Written in Stone: Climbing History

Season 2: The 1980's Nov 18, 2024

Climbing, in the 1990’s, as you’ve already heard, was all punk rock and new wave, rising standards and superstar climbers pushing each other forward through friendly – and not so friendly – rivalries. And it was huge.

But all of that bravado started somewhere. It wasn’t some Big Bang event. Instead, January 1st, 1990 was a product of the previous decade. A continuation of the countercultural need to rail against the conservatism, materialism and, well, traditionalism of the cultural norm. What had been counterculture in the 60s and 70s had become, in fact, climbing culture, and there was a new class of climbers unwilling to be subservient to what came before. They wanted something entirely new. Entirely theirs. Something that bucked against the tired old ways their fathers and mothers and grandparents had climbed.

They were louder. They were stronger. They were better. By miles. And they knew it.

Season 2, The 1980's, coming soon.

BONUS | Remus Knowles on the Climbers and Ascents We Missed in Season 1 Aug 19, 2024

Remus Knowles runs https://climbing-history.org/ , and since he's a fan of the show, I asked him to come on and tell me which climbers and ascents we missed in Season 1. He showed up with a great list of climbers including Leo Houlding, Klem Loskot and more. I do my best to defend my choices, but Remus makes some great points.

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Links to things we discuss:

Steve McClure and Mutation: https://climbing-history.org/climb/392/mutation

Klem Loskot profile and videos: https://climbing-history.org/climber/941/klem-loskot

Beat Kammerlander free soloing Mordillo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iyaCK-xf10&t=2s

Alain Robert's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alainrobertofficial

The Alpine Trilogy: https://climbing-history.org/list/11/the-alpine-trilogy

Jam Crack Podcast with Leo Houlding Part 1: https://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-climbing-podcast/2023/12/5/jcpc-142-leo-houlding-part-1

Jam Crack Podcast with Leo Houlding Part 2: https://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-climbing-podcast/2023/12/5/jcpc-142-leo-houlding-part-2

BONUS | Matt Samet on Climbing Mags from the 90s to Now Aug 05, 2024

Matt Samet is a legend of the climbing magazine world, having worked for Climbing, Rock & Ice and Alpinist as an editor, writer and general voice of credibility. Not everyone in the industry is core to the climbing lifestyle, but Matt definitely is. He loves this.

In this episode we discuss the role of the magazines then and now, the demise of print, my and others criticism of the magazines and the short comings of the media, even in it's heyday.

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Climbing in the 90s: Cultural Shifts and Lessons Learned from Season One Jun 11, 2024

Sometimes you need time away to realize what you were in the midst of.

In this episode Kris reflects on the season, where the true cultural shifts in climbing came, and the lessons that climbers can take away from examining climbing history this way.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Eva Lopez on Women in Sports, Rivalries, and What Josune Means to Climbing History Apr 22, 2024

Eva Lopez is one of the top Spanish climbers in history. While she is largely known as one of the world’s foremost researchers on training for climbing, she’s also a crusher. She was the 5th woman to to climb 8c and in 2013, at 42 years old, climbed her first 8c+, a route she bolted called Potemkin.

In this episode, Eva and Kris discuss the state of Spanish climbing in the 1990’s and what it was like watching Josune Bereziartu come into her own during those years. They also dig into the woman vs. woman rivalries that are often played up by the media and why it’s less common to see that happen today, and what Josune and her incredible accomplishments mean to climbing history.

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Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Josune Bereziartu Goes Honky Tonkin' Apr 15, 2024

Basque superstar Josune Bereziartu first tied in as the 80’s were changing into the 90’s, after seeing a documentary showing two women climbing in the Verdon. Within those first few months of Josune learning to climb, Lynn Hill did the first 14a ever climbed by a woman.

By the middle of the 90’s Josune became the 5th woman to equal the feat, which had yet to be surpassed. Her friends suggested she could be the first to climb harder, so she started training to make it a reality. Before the decade would change again, with the performance gap in climbing widening, Josune would push through the pressure and become the first woman to climb 8c, or 5.14b.

And she wouldn’t stop there.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Chris Schulte on the Magic of Fontainebleau, Climbing Lifelist Boulders and Catherine Miquel Apr 08, 2024

Chris Schulte is a boulderer who is obsessed with the lines and shapes of climbing. He fell in love with Fontainebleau many years ago based on a photo of Fred Nicole climbing Karma and has cultivated a relationship with the forest and climbed many life-list boulders there.

