Written in Stone: Climbing History

Alex Huber Rides Free

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

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. 
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Mike Lilygren on Todd Skinner, Leadership, and Climbing Trango Tower

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 
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