Climbing
ArchiveRed line represents the West Ridge route, Spring 2012. Illustration: Grayson Schaffer On Wednesday morning around 10:00 EST, Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki made it clear that he plans to push on toward the summit of Mount Everest. “Then left towards…
Nobukazu Kuriki on Everest. Photo: Nobukazu Kuriki/Facebook On Tuesday, Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki鈥檚 Twitter account said he set off for Camp IV in his attempt to summit…
Climber Leif Karlstrom comes clean about his illicit REI sponsorship. It all started when I was broke and in college. A climbing buddy came back from China with a bunch of knockoff REI gear. We returned it fraudulently to the store in Eugene, Oregon, which gave us cash. REI didn't…
An avalanche on 26,759-foot Manaslu left at least 11 dead and dozens injured in September鈥攁nd it could have been a lot worse. Mike Marolt explains how commercial guides are putting their clients at risk.
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=5lMGIzNjoWddYOMDD281bMCiSeUUCOus&deepLinkEmbedCode=5lMGIzNjoWddYOMDD281bMCiSeUUCOus&height=360&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" The world's first 5.15c route is here鈥攁nd it's not in Spain. Adam Ondra pushed the grade scale a little higher this morning when he sent his project Change, a severely-overhanging 180-foot sport line in Norway's Flatanger Cave for which…
Climbers looking for funding help on fast and light alpine expeditions can now apply for a Mugs Stump Award. This year’s winners will receive a portion of $25,000 in total funding. The grants will go to “individuals and teams whose proposed climbs present…
Manaslu. Photo: Switchback Travel/Flickr Multiple expeditions reported Monday that they summited Manaslu. The successful bids come a little more than a week after an avalanche swept through Camp III and…
Makalu. Photo: Ben Tubby/Flickr Mountaineer and journalist Billi Bierling drops a pretty impressive list of names while witing about her attempt to climb Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain. She regularly assists…
Debris field on Manaslu. Photo: Garrett Madison/Alpine Ascents International In the wake of the deadly avalanche that swept through Camp III on Manaslu this past Sunday, climbers shaken by the events have decided to pack up…
Nine climbers are reported dead following the massive avalanche that swept through Camp III on Manaslu this past Sunday, according to both the Associated Press and The Guardian. A local police chief said…
A slab of snow broke loose, wiping out Camp III high on the world's eighth-tallest peak in what could be among the deadliest avalanches in Himalayan climbing history
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=MzY3h4NTrQC8bniUW2NFBinDNMdE5VCB&height=360&deepLinkEmbedCode=MzY3h4NTrQC8bniUW2NFBinDNMdE5VCB&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" I've written before about Jonathan Siegrist, the Colorado sport climber who's been establishing hard new routes in the United States while many of his peers have focused their efforts on destinations like Spain. This month, Siegrist was at it…
The seventh edition of America's biggest climbing film show features sport climbing showdowns and high-altitude epics
In the 16 years since Into Thin Air, Mount Everest has become safer in many ways, with better storm forecasting and amazing high-altitude rescue helicopters. So why did 10 people die in 2012?
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=360&deepLinkEmbedCode=B4amp1NTrCIQBfaeuqn9NpIaD6_jF929&embedCode=B4amp1NTrCIQBfaeuqn9NpIaD6_jF929&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" There are only three days until the world premiere of Reel Rock 7, the country's biggest touring film festival dedicated to climbing. Earlier today, Sender Films and Big Up Productions…
Climber Alex Honnold and filmmaker Peter Mortimer talk about their new collaboration and the pressures of fame
Ashima on Steady Plums Direct. Photo: 27crags Last we heard from fifth-grade climbing wunderkind Ashima Shiraishi, she was fresh off a spring bouldering trip to Hueco Tanks, Texas, and getting some serious press. The New York Times gave her front-page sports coverage (and…
The International Olympic Committee is set to add a new sport for the 2020 Summer Games, and climbing is on the shortlist. Here's why the Olympics needs it.