In this episode, Kris asks Chris to describe the forest in his poetic way, and to tell stories of his best memories of Bleau and the special connection he has to some of the boulders, specifically Karma and Duel. They try to unpack why Catherine Miquel isn’t as well known in the US despite her incredible accomplishments, and discuss traverse grades, eliminates, and how to be a good steward of climbing and the places we climb.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Catherine Miquel Wins the Duel Apr 01, 2024

Throughout the 90s, Catherine Miquel was the undisputed queen of bouldering. Surprised you haven’t heard her name? I was too, but we aren’t alone. Not many of the people I’ve talked to know of her or her incredible resume.

Climbing in Fontainebleau, she entered the decade as the only woman to climb V8, and then it was off to the races. Again and again, she pushed the limits, culminating in an ascent of one of the most famous slabs in the world. Duel.

Check out more here!

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Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Josie McKee on Curiosity and the Mindset of Climbing Freerider Mar 27, 2024

Josie McKee is a climbing guide, former YOSAR member, all-around big wall super badass and a climbing coach through her company Mind Athlete. She’s climbed El Cap over 20 times, set several speed records, has free climbed damn near every Valley classic, and her Yosemite resume rivals just about anyone’s.

In this episode, Josie walks Kris through each pitch of Freerider and what it takes to climb the route - most importantly the changing mindsets required throughout, shifting from dread to curiosity, and finding joy where most think only of fear.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Chris Kalous on Freerider, Big Wall Climbing Rules, and How the Hubers Shifted History Mar 25, 2024

If you were following Chris Kalous and The Enormocast in the early days, then you are well aware that he’s climbed Freerider. And if you follow his new show, The Runout, you know how interested he is in the history of one specific pitch of The Free Salathe - Pitch 19 - the pitch that Alex Huber subverted by climbing the Monster Offwidth, thus laying the foundation for Freerider.

In this episode, Kris and Chris go deep into the history of pitch 19, the ethical rules of big wall aid and freeclimbing, and discuss how one pitch of Freerider changed the course of big wall freeclimbing history.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Alex Huber Rides Free Mar 18, 2024

In 1998, Alex and Thomas Huber climbed the first ascent of Freerider on El Capitan in just over 15 hours. Their climb ushered in a new era of big wall free climbing, and there’s no question it was a hugely important moment in climbing history.

But the way we credit it, most often simply to Alex Huber, ignores the rich history of the route.

The Huber’s pioneered about 1/30th of the climbing. The vast majority of the route was established over many years by a who’s who of Yosemite and free climbing history. Robbins, Frost, Pratt, Long, Bachar, Hudon, Jones, Glowacz, Skinner, Piana, Schneider, and MORE.

Put simply, Freerider is a linkup. A brilliant linkup, but a linkup nonetheless. And we just can’t talk about it without going back. Way back. Back into time.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

How to Climb Cowboy Direct: Jordan Cannon on The Struggle Climbing Show Mar 11, 2024

Today, we're featuring a great conversation between our friend Ryan Devlin, host and creator of the Struggle Climbing Show and member of the Plug Tone Collective, and Jordan Cannon.

In this bonus episode, Jordan takes us on the unbelievable adventure of tackling one of the toughest high-altitude big wall ascents in the world, the Cowboy Direct route of Trango (Nameless) Tower.

Check out all of the episodes of the Struggle Climbing Show here.

Check out more info on this episode here!

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Mike Lilygren on Todd Skinner, Leadership, and Climbing Trango Tower Mar 06, 2024

In his book, Beyond the Summit, Todd Skinner wrote, “Mike Lilygren had a schoolboy face and Dennis the Menace hair, an irritatingly endless sense of humor, and a tinkerer’s mind for detail. He would turn into “the closer” on the expedition, the one who kept getting stronger as the burden increased, the keystone that bridged the way to the summit.”

Mike climbed Trango Tower with Todd, and like so many other people, Todd changed his life.

In this episode, Kris and Mike sit down at Mike’s company, Maven Optics, to discuss Todd Skinner, leadership, being the voice of reason, and that expedition to Pakistan.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Jordan Cannon on Cowboy Direct, Climbing History and the Importance of Storytelling Mar 04, 2024

In 2023, Yosemite big wall free climbing ace Jordan Cannon joined Matt Segal and Jesse Huey on a trip to Pakistan to test their mettle against Trango Tower. Specifically, they were looking at the unrepeated Cowboy Direct, established in 1995 by Todd Skinner, Mike Lilygren, Bobby Model and Jeff Bechtel.

