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Practical advice from more than 30 years of climbing, from Colorado to the summits of Everest and K2: what gear to take, how to stay in touch, how to choose a guide and how the mountains compare. For one-on-one help planning your climb, see Summit Coach.

This page is my list of climbing websites I often visit plus lists of books, magazines and other miscellaneous sites on climbing. While there are many sites on adventure and climbing, many have become platforms for selling something or making political statements. I always prefer the first hand reports from individual climbers who are on a climb over the large sites. If you have a personal site and want it considered for listing, please contact me. I have other pages for Gear and Guides.

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Community Climbing Websites

  • 14ers.com: The best site for the Colorado 14ers. Excellent route descriptions and trip reports posted in a timely manner. Run by Coloradoan Bill Middlebrook
  • UKClimbing: UK based site for European climbers
  • MountainProject: A nice site for rock climbers. Clean forum with no-nonsense posts and discussions but with occasional serious “attitude” problems.
  • SuperTopo: Strong site with good forum that has a focus on rock climbing.
  • Summitpost: A site with good climbing information, popular community for climbers.

General Climbing News

  • The Adventure Blog: A good reprint of adventure news across the web run by individual Kraig Becker.
  • Altitude: Very well written and an excellent source for climbing in the Karakorum run by individual Raheel Adnan. Updates are uncertain …
  • Mountain.RU: A Russian originated site that creates some original content. I like them for their coverage of what the tough Russian climbing community is up to.
  • RussianClimb: Another Russian site. These guys are crazy strong!
  • PlanetMountain: Covering the international climbing scene out of Italy
  • Montagna.tv: Another Italian site with good coverage on international climbing. Use google Translate.
  • The Adventure Journal: Nicely laid out website covering unique adventure stories.

Mountain Health and Training

Climbing Reference Sites

  • research: A very nice site devoted to the 8000m mountain. You can download tables with statistics covering summits, deaths, Sherpas and more
  • Himalayan Database: The final word on if you summited a Himalayan mountain. Run by Ms. Elizabeth Hawley and Richard Salisbury
  • Mount Everest The British Story: History, facts and summiteers list relating to the British and Mount Everest. Annually covers Everest for UK teams

Colorado 14ers

  • 14ers.com: The best site for the Colorado 14ers. Excellent route descriptions and trip reports posted in a timely manner. Run by Coloradoan Bill Middlebrook
  • Chris Davenport: Skied all the Colorado 14ers
  • Colorado Fourteener Initiative: Amazing organization that helps maintain Colorado’s mountain trails.
  • Colorado Mountain Club: Organization best known for basic classes but also does good conservation and advocacy work.

8000m Mountains, 7 Summits

  • Climbing the 7 Summits: Excellent site prompting excellent book by High Altitude guide Mike Hammill. Lot’s of first hand information. Well done.
  • The Rest of Everest: A unique look at climbing Everest North. Jon has produced a series of podcasts with high quality video and casual narration of the expedition.

General Personal Sites

  • Speaking of Adventure: Professional climber and speaker, Jim Davidson
  • Mark Horrell: Everest summiter and climber, Horell’s articles are well researched and written.
  • Gerry Roach: The father of Colorado 14er climbing, best known for his books on 14ers. Also the second person to summit the 7 Summits.
  • EightSummits: Bill Burke’s site for his Everest climbs
  • TA Loeffler: A great woman from Newfoundland chronicling all her adventures

Photography

Professional Climbers

  • Ed Viesturs: The most famous American climber. He has made a career of climbing all the 8,000m mountains without supplemental oxygen.
  • Andrew Locke: Australian climber with 13 of the 14 highest mountains already climbed
  • Conrad Anker: One of the world’s best high altitude climber and supporter of Nepal
  • Simone Moro: One of Italy’s premier climbers
  • Steve House: Premier climber of all styles
  • Ueli Steck: Swiss speed climber who died in 2017
  • Reinhold Messner: Perhaps the greatest high altitude climber ever

Magazines and Associated Websites

  • Alpinist: Slickly produced climbing magazine of extreme climbs
  • Climbing : The website for the climbing magazine. Good how-to articles.
  • Rock & Ice: Pure rock and ice climbing with great pictures.
  • Outside: Quick read style of reporting on the latest.

