“I’m a man of constant progress. My life only moves forward, never in reverse. Oh, wait…” I thought as I struggled to back up my mini-van in the Las Vegas parking lot, “that’s just my broken transmission.” The taciturn mechanic needed a week and all my money to make the repairs, so with a bit of […]
The semi’s pounded on Highway 15 below me. The loud diesel engines and the jake brakes shook the bridge. The noise reverberated off the walls of the Gorge. I shook my way up the run out slab section on Bogus Pedophile Charges, a classic 5.12d at the Virgin River Gorge. My belayer couldn’t hear me […]
Have you been thinking about coughing up $612.62 for the Romance Package at the Ahwahnee Hotel? Now that the name of the famed hotel in Yosemite National Park may change, you might have lost your chance. On March 1st of 2016, Aramark, which holds nine contracts with the National Park Service (NPS), will replace Delaware […]
A pair of semi’s thundered along I-15 on the bridge below the crag. I lowered from my project, defeated. I wasn’t strong enough for the VRC. I wanted to boulder and enjoy easy low commitment climbing… Winter can be difficult for climbing. El Niñ0 arrived in California, drenching Yosemite National Park in rain and snow and socking […]
In the past few years, Yosemite has become a mecca, not for the enormous walls, but for the immaculate granite boulders. Midnight Lighting, Thriller, and Dominator are names thrown around any crashpad-filled campfire in the world. And while these classics were established in the late seventies to early nineties, the history of Yosemite bouldering extends […]
“Morocco is winning,” JT said, examining his stubbed toe. We had spent nearly two weeks climbing in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains. Tired after climbing the technical eight hundred meter Oujdad, JT nailed his toe on the rocky descent, putting a large blood blister on his pinky toe. After twelve days of eating soup, living in […]
By James Lucas “Merde!” Bego screamed in French. Thunder crashed around her. She fought with the crux move of Les Rivieres Pourpres, a six hundred meter 7b+ (5.12c) on Tajoudad in the Taghia Gorge. A few days earlier, I had met Bego and her partner Pauline over chocolate and tea with a group of […]
The central Oregon park’s creation dates between 1960 and 1975 when the state obtained land from the city of Redmond and a few private landowners. The park established a bridge across the river and hiking trails. The climbers followed. Many of the early routes followed broken cracks until Alan Watts began taking to the faces. […]
For the past twenty years, Touchstone has been at the forefront of the climbing gym industry. Berkeley Ironworks, one of the original gyms, had major advancements in the building, in the technology and most significantly in how people are taught to climb. One of the original Touchstone employees, Scott Frye has been working in the […]
This September, Berkeley Ironworks and The Mountaineering and Nature Sports Club at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) joined to make climbing a reality for students in the Mediterranean by donating climbing shoes to the program. Rose Wong, a BIW gym member for 13 years, and her friend Tugrul Ilter, Club Advisor and Professor at Eastern Mediterranean University, took […]
