Jeff Lowe's Metanoia is a film about one man's journey from the top of the world to the end of the line. Jeff helped make climbing what it is today, through technical innovation and more than a thousand first ascents, including "Metanoia" on the north face of the Eiger, where he experienced a spiritual transformation. Jeff's story inspires us all, as he brings the creativity and strength that characterized his climbing career to his final challenge: his own mortality. Jeff crossed over into the great unknown peacefully, while outdoors with family on August 24, 2018.

Every now and then I tell someone that this is possible, and without fail it is always new information to them. I wish it was better-known / discoverable, but here's the process (only works in a browser, will not work in the app), using Castleton Tower as an example:

• go to the "Climbing Area" page
• click on "Climbing Area Map"
• click the yellow trail on the map
• click "Full Details", which will take you to the approach trail page
• click "Download GPX file"

And now voila, you can move this file to your phone (or you can do this on your phone if you hate yourself) and follow the trail when you don't have reception.

Important notes:

• approach trails will be split into multiple sections, so in the Castleton Tower example, you want to make sure you download both the Priest approach leg and the Castleton Tower approach leg
• descent trails may be different than approach trails and sometimes have different downloads

(If you don't know what a GPX file is, it's a sequence of GPS points that you can import into mapping apps like Caltopo and Gaia.)

Hey all, over the past few weeks I've been working on this website for myself to help answer some questions:

• Should I go climbing in Squamish today?
• How would the conditions feel in general, and when is peak conditions for the day?
• How were the conditions during a past send of mine?

After moving to Vancouver last year, I immediately got hooked on climbing in Squamish, but as many locals will tell you, it's extremely conditions dependent. This was my attempt at quantifying that a little better - although it's honestly a tricky one.

The site is https://crag.day, it pulls a few weather forecast models together along with measured rain and then models how the granite will soak up and hold moisture (through rain and dew) and how quickly it will dry. It takes in a number of factors (historical rain, temperature, sunlight, humidity) to gauge and give a verdict for both: can we climb today, and if so, how will the conditions feel?

Full disclosure, this is a self promotion. It's my website, it's free, no ads or accounts. I built it for my own use and I'm sharing it in case it helps anyone else. I'm still working on tweaking the formulas, specifically how we decide between "climbable" and "maybe take a rest day", as conditions can vary heavily based on location and the boulder itself.

Also worth mentioning - while building this site I came across ClimbIt (https://climbitscore.com), which covers far more areas and does many things better than I do. I wanted a small, specific tool for my own use case, but I suspect for many people ClimbIt is the more useful tool, so definitely check that out as well!

I made these topos (in English and Vietnamese) for a route I opened in northern Vietnam on Núi Mắt Thần (God’s Eye Mountain/Pierced Mountain). Some of the steepest and best climbing I’ve ever gotten to do.

More beta on MP and the Crag. More about my trip at DakotaWalz.com

One of the quiet pioneers of modern Dumbarton Rock climbing.
While Andy has established routes throughout Scotland, his influence at Dumby is woven into the fabric of the place. Problems such as Slap Happy, Andy’s Arête, Persistence of Vision, Sufferance and many others have challenged generations of climbers.
More than the FA’s themselves, it’s the countless hours of exploring, cleaning, developing and sharing the crag that have left a lasting mark. Every climber who’s spent an evening projecting with friends at Dumby has, knowingly or not, benefited from that work.
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Andy for a documentary about Dumbarton Rock. Spending time with him only reinforced how much of the climbing we enjoy today rests on the efforts of those who came before us.
Thanks, Andy.

The two orders collectively cut nearly three million acres out of monument protection, including 1.69 million acres of land from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and 1.24 million acres for Bears Ears National Monuments — about 90% of the land previously protected in each monument. This is the second such reduction from Trump. Bears Ears is home to world class climbing.

If you love outdoor spaces and recreation, if you want to preserve wild spaces for your children, go vote! Trump doesn’t care about you. He knows only greed. Conservatives in name only, they aren’t interested in conservation.

Please use this thread to discuss anything you are interested in talking about with fellow climbers. The only rule is to be friendly and dont try to sell anything here.

