In ‘Free Solo//(s)He Solo’, Emily Rudling tracks the differences between her surfing and climbing experience and examines gender in the film Free Solo ‘I love the twinkling sound of a trad rack.’ ‘Same,’ replies Sinead. ‘It’s soothing.’ We’re at a local crag and Sinead’s teaching me how to lead sport climbs. It’s raining, and no one else is about, and we’re talking about all the things we love about the sport we met through. We look up at the route…

Getting Organised: a Sport Climbing Victoria proposal – an open letter from Philip Goebel, president of Sport Climbing Victoria. With access issues in the Grampians front in mind within the Victorian climbing community, important questions have arisen about the governance of our sport and the community organisations with claims to represent climbers in Victoria. In fact, the access issues have highlighted our weakness in Victoria to get organised and present a coherent and unified voice to Grampians National Park stakeholders, in…

Right around the time that the ‘eight focus site’ bans were first declared by Parks Victoria I was driving into the Victoria Range. I had pulled over on the side of a dirt road, just off the Henty Highway in the shadow of Red Rocks. I was on the phone before I risked dropping out of reception when a dusty white ute rumbled to a stop. I was clearly on the phone but the driver looked at me waiting, clicking…

For many climbers, the recent rumours of climbing being banned in the Grampians’ Victoria Range came as a huge shock. And the anger and confusion on social media is testament to this shock. The whole incident might have been poorly handled and communicated by Parks Victoria, but for those who have been following access issues in the Grampians the threat of this has been rumbling away for some time. Given that there is so much hearsay and a chaotic lack…

Simon Madden finds out that just when you hubristically think you’ve heard all the stupid questions a message out of the blue can trump them all ‘How do you get the rope up there?’ ‘Why don’t you just walk around the back?’ ‘What are you carrying those mattresses for?’ ‘Do you wear gloves with hooks on them?’ I never tire of the stupid questions that non-climbers ask you when they find out you are a climber. They are also almost shockingly…

Ross Taylor on why running and climbing are a match made in heaven. When I run I often think about climbing. When I am climbing I never think about running. There is something about this dichotomy that makes running and climbing perfectly complementary – the yin and yang of exercise. When I run my mind is like the washing machine that noisily bangs away in the laundry, constantly rotating with the dirty smalls of my day, thoughts roiling around in…