K2. Photo: Kevin Mayea/Wikimedia Commons Roughly a week after Explorers Web reported that 28 people reached the summit of K2 in a single day, at least one expedition found themselves trapped…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/bJY8GTV88j0 Gil Weiss free-soloing Blitzen Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park. “Ugh, not 2 more,” wrote one commenter on SuperTopo yesterday in response to news that two climbers from Boulder had gone missing…
A couple of years ago, 国产吃瓜黑料 put up an online poll asking people to vote for their favorite photographer. The results weren't even close. Jimmy Chin blew everyone else out of the water. It's easy…
Way back in 2007, filmmaker Dave Ohlson was in Namche Bazaar talking to climber Fabrizzio Zangrilli about Luigi Amedeo di Savoia's 1909 expedition to K2. Savoia, better known as the Duke of Abruzzi, led a team to 20,500 feet, the…
In May of 2009, climbers Jonny Copp, Micah Dash, and filmmaker Wade Johnson were killed in an avalanche while climbing China's Mount Edgar. Copp frequently shared photos and stories with our magazine and website in the years before he died, and all of the men shared…
Part of what makes leading ice so hazardous is the fact that, unlike rock, ice melts. For a scary illustration of that point, watch this viral video of a late-season ice climber on Kennedy's Gully (WI5, six pitches) in…
This is the third in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
This is the second in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
This is the first in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
Here's a great Father's Day video that we picked up off The 国产吃瓜黑料 Blog. It's a quick interview with mountaineers Peter and Lou Whittaker about climbing and guiding together.
The 10-summit tour across the top of Wyoming鈥檚 Tetons is one of the most difficult鈥攁nd stunning鈥攃limbing trips in North America. Christopher Solomon has the scars to prove it.
Filmmaker and photographer Tyler Stableford’s soulful profile of mountaineer Steve House. To learn more about the six-months it took to make this five-minute film, click here.
Alex Honnold takes a practice run up El Cap. Photo: Tom Evans/El Cap Report Alex Honnold and Hans Florine set a new speed record on the Nose of El Capitan on Sunday, climbing the 2,900-foot face in 2:23:51.
Sasha DiGiulian has already climbed harder than any American woman in history. We caught up with her to talk about college and whether women will ever outclimb men.
Boulder Chimney, Eridge Green, Kent, U.K. 漏 Neal Grundy Photographer Neal Grundy took home the grand prize in the Banff Mountain Photography Competition for his series Night Climbing. The Brighton, U.K.-based lensman set…
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?deepLinkEmbedCode=RyZTUxNTpNsBzq2XgojAH4JE-WnC_Uvp&height=360&embedCode=RyZTUxNTpNsBzq2XgojAH4JE-WnC_Uvp&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" On June 5 and 6, 2012, Alex Honnold made the first solo link up of Yosemite's Mt. Watkins, El Capitan, and Half Dome, completing the Triple Crown in roughly 18 hours and 50 minutes. It's one of his biggest…
For the past 12 years, Middaugh, a seven-time X-Terra National tri champ with seven more events on his schedule for this summer, hasn't gone more than a month without competing
Last week, while trolling through adventure videos, I came across a short of two guys bouldering in Ireland. It was a simple, effective edit: the rock was wet, the valley was green and bracken, the guys kept finding beautiful, big, dark…
Alex Honnold solos the Pancake Flake during a speed ascent of El Cap in 2010. Photo: Tom Evans/elcapreport.com Just two weeks after free-climbing Yosemite's Triple Crown with Tommy Caldwell,…
When Steph Davis turned three, her mother put her on the Suzuki method for learning piano. She practiced every day for 15 years. At 18, during her freshman year of college, she climbed a rock. “The first day…
Professional climber; two-time junior national speed-climbing champion
French filmmaker and artist Seb Montaz’s latest ode to the mountain life.
The sheer cliffs of basalt and tuff in central Oregon’s Smith Rock State Park make for ideal conditions for climbers of all skill levels.
You think climbing the world's highest peak is difficult? Try getting back to Kathmandu during heavy monsoons.
This past weekend, the final wave of climbers reached the top safely
The last wave of climbers this season reached the top, with no major mishaps reported
Serious concerns about a repeat of last weekend's deadly traffic have yet to materialize
Amid serious concerns about the possibility of another deadly traffic jam on Everest, like the one that killed four people last weekend, between 80 and 150 climbers headed for the summit this morning.
Chris Sharma. Photo: Mary Catherine O’Connor As we’ve reported before, California’s state parks are in the midst of a crisis that could result in many of them closing on July 1. While the initial list contained 70 parks, many of these have received at…
And is it likely that another deadly traffic jam will form this weekend? Grayson Schaffer, who has living been at Base Camp for the past month, has the answers.
Everest. Photo: Shutterstock Update: Italian climber Luigi Rampini, 69, was rescued around 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday when a group of five found him in stable condition with some signs of frostbite on his nose and fingers.