In this episode, Kris and Jordan discuss the allure of big walls and taking his skills from Yosemite to the Karakoram, making repeats on an expedition, the importance of climbing history and storytelling, and the value of relationships in climbing.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Todd Skinner and Team Cowboy Up Feb 26, 2024

In 1995, Todd Skinner began assembling a team for an audacious ascent in the Himalayan Karakoram. He’d been shown photos of a golden, rocket-ship-shaped tower that looked like it could be sitting in Yosemite, except it sat at 19,000 feet and was surrounded by some of the greatest mountains on earth. But he didn’t gather a team of experienced alpinists. Instead he put together a team of young Wyoming cowboys, including one who knew almost nothing about climbing. And they trained for the trip on sport climbs and boulders.

Nobody could believe it.

Once in Pakistan, illness, government regulations and weather conspired with the difficulty of climbing hard at nearly 20,000 feet to pull the climbers off the wall. Their doubts grew, but so did their resolve. Every other team in the range had either bailed or died in a week long storm, but the inexperienced cowboys persisted.

After 59 days on the wall, the weather had cleared and the team could see the summit, but one hard pitch still stood in their way, and their best chance at freeing it had just ripped his finger open. Maybe it wasn’t possible after all.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Jonathan Siegrist on the Difficulty of Grading and Climbing for the Challenge Feb 21, 2024

Jonathan Siegrist isn’t just one of America’s best and most prolific sport climbers, having climbed over 25 5.15’s. He’s also someone who thinks deeply about what climbing offers us, and works to make sure we stay on track.

In this episode, Kris and Jonathan discuss one of the most controversial topics in climbing, grades. How grades come about, what that means for outliers, how hard it is to quantify the experience of climbing, and how we can have a better relationship with these numbers that we all care about but pretend not to.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Seb Bouin on Akira, Grading DNA and French Climbing History Feb 19, 2024

Seb Bouin is one of only three climbers who have climbed 5.15d (9c). Following in the footsteps of leading French climbers, he established his testpiece, DNA, in 2023 in the Verdon Gorge. It may not be a coincidence that this came shortly after his Vintage Rock Tour, in which he climbed all of the firsts in France from 7c+ to 9a+, including the first three 9as from Fred Rouhling, Hugh, L’autre Côté du Ciel, and the most famous and most controversial of the trio, Akira.

In this episode, Seb and Kris discuss collaboration versus competition, taking grades personally, DNA, and where Akira and Fred Rouhling fit into French climbing history.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Fred Rouhling, Akira and the Biggest Climbing Controversy of the 1990s Feb 12, 2024

Fred Rouhling was a good climber, but 5.15b? At a time when 14d was the hardest grade, Fred suggested that his half boulder/half route hybrid, Akira, was much harder than any other climb on the planet. Not many people believed the quiet, usually reserved French climber. Many of the top pros at the time; Ben Moon, Jibe Tribout and Alex Huber, would speak out about the suggestion.

Rumors about the ascent were rampant. Some said he never climbed it. Some said he filled in the holds after he did it. Some said he chipped it specifically to fit his freakish proportions. The media turned Fred Rouhling into a pariah. A warning about suggesting big grades. He was ostracized and disappeared.

But Fred Rouhling might just have been ahead of his time.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

BONUS: Nina Caprez on Attempting to Climb The Nose with Lynn Hill Feb 07, 2024

Nina Caprez is a weapon. Known as the ‘Swiss Machine’, and easily one of the most accomplished big wall free climbers on the planet, she had her eyes on freeing The Nose, and she had partnered up with none other than Lynn Hill. What could possibly stand in her way?

The same thing that nearly stopped Lynn. Changing Corners.

In this episode, Kris and Nina discuss her history with The Nose, the big lesson learned from it and the friendship that came out of the experience.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Lauren Delaunay Miller on Lynn Hill and The History of Women Climbing in Yosemite Feb 05, 2024

Lauren Delaunay Miller is a climber, former YOSAR member, and award winning author of Valley of Giants: Stories from Women at the Heart of Yosemite Climbing. From her first moments in Yosemite Valley, hearing the stories of the inspiring women who not only climbed hard things but built the community, she knew that a book was necessary. She just didn’t know at the time that she would be the one to write it.

