Training

Accumulation, intensification and transformation is described in a new article at Climb Strong. A brief summary:

“Accumulation is the idea that you should do as much climbing of as many different styles as possible. This means multiple rock types, lengths of climbs, angles, everything.

Intensification simply means making all those weekly minutes of volume more difficult… All you spreadsheet-loving engineers out there will hate the lack of specifics here, but here’s the deal: go harder than last week. Do this for a month or so, and then look at transforming this into more “usable” fitness.

Transformation is application. You want to back off, way off, on the amount of activity you do each week, and you want to focus all your energy on climbing. All of it. And forget about training for God’s sake. Just go out, go hard, and quit when you get tired.”

Lessons From Bailing

This article about  bailing off a multi-pitch route in Yosemite, has good advice for any type of climbing. Such as these 3:

• “If you find yourself doing nothing at belays… you should probably be doing something.
• Take the extra time to double check everything.
• Memories of suffering fade fast, and that’s good.”

Believe In Yourself

Whatever it is, you will get better if you just practice. And feel “happy of yourself.” (It helps to turn the captions on when watching.) Oh, and “thumbs up for Rock ‘n Roll.”

1000 Project

This guy is about to start on his fourth 1000 mile long non-motorized trip. He will travel the length of the Mississippi River on a stand-up paddle board starting in mid June. His website is here. His goal is to complete 25 trips over 1000 miles in length, each one using a different mode of travel.

Mountain Climbing In The Atacama Desert

A trip report of climbing – walking – to an 18,645 peak in Chile. The trail starts at over 16,000 feet. Sounds like a good way to get high altitude experience without a lot of work.

Training

Below is the routine of one day of training from John Bachar’s training journal. There’s a lot more at this link on how he trained.

1) Knob job 5.10a solo 150 ft.

2) Crack a-go-go 5.11a solo 150ft

3) Orangutan Arch 5.11a lead 150 ft

4) Bouldering- Bx2, Ax12 150 ft

WORKOUT one arm: jump 1x1 ¾: 1x1, 2 ½ lb x1x2

Two arm: 18” reg: 75lb x4, 85lb x2x3 i = l/v=810/10=81lb

24” wide: 60lb x3x2 i=l/v=360/6=60lb

36” ultra: 4x2

Ladder: 15lb x1x2 Hang: small: 75lb x 10sec x 6 =60sec

Fingertip pull ups: small: ½ x2 Pulley Butterfly: 70lb x 8

Lever: 70lb x10

Bench: 160lb x7x2 i=l/v 2240/14=160

Military: 50lb x 20 Erect row: 50lb x 18

Erect row: 50lb x 18 Dumbell fly: up: 10lb x 10 bent: 10lb x10

Goliath: 6:15/4x1 (252L) , 6:15/5x1 (352L) , 3x1 total time: 16:15

Heavy bag: 3-5min power attacks-full body and boxing

Stretching: 2min

On days he soloed, he would solo a lot like this day:

“Then, like on March 23, 1991 he would go big, soloing 34 routes in Joshua Tree in a day. That journal page is titled ‘Josh solo day’ and he soloed ten pitches of 5.10, ten of 5.10+, twelve of 5.11, one of 5.11+ and one 5.12. “

Mountain Running

There’s a series about mountain running in different places around the world here. This is a video featuring one of the modern pioneers of mountain running.

A Sense Of Adventure

A couple is planning to drive from Bangladesh to London using a 1936 Rolls Royce. A trip preview.

www.roverfilms.com

Rotate Your Climbing Shoes

You can rotate your car tires so they last longer. Why not rotate your climbing shoes? I have a pair with two holes in the toes. I bet it’s because I didn’t rotate them soon enough. I experimented climbing with these shoes and here’s the result:

Teva Mountain Games

Here’s a great shot of Alex Johnson just missing the top hold in the recently completed bouldering competition of the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. Results here. Story from Denver Post here.

Why We Like Burgers

`At least most of us like burgers. It has a lot to do with the Maillard reaction. A scientific description of a cooking a burger.

“When the beef patty hits the hot grill, the water at the lower surface quickly boils away, producing a very thin, dry crust, actually a transparent gel, called the desiccation zone. Immediately above is the Maillard zone, where heat causes reactions among sugars and proteins that turn the meat brown, yielding molecules with an intrinsically appealing flavor — at least to most humans.”

New Adventure Destination

The Atacama desert in northern Chile sounds ripe to become a new adventure destination.

“…you'll be able to book excursions to visit the nearby salt flats or geyser basin, as well as rent mountain bikes or go sandboarding on one of the towering dunes. The more adventurous may want to explore the desert on horseback or take a trek though one of the gorges that are so prolific throughout the area. If you're really up for a challenge, try bagging the summit of one of the many volcanoes that ring the Atacama. Most tower over 18,000 feet in height, with routes that range from a simple walk-up to a full-fledged, technical mountaineering experience.”

What’s Better Than This?

What’s better than this if you want some exercise, like animals, love to compete and don’t have enough room for horses?

It’s bunny jumping. Invented in Sweden about 20 years ago. Article about it here.

Measuring The Earth

A new book about a 10 year project to measure the size of the earth using triangulation on peaks in the Andes.

“In 1735, a team of about 20 French and Spanish scientists and other crew departed on a most unlikely quest: to sail halfway around the world to determine the true shape of the Earth by measuring the vast distances between mountaintops in modern-day Ecuador.”
Read more:

The Outdoors Is For The Birds

Today Pete and I went climbing at Red Wing. The only things weeping more than the cliff walls - because of the high humidity and temperatures - were our eyes. We wept partly from sweat and partly from tears of failure. Oh, and the mosquitoes were weeping because we left so early.There’s a lot to be said for indoor A/C. And screens.