Written in Stone: Climbing History

In Part 2 of our series on women climbers of the 1980s, we focus on the middle of the decade, when difficulty soared.  We take a closer look at the 1984 International Ladies Meet hosted by The Pinnac…

The history of women in climbing, in it’s written form, is woefully incomplete. In this, the first of a multi-part series, we attempt to correct some of these oversights by taking a look at not only …

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We're taking a short break because we want to make sure that we don't miss the important contributions from the women climbers of the 80's who were pushing things forward. We'll be back soon!

In the …

Because this season is focused on the 1980s, and we are talking about the two best free soloists of their generations, Peter Croft and John Bachar,  there is a Venn Diagram that puts today’s guest sq…

Does Alex Honnold need an introduction? No, of course he doesn’t. But he was particularly suited for this conversation about Bachar and Croft for several reasons:

#1, Alex is a student of history. He…

It was 1986, over halfway through a decade that had brought turbulent change to climbing, and it was clear to John Bachar that even in Yosemite - hallowed ground as far as he was concerned - ethics w…

Shortly after my own trip to the Grampians and Araps, where I played briefly on Punks in the Gym, just to give it, as Ben Cossey would say, a tummy rub, I went back to the Blue Mountains where I met …

As I was researching Wolfgang, I would regularly come across candid photos taken inside the house he shared with Kurt Albert, and of course I read every story about Wolfgang I could find. In those ph…

Because the history of the Frankenjura can’t be told without Kurt Albert and Wolfgang Güllich, both of whom we lost too soon, I wanted to talk to someone rooted in that community to try and get an un…

There’s really no debate. In the pantheon of Wolfgang Güllich frothers, there is no person who is as much a frother as Australian superstar Ben Cossey. In May of 2024, Ben made the first ascent of a …

From the early to mid-1980s, Wolfgang Güllich was steadily discovering his own power. Spurred on by American and British climbers coming to the Frankenjura and establishing the hardest routes, he tap…

While we're working hard on the next episode, an update on some changes to the remainder of the season. 

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Andy Salo and Whitney Boland are modern day Gunks legends. Andy has FA’d some of the hardest routes in the area and co-written the brilliant guidebooks to the area. Whitney moved to the area and gain…

Russ Clune is a Legend. I once introduced him as climbing's Forrest Gump, because since the 1980s he's been there for many of climbing's most impactful moments. A Gunks local who has traveled widely …

In 1983, after years of climbing on Yosemite's granite cracks with John Long and the Stonemasters, Lynn Hill went on a roadtrip. First to Arizona, then to Colorado and finally Red Rock, outside of La…

Many climbers put Jerry Moffatt’s book, Revelations, on the top of their list. This is in no small part due to the work of Niall Grimes, who co-wrote the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize Winn…

In 1983, one climber was more dominant than any other: Jerry Moffatt. Filled with confidence, he traveled the world not only to quickly repeat the hardest routes, but to put up his own routes - often…

There’s nobody better than Bill Ramsey to discuss the impact that Alan Watts had on climbing. Not only is he a philosophy professor, but he was born in the same hospital as Alan, just a few hours lat…

In early 1983, in a small backwater area in Oregon with less than stellar rock, Smith Rock, sport climbing history was quietly being made. Alan Watts had all but climbed out the cracks in the area an…