Vertical Life

Vertical Life is a climbing magazine in Australasia, available in both digital and print options. Here at Vertical Life we love climbing, be it beanied bouldering, clip-up sportclimbing, old-school daddy-tradding, big-wall suffering, alpine extremism, spandex-clad competition climbing, desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures buildering, the lot – if it involves monkey business we will cover it.

Vertical Life

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JANNU CLIMBING ONE OF THE HARDEST FACES IN THE HIMALAYAS • From the 2001 Rock Magazine archives, this gripping firsthand account follows an audacious push on Jannu’s formidable North Face—storms, spindrift, and near-disaster on one of the Himalaya’s most coveted unclimbed lines.

HARVEYS MARBLES A QUEENSLAND HIDDEN TREASURE • Hidden in the hills above Townsville, Harvey’s Marbles is a sprawling granite landscape of towering giants, bold highballs, and endless potential. Three decades of development meet a place that continues to draw climbers back, again and again.

WET LYCRA NIGHTMARE FIRST FEMALE ASCENT • From an unexpected spark at a film screening to a season shaped by injury, obsession and persistence, this is the story of the first female ascent of Wet Lycra Nightmare.

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS THE SHORTEST STRAW TRIP REPORT • What does one do with twenty-four hours? Anton takes us on a journey of endurance, fear, and the strange magic of high-stakes aid climbing on El Capitan.

THE CONQUISTADOR Henry Barber 50 years on • When Henry Barber returned to Australia 50 years after his groundbreaking tour, Kyle Addy and Alex Mougenot set out to emulate his pure, uncompromising style—trading modern gear for hexes and swami belts to rediscover what boldness once felt like.

A CLIMBER’S PLAYGROUND TWELVE YEARS MAPPING WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S, STIRLING RANGE • Starting climbing in his 30s, Jonas never expected to spend the next two decades pioneering new lines, dangling off overhangs in storms, or pouring twelve years into a guidebook no one believed he’d finish. From early trad leads to massive first ascents and a growing obsession with untouched stone, this is the story of how one climber carved out a lifetime of adventure in the Stirling Range.

25 GRADE 25’S IN 2025 A Goal Realised • A self-imposed goal of twenty-five Grade 25s in 2025. Ryan Gaskon reflects on where a goal can lead.

17 DOWN UNDER AUSTRALIAN ROCK CLIMBING • As life shifts and priorities evolve, the reasons we climb come into sharper focus. Drawn from the pages of 17 Down Under, these seventeen routes celebrate Australia’s finest moderate climbs.

RED LINES & SUNLIT PINES CLIMBING ANTALYA • Take a journey through the lens into the magic of Turkey’s limestone — sun-baked cliffs, shadowed caves and dripping tufas above the Mediterranean. Through powerful imagery, this story captures the pull of the climbs, the search for connection and the feeling of finding home on unfamiliar rock.

HAPPITAT GOLD COAST’S NEW CLIFF PARK • Via ferratas and zip lines don’t usually signal conservation. But at Binna Burra, a new cliff park is challenging assumptions. It’s pairing adventure with large-scale landscape restoration.

THE RATIONALE FOR RISK WITH DR RICHARD HARRIS VINCENT CHEN INTERVIEWS DR RICHARD HARRIS • Why do experienced people deliberately step into danger? We deep-dive with Co–Australian of the Year Dr Richard “Harry” Harris to explore how risk is perceived, managed, and sometimes accepted — from cave diving and climbing to a world-first rescue that forced an impossible decision.

BOULDERING VS ROPED CLIMBING AN OLD MAN’S PERSPECTIVE • Veteran climber Simon Mentz takes a candid look at modern bouldering, reflecting on falling, fear and frustration. From...