On the map above, you can see in the upper right hand corner, a town called Martin. That is where she lives, this peak is the second one to the left of Martin.
On the home front, Mr. Levi did well in the Best of the Midewest. He said the sending pants performed well. He did not place in the top 3. He said there were a lot of strong guys there. He had a good time. So he wins!
In Alpine terrain, the faster you can move, the safer you usually are. But this guy is phenomenal – he averages 30 feet/minute climbing the Eiger and Matterhorn. But he’s going solo so he doesn’t have to worry about that silly nonsense with a belay.
His sponsor gave him some special “sending”pants but he made his own t shirt to promote his sponsor. I hope he does well. Good Luck Levi.
Much of the ice was melted at the Franklin falls., but there were plenty of big icicles and some great wet dry tooling where the water was running.
Known more prosaically as the Franklin Bridge street run-off, frozen gully and dangerous approach place. A slide show of climbing there on Saturday.
Em and Hannah went trekking just outside if Martin Slovakia.
Don’t know if it’s true but it sure looks like it’s fun. (His language gets a little sassy when he gets scared.)
There’s a discussion on Facebook about how no one makes an aggressive women's-specific bouldering shoe. I just designed one below. It’s aggressive, yet it’s fashionable and perfect for heel hooking, don’t you think?
Bloomington REI — North Face the Movie - Special Free Screening
It looks like it’s already fully registered. But there’s a waiting list.
Quite a lively discussion here about women vs men and the apparent gap in ability to climb the hardest routes. Here’s a short quote from the article:
“In America, 2008 was a pretty good year for women’s bouldering, in terms of difficulty. Lisa Rands made an awesome ascent of the Mandala V12 in Bishop.
Angie Payne climbed European Human Being V12, in RMNP, Alex Johnson climbed Clear Blue Skies V11/12 at Mt. Evans, and Alex Puccio did CBS, The Marble V11 or V12, and most impressively Trice V12 on Flagstaff Mtn. This year Puccio added The Gentleman’s Project V11, The Maze of Death V12, and several other V11s to her ticklist.
During the same two years the top men flashed several V13s (including a V14) and established problems up to V15, one of which is 25ft tall. It would be hard to argue that the gap hasn’t grown. Have women fallen behind, or is this gap appropriate? Should there be any gap?”
Read the whole thing esp. the comments. (Don’t worry the comments are thoughtful not flaming.) This article from Slate calls climbing the only “gender-blind” sport.
As usual, I have a few comments on this.
That’s what the nattering nabob of negativity in the video says to his athlete friend. And just like that striving athlete in the video, I know it’s not more training that separates me from the pros, it’s not having the right stuff. Like this guy in the video, training will only take me so far. Expensive gear will get me the rest of the way.
It’s the Climer knot shown above according to tests by Black Diamond. But the strop bend was a close second.
Girth Hitch
Strop Bend
Climer’s Hitch
Kolin Powick’s (of Black Diamond) conclusions are below:
“CONCLUSIONS & FINAL THOUGHTS
As always, I must state a disclaimer that these findings are somewhat unofficial—just some information to think about. I’m not a climbing guide and don’t even play one on TV. These experiments are NOT all inclusive or totally encompassing by any means—much more testing would be required in order to come to any firm conclusions. It is important that all climbers use their best judgment out in the hills.
First off, our results were very comparable to Chris Harmston’s findings, and I agree with his recommendations—before you join two slings together think about the following:
And in addition:
“… will run roughly 2800 miles in length, crossing through five countries in the process. Thru-hikers can expect the entire route to require approximately 150 days to complete, as they march through Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. And if you don't have 5 months to dedicate to walking the longest high altitude trail in the world, fear not. The GHT will be broken down into seven smaller segments, each taking between 18-35 day to finish, allowing travelers on a time constraint to still have a chance to experience its wonders.”
I saw this photo of George Mallory – lost on Everest in 1924 – and his friends hiking in the nude. Apparently he started a fad; nude mountain climbing is such a fad, that the Nepal government wants to outlaw it on Mt Everest. Here’s a case in Germany of
“Ten German nudists may have to give up their hobby of naked mountain climbing after one of the men was arrested for indecent exposure.”
