Aesthetics In Route Design

Some thoughts on how to design a better route in the gym. Included are:

• Figure-Ground
• Color
• Patterns
• Symmetry
• Scale
• Shape

The Milky Way In A Sandstorm

Quite a sight of the Milky Way from the top of a mountain in Spain. From the notes of the video’s creator:

“A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April (bit.ly/​g3tsDW) and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32”

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

New Type Of Climbing Pants

These sound too good to be true. Who knew that jeans were so good for climbing?

“..Don’t want to wear a shirt when you send your project? No problem. Levi’s 559s can handle that. Denim matches every color, including your chest hair, or complete lack of it. Bonus points if you wait until you’re at the second bolt to rip your shirt off.

I was, like always, sporting a pair of 559s at the crag one day and a friend of a friend said, ‘Brendan, you climb in jeans. That’s so retro!’ Of course I just shook my head. Lady, retro is pink and purple tights. Hexes. Swami belts. Listening to PM Dawn. No, the word you’re looking for is CLASSIC. Like, Levi’s have been kicking ass since the California Gold Rush, circa 1853, and still are today. Good enough for a bunch of tough miners and gold prospectors? Good enough for a slightly-below-average climber like me. Classic. Like Hemingway, and Paid In Full, and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

Better Hope Your Climbing Partner Has Energy

At least better hope your partner has some of this energy drink from Japan. It’ll help you if you fall. (It repeats itself a few times. Don’t know why.)

“Popular Japanese energy drink filmed in Moab, Utah Summer 2010. Locations, location management, logistics, rigging and all stunts performed by Moab Cliffs and Canyons, Inc. Stunt doubles are Nate Martin and Jake Warren. A 30' working wall was used on private land on the Kane Springs Road. The Castleton Tower gag was shot in one day and involved some windy helicopter access. In 25 years of using helicopters while filming and rigging THIS was the closest I've come to being a piece of shrapnel fluttering in the wind!”

A New Way To Preview Routes?

These fairly inexpensive helicopters can be remotely controlled with your phone and, with a HD camera, maybe they could be used to preview a new climbing route. These small ones are limited to distance and by wind, but how neat is this?

Leave Them Kids Alone

What can you do when you need to leave the nest for a few days to get some food? You can’t leave the kids alone. And you don’t have any money to pay for day care. So you coordinate with your neighbors to take care of the kids and shelter them from the weather. And that’s how you get to the photo below photo of a colony of penguins who have put the brown-colored kids in the middle of the white-colored adults. Full story and more photos here. Including this photo whose caption I imagine is something like:

“OK, if you’re taking care of the kids tonite, don’t let them play with the Wii until they’ve eaten all of their food. Got it?’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s One Reason To Wear Clothes

This is from Black Diamond’s “Winger for the Weekend.” This guy shows why it’s a good reason to wear clothes while skiing.

Maybe The Most Amazing Start

I pulled this clip from a longer video here. At about 5 seconds into this clip, you can see maybe the most amazing start to a boulder problem. This is kinda bouldering becoming Cirque du Soleil.

El Cap Report

He’s back giving daily climbing reports & photos of groups on El Cap. Including this shot:

Falling Photos

On this forum, they have some amateur-submitted falling photos. Like this one. Maybe you have some you want to submit.

Elephant Moving

Here’s an elephant helping move a car after the big Missouri tornado.

Climbing In Laos

A new resort built for climbers in Laos.

No Such Thing As An Easy Climb

This is a story of a strong sport climber leading an “easy” trad route. Lots of lessons here:

• Always figure the weather will turn bad when you’re in the mountains. (This happened to us last week in the Black Hills on a short, 2 pitch climb. We started climbing in the sun and within an hour, it was snowing.)
• Trad climbing is time-consuming, especially multi-pitch
• Strong skills in one discipline may not transfer to other disciplines
• Wearing a helmet’s a good idea
• Carrying a cell phone can help. (We noticed this too in the Black Hills. We didn’t have any coverage at the base of the climbs, but near the summit, we did.)
• There’s no such thing as an easy climb

Ueli At Everest

Looks like the speed climber turned back about 100 meters from the summit because he was afraid of his toes being too cold. If he had wanted to breathe supplemental oxygen, he probably would’ve made it. But, as he says, if he had used oxygen, he would have been on the summit of a different peak. Read his whole story here.

“The adventure [at] Everest is over. Pity, I was doing well. I imagined that I would only suffer up there. Not at all. I am happy about that. I had a great feeling, I moved on, that’s what I am looking for, although I turned back 100 meters from summit. Of course I would have been nice to stand on top. For a moment I have thought to ask a Sherpa if I could breathe 10 minutes of oxygen. Then I would have had again warm feet. But then I would have stood on another peak. So better to go down. Everest will stay and I can come back!”

Paragliding Over Everest

Another record broken on Everest:

“They took off from the Summit of Mt. Everest last Monday, on 21th of May of 2011, on a tandem flight and broke the World Record of Altitude in Paragliding.
Not just because they took off from Everest, but because they flew over Everest, about 30 meters above the highest montain that any pilot or any human being ever been, and the first cross country flight ever done in Everest region.
Following the track of the flight, they did about 31km, flying around Nuptse and landing in Namche Bazar Airport. The project and plan to fly from Everest happened in less than 2 months, with very little financial support, in the limit of saving of both pilots.”