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 listed, please contact me.
I have other pages for
Gear and Guides.
Community Climbing Websites
- Summitpost : A nice free site with excellent
climbing information. Very popular by creating a community for
climbers but tends to be off-track too often
- 14ers.com:
The best site for the Colorado 14ers. Excellent route descriptions
and trip reports posted in a timely manner. Free site run by
Coloradoan Bill Middlebrook
- UKClimbing:
UK based site for European climbers
- MountainProject:
A nice site for rock climbers. Cleanest forum out there with no-nonsense
posts and discussions
General Climbing
- 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!
- ExplorersWeb:
Wide coverage from the Poles to Everest.
- EverestNews:
A limited site that mostly covers their favorite companies each
season. It is hard to navigate given the mix of advertising and news
stories.
Mountain Health and Training
Blogs
Climbing Reference Sites
- Mount
Everest The British Story: History, facts and summiteers
list relating to the British and Mount Everest
- Discovery
Channel/Everest: The site of television's Discovery Channel,
has one of the best multimedia coverage for Everest anywhere
on the web.
- National
Geographic/Everest: A potpourri of Everest information.
Nice for research.
- 8000ers.com: A very
nice site devoted to the 8000m mountain. You can download tables
with statistics covering summits, deaths, Sherpas and more
Colorado 14ers
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.
- Mount
Everest The British Story: History, facts and summiteers
list relating to the British and Mount Everest
- Broad
Peak: First Ascent of Broad Peak 8047m
by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt
Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl on June 9, 1957
- Jordan
Romero: He summited Everest at 13, the youngest ever and has 6
of the 7 summits.
- Northern Latitude - Phil Lee : Site with good
Alaska information including Denali and Foraker
summits
- Cancer
Climber: Sean Swarner's 7 summits site.
- 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
- Hiking
for Health: Personal site of Cy Kaicener
with an emphasis on the Palm Spring Skyline
Trail and a great "Top
10" list of why hiking is good for you!
- Guillaume
Dargaud: A unique site with an "attitude" Nice
climbing images of Guillaume's adventures
- Paul
Elwell: A well designed out site of Paul's
personal climbs, impressive bike rides and
nice ice climbing in MIchigan
- Climbingjunky:
Climbing and bouldering in the Pacific Northwest
of the US.
- MyEverest:
This is platform for climbers without their own sites. A great
resource for many climbers.
- David Tait:
Everest Climber with excellent dispatches
- EightSummits: Bill Burke's site for his Everest climbs
- TA Loeffler:
A great woman from Newfoundland chronicling all her adventures
- Never
Stop Climbing: Site of John, out of shape,
on a journey to get in shape through climbing. Good luck!
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
- Annabelle Bond:
umm, well just take a look... She has climbed all 7 summits and champions
a great cause in cancer research
- Araceli
Segarra:100% proof that climbing is a unisex sport! Araceli does
it all exceptionally well.
Magazines
- Alpinist: Slickly
produced climbing magazine of extreme climbs
- Climbing : THE
climbing magazine.
- Rock & Ice :Pure
climbing with great pictures
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 (please see my gear page for extensive detailed information on gear
I like and use)
- Mountain
Hardware : Excellent gear. Great site with
excellent product information and nice links.
- Arc'teryx :
Incredible gear. I used one of their lightweight
jackets on Everest and some bibs on Ama Dablam and
found the quality incredible. Their Web site covers
their complete line and is easy to navigate.
- North
Face : One of the "mothers" of the
sport. Basic PR site but good background information
on their sponsored climbers.
- Brunton:
A niche supplier of gear which has been customized
for high altitude and tough use. Interesting line-up.
Check out their solar power gear.
- Black
Diamond: Premier supplier of climbing gear.
Solid, high-quality 'biners, ascenders, harnesses,
etc.
- Animated
Knots: a nice site with cool animation showing
how to tie knots.
- The
Lightweight Backpacker: around since 1996,
it is an excellent resources for all things hiking
and camping. While not focused around alpine mountaineering,
I found a lot of the information very useful.
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.
- Spadout:
a shopping site that lets you follow an item's price
and snag it when it gets low enough.
- 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
- Campmor: New gear at used
prices
- TravelCountry: Name
brands at good prices
Misc
- American Alpine Club : The site for America's premier
climbing organization.
- United States
Mountain Guides Association : A professional association of exam
certified climbing guides. The site has lists of approved Guides
with links to other associations around the world.
- The Access Fund : A non-profit
US organization dedicated to keeping climbing areas open and to conserving
the climbing environment.
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