UnParallel Insights - Blog

April in the New River Gorge
Author: Nat Bailey I spent most of April 2025 in the New River Gorge, on a climbing trip with my friends Matt and Tyson. It was a nice time of transition: I left immediately after finishing my last semester of university and had enough student loans remaining to not work—or study—for a month. This was my third trip to The New, and we ended up renting rooms from a friend of a friend, who in turn became a new friend. If you’ve read my writing before, you know that I... Read more...
Into the Shire: Vertical Gardening in the Canadian Selkirks
Author: Henry Cusack There’s a magic that lives in the forests of the Canadian Selkirks. You feel it in the quiet hum of the moss, the way mist clings to the rocks, and the echo of stoke shared between friends deep in the woods. Last spring and summer, a small crew of us tapped into that magic and built something special. We called it The Shire—a name that stuck as easily as the moss we spent months scrubbing off those walls. It started with curiosity. Scoping out cliff bands with... Read more...
The Cordillera Blanca | A trip supported by the Jen Higgins Grant
Author: Heather Lightfoot & Jo Bulmer | Posting in Canadian Alpine Gazzet 2019 A waste problem The original goal of this trip was to use climbing as a vehicle to experience a new part of the world and highlight some ongoing sustainability issues within the outdoor community. The primary climbing objective was a 950m granite monolith, aptly called La Esfinge (or The Sphinx), topping out at 5,325 meters in the Cordillera Blanca, located in Peru’s Huascaran National Park. While researching the area we stumbled across various articles outlining environmental concerns... Read more...
From the Gym to the Desert: A Youth Climbing Trip to Red Rock and Moe’s Valley
Author: Eva Thompson Red Rock: Getting Oriented Red Rock was our first stop. For many of the athletes, it was their first time climbing on real rock. Watching them learn to read sandstone, adjust their movement, and work through unfamiliar sequences was a reminder of how different outdoor climbing can be. With temperatures soaring above 30°C, we adjusted our schedule accordingly. Most days started before 5 a.m., with climbing sessions wrapped up by noon. The rest of the day was spent back at the Airbnb, where we cooled off in... Read more...