Awesome Climbing

ReferenceReady’s card sets are a great addition to your outdoor load-out, offering diagrams of how to tie a number of useful knots. They come in camping/backpacking, boating, fishing, climbing, and equine versions. Each set is printed on waterproof plastic cards, and comes with a mini carabiner. Also sold as a 57 knot set.

Russian firefighter Artur Prosport shared video of a competition where participants show off their speed climbing a building. Each player must run to the wall carrying a one-story ladder, then use it to ascend three floors as quickly as possible. We imagine this would be much slower if they were wearing their firefighting gear.

NYC’s Chrysler Building is over 1000 feet tall, offering sweeping views of the city from its top floors. Now see what it’s like to stand outside of its spire, as steeplejack James Marksbury works on the Art Deco skyscraper. His job is every bit as dangerous as it looks. In 2011, Marksbury’s rope snapped, and he fell nearly 80 feet.

Climbing rocks and boulders typically requires the use of all of your available limbs. But rock climber Johnny Dawes has such impeccable balance (and sticky shoes) that he can climb boulders and even a sheer rock face without using his hands at all. He looks quite dapper doing it in that tweed jacket.

If you’ve ever made your way up the face of a climbing wall, you know it can take time, strength, and patience to make it to the top. Or you could be Aries Susanti Rahayu, the first woman ever to climb a 15-meter wall in under 7 seconds. Don’t blink, or you might miss it.

In climbing, a pinch is any hold with opposing faces that must be pinched. It’s a challenge to tackle, which is why Dick’s Climbing had a little fun and made this mug that uses the hold. You’ll feel victorious whenever you successfully raise this mug.

From falling, to avalanches, to hypothermia, to extreme altitude sickness, there are many ways to die ascending Mt. Everest. Wendover Productions offers a look at some of the many things expeditions put in place to help improve climbers’ chances of survival.

If you’re looking for a source of inspiration, look no further than Kyle Maynard, a man who not only has climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Aconcagua, but did it as a quadruple-amputee, and without the use of prosthetics. Wow. Just wow.

Next time you drive across a suspension bridge in the winter time, you can thank guys like these for keeping your ride safe. Watch and learn how technicians head to the top of the Port Mann Bridge in frigid British Columbia to remove ice and snow from its 288 cables.

Think you have the cojones to reach the 29,000+ ft summit of the world’s tallest mountain? The daunting climb, thin altitude, and sub-zero temps have claimed hundreds of lives, and Epic How To explains what gear and abilities you’ll need to do it yourself.

If you thought the guys who climbed to the top of giant smokestacks had balls of steel just getting up there, daredevil Flaviu Cernescu decided to juggle some oranges and ride his unicycle at the top of an 840 foot-tall tower. Oh yeah, the bricks were loose too.

The New York Times Magazine enlisted photographer Jimmy Chin and safety expert Jamison Walsh to climb to the tippy top of the spire on Manhattan’s 1 World Trade Center, and shared this eye-popping 360º video of the journey. We only wish the video were longer.

The trespassing climber James Kingston shares his recent ascent of Dubai’s Marina 101, which at 1,394ft is the world’s tallest residential building. We can’t decide who’s more insane: James, or the crane worker who gave James the permission to die on his watch.

We’re short of breath just watching as Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker as they provide a guided tour of their 24-square-foot tent camp, a stop along their journey about 20,000 feet up on India’s Mount Meru. From the thrilling documentary MERU.

There have been numerous attempts to descend the waters of Niagara Falls, but ice climber Will Gadd decided to go the other direction, climbing his way up the frozen falls in the dead of winter. This seems no safer than going over in a barrel.

We already know how to climb to the top of a tower, but BASE jumpers JT Holmes and Mark Broderick know the fast way down. Watch as Mark does nine flips on the way down, then opens his chute perilously close to the bottom.

Daredevil Flaviu Cernescu had the balls to do a free solo climb to the top of Romania’s second-tallest structure, an old chimney at CET Pitesti SUD, measuring over 918 feet in height. We got out of breath just watching this.

The fearless James Kingston once again sets our toes atingle with a POV video of him conquering another London landmark. You might say “seen one crane climb, seen em all,” but the huge gap he soars over might convince you otherwise.

A couple of Russian adrenaline junkies snuck their way into the construction site of China’s Shanghai Tower, the world’s second tallest building, and managed to shimmy their way to the top. The wind noise alone freaks us out.

We’ve got enough trouble running on flat surfaces, but at the Red Bull 400 Planica, athletes made their way up an insanely steep 400-meter ski jump hill. Our legs hurt just watching this.

BBC’s Supersized Earth takes us on a trip to Dubai to help wash windows on the outside of the world’s tallest building. We doubt those helmets would do anything to help these guys if they fell off.

National Geographic’s short profile on the sensational free solo climber Alex Honnold. While he’s talented and brave, we have to applaud the people behind the camera for the awesome shots.

A hovering, drone follows climbers as they ascend Pakistan’s mighty 20,623 foot Trango Tower, capturing amazing footage of this challenging mountainous region. Though we wish it was in HD.