In this episode Lauren and Kris discuss how the book came about, the challenges of the anthology style, what the culture of women in Yosemite and on YOSAR was like for Lauren and where Lynn Hill fits into the pantheon of badass women - and people in general - in the most famous climbing area on earth.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Chelsea Griffie on Leading the Way and Being the First Black Woman to Climb El Cap Jan 31, 2024

In 2001, Chelsea Griffie topped out on Lurking Fear on the far left side of El Capitan and became the first black woman to climb the world famous formation. But she didn’t realize that until years later. She was just looking for things to challenge her.

In this episode, Kris and Chelsea discuss the path of her climbing that led to El Cap, what being the first feels like, and the importance of representation in the outdoors.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Bobbi Bensman on Lynn Hill and 1990s Competition Climbing Jan 29, 2024

Bobbi Bensman was one of the most dominant competition climbers of the 1990s, winning the Phoenix Bouldering Contest 13 years in a row and 20 National Championships. She’s still going strong, adding every year to a 5.13 ticklist that’s now over 250 routes long.

In this episode, Kris and Bobbi discuss her years as a competition climber, her greatest rivalry, when she realized that Lynn Hill, who she’s known since 16, was on another level, and how their friendship has grown over the years.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Lynn Hill Proves It Goes Jan 22, 2024

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 a fairy tale: Freeing The Nose of El Capitan.

Many people had tried, and most of the easier climbing had been done. Variations had been figured out. But still, two of the pitches seemed futuristic. The scale was daunting. And the route would demand a skill set that nobody on the planet could match.

Nobody that is, except for Lynn Hill.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

BONUS: The French vs. The British | A Battle of Route Names Jan 15, 2024

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.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Alan Watts on Jibe Tribout, Just Do It and Climbing at Smith in the 90s Jan 10, 2024

Alan Watts might have bolted the best routes of the 1980’s 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 Jibe Tribout and whether he was the villain he seemed to be, as well as the true story of America’s first 14c, Just Do It.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Adam Ondra on Just Do It and the Importance of Climbing History Jan 08, 2024

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 the world who is better at it.

In this episode, Kris and Adam discuss the importance of history, how Just Do It checks all of the boxes for a classic, the value of competition, and the impeccable vision of Alan Watts in bringing Smith Rock into the new age.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Jibe Tribout Just Does It Jan 01, 2024

Brash and bold, Jibe 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 put in the hours and the effort, and he got the results. He didn’t take no for an answer, even if he maybe should have. That attitude made him sometimes a target, often a villain, but always a dedicated, hardcore climber who loved it all.

So when he went to Oregon and sent Just Do It to create the second 14c in the world, the locals didn’t hate on it. They threw him a party.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Bonus: Mike Call on Filming and Shaping 90’s Era Climbing Dec 25, 2023

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 early days of Pusher, what it was like filming and editing back then, and MANY of the best stories about filming with Boone Speed, Chris Sharma and more superstars from that era, including the landmark first ascent that Mike accidentally recorded over.

Learn more at our website.

90's Climbing films that are free to stream

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Dorothea Karalus on Fred Nicole and Climbing La Danse des Balrogs Dec 22, 2023

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 Doro to set the scene in Branson and describe the boulder field, the view, the atmosphere, and the boulder itself. They discuss passion reignited and the mental battle of a long-term, long-distance project.

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Bjorn Pohl on Fred Nicole and What Makes a Climbing Legend Dec 20, 2023

Bjorn Pohl is a climbing journalist and podcaster who has covered climbing since the late 90’s, and has seen the impact of Fred Nicole on bouldering for the past 20 plus years.

In this episode, Kris and Bjorn discuss Fred’s contributions, how he was also a top sport climber, the importance of hard repeats and Fred’s continued legacy. We also hear Fred’s response when his resume was questioned by one of the top climbers of the 1990’s!

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Will Anglin on Fred Nicole and New Ways of Seeing Climbing Dec 18, 2023

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 has a reason for everything - often unspoken.

In this episode, Kris and Will discuss the singular style of Fred Nicole, his true and most lasting contributions, what downgrades really mean, and what the legends like Fred mean to us now, in an era of easy access to our top climbers.