Books

  • The Ledge: The story of my friend, Jim Davidson and Mike Price fall into a crevasse on Rainier; only one survived
  • No Shortcuts to the Top: Ed Viesturs’s book about his summits of the 14 8000m mountains without supplemental O’s. A very good read.
  • All Fourteen 8,000ers – Reinhold Messner: One of the greatest Alpinists, this account of his conquest of all the 8,000+ meter mountains without bottled oxygen makes it a perfect coffee table book. Beautiful pictures
  • Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer: The book that brought notoriety to Everest climbs based on 12 deaths in1996.
  • The Climb – Anatoli Boukreev: The other side of the ’96 disaster as told by the Russian Guide. I think his story is better.
  • High Exposure – David Breashears: The story of a great climber’s life including his Imax film about Everest.
  • The Other Side of Everest – Matt Dickinson: Another Everest ’96 book but told from the North Face.
  • Hall & Ball: Kiwi Mountaineers from Mount Cook to Everest -Colin Monteath :An excellent account of the history of two pioneers in high-altitude guiding. Nice pictures. Their company, Adventure Consultants, continues today.
  • The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen: The classic about Nepal, Sherpas and all the wonderment of the area.
  • The Mountaineers Book– A publisher dedicated to books about mountains. A great site with loads of info. Check out the Reading room for previews.
  • Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Mountains – Richard Sales and John Cleare: Another coffee table book. Excellent climbing accounts with great pictures
  • Everest The History of the Himalayan Giant – Roberto Mantovani: Magnificent pictures make this a must own book for Everest lovers. The detailed history of attempts on the mountain make for great reading but the pictures are stunning.
  • K2 – The Savage Mountain– Jim Wickwire tells the incredible story of the 1953 American expedition to K2
  • The Last Step Rick Ridgeway: The story of the first successful American climb of K2 in 1978.

Gear Companies (please see my gear page for extensive detailed information on gear I like and use)

  • Patagonia: My 1st choice for clothing. I have Patagonia gear I bought a decade ago – it works like new and I use it often
  • Mountain Hardware : My 1st choice for tents and bags. I have slept in MH tents on all 7 summits.
  • Black Diamond: My 1st choice for climbing hardware. Their ice tools simply do the job. Solid, high-quality ‘biners, ascenders, harnesses, etc.
  • Icebreaker: A solid choice for merino wool base layers and tops
  • Arc’teryx : Excellent, but expensive, gear. I used one of their lightweight jackets on Everest and some bibs on Ama Dablam and found the quality incredible.
  • North Face : One of the “mothers” of the sport. Making a comeback for serious climbing gear.
  • Honey Stinger: Natural, organic sports nutritional that gives a long lasting natural boost

Gear Reviews

  • Outdoor Gear lab: Solid reviews without fluff. Very useful price vs. value chart
  • Gear Institute: Real world test posted after extensive use
  • The Gear Junkie: A well written, but busy, daily review of the latest in gear.
  • The Gear Caster: A well written site for gear reviews without all the clutter of the Gear Junkie.

Shopping

  • REI : Good source for comparing prices and buying on-line. I have a local store that I use all the time – like the rebates!
  • Moose Jaw: A nice site to buy climbing gear at good prices, they run 20% discounts all the time. They have outstanding customer service.
  • Altrec: A general purpose outdoor shopping site (pronounced “all trek”). I have never ordered anything from them but they seem to have links on every climbing site. A quick check showed some good prices. I will probably always check them for future purchases. I would appreciate hearing about any experiences with them.
  • Backcountry: Great prices with a sense of humor. Steep and Cheap is a companion service.
  • Steep and Cheap: a must have for your PC. A slider window appears when a new deal is available. I am always buying something through these guys – can’t pass up a good deal!
  • Sierra Trading Post: excellent customer service
  • Sunny Sports: great prices almost all the time
  • Campmor: New gear at used prices
  • TravelCountry: Name brands at good prices

Misc

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