Self-promotion in climbing can be many things. But it’s not a virtue. It’s not necessary. And it’s certainly not off limits to criticism. The post Not Very Demure: The Limits of Self-promotion in Climbing appeared first on Evening Sends ..read more

The category of “crag packs” has come a long way over the past decade, as companies continue to refine and reimagine what a pack should deliver for outdoor climbers. “Cragging” is jargon that refers to casual single-pitch climbing (sport or trad), so crag packs should cater to the needs of this activity. There are few […] The post A Crag Pack That Fits It All: Mammut Neon 55 appeared first on Evening Sends ..read more

Thomas Huber revisits the day he sent The End of Silence, considered one of the Alpine Trilogy test pieces in Europe. The post Thomas Huber: The Day I Sent The End of Silence appeared first on Evening Sends ..read more

New-ish climbers can be myopic in ways that one might call annoying. I really want to be the kind of magnanimous person who can take that big noob energy and help guide it to align with the norms of established crag etiquette. I’d love to be the generous mentor who holds grace for new-ish climbers, using my infinite supply of patience to gently correct the sometimes misguided ways they navigate outdoor crags, helping them become more considerate, integrated members of our community. But it turns out I’m not that kind of person. I’m a petty, vindictive coward who will just shit-talk gumbies a ..read more

Have you ever gone to a new crag without a guidebook and just picked a route that looks good to you and climbed it? You don’t know how hard it is, what its name is, whether it’s runout or safe, if it’s “good” for short people, if your friend who weighs as many pounds as you did it, the beta, the number of cams or quickdraws you’ll need, nothing at all. You just pull onto the rock and see what happens. Adventure in climbing need not always come in the form of some big expensive expedition to the greater ranges. (If you haven’t schlepped duffle bags of climbing gear via donkey, can you really c ..read more

I never expected that a film about rock climbing in the occupied West Bank of Palestine would ever receive so much attention and acclaim, especially more than a year after its release. The film, “Resistance Climbing,” is one in which I play a small part as a narrator but it’s not a film about me; it’s a film about the climbers in Palestine and the story of how they find joy and meaning in something as frivolous as rock climbing amid the insufferable circumstances being imposed upon them by their occupiers. The film has received a bunch of awards, including: Best Climbing Film at Banff; the Ch ..read more

Learning to Fly, one of Indian Creek’s short, shocking testpieces, was stuck in my craw for seven years. My venerable Grandpa Joe used to use that phrase—“stuck in my craw”—all the time to describe anything currently annoying the shit out of him. So now I say it, too, because I’ve spent my life trying to live up to the likes of Grandpa Joe. I found this sweet little overhanging splitter over a decade ago and put in the anchor. It took only a few minutes to aid up the crack on the same-sized cams. Thwap, thwap—two bolts were in. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We had an instant classic at a relative ..read more

It was a hot summer day in Ten Sleep, perfect condies to send the hardest thing you’ve ever done, as many new-ish climbers who like soft grades and mind-numbingly straightforward beta have discovered over the years. We were a group of tired parents and young children just desperately trying to do a couple pitches. We arrived at our crag, which had only a handful of routes, each of them high quality. There were about five other climbers there that afternoon, and they were already working on the two best and hardest routes at the cliff, a 5.13a and a 5.13b. They seemed young, carefree, living ..read more

Having covered the climbing industry for the past couple decades, I can attest that it’s not often that I see something genuinely new and different. But the Metolius Roll Up Stick Clip Kit—or, as I call it, the Rolly-Poley—really surprised me as one of the ingenious pieces of gear I’ve ever seen. The Rolly-Poley completely re-imagines what a stick clip looks like: it is a roughly 10-foot pole that rolls up into a 3.75”x 4.5” package and weighs under two pounds. If you remember snap bracelets as a kid, this design is kind of like that. Made from some kind of futuristic composite material, the ..read more

In my lived experience, otherwise known as my experience, I’ve never actually heard the term “day flash” being genuinely used out in the wild. Perhaps this speaks to my privilege as a person who only climbs around people who haven’t graduated from the gym-to-crag idiot pipeline. Apparently, however, this term exists, even though I still don’t honestly believe it. From what I gather, a “day flash” means that you sent a project on the first try of the day. This could mean that you’ve been trying to redpoint your project over many days, but then, on the day that you actually do it, you do it on ..read more