Gripped: The Climbing Magazine April/May 2025 Vol 27 Issue 2

The first-ever issue of Gripped magazine, published in October & November 1999, featured a lot of Canadian climbing. And on the first page of editorial content was the climbing news. The inaugural report was about Sonnie Trotter making the first ascent of Bionic Spaceboy at Old Baldy in Ontario. Trotter graded the one-move wonder 5.13d. Trotter was also featured in the first Northern Faces column, where he talked about comp climbing, hitting the road for western Canada and about the difficulties of being a pro Canadian climber. “My favourite routes are the ones I put a lot of time and energy into,” he said. “I’m more into the process of wiring a climb then doing it flawlessly, than onsighting.” Trotter, now in his mid-forties, has released a book about his…

Mary Catherine Eden grew up in Bronston, Ky., and went on to learn how to climb after moving to Moab. “I got into trad climbing by seeing climbers climbing at Wall Street,” she told Gripped. “I wanted to do what they were doing and sketchily taught myself for a while. My first trad route was done within that first year when I finally found someone more experienced to climb with. I led a 5.8 on rigid stem friends that were lent to me to learn on. It was fun and I was hooked.” She’s one of North America’s most accomplished trad climbers, having made ascents of routes like Belly Full of Bad Berries 5.13, The Mechanical Bull 5.13, Tricks Are For Kids 5.13, The Crack House 5.13, Iron Sharpens Iron…

First climbed by Hans Kraus and Fritz Wiessner in 1941, this is one of the most famous single-pitch 5.5 trad routes on the east coast. Found at the Trapps crag in the Gunks, it takes the obvious wide crack in the Uberfall area. Climbers have long called this the best crack at the grade and a must-climb for new-to-trad climbers. No matter the grade you climb, you’ll be surprised at just how steep this classic is. It starts between the routes Nosedive and Laurel and follows the line to the skinny tree just below a big corner. Start in the crack that leads into the right-facing dihedral about 10 metres off the ground. There has long been a fixed piton at the roof that you can clip before traversing left…

The small town of Revelstoke, on the bank of the Columbia River, has some of B.C.’s nicest close-to-the-road crags surrounding it. Ruedi Beglinger has been one of the busiest local route developers there for the past 30 years. He bolted the first sport routes in the early 1990s at Lauretta Slabs. Soon after Beglinger began, the late Dean Flick started to bolt and found the crag Bifacial Retouch. Now there are over 15 areas, about 50 crags and over 300 climbs, adding up to nearly 500 pitches. The most popular areas are Blanket Creek, Shaketown and Begbie Bluffs, all of which you should check out. Waterworld is a one-of-a-kind crag with steep routes above the deep Lake Revelstoke. The rock is mostly solid and features big incuts, ledges and cracks.…

Merging recreation and environmental stewardship, the coalition secures a critical 718-acre piece of property The Red River Gorge Climbing Coalition just finalized a landmark $1.7 million deal—securing a 718-acre property in the heart of the Red River Gorge, a cornerstone of the Southeast’s climbing scene. The land—purchased from Ashland’s former Wildlife Management Area in Lee County—is now much more than a pin on a map, it’s the largest land acquisition ever made by a local climbing organization in the United States. As RRGCC Executive Director Billy Simek put it: “If we own it, they can’t close it.” Simple. True. And hard-earned. The land’s story isn’t new; it’s been worked over before. Once an oil and gas extraction site, it took years of rehabilitation—clearing pump jacks, dismantling old tanks, and letting…

Anyone who’s been climbing for a while knows that they’ve made mistakes along the way. Advancing as a climber is difficult, requiring a wide range of athletic, technical, tactical, and mental skills. There are plenty of regrets about things that should or shouldn’t have been done to progress more quickly in the sport. If you’re relatively new to climbing, this article is for you. I touch on a range of topics, including gear purchasing decisions, fear of falling, physical training, building technique, and mental tactics. If you’re a more seasoned climber, perhaps you’ll still find some worthwhile nuggets of wisdom, or at least some validation as you read this and agree that you wish you had known these things sooner as well! 1. Get the gear you need to climb…