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The Alpine Grind: Testing Five Camp Coffee Systems
Coffee is as essential to climbers as ropes, sticky rubber and excuses why they don’t climb hard. Whether it’s trad climbing at Joshua Tree, alpine starts in the Tetons, or iced-coffee afternoons at Tonsai, coffee is essential fuel for climbers. The problem is that camp coffee methods are often sloppy and cumbersome.
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Paul Zizka’s Social Media Guest Postings November 30 to December 6
From November 30 to December 6 we presented photos by Paul Zizka as part of our Alpinist Community project.
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Backcountry Dining Made Easy with Kung Foon
I’m a wilderness camping minimalist, bringing just enough food and not bothering with extras or luxury items. I eat freeze-dried meals out of a bag, eliminating cooking, cleaning pots and other annoying dish duties. My no-cook system is not perfect, since I usually eat tasteless freeze-dried meals, but it’s difficult to reach food deep inside…
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Sisterhood of the Rope
August 9, 2011: The mountains march east into China. That silver sentinel on the horizon is Muztagh Ata, I tell my sister, Christine. To the south rise the dusky ramparts of the Hindu Raj, indistinct in the morning haze. I point north across the Wakhan Corridor, panhandle of Northern Afghanistan.
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Drew Smith’s Social Media Guest Postings November 23-29
From November 23 to 29 Drew Smith shared his photos and video on our social media pages as part of the Alpinist Community project. Smith has established new routes in El Chalten, Argentine Patagonia; Cochamo, Chilean Patagonia; and in Sequoia National Park, California.
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Being with the Mountain
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, reading adventure stories in a house by the sea, I often dreamed about worlds above the clouds. One day, my father took me on a hike up a nearby mountain. It was just a little one–a rocky summit poking through a thick carpet of trees–in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan.…
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Searching for Nightfall in Renland
“Our arrival, aboard our yacht, before the walls of Renland left us speechless. Imagine if you could sail to Yosemite Valley, amidst an array of glaciers, the ocean flirting with the foot of the rocky slopes. Before our very eyes there were more [unclimbed] rock faces than we could ever climb, even if we stayed…
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Lizzy Scully’s Social Media Guest Postings November 16-22
Between November 16 and 22, we posted Lizzy Scully’s photos and video to our social media pages as part of the alpinist community project. She calls her collection “The Middle Path”.
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A Stairway to Heaven on the Matterhorn
Sixty-five-year-old French alpinist Patrick Gabarrou is always watching the mountains. He spends a great deal of time in the Alps–he sees them in different seasons, different lights. He discovers features that are not often visible–features less-devoted climbers might miss.
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DMM Mithril Harness: Light and (Mostly) Durable
I used the Mithril on glaciers in the North Cascades, and cragging and multi-pitching in Colorado’s Front Range. I took whippers, hung and worked moves, belayed from hanging anchors, and rappelled off Cynical Pinnacle, in Colorado’s South Platte, in an electrical storm.
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Anna Pfaff’s Social Media Guest Postings November 9-15
Between November 9 and 15, we posted Anna Pfaff’s photos and video to our social media pages as part of the alpinist community project.
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Creeksgiving
NO PLACE SUCKS UP SUN like the Johnny Cat enclave at the Cat Wall, Indian Creek. The maroon cliffs are striped with perfect, cleaved fissures like vertical gateways into a hidden world. The desert heat can be oppressive, but in late autumn, the low golden rays cast long shadows over the walls.
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Ashes and Air
JAGGED RIDGELINES DARKEN and blur in the dim light. A palette of blues merges into thick, bland grey. I lean my head forward to rest on the rock wall in front of me. I pay out slack listlessly as the rope twitches to Chantel. In the murk of early morning, we find ourselves 2,500 feet…
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The Andy Tyson Memorial Fund
As climbers, we expect the unexpected. We know events happen out in the world–a hold breaks beneath a foot, a cam pulls during a short fall, a rock plummets down a mountain couloir, or a cascading avalanche scours a benign slope. We do what we can to mitigate risk and danger, but we know that…
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Off Belay: Creating Tomorrow’s Superclimbers
Matt Samet offers six “helpful” tips for training your infant to be the next superclimber of the future. With cartoons by Tami Knight.
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