Mountains and Water

Can You Afford to be Sponsored?

2012-01-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

January. It's that time when contracts are sent out by various climbing-related manufacturers. In what may be a first, Beal (the French climbing company and no relation to me) posted a photo of British climber James Pearson actually signing a contract, a move that will almost inevitably be replicated throughout the industry. This echoes the practice of professional sports teams and companies throughout the world displaying athletes with contracts, while surrounded by logos, wearing gear etc. and marks one more step in the mainstreaming of climbing.

James Pearson signing with Beal

The significant difference is that in climbing you will rarely actually receive real money, at least when compared to sports such as football or basketball. Even very highly regarded climbing athletes such as Chris Webb-Parsons are not getting that much support, at least if this interview at 8a.nu reflects his actual situation.

"But there is no glamour, not even a shoe sponsor, just very hard work and absolutely no financial support from his Australian federation.

'I'm in debt on my credit card right now due to the last WC season costing me so much money. I'm slowly paying off my debt now although as soon as the 2012 WC season starts the credit card will come out again. I have to pay for everything including my uniform to compete in, my IFSC license, my climbing association membership, competition entry, hotel, travel etc.... So it all adds up.'

This aspect of being a "professional" climber is one that is rarely if ever discussed. Climbing is a pursuit a lot like yacht racing or showing purebred dogs in that a substantial amount of personal and social capital is assumed to be on hand to cover the expected day-to-day expenses of participation. In other words, to even initially obtain, let alone maintain sponsorship, it is expected that an athlete will maintain a high profile in the sport, usually through travel and extended sojourns at fashionable climbing areas, participate in competitions (very expensive for travel, accommodation, and fees) and be available for other promotional responsibilities such as video shoots, shoe demos or climbing festivals. Such requirements are generally incompatible with genuinely remunerative employment of any kind, meaning that someone or something else is ultimately footing the bill for most if not all the professionals below the very thinnest sliver at the top. This is the simple reality of climbing today.

In other words, for every hundred dollars worth of "free" product, a climber may have to invest 10 to 20 times as much hard cash, maybe more, maybe less, to maintain the lifestyle required to obtain and keep that sponsorship. This of course is not counting the staggering opportunity cost of missed educational opportunities or actual gainful employment, costs that will eventually be counted against many aspiring "pros" when they realize they can no longer maintain elite participation in the sport or in the outdoor industry. As mentioned above, this hard reality is passed over in the media and rarely discussed in public by the athletes themselves. Kudos to Webb-Parsons for mentioning it.

This theme was on my mind in particular when I recently received an email from Moon Climbing informing me that I was being dropped from their team. Now for me, sponsorship is not a matter of financial necessity, it is a matter of my desire to help promote companies that I respect and whose products I personally use and recommend. But on reflection, I realized that looking back, the efforts that I made to fulfill my responsibilities towards the company in the end cost me more out of pocket than the value of the products themselves. Not to say that it wasn't nice to get some "free" gear, but that in the end, at best, I estimate the net financial value to me cashed out in negative terms. Would I do it again? It really depends on the company and its vision for the future. There were certainly some concerns with Moon that I should have heeded.

I understand that for a teenage climber with adequate familial financial resources and no particular obligation in the immediate future towards a career or other responsibilities, climbing sponsorships are great. And there are actual professional climbers out there, not many, but some. But it seems to me that a more public discussion of the actual costs involved in elite-level participation, especially with the increased media presence of sponsorship, as with Beal mentioned above, in concurrence with the rise in numbers of competitive youth teams, might be enlightening to aspiring athletes, their families, and the climbing community in general.

Back to the Future: Evaluating the Breakthroughs of Climbing

2012-01-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

A fascinating interview showed up at Planet Mountain recently which created some buzz in the climbing Interwebs. It consisted of Adam Ondra's thoughts about routes he hadn't done yet. It is a comment on the voracious manner with which Ondra has dispatched many of the marquee testpieces of European sportclimbing (not to mention bouldering) that a story on the climbs he has NOT done would garner so much interest. But a sub-theme was his inability to complete the 1990 Ben Moon route Hubble, located at Raven Tor in the heart of England's Peak District. Ondra put it like this:"The world's first 8c+, which could be easily even 9a in my opinion. It is not the most inspiring line, it seems more like a boulder problem with a rope and easier topout, but one must admit that it is of revolutionary difficulty for its time and I believe that it isn't by any means easier than Action Directe, the world's first 9a established a year later."This generated some reaction at sites like UKClimbing.

Ben Moon on Hubble

To me what was interesting was not the merit of the specific case of Hubble, which is probably valid, but the tendency for these kinds of ascents to emerge over time as breakthrough grades. There has been a fair amount of this recently. I begin by citing the case of Dan Goodwin, whose 1984 route Maniac was just recently repeated after over two decades and confirmed at 5.13c/d. This would have made it the hardest route in the country by far at the time and one of the hardest in the world.


Story from Climbing last year

Then there was the likely first 9a+ (5.15a) of Alexander Huber in 1996 with Open Air, a real beast of a pitch with a likely V11 finishing crux. The ClimbingNarc discussed this one pretty thoroughly but read also the interview with Alexander Huber where he sets his own routes in perspective against the "9as" of the present. It is worth mentioning that Huber's 1992 route Om was repeated only in 2009, also by Ondra.For even deeper perspective, check out this image from Climbing 47, from the spring of 1978 showing Ray Jardine on the iconic Valley route, The Phoenix. The caption describes it as one of the current 5.12's in Yosemite."

Does this look like "5.12" to you?

Now what do these routes have in common? I suggest there a few factors that lead to this, the primary one being the people involved. With the exception of Ben Moon, the climbers of these routes were relatively unknown or outside the circle of elite climbers for their time. Ray Jardine for example was regarded as a renegade in Yosemite for his method of working routes and even the use of Friends was seen by some as "cheating." Both Dan Goodwin's reputation and the location of his route ensured it would not be taken seriously at the time. It is hard to believe it now but in an article in On The Edge a now defunct British magazine, the author had to introduce his readers to Huber by pointing out that the British stars had done very few routes 8c and up compared to Huber. He was certainly unknown in the States prior to his free ascent of the Salathe Wall.

The issue with Hubble, in my view, was that the route was completely out of step with the vision of sport climbing that dominated the continent of Europe at the time. Long, stamina-oriented pitches were typical, occasionally with chipped holds to even out the difficulty. The likelihood of someone from abroad investing the time and energy in building up the power to do V13/14 on a rope and then finding the right conditions for a tiny route on a notoriously finicky crag was slim. Nevertheless Hubble was given an 8c+ grade, still regarded as a breakthrough but only by a letter grade. Only now is the record being rethought as hard bouldering has been maturing and a climber like Ondra has proven to be the equal of someone like Moon and Moffatt in bouldering hard and climbing on a rope hard.

Are we dealing here with the blinding effects of whatever is/was the current paradigm, a mode of seeing the world that hinders the understanding and inhibits knowledge? I think the question takes on importance with the rise of "professional" climbing. In other words, does professionalism imply subscribing to the dominant present paradigm and by implication, stifling innovation and creativity? A deeper exploration of that specific question belongs to another post but as I notice the recent crop of reevaluations of the historical record of sport climbing and bouldering, I am struck by the inconsistency of that record and the ways in which it has denied or delayed recognition of the real pioneers

Interview with Carlo Traversi

2012-01-11T11:57:00.001-07:00

If you are interested in learning more about what makes an elite-level boulderer tick, please check out my interview with Carlo Traversi. As part of my bouldering book blog, I plan on talking periodically with leaders in the sport about what they think is important for developing as a climber.

Carlo Traversi: Alpine Sessions from Five Ten on Vimeo.

January 2012

2012-01-04T17:17:00.002-07:00

Welcome to the long dark days of winter. The snow finally melted off here in Boulder and bouldering outside is once more an option. Not that I have been doing much of that. A couple of weeks off due to weather and various illnesses and suddenly my Christmas break was over. Before Christmas, I felt as though my training was going quite well and now I am trying to recover that standard, little by little.

I have very nice simple but effective training set-up in my basement which has been very helpful in focusing on my fingers and core strength. I am trying to get sufficiently in shape to start heading up to RMNP in March to start working Element of Surprise as I think early spring is the most feasible time to try this problem.

There are many lower projects closer to town I have in mind as well and not all of them at Flagstaff either. I see this year as a time to consolidate my strength and knowledge in an attempt to reach the V13 level, a goal that feels a bit unlikely given my age and free time. Nevertheless, I feel as though I am as strong as I have ever been.

Unlike many other bloggers, I will not be delivering my views on the climbing year that was other than to say that everyone is playing for second place when compared to Adam Ondra. He simply had a phenomenal year and clearly is poised to achieve things that will reset our expectations of what sport climbing and bouldering will look like in coming decades. It will be very interesting to see who, if anyone, can rise to this standard, especially in the USA.

The bouldering book has been doing well receiving a couple of great reviews recently from Climberism and Deadpoint Magazine.It has stayed consistently high in the "Rock Climbing" category at Amazon as well.

In the bouldering vein, here is a boulder problem from Poudre Canyon, a destination that practically counts as a road trip for me these days...

Climbing and the Olympics: Will Climbing Lose its Soul?

2011-12-22T13:30:00.002-07:00

About a month ago, before I went on unplanned hiatus from writing this blog, I read a very interesting commentary at Kairn.com on the Olympics and climbing. There has been a consistent push in recent years for the inclusion of competition climbing in the Olympics, perhaps in part because the potential resulting higher profile could bring bigger sponsors on board for events such as the World Cup. Here are some thoughts translated from the French, originally authored by Jean Pierre Banville:

"Elleva y gagner la perte de son âme ! La perte des valeurs qui ont fait del’escalade et de la montagne des sports totalement hors-normes. Je ne suis pasLuddite et certainement pas contre le profit, contre le juste retour del’investissement. Mais l’escalade s’est toujours positionnée au-dessus desvaleurs purement mercantiles. L’escalade est un sport de passion dont lesvaleurs et l’histoire sont ancrées beaucoup plus profondément dans le psychéhumain que la lutte, le golf ou le rugby.

Iln’y a pas de héros dans la lutte ou le golf. De vrais héros. Des géants hors ducommun, des êtres hors-normes. Et, non, Tiger Wood n’est pas un êtrehors-norme. Par contre Cassin et Preuss et Dulfer et Desmaison… ce n’est pas lalutte ou le ping-pong. Guido Lammer, ce n’est pas le curling! C’est l’antithèsedu curling… franchement !
On va me traiter de vieux crouton, à ressortir ces figures oubliées. Vous envoulez de plus récentes? Berhault, Bonatti, Arnold… ouvrez les magazines d’iciet d’ailleurs et vous retrouverez ces personnages d’exception qui ont fait etfont la montagne mythique !
C’est notre âme collective et c’est ce que nous avons à perdre."

What it will win is the loss of its soul. The loss of values which have made climbing and mountaineering sports completely out of the mainstream. I am not a Luddite and certainly not against profit, against a fair return on investment. But climbing has always placed itself above purely mercantile values. Climbing is a sport of passion where the values at the history are anchored much more deeply in the human spirit than wrestling golf or rugby.

There are no heroes in wrestling or golf. No true heroes. No heroes beyond the everyday,no superhumans. And no, Tiger Woods is not superhuman. By contrast Cassin, Preuss, Dulfer, and Desmaison...this is not wrestling or ping-pong. Guido Lammer, this is not curling! It's the antithesis of curling...obviously!

You could call me out of touch, to refer to these forgotten figures. You want more recent examples? Berhault, Bonatti, Arnold...open the magazines here and elsewhere and you will find the exceptional people who have made mountaineering mythical.

It's our collective soul and it's this that we can lose.

In essence, I agree with the author of this piece, in the sense that climbing has always set itself aside from other sports in a number of ways. Initially, this was seen in the sport's location, the peaks and glaciers of the Alps which had been rejected as desolate and frightening wasteland in Western culture for centuries. There was also the ever-present risk of death in this environment which made the game much more serious than most. Finally there was the deliberate search for difficulty, seen in the ever more closely refined definitions of desirable objectives, from unclimbed summits to unclimbed ridges to unclimbed walls and so on. To play this game in any serious sense meant a total commitment of mind and body.

This set of rules was more or less consistently understood until after the First World War when new technologies and an expanding leisure class began to transform the sport, turning it away from the heroic age. In the present era, adventure has had to be even more carefully defined, lending a certain paradoxical air to the enterprise. For example, Tommy Caldwell's epic efforts to free climb the Dawn Wall hinge upon microscopic flakes of rock, with his attempts broadcast to the world straight from the portaledge via Facebook and Twitter. There is no question this is a serious climb with an uncertain outcome. But does it pass the hero test when compared with the aura-laden landmark ascents of the past? Perhaps there is literally too much baggage these days for such a climb to exist.

Maybe a look at the antics (and tragedy) surrounding the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger will illuminate the issues involved. Similarly high-profile, observable from the safety of a hotel balcony, the climb, which closed the book on the pioneering age of alpinism in Europe, became the object of mass media coverage and its ascensionists were feted by Adolf Hitler. Indeed prior to the 1936 games, Hitler had promised Olympic medals to the first party to climb the route. Ironically, the groundbreaking, even heroic, ascent of the Matterhorn North Face by Franz and Toni Schmid was rewarded with an Olympic medal in 1932. According to most histories of this "golden age" of modern alpinism, much was made of this heroic, even mythic, mode of climbing by fascist governments in Italy and Germany, a phenomenon that may have contributed to the IOC not awarding further medals in climbing.

All of which is to say that the issue of the relationship of climbing to organized sports, indeed organizations of all kinds, is an old one and the heart of the debate is still alive and beating. It seems unlikely that the face of climbing in the Olympics will be anything other than competition climbing as we already know it, in all its sanitized, athletic and commercialized senses. I am not sure that inclusion in the Olympics will change anything in climbing from what it is already, a multifaceted game with all kinds of players and places and ways to play. I am not saying that climbing being in the Olympics will be the huge benefit to the sport that some claim but I doubt it will be the downfall of climbing as we know it. The history of climbing seems to show otherwise.

About that Citibank Ad (or why I will never be in an Outside Magazine Top 10 list)

2011-12-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

In a previous post, I discussed my feelings about the transformation of climbing into a luxury sport, at least at a certain end of the socio-economic spectrum. I posted a Youtube Video of an ad made by Citibank that features Katie Brown and Alex Honnold.

Here's the video:

Given the dismal economic picture in the US right now and the fact that big American banks in particular have had a great deal to do with it, it was natural that the ad would spark a certain degree of controversy. A forum post on Mountain Project and another on Super Topo both alluded to Alex Honnold selling out to the "1%", an argument that was roundly quashed by most of the people who bothered to respond.

I thought to myself, this is interesting. Since when did climbing become so capitalistic? Obviously climbers have "sold out" before. We all have to some degree. But that a cadre of apologists for squillionaires in suits would praise their economic masters in a climbing forum caught me a bit off guard. A remarkable number of posters stood up to defend Fortune 500 companies (and thank heaven for that) because, somehow, without them we would be unable to, well, do pretty much anything. And this was offered up without a trace of irony, nor any suggestion that such a state of affairs might be less than desirable, especially given the self-image of climbers as individualistic, self-reliant, or independent. I saw a few posts suggest that somehow because Alex and Katie received compensation for this ad, that the money was (paraphrasing here) "going back into the climbing community" and this was a good thing. Not sure exactly how that was going to work, anymore than Jay-Z's T-shirts are going to help anyone but Jay-Z himself.

Now I am not suggesting that Alex should do anything in particular with his own money, though we may all want to think before we put our money there. This video provides a useful corrective to the consumerist (and fairly sexist "what girl wouldn't need new shoes?") picture of the world that Citibank would love us to believe in.

To me the bigger and more important question is that of meaning, both in our lives and in the sport of climbing. In other words, is climbing about striving for something outside commodification and marketing? Are there actually values worth sacrificing our material well-being, even risking our lives for? Alex's incredible achievements in the realm of free-soloing, to name but one example, seem to indicate there are. The commercial he was in indicates the opposite.

As I see it, climbing, and on a broader philosophical level, Western capitalist culture itself, is on a collision course with materialism in its deepest sense. The problem with materialism, philosophically speaking, is the basic equation between input and output. Expenditure of power equals a predictable determined result. Basic physics stuff. No sense of moral engagement or ethical questions about the well-lived meaningful life. In the end we are presented with a multi-sensory fantasy of endless and meaningless power played out in all its forms, from political to physical, applied in ever-more spectacular but increasingly hollow actions, creating ever more empty, even hopelessly self-contradictory, forms.

For example, I don't know if anyone else noticed the ironic position of Katie Brown at the end of the ad, a position intended to convey a sense of excitement and desire. She stands suspended over a seemingly infinite expanse of, well, emptiness, perched on a tower of visibly eroding sand, a point that appears to be a dead-end, a place of no hope or return. Maybe this image, intended as the perfect consummation of consumerist desire, is also an apt metaphor for the unsustainable and vertiginous trajectory of the Western economic system, of which Citibank is a prime example. The sport of climbing would do well to think a bit more carefully about how far it wants to go down this path.

Now I know this kind of negative thinking runs against the current of most climbing writing out there on the Web. A climber new to the sport, given the virtual amusement park of videos, blogs, news items, and so on, would think that all was well in the sport. And truth to tell, there are a lot of cool rides out there. But there is a lot of selling going on as well and I wonder if we are all really aware of what we are giving up long-term in our quest to fulfill our short-term desires. Going pro has its cons.

An Introduction to My Book

2011-11-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

I have written a brief introduction to my new book on bouldering. Please check it out. If you have bought the book already and would like to let me know what you thought of it, please contact me via email or Facebook.

The Bouldering Book on Facebook

Also here is an image of the review in Rock and Ice:

Against the Grain, or Why I Climb at Flagstaff

2011-11-22T18:06:00.001-07:00

Well, this afternoon I failed, by the smallest of margins, on a project that the lords of bouldering around here would describe as a turd, that is, a problem of minimal height, dubious rock quality, and an awkward fairly licheny beached-whale finish. Needless to say, I mostly climb alone on this kind of problem. This time of year especially, many prefer to migrate to Hueco or Bishop or even Switzerland, where the real climbing is happening, the kinds of places where climbers are somehow able to live for weeks even months on end, never punching a clock, seemingly on permanent vacation in the midst of the worst economy in over three generations. My vacations usually come in three-hour stints a few times a week and I have it easy compared to most, as I have a flexible schedule, summers off and living next to an amazing variety of excellent climbing opportunities. I know I am privileged.

Yet I climb a lot at Flagstaff Mountain, the place that more than any other location I have heard of, possibly even worldwide, endures all kinds of abuse from the type of climber mentioned above. Dude, it's such a pile, such crappy problems and that rock is so sharp! Yeah, I might climb there if I have to, say before another week off to Joe's then maybe a month at Bishop, before a really long trip, maybe South Africa...

Well why do I climb here? There are a few reasons. Obviously I can be climbing in a few minutes from the car, meaning I don't have to drive for hours and be gone all day in order to climb something interesting. And there is a lot to climb here, even if it's not very cool. With a family and job, I simply don't have the freedom that many do in this town. Fair enough, I can live with that.But there's something else. I like being contrary, I think. I like finding value in things that the mainstream ignores, that the bandwagon passes by, especially when that bandwagon represents an increasingly commercialized vision of the sport.

Andrew Bisharat recently wrote, "I recently observed one interesting difference: Climbing used to be a refuge for social derelicts. The best climbers in the world were often the poorest people. Today, the best climbers are instead some of the richest. You need money and free time to be able to train in gyms, compete on the World Cup, and be constantly traveling all over the world to different areas in order to be exposed to that variety of rock. That’s what it now takes to be operating on this top-tier level. The leisure class has always existed on both ends of the economic spectrum."

I agree with this description. To be able to perform at a level that is worthy of notice these days requires more than just commitment and desire. It requires a substantial amount of cold hard cash, cash that is not going to come from a steady job since you are perpetually on the road. In order to become world class, you will need unlimited amounts of free time, time that most employers in the real world would never grant you, especially in this country. The world of climbing never talks about that reality, referring instead to the "dirtbag" lifestyle, a cliché that is sounding just a bit too detached from the economic trauma this country is currently undergoing. If you have time to go off and climb rocks all over the world and not have to work all the time to support this habit, you are not a dirtbag. You are the 1% or damn close to it. And the demographics of the sport reflect this fact. Climbers are typically white, male, and typically have incomes in the upper five figures or higher. In other words the leisure class really only operates these days on one end of the spectrum, assuming the pretend climbing hoboes of yesteryear ever really belonged to the other.

