Interviews with historic figures like Paul Pritchard, John Sherman, John Dunne, and Daniele Pigoni, as well as modern-day protagonists of the climbing world like Cody Roth, Charles Albert, Eline Le Menestrel, Laura Pineau, and Matteo Pilon.

The goal? To understand how we can break the mold today, in a time when the push for conformity is a constant in our lives, no matter what context we're in.

This is the criterion behind UP CLIMBING #40, and the yardstick for selecting the individuals interviewed here. A far from simple choice, it guided the desire to capture the many nuances of the climbing world we live in.

Rounding out this issue, as always, is a generalist section, with proposals that span the entire vertical world, including ski mountaineering, and the usual columns that accompany UP on its travels.