As you read this, Ammon McNeely and Kait Barber have just completed the second ascent of Wings of Steel on El Cap, an early 1980s era line by Mark Smith and Richard Jensen. Besides being El Cap’s longest-standing unrepeated big-wall aid route, Wings of Steel may prove to be its technically hardest, but when it was first climbed it wasn’t lauded as being difficult or bold, rather it was derided as a contrived line riddled with bolts up an endless slab. In the 29 years since it was put up, Wings of Steel—and Smith and Jensen—have been the butt of jokes and the subject of slander and threats, a slagging rivaled only by the scorn heaped on another bolted line, the 1980 route Hall of Mirrors, a Grade VI free climb on Yosemite’s Glacier Point Apron, established by Bruce Morris, Chris Cantwell, Dave Austin and Scott Burke.

Unless you were around in the early 1980s, it may be difficult for you to comprehend the utter and total mocking of Hall of Mirrors, although you very likely can understand why it was loathed: ...

Phil Powers is coming to the Outdoor Retailer trade show, in August, for two days.

Think that is no big deal?

Seven weeks ago Phil, a vastly experienced climber and guide, and the respected executive director of the American Alpine Club, fell as much as 75 feet and decked.

A litter evac and helicopter transported him to St. Anthony's hospital in Denver, where, in his words: “various surgical teams corrected: a diaphragmatic tear (15cm) that allowed my stomach, spleen and intestines into my left lung cavity, collapsing the left lug; a broken left humerus

Is dropping weight in order to succeed on a hard ascent “cheating”?

There’s no doubt at all that losing pounds is the surefire quickest way to help you climb harder. Training to improve finger strength, getting better at lock-offs, and even back-stepping (the single most useful technique in all of climbing!) don’t hold a candle to the instant results gained by shedding a few layers of flab.

Weight-conscious road bikers will shell out thousands of dollars for carbon-fiber road bikes that are merely a pound (or less) lighter than their cheaper aluminum counterparts. I always laugh at the irony of seeing old, fat, bulbous-shaped rich guys, who are crammed into spandex, riding the lightest $10,000 road bikes on the market. Apparently, it’s easier to drop 10 G’s than drop a pound off themselves.

The new issue of Rock and Ice will be out on newsstands next week, and I’m really excited about its arrival because it has a feature I wrote about my climbing trip this spring to Catalunya, Spain.

Why is Catalunya important? It’s important because people are going there. It is to sport climbing what Camp 4 was to climbing in the 1970s—the place where all the strongest climbers come to test themselves on the biggest, baddest climbs in the world. This charged feeling of significance is due to the recent congregation of energy, talent and media. I can’t climb 5.15. I’m not bolting king lines at Oliana. But what I can contribute are the words that will (hopefully) bring readers here to this area and give them a way to feel like they are also a part of this special place and time.