Table of Contents

profile

Mountain Profile: Denali

The High One has been luring climbers skyward for more than 100 years. Steve House explores the attraction, while Barbara Washburn, Riccardo Cassin, Art Davidson, Doug Scott, Phil Powers and Maxime Turgeon relate their adventures on the top of North America.

sharp end

Booty

A necky wood rat.

Short Pitches

Cragging news from Wyoming and Washington.

Editor's Note

Baby Grows Up.

Namesake

How the Grapefruit Dance got its name.

The First Modern Climbing Harness

America’s first real climbing harness.

contributors

letters

Letters

From the depths of the lame to the heights of the divine.

climbing life

The Climbing Life

Observations from the field.

wired

Escape Route

The weight of history can be the biggest obstacle to an ascent. One climber goes up against the legends and finds the results remarkably liberating.

First Ascent

Sometimes it takes a little vision to see the diamond in the coal mine. A celebration of an über-choss classic.

Full Value: Mt. Wake

As if hanging by one hand, unclipped from the rope, 200 feet off the deck in the midst of an Alaskan storm weren’t enough, this Montana hardman also had to worry about what his mama would say...

Off Belay

Fred Beckey and friends.

Wired

Keeping a route under the radar may seem fine—until someone else claims it as a first ascent. But if climbers refuse to talk about their lines, do they have any rights to them later on?

local heroes

Local Hero

Barry Blanchard extols Eamonn Walsh, the Canadian Rockies’ Man of Girth, whose big heart and big-alpine talent keep him honest. With photographs by Cory Richards.

features content

Buildering

The formations may be man-made, but the experience remains elemental. A photographic essay explores this age-old offshoot of modern climbing.

The Grand Plan

Think America's deepest hole is just for floating? Think again. A team of climbers plunges in—and reimagines the future of climbing.

Stolby

For most climbers, soloing is out-there enough. But an entire Siberian community of city folk who have soloed en masse every weekend for the last 150 years? That's off the charts.

The Upturned World

One of the most transcendent mountains in the world offers a portal to another way of being. But once you're in there, how do you get out?