After raucous events in Asia and the United States, the IFSC rolled into Europe over the weekend with a Boulder World Cup in Prague. In fact, it was the first World Cup hosted by the Czech Republic since a Lead competition in Brno in 2009.  But in many ways, the focus for the weekend’s proceedings was less on the history and the alluring setting and more on the present-day superstars. Specifically, this Prague World Cup marked the highly touted returns of the Czech Republic’s Adam Ondra in the men’s division (he last participated in a World Cup in July 2022) and Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret ..read more

Readers, please send your Weekend Whipper videos, information, and any lessons learned to Anthony Walsh, awalsh@outsideinc.com. Let’s get one thing straight: no one (no one) is immune to one climbing stereotype; at some point or another, when the jams get desperate, a little voice in your head will scream Layback! despite any experiential logic you may have.  Climbing’s editors aren’t immune to it, your favorite pro climber isn’t immune to it, and neither is this week’s Whipper. Vinicius Todero was trying Swedin-Ringle (5.12-) with the eventual goal of redpointing Air Swedin (5.13b R) in ..read more

The 2023 spring climbing season on Mount Everest has come to an unofficial end, with monsoons and high winds returning to Khumbu Valley in recent days and closing the window of calm weather on the world’s highest peak. Climbers and expedition leaders must now take stock of what is one of the most chaotic and deadly years in the mountain’s history. As of this story’s publishing, 12 climbers are dead and five are still missing. The current death toll is the fourth-highest in Everest history, (only 2015, 1996, and 2014 had more, with 13, 15 and 16 deaths respec ..read more

In spring 2002, I huffed up a steep trail with my friend Anthony, on the hunt for the “new stuff” near Estes Park, Colorado. I wheezed, wishing that we’d already arrived at the bowl holding Lake Haiyaha/Chaos Canyon and the hard, new boulders. Unfortunately, we weren’t even halfway. Alpine bouldering, I learned, requires way more effort and consideration than a casual day at your roadside rocks. When the lowlands simmer, climbing at altitude offers the opportunity for cooler weather, better conditions, and mountain vistas. After 15 years of bouldering across the high-country zones of Colorado ..read more

1970. During a Rock 1 course out at Mount Rubidoux, near Riverside, California. I’d just learned the figure 8 follow through when Phil Haney—in skin-tight, smooth-soled climbing shoes, his hands dusted with chalk—campused up the overhanging, 30-foot high, Joe Brown Wall. My eyes went out on stilts. I walked over and clasped the first holds, which felt like hacksaw blades, and burst out laughing.  “That there’s bouldering,” my instructor said, but it looked like magic to me. And Phil Haney was a regular Merlin.   Six summers later, with a copy of Pat Ament’s Master of Rock in ha ..read more

As climbers, we’re all familiar with the “hardest climb” or “fastest ascent.” These records will inevitably continue to occur in some fashion, but in 2023, when (almost) all the mountains have been climbed in every season in a dozen different ways, many alpine records are no longer about accomplishing anything meaningful. Sadly, many records are about… Well, setting records. From the world’s highest-altitude art gallery to the highest peak climbed while pushing a Brussels sprout along the trail with one’s nose to Colin O’Brady’s “first Snapchat from the summit of Mt. Everest,” there are hundr ..read more

In an odd way, friction slabs are like wide cracks: Hate ’em all you want, but you can’t climb some of the most classic trad routes without working through them. It’s common to find slab sections leading into and out of perfect cracks in places like Yosemite, California; Lumpy Ridge, Colorado; and North Conway, New Hampshire. They’re characterized by a low angle (between roughly 65° and 80°) and a dearth of holds (think: micro-divots, bumps, edges, dishes, and nubbins ). There’s nothing to pull down on, so you must employ a set of techniques unique to these features (or lack thereof). “James ..read more

In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, our weekly news series tries to celebrate a few outstanding climbs (or interesting events) that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it. —The editors Matty Hong Does Biographie Matty Hong, 31, has repeated France’s Biographie, in Céüse, the world’s first consensus 5.15a. The iconic line, FA’d by Chris Sharma in 2011, has now seen 19 ascents, with Margo Hayes making the only female ascent, in 2017. Back in 2018, Hong became the fourth American to have sent 5.15b, with ..read more

“If I were taller, this would be easier,” shouted the Belgian superstar Nico Favresse from the crux move of Shart Attack (5.14a) in Pine Creek, a granite crag just north of Bishop, California. The climb is 30 meters long, gently overhanging, and features a teched-out shallow corner to a V10 crux. Eight bolts up, trying to sort out the best beta at the crux, Favresse starfished his skinny 5’9” frame, searching for the optimal body position. Earlier in 2018, I had made the third ascent by throwing to a sloper, a move the lanky, guitar-toting big-wall gypsy could easily reach. “You poor thing ..read more

One of the most iconic formations in North America, the Moose’s Tooth* tops out at 10,335 feet just east of the entrance to Alaska’s Ruth Gorge. The native Athabascan people, in their language, named the formation the Moose’s Tooth for its nearly mile-long, low-angle, east-to-west summit ridge resembling that part of a moose’s anatomy. *The USGS omitted an apostrophe in their spelling of the Moose’s Tooth, which is why it appears in some places as the “Mooses Tooth.” In 1964, the German mountaineers Walter Welsch, Klaus Bierl, Arnold Hasenkopf, and Alfons Reichegger completed the first ascent ..read more