I think it's a safe bet that nobody is going to make a commercial about climbing at Flagstaff Mountain, even though the rock is usually better than that found at the Fisher Towers. Frankly I like it that way. For my part, I will keep working on understanding and repairing the climbing areas in my backyard so to speak. There is a lot of work to be done up there. Few climbers I read about or hear about right now seem particularly concerned about where we are heading as a climbing community and the impacts we are having on our environments, natural and social. I feel if I talk about it, I just sound old and grouchy or out-of-touch. So be it. Reality is not going away just because the cameras are pointed in the other direction.

Is Climbing a Unique Sport?

2011-11-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

At 8a.nu, Jens proposed a topic for discussion "The uniqueness of climbing" based on the following premises:

"Climbing is in comparison to other physical sports totally unique on the following parameters.
Gender: Some female almost at male top level
Age span: World class between 9-50 years
Specialization: Some equally good at 1 move boulders - 40m onsight - 500m Multi Pitches
Training: Most just climb without a programme
Comeback: 20 sessions after 1 year break makes you often equally good"

While much of the discussion degenerated into name-calling and back-and-forth examples, the question is an interesting one, not least because it assumes that there is a sport called climbing in the first place.

I think this is an important question to consider, that there is something called climbing, constant enough such that we can actually compare performances between individuals or across time. One of the critical steps towards commodifying the sport has been establishing grades, categories of climbing, even markers of quality. Currently it seems to me climbing sits in an ambiguous relation to other sports, with a relatively tenuous relationship to quantifiability (e.g. grading scales) or any widespread public understanding of what might make it difficult or not. The efforts of commercial interests (media and/or gear manufacturers) to endorse and broadcast markers of excellence such as higher grades of difficulty or times on a route seem to me only to diminish the multiple textures of the sport.

Currently climbing does seem to have at least some vestiges of the depth and complexities of its past, complexities that at least in part explain the phenomena that Jens pointed to. However, the professionalization of the activity at the elite level offers the prospect of an ironically flattened view of climbing, reducible to "objectively" assessed performances and rankings, even in the outdoors. That this should become the norm seems both unavoidable and irreconcilable with the origins of the sport, which seems to have been situated in an aesthetic and moral realm rather than an athletic one.

Curiosity, respect for the risks of climbing, a sense of discovery both of the self and of nature and a respect for the past, and the ways in which these emotions and ideas were conveyed formed the core of the climbing experience for many well into the 1990s. A new norm is emerging forming itself around socialization, corporate sponsorship, increasingly rapid and sophisticated media dissemination and quantification. While rewards of a kind are promised to those who excel in this environment, it is unclear to me how either the climber, and more importantly, the natural environment can benefit from this in the long term.

Which brings me to a final "uniqueness" of the sport, that it is able to co-exist, more or less, with its natural environs. I anticipate in the next few years a radical critique of climbing's effects on the environment. The effects of the sport's popularity and accompanying human presence on fragile niche ecosystems, going well beyond marquee species such as birds of prey, will be on some researcher's agenda in the coming decade with sobering results.

It seems to me that the ongoing emphasis on consumable phenomena such as news founded on gradable achievement, media broadcasting said news, and gear sold with the aid of both activities will encounter increased limits and even pushback from environmental groups and land managers Climbers who seek to make a living from this system should be encouraged to emphasize not just the metrics of achievement but also those subjective factors that make the sport unique.

The Alpine Bouldering Season Wrap-up

2011-10-27T18:31:00.005-06:00

I think it is safe to say that the regular bouldering season is finished as of about 12 noon this last Tuesday. Currently most of the Front Range is under about 8 inches or more of snow. I made one last-ditch effort to try European Human Being on Monday afternoon but was unsuccessful, make that completely out of it altogether. Angie Payne, who was trying Freaks of the Industry, was also unsuccessful that evening. To top it off, just as I was at Bear Lake, having navigated every stretch of ice successfully on the way down so far, I slipped and fell on the tiniest little invisible patch. Chaos Canyon was obviously not done with me yet.

My highpoint on European was reached in mid-October

Anyway, it's been an uneven sort of year overall, it seems to me. Dave Graham and Carlo Traversi started things up with a splash at Endo Valley, especially the opening up of Flux for Life a V13 roof problem. The weather rapidly warmed up but high snow levels in the Park limited activity for much of June and into July. Even after the snow retreated, the summer at Chaos was marked by no particularly difficult first ascents or repeats. This may have been the first time in a long while that Jade saw no repeats and Daniel Woods' Hypnotized Minds from 2010 remains unrepeated as well.

There was a lot of activity at Lincoln Lake, especially from the Southern team of Jimmy Webb and Brion Voges. Nate Draughn and Brad Weaver also checked in with notable ascents on Mount Evans, Nate on the Big Worm V14 and Brad with a flash of No More Greener Grasses V12, both at Area A. The primary weakness of Lincoln Lake, its crumbly granite, was revealed once again with the altered holds of Evil Backwards which went from V14 to V12. Once again the Daniel Woods testpiece of the area, Warrior Up V15 remains unrepeated since last season as does the amazing Let the Right One In V14.

Dave Graham on The Ice Knife Cameron Maier Photo

Most impressive perhaps was Dave Graham's ascent of the Ice Knife V15 in Guanella Pass, near Georgetown, south of I-70. Done less than a week before Dave left for China and of course the massive recent snow, this was the latest in a long line of contributions Dave has made to Colorado bouldering. No doubt there are a few more projects still being considered in his fertile mind. But if it's alpine it will have to wait until next spring.

Here's a great little video of the indefatigable Ryan Silven in action in RMNP, again from Cameron Maier.

The publication of Jamie Emerson's alpine bouldering book, if the lack of crowds I encountered is any indication, did not prove to be the ruin of these special areas and I hope the publication of my own book on bouldering will encourage others to responsible and safely enjoy them as well.

For me it was a season of discovery as I finally began to understand more clearly what the task of bouldering hard at altitude is all about, especially with limited time and usually no companions. I have a clearer picture of what I want to do moving forward, especially in Lower Chaos. For now the lower elevations will have to do but I am definitely looking forward to next June (or earlier!)

Thoughts on the World Cup (or what happened after)

2011-10-15T18:04:00.001-06:00

OK, I admit it. I have been putting off writing about climbing. Not because of the latest compliment/putdown by Andrew B. And it's not because I have been trying desperately to get in just one more decent session on European Human Being before the snow entombs it until next July, though that has been an issue. It could be apathy, could be laziness, it could be burnout. Whatever, as people used to say before whatever became, well, whatever.

Then the World Cup rolled into town last week and I began thinking a bit more about what this implies for climbing moving forward. Or to be more precise, what Ramon Julian Puigblanque's onsight of the Crew at Rifle, a few days after the event, implies. Comp-wise, Puigblanque placed 8th in the World Cup, primarily stymied, as was the similarly height-challenged Sean McColl, by a peculiarly long dyno move relatively low on the final route.

The event by the way was a blast to watch at home via a web feed that worked very well. Well done Jon Glassberg and the IFSC. Though the men's final looked as though a compass and GPS would have been handy for finding your away around, the comp went very well in my view, and the push for inclusion as an Olympic sport seems justified. But back to the Crew.

This ascent was rapidly spread about the Internet and with considerable justification. But there has not been much comment in US media on what it implies about the state of European climbing. First, the Crew has long been a rite of passage for Rifle climbers since its establishment by Chris Knuth, the hardest route there for ages, worked over weeks if not seasons for many. Furthermore it is a top route in a place that prides itself on hard grading. And furthermore again, it was the first onsight of the grade for Puigblanque. The ascent was made without kneepads or esoteric kneebar beta, both considered mandatory for the Crew. The question has to be asked. Is there any climber from America remotely capable of such a feat anywhere else in the world? And that is setting aside the myriad other hard routes Puigblanque onsighted in Rifle, including Living in Fear earlier in the day.

I am going to go ahead and say no. I am not going to pontificate on whether that's a good or bad thing. After all climbing is a lifestyle, not a sport, or something, which is what people would say when they left comments on this kind of thing before. But regardless, it is an ascent that should certainly leave American pro climbers wondering what's next. Olympics indeed.

Window Shopper V12?

2011-10-03T07:32:00.001-06:00

I had recently been going through a drought of sorts in bouldering, focusing on unproductive projects that were draining my energy. A hint of things beginning to turn around popped up when I was able to start linking up European Human Being last week, actually falling off the last move from the start. A cool day last week but not much time meant a quick visit to Flagstaff Mountain where I haven't climbed in months.

Though it was bit warm at first, warming up felt OK and as the sun went down the conditions got better and better. I was hoping to finish up a long-long-long term project called Window Shopper, a problem first done by Will Lemaire in 2006 and unrepeated since, especially after various minor breakages. A few tries on various moves didn't promise much much, especially when I couldn't do a few of them! However after a brief rest, I could do everything and felt a potential link was on the horizon. I came very close after two tries, dryfiring off a poor left hand as I was establishing at the lip. Realizing this could go the next try, I waited for the air to get cooler and for good recovery from the last effort. The next attempt was successful, aided by a subtle change in foot placement.

Here's the video:

After some thought, and considering that despite its proximity to the road, its being done by a boulder with a serious reputation, and its fairly high quality, the fact it has not been repeated in five years indicates a fairly high grade is in order. So I am suggesting V12 for this problem and believe that if it was in the Park, it would certainly earn that grade.

Speaking of the Park, a session last night saw me just missing the send on European Human Being. The weather (thanks to global warming/weirding?) is still too warm in October to try these problems much before 5 pm but I got my fingers on the last edge and couldn't stay on. Urgh. Hoping to finish this one off very soon. And then the next one. And so on...

The Foundation of Modern Climbing: The 50th Anniversary of John Gill's Ascent of theThimble

2011-09-25T09:39:00.008-06:00

This year a remarkable anniversary in the sport of climbing has gone virtually unnoticed. I was particularly reminded of it when I sat down to talk with John Gill yesterday in Pueblo at a local coffee place. In the spring of 1961, over fifty years ago, according to an interview in the first edition of Master of Rock, John Gill did the first ascent of the Thimble Overhang, a 30-foot problem/route that became legendary in the history of world climbing. Climbed onsight solo over a very serious landing, it was probably the hardest single pitch in the country, a climb that went unrepeated for literally decades. Today rated V4 or approximately 5.12a or b, it was put up in a time when, in the US, 5.10 was the absolute limit and the average free climbing standard was closer to 5.8.

John Gill on the Thimble, from Master of Rock

But beyond the difficulty (after all Gill had bouldered V9 in 1959!), The Thimble represented the future of climbing. Whether runout on the granite knobs of the Bachar-Yerian (1981) or perched on the miniscule edges and pockets of To Bolt or Not to Be (1986), the climber is on terrain that was first definitively explored by Gill. Sustained steep face climbing, especially once the bolt wars had been resolved (more or less) has been the common currency of cutting-edge climbers world-wide.

Furthermore it marked a new era in terms of the scale and nature of the objective. None of Gill's more famous contemporaries would have viewed the Thimble route as a desirable objective, given the size of it and the blatant risk. Certainly none of them repeated it, nor is it likely they could have, given the specialized strengths of body and mind required for the route. But more interestingly none would really have seen the formation itself as much more than a footnote or afterthought, being too small in stature and too mundane in location to merit the effort and risk of an ascent, especially given that an ascent of El Cap probably posed less physical hazard.

This is where climbing went by the 1990s, to locations unheard of in the 60s or 70s, far way from the canonical sites of Yosemite or the Gunks to out-of-the-way spots such as Rifle or the Red River Gorge or a thousand areas in Europe, sharing in common the resource of steep featured rock. The pursuit of difficulty in climbing inexorably diminished the relevance of many of the big objectives in many people's eyes

The concentration of effort to free climb such a short objective, developed considerably already by Gill with his boulder problems, was a foreign concept in world climbing at the time. Perhaps it was his personality, reflected later in his mathematics career, patient, understated but deeply persistent in the pursuit of a solution to a problem that proved to be crucial. But prior to this ascent, the notion of a climber spending days working out a free-climbing challenge was unheard of. This obsessive quality is taken for granted now, like many of Gill's contributions to the modern sport of climbing, and its origin is for the most part forgotten.

We are all tempted to forget the place of history in the sport of climbing, to see it as lived in the present moment, in some edenic ahistorical state of mind or place. This is small-minded and ungenerous to the past. I try to imagine instead a young man, strong and determined, focusing his considerable powers of mind and body on this rock, listening to the wind whispering through the spires and pine forests of the Black Hills and making the decision, contrary to all expectation, in defiance of the norms of the time, to explore this undiscovered realm. This happened fifty years ago and utterly and irreversibly transformed the idea of climbing forever. Hopefully we can honor this achievement in our own memories and our pursuit of climbing.

Walter Bonatti Dead at 81

2011-09-14T06:59:00.001-06:00

Walter Bonatti, who was one of the most influential climbers in the postwar scene in the European Alps and Himalayas has died at 81. Noted especially for his solo ascent of the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru in France, he was also embroiled in controversy regarding the Italian expedition to K2 in 1954. He retired for the most part from serious climbing at 35, after a solo new route on the Matterhorn in winter.The author of a number of books on climbing, he was regarded as one of the best writers on the sport.

The best obituary I have seen so far in English is at Planet Mountain.

An excellent profile from the Guardian in the UK is online as well.

At the end of the Guardian profile Bonatti was quoted as saying, "You see, the real essence of mountain climbing – of really knowing and loving the mountains – is not getting to the top. It's having the humility and self-awareness when necessary to be able to stop 100 metres from the summit and make it down alive."

Letting Go of Summer

2011-09-12T07:22:00.001-06:00

Now that the fall semester is over, the days of multiple visits to the Park have ended. But something else seems to be going on as well. Last Saturday, I hiked up to Upper Chaos to give another go on Barbed Wire Beard, a classic "It's just the one move" kind of problem and found myself completely unmotivated and incredibly tired. I bumbled my way down to look at Freshly Squeezed and still could not shake the sense of deep fatigue.

There is a slightly surreal ambiance of warm sun and wildflowers still in effect up there but for who knows how much longer. Perhaps this fall season will be another long one, allowing a few more visits on weekends but the feeling of lost momentum lingers even as the temperatures become more favorable.

The move on Barbed Wire Beard

Stasis is the word the ancient Greeks used to describe the absence of progress when opposing forces of equal strength meet, not so much in stable equilibrium but in constant conflict and disruption. For me this is my life as far as bouldering is concerned right now, unproductive effort resulting in frustration. Philosophers such as Aristotle would say that I might working against something in my inner nature and I have thought about this myself. What would a meaningful goal in climbing really consist of? A number? A specific problem? Something else? To realize this goal may require letting go of others, goals that only appear to be meaningful from a sufficient distance.

A webmaster in Europe wrote of a recent piece, "It is targeted to climbers/boulderers who are interested in a deeper sense of doing such an activity and I guess that your article could be hardly understood by any younger climbers..." I am concerned not just about younger climbers not seeing the problems in current climbing attitudes and practice but all climbers. Is climbing merely a way of evading/avoiding the deeper signs of crisis that are sounding everywhere in our time? Perhaps this is the conflict that is weighing on my mind, a conflict that even the grandeur of the Park cannot overcome.

Chuck Frybergers New Film The Scene

2011-09-06T10:43:00.002-06:00

Chuck Fryberger's latest film is premiering at the Boulder Theater tonight so I thought I would give a quick review of it. I have been a big fan of his previous films, Pure and Core, films which garnered mixed reviews from audiences owing in part to Chuck's willingness to experiment with locations, filming techniques, and offbeat themes. With The Scene, those concerns can be set aside. Beautiful camera work, check. Hard routes and problems, check. Interviews with climbing stars, check. But aside from Dave Graham's segment, which is admittedly not very representative of the scene in Boulder (or anywhere else), the feel of the film is much more conventional than past efforts. I found it enjoyable to watch, for sure, but the dynamic visual and emotional range that Chuck has shown elsewhere is mostly absent.

The only scene that hinted at something more innovative, a bit darker and more interesting, was the opener for Bishop, but it's not developed. There are hints of something different in the profile of the comp/pro scene in Innsbruck, a sense of a vacuum beneath the logos, crowds and bright lights, a feeling that, like the slopers and crimps on the problems, the climbers are holding onto, well, nothing really. It is a relief to turn to the limestone around Innsbruck for a little while, though all too brief a while before we are back at a World Cup in Slovenia.

The segment on Spain seems to find its way more successfully than the others though again, there is this avoidance of any exploration of the meaning of all this activity, any searching for a deeper dimension. The potential for getting something more out of an aging Chris Sharma or Dani Andrada seems there but instead they are treated the same as the rest. Just climbers working their way up the chalk marks on a steep limestone wall, apparently with nothing else to do in life. Chris Sharma describes his life as a climber up to this point as mostly "passing through" and the feeling of the film is very similar. Climb a climb, get the word out to the public and sponsors, move on. To where? A muerte?

The Climbing Dictionary

2011-08-24T07:43:00.002-06:00

While I was at Outdoor Retailer, I picked up a couple of books, one a memoir by Margo Talbot, the other a compilation of climbing terms by Matt Samet. I plan on writing more about the first book later but this review is about Matt's book. First a couple of disclaimers. Matt is a friend of mine and indeed has been interviewed on this blog. Plus his book is published by Mountaineers Books, the same company that is publishing my book.

So naturally I would like to start off by saying that this book is amazing. When I showed it to the folks at the counter in the SLC airport, I was immediately upgraded to first class and had 10,000 miles added to my frequent flyer account. When I first opened it, a hundred dollar bill fell out, then another and another, which I found remarkable. Reading it on the plane, I noticed that attractive women continually stopped by my seat and casually dropped phone numbers in my lap, forming a confetti pile which created quite a nuisance by the end of the flight.

Brushing aside this importuning, I delved deeper into the text and found that I had the distinct sense that immediately billions of new neural connections had formed in my brain and that somehow I could see into the future and far into the past. A pleasant glow tingled along all of my chakras. It turns out that the universe does have a purpose and that its design is the work of benevolent yet somewhat absent-minded deity who resembles Dumbledore. Pretty cool so far, I thought, but how can this little volume help me as a climber?

Well as it turns out it can help a lot. After getting back to Colorado, I immediately went bouldering and now, armed with a better command of the lingo such as Euroblow and drive-by and gaston, started crushing my projects left and right. In fact last week I cut up my RMNP annual pass since I had nothing left to do there. I may in fact have to go back to Rifle and build up my jessery skills.

I have also lost five pounds and recently discovered a gold vein in the backyard while cleaning up after the dog. Now these results may not be typical, but why take a chance and miss the fun? For more information, visit the website http://www.climbingterms.com/ and become enlightened.

Solitude and the Art of Bouldering

2011-08-15T07:45:00.000-06:00

Lower Chaos Canyon

The summer is almost over and with it the opportunity to go up to the Park on a regular basis. As I look back on the past two and a half months, time which has evaporated with incredible rapidity, I am reminded of the precious quality of solitude and contemplation which these days in the mountains have offered. For many bouldering is a group activity, something done in the company of friends, acquaintances, even a random group of fellow boulderers. For me it is something different, even essentially different. This is partly because of age. In my late 40s, I have very little in common with boulderers in their 20s and most climbers my own age are interested in other goals. But there is also a different mindset at work, a different worldview perhaps. I don't really know.

I boulder for its intensity. Intensity and concentration in a beautiful environment is the essence of the pursuit. Colors, forms, light, atmosphere and the fine edge between success and failure; these are the essence also of making good art. You can't pay close attention to them with a lot of extraneous distraction in the background, which sadly enough is what too often is the case when other climbers are near. Quiet, distilled time, time that is all too short, is what I need, time to think, time to focus, time to see what is really going on.

What am I trying to see? I am looking for patterns, lines of strength and weakness, shapes that regenerate themselves in infinite variations over time. The movement of water over the land or in the sky, the outline of tall spruce trees battered by the wind, the bands of quartz set in a dark matrix of stone. If I happen to climb something in the process, all the better. But the art of bouldering has become something different over time for me.

