Shopping Is Inherently Dangerous

Always wear a helmet when you shop so if you get into a brawl, like this one, your head will be protected.

Our Trad Climbing Clinic

This was probably the last clinic I'll teach this year on rock. There were 3 climbers last week at Taylors and we had a blast. It was so slow at Taylors, that I let Buddy off the leash and he did his own independent tour of the potholes. What a good dog!


(You know, I realized today I now have enough trad gear so 3 people can set anchors and do leads using my gear simultaneously. And I just ordered some more gear. Can't have enough gear.)

Climbing Yosemite Royal Arches With An 11-Year-Old

The kid was mostly taken up the route by the Smileys, but still, it's kinda fun to watch.

Making Some New Routes

Ron, Peter and I went to Arcola today to bolt some new routes. We only got one route finished; on a bridge pier right on the river. It's been top roped, not done on lead yet. 5.9ish? Some photos below.

"The Pain Closet"

A trip report of the Smileys climbing the Steck-Salathe route on Sentinel Rock in Yosemite. Here's a photo of him trying to get through the "Narrows." This is the section of the climb they called "the pain closet." He didn't make it on his own; his wife used a 3:1 pulley system to help get him through the tightest spot.

Here's a description of this spot on mountainproject:

"One must drop one's feet and figure out some way to make upwards progress in a squeeze chimney using only body parts from the hips up. I managed this by using the back of my head on the back wall to pull my body upwards while simultaneously exhaling, then taking a deep breath to hold that position while I groped for a higher purchase with the back of my head. Hey, it worked. Gear for inside The Narrows really isn't necessary, but a fist-size cam (#3.5 Camalot/#4 C4) works well to protect the initial moves. For most of this you feel pretty alone with only the sound of your own gasping, and the tinkling sound of the hangers on the old aid bolts blowing freely in the wind on the outside of the slot, for company. Perhaps you'll wish you were out there hanging from those bolts, but persevere -- eventually things will start going a little more quickly."

Biking In Sedona

Why would anyone want to climb here, when you can bike? The town is overrun with mountain bikers. They've built tunnels under the highway so the mountain bikers don't have to cross the road. It's quite something. Oh, and there's climbing around here too.

What You Can Do With A Rope & Some Mechanical Advantage

We had our first early morning clinic at VEM on Saturday. Here I am raising Liz and Marianna with a 9:1 pulley system.

Mountain Goats In The Black Hills

They recently released 22 mountain goats in Custer State Park in the Black Hills. There are lots of photos of them here.

This photo was taken right at the parking area for the Needles Eye. The trailer is parked right at the start of the hike up to Moonlight Ridge.

We Made Some More New Routes

Testing for trad gear placements 

Me watching Ron 

Today, Ron and I went to Red Wing to find some new routes we could bolt We bolted two routes; both really short and unremarkable but, for us, super fun. One is a perfect gear-eating trad route that has one bolt near the top to get you over to the anchors. The other one is a face climb - 5.9ish? - with a route right next to it, that's probably 5.12ish. (That one isn't bolted yet, but it could share anchors with the one we put up.) Just as I started to lead our 5.9, a police car stopped to look. The climbs are right off the parking lot. So we named the climb "PoPo." I wanted to test the bolts, so I took a leader fall on them. They worked! Amazing.

Drillin' the anchors

Falling on "PoPo"

Our First Bolted Route

Peter named it "Something from Nothing." It's an itty bitty route along the river near Stillwater. Talk to Peter for exact location. It's maybe 5.9.

Heading down

The crux

Armed and dangerous

Clipping the 1st bolt

Grinnin' & drillin'

Testing the rock

Bottom bolt

Bolt beating

1,296,000 Calories For Two People

A short video about packing for 110 days skiing across Antarctica. For two people, they are bringing 1,296,000 calories. More here.

Rappelling Mt Rushmore

Rangers working on Mt Rushmore faces. Great views of the faces.



Rangers Rappel Rushmore: National Parks Epic Challenge from National Park Foundation on Vimeo.

A Bio-Optical Knowledge and Recording System for Navigation

A navigation system that requires no batteries, is easily transportable and can't be hacked.

Bad Weather On Mt Fairweather

The Smiley's climbed Mt Fairweather in Alaska this last June. One of the "50 Classic Routes of North America." Mt Fairweather is a mountain John and I climbed a long time ago.

The route they climbed is 11,000 feet from their base camp. (The route we climbed started at sea level so was 15.000 feet high.)

They waited at base camp for 11 days for the weather to clear. Which seems boring. But they had lots of technology with them:

"For 11 days we sat in our tents, killing time. Many people ask what we do to pass the time while tent bound. I think it's probably similar to being in a nursing home. You have to turn the small everyday activities into individual major events. Things you normally do while multi-tasking (eating, pooping, grooming, etc). That, and try to sleep as much as your body will allow. For me, that is 13 hours/day. We also had an ipad, two computers, lots of movies, angry birds, some shooting game that I mastered..."

Training For Big Wall Climbing

An interview with Mark Hudon, who at 56 is still climbing El Cap. He stresses training for endurance over power. He says the mental game is 99% of climbing. I like this quote:

"I don’t let my emotions take over at all. To me it’s physics. You can stand on a little hold five feet away from a piece of gear and so why can’t you stand on that same little hold 25 feet away from gear."

Here's his warmup for sport climbing: 

"When I was out sport climbing there were always warm-up routes. My sport climbing warm up was to lead climb a 5.11, then downclimb it, taking my draws with me. I might do this for one or two routes."