TreeHugger has an interesting interview with the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard.

The founder of Patagonia started out when he was little more than a teenager, selling his home-forged climbing hardware to ‘dirtbagger’ mountaineers like himself. Although all he really wanted to do was travel and climb, he had a knack for innovation and invention, and Chouinard Equipment Co. evolved into Patagonia, arguably the most successful outdoor clothing company in history. In his fifty-something years of experimentation, Yvon Chouinard has racked up a list of industry firsts that defies enumeration, yet he describes himself as a reluctant entrepreneur who really just loves to climb, surf, and kayak the wilds of the world, and hopefully save them along the way.

The interview is broken down into part 1 and part 2.

This is pretty funny – a humorous take on the Dean Potter climbing Delicate Arch controversy.

Climb like Dean – but without all of the controversy. Build a full-size Delicate Arch climbing wall in your own back yard – plans included!

This blueprint is an actual public service ad (PDF link) from the National Parks Conservation Association. (via The Piton)

Stewart Green, author of Rock Climbing Colorado and other guides, has written a new climbing guide to Europe called Rock Climbing Europe.

“Rock Climbing Europe” is an oversized, sturdily bound paperback guide that Green finished after 15 trips to Europe for research, climbing and interviews with climbers.

“When I started going to Europe in the 1990s, it was difficult to find information there,” he says. “You had to translate guides from French and Italian, and all you had were hand-drawn topo maps and no photographs.”

Green’s guide includes climbing routes with maps and photos in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Germany and Norway – all places, he says, that are steeped in a great climbing tradition.

The result: a climbing book that is part routefinder, part travel guide and part travelogue, with tidbits about the weather (the best climbing in Belgium’s Freyr is between April and late October); cultural highlights (Gothic architecture abounds in Bolzano, Italy); and food (Provencal cooking in the south of France features olive oil and garlic).