Written in Stone: Climbing History

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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 H...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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 in...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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 m...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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....

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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, Siby...

Our main sponsor this season, Rab, is giving away three of their Ascendor Light Hoodies, mens or womens, any color in stock. To enter, go to https://www.patreon.com/secretstonersclub Learn more about Rab at https://rab.equipment/us/  

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! We're taking a short break because we want to make sure that we don't miss the important contributions from the women climbers of the 80's who were pushing things forward. We'll be back soon! In the meantime, there are a bunch of free bonus episodes in our Patreon, The Secret Stoners Club!

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Because this season is focused on the 1980s, 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 spo...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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 s...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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,...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 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 p...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Because the history of the Frankenjura can’t be told without Kurt Albert and Wolfgang Güllich, 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 wi...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! There’s really no debate. In the pantheon of Wolfgang Güllich 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...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! From the early to mid-1980s, Wolfgang Güllich 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 competitive side on display, he went to America to do the hardest routes there, returned...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! While we're working hard on the next episode, an update on some changes to the remainder of the season.  Check out our website for related episodes, resources and more! Join the Secret Stoners Club for FREE and get bonus episodes. ---------------------------------- Season Two is generously supported by Rab .  This episode is supported by Tension...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Andy Salo and Whitney Boland are modern day Gunks legends. Andy has FA’d some of the hardest routes in the area and co-written the brilliant guidebooks to the area. Whitney moved to the area and gained near instant local status, eventually writing the Flashback series about Gunks legends, which you can find both in Andy’s guidebooks and on the R...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Russ Clune is a Legend. I once introduced him as climbing's Forrest Gump, because since the 1980s he's been there for many of climbing's most impactful moments. A Gunks local who has traveled widely to climb on every type of rock, in every style imaginable, he's a living thread from before sport climbing to now, and if you're ever lucky enough t...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! In 1983, after years of climbing on Yosemite's granite cracks with John Long and the Stonemasters, Lynn Hill went on a roadtrip. First to Arizona, then to Colorado and finally Red Rock, outside of Las Vegas. While on the road, she and Long established some of the most classic routes in the country. After a brief foray into Hollywood stunts, Lynn...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Many climbers put Jerry Moffatt’s book, Revelations , on the top of their list. This is in no small part due to the work of Niall Grimes, who co-wrote the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize Winner. Niall is an Irish climbing legend who lives in Sheffield, and the host of the hilarious, story filled Jam Crack Climbing Podcast .  In this epi...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! In 1983, one climber was more dominant than any other: Jerry Moffatt. Filled with confidence, he traveled the world not only to quickly repeat the hardest routes, but to put up his own routes - often the hardest in the country. A trip to the US let the world know that he had arrived, but it was a trip to Germany with one of the brightest German...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! There’s nobody better than Bill Ramsey to discuss the impact that Alan Watts had on climbing. Not only is he a philosophy professor, but he was born in the same hospital as Alan, just a few hours later. Their fathers climbed together at Smith Rock, their mothers shared a recovery room, and together they found a love of climbing that helped bring...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! In early 1983, in a small backwater area in Oregon with less than stellar rock, Smith Rock, sport climbing history was quietly being made. Alan Watts had all but climbed out the cracks in the area and had turned his attention to the blank faces and lasercut aretes. He would have to bend the rules to get it done, but with nobody around to tell hi...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Kris chats with French legend David Chambre, the author of one of the best and most beautiful reference books out there for '90s climbing history, The 9th Grade. David’s previous book, co-written with Jibé Tribout, The 8th Grade, is a treasure trove of French climbing history of the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. They discuss the influence o...