Climbing Gold

Adrian Ballinger: The Future of Everest

Guide, climber and ski mountaineer Adrian Ballinger’s life centered around the world’s biggest mountains. His company pioneered new tactics and Adrian helped bring the mo

The Last Dirtbag

Passion before comfort. It’s arguably the defining ethos of dirtbag culture. While there is handwringing and consternation in the online world about whether climbing has

Do Grades Matter?

Grades. Love them or hate them, they’re part of our sport. Today, we sit down with Summit Journal’s Owen Clarke, coach Juliet Hammer and professional climber Jonathan Sie

Jan Conn: Catching Pinecones

Who was the first dirtbag? In collaboration with filmmakers Chad Heddleston and Parker Michels-Boyce, we go back in time to meet Jan Conn. Jan and Herb Conn took what mig

Palestinian Climbers

Climbing feels like freedom. It’s a sentiment that most of us can relate to. In the midst of war and violence in the Middle East, we return to the climbers of Resistance

Jordan Cannon: A Place In History

What’s the Venn diagram on Indiana Jones, El Cap and climbing history? Jordan Cannon. Jordan walks us down the path from hyper-stoked teenager to professional climber and

Cheat Code: Tanner Wanish and Michael Vaill

Michael Vaill and Tanner Wanish found the cheat code to adventure climbing – each other. Since they linked up on Mountain Project, it’s looked like they’ve been playing t

Pete Whittaker: Beyond Wide

Pete Whittaker may have captured climbing’s hearts through his and fellow Wide Boy Tom Randall’s quest to complete the hardest offwidth on the planet, but he’s also quiet

Wide Ponies and Offwidths

Offwidths – for most climbers they are a necessary evil, but for a fringe fraction, hard, often inverted offwidth climbing is the main attraction. We talk with offwidth c

Will Moss: Happy Little Accident

Last year, Will Moss became the first person to onsight El Cap in a day. It might not have happened though if the food and coconut water in his haul bag hadn’t gone bad,

Jon Krakauer: The Mountain's Shadow

Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air chronicled the 1996 Everest disaster and launched a generation of interest in climbing and the natural world, but for Jon the tragedy that un

Getting It Right: Charlize Theron and Beth Rodden

Will Hollywood ever get climbing right? Or at least passable? When Academy Award winner Charlize Theron went to work making her latest film Apex, the crew brought in clim

Connor Herson: Just Getting Started

Connor Herson couldn’t legally drive when he freed the Nose in 2018, competently navigating up his way up a route only Lynn Hill and Tommy Caldwell had freed. The climbin

Going Pro: Lincoln Knowles and Zander Waller

The path to professionalism is murky at best. Even for established world-class athletes, it’s a struggle to make it work. Two friends chart very different paths in the ho

Sean Bailey: Duality Of Man

Sean Bailey flies beneath the radar and he wants you to know he’s cool with that. Most of the time. After retiring from a decorated comp career, Sean has sent multiple v1

Nasim Eshqi: The Fighter

When protests erupted in Iran in fall of 2022, human rights activist and professional climber Nasim Eshqi was climbing in France. As she watched the uprising back home un

Jimmy Chin: Always Difficult

Jimmy Chin refuses to play the game on easy mode. Whether it’s climbing, photography or filmmaking, Jimmy has spent a career figuring out the most bad ass goal in whateve

Enter the Dragon: Taipei 101 Recap

In the days after Alex’s successful climb of Taipei 101, Fitz and Alex debrief on the whirlwind week, including ending up in an SNL skit and the joy that comes from doing

James Bond Principles: Taipei 101

The internet is talking. Why is Alex so psyched to climb a skyscraper on live TV? How hard is Taipei 101? Is this a gimmick? The answers go deeper than you might expect.

Alain Robert: The French Spiderman

Later this month, Alex will set out to climb the Taipei 101 skyscraper, but he certainly won’t be the first. For the last three decades, Alain Robert has been the living