In a sense, I am returning to the patterns I knew as a child in Maine. Long walks along the shore were spent studying the eroded forms of the rocks, the beauty of the sky, and the movement of the ocean. The instinct to seek solitude seems to me at its heart an instinct to seek meaning, meaning that is inaccessible in the company of others. As the weather begins to shift in the high country and I have to settle for the tamer low-lying areas closer to home, my thoughts will constantly be shifting back to the mountains and the hours spent there, alone but in the company of the infinite.

Outdoor Retailer 2011

2011-08-08T08:08:00.002-06:00

For only the second time in my life, I got up too early Saturday morning and caught a plane (which left two hours late for a one hour flight)from Denver to Salt Lake City. A quick bus ride into town (no expense account for a taxi) left me blinking in the bright sun outside the Salt Palace, a sprawling building surrounded by vendor tents and athletic people on cell phones. With no time to waste, I picked up my media badge and strode in, more or less beelining it to the climbing ghetto in the farthest corner of the hall. The usual buzz of music, people chatting, and the occasional presentation on a PA system (Ueli Steck doing something for Wenger) began to drum against my skull urging me forward. Going to OR is, for me, like a party where you start with the hangover and gradually begin to feel a bit better as time wears on.

I was here to check in with my publisher and touch base with sponsors as well as meet up with friends and acquaintances who are usually flying around the globe looking for fresh rocks to climb. OR is a bit like academic conferences where, by flying a few hundred, or thousand, miles, you may be more likely to have time to talk with someone who literally works down the hall at the same college. And just like at academic conferences, I never quite feel I really understand what's going on or what I should be doing differently. That said, I had a great, albeit abbreviated time at the show. I talked a good deal with Ben Moon, who traveled an epic distance to bring his excellent clothing to the show, sadly having his newest stuff held up at Customs.

I also finally met up with Josh Helke, owner of Organic, whose pads have saved my backside on too many occasions to count. The talent certainly ran deep among those hanging out at the Organic booth including some I have not seen in quite a while. Paul Robinson was excited about plans for an extended tour of southern Africa while Angie Payne and Alex Johnson were psyched to be back in the US after epic flights from Europe. Sonnie Trotter, whom I have not seen in years, was at the Five Ten booth, where we discussed the need for someone to repeat Tommy Caldwell's materpiece, The Honeymoon is Over, on the Diamond. Chuck Fryberger handed off a DVD copy of his new movie, The Scene, a review of which will turn up soon on this site. And so on.

So the time went way too quickly, especially thanks to Delta Airlines (note to self: do not fly with them unless absolutely necessary) and I had to get back to the airport where this time I got back to Boulder on time. As I said before, I am not quite of this tribe of hardcore OR-ers. Full-on merchandising and branding leaves me with an ambivalent feeling as I tend to admire companies who are original, make great products and stay true to their communities. Seeing the likes of Adidas and Fila trying to make inroads on the climbing market, for example, makes me concerned about the fate of smaller, grassroots companies. Some might argue that that is what capitalism is all about. But should a full-on commodification of the experience of climbing should be too eagerly pursued, what is left over once the marketeers are finished? Some photos on a wall? An ad campaign in a magazine? In the end, I find it extraordinary that such a production can be made of something so simple as someone stepping outside and going for a hike or climbing a rock.

Summer 2011 in RMNP

2011-08-01T18:14:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to get in as much time as possible bouldering in the Park, building up strength and muscle memory for several projects in hopes for sending when the temperatures begin to let up. Most of these trips have been solo, grabbing a window of time when I can for as long as I can. Besides age, this is the primary contrast I have with most boulderers up here. Time, or rather the lack of it.

Time is a relentless opponent in the game of getting anything interesting done up here. The season is ruthlessly short, the approach and drive anything but swift and convenient, and conditions are constantly changing from hour to hour. There is also the bigger picture of time as in my age and the question of physical decline. I perceive a narrowing window of possibility with every visit. How many seasons more? Can I become strong enough to realize my ambitions? Persistence and luck seem to be the answer, in roughly equal measure.

The compensations are tremendous. The setting here is sublime, unparalleled in the pursuit of bouldering. The boulders are sculpted with a master's hand, not literally, but metaphorically. The shapes, colors, arrangements, and textures seem the result of some native spirit, a spirit who has shaped a private garden of stone, water and trees, a site that constantly reveals new insights into the natural world. Though temporarily lost in the flurries of crowds and chatter that occasionally drift by, this sense of understanding and engagement with nature returns with solitude. One is faced with the rock and one's own mind and spirit and body. This is all that matters. That and the light that illuminates the forests and distant peaks.

The Schengen Files: A Review and Interview with Paul Robinson

2011-07-25T08:08:00.002-06:00

Paul Robinson has been on a sustained bouldering trip for a while now, starting in Europe, then South Africa and after that who knows. Fortunately he began recording some of the problems he has been doing in conjunction with his girlfriend Alex Kahn. I say fortunately because Paul has been somewhat under the radar in terms of video recently and there are few boulderers with better style out there right now with such an impressive ticklist. Paul also has a degree in the fine arts from the University of Colorado and is a painter with a well-honed visual sense. So when I heard of his new film, I was hopeful that this would be something special. The editors at DPM set me up with a copy and I sat down and watched right away.

At the beginning, the film sets itself apart when Paul talks about history in Font and the way past and present blend in the boulders. As he discusses the sense of place at Font, the visuals are remarkably beautiful photographs and close-up video of natural forms of moss and leaves. After an homage to the past masters with an ascent of Karma, a repeat of the Dave Graham problem Sideways Daze V13 follows. From then on we mostly see problems that are relatively little known stateside, all of the highest quality and filmed in such a way that we seem to understand not just the climbing but the environment around them. Readers may recall my review of Between the Trees, which also focuses on Fontainebleau. This movie is very reminiscent of that and yet is a bit more detached, less intense.

This is seen on the two last Font sequences of Trip Hop 8c and Angama, both brutally difficult problems. Paul climbs basically alone, except for Alex filming and a solitary spotter on Trip Hop. On Angama, a linkup of the Fata Morgana boulder, the rock itself has this peculiar looming quality, like the hulk of an old battleship, gray and green with brown rust streaks. Paul moves across it with certainty and finesse making for one of my favorite climbing video segments of late.

The Schengen Files closes out with an ascent of The Story of Two Worlds, an 8c Dave Graham testpiece on Swiss granite in the Ticino valley. The aesthetic is different here, more intense, dynamic and acrobatic, with a harsher light for filming and a rock that is more aggressive in its form. With this very significant repeat the film ends and naturally the viewer wants more. The Schengen Files is an impressive debut on the part of Paul and Alex and a reminder of how much can be done with minimal gear and support. I really look forward to seeing more.

Below is an interview with Paul about the film.

1. What kind of look did you want for the film? It seems you deliberately tried to avoid the hype/shock and awe approach.

The look Alex and I were going for on this film was more of a grunge art approach. The film was not a high budget endeavor in the slightest. I wanted to really get down and portray pure climbing. The goal was, through the use of music, color and shot choices, to portray climbing as a harsh sport, which we as climbers all know it is, but yet visually pleasing at the same time. There is no shelter or pleasantness when you are curled up on your crash pad amongst the freezing cold wilderness unable to feel a single part of your body. I wanted people to see that and to not over-glorify hard bouldering. The film was not shot in a climbing gym or even outside on fairly pleasant days. Nearly every climb filmed for the movie, it was slightly above or below freezing outside.

2. How about camera and other gear? Was this a low-key, low budget affair?

The shooting for the film was done on my canon t2i with the 17-55 f/2.8 ef-s lens and an old tripod. This definitely made the video what it was. Having a zoom lens with such a low aperture is a necessity when it comes to shooting video with a DSLR. We unfortunately did not have any other lens or a microphone for the interviews. The filming of this movie has been a huge learning process for both Alex and I and we are very much looking forward to getting a bit more professional gear for the next film.

3. You're an artist, so tell us something about color and light in Fontainebleau.

For me, It was amazing to be able to film in such beautiful places as Fontainebleau and Ticino. Alex also has a very artistic eye as she has been shooting photos for years. It was really fun to arrange shots together for each of the different climbs we chose to shoot. I learned a ton about light while shooting for this film. Light is an extremely harsh element when it comes to shooting video on a DSLR. In France, it was not super hard because we had mostly cloudy even lit days but in Switzerland it was quite difficult to set shots up so that it would be relatively metered correctly. The colors in Fontainebleau were incredible and being there to film them and then see them on the big screen was mind blowing. It made it easy to compose interesting and visually pleasing angles!

4. What natural forms interest you most in Font? For example, how did you find that framing shot on Elephunk?

When I am thinking about creating a shot. I tend to think about how the rock is going to be seen by the viewer. Some angles in person will look incredible but on film can be distorted and leave the viewer not having a good idea of how the climb actually goes. I have been peeved in the past by films that make it nearly impossible to understand the problem as whole. I watch climbing films to get psyched on going to areas and to have an idea of the climbs there. In making my own film, I wanted to gather angles that would really show the problem as a whole and give people a real understanding of every boulder I climb. The framing shot on Elephunk was kind of luck. My friend and I noticed a cool vine patch that could make a cool shot. it was really bright outside, so we did what we could, but in the end I think that shot looked pretty cool and gave the viewer a nice account of the scenery around the boulder.

5. I think the sequence on Angama was really the most successful from a visual standpoint. What were you the most pleased about?

I really did enjoy the Angama sequence as well. I don't think that I have a favorite climb, however, there were certain shots that when I got home and saw them on my computer I was really happy about. One of those was the close up shot of the slap move on Karma, another being the top out sequence on Trip Hop, and some of the cool nature/color shots i got along the way that were nice addition and filler footage to the movie. I think I was genuinely most pleased about the whole process it took to make the film and how all of these clips came together to make the movie what it is today. It was a long process to make everything fit well and to be visually pleasing as well as work with the music I had.

6. Finally why not more from Switzerland?

To be honest, I wish I did have more from Switzerland. The idea for creating this film came when we were in Fontainebleau, after our four month stint in Ticino. We had already used a lot of the footage we had shot in Ticino over the last four months in various online clips. We did not want to use any footage over again so, we decided that from that point on we would with hold the hardest footage for the movie we were making. When I went back to Switzerland, the plan was to film a lot more after climbing TSOTW, but unfortunately, the weather went bad on us and we made a quick return to Fontainebleau! I still have many amazing projects in Switzerland that I will definitely be filming and putting into the next film!

The Schengen Files is downloadable at www.hdclimbingvideos.com for $6.99 and is well worth it. If you are a serious boulderer, buy a copy now.

Thanks to Paul for the interview and DPM for supplying the film!

Back to The Park

2011-07-14T07:26:00.003-06:00

After several weeks of hiking into Evans Area A, I was getting the approach dialed but getting less and less climbing actually done as the temperatures on the Front Range crept higher. The webcam at RMNP seemed to show that the snow was beginning to recede in earnest so I began heading to the Park instead. The snow was mostly gone where it mattered but a huge mini-glacier obscured most of the boulders east of the Gobot sector. Thus the Warm-up Boulders, The Centaur Boulder, Bush Pilot and European Human Being were completely buried in many feet of snow last week.

My first visit I focused on relearning the beta for Element of Surprise. I managed to get the moves back in order despite a constant onslaught of showers, hail and lightning. I really look forward to finding the right day and conditions for this crimpy and technical boulder problem. While the thin sharp edges are relatively positive, the south-facing aspect of the problem is a real drawback at the crux especially.

Sizing up the exit on Hi Fi

The next two visits I went to investigate the problems around the Large Boulder, across the canyon from Whispers and The Kind Traverse. I was especially interested in a problem called Hi Fi, a V11 put up in 2004 by Harry Robertson, a low-key boulderer who has always had an eye for good crimpy lines. My first visit was unsuccessful as I did not figure out the start correctly but I could see that if I got the first two moves in hand, the rest would be relatively straightforward. The next visit, after watching some video to ascertain start positions, I did the first move quickly and climbed the entire problem third try from the start.

As has the been the case most of the summer so far, I was alone most of the time. Whether the popularity of Lincoln Lake is the reason or just plain luck, the experience of roaming the extraordinary landscape of the Park in relative solitude has been fantastic.

Cheating in Climbing

2011-07-10T12:14:00.001-06:00

The interweb is abuzz recently with items that touch on the issues of cheating in climbing. Jamie Emerson started off with a post on steroids and then followed up with a discussion of Evil Backwards being altered and made easier than the V14 it started out as. Andrew Bisharat, in his post on "Climbers Who Cheat," asks the question 'Is dropping weight in order to succeed on a hard ascent “cheating”?' And so on...

While I would not make the argument that cheating doesn't exist in climbing, I wonder if these kinds of questions start being asked in earnest when the bird of inspiration has alighted on another tree so to speak. I am beginning to feel this is happening in climbing to some extent. Aspects of these "controversies" are all too reminiscent of the old days of sport climbing in the late 80s and 1990s when the default modes of suspicion and envy suppressed progress in climbing in the US to a shockingly obvious degree, especially relative to Europe.

The scene in Colorado can be remarkably supportive and beneficial to be part of. It can also be remarkably envious, divisive, and fractious at times. Standards tend to rise when the first situation is in effect. They tend to stagnate when the second one is operative. Ethical squabbles in particular distract from the real struggle which is finding and solving interesting and important challenges on the rocks. In the realm of bouldering, Colorado, over the past decade, saw a period of genuine inspiration and achievement, as Jamie Emerson has eloquently described in his new guide. But that wave is now subsiding. The pickings are getting slimmer and farther apart and the scene is changing and evolving yet again. To see climbers obsessing over the fragments of the past or dissecting the finer points of "cheating" is dispiriting to say the least. It might be time to ask how we can move on instead of trying to scrape one more morsel from the carcass. Bisharat is correct in his essay when he argues "...the real meaning and purpose and spiritual fulfillment is found in the struggle, not in the ends." Choosing which struggle can be the hardest part.

The Five Ten Dome

2011-07-04T18:07:00.002-06:00

I have been climbing primarily in Five Ten shoes for the past five or more years, being converted instantly by the properties of the now-extinct V10. For my money, the Dragon is one of the very best bouldering shoes ever made. Recently Five Ten sent me a pair of their new trail-running shoe, the Dome, to try out. I put the shoes through their paces this spring and into the summer, beginning pretty much out of the box in North Wales. I wore these shoes on everything from the approach to Rainbow Slab in the slate quarries, where they were super-reliable on the slippery sharp talus, to a run/hike up Mount Snowdon where they proved comfortable and reliable on varied and steep terrain, even when I was very tired. They required no breaking in and worked well right out of the box.

The Dome passes muster on the street as well, proving up to the task of roving London for hours of sidewalks, the Tube, and a lot of museum walking. The understated style and natural colors of gray and green go well with normal street clothing and are inconspicuous outside while hiking.

The Five Ten Dome, Area A, Mt. Evans

The real acid test for me has been the numerous hikes this year to Mount Evans. Those who have completed the three mile hike to Area A know that comfortable durable shoes are a must. If you are packing close to 30 pounds of pads and other stuff, a stable solid shoe is even more important. They have been great in the early summer snow, mud and talus and I have not even come close to blisters or other foot pain. The breathable upper has been super comfortable on some pretty hot days recently.

The fit is generous but not sloppy and can be tightened down easily with the handy doubled lacing over the instep. While I wouldn't recommend the shoe for hard climbing or bouldering, they proved solid enough on a V4 I did in them recently at Flagstaff. The rubber is Five Ten's Stealth S1 which is very sticky but also shock absorbent, making it a good choice for talus-hopping down from Upper Chaos or the approach to Lincoln Lake.

Although I haven't been in them too long, only a few months, the finish and durability seem excellent and I look forward to seeing how they handle the steeper and more rocky approaches in RMNP. I unhesitatingly recommend this shoe for any hiking application where you need a solid but not too heavy trail shoe with sticky rubber. For bouldering in the Colorado high country they are perfect.

The Dome's colors blend in with gray granite and green lichen

The Alpine Bouldering Guidebook by Jamie Emerson

2011-06-29T07:55:00.004-06:00

About a decade ago, an eon in the ever-evolving world of climbing, a new niche of the sport was born when boulderers started visiting a relatively obscure corner of Rocky Mountain National Park, Chaos Canyon. Hidden in plain sight, the boulders there truly revealed their potential with the arrival of Dave Graham and suddenly bouldering in Colorado became important again.

It has taken a while, but thanks to the efforts of Jamie Emerson, there is finally some documentation, presented in book form, of the fantastic climbing opportunities awaiting visitors. I recently went over the e-book version of his new guidebook Bouldering Rocky Mountain National Park and Mount Evans published by my friends at Sharp End and was very impressed by what I saw. It is a clear and wide-ranging guide, well illustrated and complete with extensive material about contexts such as geology and flora and fauna. High quality action photos of important problems are plentiful as well.

It should be emphasized that the book is not comprehensive. The author and publishers, by agreement with land managers at Mount Evans, decided not to include anything besides Areas A and B at Evans. This means that what is likely to become the most popular and accessible alpine bouldering in the state, Lincoln Lake, is not included, along with the less popular Areas C and D and the Aerials. The newly re-discovered area of Endo Valleyin RMNP is also not here. And there are many spots and boulders in RMNP left out for environmental considerations as well. This book could be seen as partly a record of an extraordinary era in bouldering, a remembrance as much as a guide, of a time the likes of which is unlikely to occur again in Colorado. For visitors, it is an essential guide and companion to one of the most beautiful bouldering areas in the world.

Looking over the book in more detail, it is very usable, tackling head-on the daunting challenge of navigating the endless talus of Upper Chaos. Detailed maps, accurate distances and elevations and many useful photographs should get first-time visitors where they want to go. Just as importantly, the book renders good advice on dealing with the specific nature of the alpine environment, its weather especially and of course altitude. It might have been a good idea to note typical patterns of cell-phone reception and also emergency numbers in case of an accident and perhaps some basic first-aid advice. Also important are the reminders to behave in this environment as responsible stewards rather than thoughtless consumers. Jamie’s work on this book has been thorough and I can’t find any serious flaws in terms of names or grades. He has done his homework and it shows throughout.

The excellent essays that are found throughout the book give readers and visitors a good sense of why bouldering here is a uniquely enriching experience, how the presence of powerful natural forces makes a climbing day here much more significant than most. The long approaches, severe weather and stark terrain stand out in contrast to the tamed surroundings of many other bouldering meccas. I won’t describe the tone of the book as nostalgic but there is a sense that many of the writers have moved on, either to different areas or even different phases in their lives. The boulders still stand, for now, as witnesses to a brief period of incredibly focused and creative climbing that transformed the sport in important ways, not just locally but nationally. The sense that something special happened here is inescapable. I wonder, now that many have moved on to the much more accessible and concentrated terrain of Lincoln Lake, whether visitors may, even with the publication of this book, be able to recapture something of the peace and solitude that existed here before.

The Other Side of the Mountain

2011-06-20T14:14:00.002-06:00

I have been very busy working on the book this past week but have squeezed a few visits in at Area A, Mount Evans. The snow has been piling up in RMNP all spring and although a few have ventured up that way, the action has clearly been at Lincoln Lake. The earlier (re)discovery of Endo Valley had primed the pump (in a manner of speaking) and the news coming from Wolvo/LL has been mostly fast repeats of last year's new problem testpieces along with the usual downgrades. Cool stuff to be sure and I look forward to heading out there later this summer. But all this focus on the east side has had a beneficial side-effect on the west side.

My acclimation treks to Area A have been marked the near-total absence of other boulderers. This has its downside, namely an absence of extra pads to work the problems at the Dali. But to be able to sit on a sun-washed boulder, drinking in the sky and clouds and the light changing across the cliffs above the talus, and hear nothing but the wind is a treasure beyond price.

The project is of course Clear Blue Skies (the hardest V11 in the state?). Easy first move, annoying and very difficult second move off the small crimp, strenuous cross-through to the most frustrating hold I have ever used. Pulling on this flat semi-crimp with minimal texture, I continually come up short throwing for the finishing jug. To me this problem feels as hard as European Human Being and much harder than the old pre-break Small Arms. I feel it coming together for sure and the hike is such good training (much harder than Wolvo or RMNP)that I will persist a while yet.

In a following post, I will discuss two very valuable tools I am using to aid in this quest.

Daniel Woods Interview

2011-06-12T17:34:00.000-06:00

Please visit my other blog to read more about Daniel Woods in an interview I just did. More on my activities in a bit.

