We are Rob and Cristina. We have been climbing and skiing together for more than two years now. We are avid adventurers who love the mountains, canyons, rivers and forests of this country and the world. For the first year and a half of our partnership, we bouldered and climbed sport together throughout California's Mojave desert with sun-burnt shoulders and leathery finger tips. The summer of 2010, however, found us in Western Massachusetts only 15 minutes from a climbing crag with many aesthetic traditional routes. With little experience climbing "trad," we were frustrated with the barriers of climbing the routes we pined after. The gear was expensive, we were unsure of how to use it, and no one around seemed interested in showing us. And yet, the beautiful lines at that crag continued to call our names.

We spent our evenings reading Climbing Anchors by John Long and searching for whatever material we could find on the subject matter of placing traditional climbing equipment. We became increasingly frustrated with the lack of consolidated, quality information available on the web about some of the more complicated techniques needed for climbing. After many months of study, practice and execution, we decided to make the information we gleaned from our studies available in one location, accessible to everyone. Thus was born ClimbingTechniques.org.

We tell you this story so that our website has utmost transparency. We are not professional climbers or instructors. We just love the sport and want to share our passion with others.

Are there other techniques you would like to see on the site? Do you have a killer tip that you would like to share? Do you have any critiques? Write to us. We want to hear from you.

For the love of crag and pow,

Rob and Cristina