What is smearing in climbing? The word smear has multiple definitions and we’re certainly not going to get into all of them here. If you aren’t familiar with the smearing rock climbing term, you’d ...

Covering significant amounts of terrain on long routes in Yosemite and Patagonia demands progressive tactics. The best way for a team to advance quickly and stay warm on big routes is to have both ...

What goes up must come down. You may be aware that down climbing is much more difficult and time consuming than climbing upwards, as well as sounding a little contradictory. This is because it's much ...

Climbing techniques, single pitch lower-off analysis. What to do when you reach the abseil chain. 1. Reach the chain and make safe by clipping a quickdraw from the harness belay loop to the ring, ...

Britain's Pete Whittaker is one of the world's most experienced trad climbers with cutting-edge first ascents and hard repeats to his name. These span the spectrum, from short and desperate gritstone ...

Slopers are rounded climbing holds, usually big and blobby. Many beginner climbers will not know how to climb slopers or even what they are--and once they learn, they might avoid them, but slopers ...

Rock gym managers and climber Anna Pfaff weigh in on when you’re over your head and what’s expected in terms of climbing etiquette outside. With the rise of indoor climbing, what happens when the gym ...