Climbing Gold

Behind The Line: Biographie

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2001, Chris Sharma ushered in 5.15a when he completed Biographie after pouring years into the long standing project. Its position, aesthetic, histo...

I'm Just A Climber

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As climbers, are we powerless in the face of what’s happening to our public lands? We sat down with retired Senator Mark Udall and Heather Thorne, E...

Southern Climbing: Underrated or Overrated?

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Alex has climbed all over the world, but he’s never visited some of our country’s best climbing areas. Today, three devoted southern climbers – ...

Live with David Letterman

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, Alex sat down with legendary comedian and interviewer David Letterman in front of a live audience in New York City. Buckle up for a hilario...

Brett Lowell: Front Row Seat

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If there is a common thread between the greatest rock climbing achievements of the last few decades, it’s that cinematographer Brett Lowell was prob...

Who The F@#k is Hamish McArthur?

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly unknown to the greater climbing world, Hamish McArthur walked on the mats at the Paris Olympics the epitome of an underdog. He wasn’t sure he...

Life On Everest: Melissa Arnot Reid

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Climber Melissa Arnot Reid blazed her way into the elite circle of high altitude guides, but her ascent into rarified air came amidst deep personal st...

John Bachar: The Interview

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Bachar may have been the Stonemasters brightest star. His audacious free climbs and even more audacious free solos turned heads around the globe....

Girl Climber: Emily Harrington

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

El Cap. Free. In a day. It's an accomplishment that puts a climber in lofty company. In 2020, Emily Harrington succeeded on Golden Gate. It was a mult...

Katie Lamb: The Dark Side

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Lamb has been cutting her teeth on a steady diet of some of the country’s hardest boulders. When she became the first woman to climb V16, she ...

Climbing Blind: The Duftons

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Together, Jesse and Molly Dufton create one of the most unique partnerships in rock climbing. Jesse knew two things from a young age. The feeling that...

Uplifted: Sonnie Trotter

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sonnie Trotter would never admit to being Canada’s best rock climber, but his multi-decade career of cutting-edge trad climbs and nails-hard sport r...

Thirty Below: Cassidy Randall

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Cassidy Randall’s new book Thirty Below unearths the story of the first all-female ascent of Denali in 1970 and reveals a deeper story of amb...

Chris Sharma: Olympic Hopeful

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elite competition is a young person's game, but when 44-year-old legend Chris Sharma witnessed climbing on the Olympic stage last summer, it lit a fir...

TryHardness: Amity Warme

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amity Warme first showed up in Yosemite Valley in 2019 young, scrappy and in love with the adventurous side of our sport. What’s followed since is a...

Vitaliy and Goliath

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, Vitaliy Musiyenko closed the chapter on a years-long obsession with a 32-mile-ridge line featuring 60 summits in the heart of the Sierra. The...

Michaela Kiersch: The Path To Dreamtime

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2024, Michaela Kiersch became the first woman to climb both V15 and 5.15 putting her on climbing’s global radar. To midwest climbers and those in...

Ups and Downs: Cody Townsend

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After rising to the highest echelon of professional skiing, Cody Townsend took a step back and embraced climbing to take him to the next chapter of hi...

Janja Garnbret: The Lioness

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We are back with the Greatest of All Time – Janja Garnbret. For the last decade, Janja has dominated competitive climbing, capping it off with her s...

Ben Mayforth: Growth Mindset

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Mayforth’s strength is a sight to behold. The professional paraclimber’s social clips of campusing double digit boulder problems may have made...

The Devil's Climb

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last summer, Alex and Tommy Caldwell rode bikes from Estes Park, Colorado to SE Alaska where they boarded a sailboat which dropped them beneath the fa...

Saving Cochamó

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tucked away in a corner of Chilean Patagonia, Valle Cochamó wasn’t going to stay hidden forever. The soaring unclimbed granite walls instilled drea...

Jamie Logan: Going The Distance

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

5.13 at 78. That’s staggering, but the numbers don’t capture the breadth of Jamie Logan’s climbing career, which now spans seven decades. Throug...

Cory Richards: The Unquiet Mind

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alpinist and photographer Cory Richards was living at full speed. A steady stream of Himalayan expeditions and assignments from National Geographic ke...

