STARTING HOLD - #27 > FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009

This issue of Urban Climber isn’t about the latest and the greatest. In its pages you won’t find much of today’s Breaking News or tomorrow’s Wunderkind. In the place of spray, you’ll find The Love... the essence of what we do. At its very core, stripped of grades and disciplines, climbing is about the love of moving — with the bodies nature outfitted us with — over stone, experiencing a rooted connection with the earth. Rocks to a climber are as waves to a surfer: a place of solitude and challenge, focus and clarity of mind. It’s a way of being human and part of the human instinct to embrace our dear Mother Earth.

And the feeling? That’s not so easy to explain. To quote a friend of mine, Dr. Felch, “The feeling of moving on rock…ahh, there’s just nothing like it.” As simple as those words are, I know now there’s not much more to be said. He may have spoken the abbreviated version, but it was clear his heart knew the whole story. There’s something inexplicably yet undeniably special about climbing and this issue ventures to explore that side of our sport — the side we all experience but rarely discuss.

In UC#27, you’ll find cragside conversations and campfire tales of legends and memories, a melting pot of the enigmatic and the sworn truth. James Litz, for example, is among the strongest climbers of his generation, but if you’re not from the Southeast, you’ve probably never heard of him. He’s a quiet and humble beast who has remained, by preference, out of the spotlight for many years. That said, it’s also likely that once you’ve read Rob Turan’s feature about Litz (PG. 56) you won’t hear much again, unless you by luck happen on him at a crag.

In an other-worldly trip report (PG. 48) that doubles as an homage to one of the world’s great — and now passed — climbers, Michael Reardon, Damon Corso revisits the boulders and sea cliffs on the Emerald Isle of Ireland. Back in the place that Michael revered as the most spectacular place on earth, Damon and his girlfriend Christina continue the journey. Embracing the people, food, scenery, and rocks in the land of Éire, their visit is a commemoration of climbing’s late, great Michael Reardon, as well as a beautiful documentation of an enchanting place.

And finally, this issue asks some of America’s (and the world’s) most exceptional climbers what climbing is to them. A simple yet very big question. Alongside portraits shot by Tim Kemple (PG. 40), we have the heartfelt, and often unexpected, answers of Chris Sharma, Emily Harrington, Kevin Jorgeson, Joe Kinder, Tommy Caldwell, Lisa Rands, Daniel Woods, and Dave Graham. It’s likely that you’ll find your own answers (at least in part) in their words, and at the same time realize these vertically-charmed specimens aren’t, at root, any different from you and me.

So you could say that The Love, as cheesy as it can sometimes sound, is this issue’s theme. After all, it’s The Love that drives us all, regardless of redpoint level, home crag, or style preference. The Love is wanting, needing, and breathing climbing. It’s the texture beneath our fingertips, the wind on our backs, and the next move on minds. It’s failing to succeed, but never failing to try again. A dizzying, butterflyin- the-gut rush of adrenaline and emotion, The Love is always exhilerating. And when it first hits there’s no mistaking, because the feeling of moving on rock…ahh, there’s just nothing like it.

See you out there,
Joe Iurato