into a black bag, the line coiled like an angry cobra.  A Might Ticklist: Nico Favresse’s Top Sends
Estado Critico (5.14d); Siurana, Spain; Que Trabaja Rita (5.14c); El Chorro, Spain; more than 24 5.14b-and-harder redpoints, five 5.13d onsights, 100-plus 5.13b or harder onsights; Leaning Tower West Face (5.13b A0); Yosemite, California; onsighted 35 of 36 pitches; Red Pillar (VI 5.12b); Fitzroy Range, Patagonia, Argentina; Riders on the Storm (VII 5.12d A3); Torre Central del Paine, Patagonia, Chile ...  Fantasyland - A deranged trip up Cerro Torre
By Kelly Cordes - In 2007, Kelly Cordes and Colin Haley linked two monster routes to climb Cerro Torre base-to-summit in 32 hours. And you know what? It's all good, brah. ... Alex Lowe once said that there are two kinds of climbers: those who climb because their heart sings when they're in the mountains, and all the rest. I'd like to fancy myself the former, though sometimes I wonder.  Crack Addiction - Fissures of the West, from seams to bomb-bays
Story and photos by Andrew Burr - In North America, crack climbing means selfsufficiency: gauging size, assessing your rack, and slamming in gear as needed. It also means favoring technique over power, or rather, learning to harness your inner brute to cup and jam, ring-lock and foot torque, armbar, chimney, and chickenwing — because go-for-broke laybacking and praying for face holds often aren’t “technique” enough.  Stone Monkeys - Visions of the modern-age Stonemasters
By Cedar Wright - Photos by Dean Fidelman - The Stone Monkeys are a slightly more inclusive, modern-day equivalent of the “Stonemasters,” the amorphous band of Valley hardmen who pushed the limits of climbing in the 1970s and ‘80s. However, to be a Stone Monkey, you don’t have to climb hard or be famous (though quite a few Monkeys fit this bill).  The Black Dog - Five first-person riffs on the dark side of the climber mind
By Matt Samet, Kenneth Long, Fitz Cahall, Majka Burhardt, and Chad Shepard - We’ve gathered five essays linked by a common thread: dark manifestations of the climber mind because many climbers face these issues, but cowed by the cacophony of the dirtbag-chic, free-wheelin’ climbing community, silence themselves.  Steve McClure - The Full Interview
By Abbey Smith - Even facing dreary English conditions, no set training schedule, seepy local crags, all-day routesetting sessions to make ends meet, raising a 20-month-old daughter, DIY house-dismantling projects, coaching, and writing, "Strong" Steve McClure still sets world standards.  Assume Nothing
By Chris Kalous - Photos by Dan Gambino - Rain, Rain, and More Rain in Valle Cochamó: The Yosemite of South America - Dan looked like a wet, grumpy turnip. Katie had the Brown-Frown in full dazzle. I was one nipple hair away from throwing a huge wobbler at anybody who dared make eye contact. And Matt? Well, Matt was stoked no matter what.  THUNDERDOME - Dog of Thunder
Story and photos by Charles Edelstein - Measuring up to the first ascent of Dog of Thunder Grade 30+ A0 (5.13 A0) Blouberg North Wall, Limpopo Province. South Africa has a stormy history filled with metaphorical lightning strikes: apartheid, revolution, poverty-afflicted townships. |
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