Ethan Pringle
Meet Canaan Vallejos, Our First Running Touchstone Athlete
Each one of our Touchstone Athletes embodies our core values, including a commitment to stewardship, community camaraderie, and pushing their limits—and Canaan Vallejos, former Dogpatch Boulders desk staff and our first ever running athlete, has all of that in spades. We sat down with him in this interview to get to know more about his…
Fear and Self-Loathing in Las Vegas: Ethan Pringle’s Send of The Nest (V15)
By Ethan Pringle. 2014: The Quest for the Nest The Nest is tucked deep in First Creek Canyon, in Red Rock, NV, about an hour hike west of HWY 159. Local developers Kenny Barker and Andy Rather, who were searching for FAs in the canyon in the winter of 2013/14, discovered the line and…
Ethan Pringle on Blackbeard’s Tears, 5.14c
Two days ago, Touchstone Athlete Ethan Pringle made the first free ascent of Blackbeard’s Tears, a 5.14c crack on the Northern California Coast that is as gorgeous as it is difficult. Previously only climbed using a mixture of trad climbing and aid gear, Ethan’s send makes Blackbeard’s Tears the second 5.14c traditionally-protected crack in the world,…
Bouldering in the Land of Fear and Loathing
“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…
Ethan Pringle and La Reina Mora (5.14d)
To Pro·ject a route: tə prä-ˌjektˈā rau̇t verb To try a route over and over and over and over and over and over and over, with the goal of completing the route without falling. See Redpointing. We’ve all projected a route and gone through the emotional ups and downs of failure. In this video, Touchstone athlete Ethan…
Ask Ethan: How to Not be a Dirtbag at your Family’s Thanksgiving
Touchstone Climbing athlete Ethan Pringle isn’t just a one-trick pony. When he’s not crushing jumbo-something, he’s giving sage advice on a wide array of subjects. Got relationship woes? Want to learn if that thing you did at the crag is a total faux pas? Juuuuuust Ask Ethan! [Ask Ethan jingle still in development] …
Pringle on Jumbo Love
May 17th, 2015- Ethan Pringle flew ninety feet past North America’s hardest route Jumbo Love (5.15b). After completing the second ascent of the Chris Sharma test piece, Pringle took an enormous victory jump at the Third Tier at Clark Mountain, California. The nearly 29 year old Pringle began working the route in 2007 with Chris…
Onsighting in Spain
“The first step is realizing that it’s possible,” Ethan Pringle advised me. While climbing in Siurana, a crimpy limestone area in Catalonia, Spain, I wanted to onsight 7b+ (5.12c). I’d managed to tick off a number of 7a+ (.5.12a) routes and had built a solid base. The past few days, I’d been trying more 7bs…
About First Ascents: Climbing the New Lines
“This is so exciting,” Randy Puro said. A half dozen climbers threw themselves at an undone boulder problem near the Merced River. They could barely get off the ground until someone discovered a match and wild hamhock maneuver. They climbed higher until a hold broke. They stayed with it despite the setback. They all wanted…
Too Big to Flail
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…
Steven Roth & Ethan Pringle Go Big
Published in Dead Point Magazine. Written by Anthony Lampomardo Touchstone Climbing is proud to support Ethan Pringle as an athlete and all around guy. We were elated and awed to see Steven Roth, a Touchstone coach, and Ethan claim the 3rd and 4th ascents of Alex Honnold’s highball Too Big to Flail in Bishop, California’s…
Hasta La Vista with Ethan Pringle
Touchstone athlete Ethan Pringle travels across the world. Norway, China, South Africa, and his home in San Francisco provide great climbing escapes for him. This fall he traveled to one of his old climbing crags to try one of the United States’ hardest routes. There’s something special these days about having a crag to yourself.…