Written in Stone: Climbing History

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Lynn Hill was looking for a different kind of progression. By the mid-1990’s climbing grades had skyrocketed, and Lynn was climbing harder and harder. But the difficulty wasn’t what drove her. She wanted adventure. Partnership. To push into the unknown. Something BIG. And there was one prize that had been talked about for decades with the air of...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Starting in the 80s, and extending well into the 90s, it seemed to be the French vs. The British for sport climbing supremacy. At the middle of this war of words and routes were Ben Moon and Jibe Tribout, and the greatest battles would play out at Buoux and Raven Tor, two of the most legendary crags of the era. Check out more here! Join the Secr...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Alan Watts might have bolted the best routes of the 1980s and '90s. Chain Reaction, To Bolt or Not To Be, Just Do It. He didn’t have a front row seat to the action - he was on the stage alongside Tribout and every other superstar who came to Smith Rock to try his routes. In this episode, Alan and Kris discuss Jibé Tribout and whether he was the...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! In November of 2018, at Smith Rock, Oregon, Adam Ondra made one of the most impressive onsights in the history of climbing. The first 14c in the US, Just Do It. 1990’s era technical testpieces don’t make for easy redpoints, more or less onsights, but Adam has made a point of trying to do just that as often as possible. And there’s no climber in...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Brash and bold, Jibé Tribout had a futuristic vision, and he was willing to Just Do It. Even if that meant flying around the world to try a route he’d been asked to stay off of.  He wasn’t the most talented of the French superstar climbers. That title belonged to Patrick Edlinger or one of the Le Menestrel brothers. But he worked the hardest. He...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Merry Christmas! As a gift for listening and sharing the show, we’ve not only put together a massive list of climbing films from the 1990’s that you can watch right now for free, but we also decided to chat with Mike Call - one of the key figures in 1990’s hold shaping, innovation, and filmmaking.  We hear about the shaping of The Boss and the e...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Dorothea Karalus drove over 400 miles, repeatedly, over several years to repeat Fred Nicole’s classic V13 La Danse des Balrogs in Branson, Switzerland. Through the process, she discovered that happiness wasn’t sending - it was a separate thing - and maybe, just maybe, this is what allowed her passage on the boulder. In this episode, Kris asks Do...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Björn Pohl is a climbing journalist and podcaster who has covered climbing since the late '90s, and has seen the impact of Fred Nicole on bouldering for the past 20 plus years. In this episode, Kris and Björn discuss Fred’s contributions, how he was also a top sport climber, the importance of hard repeats and Fred’s continued legacy. We also hea...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Will Anglin spends a lot of time thinking hard about hard bouldering. And good bouldering. And of course, doing as much of both as possible. As founder of Tension Climbing, Will has made sure his company - and his climbing - follows the philosophy “mastery over success”. Much like Fred Nicole, he measures his words and movements carefully, and h...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Fred Nicole was never simply an athlete. He was an artist. Coming into bouldering via a different direction than you might think, Fred Nicole did indeed create art. Really, really difficult art. First, La Danse des Balrogs, the worlds first V13. But that merely opened a door to new possibilities. Moving in his singular style, he sought out new c...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Two of the legendary routes from the 90s are now at odds with each other. One of them was likely the first 9a in the world, but which was it? Hubble or Action Directe? In this bonus episode, we’re going to examine the circumstances, discuss where the debate began, and hear from the only two people in the world who have climbed both routes - Alex...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! There’s no climber more qualified to discuss Action Directe than Alex Megos. He has the fastest ascent, the most ascents, and he is, in our estimation, the person who is carrying the torch that Wolfgang Güllich left behind.  In this episode, we discuss the visionary line of Action Directe, what makes it different and so present in our consciousn...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! One of Australia’s best and most colorful climbers, Ben Cossey is, in his words, a Wolfgang Güllich froth dog. Action Directe is a life goal that he’s come close on, and plans to return to.  In this episode, Kris and Ben discuss the legacy of Action Directe, speculate on what might have been if Wolfgang had lived, and get very deep and nerdy on...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! 13d, 14a, 14b. (8b to 8c) Wolfgang Güllich was the first to climb them all. Now, with Action Directe, he was set to raise standards once again. In the Waldkopf region of the Frankenjura, Wolfgang left us his most enduring legacy: a 16-18 move masterpiece through single and two-finger pockets and powerful moves out an impossibly steep limestone b...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! In 2000, Steve McClure completed a project Ben Moon had spent 120 days on and left unfinished, calling it Northern Lights and giving it 9a. The torch was passed. A few years later, he climbed a route that completed his journey - Hubble - saying that it might be more important to him than his own first ascents. One of which was Mutation, a candid...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! Buster Martin burst onto the UK climbing scene as a 16-year-old by climbing Bat Route, a famous 14b at Malham. And even though he took a break from climbing, he didn’t fizzle out entirely like many prodigies tend to do. Instead, he came back with a vengeance by climbing BOTH Hubble and Action Directe, becoming only the 2nd person to clip chains...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! It’s hard to argue that any climber from the 90’s had a bigger impact than Ben Moon, and he did it from the launch of the decade.  While he wasn’t looking for controversy, he also wasn’t afraid to make a statement. All punk rock and dreadlocks, he established the first two 14b’s in France, with names like missiles aimed directly at the French. H...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! If Lynn Hill kicked in the door at the start of the 90s, then Katie Brown ripped it from it’s hinges as the decade came to a close. On April 11, 1999, Katie onsighted Omaha Beach in the Red River Gorge, becoming the first woman to onsight 13d. (The route was later upgraded to 14a after hold breakage). But even before this feat, Lynn Hill called...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! If the 1990’s had a door, then Lynn Hill, one of the first American climbers to embrace the new European climbing ethics, definitely kicked it in. At the start of the decade, no woman had climbed 5.14, and one particular French superstar had said that no woman WOULD EVER climb the grade. And so Lynn, channeling the energy from the men who had al...

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s! The French vs. the British. Ethics wars. The hardest moves ever done on rock. A ghost in the forest and women showing the boys how it should be done. Host Kris Hampton tells the stories of rock climbing's most important ascents and characters from a decade that would prove pivotal in the development of the sport: the 1990s.  The legends are all...