Climbing April/May 2018

5 Types of Food Source Collagen TYPE I, II, III, V, and X WHY IS COLLAGEN IMPORTANT? Collagen is one of the reasons our bodies don’t fall apart. Collagen literally functions to hold you together. But what is collagen? Collagen is a protein made up of building blocks called amino acids and is so important that it makes up approximately 30 percent of all the proteins in the body, and different bodily systems and organs need specific proteins serving a variety of functions. The truth is that collagen is literally everywhere in the body, and when there’s enough collagen in the body, then we can “keep ourselves together” and are humming along.…

CLIMBERS Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher ROUTE Magic Mushroom (VI 5.14a) FIRST ASCENT Steve Sutton and Hugh Burton, 1972 FIRST FREE ASCENT Tommy Caldwell and Justen Sjong, 2008 LOCATION El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California In December 2017, the Italian Jacopo Larcher and the Austrian Barbara Zangerl completed the second free ascent of El Capitan’s 2,900-foot Magic Mushroom. The pair spent more than 30 days on the wall. “The goal was to climb ground-up first,” says Zangerl. “On the way up [using free and aid], we worked on single pitches. But also after, we went back to work more on the different pitches.” Tommy Caldwell and Justen Sjong freed the 28-pitch line in May 2008, climbing a dozen pitches of 5.13 – 5.14 and nine of 5.12. For Larcher, the crux came on pitch 20, a 100-foot flared dihedral that…

“On steep terrain, I could roll into sidepull edges, and I knew right away I was standing in the perfect spot—it felt like there was nothing between me and the rock.” —Daniel Woods December 13, 2017, San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside, California. Paul Robinson and Daniel Woods gathered at the Golden State’s incredible granite bouldering area Black Mountain to break in a new shoe, one designed for the intermediate-to-expert boulderer and sport climber alike. There, at 7,500 feet amidst twisting pine trees and bucolic hillsides, they warmed their hands in their puffy jackets and prepared to get on the rock. They weren’t there for slabs or vertical face problems, just steep, hard blocs—terrain the shoe is specifically designed for. “The X1 takes overhanging climbing to another level,” Robinson said over the phone of…

[Bradley Allf] Bradley Allf (Talk of the Crag, p.16) is a biologist, poet, and science writer whose work revolves around how landscapes change over time. He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, near his beloved University Lake Boulders—an outcrop described on Mountain Project as “small,” “contrived,” and “not well-known or exceptional.” Bradley spends an inordinate amount of time looking for snakes. [Michael Levy] Michael Levy (“Just Do It,” p.56) has worked for a think tank, at a tech startup, as a climbing guide in Vietnam, and as an outdoor educator in China. Now he writes. When he’s not writing, he’s hangdogging his way up the cliffs or searching out the best cup of coffee in whichever country he’s in at that moment. [Alyssa Neill] Alyssa Neill (Clinics: In Session, p.30), dietitian, climber, and owner of Nourishment…

IN THE MID-1980s, an instructor in the New Mexico Mountain Club gave me my first rock shoes, a pair of blown-out Firé Cats. There weren’t a lot of shoe options then (like, maybe, three?), but anything was better than my Chuck Taylors. Ecstatic, I put on a pair of wool socks to fill out the oversized boots, cinched them down, and flung myself at the crystalline problems at U-Mound, a granite bouldering area above Albuquerque, New Mexico. These days, like most climbers, I run a quiver of shoes, from all-day trad shoes to radically downturned redpoint shoes. Ditto for the rest of my gear: I have a gym bag and a crag pack; different lengths and diameters of rope; and cams, nuts, and widgets of all shapes, colors, and sizes. And…

While bailing from a Smith Rock choss face, an entire boulder exploded and with it my No. 1 cam—half of my anchor. This 1970s-era piton held me. JEAN DUPENLOUP When a 30-pound rock hit Kimbo’s head, we thought the worst. A helicopter flight brought him to Liverpool Hospital where he recovered. NIKHILESH SHARMA After two nuts ripped on soft Blue Mountains sandstone, this yellow Alien caught a 60-foot whipper, catching me at eye level with my belayer. JOSH MACKENZIE One moment I was climbing Martha’s Couloir in RMNP, and the next I woke up in the hospital after breaking my head and my neck. MEG KIES In June 2016, on El Cap’s Lurking Fear, I slipped just shy of an anchor. My gear ripped and I went 140 feet. I just missed landing on my partner. HENRY VERBECK On El…