Here’s a recent article about climbing in New Zealand.
“A naked male attempting to climb Mt Taranaki has staggered experienced mountain guides.
Veteran guide Ian McAlpine yesterday pleaded with climbers to show some common sense.
He said he was very concerned with the lack of protective warm clothing and equipment among people trying to reach the summit.”
I know lots of mountain climbers want to be buff before they climb, but I always thought that meant something else.
Just got another new pair of slightly used shoes – thanks Mike – and in order to prove the fact that shoes have the biggest impact of any gear on my climbing ability, I went to Willow on Tuesday to work on one of my projects. The shoes worked great as you can see in this 4 second video.
Two of the climbers in the photo above became very wealthy businessmen who have bought millions of acres of land in Patagonia to preserve. One of them started North Face, then sold that company and founded Espirit. The other one founded Patagonia and still owns it. So remember, the more stuff you buy, the more you help others preserve land for future generations. A new book about their drive down to Patagonia from the US and then subsequent climb of Mt Fitz Roy is here.
If you’re a kid - or know one – this Mini Muddy Buddy Race at Afton Alps this August would be super fab.
Bring the kids (ages 4-13) and let them get in on the muddy action. The Columbia Mini Muddy Buddy offers a chance for the little ones to get muddier than they ever have before! The race features:
*It is mandatory for children ages 4-6 to have a parent go through the mud pit with them.
For those of us with a touch of vertigo, this video is good training. Watch, starting at about 35 seconds, as these climbers walk the spine of “Ancient Art” outside Moab, Utah. (Below, I posted about 1 minute from the original video which is here.)
Here’s the “Pickle.” How did it get that name?
The most popular ride at VE on Sunday night with the kids, was the “Russell Ride.” There was a line of kids to let Russell do this to them.
Oh, and at the end of the video, the biggest kid in the gym got a Russell Ride. (Not me! The other biggest kid in the gym. But I wanna Russell Ride too.)
No, not me. The really good climber named Richard. Here he is entertaining the kids. Impressive how he drops his feet and then brings them back up into a bat hang.
Here’s what you can do after hip surgery and after a few months of not climbing. At least, here’s what Liz can do.
If you’re stuck in the mountains, be sure to have cash to burn so the rescuers can spot you. Like this snowboarder in the Austrian Alps did.
“As darkness fell, he began to burn paper handkerchiefs and the contents of his wallet with a cigarette lighter.”
Climbing shoe presented to IOC president Jacques Rogge in December.
Late last week, at the 122nd Session of the International Olympic Committee in Vancouver, the IOC formally recognized the International Federation of Sport Climbing as the sport’s governing body. That move, which followed provisional recognition in December 2007, makes it much more likely that climbers will compete in sport climbing, speed climbing, or bouldering at a future Summer Olympics.Sports for the 2020 games, the next possible opening for climbing, will be selected in 2013.
If you like rocks, trees, sunrises, I think you’ll like this video. More of these time lapse videos here.
That’s what one wall of Homer’s was like today – mocha tapioca. Pebbly, soft ice over wet sand. Very muddy fun.
![[Skykkjedalsfossen_PONDELLA_GADD_NO_9863.JPG]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzWatOg1-9Nz_ZyqboZUFzYBUHw6s1zCVWCLBxgCXmeBQxbtjY9ysZ1Puig_fWqHxXPYND5uo2iiNu_uF0jxww7TF14H8n6LmQeLOF34X8YnijYxYVUQZA_hDsEMgsW6_PsYZB_wmToKX/s1600/Skykkjedalsfossen_PONDELLA_GADD_NO_9863.JPG)
Will Gadd is climbing in Norway. Story here. I liked this quote:
“Darkness started to fall on us while we were 7 pitches off the deck and standing below a 50M+ column of glass soda straws held together by crazy-climber glue…”
Zoe Hart, a Black Diamond athlete, describes the beauties of mixed climbing in Scotland - “Scottish Suffer Climbing” - here.
