Video by Jon Vickers / Story by Zoë Zulauf Ware / When the route description on Mountain Project casually mentions, “The route is an athletic event. Try not to throw up… or down. :-)” you know you’re in for it. But if Mason Earle gives you a giant circus net …
Story by Mason Earle / There is a circus net that lives in my attic. It’s 50 feet long and twenty feet wide, made from cheap paracord and old climbing ropes. I built it specifically for climbing––like a giant crash pad for free soloing. My original vision was to use …
Story by Zoë Zulauf Ware / It seems like just yesterday that freshly fallen leaves crunched underfoot on approaches in the Cottonwoods, and American Fork was bathed in hues of orange and yellow. With the arrival of December, the bellyache from the mounds of instant mashed potatoes you gobbled at …
Story by Mason Earle / My partner Nik and I were 4 pitches from the top of El Cap, crammed together at an exposed belay below the final hard pitch of the new free route we’ve been working to establish. It was the end of our fall season, and the …
Story by Jon Vickers / You squeeze, push, and pull to try to expand your body to fill the void between the rock you’re swimming in. The size is wrong for any single body part to jam, so instead, you must resort to unusual combinations of body parts to create …
