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March 2025 The American Alpine Club (AAC) and Mountain Hardwear are excited to announce the 2025 McNeill-Nott recipients. With the untimely death of Sue Nott and her climbing partner Karen McNeill on Sultana (Mt. Foraker) in 2006, the AAC partnered with Mountain Hardwear to establish the McNeill-Nott Award in their memory. This award seeks to preserve the spirit of these two talented and courageous climbers by giving grants to amateur female climbers exploring new routes or unclimbed peaks with small teams. Heather Smallpage will receive $2,000 to attempt big wall and alpine-style first ascents in a little-climbed region of Baffin Island: Arviqtujuq Kangiqtua (formerly Eglinton Fjord). Natalie Afonina, Shira Biner, Char Tomlinson, and Kaylan Worsnop will all join the expedition, which will be almost entirely human-powered. The expedition team will travel over 250 km by skiing, climbing, packrafting, and walking. The team hopes that this expedition will not only inspire people to see what is possible for female and nonbinary alpinism but also emphasize how increasingly essential and joyous these spaces are in this sport and will tell a story that includes voices that are often quieted or left out of the climbing media. Angela VanWiemeersch will receive $4,000 to attempt to establish a technical line in alpine style on a 5,000-meter peak in the Pamir Alai mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Allie Oaks will join VanWiemeersch on this expedition. Oaks and VanWiemeersch have been growing a long-distance partnership over the last four years and will be doing a training trip in the Canadian Rockies this April. This will be their first big expedition together.  Brooke Maushund will receive $1,000 to attempt to climb and ski unclimbed peaks on the Southern Patagonian Icefield (Hielo Continental) with a primarily female team. Since avalanche forecasting in the U.S. during austral summers, Maushund was driven to extend her winters in the Southern Hemisphere. After spending close to four months skiing in Patagonia last year, starting to learn terrain, snowpacks, and weather patterns, she is excited to continue learning through exploratory skiing in this dynamic, wild environment.  Applications for the McNeill-Nott Award are accepted each year from October 1 through November 30. Berkeley Anderson, Foundation and Grants Coordinator: [email protected] About Mountain Hardwear Mountain Hardwear, Inc., was founded in 1993 and is based in Richmond, CA. We exist to encourage and equip people to seek a wilder path in life. For 30 years, we’ve built essential equipment for climbers, mountaineers, and outdoor athletes and have supported expeditions on the world’s highest peaks. Relentless precision continues to inspire everything we do — our designers sweat every stitch and detail to continuously improve function, durability, and comfort. Mountain Hardwear is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear Company that distributes its products through specialty outdoor retailers in the United States and 34 countries worldwide. www.mountainhardwear.com https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/3/13/the-american-alpine-club-announces-2025-mcneill-nott-winners

In this episode, we sit down with Kai Lightner to chat about his Reel Rock film, Death of Villains. Kai gives us a behind the scenes look at how the film came to be, some of the key themes of the film and how challenging it was to be so vulnerable about subjects like eating disorders and rediscovering how to climb in his growing body, and the big fight, believing that he could meet his childhood dreams of climbing 5.15. We also talk about redpoint strategies, injury, the partners who have shaped him, and what he’s discovered recently about climbing, even after 20 years in the sport! Learn More about Kai Lightner Kai Lightner’s Instagram Climbing for Change Reel Rock Tour https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/3/13/climb-kai-lighter-talks-bts-of-death-of-villains

