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New 1,000-metre Alpine Big Wall on Petit Dru

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  • Yann CamusY

    I Jumped 7 Times to Find the Best Avant Bungee Setup

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    Yann CamusY
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0OnrH2ybg8
  • American Alpine ClubA

    Guidebook XV—Balance

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    American Alpine ClubA
    Brooke Raboutou had booked her flight home. She had one final session to send Excalibur 9b+ (5.15c)—an18-move, 40-degree crimpy sport climb near Acro, Italy—before that flight. She felt good about it. She needed the time pressure, similar to a competition. In her mind, two things were true: She might have to walk away from Excalibur for the season, and she could send it during that final session. On Saturday, she began her day like every other, with yoga and meditation in her Airbnb, breakfast, and a warm up at her friends’ climbing wall. It was the warmest day she had had in Italy, a good sign, since she had previously numbed out on the climb. On her first try on the route that day, she fell on the last move. We’re getting into it, that felt good,Raboutou thought. She fell off the third move on her second try, which hadn’t happened in a while. She wasn’t frustrated; this was part of the process. “I felt like I mentally was in a place where I was able to try harder than I had before, and had more of a margin than maybe a month ago, from just training on the climb,” said Raboutou. She rested for 30 seconds and then hopped back on, trying harder than ever. Not every move was perfect, but this time, she stuck the final move from the ground, and time stopped as she clipped the chains. She topped out the feature, making the moment even more special. Every fall, every moment of doubt, all the ripped skin and sore muscles, the days filled with cold weather, were background noise to this moment, this historic climb—Raboutou believing fully in her abilities and achieving something only a few climbers have. With her ascent of Excalibur, Brooke Raboutou became the first woman in the world to climb 5.15c. This cutting-edge success didn’t come out of nowhere. Raboutou has been crushing boulders for the last few years while balancing the Climbing World Cup, the Olympics, and college. In May 2020, she sent Muscle Car (V14), her first of the grade. Her summer bouldering season in Rocky Mountain National Park saw solid sends with The Automator (V13), The Shining (V12/V13), The Wheel of Chaos (V13), Doppelgänger Poltergeist (V13),and Jade (V14). Raboutou also attended the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, earning fifth in the overall combined event (speed, lead, and bouldering). After the Tokyo Olympics, she felt very low and lost for a while. It was a pivotal time—she was a sophomore in college and still figuring out what she wanted to do with her life. She didn’t expect to feel the post-Olympics depression that a lot of athletes deal with. Raboutou worked with a sports psychologist and a therapist to help her process her emotions and goals in this heightened context of elite competition. She started to put her well-being above climbing and training. She is still constantly working on shifting that paradigm. It’s no surprise that in 2021 and 2022, Raboutou sent a handful of V13s and V14s, most of them documented on her Instagram and Mellow Climbing’s YouTube: Euro Trash (V12/8a+) and Euro Roof Low Low (V13/8b) in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah; Trieste (V14) in Red Rocks, Nevada; Heritage (V13), La Proue (V13) and Lur (V14) in Switzerland, snagging the FFA for La Proue; and Evil Backwards (V13) in the Mt. Blue Sky area, Colorado. By the end of 2022, only three women had climbed V15, and none had climbed V16. But the dream was there. Early in 2023, Raboutou graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in marketing—something she was cautioned against since she had a full-time professional climbing career. She also took classes in psychology and was interested in how mental health and climbing interact. Balancing learning and climbing was important to her. “I love climbing so much, but I’ve always believed it cannot be my everything,” said Raboutou. In October of 2023, Raboutou sent Box Therapy (V15/V16) in Rocky Mountain National Park, and she promptly downgraded it from V16 to V15. Her brother, Shawn Raboutou, an elite boulderer who has climbed V17, sent the boulder that same day. In an Instagram post, she wrote, “I first touched this boulder in September 2022 and have not stopped dreaming about it since that day. It took me a whole year to get back... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/8/14/guidebook-xvbalance
  • IFSCI

    The first TOP of semi-finals, and it's Annie Sanders 🇺🇸 #shorts

    Videos climbing ifsc
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    IFSCI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1IsOapnwaA
  • IFSCI

    The first men's race from IFSC World Cup Denver 🇺🇸 #shorts

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    IFSCI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wGSlYJZjVI
  • GrippedG

    10 Trad Routes to Climb at the Smoke Bluffs

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    GrippedG
    A tick-list of some of the most classic Squamish single-pitch gear climbs to do when you visit The post 10 Trad Routes to Climb at the Smoke Bluffs appeared first on Gripped Magazine. https://gripped.com/profiles/10-trad-routes-to-climb-at-the-smoke-bluffs/
  • julianJ