Moon Gear Review

2011-06-06T06:55:00.004-06:00

Since joining the Moon Climbing team this year, I have had the opportunity to try a number of items made by this small grassroots climbing company based in Sheffield. Though many climbers of a certain age will automatically recognize Ben Moon’s huge contributions to sport climbing and bouldering in the 1980s and 1990s, these days a younger generation may know him primarily through his company. I ordered a number of items that I felt that I could use and that might find favor with American climbers and boulderers. Since roughly March, I have been consistently putting this gear to the test in a number of settings, both at the gym and outside bouldering and roped climbing. While it is true that this review is going to be somewhat partial, I believe it will prove helpful to anyone thinking of trying out this brand. There is no question that Moon is very popular in the UK and Europe but it is less well known in the US, except among a relatively small circle of climbers. I would like to help change that so read on.

The Cypher Pant, Moon T-Shirts, and Logo Hat
As some readers of this blog may know, I have long been looking for good pants for bouldering for some time. These pants need to be lightweight, able to withstand abuse, have a natural feeling fabric, fit well, and look good both at the boulders and on the street. I have been wearing the Moon Cypher pant pretty much nonstop for the past three months and can say that they meet the above criteria with flying colors. I have taken them on brush-choked gully approaches in Clear Creek, waded with them through thigh-deep snow at Mount Evans, and climbed all sorts of terrain in them from low-angle trad to steep gym bouldering. They are reasonably loose without being too baggy and come with a very lightweight closure at the ankle or can be rolled up. They fit well under a harness or during bouldering. They are very windproof and felt warm even while belaying near the sea in a brisk damp breeze in North Wales. The poly/cotton fabric dries very quickly and breathes well during warm strenuous hikes.

I wore nothing but Cypher pants during my 10 day trip to the UK where they performed very well in all conditions from a breezy and cool session at Stanage Edge to navigating the crowds in the National Gallery in London. Easy to wash and quick to dry, they could be the perfect traveling climber’s pants, especially as they resist the “grimy” look common with other fabric types. They also pass easily style-wise from cragwear to streetwear with understated colors and a moderately loose fit. While some may wonder about the reversed pocket “elephant ear” flaps, they become unobtrusive quite quickly and provide a distinctive look. I would absolutely recommend trying these out. The Cypher also comes in a ¾ length and shorts style suitable for warmer conditions. Recently these pants have been made available in organic cotton as well. For my alpine bouldering trips, the poly/cotton blend will be perfect.

Other items I have tried include several t-shirts and a very nice light-weight and warm beanie. In particular, I liked the hemp t-shirt with the Bus Stop 8b design. All the t-shirts have clean striking graphics with an urban feel and fit well.

The Warrior Pad and Bouldering Shoulder Bag
The Warrior Pad is an excellent pad, very lightweight but durable, which has a unique design that keeps the shoulder straps on the landing side so that the pad stays relatively clean. When folded, the side that rests on the ground stays on the inside keeping backs, car interiors, etc, free of dirt and mud. A velcroed carpeted flap goes over the straps while climbing and then folds across the bottom when it’s being carried, keeping gear and shoes securely in the pad. As an alpine boulderer, I find the lack of a waist-strap a bit of a problem but the word is that this may change, especially with their upper-end pad, the Saturn. For me, especially because of its light weight, the Warrior is the perfect second pad as a recent snowy carry into Mt Evans proved.

Moon’s Bouldering Shoulder Bag is a great deal. It is a compact and very versatile design allowing a lot of storage in a small space. You can carry it as a shoulder bag or as a backpack, the adjustment between the two taking just a few minutes. I have used it extensively both in the gym and on recent travels and found it a hassle-free way of carrying everything from chalkbag and shoes to a netbook and passport. The zippers and Velcro all work very well and it carries fairly heavy weights easily. At only $46, this bag is a real bargain given its versatility and quality.

Bouldering Chalk Bag and Moon Dust
The Bouldering Chalk Bag is a superb simple chalk bag with a secure roll-top and Velcro closure. It sets up well at the base of a boulder problem and closes easily on its own if it tips over, a very convenient feature. I really like the Moon brand of chalk and have found it works well across all sorts of conditions and rock types. I also appreciate the message of respect towards the environment that is printed on each bag.

In sum, I have been very happy with the performance of the gear that I have had the opportunity to use and am very enthusiastic about spreading the word to other climbers. I believe that you will find it money well spent. The quality is excellent and the prices are very reasonable. In the US, Moon is a very small company with a personal touch, being run primarily by well-known boulderer, photographer and author Wills Young. Please visit the website to find out more. I will be testing more gear and writing about it over the rest of the year and hope to continue to promote here in the US and abroad.

Gritstone

2011-06-02T08:45:00.013-06:00

After my all-too-brief stay in North Wales, I went to Sheffield with Alan James director of Rockfax Publishing and UKClimbing. This was a great opportunity to revisit a place I had not been to since college when I spent a couple of semesters at the university and doing a lot of climbing, especially on gritstone.

Coming from a background of New Hampshire granite, the cracks and slabs of Peak District gritstone were a natural fit but there was also the allure of entering an intense urban climbing scene, the likes of which Sheffield was probably the first to inaugurate. This was aided immensely by the institution of the dole, essentially welfare payments for the chronically unemployed. By the time I arrived in fall of 1985, the hard free-climbing revolution was well under way, propelled in large part by the proximity of motivated impoverished climbers and a huge variety of climbing options. The only drawback was really the weather which in turn gave rise to climbing walls, public and private, and lots of training. Coming from an insular and parochial New England scene, it was a profoundly transformational trip, especially when combined with a stay in Buoux in the spring of 1986

I spent most of my time on gritstone, as it was closer to the city by bus and much less expensive to reach. Burbage, Millstone, Froggat, and Curbar Edges were the most popular options though I did make the trek to Stanage on oocasion, most memorably to onsight solo Archangel and Right Unconquerable. The sense of space, light, and atmosphere I always found more compelling than the humid overgrown and often polished limestone cliffs in the valleys below. On the other hand there is no denying that if you want to get strong, limestone is the way to go.

The first afternoon Alan and I went for a walk over to Burbage North where I took a few laps on the 20-foot crack, a perfect 5.7 hand crack, and scoped out the Remergence area, ticking the venerable classic Banana Finger and scoping out some other problems. Sadly, being sans pads, I didn't put any time on the harder ones. The intermittent rain and strong winds didn't help much either.

Next we went over to Stanage, just next door. A quick look at the outcrop that holds Hamper's Hang netted only more wind so we headed down to the Plantation Boulders, perhaps the most famous collection of gritstone boulders in the Peak. The first boulder problem I tried was The Green Traverse, probably about V6, and a really fun series of moves on fairly large holds. I flashed it and then had to repeat it for the video! After looking around a bit at the testpieces such as Brad Pit (V10) and Careless Torque, a beautiful and tall V11, I set to work on Crescent Arete a relatively moderate but fairly insecure and tall V2. This took a few tries to get the feel for the crux, especially with no pads. The landing is fairly flat but you would be jumping from high up with excellent ankle injury potential. A couple of pads would reduce the commitment and perceived grade substantially. Anyway, after I got the balance worked out, I committed and reached the easier upper bit without any problems. A great pair of problems! Here's the video.

Thanks again to Alan for shooting the video and taking the nice shot of me on Crescent Arete.

The next day I was picked up by climbing legend and owner of Moon Climbing, Ben Moon, along with his daughter Sylvie, to check out Burbage West and perhaps meet up with some friends. After a quick tour and some easy warmups, the rest of the crew turned up including Jerry Moffat, Marcus Bock, Gerhard Horhager and Andy Cave. We set to work on some slightly harder problems including a cool little V5/6 overhang called the Nose, which I shot a picture of Jerry on, spotted by Gerhard.

After this, we moved on to West Side Story, one of the most famous problems on grit, a vertical wall with a thin seam, graded V8/9. This has a couple of methods, one coming in from the left which I tried and another coming in from the right, which Gerhard tried. The key for the more direct method on the left is getting a fairly bad sidepull with the right hand and standing up on poor feet to throw for a good break. A highball finish awaits. I was making pretty good progress but having trouble finding the sweet spot on the sidepull. Increasing sun made completion unlikely as well. A good problem to try in fall or winter with a few thick pads.

Ben and I decamped for Stanage to find some other friends of his. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the midst of Stanage on a warm weekend. I already was thinking of my trip to London scheduled for the next day and then one more day before heading back to Colorado.

Monday was my last climbing day before going back home and I decided, since the weather was rainy and I really needed to train a bit harder, to check out Climbing Works, the newest gym in Sheffield, and the only one dedicated to bouldering. It was a good choice though a bit idiosyncratic for a visiting climber. The walls were fairly slabby throughout though the so-called competition wall was fairly steep. Perhaps the biggest issue was the lack of tape for finding problems. This made it very hard to follow sequences or locate starting holds. Once found the problems were actually quite good but after about an hour and a half, I focused on the campus board. There was also "The Motherboard" a steep woodie covered in terrible little wood holds but again the lack of clear problems and a number of arcane rules made this option unappealing.

Nevertheless, I got a solid workout in and felt like I had sampled (or resampled after 25 years) a bit of the Peak scene over the past few days. Looking back to that time, I recognize that one of the motives for going to Sheffield in the 80s was finding a place where residents really focused on climbing but within an urban context, that a critical mass of climbers lived climbed and trained together but not in a campground like at Yosemite. Now of course, such locales are much more common, perhaps nowhere more so than here in Boulder. But in the 1980s such places were very rare. For me, in my early 20s, this time was a revelation of sorts and left a lasting impression of what could be achieved in climbing.

Climbing in Wales

2011-05-23T05:01:00.006-06:00

I am leaving the UK tomorrow, barring any complications from volcanic ash, and since the world has not ended, it is back to life in Colorado in a short while. The Welsh portion of the trip finished with a day on the slate quarries and an early run/hike up Mount Snowdon before heading to Sheffield. Slate is a very interesting surface/medium on which to climb as it looks very steep and difficult from below yet upon actually climbing you discover that typically the angle is 80 degrees and many small sharp edges emerge. The rock can be anything from mirror-smooth to sharkskin-rough and all on the same route. It is very reminiscent of many areas in New Hampshire that feature fussy steep slabs, such as the South Buttress of Whitehorse Ledge.

What is particularly striking is the landscape and approach. An entire side of the valley above Llanberis has been transformed by terraces and slopes of excavated slate. Hidden from immediate view are the huge bays, holes and caves that form an underworld of gigantic proportions. We didn't get to explore more deeply here but Mark Reeves, Llanberis local and climbing author regaled us with stories of the history of the place. It is an evocative place, shaped not by the impersonal and natural forces of wind and water but by the minds and hands of human beings. There are vast walls, terraces, buildings, platforms and other structures, creations that lead one to wonder what the lives of the miners were like. The Llanberis Slate Museum, which I didn't have time to visit, has an excellent website to get an idea of what this era was like. The Dinorwic quarries closed down in 1969 and a sense of the past, especially of the 19th century, is particularly strong as you approach the cliffs.

The next morning I got up early with the thought that I might climb Snowdon before breakfast. The hope was that despite a relative lack of hill-running fitness, some memory of previous seasons could provide inspiration and lead to the summit. As it happens, Snowdon from Llanberis is a stout excursion, especially after about 2/3 of the way. If I had known that it was 9 miles round trip, I might have reconsidered but the chance to immerse myself, if even briefly, in the heart of the Welsh mountains, was too important to pass up. Even if I could barely walk the rest of the day. Strangely a side trip to a small sportclimbing area proved that climbing is perhaps the easiest of physical activities. I was easily able to climb a few 5.10s while the 5 minute walk to the cliff was agonizingly slow.

More on my visit to the gritstone edges in the next installment.

Posting from UK Part 2

2011-05-17T23:29:00.007-06:00

Now that I am somewhat over the jet lag, I can post something a bit more lengthy. The weather unfortunately has been less than cooperative for climbing. Tuesday was relatively dry and Mark Glaister from Rockfax Books took me and Hubert Canart, who runs Belclimb.net, for a low-key excursion to Holyhead Mountain on Anglesey, directly adjacent to the famous sea-cliff of Craig Gogarth. This cliff is a very appealing chunk of gray/white quartzite with a wide variety of lines from easy to relatively hard. The rock is very solid, smooth and quite hard but very intricately featured, allowing lots of unlikely holds and hidden protection options. Best of all, it does not have the death-defying approaches of its more famous neighbor, a reassuring aspect on a grey damp day.

I realized that I have not climbed anything requiring placing my own gear in years and the kind of instinct one has for leading on natural pro can disappear over time. I was happy to lead clipping Mark's gear and get a feel back for the kind of things one has to do to lead unlikely pitches safely.

The weather was barely cooperative and sitting at the top of the crag was a bit of an ordeal in a stiff damp breeze but the sensation of climbing on a green island overlooking the slate-blue Irish sea was a welcome change from the much drier Colorado mountains. Unfortunately I will not get the chance to become better acquainted with this unique place as we are leaving on Thursday and I am heading for the Peak District for a few days. However, I am certain that I will want to return. North Wales is a landscape that is small, intimate even, with a climbing style that has adapted beautifully to the varieties of rock on offer, maintaining a sense of adventure and discovery on even relatively moderate pitches. The sense of history and local culture, both climbing and non-climbing is an integral part of the experience.

Posting from The UK Part 1

2011-05-16T03:47:00.002-06:00

I am sitting in Manchester Airport, after a long flight from Colorado, about to head southwest to Wales. The weather looks dreary which means I may get a chance to transcribe the interview with Dave Graham that I recorded Friday. Climbing? We'll see. More news soon.

The Hardboiled Emergency Blog Post

2011-05-12T07:14:00.000-06:00

The little problem called Hardboiled in Boulder Canyon has been getting quite a lot of attention recently. First ascended by Daniel Woods about 7 years ago, it quickly became part of a circuit of V10/11 problems in the canyon. Most recently a number of ascents included a strapped-on kneepad and it was clear that what had been a reasonably soft 8a was something else. Ryan Silven was the first to state the obvious by climbing it both ways. For the 8a version he wrote, " sans kneebars. the sequence is different enough that it's almost a different boulder. can we still call this 8a if new, easier beta has been used? idk. it sucks my 100th double-digit boulder is mired in controversy. and kneebars." and for the 7c version, " with kneebars and a kneepad. not 8a. a kneebar takes weight through all the crux moves. 1.5 grades easier than w/o kneebars."

The talented female boulderer Alexandra Kordick continued the trend, grading her ascent 7c and commenting, " This problem is more funny than fun. An all around good humping sesh with Andrea Finklestein. I know this is a proud tick for lots of people and I don't want to take that away from anyone, but I'm kinda a kneebar specialist and v9 for it seems REALLY generous." And so on. Most recently Jens at 8a seemed to be implying that here was a woman who, in the words of Brian Kimball, "rode into town, cow~girled up with her guns a blazin' and just LAID DOWN THE LAW with an official down rate too V9 and 'that was being generous'."

Well not exactly. Comparisons with Rifle immediately spring to mind, since that is the place, with the exception of perhaps Jailhouse Rock, where kneebarring rules supreme. In Rifle everyone expects to use the maximum amount of kneepads, kneebarring, and general jessery. This may be in part why internationally known climbers visiting the US tend to go elsewhere to climb and why the canyon's hardest grades are pegged at a lowly 14c-ish. But be that as it may, kneebarring is a real climbing technique.

However bouldering has been fairly slow to accept this technique and indeed problems that feature kneebarring and kneepads tend to rate lower, maybe even much lower, on the desirability scale. Boulderers by definition are not automatically interested in the easiest method and will create and even seek out eliminates of all kinds. Hardboiled with kneepads and kneebars is one way of doing the problem which may be interesting to some. Without the pads, but with the kneebars, it could feel quite different again. Instead of a downgrade of Hardboiled to soft 7c there is no reason not to list separate variations of with kneebars or without them. If you want to tick the problem regardless of method, that's your choice and you get 7c if you use kneebars. But choosing to skip the kneepads and the new beta is a legitimate option as well.

Is 40 really the new 30?

2011-05-09T06:52:00.003-06:00

Recently I posted an article from Gripped Magazine on my Facebook Mountains and Water page. About a year earlier, Gripped ran a similar story, focusing on male climbers, but with the same angle, that older climbers can still get up hard routes. Thoughts of this sort even circulated a bit in the media after Chris Sharma's stunning ascent of two 5.15s just after turning 30.

On the one hand, I want to agree with the yea-sayers who assert that age is mostly an imaginary barrier, one much more easily overcome than in the past, thanks to much better equipment, proliferating climbing gyms, and much more rational attitudes towards the sport overall. However, I also want to caution against unthinking acceptance of the belief in the ageless climber.

There is no question that the physical demands of high-end climbing are not entirely incompatible with aging. Sure, you have to be much more careful to avoid potentially threatening moves, mostly because you realize that an entire climbing season lost to a soft-tissue injury is not just an inconvenience. But I find that the mental and psychological demands are the hardest to overcome and by that I don't mean forgetting a sequence or dealing with fear.

Instead I am talking about the undeniable truth of aging in general, that you simply perceive the world differently. In my current chosen discipline, there are very very few serious 40+ practitioners of the sport in the entire country. If I want to get out at all, I have to accept that I will either be climbing alone or in the company of people whose life circumstances are completely different from mine, which sometimes can feel like the same thing. Very few serious boulderers that I know are dealing with the demands of a family and career in any meaningful sense of the term.

But there is a deeper problem and that is one of finding meaning in the activity after such a long time practicing it. For me it is a constant struggle, a process of self-examination and reflection in the face of external pressures and internal change. The paradox is that in many instances I find climbing well to be one of the least self-reflective of activities and yet preparing for a problem and looking back on it can involve hours of contemplation. The tension between the two states of mind can be difficult to resolve at best.

The landscape changes underfoot, so to speak while I am crossing it. The familiar becomes too familiar and then in an instant uncannily different. My response to the climbing environment is tempered by the presence of histories both personal and general. Perhaps other older climbers don't reckon with these spirits of the past but I find them everywhere. Friends and acquaintance age and transform, even here in the world-headquarters of eternal youth and age-denial that is Boulder.

I think this process moves ahead regardless of physical appearance and indeed, Oscar Wilde's parable of Dorian Gray may allude to it best. The outer appearance of physical strength and climbing achievements is only the surface of a person. Deeper, darker and truly human truths lie beneath, truths that only emerge over time. Sure, celebrate the persistence and determination of older athletes. But understand also that the real struggle is probably happening somewhere else, out of the reach of cameras or even words.

Will Levandowski Operation Smile Climb/ World Record

2011-05-04T07:59:00.001-06:00

Starting tonight and continuing on Thursday, Will Levandowski, a local climber, will attempt to transform a lowly stretch of Flagstaff sandstone into an arena of world-class proportions. Jenn Fields, a writer for the local paper, has a great article that explains everything.

I first encountered Will a couple of years ago when I was doing a warm-up session below Beer Barrel Rock and noticed someone climbing the same problem again and again on the formations known as the Mugs. I thought it was curious and asked what his reason for repeating the same thing literally hundreds of times. He explained that an injury in his foot from running limited his ability to either fall or negotiate a tricky descent so he found this one spot that allowed him to climb continuously for hours.

As an aficionado myself of logging vertical mileage at Flag, I can easily understand his motivations. However I freely admit that I would not want to try to log 25,000 feet on the same 10 foot problem. That takes a different mindset altogether. If you want to cheer Will on and even act as witness to his Guinness World Record attempt, you can find him starting at 5 pm tonight, a couple of tiers below Beer Barrel Rock. He will climb until 11 pm, take a break until 5 am and continue Thursday until 5 pm.

How Internet Video is Transforming Climbing

2011-04-27T07:03:00.009-06:00

In my previous post, I suggested that Adam Ondra's recent run of 9b ascents and 8c+ onsights marked a kind of watershed moment in climbing. But I don't think that Ondra is the only one transforming climbing. There is also a collective transformation that has been underway in the sport for several decades, a transformation that has been accelerated by the power of the Internet. This transformation has to do with the transmission and distribution of images of climbers and climbs and is present in both a quantitative and qualitative sense.

In a previous post about Master of Rock, Pat Ament's groundbreaking book on John Gill, I suggested that "the sheer mundane quality of much of the photography in the book anticipates a new aesthetic for climbing that refused the consciously heroic and crafted images of an earlier age..." However there is another aspect to these photos that I did not develop further which was their documentary specificity. The book acted as both guide and inspiration to more than one generation of climbers because it showed specific moves on problems in a way that few if any books had done before.

