Cover: Eddie Taylor digs deep on Moonlight Buttress (5.12+) in Zion, 2021. He is believed to be the first Black climber to free the route. But,as he told journalist Holly Yu Tung Chen in Climbing, he doesn’t care about that record: “I do care about representation. Someone who looks like me will see me. That matters.” [Photo] Felipe Tapia Nordenflycht

Features

Tiny Changes

Ethan Berman was born at home in a bathtub, in New Delhi, India, where his parents were working abroad. Moving back and forth between the United States and India while growing up, he felt a lack of direction in his life until he wandered into a climbing gym in Thailand. The vertical life suited his restless spirit, but even as he found so much of what he wanted on icy mountains, he realized something was still missing. “I go up to get to the bottom of myself,” he writes.

The Hummingbirds of Plaza Catalunya

In June 2016, Hayden Jamieson was attempting a new route in Pakistan when his numb hands slipped from a crack and sent him falling onto a ledge. With bone protruding from his ankle, he was lucky to survive and return to climbing. Shortly after the accident, his friend Kyle Dempster disappeared on Pakistan’s Ogre II with Scott Adamson, leaving Jamieson to reconsider what he wanted from his adventures. He finds it through efforts to free climb a big wall in Cochamó, Chile, with new friends.

The Green Man

After being involved in an avalanche that killed a beloved member of her community in Colorado’s Elk Range in 2020, Laura Yale begins a journey to untangle a web of grief. She explores the ways ancient cultures coped with the reality of loss, acknowledging the natural process of death, and brings the old wisdom to bear on her situation. The Green Man “is in the knowing that in the whites and greys and long nights of winter, green will one day emerge again,” she writes.

Departments

Sharp End

Derek Franz observes the legacies of Stewart M. Green, John Middendorf and Keita Kurakami.

Escape Route

Derek Franz, Christian Kiefer and Abbey Collins share reading recommendations. Franz interviews Will Sharp.

On Belay

Thirty-one years ago, Christian Santelices, Hans Florine, Nancy Feagin and Willie Benegas climbed twenty of the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America in twenty days. Aidan Multhauf recounts his journey to repeat the challenge with David Katzenmeyer last year.

Tool Users

Hannah Provost looks into some innovative tools that never took off.

The Climbing Life

Ben Davis depicts a mostly silent conversation between military veterans. Rosie Bates considers how she’s influenced by the opinions of anonymous people on the internet. Lani Chapko opens up about a fear of falling. Chloe Anderson finds family in a Kansas rock climbing club. And Katherine Indermaur gleans insight from watching her toddler read Alpinist.

Full Value

About as soon as Karen McDiarmid fell in love with climbing, she also began to experience the darkness that entwines itself with the magic of the mountains. Now, many years after she first moved to the Canadian Rockies, McDiarmid reflects on loss—and on living.

Local Hero

Kaoru Wada celebrates Shiori Hashimoto, the first woman to chair the Japanese Alpine Club.

Off Belay

Climbing high above lemurs and chameleons, Jan Novak shares words and photos from Madagascar’s Tsaranoro Valley.