Lynn Hill: A Magician Needs A Stage

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

El Cap. Free. In a day. Putting those words on your resume puts you in the league of legends. How did that become the bar? Lynn Hill. A singular athl...

Margo Hayes: Renaissance Woman

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ms. 5.15 – that was the moniker the climbing world bestowed on Margo Hayes after she became the first woman to climb the grade. Two more 5.15’s fo...

Babsi and Jacopo: The Flame Burns Bright

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While most of the elite climbing world has turned its attention to raw difficulty in sport and bouldering, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have been ...

Beth Rodden: A Light Through The Cracks

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beth Rodden started climbing in 1995, and it wasn’t long before she radically changed the sport. Within three years, she’d become the first woman ...

Give and Take

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a protracted battle over bolts and sport climbing, American climbers nearly lost the ability to climb on public lands in the early 1990s. It wou...

Soviet Speed

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1986, a rag-tag group of dirtbags including Beth Wald, Russ Clune and Todd Skinner came up with a scheme to go behind the Iron Curtain with the goa...

Alex Goes To Paris: Olympic Recap

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Adieu Paris. After a week at the Olympic games, Alex and the team reflect on an incredible moment for climbing and its brightest competitors.   Wat...

Vertical Drag Race: Part 2

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Tomoa Skip. The Chinese Top. Records are falling and what is fast this year will be middle of the pack next year. For competitors Emma Hunt, Piper...

Vertical Drag Race: Part 1

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Records are falling. Beta is getting tweaked. We’ve entered the sub five second era of speed climbing. The athleticism is off the charts and the for...

Paris Preview

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paris here we go. Today, we dive into what to expect, the stories that will define the games, and the Olympics’ impact on our sport. Plus we make ou...

Great Expectations

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The weight of expectations is real. Today, Olympians Natalia Grossman and Jesse Grupper share their journey through the highs and lows of winning and ...

Brooke Raboutou: Paris Bound

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At only 23, Brooke Raboutou has established herself as one of the best climbers indoors and out. While that’s taken an extreme amount of talent and ...

War Games

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yes, the Olympics are entertainment, but they can also transcend sport. Ukrainian climber Jenya Kazbekova carries a weight few competitors have to sho...

Ashima Shiraishi: The Competitor's Mind

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What’s Ashima Shiraishi been up to? Since she was eight, Ashima made waves with staggering ascents beyond her years. In 2021, Ashima helped bring us...

Head Games

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of cutting edge climbing, we think of cutting edge athleticism. But what about the mental side? The true test of finishing the world’s...

Kai Lightner: Return To Form

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kai Lightner is on a tear. When we last spoke with Kai, his path in professional climbing was unclear. He’d struggled with disordered eating, injuri...

Sierra Blair: Ahead of the Curve

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A decade ago, climbing’s most controversial figure wasn’t someone who’d lied, chopped routes, or chipped holds. It was a young woman who’d sav...

Gentlemen's Race To 9a

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes we all need healthy competition. Last summer Alex, Tommy Caldwell, and Sonnie Trotter hatched a plan – each would attempt to climb 9a in t...

Put Me In Coach

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Kris Hampton launched the Power Company, training for climbing was in an awkward adolescence. Research and tactics were woefully behind adjacent ...

Climbing With Kids

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

News flash: having kids changes things. Paige Claassen and Emily Harrington join Alex to discuss the new normal, reaching limits while sleep deprived ...

The Adam Ondra Episode

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the last decade, no climber has moved our sport closer to the future than Adam Ondra. While he’s known for his visionary sport routes, he’s ex...

Memphis Rox Needs Your Help

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We will be back later this spring with all new episodes of Climbing Gold, but in the meantime we wanted to rerun an episode from our first season: “...

Adapted Part 2

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Part 2 of Adapted, Mo Beck and Jim Ewing head to the Lotus Flower Tower. Hugh Herr embarks on life after climbing and tackles one of humanity’s g...

Adapted Part 1

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climbing’s first phenom survives a near death experience and life altering accident on Mount Washington. In rural Maine, a young girl born without a...

Roundtable: Style

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Style vs substance-- they are one and the same in climbing. It governs how we aspire to do routes. It inspires us. Done right, it will stand the test ...

