Climbing Magazine, December 2017

A story of climbing, granite, and complex history in California’s Needles, featuring Majka Burhardt.

“When, in the early 1980s, Tony Yaniro attempted to free the splitter of Pyromania, I was blown away by how difficult the climbing looked from my belay. Yet the route went free, and was well within Tony’s range. He climbed it in style, too. Each time he fell he lowered and cleaned his gear, a departure from today where most hard cracks sprout pre-placed pro and feature an R or X for serious fall potential. When Tony slotted his little hexes (museum pieces today) behind the flake, he didn’t give long falls a thought, and just ran it out. In this photo, Josh Janes plugs and guns up this Needles test piece…”