    One-handed release slipknot for TRS

    General Climbing climbing topropesolo
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    julianJ
    A question for the TRS folks in the climbing community... This past Monday I went out and top rope solo'd for the first time. It was a nice experience and I learned a lot. I look forward to honing some of the practices (e.g. refixing strategy, bottom weight, etc.) One thing that I was not prepared for was a specific knot that Brent Barghahn teaches in his TRS video with Ryan Jenks from How NOT 2. He states that he refixes his rope to prevent rope abrasion (), and this can be done in a number of ways. He now prefers to tie a slipknot with a full twist (instead of a half-twist), instead of something that requires him to stop and untie, like an alpine butterfly. I attmepted to tie this knot a number of times in preparation (and on site), but it never looked right. I ended up using a butterfly. Later I rewatched the video and practiced the knot for a full half hour before I figured out exactly why it didn't look right. Can you figure it out? Here is the knot tied correctly, and then incorrectly. Can you spot which is which? [image: 1741924974063-pxl_20250313_143739970.mp-resized.jpg] [image: 1741924980472-pxl_20250314_015542239-resized.jpg]
  • HowNOT2H

    I wish every ad was comedy

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    HowNOT2H
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTeoec1_wR0
  • American Alpine ClubA

    The Line: Exploring Africa’s Stunning Granite Domes

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    American Alpine ClubA
    In AAJ 2024, we highlighted new climbs in Angola spearheaded by American climber Nathan Cahill, along with local developers—see Cahill’s story here . The pace of exploration on the beautiful rock of this southwest African country has not slowed. This past summer, a Spanish quintet visited the province of Cuanza Sul and climbed seven new routes on six different granite domes. Here is the story they‘ve prepared for the 2025 AAJ. During July 2024, our team of five Spaniards—Miguel A. Díaz, Alex Gonzalez, Indi Gutierrez, Jaume Peiró, and me, Manu Ponce—traveled to Angola in search of big walls. Having many options to explore, we decided to start in the Conda region of Cuanza Sul province, around eight hours south of Luanda, the capital. Once in Conda, we headed about ten kilometers south to the village of Cumbira Segundo. We knew from past reports that we would find big walls, but the reality far exceeded what we imagined. Amid the lush jungles surrounding the small village of Cumbira Segundo were enormous granite domes, between 200 and 400 meters tall. Some of these had been climbed before, but many had not. In this type of adventure, the easiest aspect is often the climbing itself, and this was true here, as the dense vegetation full of wild animals—many of them very poisonous—required us to open paths to the walls with extreme care. Taking turns, we chopped through the jungle with machetes meter by meter until we reached our starting points. Once on the wall, we were in our element, though temperatures were scorching: between 20°C and 25°C, with almost 100 percent humidity. These were truly tropical conditions. We tried to choose walls in the shade, although this wasn’t always possible. We climbed everything ground-up, using bolts as sparingly as possible, though some of the walls had very little opportunity for removable protection. Most of our routes involved technical slab climbing, with few cracks, poor handholds, and friction-dependent footwork. This meant that, at the end of the day, you would end up with your head mentally fried. We had several wild moments during the expedition: falls of more than ten meters with a drill included, scorpions as big as your hand defending their nest as you climbed, and running into black mambas on the nightly return to camp. Despite this, if asked if we would return, we would all answer without hesitation: Sim, claro! In total, we opened seven routes on six different peaks, two of which had never been summited before. This totaled around 2,000 meters of climbing, all of which made us sweat meter by meter. The seven routes were:  ●      Bon Día Boa Noite (420m climbing distance, 7a) on Hande. ●      Peluchitos (380m, 7b) on Hande. ●      Vuelta al Armario por Festivos (350m, 6b+) on Cunduvile. ●      Quero verte Vocé (100m, 6a+) on Wende, first ascent of the formation. ●      Raices (200m, 6c) on Leca, first ascent of the formation. ●      Os Mulatos (130m, 6c+), the first climbing route on Cawanji. The formation can be ascended by hiking via another route. ●      Fumaca Densa (115m, 7b) on Nhenje. We received much valuable help from Nathan Cahill of  Climb Angola, and Lucho Birkner and Javiera Ayala from the nonprofit Climbing for a Reason. The local community, specifically all the children with which the latter organization works, helped us from the moment we got up each day until we returned in the evening through the dense vegetation. A very humble community opened its arms to us without asking for anything in return. We are particularly grateful for the work Climbing for a Reason is doing in this place. It has given life and a lot of hope to a large part of the town’s population: the children. Due to the incredible climbing and potential for route development, we are sure this place soon will be visited by people from all over the world. Climbing for a Reason is helping prepare an... https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2024/10/21/the-line-exploring-the-big-granite-domes-of-angola