Now This Is Real Bouldering

This is bouldering a real man could like. None of those fancy Capri type pants nor tight, ballet-style shoes. Just a man and a machine and boulders in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Notice - they are not using chalk nor are they using crash pads.

Bouldering At Sylvan Lake

Pete, this is for you. You’ve been asking about the Campground Boulder at Sylvan Lake in the Black Hills. Here’s a guy climbing two of the classic routes on it.

Climbing In The Black Hills

A few shots of climbing in the Black Hills. At the end of this video, you can see him summiting on Super Pin (I think.) And I think the older couple are the Conns.

Sport Diets

Will Gadd has a long post about special performance diets for sports. I like these quotes from his article. Read the whole thing here.

“The Norwegians would win or place high in the ski race, eat a couple of boxes of Oreos for post-race recovery, have a beer, eat another huge dinner, and sleep 10 hours a night. The Americans would place mid-pack, recover with sports drinks, eat a ‘Pritikin’ (very little fat) dinner, sleep poorly, and not improve. The Americans would also obsess about vitamins, body fat, etc. The Norwegians won races, the Americans worried about their diets...”

“There are no magic bullets, no metabolic master blasters, etc. etc. Sorry, the guy who trains 30 hours a week and eats at McDonalds will destroy the guy who trains five hours a week and eats a perfect Paleo diet. If Paleo boy steps his training up to 30 hours a week then he may be able to compete with McDonald's boy, but even then I'd bet that the skills, quality training time and attitude would still kick Paleo Boy's ass...”

On A Rare Dry Day

We (Genevieve, Pete, Ron & I) climbed at Red Wing on Friday. For a fleeting few hours, the sun was out and it wasn’t raining. Up near the summit, we spotted this odd boat – must’ve washed up from the flooded river.

 

 

 

 

A couple of shots of Genevieve pulling hard on the big holds for which RW is famous.

 

Which Is A Better Place To Climb, Las Vegas Or Boulder?

This article was written by a Boulder native who is temporarily living in Vegas. He details the friendly arguments about which is a better place to climb. I like these quotes:

“Outdoor cross-training is accessible anywhere in Boulder: trail running, road and mountain biking, hiking, etc.”

“Indoor cross-training is better, and accessible anywhere in Vegas: dancing to world-class DJs, sport drinking at the Yard House,..”

“We have the best year-round sport climbing in America [in Vegas], including some of the hardest routes in the country.

“Sport climbing is passé. Bouldering is way radder. The best boulderers in the world travel to Rocky Mountain National Park and Mount Evans.”

Read the whole article here.

“A Girl Thing”

A new DVD featuring women climbers. What will women do next? Get it here.

Wine When You Climb?

No not the waah waah, “I can’t do that climb,” but this kind of wine. It’s called “The Climber” and it’s a container filled with wine made by the same people who make Clif bars. Carrying this sounds like more fun than one of those hydration packs filled with only with lousy water.

“Clif Family Winery & Farm has come up with an environmentally-friendly solution for wine drinkers who also happen to be adventurers. TheClimber pouch ($17 for 1.5L) is ultra-lightweight and easy to carry just about anywhere. The packaging has a tiny carbon footprint in comparison to glass bottles, and the pouch can be resealed to keep wine fresh for up to a month. The Climber pouch is available in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon varietals and even has a built-in carrying handle.”

Fairly Difficult Climbing, Done Well

I posted this video before of Adam Ondra making an onsight climb of one of the most difficult climbs out there. I am posting it again, because I read a thoughtful analysis of his climbing style here. Part of the analysis:

“Ondra's style is one of relentless progress earned through exact placement of hands and feet and fearless response to the route's challenges. He routinely skips clips or delays them facing falls of 30 to 40 feet on very difficult terrain, confident that he will find a spot to recover and clip again. He climbs according to the needs of the route, square to the wall when necessary and is fantastic at high-stepping and reaching while staying in balance. His decision-making process is usually immediate and highly accurate, even in unlikely sequences. …Where most of us are second-guessing or retreating into bad movement patterns, Ondra is immediately adapting to the moves. He climbs as if he has nothing to learn from the moves, no need to adjust or rethink them, just to push ahead into the next one and repeat until the chains. Most of us only feel like this on onsights in very familiar terrain or of very low difficulty compared to our limit.”

When I watched the video, I was struck by how fast he moves. He’s never been on the climb before but he confidently places his feet and hands and just goes. Quite amazing.

BD athlete Adam Ondra onsights Mind Control (8c+), Oliana, Spain from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Locking ‘Biner On First Draw?

A discussion here on the benefit/drawback of using a locking ‘biner on the first quickdraw on a bolt. I climbed with a guy who did this occasionally – when the 2nd bolt was way above the 1st one and off to one side, and where the crux was low. There is some ridicule of the idea in this forum and also some support. I always thought it’d be a good idea in certain circumstances; never did it though.

Red Wing Monday

Pete & I climbed with William on Monday at RW. We’d met William bouldering at VE. He’s a strong boulderer but had never roped climbed outdoors. So, of course, he wanted to do a lead at Red Wing. Not some of the easier ones Pete and I suggested, but this one. We spent a few minutes on the ground explaining how you clip the bolts and then he climbed to the top quick as you please. Pretty amazing for his first lead anywhere and one of his first climbs at RW.

Then Pete tried leading on only natural pro using these slung rocks. More photos here.

“Hi, my name’s Alli, and I’m a rock climber who’s afraid of heights…”

Ali Rainey describes how her love for climbing helps her with her fear of heights.

“I’d still been climbing for less than a year when I experienced my first fall into space on an overhang. I absolutely flipped out, screaming in terror as I clutched the rope, spinning in midair, unable to get back on the rock, totally irrational and unable to even come close to grasping the concept that I was actually fine.”

Race To The Bottom

This is the trailer to a new film about the 39 day, solo, unsupported trip to the South Pole in 2008 by an American. More info here.

New Route Soloed On The Matterhorn

An Italian climber spent 4 days and 3 nights on a new route on the Matterhorn. More of his story here. :At about the 3:30 mark of the video, you can see him pull a large chunk of rock off the route and:

“The rock is so chossy and untrustworthy that, as he stated on numerous occasions, Barmasse doesn't recommend his new route to anyone. The rock is too friable, the undertaking simply too dangerous... And this is also why he didn't want to give the route a grade.”

Hervé Barmasse | Exploring the Alps # 1 | Solo on Matterhorn from story.teller on Vimeo.

11 Days On A Wall, Starting From A Deck Of A Sailboat

More of the “Vertical Sailing” series about a 3 month climbing trip to Greenland. (The whole series is here.) In this – the 2nd - episode, they start an 11-day big wall climb right from the deck of their boat. The first episode is getting to Greenland and loading the boat. The 3rd episode, I posted the other day. The 4th episode shows them pushing icebergs out of the way so they can get to a wall where they climb two separate routes to the summit and have an overnight “shiver bivvy.” The last episode is about their two week-long sail back to Scotland, including heaving-to (the boat and the sailors.)