Mary-Kate fought through a series of pockets. At the last bolt, she grabbed a sidepull, pressed her foot onto nothing and made a delicate mantle to the anchors. Ecstatic, she clipped the anchors of Pocket Line, a 5.11 at The Wailing Wall, sending her hardest sport route to date. Mary-Kate, a long time boulderer, has […]
in lieu of a boring FAQ page… our favorite home town hero/pro climber/ MH model Ethan Pringle and coach/blogger/crusher Georgie Abel stopped by Dogpatch Boulders to help spread the word about proper gym etiquette. “I can always tell when it’s someones first time in the gym,” said Dogpatch Boulders manager Justin Alarcon. “And it’s not […]
It’s summertime in Berkeley. I sit in the hot living room of my friend’s apartment, the overhead fan creates a weak breeze. We are watching Reel Rock 7, I’m missing Bishop like crazy and getting inspired and terrified by Alex Honnold’s first ascent of Too Big To Flail: a micro-crimpy, foot-work intensive highball in the Buttermilks. I […]
Access Fund is dedicated to keeping access to our favorite rocks and climbing areas available to us. In 2013 alone the Access Fund preserved access in 126 climbing areas and propelled a new program called Educate for Access that is dedicated to informing climbers how to minimize their impact. The Access Fund’s work in the […]
I hold a tangle of quick draws at my side and use my other hand to shade my eyes as I look up at the rock. I squint, scanning the line for anything that catches the sun, that shines, that’s metallic. Hey dude will you check the guidebook for how many bolts this climb has? […]
For many climbers, scaling the granite monolith of El Capitan is a bucket list experience. For an elite few, free climbing El Capitan is the ultimate experience. However, free climbing El Capitan takes a colossal amount of work. Recently, two California climbers went to examine a steep free route on the right side of El […]
Chances are, without knowing it, you’ve climbed in an area that Access Fund has protected and kept accessible for climbers. With regionally significant successes as the Jailhouse Rock Conservation Easement of 2010, Access Fund has been hard at work keeping the gates open to our favorite crags. This is no easy task, and as with […]
My body slide down 3 inches. I pushed it back up 3 inches. Then I slid again. I ate too many pies that summer and the infamous squeezing of the Harding Slot on Yosemite’s Astroman made it difficult to make upward progress. Yosemite guidebook author Chris Macnmara describes Astroman saying, “Astroman is one of the […]
On October 20 and 21th from 10 am until 4 pm, a group of local climbers will be organizing a raffle, free food and a chance to clean up the famous Indian Rock area. The climbing there is well known to Bay area boulderers. It’s been well documented as the place where Berkeley climbers developed […]
Often rock climbs come down to a single move- the crux of the climb. Being strong enough to get through the cruxes can be difficult. “if you cannot pull a single hard move, you have nothing to endure,” said Tony Yaniro, one of the founders of modern climbing training. Yaniro spoke of having power to […]