Today, in a media-saturated climbing environment, it's hard to recall even back to the 1990s when climbing video was first available for viewing. This was the first time that climbers could replay live action footage of a particular climb. Among the pioneers in this genre was the series Masters of Stone. Looking at the videos now, I am struck primarily by the efforts to make climbing something spectacular and mediagenic, that could be packaged according to a showbiz aesthetic. The first one even had a ridiculous contest to "win" the arm of some woman with a torch. Staged falls, big but easy lunges, free solos; these videos had just about everything except ascents of routes from which we could learn how to climb well. There were indications however of other directions such as a video called State of the Art, made by Metolius Climbing in 1989, that was intended to show sequences of specific routes at Smith Rock.

I think that the problem was financial in nature. There was no market for "straight" video of boulder problems or climbs at the time and producers were still thinking in terms of cable or broadcast media and its production values. The filming equipment was expensive as was production and editing so the spectacular was emphasized rather than the mundane.

This consensus first started to fracture in earnest with the low-budget amateur-looking videos made by Mike Call such as Yank on This and Fast Twitch. These videos were quickly produced and based on the skateboard and surfing models of ephemeral promotional videos made by companies to promote products for a season or two at most.

With the development of broadband internet, attempts were made with sites such as ClimbX Media and Momentum Video Magazine to market video on a subscription model. These efforts ultimately failed for a variety of reasons not exclusive to climbing but applying more generally across the media landscape. Video increasingly became a free commodity, boosted by the presence of sites such as Vimeo and Youtube and readily available low-tech digital cameras and free editing software.

In the midst of this explosion of video, a transformation in how we think about climbing has been in progress. Gone are the efforts to present climbing as a heroic or spectacular activity. The average teenage climber may be more interested in footage of a local boulder problem than a professionally produced segment on Alex Honnold soloing Half Dome. But more compelling is the idea that this widespread distribution of free information about climbing and how to do it well is contributing to a rapid evolution of the sport. By viewing what works and imprinting its lessons in our own climbing, we collectively change the way we climb to degree unseen in the past, a process that is occuring globally across large populations of climbers in much shorter periods of time.

It may be the case that the feature climbing film will persist into the future, that marquee names such as Chris Sharma will be presented in spectacular locales. But the actual redefining of the norms of the sport will increasingly be done on the fly, in DIY video clips of increasing sophistication and for free. Climbers will view them, learn from them, and then rapidly move on, advancing both their knowledge of the sport and the boundaries of film-making. The film as physical artifact is certainly gone.

As a postscript, I searched for clips of the Masters of Stone videos on Youtube, etc to link to this post. A few turned up, mostly trailers, and not really worth watching. The producer is still selling them via the old-school method of shipping DVDs.

What Adam Ondra Means for the Sport of Climbing

2011-04-17T15:05:00.004-06:00

There is no question that Adam Ondra sits at the very pinnacle of the disciplines of sport climbing and bouldering. His onsights of five 8c+ routes, two 5.15 FAs and ascents of 8C/V15 boulder problems in the first few months of 2011 form a record unmatched by anyone else on the planet. In the global combined rankings at 8a.nu, he is 2000 points ahead of Gabriele Moroni, the runner-up. I cannot think of anyone else in the past ten years who has so convincingly set himself apart from the pack and been so unassuming in the process. He is the Chris Sharma or Dave Graham for the next generation.

So what does this mean for climbing? Well begin by watching the video of him onsighting the 8c+ Mindcontrol in Oliana, Spain:

This is a remarkable document of a sea change in the sport of climbing. It is a real-time, minimally edited climbing video of a remarkable achievement grade-wise that could soon become the norm internationally, at least in part due to this video.

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. "If you are lucky and your quick decisions are right, it's almost the same as redpointing," Ondra says but there is something vitally different and that is the comfort level with the decisions.

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.

Ondra is revising the definitions of what it means to climb at your limit because he finds a way not so much to make it look easy but make it look sensible, feasible even.

I can think of no more important video to watch currently then this one if you are interested in learning how to climb your best. He is redefining the sport for those who take it seriously, at whatever level.

Cleaning up Our Act

2011-04-07T07:07:00.003-06:00

A recent controversy in Boulder got me thinking about the connection between climbing and the environment. A professional mountain biker, Mike West, was caught by rangers riding an illegal trail down the north side of Flagstaff Mountain. News of this event was published on the day before a major vote on a plan for Boulder's open space, a plan that continued to exclude mountain bikes from the so-called West TSA. This is essential the mountain backdrop to Boulder between Eldorado Springs and Mount Sanitas. Mike West initially claimed to be unaware of any restrictions, a highly unlikely possibility as there is literally not one square foot of public land in this area that has allowed off-road biking in over 20 years.

What was even more surprising were the reactions in the message boards of mountain biking sites and the local paper. A surprising number, perhaps even a slim majority, applauded the actions of West and derided the actions and policies of OSMP. His sponsor, Yeti Cycles, immediately dropped him, however. Much of the impulse to defend him seemed rooted in a feeling that Boulder OSMP had not provided sufficient riding opportunities and that illegal trails and riding were inevitable as a result.

Which led me to wonder. How would climbers feel if the same kind of restrictions were in place for climbing? Not merely a bolting ban, which in fact went into place in the Flatirons around the same time as the biking ban but in fact a simple ban on climbing on certain formations or times of day, unrelated to birds or other environmental concerns? How about a simple ban on the use of chalk? It's hard to say. Despite the presence of substantial bird bans in the Flatirons, Eldorado and Boulder Canyon, climbers seem very disinclined to climb in posted areas and I have not heard of any well-known climbers getting into trouble with rangers for illegal climbing or other problems.

However I have recently heard of things happening on nearby public land that do not reflect well on climbers as stewards of the land, especially altering environments to make problems feasible. I wonder if in 2011, something is changing in climber attitudes that is making it acceptable unilaterally to use tactics that substantially modify the very landscape we are bouldering in so that we might squeeze a few more moves from a problem or create a "new" one altogether.

I think that the climbing community's place as a welcome user of public lands in the vicinity of Boulder is secure. There is a huge constituency, expert political advocacy (the Access Fund is based in Boulder), industry presence, and of course a huge array of climbing possibilities that disperses climber presence and impact effectively. But I wonder if we take that relationship a bit too much for granted, or even believe that as climbers we are, like Mike West, entitled to go where we like, when and where and how we like, justifying our behavior because climbing feels important to us.

I am pleased to see the work being initiated by the BCC on Boulder Canyon. Please read this proposal to find out more about this much-needed initiative to repair the effects of laissez-faire management and climber practices.

Mountain bikers have their faces pressed against the glass when it comes to public land access around Boulder. There may be very good justification for restricting their ability to ride in the West TSA and given the current political climate, I doubt that the efforts of the BMBA will come to anything substantial for many years if ever. The appearance of a pro rider on an illegal trail in the middle of a heated debate certainly didn't help the cause. But climbers shouldn't rest easy. Climbers should instead be redoubling their efforts to proactively anticipate problems, environmental or social, that arise from the practice of the sport and not rely on flying under the radar for much longer.

A Video from Clear Creek

2011-03-30T07:21:00.003-06:00

For my spring break, I went all the way to Clear Creek Canyon to try a short problem called Rhino, a two move low start to a fun V1. It was primarily as training for Park season since it has a fairly steep approach and very small sharp crimps. The first session was on a day that was a bit warm, joining up with a crew from Boulder that was trying Echale. Echale is not the best warmup problem but despite its being described as "one of the worst rock climbs out there" it has shrugged off concerted efforts by some very good climbers suggesting it may be one of the hardest in the state. Its convenience, excellent movement and decent landing (dug out of the hill!) make it somewhat of a mystery as to why it hasn't been repeated more in the past seven years. Congratulations to Phil Schaal for his 4th ascent. For beta on this problem, check out the 2004 videos at woodsfamilyclimbs.com.

I went up the hill to scope out the problem and found it to appear pretty reasonable but the building heat forced a retreat with a split fingertip. Then the wildfires raging in the canyon preventing a return until this past Saturday. Cooler conditions prevailed though imminent rain forced some extra effort to get the problem done.

Two Opportunities: Alpinist Column and ClimbWeb.Net Meet

2011-03-24T07:13:00.006-06:00

In the past week or so, I have been on the sidelines, writing-wise, focusing on doing some bouldering and painting and catching up with work. In the meantime, a couple of interesting developments have occurred. The first is that Alpinist Magazine has asked me to contribute a regular web-based column. I am very enthusiastic about this chance to write on the topic of climbing for such an excellent journal. Expect to see a piece out in the next month or so.

The other exciting news is an invitation to join up with other climbing writers and editors for a week in mid-May in North Wales for the annual ClimbWeb.Net meeting. This is being hosted by UKClimbing in the town of Llanberis, the heart of the climbing scene in North Wales, with a short stay possible in the Peak District as well.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to visit places I have not been to in many years. The climbing environment in the UK has always had a great appeal to me and I am looking forward very much to seeing some of these places again. The chance to meet and talk with peers in the small but intense world of international climbing media at the same time is even better.

Video from Capstan Session

2011-03-15T07:22:00.002-06:00

For the past week I had been hoping to finish off a project on Capstan Rock, an endeavor not aided by the soul-sucking "controversy" of the previous posts. This was the excellent and rarely repeated Daydreamer Direct SDS, put up by the amazingly strong but unknown Xander Oxman. This is a series of difficult crimp moves along the right arete of the formation culminating with a long throw to the Just Right pocket and the finish. Though graded by Jonathan Siegrist at V9, it feels exponentially harder than the V9 given to the lower start to Just Right and is comparable to every V10 I have done, not just for Flag.

Sunday afternoon was breezy and cool, prime conditions for the small crimps on the problem and as I was settling in for another session, Dave Graham and crew pulled up and decided to try the SDS for Just Right. It was amazing to watch how quickly the moves started being put together for this problem and it was obvious that Jimmy Webb was going to do it. While for purists, the start off the shelf is not a true SDS, starting in the hole on the left is not going to add much to the problem, except an awkward squatting traverse. Jimmy started from the shelf and the undercling on the left which is where the business begins. In the video, you see him already having started. I had to sprint up to the camera to press "record." In my view, Jimmy's start will become standard. If the name is confusing, it has more to do with the difference between a crouch and a sit. Call it Direct Just Right ,per Chip's guide, I suppose.

This problem has had quite a reputation over the years including a description of Daniel Woods getting rebuffed by the crux throw. It is certainly one of the best lines on the mountain and I was psyched to see a proper straightforward send. Jimmy Webb is one of the most talented and under-assuming boulderers in the country. He had flashed a notorious V12, Burnout, earlier that afternoon, so taking a few tries to do what he proposed was V11 makes sense.

After he did JR, I got on Daydreamer Direct and had a burn getting fairly high but not past the crux. A few minutes later, another try was more successful, getting to the pocket but now pretty pumped. There was a stab to the edge over the lip and then a struggle to get over the lip and the problem was done.

Climbing Media 2011: A Response to Andrew Bisharat

2011-03-11T06:48:00.006-07:00

In response to a post I made earlier this week, Andrew Bisharat, editor at Rock and Ice had this to say:

"This is exactly the reason why blogs are never going to replace actual content created by legitimate media sources. Your post is uninformed, poorly researched, completely made up off the top of your head, and makes sweeping generalizations that largely aren't true (and none of which are substantiated by any facts) just in order to make yourself sound as if you know what you're talking about.

Peter, do you even read any of the print journals that you're talking about? Do you follow any of these sites' online presence beyond an obviously cursory perusal of content? Are you fluent enough in French, German and Italian to comment about the content of the European sites? What content, exactly, is Deadpoint creating that in your opinion is so far exceeds the quality of what other websites are writing and creating?

You have no shortage of ways of contacting any of the editors at any of the publications that you bring up in this post, but you decide that your powers of deduction ought to be good enough to dissect online media landscape. Looking at numbers, presenting facts, asking This is the difference between journalist and a writer who has ethics to this field, and a blogger who spouts of hyper-intellectualized, ego-stroking fiction. I hope you realize that.

If you want to look at simple numbers, an easy search on www.alexa.com will show you that RockandIce.com is most popular, highest ranked website of any of the sites that you mention in the U.S., so it's completely erroneous for you to say that we have no significant web presence.

Of course, everything could be better--and I agree that we have a ways to go before our website meets the quality of our publication. It's something we're constantly working on, but good journalism is expensive. Opinions are cheap.

--Andrew Bisharat
abisharat@bigstonepub.com
Senior editor, Rock and Ice"

Well. To be honest I have probably more important things to consider, such as the fate of a country that legalizes "medical" marijuana and outlaws collective bargaining. But of course for a senior editor to take the trouble to smite a lowly blog is really a compliment in a way so a consideration of this bit of prose seems in order.

As I review the arguments actually stated in the piece, and not the ones invented by Andrew (those will emerge in due course) I note the following."...there is maybe one stand-alone web-based general climbing media outfit that is producing its own content and creating a distinctive brand." Nowhere in Andrew's comment is this central truth addressed or refuted. I stand by this statement and welcome suggestions for other companies I may have missed. I continue, "American print journals such as Climbing, Urban Climber, and Rock and Ice are far behind the Europeans in providing a significant and satisfying web presence." I am unable to see how Andrew's comment considers this argument on its merits either. Instead he cites a survey from Alexa.com, claiming that "RockandIce.com is most popular (sic), highest ranked website of any of the sites that you mention in the U.S." Note that I didn't say that R&I was unpopular or poorly ranked or anything of the sort, only that, in my view, it was, along with Climbing, et. al. "far behind the Europeans." This is a statement that can be argued over, not by citing statistics but by direct comparison with the top European websites, such as UKClimbing, Planet Mountain, etc., something Andrew doesn't bother to do.

I continue further by making a statement that has been supported by conversations with editors and even a comment that was posted from a former Climbing staffer, to the effect that editors and publishers see focusing on the print edition as a safer bet, since they can actually monetize it and not give expensive content away for free. This is a hypothesis that can be followed by trained monkeys and hardly requires contacting busy editors and wasting their time to confirm the obvious. Either way Andrew does not address this central point except to note that journalism is expensive, which is correct.

I continue ironically enough, to note that most blogs are not really worth reading over the long haul, being either industry mouthpieces or purely personal ventures that rarely ask interesting questions about the sport. The irony is that this echoes Andrew's premise that "blogs are never going to replace actual content created by legitimate media sources" though I would not presume to dictate what "legitimate" implies here. However I do not go on to expand upon how my own blog is clearly worth reading nor do I cite my readership numbers, mostly because they are so low as to be embarrassing.

So what is it exactly that Andrew has a problem with? Let's look at the first sentence. "Your post is uninformed, poorly researched, completely made up off the top of your head, and makes sweeping generalizations that largely aren't true (and none of which are substantiated by any facts) just in order to make yourself sound as if you know what you're talking about." I am not sure what exactly is uninformed here as Andrew doesn't bother to refute any actual points made in the piece nor cite research I could actually have done besides contact some editors to discover the obvious point that journalism is expensive. While I do compose extemporaneously, I fail to see what was made up off the top of my head. I also wonder how I can possibly write "sweeping generalizations" that not only "largely aren't true" but are not even "substantiated by any facts." That frankly takes a lot of work that I don't really have time for. But I digress.

Andrew is correct to question my bona fides. I don't actually read anything anymore in the world of climbing journalism. Wait, that's one of those sweeping generalizations unsubstantiated by facts. OK I admit that I do read climbing magazines and have done for many years. But then Andrew gets personal. "Do you follow any of these sites' online presence beyond an obviously cursory perusal of content? Are you fluent enough in French, German and Italian to comment about the content of the European sites?" My reply is "Does anyone do more than a cursory perusal of these sites?" And of course, my fluency in foreign languages is second to none, certainement, certo, though my command of echt deutsch is less than perfect, thanks for asking. What a silly point to try to score since European sites such as Planet Mountain or 8a.nu offer multiple language options, including English in an attempt to be truly global. I guess I will defer to Andrew's multi-lingual capacities on that one.

Then of course the reprimand, where Andrew the senior editor glares from under his green eyeshade at me, the cub reporter. Chomping down on his well-chewed stogie, he barks, "Kid, you have no shortage of ways of contacting any of the editors at any of the publications that you bring up in this post, but you decide that your powers of deduction ought to be good enough to dissect online media landscape."

Hilarious stuff to be sure, to stand corrected by the author of an "article" complaining about trustfunding dirt-baggers in a recent issue of the mag. No stereotypes or generalization there, of course. Just good old pound the pavement, shoe leather journalism, the way grandpa used to do it. Yessir "Looking at numbers, presenting facts, asking This is the difference between journalist and a writer who has ethics to this field, and a blogger who spouts of hyper-intellectualized, ego-stroking fiction. I hope you realize that." Wait what was that again?

"Looking at numbers, presenting facts, asking This is the difference between journalist and a writer who has ethics to this field, and a blogger who spouts of hyper-intellectualized, ego-stroking fiction. I hope you realize that."

OK, maybe the saliva was covering over the screen so much at this point that it was getting hard to see, but honestly Andrew, proofread your work, however modest the venue. You're a senior editor at Rock and Ice fur chrissakes. And can you explain the tortured syntax of "asking This is the difference between journalist and a writer who has ethics to this field?" What field are we talking about here? How can I have ethics to it? Am I the "blogger who spouts of hyper-intellectualized, ego-stroking fiction?" Do you mean I reek of it? Spout off? Are we talking meta-fiction here?

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to write this Andrew. One issue as I see it is that you are paid a salary to write about climbing but you have shown that maybe your criticism of my work could use some critique itself. In fact I have been editing your comments for free (no gratitude expected of course) and hopefully showing what few readers I have, that yes I have integrity and no I am not as amateurish as you would like to believe. My opinion may be cheap as you say, but it's also free, free of slapdash personal attacks and sloppy writing.

The Climbing Media Survey 2011

2011-03-09T07:01:00.003-07:00

Periodically, over the past four years I have been writing this blog, I have surveyed the state of climbing media, especially in the digital realm. In 2011, the story is an unsurprising one, revolving primarily around conformity and consolidation, trends that have been building over the past few years, especially in the US.

Looking over the media landscape in the US, it is striking to see that there is maybe one stand-alone web-based general climbing media outfit that is producing its own content and creating a distinctive brand. This is of course Deadpoint Magazine but its primary focus on sport climbing and bouldering means that a significant chunk (some would argue THE significant chunk) of the climbing scene is non-existent as far as that company is concerned. Compare this to the numerous European and English sites producing top-quality articles, news items, and other interactive features across the entire range of the climbing experience. Planet Mountain and UKClimbing are only two that work in this vein. Kairn, a French website,Klettern and Pareti, an Italian example, are some other significant sites, some web-only, some in partnership with print titles.

American print journals such as Climbing, Urban Climber, and Rock and Ice are far behind the Europeans in providing a significant and satisfying web presence. Without interviewing the actual editors, I can't say for sure why this is, but the main reasons can't be too hard to diagnose. The view appears to be that value is perceived primarily by consumers in the print edition and that efforts to have a significant independent web presence are throwing real money away to provide free content.

But turning to the web itself, what is happening? Well the landscape is increasingly stratified into several distinct layers. There are sites linked with manufacturers such as Black Diamond and Patagonia that consistently produce high-quality media, most of it with the explicit aim of promoting the brand. Then there are climber sites and blogs, the vast majority of which are infrequently updated and rarely worth reading, except for some occasional news value. There are the climber forums such as Super Topo. There is of course the Climbing Narc, whose mastery of the art of aggregation has garnered an enthusiastic following. And what else? Well not much really.

An endless diet of increasingly trivial news updates, training tips, equipment reviews and video clips make up the landscape of climbing media now. Perhaps it was ever thus but my feeling is that in the increasingly bland and consumerist landscape of the web in particular, something of great value is being lost. I am thinking primarily of individuality, real passion for the intrinsic values of the sport and the desire to ask hard questions about the assumptions and values we bring to it. Currently I see a celebration of surface, a pursuit of meaningless abstractions that climbers fantasize about capitalizing on, especially in terms of becoming a "pro" climber.

Real journalism asks real questions of the system, even aggravating ones, questions that affect people and the world we live in. I am wondering how many of these questions are being swept under the rug at this point in favor of a consumerist consensus that emphasizes a constant news cycle propelled by numbers, names and company brands. Are we afraid of what answers these questions might produce?

