Frequently Asked Questions, Community Guidelines, and more
Discussion about general climbing topics. A great place to talk about gear, technique, and the climbing community!
Discussion about the OpenBeta website, forums, and community
Share stories and pictures from your climbing trips!
Share or browse articles, videos, and news about climbing from around the web
Discussion about OpenBeta (and related projects) development
These big Rockies climbs remain test-pieces for anyone looking to push their aid climbing skills
The post Five Unrepeated Rockies Big Wall Aid Routes appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
These big Rockies climbs remain test-pieces for anyone looking to push their aid climbing skills
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Steve has returned once again to Skyline Buttress, Gallt yr Ogof in north Wales for his latest mission – a repeat of Yma O Hyd without the pegs in Mission Impossible.
Nearly 1,000 people have registered to climb Denali this year
The post Climbers Return to America’s Highest Peak appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Nearly 1,000 people have registered to climb Denali this year
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Half boulder problem, half trad route, Black Mamba is a wild climb on the White Rim
The post Mary Eden Climbing 50-Metre Roof Crack appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Half boulder problem, half trad route, Black Mamba is a wild climb on the White Rim
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
This week's Friday Night Video is a holy quest. We join Sir William Bosi in his crusade to tick Excalibur, Stefano Ghisolfi's 9b+ near Arco, Italy.
EXPLORE—An Act and The Act By AAC Advocacy Director Byron Harvison Photos by AAC member Kennedy Carey
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
How would you describe the scope of the work that goes into making the American Alpine Journal (AAJ)?
Dougald MacDonald: Producing the AA J is a year-round effort that involves literally hundreds of people. The actual “staff” of the AAJ (who are all part-timers and volunteers) includes more than 15 people, and each year we work with roughly 300 individual climbers and photographers to share their stories.
The book goes to press in late April, so the peak of the cycle is in March and April. But the work on the following year’s edition starts immediately, plus we prepare and upload online stories all year round. AND we produce The Cutting Edge podcast and the monthly Line newsletter.
What’s the history of the AAJ? How has it changed over the years?
DM: The AAJ is coming up on its 100th birthday, and unsurprisingly it has changed quite a lot over the years. It started out as much more of a Club publication, telling the stories of AAC members’ adventures. In the 1950s, with the rise of Himalayan climbing, the book started to become much more international. But it was really Ad Carter—who edited the AAJ for 35 years, starting in the 1960s—who created the wide-ranging, international publication it is today. We no longer focus mostly on the activities of AAC members—though we’re very happy to tell those stories when we can—but instead try to document all significant long routes and mountain exploration anywhere in the world, by climbers from every country.
For both the AAJ and Accidents in North American Climbing (ANAC), the most significant changes of the last 10 to 15 years have been 1) the introduction of color photography throughout both books and 2) the launch of the searchable online database of every AAJ and ANAC article ever published.
What’s an example of a unique challenge the editors have to deal with when making the AAJ?
DM: One challenge is that we come out so long after many of the climbs actually happened. So, readers may have seen something about any given climb several times, in news reports and social media posts and even video productions. But the AAJ has never been in the breaking news business. Instead, we aim to provide perspective and context. Perspective in that we don’t have any vested interest that might slant a story one way or another, and context on the history and geography that helps readers really understand the significance of a climb, how it relates to what’s been done before, and what other opportunities might be out there. Another big challenge is language barriers, since we work with people from all over the world. We’re fortunate to work in English, which so many people around the world use these days. We also use skilled translators for some stories, and online translation tools have improved dramatically in recent years. But there’s still a lot of back-and-forth with authors to ensure we’re getting everything just right.
What’s an example report that was really exciting for you to edit from the last few years?
DM: For me, personally, the coolest stories are the ones that teach me about an area of the world—or a moment in climbing history—that I knew nothing about before starting to work on a story. In the upcoming book, for example, we have stories about winter climbing in Greece (who knew?) and a mountain range in Venezuela that’s gorgeous and has peaks over 16,000 feet. Unfortunately, that range is rapidly losing its snow cover and its small glaciers. AAJ senior editor Lindsay Griffin, who is editing the story, did some cool climbs in the range in 1985, and the difference between his photos and those from today is shocking.
Are there any big differences in process between making the AAJ and ANAC?
DM: The biggest differences are just the scale and scope of the two books: The AAJ is a nearly 400-page book that tries to cover the entir...