Wanted to share some inspiration from my trip to Wadi Rum!

I had a blast in Jordan, spent two weeks in February hitchhiking around, eating good food, meeting good people, seeing the sights, and climbing in Wadi Rum.

In Wadi Rum we stayed with our amazing guide, Saleem, who has deep knowledge of the area, and is generally very kind.

Pictured is Merlin's wand - which was 6 pitches of really fun varied cracks, and a mountain across the way that we climbed on sight. We started up two short pitches of crack/chimney, then continues up some slabs before coming across cairns from a beduin route. Dropped packs and gear and followed that up to the top (including a very sketchy traverse..)

I will say that while the rock here is reminiscent of Red Rocks visually, I found it to be more prone to breaking - so adjust your expectations when placing gear/trusting holds.

All in all I had a great time in Jordan, and was shown unmatched hospitality from everyone there.

I'm a bit confused, how can a single pitch of climbing be 425 feet long? It says he did 3 rope changes to manage drag, using an 80m. This seems like on an incredible level and a gigantic feat.

Spent 3 days in the Whitney Zone, attempting the East Buttress of Whitney (5.7, 400M) and Mithril Dihedral on Mt Russell (5.10a, ~300M). Unstable weather and slow pacing from the parking lot prevented us from summiting Whitney, which was a bummer for the group, but I’ve taken the John Muir trail to the top in the past, so Russell was my original goal for the trip.

The following morning my partner and I climbed Mithril Dihedral and descended the Wast Ridge of Russell back to camp! I’ve had this route on my to do list for a while and always felt it would be at my limit, climbing 5.9-5.10a at nearly 14k ft, and I was right! I fell multiple times, had to take breaks on the harder pitches in between placing gear, etc. it was an epic day, and an amazing trip.. the summit felt so good!!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and here is a YouTube link to the video trip report for those interested.

Thanks for reading! https://youtu.be/6NU6eSOiqOM?is=mv5M-12jtcTS2qo0

Please sort comments by 'new' to find questions that would otherwise be buried.

In this thread you can ask any climbing related question that you may have. This thread will be posted again every Friday so there should always be an opportunity to ask your question and have it answered. If you're an experienced climber and want to contribute to the community, these threads are a great opportunity for that. We were all new to climbing at some point, so be respectful of everyone looking to improve their knowledge. Check out our subreddit wiki that has tons of useful info for new climbers. You can see it HERE . Also check out our sister subreddit r/bouldering's wiki here. Please read these before asking common questions.

If you see a new climber related question posted in another subReddit or in this subreddit, then please politely link them to this thread.

Check out this curated list of climbing tutorials!

Prior Weekly New Climber Thread posts

Prior Friday New Climber Thread posts (earlier name for the same type of thread

A handy guide for purchasing your first rope

A handy guide to everything you ever wanted to know about climbing shoes!

Ask away!

My wife and I climbed Eichorn Pinnacle via the West Pillar Direct route in Yosemite’s Tuolumne high country to celebrate the 4th of July. It was our first time climbing trad together in 11 months and it was such a joy being back in the mountains! 5 pitches of sustained 5.8/5.9 with a punchy 5.10b crux right in the middle, with nice exposure on perfect Cathedral Peak granodiorite. It’s such a spectacular setting back there with great views of the Cathedral Lakes and the high country. I felt solid on the first 5.9 offwidth cruxes and stayed solidly in the crack to avoid the runout 5.6 arete. Second pitch was steep and enjoyable jams up and into a corner crack system. From mountain project I got the impression that the crux third pitch was soft, but it felt every bit 10b to me as a nearly 200lb nearly 40 year old dad coming straight from sea level to 10000 ft … thus sadly ending my onsight bid. There were some shenanigans to get through the pitch before my wife cleanly liebacked up. After some ridge scrambling there’s an imposing-looking headwall and final 5.9 flare/OW/stem flake thing that’s a little tricky to get into, but secure overall. Eichorn is, for my money, one of the best summits in Yosemite. A great day out!

J.B. Tribout?

Jonathan Thesenga?

Jim Thornburg?

And he was the most psyche-inducing performance I've watched in a long time. Total hero and lovely guy.