Wish You Had Talent?

So do I. Then I wouldn’t have to practice. Of course, if I practiced more, than when I have a mediocre performances, I couldn’t say. “Oh, I did pretty good considering I never really train.” That’s the subject of this article called “The Talent Myth.” 

“People wish they had talent. They see it as a practice-free ticket to crowd-stunning skill. But talent doesn’t exist. ‘Talent’ doesn’t get results; practice and devotion do.…

People love to say that they don’t train (or practice or study…) They think it makes their mediocre performance more impressive. Or they use a hero as an example, saying he or she doesn’t practice either. But the truth is that anyone who becomes really world-class good at anything has devoted a large part of their lives to that thing — often to the exclusion of all else.”

Latest Men’s Fashions

From a fashion show in New York comes this look for the modern male. I just filled my closet with metrosexual outfits and now I have to go shopping at military surplus stores?

“The show opened with a series of gusting wind sound effects as models emerged from some sort of glacial backdrop. The models: Weather-clapped, sunburned, mostly heavily-bearded, aging (made up to look aging, at least), walking slowly and stunned, wielding axes and rope and tremendous rucksacks. The clothes: Heavy wool suiting in box checks; knickers paired with stirrup, cableknit legwarmers; nubby boiler suits; collarless shirting paired with There Will Be Blood suspenders; many-pocketed, belted and bulky overcoats; henleys galore, lots of wide wale corduroy and monochromatic micro-Fair Isle. Ansel Adams and California adventurer-inspired—it was sort of imperialistic, a bit stiff and not at all what we were expecting.”

Most of the outfits look kinda manly. (And who doesn’t need help with that?) Although, if I catch one of my climbing buddies looking like this, I will bite my pillow.

For Girls Only

Dave MacLeod writes about coaching girls and boys:

“Comparing general performance characteristics between male and female climbers is always interesting, especially when coaching in a group session. The common finding is that the guys can often at least throw for the holds, but fall trying to hold onto them. Meanwhile, the girls can hold on for ages but fall trying to move between the holds.

The basic reason is that guys have much more muscle to throw their upper bodies around at extreme joint ranges. A lesser appreciated reason is that girls are often reluctant to climb by throwing for holds out of fear of falling, and so adopt a massively inefficient static style. Thankfully, the guys more than balance it out by forgetting to use their feet and still can’t climb a vaguely technical problem despite all that muscle and grunt.,,,

For girls, first of all, no progress can happen without addressing the fear of falling first. Every effort will fall flat on it’s face. You can’t climb to your potential without slapping, snatching, deadpointing, dynoing on most moves, or if fear of falling is dictating how you approach every move. The solution is simple, easy to follow and 100% successful whether it’s bouldering, sport climbing or trad. The details are section 3 of my book.”

For you boys out there, try not to be a “wad” when you’re climbing.

“Above all, don’t be intimidated by the ‘wads’ at the bouldering wall with tops off and making loud grunts. They don’t bite! They are often a useful source of new problems to work on, if nothing else. Just remember to burn them off occasionally on the balancy wall problems and high-steps.”

Kids, These Days

Here’s a 15 year old climbing about a 50’ boulder. It’s quite amazing to see him take about a 2 minute rest half way up the thing. This photo gives you an idea of the size of the thing compared to his height.

A Snowy Red Wing

Pete, Ron and I climbed at Red Wing today. We did one climb on the shady side – which was nice because the snow pile put us about two feet higher on the starting holds. Then we went to the sunny side and did a few of the hard climbs. Here’s Bud looking a little forlorn sitting in the snow.

Later, Buddy was very happy because he found an animal bone to chew on. (I think the animal had fallen off the cliffs above.) We each find joy in our own way.

Here’s Ron warming up on “Sleeping Bat.”

Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently To The Cliff

A four pitch climb right out of the boat and then a rappel right back into it. How neat is that?

This Is Chintzy

I saw this home advertised with a rock climbing wall. “Wow,” I thought, “a $1.4 Million home with a rock climbing wall, that should be good.” There are way better rock climbing walls in garages.

This is the rock climbing wall. You sure don’t get much for $1.5 million.

What Do Great Climbers Have In Common

Dale K Sood took a survey to find out if there were any common traits in really good climbers. Here’s what he did:

“Determined to discover if this was the case, I created an survey and sent it to every friend,  and every friend of a friend - thank you, Facebook. The only criteria for filling out the  survey was that you had to reliably onsight 13a/b. I interviewed top climbers from eight countries, both male and female, ranging in age from 15 to 46 years.”

Here are the 5 principles he discovered. Details at the link.

Principle #1 - Easy as ABC “Always be climbing”

Principle #2 - Know thy self, know thy enemy

Principle #3 - Seeing is believing

Principle #4 - It’s not what you know, but who you know

Principle #5 – A (wo)man’s reach should exceed his grasp

165’ Climbing Wall

It’s scheduled to be built in Reno and open in the summer of 2011. Be interesting to see if it can pay for itself.

ABS Nationals

This is the male Alex Johnson competed on the first problem at last weekend’s bouldering championship. It’s a tricky Figure 4 move he does while hanging from one hand.More here and here. Results here.

Two More Of The 50 Classic Climbs

The Smileys are at it again with two more of the “50 Classic Climbs.” These two in the Sierra of California.

A Long Walk To Solid Rock from Mark Smiley on Vimeo.

13 miles is a long approach. Adding to the fun was our heavy overnight packs, and an 11,000 foot pass that we had to hike up and over. I think the trail could have been 7-8 miles, but the trail makers in California really like their switchbacks. The incline is kept at a mere 1% for the majority of the way...

Read the rest of the trip report: www.smileysproject.com

Removing Graffiti

The climbers at pullharder.org helped clean rocks in San Diego area. Don’t think you can scrub our local rocks at Red Wing that hard.

Making Plastic Come To Life

The realistic walking motion of this pile of plastic pipes is amazing.

Are You A Mansplainer?

This woman is royally upset at men to whom she is invisible because she is a woman. (I think that’s what she is saying; I couldn’t quite follow her argument. I’ll wait until a man re-writes it and then I will be able to fully understand it.)

“Because I am a woman, I am invisible around men.

My voice isn’t heard, my advice isn’t heeded, and my knowledge is dismissed. I’m a woman, what can I possibly tell men about climbing, about skiing, about riding motorcycles? What do I know about cars, about anchor systems, about search and rescue? What can I possibly have to contribute about gear? Nothing, if one goes by the behavior of some men. I’ll try hard to make this article something more than just endless examples of being shunted to the side simply because I’m female, but after a few days around climbers, I’m seething.”

She calls this tendency of men to be an expert in everything “mansplaining,.” And defines it like this:

“[Mansplaining] refers to the habit of some men of pontificating on any given topic as if the person, usually female, in front of him has no knowledge or expertise of her own.”

There are two three things I resent about this:

1. I am an equal opportunity mansplainer. I don’t care if you’re wearing pink or blue, I will pontificate to everyone.
2. Women do the same thing to me; I try to describe the pain of childbirth and they just won’t listen to me. They won’t validate my experience.
3. I ignore men as well as women.

Are you a mansplainer? Do you ignore women who are outdoors because you know they really belong inside?

Skating On Thin Ice

This guy skates on thin ice and then jumps in the water when the ice ends.