Amanda Ellis

North Carolina's Slept-On Trad Climbing Heaven

I slot a pink tri-cam judiciously into the slanted eyebrow feature and clip a long alpine draw from my protection to the rope. The hardware rustles and dings across the rock as I move upwards, smearing my feet across course granite and crimping on a shallow rail. I peer down the rope line created by the extension, forming a straight feature despite the highly zig-zagged nature of the climb. Satisfied, I continue up to the anchors, quickly clove hitching myself into a masterpoint. “Off belay!” I

How To Bivy On A Climbing Route

Editor's note: Accompanying photos, by Austin Siadak, are of a different climb, unrelated to this story.

I slept bundled up in an emergency blanket on a coiled climbing rope at the base of my first Grade IV climb in the Bugaboos. It wasn’t quite an epic—the weather was fair, my partner and I had emergency gear, and we were safely off the route. But it was 1 a.m., we’d lost the cairn trail leading back to camp, and our headlamp batteries had faded — so we bivied in the open until dawn. This expe

How To Survive, And Even Enjoy, Your First Backpacking Trip

I wore cotton socks on my first section hike on the Appalachian Trail. An unexpected stream crossing left my feet miserably wet for the entire trip and left me with three blisters. I realized I should have been more prepared—and I threw out all of my cotton socks, investing in merino wool. It was a game-changer. And I did my research before setting out again. If you’ve never backpacked before, don’t let stories like that scare you; because with a little preparation, you can avoid some of the mor