Sport climbing is, in part, defined by the lifestyle it engenders. It’s not just competition and performance; there are other equally important qualities: Going on trips, meeting new people and seeing other cultures. The whole scene around climbing is equated with more liberal rules for living, tolerance and adventure.            —Wolfgang Güllich To begin, I’m choosing a place I’m not supposed to write about. It’s a homestead somewhere in the mountains of a Western desert, an anachronism that makes you lose all sense of the future and fuels heavy inebriation after hard days on the salty rock. Pour a tall glass of bourbon and saddle up next to a fire—the anxieties drain out your toes. I’ve spent many nights in this anonymous earthen corner, which is to say that I’ve acquired a few memories. There’s nothing particularly special about this place except that lots of very good climbers from all over […]