Once you know how to use the gear, and use it with redundancy, it’s time to have fun and try hard with good friends in beautiful places.
Once you know how to use the gear, and use it with redundancy, it’s time to have fun and try hard with good friends in beautiful places.
Thanks to every one of the hundreds of climbers with whom I’ve shared a rope, and to these five in particular: Galen Rowell for inspiring me to take a good camera to bad places, Billy Westbay for sharing my first lap up El Cap on my twenty-first birthday and showing me that you don’t need to stress out to go big, Kennan Harvey for thousands of pitches from Alaska to Australia, Jared Ogden for sharing a lifelong passion for first ascents, and Mike Donahue, my dad, for teaching me to think like a climber.
These climbers helped make this book possible: Craig, Silvia, and Giulia Luebben, Vera and the twins, Peggy Donahue, Mark Piche, Eli Helmuth, Joseph Thompson, Jochen Haase, Anthony Everhart, Kristen Felix, Stephanie Herring, Annette Oshana, Rich Farnham, Ledge Long, Moritz Brack, Brittany Griffith, Beth Rodden, Celin Serbo, Jen Olson, Patience Gribble, Alex Puccio, Angie Payne, Dai Koyamada, Heidi Wirtz, Simon Fryer, Gerald Zauner, Micah Dash, Kerry Cowan, Malcolm “HB” Matheson, Scott Lazar, Bobbie Bensman, Emily Harrington, Jen Goings, Majka Burhardt, Lilla Molnar, Caroline Ware, Elena Mihaly, Nan Darkis, and Bob Chase. Thanks also to all the climbers who were also featured in the first edition, to Jeremy Collins for his great illustrations, and to Mary Metz, Erin Moore, Jen Grable, and Peggy Egerdahl for their work on the editorial and design side of things.
One of the reasons climbing has moved from the fringe to the mainstream is because today’s climbing gear is designed and built so well. The following companies provided product support for this book: DMM, Five Ten, Misty Mountain, Sterling Rope, Metolius, Black Diamond, Petzl, CU at the Wall, Fixé, Wild Country, Mammut, Edelrid, Trango, and Scarpa. Rocky Mountain Rescue Team, Colorado Mountain School, Canadian Mountain Holidays, and the Salto Café also helped give this edition the depth and background necessary for such a book. Photographer Dan Gambino provided the beautiful photo of Giulia Luebben on her first trad lead.
The mountain is what teaches us the most, so I’d like to acknowledge these climbing areas for what I learned there: Lumpy Ridge, where I learned to use my feet; Mount Arapiles, where I learned to use my hands; Longs Peak, where I learned to use my head; the Bugaboos, where I learned to use my dreams; and the Verdon Gorge, where I learned to go for it.
