What I Learned Climbing With Josh Wharton

Josh Wharton was pointing to a photo he’d taken on his phone of a steep mountain with a 3,000-foot smear of ice snaking down it when he imparted his first piece of wisdom. He and a friend were seated alone on a couch as they discussed his upcoming expedition to South America.

“Holy shit,” I interrupted, peering over their shoulders. “Where is that?”

Josh looked up at me and smiled. “I don’t know.”

Wharton, who is perhaps America’s best all-around climber, is actually extremely friendly, as I learned later that night. But as viewers of last year’s Reel Rock film tour will remember, he is also hesitant to spray about his exploits—and certainly not in advance.

We made plans to climb the four-pitch Stone’s Throw (5.11d) in California’s Pine Creek Canyon together the following day. I suspected I’d learn a thing or two while climbing with Wharton. He’s notoriously tactical, from shaving literal grams to inventing a new way to belay on long routes. But I never would have expected to glean so much new info from him.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. One doesn’t climb 5.14 trad, double-digit boulders, wildly steep mixed routes, and some of the most badass alpine lines on the planet without thinking very carefully about how you approach each day of climbing. Below, here are my most meaningful takeaways from my day climbing with Wharton: from sport climbing tactics to risk management and how to save weight (and more).

Risk is like a bank account. Don’t overreach.

Josh Wharton was, at one time, mildly infamous for his fatalistic attitude toward risk—he even coined the term “Safety Fifth!” in climbing circles. Nowadays, with decades of experience and a family to return to, Wharton is much more intentional with when and how he engages with risky climbing.

On the third pitch of Stone’s Throw, with a short runout above the belay in order to reach a distant bolt, he proudly whipped out a homemade telescopic stick-clip to save us from a tense moment of 5.11 terrain. “Some people assume that I am always trying to make my climbing rad,” Wharton told me. “But I choose my moments carefully. Like, if we’re at the sport crag, or there’s a bolt nearby, I’m just going to stick clip it.”

The mini stick clip has an added benefit on hard routes. Since it’s so light and only 12 inches long when collapsed, Wharton often climbs with it on his harness to high-clip crux sections and work moves more efficiently on a toprope.

You don’t always have to belay from above on multi-pitches

Several years ago, the first time I ever spoke with Wharton, he told me about a new multi-pitch tactic he’d invented called “fix and following.” This advanced tactic—which comes with a host of crucial caveats—revolved around the second climber self-belaying with two progress capture devices (PCDs), like Petzl Micro Traxions, rather than a traditional belay from the leader. This was game-changing for hard free climbing. The leader was now freed up to haul a bag, put on warm layers, rest their pulling muscles, and rehydrate, rather than the full-time job of taking in rope.

Since inventing this concept of fix and following, Wharton has continued to refine it. As we climbed Stone’s Throw together with Michael O’Connor, he proudly showed me his first purpose-built neck lanyard, made by Avant, which attaches to a PCD to ensure smooth feeding. Avant’s sparingly named “Top Rope Solo Neck Lanyard” is a massive improvement over my own DIY strap, which was only moderately comfortable and not adjustable for climbing with someone much shorter or taller than myself. Plus, Avant’s lanyard has a clever carabiner-and-loop attachment, which reduces the chances of dropping your PCD at belay transitions.

Re-think your tag line

According to Wharton, some climbers are probably using an unnecessarily beefy tag line on multi-pitch projects. Consider that, at the end of a 40-meter pitch, even an “ultralight” tag line like Petzl’s 6mm Pur’line still equates to 800 grams tugging at your harness as you fight to clip the chains. Wharton’s choice? For hauling a day bag, he uses the unbelievably tiny (3mm) Samson Amsteel Dyneema Line, which weighs just 300 grams at the end of the same 40-meter pitch. A caveat is that this miniscule tag line isn’t burly enough for multi-day haul bags and demands special tactics while rappelling.

We used the Amsteel on Stone’s Throw and it took some getting used to. The 3mm cord is quite supple and prone to tangling. It can also get stuck in the thinnest of cracks while hauling, and loops of it love to become hooked behind bolt hangers. (I foot-hauled our bag with an Edelrid Spoc PCD to avoid gripping the rope.) But Wharton swears by Amsteel and has used it largely without issue for years. Personally, I am considering buying a 40-meter length (it’s only $0.60 per foot) Amsteel for alpine routes where I expect brief sections of hauling and may need to establish new rappel anchors.

I probably won’t make Amsteel my daily-driver tag line since I frequently make double-rope rappels, and I’m fearful of pulling such a skinny rope and having it snag. But for limit multi-pitch projects, this lightweight line might be a tool worth having around.

Light is right

If Wharton was previously infamous for his attitude toward risk, he is currently famous (that’s a relative term) for his fanaticism about shaving weight. I suspect it’s why he has a buzz cut, and I know for fact it’s why he has a load of 8kN accessory carabiners from Amazon to store all sorts of non-safety-related equipment on the wall. Water bottle, wind jacket, haul bag, belay glasses—everything that won’t ever have a person hanging from it gets a miniature carabiner. These carabiners are: 1) more packable than the smallest climbing-rated carabiner available, 2) significantly lighter than those options, and 3) cheaper, too.

Wharton also saves weight by swapping his typical haul bag swivel for the superlight swivel found in all ice-axe tethers (an engineering friend at a major climbing brand said it is “strong enough” for day hauling). The weight zealot that he is cuts all the tags off his clothing, then Sharpies each item’s weight on the inside. And he might not bring the recommended rack to the base of a climb (Stone’s Throw recommended a double rack, he suggested a single). Recently, he even rappelled a big wall with a friction hitch (Super Munter) instead of a belay device so he didn’t have to carry one on the approach. (With “fix and following,” technically, you only need a lead-belay device.)

Wharton may indeed be a fanatic, but I appreciate his commitment. And he has the climbing résumé to back up his approach: a free ascent of Cerro Torre’s famed Southeast Ridge (5.12+ WI5; 3,000ft), the first one-day ascent of Mount Robson’s Infinite Patience (M5 WI5; 6,000ft), the first free ascent of Jirishanca’s Suerte (5.13a WI6 M7; 3,500ft), and the first ascent of what is likely the world’s longest rock climb: the Azeem Ridge (5.11 R/X A2 M6; 7,000ft) on the Great Trango Tower, in Pakistan.

He also says the weight savings let him bring more snacks up on the wall.

Obsess over your gear and tactics, and then forget about them

While climbing Stone’s Throw—and later belaying Wharton as he tried to onsight a 5.13b—I noticed two very distinct parts of his climbing brain. There’s the fixated side, which can write you a manifesto about the unsung value of stiff shoes, the unmatched performance of last decade’s Metolius micro cams, or why a miniature humidity sensor is an important part of any dedicated rock climber’s rack.

But then, once all of that micro-nerdery has been addressed, Wharton can flip into a state of climbing fluidity and roll with the punches: No complaints when I short roped him, no need for the “mandatory knee pad” most climbers use to exploit that 5.13b’s key rest, no stress if the haul bag gets stuck and he shivers for a bit with all his warm layers in limbo below. This revelation doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a trait of nearly all of the world’s best climbers: Address the issues you can—and don’t stress about what’s out of your control.

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