Photo by Jimmy Chin David Breashears, who died at his home in Massachusetts on March 14, at age 68, had an outsized influence on many people’s lives, including mine. His endeavors as an incredibly bold and visionary climber and alpinist were ...
Using a Micro Traxion on a fixed rope, Miles Fullman works to free the aid pitches climbed earlier on the lower east face of Mt. Loki. The hardest of these pitches is estimated to be free climbable at 5.12+. In back are the north (left) and sout...
Sorcerer’s Apprentice Left (5.11c) climbs two pitches up the shaded, left-facing corner. A lone climber fell to his death in spring of 2024 while retrieving a stuck rappel rope. Photo: Eric Dixon On the evening of April 21, Grand County Searc...
The Kor-Ingalls Route on Castleton Tower climbs the shaded cracks on the right side of the formation. First climbed in 1961 by Layton Kor and Huntley Ingalls, it is included in Steve Roper and Allen Steck’s Fifty Classic Climbs of North America....
Everything about Eclipse (5.12c/d) is classic, except for the third clip. In February 2024, Brian West fell from near this spot, ending up in the hospital—he was not wearing a helmet. Here we see the helmeted West on an earlier attempt. He has t...
Pete Korpics on an early attempt on See Spot Run. He recalls, “I was very familiar with this famous and dangerous route, as I’d been attempting it for several years.” Photo: Pete Takeda On January 22, I (Pete Korpics, 35) was attempting to c...
Spencer Drewelow demonstrates how, while clipping an anchor in Spearfish Canyon, he fell and the rope amputated his pinkie. Reattachment surgery was successful, as was the follow-up leech therapy. His finger ultimately survived, and he is climbi...
A rescuer approaches two stranded climbers after they took the wrong descent and got their ropes stuck on a recessed anchor. Immediately prior, the pair had watched another party rappel off the same incorrect anchor, get their rope stuck (yellow...
An injured climber being evacuated from the base of Picnic Lunch Wall at Smith Rock. After this climber suffering a debilitating leader fall, he and his partner fixed their rope and rappelled two pitches to the base, thereby facilitating a faste...
On December 22, at 4:51 p.m., I was dispatched to a stuck climber at Smith Rock State Park. A female climber was stuck about 40 feet above the ground on the final rappel from a route called First Kiss (5 pitches, 5.7). She was climbing with a male...
In April 2024, an 18-year-old climber tumbled into this fumarole after taking a long fall on Mt. Hood. He was discovered wedged between the rock and snow. His father/climbing partner can be seen descending (red circle) above. Photo: Ben Sleister...
On March 24, while at a rock gym, Bystander 1 and Bystander 2 were alerted by a belayer that he needed assistance. A climber was top-roping near the end of a route and the belayer’s Grigri was not fully closed. This left the outer plate open and t...
On February 18, my friend and I (Anonymous) hiked to the Dixon School Boulders for a session. We’d been climbing there for a number of years. After warming up in the Lower Patio Area, we went to the classic Galvatron (V3). Since we often climb tog...
Laurel Knob is one of the tallest crags in the eastern U.S. and home to some serious multipitch climbing. Formerly a clandestine climbing destination on private land, the 1,200-foot granite dome was purchased by the Carolina Climbers Coalition i...
The rugged Linville Gorge is a quality Southeastern climbing destination and also a designated wilderness area. The relative isolation of these crags needs consideration when planning a climb. Photo: Ken Thomas — Wikimedia On January 19, MC a...
On August 2, a climber fell while leading a route on Table Rock Mountain. She was unaware of it at the time, but she had broken her back. Despite the injury, she self-rescued shortly before a thunderstorm doused the crag. Photo: Anonymous climbe...
AH (37) and CE (48) met online and decided to go to the Fate Osteen Crag for some rock climbing. On November 29, they got to the base of Twist of Fate (2 pitches, 5.7) and decided that CE would lead the first pitch (5.7). AH joined CE at the belay...
On October 14, Mohonk SAR rangers responded to a climber who had fallen to the ground while being lowered from Outer Space (5.8) in the Near Trapps area. They found the climber (Climber 2, female) lying in the talus beneath the route. A trailing r...
In October, a climber was taking practice falls after attending a “Fall Therapy” clinic that was taught indoors by a certified guide. This led to a serious accident when a chunk of rock was dislodged, striking the climber after he stopped fallin...
The 2024 season at the Mohonk Preserve saw numerous climbing-related incidents that resulted in various musculoskeletal injuries. There were eight lead climbing incidents, four bouldering accidents, and one environmental incident that the Mohonk S...