Climbing, The Internet and Social Networking

2011-03-04T07:56:00.003-07:00

About a year ago I proposed that 8a.nu needs to rethink itself, an argument that I still stand behind. The world of human interaction on the internet has changed radically in the past two or three years, a process aided primarily by the arrival of a new generation of smartphones and the now ubiquitous Facebook. The degree of connectivity available to people is unnerving at times, especially given the GPS function in iPhones, etc. It is possible via Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook(though you may regret it later) to broadcast to the world at large what you are doing where and with whom.

In the world of climbing, 8a.nu has rapidly built up an extensive membership that regularly updates ascents. With almost 35,000 members and over 1.5 million ascents logged, it has remained the go-to source for news in the world of sport-climbing and bouldering. Recently however some efforts to compete with 8a.nu for eyeballs have emerged. Examples include 27 Crags, Climbfind, an online partner finder,and Sendage, a site developed by Jamie Chong, that is intended to be a place to assemble and cross off ticklists. It has the feature or problem, depending on your viewpoint, of being built on top of Facebook. It also offers to import, a la Gmail from Hotmail, all your info in your 8a account.

Looking over these efforts, it is clear that they have a certain amount of momentum behind them. Yet I do not see the so-called "killer app" emerging from them. The attraction of 8a is precisely what many of its detractors complain about and that is the point system and ranking. This is what attracts, in part at least, the many top climbers who post there, and this in turn attracts many viewers. With this constant stream of new ascents, 8a.nu has a great source of news and other features that bring back visitors again and again. Sure the design is antediluvian and the functionality idiosyncratic but it remains an invaluable resource.

The Climbing Narc has written recently about Sendage, and asked, "This all begs the question in my mind if it is even possible for a site to catch on in the log book space given the head start that 8a.nu enjoys." The question that is truly begged, i.e. omitted or left unsaid, is whether any similar website can find a new wrinkle on the basic premise that 8a.nu is founded upon, that of ranking and competition. Looking over Sendage, for example, I don't see this happening. The same for 27 Crags. Both sites are, well, small. They don't appear to allow the visitor a constantly open window into the world of high-end climbing, which is a major draw for 8a.nu. This may change but I don't see the potential avenues for this occurring built into either site.

The competition is not for eyeballs or headspace but more for time spent by its users and visitors, and of course free content, content that draws advertising dollars. Maybe the problem with climbers is that they really would prefer to go climbing and not invest too much more time than necessary writing about it on the internet.

It's obvious that 8a needs an overhaul but its basic proposition to the user remains the most attractive of the options out there. Unlike MySpace, it's not likely to be going away anytime unless something really amazing comes along.

In an upcoming follow-up post, I will discuss the current state of online media in climbing in general.

Two Videos for the Flagstaff Library

2011-02-26T07:11:00.001-07:00

Continuing the video reference guide to Flagstaff, here are two problems. The first is the sit start to a problem at Pratt's Overhang called Crystal Corner. This transforms an old V3 classic into an even better V7 problem, that offers some interesting technical and powerful moves.

Crystal Corner SDS V7 from peter beal on Vimeo.

The second is a video of Just Right, one of the most classic of the 70s-era problems. The FA was from Jim Holloway. I am doing it one move lower than the standard high start. I have seen people pile up very tall stacked pads and cheatstones to get off the ground on this problem. For this start I used one folded pad to reach the holds. The grade for this version is somewhere in the low V9 area. This video is the only one on the internet of the whole problem that I know of.

Just Right Lower V9 from peter beal on Vimeo.

What's The Problem? Where to Start...

2011-02-23T07:05:00.004-07:00

As mentioned in a previous post, boulderers are getting unwanted scrutiny these days for not following the "rules' for a problem. The most recent example is an ascent by Jimmy Webb of Midnight Express, a V14 in Boulder Canyon. Jimmy can certainly climb V14 so there is no issue of claiming ascents of problems to inflate a climber profile. And of all the boulderers out there, Jimmy is the last one to try to game the system. His video shows straight up what he did.

Ty Landman emailed me about trying to set the record straight saying "I was just hoping to somehow formally (in the guidebook or another way?) acknowledge/record the fact that there is the original start , where the first ascensionist and four others started and a new start/variant that is considered somewhat of a different problem (especially considering those first two moves are the crux)." In the description of the problem in my Boulder Canyon Guide, I specifically describe the exact starting holds that Ty used. In my correspondence with Jimmy, he stated that he felt his start was more "logical" than Ty's start.

Bouldering is a funny game in that unlike most modes of climbing, a problem can be excruciatingly exact with parameters set by the climber or a group of climbers that can seem ridiculous. Yet this problem appears in other forms of climbing as well. In sport climbing, climbers will be taken to task for discovering knee bars or variations to a prestigious route such as Slice of Life in Rifle. Dean Potter's solo ascent of Astroman got a small asterisk in the American Alpine Club journal for bypassing a hard section on the "boulder problem" pitch with a short variation. And on and on it goes, even to the level of big walls and Himalayan peaks.

At its heart, climbing is a really slippery pursuit, both physically and mentally and any attempts to categorize or define it run head on into this amorphous quality. It is only when we try to tack on grades, climbing CVs, sponsorships, news items, and so that this elusive quality makes itself felt. What happens in the end is that climbers will follow the path they choose, even if the first ascent followed a different vision. If there is a common thread in all of this, it is one of learning movement, facing failure and success honestly, and keeping an open attitude toward what you have done and what others have done.

In the case of Midnight Express, the variant method will probably be recognized as such and TY's method considered the original. Grades will be sorted out and the record will reflect the change. And eventually maybe someone will start matched from the low hold on the left and yet a newer problem will emerge. Or not.

Two Ads

2011-02-18T06:59:00.005-07:00

In the last couple of weeks two ads have appeared, both with essentially the same theme. The first is a short video for Verve made by Carlo Traversi, elite boulderer and routesetter at the Spot, and the other is a co-production of Organic, Pusher and Revolution. (Full Disclosure: I have received gear from both Organic and Verve and am definitely a fan. I am a sponsored climber for Moon Climbing.)

Here's the video:

The Philosophy Of Verve from Carlo Traversi on Vimeo.

Here's the ad, described by Clark Shelk as "The Crampon Ad."

The simultaneous appearance of these ads speaks to a crisis in the climbing industry which is working itself out in various ways. Many people whom I talk with in the climbing industry feel bullish about the prospects of continued substantial growth in climbing. Business plans for new gyms, new companies, and so on are being written in anticipation of better economic climate and a higher profile for climbing.

Yet at the same time, there is unease about what that might mean for smaller companies who focus on creating products that are aimed at a core climbing demographic, products which are easy to copy using inferior materials or at lower cost overseas or both. With a new emphasis on mass enjoyment of climbing, comes the prospect of climbers who are less concerned or have any real knowledge about the quality of their gear. In bouldering this is particularly the case since the possibility of gear failure doesn't automatically imply severe injury or death. Chillingly, we are seeing potentially lethal counterfeit gear bearing a Petzl brand. In clothing, such concerns are even more remote, to say the least.

If climbing is truly poised to become a mainstream sport, it might well have to adopt the rules of mainstream sports marketing and manufacture, which is not necessarily a pretty sight. In mainstream sports marketing, knockoffs are routine, indeed done by top companies themselves to expand the brand. Overseas manufacture is seen as essential by most companies at this point, if for no other reason than to compete with the other companies who do it. A focus on short-term returns, ceaseless production of new product lines and models, and planned obsolescence are all part of this environment.

I have long believed that climbing is a special sport that ultimately fails to conform well to the principles of capitalist practice which so many pastimes have adopted. I think that climbing works best according to a model of respect for the original ideas and innovations of others and trying to avoid a race to the bottom. However it is difficult to see how this attitude can survive in a new climate of expansion and widespread public participation.

Acceptance of a low profile and small market share are too often the price of integrity in any human endeavor. I applaud the two ads and their message but am concerned that ultimately in a "free" market, their net effect will be minimal. They argue for ethical purchasing decisions in an economic climate that has been trending in the opposite direction. However, their basic point is well taken, especially in a sport such as climbing. In climbing itself, reward is a direct reflection of effort and dedication. The same should be true in the industry that serves the sport.

The Finals: ABS Nationals Boulder Colorado

2011-02-13T08:44:00.013-07:00

I decided last minute to attend the ABS Nationals and was very glad I did. I picked up a media pass on Friday and nabbed a ticket for my wife (thanks to AIM Media), and we were at the venue off east Pearl at 7:45, 4-year old in tow. The USA climbing staff were super helpful setting me up with a pass at the last minute and giving good photo access throughout the venue.

I had followed the semi-finals earlier in the day on the web. There had been a concern expressed about a scoring system that had, in part, ensured that Daniel Woods would not be in the finals. Despite a stellar performance on the second semi-final problem, Woods failed to to gain and control the bonus hold on the third one. His frustration was evident, as was that of a number of competitors on that wall.

The night of finals, the first set of problems was on the left-most wall, which was split by a fairly large horizontal roof, a feature that in my view should be avoided in competitions. Roof features have a tendency to create bottlenecks, especially at the lip. The routesetters did a good job working around this but the lip area of both the men's and women's first problem stopped a number of competitors. After a number of good efforts, especially from Francesca Metcalf, Alex Puccio stomped all over the problem. Two favorites, Angie Payne and Alex Johnson struggled with this problem, especially Angie. Surprisingly no men topped out their first problem, that I recall, though Sean McColl was very close.

The second set of problems was on a much lower angle feature and the momentum of the evening lagged somewhat on these problems, especially on the women's which was very slabby, allowing protracted times up on the wall. Sasha DiGiulian did well on this wall but I sensed overall a lack of real engagement with this problem from both the climbers' and spectators' viewpoints. The men's problem was a bit more dynamic and possibly too easy as a number of competitors finished it.

The story picked up speed with the final problems. I had a great vantage point for photos, right under the wall at the edge of the mats. Here the best wall was saved for last, a mammoth curving swelling shape, by far the most appealing of the three. Both men's and women's problems were steep and powerful and the routesetters had done an excellent job of sorting out the field. The moves were long but not obviously reachy and the overall pace was sustained and powerful. For the women, both Francesca Metcalf and Alex Johnson made great progress but when Alex Puccio stood beneath the wall there was a certain sense that the problem was going down, right away. Alex took a risky approach by setting a right hand where most had gone left and then throwing a sequential dyno to two decent pinches. Sticking this, she charged to the top.

For the men, the finals problem presented very powerful moves to get to the lip of the first swell and then a series of throws out right. Alex Johnson in a very impressive display of audacity attempted to skip the last three moves with a long dyno to the finishing hold. He came close but didn't connect. Most of the other athletes were stymied by the traverse back right or the lower moves. There was a sense of waiting for the last climber to finally seal the deal, which is exactly what happened. Sean McColl, with no hesitation or error, almost literally ran up the problem and there was no doubt who was winning the comp for both men and women.

I didn't see any real problems with the event. Scott Mechler was MCing and overall I think he kept the pace going well. The crowd was smaller than I would have expected but I really think the publicity could have been more prominent locally. I talked briefly with Daniel Woods about his not making finals and he thought that it may have just been one of those comps where motivation wasn't high. He sounded psyched for the rest of the year though. While he was missed, I think the show went well regardless. In the women's field, as mentioned Alex J and Angie were not on their top game but Alex P and Francesca Metcalf gave really good performances.

I think the scoring system ought be rethought. A scoring system that seems to reward competitors for calling it quits halfway through a problem is not going to bring out the best from the athletes. Given the small number of holds, a point system that rewards real effort and close efforts up high on the problem should be workable. The bonus hold system appears to treat all efforts between the bonus hold and the top as the same and that doesn't seem right. We shall see.

Bouldering Competitions: Does Size Matter?

2011-02-11T07:46:00.003-07:00

The big show in town this weekend is the ABS National Bouldering competition, being held at a dedicated location, not at any of the gyms in town. John Stack and a crew have been working very hard to get the new walls up, a glimpse of which is available at Jamie Emerson's site. It sounds like it will be a good time though I will most likely ~~not~~ be there. You can check out the comp live online at the UBC site.

I have already discussed the problem of getting the general public interested in climbing competitions and the press locally has been relatively small about this event. The event is being marketed mostly to local climbers as far as I can tell but the venue, a warehouse space not far from the Spot Gym, is not very big so everything should sell out and go OK. There is a tour of four events, the majority of which are in summer and early fall and again have the feeling of being sold to climbers at climbing venues, like Salt Lake City's Outdoor Retailer. Whether this kind of event can generate mainstream media attention is a very open question. I am thinking that it may take some more time.

I think the more interesting issue is what kind of sport is going to emerge from this kind of competition. Everyone knows that a certain type of problem is beginning to emerge from bouldering competitions, in the same way that routes began to get very similar in roped competition, even to the point that chipping routes on rock to "even out" difficulties became common in the 1990s. The classic comp problem involves big spans between big non-positive holds. The focus is on core strength, bigger arm muscles, and speed. I wonder if increasingly competitors are going to be sorted according to size moving forward, resulting in a relatively homogenous set of body types, reminiscent of trends in gymnastics but without the wide difference between women and men.

Because climbing is more often than not point-to-point specific in terms of its movements (a feature shared by no other sports I can think of), in any given case where the strength of the climbers are equal, the taller climber will usually have the advantage in moving between holds. This is due to increased leverage available by not being fully extended between holds. Some have argued in the past that being shorter has the advantage of being lighter and more easily able to use small holds. This argument is losing steam in the world of competition bouldering, and increasingly in outdoor bouldering as well. Reach and the ability to exert power, not just in terms of pulling on holds but in exerting pressure while moving between them, is key to comp success now. The holds in comps are often very large and sloping, requiring as much skin friction as possible to stay in contact. Smaller hands have less surface area and less leverage in the pinch position. While routesetters can compensate for this to a limited degree, fundamental truths about the physics of climbing movement are beginning to make themselves keenly felt.

In the future I think the top male competition climbers in bouldering will be between 5'10" and 6'2" on average, relatively athletic in build, neither heavy nor super lean. Women will tend to run in the same direction, albeit slightly smaller. Outside, you can pick the boulder problems that suit you at a given level of difficulty but the inside scene will exert a very real pressure on those outside the average. The problem with this over time is whether professionalization in climbing will require, for the first time in the sport, a much more specific body type than in the past, especially in regard to height.

I Read the News Today Oh Boy

2011-02-03T07:37:00.003-07:00

A while ago, when I was establishing this blog, I would post items that I thought were newsworthy, but increasingly have left that to those with more aptitude. You can find these items on the RSS feeds on the right margin. They more or less all read "Johnny Rock (or Gianni Rocco or Jean Roche) does first/second/third ascent of an F8c (Fb8c) free solo/ from the low start/without shoes" and so on. The news cycle of the climbing world is practically 24/7 now and the task of sorting out signal from noise is not getting any easier. More and more, I only feel compelled to comment on what the "news" says about how we define ourselves as climbers. As in the previous post, I feel we are at a saturation point that needs a major change in attitude and a redefinition of the sport's goals and purposes.

What matters about climbing news at this point? I personally like to hear about innovative ascents and have an overall view of the performance curve in various climbing disciplines. By the time the third or fourth ascent of a problem or route is reported, however, it may be time to move on. Hueco, for example, really seems to be played out. The reportage from there sounds more like the news from the North Shore of Oahu with the photogs getting the necessary sponsor-pleasing pics of their athletes on the well-known breaks. Areas and routes move through cycles as the media frenzy moves elsewhere.

The other aspect of the sped-up media cycle is the feedback after ascents. Witness reactions to Alex Johnson's ascent of the Mandala in the Buttermilks. Already climbed by a woman, Lisa Rands, in 2008, it seems to me that Alex just wanted to climb this amazing problem. However, the debate opened up immediately as to which start she used and of course the blogosphere stepped in to try to sort things out. Wills Young, the go-to source for all things Bishop, has patiently explained to outsiders the options for starting the Mandala. Jamie Emerson, the go-to analyst for most things related to the rules for bouldering, has also weighed in on this topic. You can read Alex's views on the problem at DPM.

Then there is the ascent by Portia Menlove of Barefoot on Sacred Ground. Here instead of the wrong start, some anonymous commenters noted that Portia did not finish up See Spot Run, a much easier highball problem which Barefoot joins. Matt Wilder's guide notes that a drop off is an acceptable option but the consensus on 8a.nu is mixed both as to grade and topping out. But again, it seems more like Portia just wanted to climb the problem and the newsworthiness of the ascent is neither here nor there. Thomasina Pidgeon had done it the year before, implying the so-called first female ascent angle was missing.

Others have commented, and I tend to agree, that female ascents of hard problems tend to be met with a degree of skepticism atypical of most male ascents. Things are brought up that seem more than anything else seem intended to keep women in their place. Downgrading or other means of devaluing the ascent are par for the course. I wonder if the "news" becomes part of this process, when ascents come under the microscope of public opinion, creating controversy where none had existed before. How do we account for this distorting effect?

News from the world of climbing is pretty trivial stuff, especially when viewed from the safety of one's laptop. It is impossible to convey through words and pictures, even video, the emotions and sensations that are central to the act of climbing. In the hyperdrive climate of the Internet, this internal, subjective element is either eliminated or reduced to a series of banal cliches. Yet it is the primary thing we pursue when we climb. It would be nice to have it back.

The Saturation Point

2011-01-27T07:33:00.004-07:00

The most recent controversy to emerge is David Lama's return to Cerro Torre. Having already run into a hornet's nest of controversy regarding the placement of bolts and leaving equipment on the mountain, Lama still wants (needs?) to finish his free ascent of the Compressor Route. Having pledged to avoid the excesses of the first trip, he has now announced that if necessary he will get to the summit and rappel down to place any needed gear. This is according to Colin Haley's excellent blog post on the topic.

Naturally, given such a controversial backstory, this latest move has even spawned an online petition, with over 800 signatures at last count, urging Lama's sponsors to "Stop their Support of his Bolting Actions on Cerro Torre."

At some point I am wondering when somebody, besides myself, is going to see that the nub of the controversy is not Lama's alleged intention to "rap-bolt" Cerro Torre. After all suppose he aided up and put in the bolts on lead? This distinction was not enough for some in California in the early 80s who chided John Bachar for using hooks to put in the bolts on the Bachar-Yerian instead of from non-aid drilling stances. No the Lama spectacle is about something else.

It seems to me that there is an instinctual understanding out there that we are truly at the end of the frontier phase of climbing. Not everything has been climbed, but now everything can be climbed. It is not the murder of the impossible as Messner puts it but more like Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols. The belief in the "shining mountain," to borrow Pete Boardman's phrase is no longer sustainable, or at least not in the current context of late-phase alpinism. I think there is a kind of despair out there at the recognition of the truth of this.

Do I think Lama is behaving appropriately? Not particularly. But I think the whole project of a "free ascent" of an immense wind-buffeted rime-encrusted spire seems petty and media-driven in the first place. What is missing is not adventure but purpose. We are at the saturation point, squeezing what we can out of the most spectacular walls and summits while we can. What does a "first ascent" mean when anything can be climbed, even by so-called "fair means?" That is a debate that successive generations will have to deal with in real terms, not merely hypothetical ones. It is the legacy the present is leaving to the future.

Sponsorship with Moon Climbing

2011-01-26T07:43:00.006-07:00

I have been crazy busy finishing up the manuscript for the bouldering book I am writing for Mountaineers Books so have not been able to post recently. But I wanted to announce my new sponsorship with Moon Climbing.

I have never been sponsored by a climbing company before, although I had support from Powerbar a while back. I am particularly psyched to be sponsored by Moon because to me they focus on core activities in climbing and especially bouldering. The Moon website has a great deal of very useful training information and ideas, perhaps unmatched by any other in English that I know. Visit the School Room to see it.

There is also a consistent series of reports from climbers from places such as Switzerland, Hueco, and elsewhere along with photos and video that make a great resource for learning more about hard boulder problems around the world.

Finally, I have always been a big admirer of Ben Moon, even after driving with him in a sketchy car up to Northumberland to go bouldering in the 1980s. Long story:) Ben has always been focused on achieving the hardest moves, routes, problems, you name it, in climbing, and has kept solidly in the game well into his 40s. There are few more important contributors to the sport out there.

Too many seem to think that receiving "free stuff" is the point of getting sponsored. To me, being sponsored means having an ally to hopefully get some interesting things done and put out there. My interests lie in helping climbers of all ages, but especially the very young and the older ones out there reach their fullest potential. If having the support of a climbing company helps in those goals, as I think it will, all the better.