The Fighter

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When protests erupted in Iran in fall of 2022, human rights activist and professional climber Nasim Eshqi was climbing in France. As she watched the u...

Roundtable: Safety Police

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Underground legend and editor of Accidents in North American Climbing, Pete Takeda joins us to talk safety. We can learn from mistakes, but sometimes ...

The Greatest Lie Chapter 4: Belief

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After successfully establishing the first fair means ascent of Cerro Torre’s SE Ridge and chopping Maestri’s bolt ladder, Hayden Kennedy and Jason...

The Greatest Lie Chapter 3: Fair Means

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 2000’s, a new, global generation of alpinists armed with a broad toolkit of skills and advancements in weather forecasting led a climbing gol...

Roundtable: Liar, Liar

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How big of a problem is lying in climbing? Jonathan Siegrist returns to the show to talk about dishonesty in our sport.  Thanks to our sponsors The ...

The Greatest Lie Chapter 2: Disneyland

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With doubts circling in the press, Cesare Maestri returns to Cerro Torre with hundreds of bolts, a compressor engine and gallons of gasoline intent on...

The Greatest Lie Chapter 1: The Queen & The Pawns

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1959, Cesare Maestri, an outsider and rebel drawn to the siren song of the world’s fiercest mountain, Cerro Torre, ripped a hole in climbing’s ...

Full Circle

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In May 2022, The Full Circle Everest team made history when seven of the members reached the world’s highest point. They were the first all black ex...

The Greatest Climb

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is reaching a summit the true measure of success or is there something deeper? In 1978 a dream team of alpinists – Jim Donini, Jeff Lowe, George Low...

Roundtable: Should We Make Old Routes Safer?

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A route’s history is important, but does it make it sacred? As our sport grows, people are considering whether adding bolts to existing routes to ma...

Board Games

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We journey through the world of Moonboarding with the world’s best – Ravioli Biceps. And Ben Moon walks us through the underground climbing trend ...

Roundtable: The Route That Changed My Life

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Could a route change you? Kareemah Batts joins Alex, Fitz, Lauren and Leici to talk about the routes that changed what they thought was possible.  Ad...

Our Best Is Always Changing

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In April of 2022, Anna Pfaff set out to tick an Alaska classic – the Harvard Route on Mount Huntington. With her partner Priti Wright, Anna romped u...

Not So Mellow

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The next generation needs its inspiration. The Mellow crew provides it. Between sends of the world's hardest boulders, Daniel Woods, Shawn Raboutou, G...

Roundtable: Strength Vs Technique

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy professor and member of the exclusive 5.14 after 60 club, Bill Ramsey has a bone to pick with those who value strength over technique. In t...

The Dark Horse

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Quiet and humble, Lucho Rivera was the antithesis to the wild, loud and over the top antics of the Stone Monkey generation. Yet in that band of misfit...

Hot Henry

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970’s, no flame burned brighter than Hot Henry Barber. Often heralded as the first traveling climber, Henry redefined standards for free cli...

Dope Lake Chapter 4: Aftermath

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After Jack Dorn’s death, conspiracies begin to fly in the Valley. Camp 4’s dirtbags figure out what to do with their spoils. And the plane crash b...

Dope Lake Chapter 3: The Black Book

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By early April, the rumors of Dope Lake began to spread far beyond the Valley. What was once an under-the-radar get rich mission had spiraled out of c...

Dope Lake Tangent: A Climbing Revolution

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Yosemite, 1970’s – it was the heart of the climbing revolution. You’ve heard a lot of voices and names in the Dope Lake series – John Long, Ji...

Dope Lake Chapter 2: Yosemite Mafia

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The gold rush begins. When two skiers reported a possible plane crash, Yosemite Ranger Tim Setnicka started making calls. Pretty soon he realized the ...

Dope Lake Chapter 1: Misfits

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1976, a plane carrying four million dollars in marijuana crashed into a small alpine lake in the Yosemite high country. Broke and living off discar...

The Dawn Wall Tipping Point: Part 2

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when you unexpectedly find yourself in the global spotlight? Tommy Caldwell offers a candid perspective into the personal impacts that th...

The Dawn Wall Tipping Point: Part 1

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, climbing became a cultural avalanche. The Dawn Wall was its tipping point. In part one, we talk with the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York T...