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=s3bjAwMzoJJqy801gKr9kYvWlnMgKbEI&deepLinkEmbedCode=s3bjAwMzoJJqy801gKr9kYvWlnMgKbEI&height=371&width=639&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" Even if you don't follow climbing, you may have heard of Ashima Shiraishi, the 11-year-old boulderer who graced the front page of the New York Times' sports section earlier this month. In March, the New Yorker became just the…
Shot from an adjacent peak, the tiny lights moving toward the peak of Everest are the headlamps of climbers beginning their summit bid late in the evening on May 18th.
Watch as nearly 300 climbers attempt to summit the world’s tallest mountain. And read Grayson Schaffer’s shocking report of the four deaths on Everest over a single weekend.
Walltopia will team up with Chris Sharma to design a gym. Above is a previous gym design with a 360-degree tour. Those that have dreams of climbing like Chris Sharma have two new…
Over parts of the last decade, cell-phone tower climbers were 10 times more likely to die on the job than construction workers. As cell-phone carriers struggled to keep up with new technologies, fix their towers to work properly after company mergers, and make sure their networks could handle…
Disaster strikes world's highest peak with only human error to blame
Ueli Steck and his climbing partner, Tenzing Sherpa, notched some of the first Everest summits of the season. The speed climber topped out on May 18 without supplemental oxygen. Last year, Steck…
Prayer flags near Everest. Photo: Daniel Prudek/Shutterstock At least four climbers are dead after a weekend of summit attempts on Mount Everest. German Eberhard Schaaf, 61, died from apparent altitude sickness Sunday at around 28,700 feet on the…
Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold grabbed the first major achievement of Yosemite's spring climbing season this weekend when they made the first free ascent of the Triple Crown, a linkup that combines three of Yosemite's biggest walls, in a single day. In 21 hours…
The climbers call it quits after making one more attempt to reach the West Shoulder
Over the last five years, alpinist Chad Kellogg has lost nearly everything and everyone鈥攚ife, brother, climbing partners鈥攃lose to him. In the next few days, when he plans to make his second attempt to break the speed record on Mount Everest, he'll be carrying an understandably heavy load.
This is shaping up to be one of the deadliest seasons on record, with 10 deaths so far and too many helicopter evacuations to count. Here鈥檚 a sneak peak at the doctors on the front lines of the world's highest clinic.
The fact that Kobold's new Himalayan Edition watch is built with a few chunks of rock that, technically speaking, were removed illegally from Everest has caused a minor hubbub
With mounting dangers on the Hornbein Couloir, Conrad Anker pulls the plug on the West Ridge
Several prominent forecasters have agreed that May 17, 18, and 19 will form the first legitimate summit window of spring 2012.
A summit push might still be possible鈥攂ut it certainly won't be safe
ERIK WEIHENMAYER made headlines when he reached the top of the world's tallest mountain in 2002, and we recently included that expedition on our list of the greatest moments on Everest. But he wanted to remind us that such successes are often impossible without support.
The arrival of high-altitude helicopters on Mount 颅Everest and other Nepalese peaks has transformed search-and-颅rescue and saved lives. But the choppers have also 颅added to the chaos at the top of the world鈥攁nd introduced a deadly new brand of danger.
British mountaineer Kenton Cool attempts to fulfill a long-lost pledge to bring his countryman's 1924 Olympic medal in alpinism鈥攜es, alpinism鈥攖o the summit of Everest
This morning, we received the following dispatch from Grayson Schaffer at Base Camp: Earlier today, helicopter pilot and climber Simone Moro lifted off from Base Camp with filmmaker David Breashears riding shotgun. Moro circled up to 27,000 feet鈥攚ell above the Eurocopter B3's recommended flight ceiling鈥攁llowing his passenger to snap clear…
Updates from senior editor Grayson Schaffer, who we sent to Nepal about a month ago to cover this spring's climbing season on Everest, and who promises things are only going to get more interesting
The list of alpinists who've climbed all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen is exceedingly small. And it includes exactly one woman.
With dry weather, pervasive rockfall, and several Sherpa deaths, the start of the spring season on Everest has been an especially dangerous one. That's the bad news. The good news is that the weather is improving.
Jake Norton sends an update from Camp II. Here’s more on the status of the Everest climbing season.
Sea kayaking, via Shutterstock Let's start with the bad news. Less than half of Americans surveyed by the Outdoor Foundation participated in some form of outdoor recreation in 2011. But here's the good…