Two Videos from Flagstaff Mountain

2011-01-14T18:07:00.002-07:00

The snow is melting fast and I am hoping to get some climbing done outside this weekend. Here are two videos of problems I did in the last few months. The first is a repeat of a two-move problem called Glass Plus, a likely V9 FA I did a couple of years ago. The crux is pulling off the ground and holding the swing.

Glass Plus V9 from peter beal on Vimeo.

The second video is an ascent of Right Finger SDS, a cool little V7 down the ridge from Crown Rock, at the Candel Area. This problem is very sharp and crimpy with good movement. There are a number of other excellent problems nearby as well.

Right Finger V7 SDS from peter beal on Vimeo.

Some day when I have more free time, I will climb somewhere else but for now, it's the place to be!

Interview with Kevin Jorgeson, President of Professional Climbers International

2011-01-09T07:01:00.004-07:00

There has been a lot of buzz on the climbing world about the public unveiling of a new professional climber's advocacy group, especially with its website now available. Professional Climbers International is the first organization of its kind that I am aware of specifically formed to speak on behalf of and provide resources for climbers who are receiving compensation from climbing companies. This development has not been received entirely positively by all.A media partnership announcement posted by the Climbingnarc caused some stir in the comments section of that site while Deadpoint Magazine commented that "Some (including PCI) believe that the PCI will be beneficial to both athletes and sponsors while others believe that the organization is nothing more than a ‘union’ for pro athletes."

I wanted to go directly to the source, past the press releases, to find out more about the vision for the organization. Kevin, already widely known for his adventures on 5.14 El Cap free routes and Buttermilk giant highballs, shared his thoughts on this recent adventure, perhaps the boldest of them all.

Can you give some background on the history of the PCI?

PCI got started in general conversations between the chairman of PCI, Rusty Klaasen, and myself when I was about 16. The conversations revolved around my own personal climbing career, sponsorships in general, what happens to athletes in their long-term careers, the structures of athletes as icons in sports, and how all of this can affect their careers.

Over the years, it became apparent there was opportunity present in our industry. So first, we spent a year doing research. We began by focusing on a comparative analysis of the climbing industry with snowboarding and surfing specifically. For each industry, we looked at growth cycles, growth catalysts, participation trends, consumer spending levels, sponsorship structures, industry health, media exposure, major events and a variety of other factors. What we learned from this data was that climbing is still super young. It’s had a really strong following, healthy growth, and is poised to grow in the future. PCI was formed to help guide as best it could, the growth of climbing for the benefit of its athletes, its industry and its place, our climbing areas.

By the growth of climbing, how do you see that actually playing out? Because the sport is different from skateboarding or snowboarding…

Climbing is one of the most non-condition and non-location specific sports out there. Whether it’s raining or snowing or you’re anywhere in the world, there’s a major climbing gym near you. You don’t have to live near an ocean to do and you don’t have to wait for the perfect weather window. Looking at just the numbers of participants versus enthusiasts, there’s a lot of potential for converting people to doing it more often. The pool of people that are aware of the sport, who have tried it, is huge. It’s massive. I am of the mindset that climbing is going to continue growing whether PCI has anything to do with it or not. The last thing I want to see is our climbing areas get trampled. I don’t want someone to come in, some corporate entity, and totally capitalize on climbing’s growth potential with no regard for the athletes, the industry, or the environment, but just the dimes. This is our effort to help climbing’s growth along in a way that‘s best for everyone. This is why we incorporated as a non-profit and not an S-corp or a C-corp.

Let’s just talk briefly about the kinds of things you can offer to athletes. I noticed you had the different levels, grassroots and pro-am and so forth. Can you be more specific in terms of the kind of services you can offer to someone just getting into that whole scene?

A lot of this is reflected in personal experience and in conversations with other athletes. I know personally that when I started looking into climbing sponsorship, I had no idea what I was doing. There was no roadmap how to approach it. I had no idea how to do any of it. I literally scotch-taped 4X6 photos on 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper and stapled it together and made a portfolio. I went to OR and introduced myself to people and at first it didn’t work. That’s fine, I had no idea what I was doing. The reason we divided up the membership levels is to target our resources to athletes at each stage of development. Grassroots athletes are going to need something totally different than a seasoned Professional. So for example, the grassroots athlete probably needs more help with developing a portfolio and understanding what sponsorship is about, what’s expected of them, and what’s realistic. If they climb V10 and feel entitled to a paycheck, we can say, “Look, here’s really a snapshot of what this looks like and how it works.” It’s designed to inform and provide the tools for them to get off on the right foot.

Hopefully the sponsors in the industry will see that and get more and more professional presentations from athletes when being approached. So it’s not, “Hey I climbed V10 and I want free shoes!” The goal is to raise the standard in a way so we’re not fueling any sense of entitlement but rather raising the standard of what it means to be a supported and sponsored athlete in this industry. So, on the grassroots level portfolio development and education is a huge part. So with your membership dollars you are going to get both a web and print quality version of your portfolio that our graphic designer will work with you on to develop. In addition, you’ll be able to call on the advisory services of Eric Hörst for training. If you have a problem with an injury you can call Noah Kaufman, MD. He’s even offered some pro bono medical services. You can talk to someone like Steven Jeffrey, who’s been in the game for a long time and understands what sponsorships are about. If you’ve climbed at all, you know who he is. He’s not just some young gun getting by on his fingers; he knows what it’s about, really bright guy. He can provide a lot of perspective and insight to a new athlete who may be super talented but has no idea what this is all about.

Has PCI looked into health insurance as a benefit?

It’s on our radar.

What about benefits for athletes further up the career ladder?

Say you are an athlete that has a contract and they’re getting a little bit more than free product. Maybe they have some incentive-based compensation built into the contract, so it’s not just a handshake. You’ve been with someone for a little while and you want to take your career more seriously, get to that next level. You’re likely going to need more exposure in order to do that? What we’re going to offer this year is a grant program. What it’s going to do is offer sponsored athletes grants for rock climbing specific objectives. We will pair the athletes with media professionals in all disciplines (film, photos, print) to tell that story and distribute it as widely as we can. We’re exploring a variety of different media partnerships to help make that happen.

At the professional level, you’ll have all the things that we offer everyone else, but we’ll also have a PR partner in-house. We kind of stumbled across this when I was in Boulder over the summer. Tommy Caldwell and I did a slide show at Neptune Mountaineering. We went out to a bar afterwards and Matt Segal and John Dickey were there and they were like “I didn’t even hear about it! Why didn’t I even know about this?” We came to the conclusion that climbers suck at PR. They just want to go rock-climbing and you know what, they shouldn’t have to be good at everything. In large part PCI was founded to help athletes with those things to further their careers.

Would PCI act in any way as negotiators or agents between athletes and industry?

We work on behalf of a class of athletes, not individuals. We work for our members collectively. We will provide a contact sheet if they’re interested in getting in touch with a particular company, but we’re not going to pick up the phone and say, “Hey Five Ten, you need to look at our member so-and-so.” That’s not our job, or say to an athlete, “Hey, so they offered you this, you need to go at 20% above that at these terms.” That’s not us. That’s up to the athlete and the company. We’re just trying to create more valuable athletes for the company so they’re getting more out of their marketing dollars and the athletes are offering something that’s more valuable to the company without ever getting in between.

One of the funny things about professional climbing is that unlike in other professional sports there is no discussion of how much money anyone is actually making? In the NFL it is straight up, everybody knows that so-and-so got signed for 10 million dollars. In climbing you have no idea what people are actually making.

I’d love to release that somehow, just to quell the perception that there is all this money out there. It’s like no actually, that’s not it. I’d love to get to the stage where it was somewhat uniform, where you could say, “Hey, you know if you’re delivering X and climbing Y, it’s not uncommon to see a contract that looks like this.” Like a Kelley Blue Book for climbing.

How would you describe the arrangement you have with climbingnarc.com?

PCI has partnered with Brian Runnells of ClimbingNarc because he does a great job assimilating global climbing news with a positive, refreshing editorial voice. Brian's effort to bring all the news to one place is very helpful to us (and all news junkies). Through our partnership, we aim to accomplish two goals. One, is to enrich the news content by helping Brian get first hand information from our members. Two, is to link Brian's ever growing archive with PCI's athlete profiles, allowing viewers of PCI's athlete profiles to quickly see the headlines relevant to each athlete. There is no exclusive arrangement between PCI athletes and Climbing Narc. Athletes are free to do whatever they want with their news. We just aim to centralize the news relevant to them onto their profiles and enrich the content we have all come to love from Climbing Narc.

What sorts of obstacles do you see in terms of the organization taking off or gaining widespread acceptance and hopefully popularity?

The main obstacle I see is misconception, people jumping to conclusions and not maybe reading all of what we are all about. We’re taking a very multi-faceted approach to this. We’re not taking a “push it from the accessibility side “only, or a “pull it from the media side” only. We’re taking a very holistic approach to our goal and I think it could be easy for someone focus on just one thing. Some might think “Oh you’re just a consulting firm” or “You’re just an agency” instead of keeping the big picture in mind because everything is related. Without the accessibility, the visibility means nothing and vice versa. And, without looking out for the climbing areas, where are we going to go?

Having as much face time with as many people as possible is really important. I am trying to do that as best I can with as many people as I can because this is a people proposition. We’re just looking out for the people in our industry. We’re trying to take care of our athletes, our business partners, and our climbing areas. That’s as simple as it is. If it gets muddled or if people miss that and think that it’s some money-making venture, it’s not.

How do you see the future path of PCI development?

I want to focus on memberships and industry partnerships because without the athletes and without the industry, this thing isn’t going to go anywhere. Those are two of our primary beneficiaries from this effort. If we can’t get climbers to see the benefits of joining and the industry can’t see the benefits of what we’re trying to do with their athletes, it’s just going to go stale. But I’m not too worried, it’s just a matter of time and working with people and signing people up.

New Year's Predictions

2011-01-07T11:09:00.003-07:00

Well the New Year has started and it is time to think about the future direction of rock climbing again. A few thoughts as I take some time between completing my book on bouldering.

First, in bouldering it is clear that we are mostly in a phase of consolidation. Numerous rapid repeats and downgrades have happened recently but little innovation outside Daniel Woods's ascent of the Game and Angie Payne's pioneering effort on Automator. Attention is being garnered for ascents that would have been minimally interesting 5 years ago or more. More media focus on the tactics and mindset that allow for real breakthroughs would be nice, not just repeats or minor variations, and by media, I don't just mean magazines.

Lincoln Lake will be big again next summer and there will be some fallout as a result. I can't speculate on what the Mount Evans rangers will think when every parking space on the road above the area is filled up day in, day out, but there may be some concern expressed about human impact at some point. The other issue (for some) will be whether the problems there hold their grades much longer, especially at the upper end. Some fresh faces and new attitudes may have that result, time will tell.

In sport climbing in the US, someone besides Joe Kinder has got to start bolting hard new routes. Amazing to note that virtually no major new sport climbs have been done in the Front Range in Colorado in close to a decade. By major, I mean 5.14c or harder and independent lines. Link-ups at Rifle or the Primo Wall do not count. This is mostly the case elsewhere in the US as far as I can see. It is telling that the strongest Front Range sport climber right now, Jonathan Siegrist, gets the job done in Kentucky, not Colorado.

In trad climbing and soloing, nobody is remotely in the same league as Alex Honnold whose endurance and steady head are unmatched by anyone else I know of. Again, holding pattern seems to be the paradigm right now. Whether new routes done in the headpoint style, whether crazy tall "boulder problems" or gear protected, continue to be popular is an open question. Some impressive lines have been done for sure but I sense that the wave is beginning to subside.

The impression I have is that the scene, especially in the US, is wide open for whoever wants to make an impact, especially in a legitimate way.

Lord of the Rings and Climbing

2010-12-28T16:50:00.007-07:00

The Dave Graham problem Mithril 8b at Cresciano from Moon Climbing.

Periodically I reread the classic fantasy trilogy by JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. For some reason, this year I was really struck by the impact this book has had on climbing. Granted that climbers can be a nerdy bunch, but a search of route names in the US and abroad shows a prevalence of borrowing that no other work of literature can compare to. In the quite literally Misty Mountains of New Hampshire, route after route was directly named after places in the book with examples like the Mordor Wall, Mines of Moria or the less appealing Orc, a nasty 5.8. Here in Colorado, boulder problems such as Gandalf indicate the enduring appeal of the books. In Switzerland, a place that had a great affect on Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth, Dave Graham problems such as Shadowfax and Mithril seem to reflect the atmosphere of Rivendell. As it happens the Swiss valley of Lauterbrunnen was the model for this mythic valley, based on Tolkien's visit there as a young man. The list goes on and on.

Paul Robinson on Shadowfax 8B at Chironico, photo from 27 Crags.

What is the appeal of Tolkien's writing for climbers? I think there are a number of possibilities. First the books are ultimately about a long expedition to climb a mountain to find, what else but The Cracks of Doom, later immortalized in climbing history as the first 5.10 in Yosemite Valley. The terrain that the characters traverse in the book is very well-known to climbers including mountain passes, craggy valleys, deep forests and so on.

There is also the whole idea of the quest that appears on the face of it ridiculous. Many critics have found fault with the idea of the Ring as an object of desire because it seems too small and innocuous to have such power associated with it. What could be more similar to a boulder problem?.

Finally there is the idea of creating a fantasy world out of the raw material of nature. Climbing is at its essence an act of imagination, imposing order and meaning on the chaos of the natural environment. Tolkien's genius created entire languages and geographies that mirror in interesting ways the naming practices and customs associated with climbing. Little wonder then that many climbers over the decades following the publication of LOTR have honored this connection.

I think there are many other parallels and connections that have made the climbing world find particular resonance with Tolkien's creation. Somehow, I feel confident that the associations made so long ago with these books will persist well into the future.

The Rich Simpson Controversy

2010-12-21T07:52:00.006-07:00

Recently I have been steering away from current events in climbing, mostly because it really has been more of the same, and also because I have been too busy with other things, especially in terms of writing. However a special case has emerged that says some very interesting things about climbing and its meaning, and particularly its intersection with commerce. If you have been using the Internets, you were probably alerted to the situation by a remarkable article at UKC which in essence declared that owing to a lack confirmation by the climber, "UKC has now removed all news items and article references from our website regarding Rich Simpson's climbing achievements. These have not been deleted however, and we would be happy to republish these news articles if proof of these ascents comes to light." (Full Disclosure: I have had a couple of reviews published by UKC, albeit with no compensation)

The article/editorial also noted that Simpson's primary sponsors Wild Country and Scarpa have apparently dropped him though with a bit of searching, he is still on their websites. According to statements published by UKC, Simpson, when asked to verify his accomplishments, declined to do so and submitted resignations with both companies. He is still listed at Moon Cimbing.

A number of topics on message boards in the UK discussed the topic, sometimes at agonizing length, but with little resolution to the central questions, questions that will persist well after this instance has faded from the headlines.

What is the best response to the appearance of doubts about a climber's achievements? It seems to me that this case is a difficult one and in part because Simpson appears to have the strength and ability to have made good on his claims. However also peculiar is the absolute media silence about the bigger picture, that is the process of vetting and confirmation of news and sponsorship agreements. In a properly professionalized sport, such as world track and field, it seems that this situation would have been handled very differently. Indeed it appears that claims by Simpson about running almost certainly brought to light questions about his climbing record.

Running is by nature a more verifiable and quantifiable sport, even at the amateur level. Chip timing and the internet have made verification of race times a matter of a quick web search. Climbing is much more murky, and bouldering even more so, relying on one climber's word or a previous record of achievements. In the world of alpinism, especially solo alpinism, controversy and debated ascents are surprisingly common.

Is it really a problem that there will be individuals who take advantage of a relatively loose scoring and monitoring system? Perhaps, but given the lack of openness about sponsorship contracts and criteria for them, it is hardly surprising that these things can happen. Maybe the loosely enforced and mostly honor-system-enforced historical record of climbing is just an intrinsic part of the experience that athletes and sponsors must deal with as best they can. In this regard, the silence surrounding this particular episode, at least in terms of real news and not just secondary commentary, is telling. We may never know the real story behind this turn of events but we may see a change in how the climbing industry does the business of reporting news and checking climbing CVs moving forward.

Breakthrough Bouldering Clinic Recap

2010-12-13T07:17:00.002-07:00

After some speculation whether anyone would show up, I had at least 10 people at the Boulder Rock Club last Thursday night for a clinic that went close to two hours. I started off explaining my philosophy of climbing better, namely paying better attention to what you are doing and understanding why. To me this is the essence of maximizing your potential as a climber and yet is so hard to do well. Then we had a little bit of falling practice. Much like in sport climbing, safe effective falling technique is crucial to feeling confident trying moves. Because trying harder moves is the key to doing harder problems, I wanted the participants to feel free to fail safely.

After the opening part, I had people move through a relatively easy but steeply overhung sequence getting them to think about body position,foot placement and speed. I am not trying to critique their climbing so much as open up other possibilities for thinking about climbing. Then we tried a long dyno type move, working on seeing the differences that momentum and foot placement can make, as well as speed of execution. Another harder problem was used to illustrate the need to make the most of good foot choices to use smaller handholds.

Finally I made some suggestions about effective bouldering gear, especially slippers, as many intermediate boulderers use shoes that are too stiff and take too much time to put on and take off. I also showed them what makes a good crashpad (representing Organic!) and why you need one (or two, really). I answered a ton of great questions.

I had a few chalkbags to distribute, courtesy of Chris Danielson at Trango climbing, and some free chalk, courtesy of Metolius, as well. I will be working on the schwag for the next clinic, for sure. Where to hold it next is the question.

I think the comments of one BRC member (on my previous post) said it best:

"I was lucky enough to go to the clinic, and it was great. Thanks for all the good advice! I thought it was a great balance of on-the-wall work, and mental training. I got some new perspective on trying hard, redefining failure and success, and some great training and technique tips. I'm ...trying to break out of the v5/6 grade, and I got a lot out of it. I'd go to another one of these in a heartbeat."

Definitely looking forward to doing more! If you think your gym might be interested, let me know.

BRC Bouldering Clinic Next Thursday December 9

2010-12-03T17:42:00.004-07:00

I am very psyched to be offering my first public clinic on bouldering at the Boulder Rock Club next Thursday evening from 7 pm to 8:30. This clinic, titled Breakthrough Bouldering, is intended to help the serious boulderer or roped climber make the next step in proficiency and difficulty. If you are a boulderer who has had trouble getting out of the V2 or V3 grade, I will offer some ideas on how to self-assess and take concrete steps to improve. My primary focus will be on the psychological and mental paths that can be explored in conjunction with better utilization of physical strength, hoping to dissolve the artificial distinction that too many climbers make between the powers of mind and body.

The clinic will be a great learning experience for me as I wrap up my book, listening to climbers and their reactions to my experiences and ideas. Aimed at typical time-pressed climbers, I certainly hope it will help them learn to make the most of the limited time that most of us have to practice the sport we love so much

While this first offering is only open to BRC members, I will be contacting Boulder and Denver-area gyms with the offer to conduct this clinic, free of charge, for their members and guests. I will keep you posted on how it goes. It sounds like there may be some serious interest already

A Story of Two Worlds: Conversations with John Gill and Dave Graham

2010-11-30T05:15:00.006-07:00

In the last two weeks, I have had the curious pleasure of talking at length with two of the most influential boulderers in the history of the sport. By curious, I mean that they essentially bracket the beginning and the end of the development of the idea of bouldering. The conversations made me reflect on the constantly evolving nature not just of bouldering but of people and culture overall.

About two weeks ago, I met up with John Gill at the American Alpine Club Museum in Golden. It was a great time and began with us touring the actual exhibits before sitting down for a conversation. It felt a bit like touring the Louvre with Leonardo da Vinci. John is a truly modest man, reserved yet with a penetrating sense of humor, as he recalled the ways in which he thought about bouldering and essentially founded the sport. We talked for close to two hours, exploring the meaning of climbing in our respective lives and the way in which our thoughts about moving on rock, training, and even thinking itself affects the experience of climbing. I recorded the conversation and hope to have the time to transcribe it in the near future. While John began climbing in era steeped in the auras of alpinism and big wall climbing, his ideas about bouldering ultimately revolutionized all areas of climbing. I felt while talking with him, that I was meeting not just a historically important character but one essentially contemporary in his thinking, who did not seem caught in the past. I have been talking recently with some truly legendary figures in climbing but my time with John was one of the most interesting moments in my climbing career.

