Last summer I climbed the hardest trad route of my life, China Doll, a 5.14a R in Boulder Canyon, CO. Jon Glassberg, of Louder Than 11, was interested in documenting the process, and wanted to make a climbing film that was different- not just about sending and then being happy. He wanted to reveal raw […]
Hey everyone! If you or someone you know wants to learn how to sport climb but there’s no time for the gym, or maybe you’ve been climbing a few times but you want to hone in on your skills, please check out my online course through AIM media and Climbing Magazine. We go through everything […]
Over the past year I’ve been working with Arno Ilgner of the Warrior’s Way for mental training in climbing. When we first started working together, I had just finished the biggest project of my career, a 5.14 trad climb in Boulder Canyon, CO, called China Doll. I had worked on it over a year and […]
It’s somewhere around midnight, and my headlamp lights up a mess of four ropes at my feet. We’re on the side of a cliff in the middle-of-nowhere South Africa. Far in the distance are scattered lights of small villages, but I’m surrounded by darkness. Nine hundred feet up the wall on a quartzite ledge, I’m […]
In a sport like climbing, so dependent on mental fortitude, where is all the information on training the mind? I find it crazy how many resources there are about fingerboarding and campus workouts, but so few on how to deal with fear and the ego? Am I alone with these feelings of negative self-worth in […]
Over the past 6 weeks I’ve done a lot of soul-searching. It sounds so cliche, and has been written about time and time again. From A Walk in the Woods to Wild, the theme of pursuing new challenges with self-reflection is enough to makes some of us want to vomit in our mouths. But for […]
Launching into the upper crux of my long-term project, my sympathetic nervous system took over. My mouth was cotton and my heart was racing. It was key to get the first finger-lock just right, if not I’d slip out before I had a chance to get pumped. I wiggled my right middle and ring fingers […]
My right index finger is slipping out of its sandy lock- all I have to do to get through the crux is hike my right foot up on a good hold on the arete. I haphazardly pop my right foot up. Miraculously, it’s on the hold! But as I attempt to rock my weight onto […]
About 12 years ago I sat below the wall of The Gallery, one of the most popular cliffs at Red Rock Canyon. I was maxing out at 5.11 and trying to work up the guts to try to lead Yak Crack, 5.11c. But while I was waiting to climb, I watched this small-framed, ripped, twenty-something […]
I woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. I had just fallen sideways onto the ledge again- this time in my dreams- but my heart was racing and my throat closing. It was just a dream but this was not comforting enough to go back to sleep. Only a few more […]
Heather Weidner 