Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

In 1985, 19 of the top French climbers signed a manifesto against competition climbing. But competitions came anyway. Quickly, most of those same signees defected - becoming the climbers to beat at every event. As happens in every competitive sport, rivalries were formed, and would play out in the vertical theater. 

In 1988, America would host its first International competition at Snowbird in Utah's Little Cottonwood Canyon. The 115 foot artificial wall would become a battlefield.

Competition versus climbing.

It was going to be a showdown. Several of them.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

A big part of my research for any UK climber ends up being first, climbing-history.org run by Remus Knowles, but then immediately after I start reading endless threads on UKclimbing.com. While there, I often bump into an authoritative voice who obviously absolutely LOVES climbing history. Ted Kingsnorth. 

I first came across Ted’s name when he made an extended effort to climb Just Do It at Smith Rock - a route whose history we detailed last season and I’m sure Ted’s descriptions of the route influenced the episode. Ted made multiple trips to Smith from the UK over 3 years before succeeding, and it’s that determination and belief that made me take notice. 

I could have reached out to a lot of people to talk about the influence of Jerry Moffatt, but as you’ll hear in this conversation, Ted was absolutely the right person. 

Follow Ted on YouTube and Instagram.

Image credit: Sam Lawson

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

In 1984, Jerry Moffatt was quite possibly the best climber in the world. A year later, he was out of climbing entirely, with severe elbow problems. During his couple of years off, climbing moved on without him - and it moved fast. Bolts became the norm, yo-yo ascents were all but gone, replaced by redpoint tactics, difficulty had skyrocketed from 13c to 14b, and the best climbers were all competing. To make it that much more daunting, Jerry couldn't even climb his old warmups. 

But he wanted to be the best. So he got to work.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Beyond being a top athlete, Wolfgang Güllich was also a training nerd and developed the campus board. Because of this, I knew I needed to talk to Mark Anderson. Mark is one of the twin Anderson Brothers - both great climbers and pioneers in the training space. They wrote The Rock Climbers Training Manual, developed the Rock Prodigy Hangboard and Training Method, and Mark made a pilgrimage to The Campus Center in Nuremberg to see the original campus board. He climbed some routes in the Frankenjura while there too, of course. In this episode we get into the campus board, Wolfgang’s impact, over-romanticizing the routes of your heroes, and more.

The original campus board measurements and specs.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

After establishing Punks in the Gym, the first 14a (8b+), Wolfgang Güllich was looking for a change. First he accepted an invitation to a competition in Bardonecchia, Italy. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Over the next year, after doing a few more hard routes, he experimented with bold climbing on gritstone and free soloing, culminating in his free solo of Separate Reality in Yosemite. After that, he established his second 14a, Wallstreet, in the Frankenjura. Being in his home area, this one was special. So when someone enlarged the crux pocket, he took it personally.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Thanks for listening. We're back next week with our regular season. 

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Join the Secret Stoners Club for FREE and get bonus episodes.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Over 40 years ago, Mountain Magazine published an article by Rosie Andrews called No Spare Rib. Filled with photos of strong women and asserting that women would eventually climb at the highest levels while explaining why they were behind in the '80s, it did two things: inspired some and ruffled the feathers of others. 

Today, women like Brooke Raboutou, Katie Lamb, Babsi Zangerl, and Janja Garnbret are proving Rosie right. 

In this episode we go back to the '80s and discuss The Gunks, climbing Right Wall with Jill Lawrence, the other leading women of the era, and of course, we dig deep into No Spare Rib. We finish with Rosie setting the record straight on an old Supertopo thread. 

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2. 

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Louise Shepherd was and is a juggernaut for women’s climbing, particularly in Australia, where she did for climbing what Lynn Hill did in the US - make it impossible to ignore that women are excellent at this. And this was before everybody got the news from everywhere immediately - so, yes, there needed to be a palpable example in all of the climbing hotspots. And there was. Jill Lawrence in the UK, Catherine Destivelle in France, Christine Gambert, though French, was often climbing in Germany, Lynn Hill in the US, and of course, Louise Shepherd in Australia.  

Louise and I only had a short time to chat, so I came in researched and ready, and trying to fill some of the gaps that I hadn’t been able to fill through my reading, and in turn, got some great stories from Louise about climbing with the other women we’ve been discussing. 

Save Arapiles Climbing Petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-natimuk-stop-the-rock-climbing-ban-at-the-famous-mt-arapiles

Save Arapiles Climbing Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_bYfeWq_Nw

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing and The Tension Board 2. 

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Alison Osius is easily one of the most impactful people in climbing media. She helped to shape how so many climbers learned more about and engaged with the sport from the '80s into the '20s. She’s a former editor at Climbing, Rock and Ice and Outside, the first woman president of the American Alpine Club, wrote Second Ascent: The Story of Hugh Herr and has received the AAC Literary Award.  She's a climbing legend. 

In this episode we discuss how she discovered climbing through journalism, her first times meeting the other top women of the '80s, and some of the first big competitions. We also get Alison's side of the rivalry with Bobbi Bensman that we heard about last season, and of course, because she's a media legend, I ask her theorize about the answers to impossible to answer questions. We start the conversation talking about a big event that had just happened before we recorded. 

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing. Use code WRITTEN15 at checkout.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.

Check out our new book, Written In Stone: The 1990s!

Lynn Hill is THE legend, and quite possibly the most impactful climber of all time. I could make a case that Lynn's free ascent in a day of The Nose is the greatest climbing achievement of all time. 

But Lynn and I aren't talking about Lynn. We're talking about the other women of the '80s: the women she climbed with, competed against, and was inspired by. We also get into who is inspiring her now. 

More from Lynn at her website. 

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Join the Secret Stoners Club for FREE and get bonus episodes.

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Season Two is generously supported by Rab. 

This episode is supported by Tension Climbing. Use code WRITTEN15 at checkout.

Written in Stone is co-created with Power Company Climbing.