Sleeping In The Arctic

The Catlin Artic Survey is at Resolute Bay and here’s a story by Kristina Brown of how they practiced sleeping in a tent at –30C. (Which is only –22F in real temperature; a temp we see every winter here in MN.)

Climbing In The Dolomites

OK, so he is really only climbing a little bit so that he can snowboard down. But he does do some rock climbing, via ferrata climbing and some ice climbing just to get to the top of these couloirs. And at about the 6 minute mark, he’s basically skiing down a chimney.

“Have you ever dreamed of a place where a chairlift would bring you to the top of untracked couloirs? Xavier de le Rue heads to this magical spot with a fresh 40cm dump of snow. Together with local rider Giulia Monego, he discovers the potential of one of the most beautiful mountain of the alps: Le Dolomiti, in North Italy. The crew managed to come back from this 2 day mission with some of the best images of the winter so far. Winter is back in Europe, stay tuned!”

This is my new method!

My favorite lines
1. slow is safe
2. we all like buying things
webbing is better that cord because it is staic and exerts the most force on your tools
3. Ok, I am ready to build an anchor and belay...if I had a rope.

Chicks With Picks Climbing

This was their veteran chicks climbing trip to Canmore. Details here.

 

Sandstone to the Max

Our buddy Dan from Life to the Max did a show on Ice Climbing in Sandstone. It is a pretty good piece. Looks like a cold day. I would love to head up there next week, maybe Wednesday, any takers?

Sometimes You Just Need A Buddy

34 seconds demonstrating the importance of friends.How neat is that? (Link here if embed doesn’t work.)

Exploring An Active Volcano

First they rapped down into the crater and then they set up a base camp. Many more photos here.

 

“In June 2010, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of the lava lake boiling in the depths of Nyiragongo Crater, in the heart of the Great Lakes region of Africa.”

 

 

 

 

“The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good”

I think Dave MacLeod’s article about “climbing messy” is making the same point as Voltaire when he said something along the lines of “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

“Obviously we can’t go around hoping for one of those once in a lifetime moments to happen right now. We need to find a way to climb well and be comfortable with our performance on a daily basis. It’s fine to try and keep everything clean and optimal. It’s the eternal game of the athlete. But accept that no matter how much you try, you dealing with something that is inherently messy (life) and you will never win.”

 

(The original quote in French is "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.", from Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764).)

Will Gadd, "It's just not Right!"

I think he scared his self on this one.

Swedish Ice Mines

But really who mines ice? What could possible go wrong?

Dark Side Of Sport Climbing

OK, I might be willing to climb in my underwear so I am lighter and therefore can climb a harder route. But I hope I’d draw the line at ideas like gluing sticky rubber to my legs to make a climb easier or re-texturing smooth rocks with acid or shaping a finger with a file so that it would be thinner to fit inside a mono pocket. If you need more ideas than that, they’re detailed here.

Boulder's Jonathan Siegrist about to make a first-try ascent of Power Windows (5.13d) at Mt. Potosi near Las Vegas, with Heather Robinson at the belay. For this route Siegrist duct-taped sticky rubber kneepads to his thighs for the first time, marking his official entrance into the dark side of sport climbing. Photo: Chris Weidner

Tendon Therapy

From Jane Brody of the New York Times is an article about treating tendon pain that indicates just rest alone is not the best treatment.

“Two time-honored remedies for injured tendons seem to be falling on their faces in well-designed clinical trials.

The first, corticosteroid injections into the injured tendon, has been shown to provide only short-term relief, sometimes with poorer long-term results than doing nothing at all.

The second, resting the injured joint, is supposed to prevent matters from getting worse. But it may also fail to make them any better.

Rather, working the joint in a way that doesn’t aggravate the injury but strengthens supporting tissues and stimulates blood flow to the painful area may promote healing faster than ‘a tincture of time’.”

Arcola Ice Report

Aaron and I headed out for an icy adventure Tuesday. We headed north of Stillwater to a super secret location. Last time I climbed there I was blindfolded on the approach but I managed to find it anyway. We set a top roped and rapped down, giving a chance to inspect the super chill icicle.
We had each climbed it once when Aaron whipped out a set of brand new ice screws. He accomplished his first lead with no problem. My observation was, good placement takes some time. It would take a long time to climb a mountain. Good thing we don't have any here.
Since a women's work is never done, of course I cleaned up after the man. I was really impressed with the design and ease of operation with the black diamond screws, very clever. It's like someone spend a long time thinking about it.
Aaron walked down to check out the bolts on the old bridge pilings. I could tell he wanted to climb it but that is for another day. Perhaps I'll belay form my kayak. It was a nice day, warm temperatures and a few peeks of sun.

Tracking Your Ticklist

A new website - Sendage. – allows you to list and track your climbs online. They are offering some promotions to join up here.  Here’s the best explanation of what it does and why you might want to use it.

Why Climb With Girls?

A list or reasons compiled by a girl woman climber for boys to climb with girls. I have found several of them to be true:

“2. You’ll be the envy of the other guys at the crag. You’ll be the extra-super-envy of the other guys at the crag if your female climbing partners are traditional leaders.

3. If you’re climbing with girls, you’re more likely to have other girls approach your party and chat folks up, because hey — you’re presumptively non-creepy enough for some girl to rock climb with you'.

4. Food and drink. Subject to exceptions, there are usually yummy leftovers when you eat with girls. You also get to sample tasty treats like Luna Bars and that awesome vanilla cinnamon oatmeal without having the cute girl at the grocery store checkout raise her eyebrow at you for buying food with the words ‘for women’ on the label.

5. Our overnight kits generally include such important but often overlooked items as Aleve, eye drops, fingernail clippers and chap stick with SPF.”