Wild as it may seem, every year we publish at least one report of a climber getting their knee stuck in an offwidth crack. Sound crazy? It happened to Martin Boysen on Trango Tower and more recently Jason Kruk on Boogie Till You Puke.  On January 8, Climber 1 (female, 25) got her knee stuck in a wide crack on the Regular Route (3 pitches, 5.7) on Queen Victoria Spire in Sedona. Climber 1 was following four friends on her first outdoor climb when she attempted an “alpine knee” while pulling onto a ledge on the second pitch. An “alpine knee” is when you place that joint on top of a high hold and use it for progress, instead of a foot. Rather than helping her onto the ledge, Climber 1’s knee slipped into a four-inch-wide crack, where it wedged and became stuck. Others in her party tried pouring water over her knee in an attempt to free it but were unsuccessful.  At 5:15 p.m., the Coconino County Sheriff’s department was contacted to perform a rescue. By 8 p.m., the SAR team had arrived. It took over an hour to free the climber from the crack, and by then the climber was exhibiting signs of mild hypothermia (they had started climbing at 12:30 p.m.). The climbing party was airlifted off the spire. The stuck climber was not injured and refused treatment. The climbers in this scenario did “everything right,” according to the SAR team. They tried to free their partner, and failing that, they initiated a rescue. Many relatively easy routes have awkward sections or styles of climbing that may seem above the technical grade when first encountered outdoors. Care should be taken when making a move where a slip or fall could result in injury or entrapment. It took about four hours to free this climber, and temperatures at the crag dropped to around 30°F. Consider worst-case scenarios when preparing for a climb, as unexpected events could result in prolonged exposure to the elements. (Source: Dan Apodaca.)  If getting your knee stuck in an offwidth is so common, what do we do if it happens? In the video analysis, ANAC editor Pete Takeda provides some tips on how to prepare for this kind of worst-case scenario when rock climbing. Credits: Pete Takeda, Editor of Accidents in North American Climbing, and Hannah Provost, Content Director; Producer: Shane Johnson and Sierra McGivney @Sierra_McGivney; Videographer: Foster Denney @fosterdoodle_; Editor: Sierra McGivney @Sierra_McGivney; Location: Cob Rock, Boulder Canyon, CO https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/3/12/prescriptionknee

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As ice climbing season winds down, it becomes more important to consider environmental conditions as potential hazards. Here are five of them. Guest post from IFMGA Guide Kel Rossiter. https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/ice-climbing-environmental-red-flags

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Eighteen years after establishing The Nose, Warren Harding completed one of his final routes—ordering his team to chop bolts and rivets as they climbed The post Yosemite’s Removed Big Wall: Steve Bosque Remembers the Porcelain Wall appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/yosemites-removed-big-wall-steve-bosque-remembers-the-porcelain-wall/

He just made the fourth ascent of Daniel Woods' Return of the Sleepwalker V17 The post Simon Lorenzi Climbs His Fourth V17 appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/news/simon-lorenzi-climbs-his-fourth-v17/

The V13 U.K. lowball features a desperate throw to the lip off some terrible feet The post “Worst Footholds I’ve Ever Used?” – Shauna Coxsey Tops Lupin V13 appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/news/worst-footholds-ive-ever-used-shauna-coxsey-tops-lupin-v13/

Ring the bells in elegy For the last engine Of the last Saturn On (semi) permanent loan From the buddy of the last dirtbag To struggle off rock You were bitching the other day That the artists weren’t starving anymore That the spirit was no longer willing to suffer for it maybe, But the flesh… https://climbingzine.com/elegy-for-the-apparent-last-true-dirtbag-a-poem/

Janja Garnbret has made a rare repeat of Za staro kolo (F8c+), a historic route originally climbed by Tadej Slabe in 1992. https://www.climber.co.uk/news/janja-garnbret-makes-rare-repeat-of-historic-za-staro-kolo-f8c/

Noah Wheeler continues his stellar 2025 form with the second ascent of Shaolin (Font 9A) at Red Rocks, Las Vegas. https://www.climber.co.uk/news/noah-wheeler-gets-second-ascent-of-shaolin-font-9a/

Austrian climber, Nicolia Uznik, has made the first ascent of Mount Doom (Font 9A) in Maltatal, Austria. https://www.climber.co.uk/news/nicolai-uznik-gets-first-ascent-of-mount-doom-font-9a/

Belgian climber Simon Lorenzi has repeated Daniel Woods'Return of the Sleepwalker(Font 9A/V17), in Black Velvet Canyon, Nevada. https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=779562

Noah Wheeler has repeated Sean Bailey's Font 9A/V17, Shaolin, in Red Rocks, Nevada. https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=779472

Shauna Coxsey has made the second ascent of Lupin, 8B, on Stanton Moor in the Peak District just one month after Jim Pope put up the problem. There's only a single hold on the entire problem, and one extremely hard move, so it's... https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=779549