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September Forums Update

OpenBeta
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  • Hello and welcome to the OpenBeta Forums' September update!

    It's been a pretty wild couple months here as @bean and I try to set things up here.

    To give you a bit of history, before these forums were re-branded under the OpenBeta banner, it served as a news aggregator for climbing news publications. I was finding that I was missing certain important events (related to the 2024 Olympic qualifier series, mostly) and wanted one single place to check for climbing news. To achieve that, I turned to my old friend RSS (remember that?) in order to proactively pull in content from all sorts of publications, @Gripped, @climbing, @HowNOT2, etc...

    All of that still remains, and can be viewed in the @news and @videos categories.

    By August I teamed up with @viet and @bean to re-brand the forums to expand OpenBeta's social reach. The idea of running a forum paired very nicely with OpenBeta's mission to advocate for a free exchange of beta and ideas, as well as an underlying current of maintaining freedom of content ownership.

    We want the OpenBeta forums to be your one-stop shop for climbing-related news and discussion. Help us make it happen by joining the conversation today!

    A couple new items this month to introduce:

    1. You don't need to actually visit the site to be kept up-to-date. You can register your for push notifications and receive updates straight to your device. This works in-tandem with the in-app notifications, and email notifications/digests.
    2. We updated the main homepage to a more "feed-style" concept, which highlights content more than a traditional category/topic layout. There are obviously many opinions on whether this is preferable or not, but in the meantime, the original category listing layout can be found at /categories.

    N.B. The NodeBB team has generously provided hosting for OpenBeta, and in exchange, we get to test our brand-new functionality before it is released, win-win!

Suggested topics


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    Access FundA
    https://www.accessfund.org/latest-news/staff-spotlight-heather-thorne-executive-director
  • Women's Boulder semi-final | Bern 2025

    Videos climbing ifsc
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    IFSCI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5AM041LIc
  • 1 Votes
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    American Alpine ClubA
    A prominent trend in international climbing is the rise of local climbing communities and cultures around the world, not least in Nepal. As documented in Bernadette McDonald’s award-winning Alpine Rising book, Sherpas and other Nepali climbers, who long worked in the mountains only as skilled employees, now guide their own paying clients and, increasingly, go climbing for fun, with impressive results—the 2021 first winter ascent of K2 being the most dramatic example. The 2025 AAJ will have our biggest Nepal section in many years—at least 38 pages of new routes and exploration—and one reason is the number of Nepali climbers exploring their local mountains, from the first ascent of 6,750-meter Khumjungar to success on the huge south-southwest ridge of Cho Oyu after more than 40 years of attempts. Here, we’re sharing the story of a Nepali expedition to the remote and wild Kanjiroba Himal: Three 8,000-meter guides went on a post-work holiday adventure and succeeded on the first ascent of a 6,500-meter peak. In the premonsoon season of 2024, Nepali guides Vinayak Jaya Malla, Pasang Kami Sherpa, and Pasang Rinzee Sherpa worked commercial expeditions to 8,000-meter peaks. After returning to Kathmandu, they enjoyed only a few days of rest before heading to Jumla in West Nepal, arriving on June 4. They were perfectly acclimatized for the adventure ahead: the first ascent of the highest summit of the Patrasi group, situated on the western rim of the Kanjiroba Sanctuary, a trip partially sponsored by the Mount Everest Foundation. None of the climbers had previously trekked or climbed in the area.      Along with four helpers from Kathmandu, the team drove to Pere (2,700m) on June 5. Adding a local guide and three porters, they then walked four hard days via the Chaudhabise Valley to a base camp at 5,050 meters below the west side of the Patrasi group. Day three involved crossing the Tang Tang Pass (4,950m) and descending to an overnight camp at 4,100 meters in the Changda Valley, where they met an encampment of local people gathering yarsagumba (caterpillar fungus) for traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine. At 8 a.m. on the 10th, they began their ascent of Patrasi. They first climbed a 200-meter snow couloir to reach the northwest ridge of Patrasi II (6,471m). After climbing 11 belayed pitches with rock to French 5a (around 5.8), and simul-climbing other sections, they reached 5,700 meters, where they were able to fashion a partial tent site. For safety, they slept that night in their harnesses. The following morning, they left at 5 a.m. After another 11 pitches (up to M4) and a little simul-climbing, they arrived at 6,000 meters, where they decided to pitch their second camp at around 4 p.m. The climbing had been quite challenging, in cold and windy conditions with intermittent snow showers. The rock was poor, and there were many places where protection points were 10 to 15 meters apart. At 4 a.m. on June 12, the three set out for a long summit push. Following the corniced ridge, then crossing a section of hard blue WI3, they reached the top of Patrasi II, descended a little to a snow slope, then headed up onto the left flank of the northeast ridge of Patrasi I. They reached the 6,521-meter summit at 4:35 p.m. in cloudy weather. The descent was long and tiring, with their muscles cramping toward the end of the day. Downclimbing and 15 long rappels (they climbed on 70-meter ropes) took them back to the 6,000-meter camp. It was 9:30 p.m., and they didn’t bother to cook, instead falling asleep very quickly. On the 13th, it took the trio almost 11 hours to descend all the way to base camp. By the 17th, they were back in Jumla. All equipment and nondegradable waste was packed out, and they left only five snow stakes, 10 pitons, and some cord on the mountain. Commenting on the trip, Pasang Kami Sherpa said, “This expedition added an interesting chapter to my mountaineering journey. It was in stark contrast to my experience on 8,000m peaks, where fixed rope, oxygen, well-stocked camps, and support systems are the norm. Here, we were on our own, a small team carrying only essential things, making our own decisions, and adapting to whatever ... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/3/16/the-line-nepali-climbers-on-nepals-mountains
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    GrippedG
    We hear from Babsi Zangerl who just made the first-ever no-fall ascent of a free route on El Capitan The post Babsi Zangerl Talks About Her Historic Flash of Freerider on El Capitan appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/babsi-zangerl-talks-about-her-historic-flash-of-freerider-on-el-capitan/
  • Arapiles Closures Suck for Rock Climbers

    General News climbing
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    GrippedG
    Sweeping bans to rock climbing to come into effect in the new year The post Arapiles Closures Suck for Rock Climbers appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/arapiles-closures-suck-for-rock-climbers/
  • 1400 page bundle on sale for $79.99

    General News climbing climbingzine
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    ClimbingZineC
    Score both Zine Books + Volumes 14 – 23 on sale for $79.99. That’s 1400 pages of reading material. Shop: https://shop.climbingzine.com/products/new https://climbingzine.com/1400-page-bundle-on-sale-for-79-99/
  • Katie Lamb Scales Equanimity V15

    General News climbing
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    GrippedG
    Jimmy Webb called the problem a "contender for the hardest technical boulder in the world" The post Katie Lamb Scales Equanimity V15 appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/news/katie-lamb-scales-equanimity-v15/
  • A Simple Guide to Bouldering Harder

    General News climbing
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    climbingC
    https://www.climbing.com/skills/training/how-train-bouldering/