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Fred Nicole Dances with the Demons Dec 11, 2023

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 challenges, new boulders on which to be tested. Or was it the other way around? Was he the one doing the testing? After all, what is art if it isn’t interrogating the impossible and celebrating the imagination?

And where La Danse had traversed, there was another line, beckoning for Fred to go up. A harder line. Radja, the King.

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

BONUS: Hubble vs. Action Directe | The World’s First 9a (14d) featuring Alex Megos and Buster Martin Dec 04, 2023

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 Megos and Buster Martin - to try and decide once and for all which route was really the world’s first 9a.

Check out more here!

Alex Megos on Wolfgang Gullich and Climbing Action Directe Nov 29, 2023

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 Gullich left behind.

In this episode, we discuss the visionary line of Action Directe, what makes it different and so present in our consciousness even over 30 years after the first ascent, and how the Frankenjura was the perfect training ground. We also get into Wolfgang, his presence in climbing, and his influence on Alex.

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Ben Cossey on Wolfgang Gullich and What it Takes to Climb Action Directe Nov 27, 2023

One of Australia’s best and most colorful climbers, Ben Cossey is, in his words, a Wolfgang Gullich 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 the sequences used by various ascentionists of the most famous sport climb on the planet.

Check out more here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Wolfgang Gullich Takes Direct Action Nov 20, 2023

13d, 14a, 14b. (8b to 8c) Wolfgang Gullich 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 bulge.

But it could have gone quite differently. He could have stayed in the alpine, free climbing those freezing big walls in Pakistan. Or it’s possible that the line that became Action Directe may have been less, well, direct. Or, if we believe his friends, he might have just stayed in the cafe.

But we know how it went. He detoured from Pakistan. He didn’t stay in the cafe. And he would put bolts into the direct line through that limestone bulge.

In late August, 1992, Wolfgang Gullich fell asleep at the wheel on the Autobahn, leaving a massive hole in the climbing world, and becoming the biggest “I wonder what if…?” in climbing history.

Check out more here.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Steve McClure on Ben Moon and Climbing Hubble Nov 15, 2023

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 candidate for the first 9a+ or even 9b in the world.

In this bonus episode, Steve and Kris discuss the impact of Ben Moon and Hubble, the passing of the torch, and how it felt to have Ben return to form by climbing Steve’s 9a route Rainshadow.

Get more at our website.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE for 20% off at checkout. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Buster Martin on Ben Moon and Hubble Nov 13, 2023

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 on both of these test pieces.

Buster joins Kris to discuss Raven Tor and Hubble, trading texts with Ben while working both routes, the debates around Hubble, why history matters, and of course, what Ben Moon means to the British climbing scene.

Check out more info on our website.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE for 20% off at checkout. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Ben Moon Launches Into Orbit Nov 06, 2023

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. He defied British ethics to move the sport forward into the next century. And yes, he even broke Wolfgang Gullich’s streak of firsts by establishing Hubble, the first 14c (maybe even 14d) in the world.

Learn more at our website.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE for 20% off at checkout. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Katie Brown on Climbing with Lynn Hill and Her Other-Worldliness Oct 30, 2023

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 Katie the best sport climber in the history of the sport.

On this episode, Katie Brown joins Kris to discuss Lynn Hill's impact on her and the climbing community at large.

Katie shares her early memories of Lynn, what it was like climbing and learning from her, and how it all differs from their friendship as adults.

You can learn more at our website here!

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE at checkout for 20% off. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Lynn Hill Reaches Critical Mass Oct 30, 2023

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 always told her she couldn’t, rose up from an accident that nearly killed her to prove him wrong, and to change the course of women’s climbing forever.

Learn more at our website.

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Thank you to our partner, Tension Climbing. Tension creates tools to help you elevate your climbing experience. Check out the goods here and use code STONE for 10% off anything but the full Tension Board set-ups, hardware, and gift cards. When you support Tension, you're supporting the team at Plug Tone creating this show.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing. Use code STONE for 20% off at checkout. Details at www.powercompanyclimbing.com/stone

Written in Stone S1: The 1990s Oct 06, 2023

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 here. Moon, Hill, Skinner, Tribout, Nicole, Gullich and MORE!

Produced by Kris Hampton with help from Ryley Rush and Emily Holland for Plug Tone Audio.

www.plugtoneaudio.com

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