She learns there are lots of rules and to bring many pairs of gloves:
“So basically the rules are you can’t climb it when it’s easy?”
“Normally I take two pairs of gloves with me, but heeding my friends’ warnings, I’ve brought three. Simon pulls out seven pairs from his pack. You never know, he says, sometimes you need one for each pitch, one for the approach, and a last pair for the descent.”
And whip it good. That’s what the song says. So here’s Peter doing what the song suggests.
One of these climbers says “my shins are pumped” in an earlier video of the same route. I slightly shortened this video – the entire video is here along with more of the story.
Royal Robbins was one of the legendary U.S rock climbers. He’s just published an autobiography called “To Be Brave.” There’s a 2 minute video interview with him here. In the interview, he’s asked if he would have done anything differently in his life. He says, “the only thing I would’ve done differently is have more children.” And “to be brave means doing the right thing even though you’re afraid…it’s something you shoot for, it’s not something you are.”
Here’s a partial list of what Katie Spotz, after 34 days of rowing about halfway across the Atlantic, has eaten:
Full list of her food here.
Right now, they’re more than $2000.00 which is kinda expensive for me to use just for winter walks in MN. But maybe in a coupla years?
Hanesbrands R&D team has developed a Super Suit that exceeds down's warmth and is just 3 mm thick (versus 40 mm for an Everest-grade down coat).
The Pole of Inaccessibility is defined as the farthest point from land on the Arctic Ocean and hasn’t been reached yet by people. It requires travel over 800 miles of the Arctic Ocean. This group wanted to go this year but had to cancel because of the ice conditions.
As I’ve been reviewing my climbing goals for last year, it occurred to me that I had a lot of failures.I know all the touchy-feely things you’re supposed to learn from failure, but still, failure is failure. So I came up with some new shirt designs. Tell me what you think. (H.T. Peter.)
I’m painting the inside of our house so I keep finding photos that have been tucked away for years. Like this one of me in the emergency room of the Moab, Utah hospital.
I was biking the Porcupine Rim Trail with some friends and was going super fast trying to catch up with them. (Men are so competitive – especially the ones that are beating me.)
I looked up to view the scenery and then woke up a few minutes later. There was some concern among the others that after I woke up, I couldn’t remember things. (Hey, no big deal. I am always forgetting things, even today.) So I got on the bike and rode the rest of the approx. 17 miles to the hospital. The last few miles of this trail are shown in the video below. So the lesson is, don’t sightsee on a bike unless you have a belay.
and that is not all, check out this issue of Alpinist to hear about how these Italians were all over Nepal, climbing ice and un-named peaks such. I can’t tell you about the elevation as it was all done up in the metric system and all. But I do understand slopes of 85 degrees and broken ice tool shafts repaired with wire and duct tape and things of that nature. Read the article yourself and you will see photos such as this one.
He has posted lots of ice climbing advice here on his blog. Such as:
“Solid feet make for relaxed hands. Kick twice as much as you swing.
Completely stand up and drive you hips into the ice.
If you get a stuck tool regularly you're likely placing them both at the same horizontal level. Don't.
Look at the ice. LOOK at the ice.
Swing with your elbow high, and the pick, head and shaft of the tool all in line with your wrist, forearm and upper arm.
If you want to be a better ice climber go hang a rope on a vertical piece of ice and climb it a whole lot. Like 200 or more times. With crampons off, on, no tools, one tool, etc. etc.”
Here’s a program to get there from the website “Climbstrong.”
I’d do the program except for this part:
“When we train for forearm hypertrophy, it’s a painful, slow, and hard-training phase.”
Russell and Tyler went to Christmas Tree Pass outside of Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a photo of them climbing “Stairway to Heaven.” I think initially they planned to climb at Red Rocks but it was so cold, they drove south to climb here.
Here’s Lisa’s “first big massive whipper for the day” as Aaron says in the video.
There were more steps leading higher. I climbed those and reached another plateau that led to an even steeper cliff.
