When I opened my first issue of Gripped magazine in 1999, I read the term “gripped” described as, “A colloquialism in climbing meaning in a state of fear.” I didn’t know it at the time, but over the next nearly two decades, I would find out first-hand what gripped meant. You never know when you’ll be gripped, but being run out, exposed high on a wall or negotiating a difficult traverse can all lead to its sudden onset. Below are a some gripping moments that I will never forget.
One time I was on a 12-metre crack at the Centennial Bluffs in Thunder Bay, Ont. I was 20 and had teamed up with a partner who was much stronger. We forgot a rope, so my partner suggested we solo the…