I've been placing passive protection in granite cracks for the better part of a decade, and nothing kills a rack faster than a dodgy nut that walks out on a leader fall. After burning through three sets of stoppers over the years, I decided to put together this hands-on review of the best climbing nuts […]

When I first started climbing, my "rope bag" was a kitchen trash bag tied with a piece of webbing. That setup lasted one muddy crag day before I lost half my rope's lifespan to embedded grit. The best climbing rope bags fix that exact problem by giving you a clean tarp to flake onto, a […]

Cracked fingertips after a hard bouldering session are the worst. I spent the last three months destroying my hands on crimps and jugs at the gym, then rebuilding them at night, just to figure out which best climbing salve for skin actually earns a spot in your chalk bag. Our team went through 10 popular […]

When I started climbing fifteen years ago, I bought whatever slings were cheapest. After a season of fraying nylon and Dyneema I couldn't untie after a fall, I learned a hard lesson: cheap slings cost real money when you replace them twice a season. Since then, our team has tested climbing slings and runners on […]

I spent the last 90 days testing 10 of the most popular climbing training boards on the market, hanging from every edge, pocket, and sloper they offered. As a V7 boulderer who breaks through plateaus every season with structured finger strength work, I wanted to find which hangboards actually deliver measurable grip strength gains. This […]

I've been climbing for 11 years, and I still remember the first time my A2 pulley screamed on a sharp crimp. Since then, I've taped every project finger, every split tip, and every crack session with more than 30 different rolls. That journey is exactly why I built this guide to the best finger tape […]

Finding the best gifts for climbers can feel like an impossible puzzle. They already have a chalk bag, a harness, and seventeen carabiners they bought on clearance. You want to give them something they will actually use, not another novelty item that collects dust at the back of a gear closet. Our team has spent […]

Ice climbing demands gear that won't fail when you're hanging from a chandelier of brittle ice 200 feet off the deck. I spent three months swinging picks in Ouray, the Canadian Rockies, and Ouray's ice park to find the best ice climbing tools that actually perform in real conditions. After driving 28 screws into brittle […]

I spent the last three months testing 10 portable climbing holds across three environments: a hotel room in Boulder, a camper van in Yosemite, and a 14-foot home wall in my garage. I weighed each board on a shipping scale, measured every edge with calipers, and logged hang sessions twice a week so I could […]

I've been climbing for over a decade, and I can tell you from experience that the gap between gym climbers and outdoor crushers almost always comes down to lock-off strength and finger endurance. After spending three months rotating through 12 different pull up bars and hangboards in my garage, I built this guide so you […]