The Cutting Edge

Enjoy this new trailer for the current season of the Cutting Edge, with highlights from recent episodes.

The east face of the Central Tower in Chile's Torres del Paine is one of the great walls of the world. The first route up the face, climbed in 1973 and 1974 by a South African team, had only been freed twice. In February, Belgian Siebe Vanhee (a veteran of two other free ascents on the Central Tower) and American Tommy Caldwell (a newcomer to Torres del Paine but not to Patagonia) completed the third free ascent in remarkable style. On their third attempt, the two climbers raced up the 1,200-meter 5.12 route in exactly 24 hours—in an area where most big-wall ascents take weeks. Host Jim Aikman interviewed both climbers, as well as American Ben Ditto, who was on the first free ascent of the South African Route back in 2009. It's an episode about risk, the ups and downs of multiple efforts on a serious objective, and a partnership that perfectly balances the strengths of two amazing climbers.

In March 2025, the Bay Area–based climber Katie Lamb snagged the fourth ascent of Yosemite's most difficult boulder problem, The Dark Side, an unrelenting V16 on small crimps and dire slopers on the Thriller Boulder in Camp 4. In so doing, she became the first woman to climb the grade, but there's a catch: Back in summer 2023, Lamb had already done a V16, a problem called Box Therapy in Colorado—it's just that it was later downgraded to V15. In a complex and nuanced discussion on the state of the art in bouldering—and the evolution of the grading scales we use to classify these ascents—host Jim Aikman talks with Lamb about the passion, hard work, and tactics that went into her ticks. And he interviews The Dark Side's first ascensionist Carlo Traversi, a driving force behind modern Yosemite bouldering, as well as American Climbing Journal Editor Matt Samet, who worked with Lamb on her feature in the upcoming journal, "A Walk on the Dark Side."

One of the highlights of last fall's Nepal season was the first ascent of 7,468-meter Jannu East by French climbers Nicolas Jean and Benjamin Védrines, on their second attempt in two years. In this special episode of the Cutting Edge, Ben Védrines shares the full story of his two expeditions to Jannu, the physical and mental preparation, a "warm up" first ascent on 6,800-meter Anidesh Chuli, and the rapid ascent of Jannu East itself. American alpinist Steve House, a leading protagonist of single-push alpine ascents in the early 2000s and a top coach today, gives his perspective on the training and psychological aspects behind the French climbs. American Alpine Journal editor Dougald MacDonald unpacks the history of climbing on Jannu. There's a lot to share, so we're offering a special extended episode....enjoy!

The enormous granite peaks of Mozambique are among Africa's most impressive rock formations, yet fewer than a dozen climbing teams have ever explored them. In 2025, a Spanish and American trio put up a 17-pitch route in Mozambique, and for this episode we spoke with American Dakota Walz about what they encountered, including a seemingly inscrutable bureaucracy and a night in detention before they could even start the climb. Following the successful ascent, they suffered debilitating illness, thanks to ill-advised celebratory ice cream. In between were some glorious days on a unique African mountain, creating a route worth repeating. Host Jim Aikman also chats with Majka Burhardt, a veteran of two expeditions to Mozambique, about navigating the cultural and logistical challenges in a country struggling with a legacy of conflict. And AAJ editor Dougald MacDonald shares insights on southern Africa's extraordinary granite climbing.