The HURT

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This month, Alex completed his multi-year project to traverse Red Rock’s iconic skyline. In 32 hours, Alex ticked off 35 miles, 23k feet of climbing...

Behind The Lens

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For many of us, social media is the portal into the lives of outdoor photographers and filmmakers. We see the images and the films they create, but it...

Facing Fear with Alex Honnold | ReThinking with Adam Grant

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How can you turn your fear into excitement? Today, we’re sharing an episode of Re:Thinking with Adam Grant, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective....

Essential

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Does climbing have inherent value? We kick off season 4 of Climbing Gold by talking about finding meaning in our lives, whether through climbing or ot...

Risk Roundup

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do you decide to take on risk? Alex and Fitz discuss their five takeaways from talking to climbers, alpinists and experts for this season on risk....

Walking Away

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve spent this season trying to better understand the risks climbers take, but we had one last question. How do you walk away? Steve House gave hi...

The Power of Negative Thinking

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Big, audacious dreams come with real risks. The dreamers are presented with a labyrinth of physical hazards, possible outcomes, hurdles, and dead ends...

A Necessary Risk

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes you don’t get to choose the risks you take. It’s a matter of survival. Alex talks with climber and photographer Nikki Smith about what s...

Spotting The Gray Rhino

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To manage risk, you first have to see the threat. Best-selling author Michele Wucker and Alex talk about how he evaluates risk, creating safety nets a...

Big Nature

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In early 1980’s Yosemite, big wall climbing was tedious, difficult and often terrifying. Enter Lydia Bradey, a 19-year-old New Zealander. She’s no...

Captain Safety

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As humans, we sometimes prefer to ignore big risks that are lurking within our view. See climate change or storm clouds building over a ridge. Best-se...

Faffing About

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hazel Findlay and Alex dive deeper into the intricacies of British trad climbing. Just don’t hit the ground.

Cheater Cheater

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Far away from Yosemite’s spotlight on a crumbly backwater cliff, an unknown climber was about to change a sport by breaking some of its most sacred ...

The Stuff Of Nightmares

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

British trad climbing might be the most unique flavor of all. Is it an audacious game of risk or merely a fast track to a Darwin award? In 2000, while...

Soviet Speed

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This year's Olympic climbers weren’t the original USA climbing team. That honor actually goes to a rag-tag group of adventurous dirtbags including B...

Validate My Beta

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Were the Olympics more a bust than a boom? If you had $20 million to grow the sport of climbing how would you spend it? Are we at the end of the era w...

The Knife's Edge

24 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

These are the things in the shadows that no one wants to talk about. The open secrets elite athletes carry. The behaviors coaches would prefer not to ...

Show Me The Money

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As climbing grows and enters into mainstream consciousness, we’d be naive to think that money won’t play a role. What does it take to “go pro”...

The Competitor's Mind

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What goes through a climber’s brain when the lights shine and the cameras go live at a world cup stop? Ashima Shiraishi takes us on a journey into t...

Risk, Intensity, Complexity

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To move a sport forward, you have to take it apart and put it back together again. Today, we talk with two thought leaders in climbing’s next chapte...

Forerunner

27 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Right now, the spotlight shines brightly on the newest generation of competition climbers, but the path they’re following was blazed by those before...

Inadmissible

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Armando Menocal worked to save climbing in America and helped kickstart it in Cuba. While developing the international climbing destination of Viñale...

Olympics Recap

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After four days of alpine starts to watch climbing at the Olympics, Alex and Fitz catch up with producers John Burgman and Leici Hendrix for a laugh-f...

Space Race

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, The US Olympic Committee gave USA Climbing a one in 10,000 chance of winning a medal. Two years later, USA Climbing sent four climbers to Tok...

Try Harder

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to the Olympics, we will probably never see a climbing competitor like Kyra Condie again. While other competitors in Tokyo have had the ...

Olympics Viewing Guide

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and producer John Burgman walk us through the upcoming competition, make their picks for the gold and explain why the world’s best climber is p...

You're Too X-Treme For Me

28 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The decades long courtship between the Olympics and climbing reads like some bizarro script for a rom com. It seemed like a sure fire thing until curl...