Climbing Summer 2021

2018: SIX OF US GROUPED UP IN A SUNNY BOWL one pitch up the south face of the Maiden in the Flatirons, Colorado. A buddy, Nate Mankovich, and I had come on a calm autumn day to try a 40-meter sport pitch up a leaning headwall directly above the belay, while the other party—four climbers—geared up to move rightward on the crux traverse of a meandering 5.8 first freed in 1958. Nate, as it happened, knew the leader of the group, and they chatted about past trips, mutual friends, beta—the usual climber-talk. At some point someone, getting organized at our cramped stance, said, “Hey, pass me that biner,” and one of the climbers joked, “I’m right here, man. And there’s no need for that kind of language.” “Of course,” he added, “I’m…

Where:AOMI URBAN SPORTS PARK Tokyo JAPAN When: JULY 23 TO AUGUST 8 2021 Climbing will make its first official appearance at the XXXll Olymiad in tokyo this summer showing three combined events-speed, bouldering, and lead- and with National Coleman, Colin Duffy, Brooke Raboutou, and kyra condie representing the USA. For a prime on the Games, visit climbing.com For ongoing, real-time coverage, visit gymclimber.com what: 20 MEN and 20 WOMEN (2 maximum of each gender from each county) will compete in 3 comibined disciplines, each having °' qualifying and final round that whittles down the filed for each gender from 20 to 8competitors. SPEED CLIMBING Competitors RACE each other in heats on two side-by-side standardized climbs on a 15-meter wall; the first climber to tag the buzzer at the top advances to the next heat until a…

Jamie Logan on Side Effects (5.10b), Moderate Mecca, Calico Basin, Nevada. This route tackles a pinnacle that had long fascinated the photographer Irene Yee. On the day of this shoot, Yee, Logan (she/her), and Logan’s belayer Lor Sabourin (they/them) got up at 6 a.m. only to find the sky overcast. Says Yee, “The clouds gave way for just a few moments to get our orange light.” She adds, “Both climbers are trans and nonbinary. It’s important in my work to be intentional with those I work with, so we all can experience the many beauties this world has to offer.” Sabourin has been on a tear recently, sending 5.14 trad with East Coast Fist Bump (5.14a) in Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona, in January. And Logan has been leading for decades, making…

PHOTO CONTEST A beauty of a bivy—on Salbit Westgrat, Switzerland, as taken by Ben Tibbetts, a guide in Chamonix, France, and the author of Alpenglow: The Finest Climbs on the 4000m Peaks of the Alps. For his shot, Tibbetts wins a rope bag from Metolius Climbing. NEWS “Forever Chemicals” Found on Everest Mount Everest contains “the highest altitude chemical contamination on land,” according to a study in Science of the Total Environment (March; see sciencedirect.com). “Deposition of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ on Mt. Everest” cites the findings of K.R. Miner et al., who analyzed snow and meltwater samples collected by climbers from Basecamp, Camp 1, Camp 2, and the Balcony. The peer-reviewed study documented “the highest altitude PFAS samples ever retrieved.” PFAS, found in household items like cookware and food packaging, and some types of outdoor clothing…

“Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes!” —Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows FANTASTICAL IN BOTH CHARACTER AND CONTEXT, the Mount Katahdin, Maine, multi-pitch rock route The Wind in the Willows climbs much like the whimsical 1908 children’s novel by Kenneth Grahame. Tackling a flake resembling a wolf howling at the moon, on a pyramid of peppered alpine granite above a sweeping glacial bowl, The Wind feels worlds away from the usual pine-and-wildflower blanket of Maine—you feel like you’re anywhere but in the Northeast. Every year, hikers flock to Katahdin, Maine’s high point at 5,269 feet and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. But there is no beaten path leading to The Wind in the Willows. Rather, you must navigate several miles of untamed wilderness, an…

When I was trying Honky Tonk [5.14b redpoint, 1998],it felt like I was fighting against a barrier, a wall, and no matter how much I pushed, I couldn’t move. [Yet] the encouragement of friends made me want to do it even more. I didn’t want to disappoint them. More than a physical barrier, it felt like an insurmountable mental barrier. So I trained hard. When I finally clipped the chains, honestly, I did it because I had acquired a physical level much higher than what the route demanded. Climbing 5.14b was a barrier; once I reached that milestone, other climbs felt more accessible. Hard climbs require a kind of perfectionism—an obsessiveness, an isolation that takes you away from everyday life.… If you are too afraid of failure, anxiety takes over: Learning…