This website is owned by Eric J. Hörst (pronounced "Hirst"), the nation's leading authority on climbing performance. An accomplished climber of 29 years, Eric has ascended cliffs all across the United States and Europe. Driven by his passion for adventure and challenge, he has established nearly 500 first ascents, primarily on his home cliffs in the Eastern U.S. Eric's latest book, Learning to Climb Indoors (Falcon), was released on July 1, 2006, while his previous book, Training For Climbing (Falcon 2002), remains a best-seller among climbing books with its breakthrough look into the science of climbing performance and optimal training practices.

A student and teacher of climbing performance, Eric has personally helped train hundreds of climbers, and his training books and concepts have spread around the world to climbers in more than 50 countries. He is widely recognized for his innovative practice methods and training tools, and he has been a training products design consultant for Nicros, Inc. since 1994. Eric has written four books on the subject of climbing performance including Flash Training (Falcon, 1994) and How To Climb 5.12 (Falcon, 1997/2003) all of which have foreign translations. He has written over 35 magazine articles on the subject, appeared on numerous TV broadcasts, and his techniques have been featured in magazines such as Climbing, Outside, Men's Health, Fortune, Men's Journal, Muscle Media, Alpen, Rock & Ice, Muscle & Fitness, Urban Climber, Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic Adventure.