How would you describe the scope of the work that goes into making the American Alpine Journal ( AAJ )? Dougald MacDonald: Producing the AA J is a year-round effort that involves literally hundreds of people. The actual “staff” of the AAJ (who are all part-timers and volunteers) includes
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
Versace V13 is the Czech climber's latest hard bouldering first-go ascent
The post Adam Ondra Flashes a Jimmy Webb V13 appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Versace V13 is the Czech climber's latest hard bouldering first-go ascent
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
The sit start to Hide and Sick V14 is Austria's hardest boulder problem
The post Nicolai Užnik Sending Mount Doom V17 appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
The sit start to Hide and Sick V14 is Austria's hardest boulder problem
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Watch the V17 climber take down one of the hardest sport routes in the world
The post Will Bosi Climbing Excalibur 5.15c appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
Watch the V17 climber take down one of the hardest sport routes in the world
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Spacewalking outside the Hubble Space Telescope, John Grunsfeld wasn’t that much closer to the stars than when he was back on the surface of Earth, but it certainly felt that way. The sensation of spacewalking, of constantly being in freefall, but orbiting Earth fast enough that it felt like weightlessness, was more of a thrill than terrifying. Looking out to the vaster universe, seeing the moon in its proximity, the giant body of the sun, stole his breath away. Grunsfeld was experiencing a sense of exploration that very few humans get to. It was deeply moving, a sensation he also got in the high glaciated ranges when he’d look around and be surrounded by crevasses and granite walls of rock and ice. Throughout his life, he couldn’t help but seek out the most inhospitable places on the planet, and even beyond.
You might think that there is nothing similar between climbing and spacewalking. But when you ask John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and NASA Chief Scientist—and an AAC member since 1996—about the similarities, the connections are potent.
The focus required of spacewalking and climbing is very much the same, Grunsfeld says. Just like you can’t perform at your best on the moves of a climb high above the ground without intense focus on the next move and the currents of balance in your body, so, too, suited up in the 300-pound spacesuit, with 4.3 pounds per square inch of oxygen, and 11 layers of protective cloth insulation, you still have to be careful not to bump the space shuttle, station, or telescope as you go about the work of repairing and updating such technology—the job of the mission in the first place. Outside the astronaut’s suit is a vacuum, and Grunsfeld is not shy about the stakes. “Humans survive seconds when vacuum-exposed,” he says. With such high risks, it’s a shame that the AAC rescue benefit doesn’t work in space.
Not only is spacewalking, like climbing, inherently dangerous, it also requires intense focus, and it can be a lot like redpointing. Grunsfeld reflects that “it’s very highly scripted. Every task that you’re going to do is laid out long before we go to space. We practice extensively.” In Grunsfeld’s three missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, his spacewalks were a race against the clock—the battery life and limited oxygen that the suit supplied versus the many highly technical tasks he had to perform to update the Hubble instruments and repair various electronic systems. It’s about flow, focus, and execution—skills and a sequence of moves that he had practiced again and again on Earth before coming to space. Similarly, tether management is critical. Body positioning, and not getting tangled in the tether, is important in order to not break something—say, kick a radiator and cause a leak that destroys Hubble and his fellow astronauts inside. But to Grunsfeld, the risk is worth it. The Hubble Space Telescope is “the world’s most significant scientific instrument and worth billions of dollars. Thousands of people are counting on that work.”
Indeed, perhaps a little more is at stake than a send or a summit.
Growing up in Chicago, Grunsfeld’s mind first alighted on the world of science and adventure through the National Geographic magazines he devoured, and a school project that had an outsized effect. Grunsfeld’s peers were assigned to write a brief biography of people like George Washington and Babe Ruth. Rather than these more familiar figures, Grunsfeld was assigned to research the life of Enrico Fermi—a nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the Manhattan Project, the creator of the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor, and a lifelong mountaineer. Suddenly, science and the alpine seemed deeply intertwined.
Grunsfeld started climbing as a teenager, top-roping in Devil’s Lake, back when the cutting edge of gear innovation meant climbing by wrapping the rope around your waist and tying it with a bowline. Attending a NOLS trip to the Wind River Range and further expanding on his rope and survivor skills truly cemented his love of climbing in wild spaces. Throughout the years, climbing was a steady beat in his life, a resource for joy. He would climb in Lumpy Ridge, the Sierra, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Tahquitz, Peru, Bolivia, and many other places with his wife, Carol, his daughter, and close friends like Tom Loeff, another AAC member.
If climbing was a steady beat, his fascination with space and astrophysics would be a starburst. At first, his application to become a NASA astronaut was denied, but in 1992, Grunsfeld joined the NASA Astronaut Corps. It would shape the rest of his life’s work. Between 1...
No Mountain High Enough The Intersections between Space Travel and High-Altitude Mountaineering Member Spotlight: Dr. John Grunsfeld, Astronaut By Hannah Provost Spacewalking outside the Hubble Space Telescope, John Grunsfeld wasn’t that much closer to the stars than when he was back on the s
American Alpine Club (americanalpineclub.org)
An easy-to-use lightweight option that will make your days at the crag safer and more fun
The post The New Metolius Basic Stick Clip appeared first on Gripped Magazine.
An easy-to-use lightweight option that will make your days at the crag safer and more fun
Gripped Magazine (gripped.com)
Welcome to the OpenBeta Forums!
Our goal is to provide a friendly, welcoming, helpful online community of people passionate about climbing. Remember to follow the Community Guidelines, and have fun!
