Written in Stone: Climbing History

Over 40 years ago, Mountain Magazine published an article by Rosie Andrews called No Spare Rib. Filled with photos of strong women and asserting that women would eventually climb at the highest levels while explaining why they were behind in the 80s, it did two things: inspired some and ruffled the feathers of others. 

Today, women like Brooke Raboutou, Katie Lamb, Babsi Zangerl and Janja Garnbret are proving Rosie right. 

In this ...

Louise Shepherd was and is a juggernaut for women’s climbing, particularly in Australia, where she did for climbing what Lynn Hill did in the US - make it impossible to ignore that women are excellent at this. And this was before everybody got the news from everywhere immediately - so, yes, there needed to be a palpable example in all of the climbing hotspots. And there was. Jill Lawrence in the UK, Catherine Destivelle in France, ...

Alison Osius is easily one of the most impactful people in climbing media. She helped to shape how so many climbers learned more about and engaged with the sport from the 80s into the 20s. She’s a former editor at Climbing, Rock and Ice and Outside, the first woman president of the American Alpine Club, wrote Second Ascent: The Story of Hugh Herr and has received the AAC Literary Award.  She's a climbing legend. 

In this episode we...

Lynn Hill is THE legend, and quite possibly the most impactful climber of all time. I could make a case that Lynn's free ascent in a day of The Nose is the greatest climbing achievement of all time. 

But Lynn and I aren't talking about Lynn. We're talking about the other women of the 80s: the women she climbed with, competed against and was inspired by. We also get into who is inspiring her now. 

More from Lynn at her website. 

Che...

Today I sit down with my good friend Amy Skinner - who, in the early 80s in Las Vegas, sort of stumbled into the scene that would eventually be called sport climbing. We discuss that movement, where she first encountered other female climbers, who her favorite female climbing partners have been, and more. 

Like many of the women who have been mentioned in this series, Amy is still involved in the climbing community, but has also be...

In Part 3 of our series on female climbers of the 1980s, we wrap up the decade with difficulty reaching new heights. We see a smart pattern start to emerge at the top of the pack as women realize how to leverage their unique strengths, and in doing so, they prove themselves with resounding success at the most futuristic crag in the world - Buoux. 

In this episode we discuss Christine Gambert, Catherine Destivelle, Lynn Hill, Isabel...

In Part 2 of our series on women climbers of the 1980s, we focus on the middle of the decade, when difficulty soared.  We take a closer look at the 1984 International Ladies Meet hosted by The Pinnacle Club in North Wales, how it connects to the women who were at the forefront of sport climbing a year later, and how standards began to skyrocket. We wrap up in Australia where Nyrie Dodd is the first to finish an often tried project....

The history of women in climbing, in it’s written form, is woefully incomplete. In this, the first of a multi-part series, we attempt to correct some of these oversights by taking a look at not only the early 80s, but the years and accomplishments that laid the foundation for the women of the 80s. 

In this episode, we discuss Bev Johnson, Sibylle Hechtel, Diana Hunter, Coral Bowman, Beth Bennett, Barbara Devine, Louise Shepherd, Ca...

Because this season is focused on the 1980’s, and we are talking about the two best free soloists of their generations, Peter Croft and John Bachar,  there is a Venn Diagram that puts today’s guest squarely in the center: Jeff Smoot. 

In Jeff’s book Hangdog Days: Conflict, Change and the Race for 5.14, he tells the tale of the beginnings of sport climbing in the U.S. -  of Alan Watts and Todd Skinner - tales that John Bachar often ...

Does Alex Honnold need an introduction? No, of course he doesn’t. But he was particularly suited for this conversation about Bachar and Croft for several reasons:

#1, Alex is a student of history. He cares about this stuff. If you haven’t listened to his Climbing Gold podcast, you should. I highly recommend the Dope Lake series - it’s a 5 part series about the 1976 plane crash in the Yosemite high country - a plane that was carryin...

It was 1986, over halfway through a decade that had brought turbulent change to climbing, and it was clear to John Bachar that even in Yosemite - hallowed ground as far as he was concerned - ethics were shifting. Sure, people still traveled here to do the big walls and to climb some of the classics, but the world knew that Yosemite and the once mighty best climbers in the world who called Camp 4 home, were now WAY behind.

But John ...

Shortly after my own trip to the Grampians and Araps, where I played briefly on Punks in the Gym, just to give it, as Ben Cossey would say, a tummy rub, I went back to the Blue Mountains where I met a bunch of Australian mega-crushers. One of those crushers was Andrea Hah. And because she was the first Australian woman to climb Punks in the Gym, and Arapiles had a big impact on her life, I really wanted to have her on the show. 

An...

As I was researching Wolfgang, I would regularly come across candid photos taken inside the house he shared with Kurt Albert, and of course I read every story about Wolfgang I could find. In those photos and those stories, I often came across an American name - Jesse Guthrie. I had to try to find him and get him on the show. 

He was one of the people on the leading edge of sport climbing when it was first coming into existence, and...

Because the history of the Frankenjura can’t be told without Kurt Albert and Wolfgang Gullich, both of whom we lost too soon, I wanted to talk to someone rooted in that community to try and get an understanding of how their legacy looks. For me, the obvious choice was Hannes Huch. He’s a photographer and artist who balances a modern aesthetic with a love for history, and that’s evident in his work with Cafe Kraft and the Gimme Kraf...

There’s really no debate. In the pantheon of Wolfgang Gullich frothers, there is no person who is as much a frother as Australian superstar Ben Cossey. In May of 2024, Ben made the first ascent of a long-standing project at Mt. Arapiles in Australia, Lightweight Baby, finally finishing what became the hardest pitch in the area - and within sight of Wolfgang’s route, Punks in the Gym. 

In this episode we get into what makes Arapiles...

From the early to mid 1980's, Wolfgang Gullich was steadily discovering his own power. Spurred on by American and British climbers coming to the Frankenjura and establishing the hardest routes, he tapped into a part of himself that he rarely showed. With that competetive side on display, he went to America to do the hardest routes there, returned home to establish himself the best, and to Australia to establish the world's first 8b...