Table of Contents

profile

Crag Profile: Cannon Cliff

Since the turn of the twentieth century, the climbers of New Hampshire's Cannon Cliff have enjoyed tumultuous weather, constant rockfall, thin ice and local rivalries. Freddie Wilkinson tells it to us straight, while Herb and Jan Conn, Theodore "Sam" Streibert, Andy Tuthill, Mark Richey and Tim Kemple describe their escapades on New England's greatest alpine crag.

sharp end

Booty

Short Pitches

Cragging news.

Editor's Note

Climbing grows up.

Namesake

How Boston got its name.

Tool Users

The 1972 Chouinard Catalog.

contributors

letters

Letters

Onsights and insurance claims.

climbing life

The Climbing Life

Observations from the field.

wired

Escape Route

What could be better at the end of a long ice couloir than to pop off your crampons and just keep climbing? Welcome to the Enclosure/Northwest Ridge, the best moderate mixed route in the Tetons.

First Ascent

Take an intellectual, free-spirited Brooklyn girl, add a Bolivian Jesuit climbing boyfriend, throw in a crowd of painter's-pants-wearing purists, and stand back to watch the explosion: Epinephrine.

Full Value

For three young alpinists, completing their first new route up an Arctic big wall felt like the most important moment in their climbing lives. Yet by the end, the two survivors would find their innocence lost forever.

Off Belay

Where's Warren? Probably climbing.

Wired

Better than coffee.

features content

Based on a True Story

The past few Piolet d'Or award ceremonies have elicited increasing controversy; in 2007, even its winner denounced the prize. Why? Simple: the Slovenian alpinist had already found his gold.

Behind the Veil

The North Cascades in winter were a largely unexplored world—until a photographer in a homemade airplane set out to document them for the climbing community.

My Zion

Everyone gets a little nervous climbing. But what if you had an existential crisis ever time you got to a crux? When his Zion free-climbing revolution began to falter, Mike Anderson started to search for the deeper motives behind his ascents.

The Space Between

Partway through his first road trip, one climber stumbled upon a subculture within his own: slacklining. As he became more immersed in the practice, he began to discover that the space between the vertical was equally compelling.

Two Frosts

When a young woman vanishes off the top of Cannon Mountain in broad daylight, it's up to the post-office clerk to decipher the mystery.

faces

Faces

In which we celebrate Giulio Malfer.

local heroes

Local Heroes

Some of the heroes in our communities never make it into the headlines. The late Doug Coombs paid tribute to one such inspiration: Hans Johnstone.