The week after, I talked with Dave Graham in Boulder. Dave, much like John, needs no introduction. Dave rewrote the rules of the sport of bouldering in the mid-1990s, much as Chris Sharma did for sport climbing. Tearing through the standard testpieces in Fontainebleau, Dave then went on to establish numerous testpieces in Switzerland and all over the US. His intensity and keen intelligence are notorious in a sport where exuding a sense of laid-back cool and detachment are more typical.

The conversation was fast-paced and wide-ranging as we discussed his plans for the Island, the media outlet he is forming to distribute his vision of contemporary climbing. A child of the 90s, Dave is into electronic media in all forms: video, audio, the Web, anything and everything, all pasted together. His international celebrity and reputation within the climbing community ensure his ideas will bear fruit somewhere on a global stage. As with John, two hours flew by like nothing. Dave's restless mind hopped effortlessly from one subject to the next, digging deeply though never for too long, giving me some insight into how he is able to read rock so quickly and so intensely.

There is an interesting contrast in meeting with these two very different characters so close together. It shows that really there is no such thing as the typical climber and that while there must be some commonality among climbers across time, there are also huge differences, differences shaped by truly profound influences and forces. The world that I live in sits somewhere between the two, offering I hope, some perspective on both the world of Gill and Graham.

An Accident and Some Thoughts on the Cost of Climbing

2010-11-20T07:08:00.005-07:00

Shannon Forsman and I were getting in a short late afternoon session at Flagstaff Mountain. The air was calm and still a bit warm, though the rock was beginning to feel crisp where it had cooled facing away from the sun. I felt like I was moving fairly well, nothing out of the ordinary, just OK. It's times like this that I sit back somewhat mentally as I climb and think about the simple beauty of light on stone, the straightforward presences of the rocks swelling up out the earth, and visually drift, like a bird, across the distance space above Gregory Canyon.

We were talking about the Adventure Film Festival at the Boulder Theater (which I did not go to) and I commented on how so many climbing films still seem focused on selling the adrenalin rush, the sensation, and the difficulty. It seemed to me that climbing film makers seem deliberately to decide to avoid the merely human, the humble reality of the act of climbing. I speculated on why nobody that I knew of had really gone there, looking for example at the impact of serious climbing injuries and fatalities on people's lives, the ways in which lives are altered forever, ruined even, in the midst of a search for, well, what exactly?

I was moving across the initial jugs of the Monkey Traverse when another climber came running down the hill saying that a rescue had been called in and that a crew would be coming down the trail very soon. We headed down the trail ourselves and I saw a man lying near the base of one of the many gullies below Alamo Rock, awkwardly perched on a slab, clearly not in good shape, vomit dripping from his lips, eyes half-opened. He looked like any number of typical visitors to Flag, not really a climber, just a guy who was out with his friends and decided to scramble up a rock. Shannon went up to see what she could do while I went up to the parking lot to see if I could carry gear or assist in any way.

The sirens coming up the road grew louder and louder and soon a group of vehicles from Rocky Mountain Rescue, OSMP and the Sheriff's Department were parked, their walkie-talkies scratching away under the glare of flashing red-blue lights while the rescue group got under way. I followed them down the trail, watching with growing respect the way in which the situation was quickly assessed, duties assigned, and gear deployed. While it didn't seem to be a particularly difficult spot, the victim was pretty big and his situation seemed serious. Within a few minutes the location was thoroughly covered with personnel and the victim secured.

Within less than an hour he was loaded on an ambulance and taken to the hospital. I talked briefly with Rick Hatfield, ranger with OSMP, who commented that, despite the obvious risky nature of the rock formations in the area, such incidents were rare, considering the visitor numbers. Yet, he added, these accidents seem to come in sets, with long gaps punctuated by closely grouped accidents. He didn't know why, just that it happened that way.

On the drive back down, the rescue teams having dispersed, I mused on this observation some more, considering how one person's tragedy becomes in the long view, a statistic of sorts, part of a pattern as natural as the rhythm of the pines growing across the mountainside or the distribution of the boulders. We want to take meaning from all of this, find something deeper and valuable, but is it really there?

In the face of this dilemma, do we as climbers face the facts of death and injury with a sort of insouciant denial, a recognition that we are all condemned to this fate in some sense anyway? This is one option but not the most interesting or meaningful reaction in my view. The truth is most of us will not suffer any heroic martrydom on the slopes, washed away by an avalanche, obliterated by rockfall, or buried deeply in a crevasse. Instead, we will succumb to gravity slowly, bit by bit. We fall by degrees but finally, inevitably, we fall.

I kept contrasting in my mind the simplicity and clarity of angular holds basking in the light of a late fall afternoon, glowing orange and red in the fading light, with the ugly complex and amorphous truth of a man's body, sprawled, bleeding and in shock, his mind unclear of place or time, his fate completely at the mercy of others. What can we, as climbers, make of this state of things? Do we acknowledge, but ultimately ignore, it as simply the cost of doing business or do we take a more human view of it, recognizing that in a quest for this experience of climbing, there will be failures and catastrophes and that these failures make us human, make the sport meaningful? I don't pretend to have the answers. My faith in climbing is far too tentative for that. But the question seems important, too important to leave unexplored.

Winter Bouldering, The Book and the Big Stone

2010-11-17T06:46:00.004-07:00

I finally had a session at Flag that would begin to count as winter bouldering. After some recent light snows, the weather has cooled down considerably and shaded north-facing formations are still holding the white stuff. On Sunday, I stayed out almost until dark in 40 degree temperatures trying a silly contrivance on Red Wall. A couple of things are needed. One might be some good sized handwarmers, another would be a light on a tripod, like the Gorilla Light, to make the most of the little time I have. Anyway I am refining my winter kit and will let you know what the final ensemble looks like.

On the bouldering book front I am excited to have some prominent people in the bouldering community helping me out at this point (names to be named later) and hope for more contributions as the word gets out. Sending out emails for this help is like sending messages in a bottle, one hopes for the best. Thanks to all who have generously helped so far. And if an email from me is languishing in your inbox, please consider responding. You will be making it the best how-to book on bouldering published.

On the climbing news front, the most exciting (and ongoing) event is surely Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson on the Dawn Wall, freeing a humongously difficult sequence of pitches in what will be certainly the hardest big wall freeclimb on the planet. Kevin is posting updates on his Twitter feed at this point. If this climb goes on this trip, there will be likely contenders for hardest sport climb (Sharma on Jumbo Love at Mount Clark), hardest big wall free climb, and dare I say it, hardest boulder problem with Daniel Woods on The Game right here in Boulder Canyon, all in the US, not in Europe. I should add also hardest trad pitch with Beth Rodden on Meltdown. Speculation but a potentially very interesting state of affairs in my view.

Writing, writing, writing

2010-11-09T06:57:00.004-07:00

I have been keeping my posts and short and far apart recently due to my commitment to writing the bouldering book and keeping up with my college work. I have been getting out only a few hours at a time, meaning the gym or Flagstaff at most. The Park is becoming a distant memory at this point. A cherished one nevertheless.

Nevertheless, I feel reasonably strong and am inspired by the goings on out there and of course Internet video. The ever-productive Jon Glassberg has a new short video from Switzerland:

as well as a new installment from his work on Lincoln Lake:

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! Chapter 2 • Bones... from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

These give a good comparison of the cinematic potential of some locales versus others. Chironico has changing light, interesting backgrounds, amazing texture, and best of all life. Things grow there such as trees meaning the frame always has something else besides rocks. And this is the problem with Lincoln. Almost always you are shooting someone climbing a grainy round rock with piles of other rocks, mostly identical in nature, sitting just behind. The light is almost always a dull flat gray owing to Lincoln's east facing sunken location. Great for bouldering,lousy for video. I think Jon has done a pretty good job with the limitations of the area. I look forward to see if he can get something really good out of Switzerland,especially something without a hip-hop or techno soundtrack:)

Fred Nicole Video from the 90s

2010-10-31T07:28:00.003-06:00

While doing research for my book, I came across this video produced by the indefatigable Udo Neumann. Neumann is co-author of the essential book on training, Performance Rock Climbing and has created numerous useful and interesting videos. I think most of his books are available only in German, sadly.

The video of Radja, the first V14 in the world, comes near the end but all of it is worth a view. Nicole has been such a major influence on the sport of bouldering that any opportunity to see him climb is worth the time.

The Beta Series Continues

2010-10-30T14:17:00.002-06:00

The Beta - Branch Bacardi from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

If you want to see climbing video done right, Andrew K can show you. Funny monologue, beautiful filming, good soundtrack. Speaking of video, make sure to check out "Enter the Wolvo" from the Island. Maybe more on this video later.

Alpine Season is Over

2010-10-27T06:17:00.002-06:00

After a few hints that the end was near, the snow came down hard in the mountains over the last few days, shutting down what had been a nice extended season. I have been very busy these days, barely able to do much besides work on the book and my classes, hence the lack of posts. Here's a video of a problem at Flagstaff to indicate the kind of locales I am likely to be spending my time for the near future.

Southern Sun V7/8 Flagstaff Mountain from peter beal on Vimeo.

Inching Closer

2010-10-19T07:45:00.006-06:00

On Saturday, after visiting Flagstaff to do a bouldering tour (nobody wanted one) and talking with OSMP Ranger Rick Hatfield, I headed home to regroup and head off to RMNP. The Park was looking gorgeous with the high peaks, dusted with snow, glistening in the sun. The Bear Lake parking is still touch-and-go on these nice weekend days,sadly the only time I can make it. A pleasant hike up to Lower followed and I settled in for another session on the project. After a fun warmup on the many moderate problems in the immediate vicinity, I started working European again in earnest. At this point I am consistently hitting the second crimp on link and sticking the undercling move almost every time I try it. I also easily did the last move.

It's hard to say what the deciding factors will be. Certainly Saturday was by far the best conditions for trying the boulder that I have ever experienced. I suppose having a partner would be helpful but my schedule hemmed in by work and family is much too irregular for the typical Chaos visitor. The main thing is ultimately constantly building finger strength and hoping the season extends just a wee bit longer. Otherwise, I'll be there in May digging it out!

Flagstaff Bouldering Tour This Saturday

2010-10-13T15:32:00.000-06:00

For anyone who wants beta on bouldering at Flagstaff Mountain, now that the fall/winter season is in progress, please join me for a tour starting at First Overhang and continuing down the mountain from there. Rick Hatfield from OSMP will be there as well.

We will be meeting up at 10:30 on October 16th at the First Overhang Parking Area. Here's the OSMP official announcement:

Bouldering on Flagstaff – Get the Beta!
Sat Oct 16, 10:30 am – noon
Fall is finally here and Flagstaff Mountain’s prime season is just beginning. Join local climber/OSMP trail guide Peter Beal and ranger-naturalist Rick Hatfield for an introductory program about bouldering on Flagstaff Mountain, one of the most important urban bouldering areas in the country. Get the beta from Peter on Flagstaff's major formations, dozens of problems, and information on environmentally sound bouldering practices. Rick will answer questions about park resources and policies. The tour will not provide technical instruction or safety advice related to bouldering or climbing.
Meet at the First Overhang Parking Area, located at the last hairpin turn before the entrance to the summit area, approximately 1.7 miles from the Panorama Point kiosk. Due to limited parking, OSMP encourages tour participants to carpool, hike or bike to the meeting point.

It May Be Over

2010-10-11T07:33:00.008-06:00

Snow and Wind, Lake Haiyaha October 2010

On Saturday, despite the RMNP webcam showing high winds and snow, I, and as it turned out a surprising number of others, decided to give the Park a try. Even though it was obviously not great weather above 10,000 feet, the parking lot at Bear Lake was almost totally full. I met up with Ryan Young on the trail and we set a fairly brisk pace up to the Autobot Boulder. A stiff breeze was blowing across the boulders, accompanied by regular snow showers, which made warming up considerably difficult. After a few cursory turns on the easier problems there, I decided to get out of the wind and see if European Human Being was at all feasible to try. Amazingly the problem was tucked away sufficiently from the relentless wind, and though it was cold, I was able to get warmed up reasonably well. While I would have liked to have been able to report a successful send of this problem, the humidity level alone was prohibitive and in fact not long after I started packing up, water started running down the wall. I was however able to hit the second crimp from the start and complete the other moves quickly. While I am not necessarily the hardest of the hardcore when it comes to climbing in bad conditions, this session was certainly one of the toughest I have had recently. I am still remaining optimistic for one more good session on it.

Autobot V4 Ryan Young October 9 2010

While there may in fact be a few days left for the truly dedicated, for most it may be time to declare the season over, especially above treeline. Jamie Emerson gives the official wrap-up for Lincoln Lake while Chad Greedy's more impressionistic version is here. While the consensus about Lincoln is still settling, there is no doubt that this summer represents one of the most active seasons in Colorado bouldering since the first wave of bouldering in RMNP roughly 10 years ago.

For the Park, it was a relatively uneventful season, consisting primarily of repeats,such as Dan Beall, Jimmy Webb, et. al. on Jade. The interesting new developments have come from Jon Glassberg and Co. heading up to Upper Upper Chaos and really digging around to find new problems. I am confident that Upper and Super Chaos have many possibilities remaining. Sadly the hike is far more epic than Lincoln, which will keep many away.

For me it has been an education in many ways, encountering the weather, trying to be persistent in the face of time pressures, working on hard problems, often solo, usually getting frustrated, yet always enjoying the incredible sense of freedom that comes from hiking and climbing up in the high mountains of Colorado.

Climbing and Art: A Debate that Needs to be Re-opened?

2010-10-05T07:55:00.000-06:00

As a companion to a new essay (with accompanying paintings) that has just been published in Alpinist 32, an online feature I wrote titled "Climbing and Art" was added. In the online essay, I argue that it is time for a new vision of climbing:

"In other words, the outer frontier in any objective sense is now closed in climbing. It's my view that only within inner frontiers does the art of climbing have any future. We have yet to see very many contemporary portrayals of the inner vision of the climber that compare with examples from the 1960s and '70s."

In the essay I argue that a long time ago, writers in major journals took these questions seriously with a view toward maintaining some vision of integrity in the sport. I cite Harold Drasdo's important 1974 essay, "Climbing as Art" as one important example.

I am definitely concerned that with the newly emerged category of the "professional" climber and the emphasis on exploiting the commercial potential of the sport, important and creative voices are being buried. Especially worrying is the thought that climbing continues to be a reflection of a leisure class with seemingly endless amounts of time and money to burn, a class that is overwhelmingly white, prosperous, and self-satisfied with its view of the world. While I recognize that this has always been the case, any real innovation in the sport, and of course in society as a whole, comes from those outside the system. Trends in the society as a whole, not to mention the Great Recession, are working against diversity of voices and views, a situation that is unhealthy for both climbing and the broader social picture.

Threading the Needle-A Great Vimeo Movie

2010-10-03T15:03:00.003-06:00

Threading The Needle from Craig Muderlak on Vimeo.

Every once in a while, a really good lo-fi homemade film comes along. This is a great example. Kudos to its makers for sharing it with the climbing community.

Craig's blog is at www.blownminds.blogspot.com

Stone Fort Guidebook

2010-10-01T07:21:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, Andrew Wellman sent me an advance copy of his new guidebook to one of the more popular areas around Chattanooga, typically known by boulderers as Little Rock City but called by its owner "the Stone Fort." This is not a climbing area I have ever visited before but it certainly looks excellent going by the photos in the book. Lots of gorgeous gray and tan sandstone boulders, beautiful features and holds, mostly flat landings, and low to zero approach times are what await the visitor.

The excellence of the visuals in this book is certainly a major attraction and the layout, maps, and descriptions appear to be very clear user-friendly and accurate. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the guide is its extensive collection of interviews and essays, digging up the stories of past visitors from decades ago. The feel is one of a close community and having met some of the locals from this area over the summer, I can see why that might be the case.

There is a good pre-order deal and extra motivation in the form of donations to help the medical bills of Lee Means so visit the Greener Grass website to find out more. If I ever make it to the South for bouldering, this book will be in my luggage.

Death of Kurt Albert

2010-09-29T06:14:00.000-06:00

The climbing world was shaken by the news of a serious accident involving Kurt Albert, the German climbing legend who invented the concept of the redpoint and hence the modern concept of free climbing. Planet Mountain has the full story as do many other websites. Kurt was 56 years old.

Back in the Park

2010-09-27T07:47:00.000-06:00

Since my project at Lincoln Lake broke, I have been focusing my efforts in RMNP, trying to get up there once a week to try European Human Being. This crimpy V12 has long been on the to-do list and I have finally begun to really apply myself to it. A session last weekend didn't feel too bad but one glaring omission remained, the undercling move to the upper small crimp. This weekend I squeezed in a short session and started to really closely analyze it.

Pictured above is the classic position for the move with a high left foot. After repeated tries (and failures)to make this work, I have finally succeeded on the move by keeping my feet lower on smaller edges to the left. While I don't know if I can get this problem this season, solving that obstacle is a big step forward. It is obvious that one thing, more than anything else, is required for success on the problem and that is having the right hand lower crimp feeling like a jug. Everything else becomes much easier if that is the case.

The last obstacle is sticking the powerful but subtle throw out left. This is a hard move to a pretty good edge but the possibility for losing the left foot and spinning off is very high. I have done this move but always find it a bit touch-and-go. Here Aaron from Fort Collins shows how to set up for the move.

The temperatures over the past week have been curiously warm for this late in the season and the fear is that suddenly winter will swoop in and shut the alpine bouldering areas down. It would be nice to try this problem in crisp conditions for once.

Three Red Wall Classics

2010-09-18T08:11:00.000-06:00

Three Red Wall Classics from peter beal on Vimeo.

The top three problems on Flagstaff's Red Wall, done on a hot greasy September afternoon. Listen to your own favorite music while watching or enjoy the silence:)

Andrew Kornylak's The Beta Continues: Alfred Hitchcock

2010-09-16T09:13:00.001-06:00

The Beta - Alfred Hitchcock from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Pretty much anything Andrew creates is well worth watching. No exception here.

Broken Arms at Wolverineland

2010-09-15T07:52:00.002-06:00

Just as the summer season is wrapping up and I was getting psyched on a new project at Lincoln Lake, catastrophe (or opportunity) struck. I went to Lincoln Lake last Saturday to try Small Arms and after a few tries on the hard second move found that I was very close to sticking it,meaning that the problem might go, maybe even that day. Unfortunately as I was trying the third move, I felt the sharp gaston give just a little. A few more pulls on it showed that the hold was detaching. I called over a few other locals to see what they thought and the consensus was that the loose part of the hold should be broken off. This was very quickly done leaving a much worse edge and a far harder move. While we were there, the last pair of holds was looked at again and the loose part of the left edge was removed as well. This will make the ending move a bit harder but still doable the old way.

I was reluctant to modify such a classic problem but for the fact that if the either hold had broken on a climber, a serious fall could have resulted. I am sure the second move goes but the overall grade of the problem has risen from a soft V11 to a likely hard 12 or 13. I know I am not strong enough to do it at this time and will probably stick to other areas for now. Even though I would like to discover the other hard problems there, I have so many undone attempted problems in RMNP, and of course Clear Blue Skies on the other side of Evans, that I will focus my efforts elsewhere for the rest of the season.

So if you were planning on trying Small Arms, here is what the holds look like now:

The two broken holds on Small Arms

Buena Suerte!

Labor Day at Lincoln Lake

2010-09-09T09:34:00.003-06:00

Looking down at Lincoln Lake

I finally decided to visit the area that has been the focus of many of the most active boulderers in the Front Range for much of the summer. Lincoln Lake, AKA WolverineLand, is a pile of huge boulders below the Mount Evans Road, just above the lake. The access was pretty straightforward. After paying for a pass and driving up one of the most spectacular roads in the lower 48, you park above the lake and make your way down the tundra to the boulders, which sit somewhere around 11,700 feet. This is a steep hike and at some point a switchbacked trail is going to need to be marked. Erosion could soon be a concern given the inevitable popularity the area will enjoy.

I soon approached the boulders and had no idea where things were. There are so many literally house-sized boulders that it is difficult to see anything or find your way. With the aid of some other climbers I found Unshackled, a spectacular roof problem that sits more or less in the middle of things. There are about a thousand photos and videos of this problem so I am not posting one here. Suffice to say that for a granite boulder, this kind of a feature on such a steep wall is remarkable and an indication of the incredible potential that the area is yielding. After a few minutes of scoping it out, I decided to go over to check out Small Arms.

Trying Small Arms V11, photo taken by Caroline Treadway

I really wanted to try Small Arms, a crimpy V11 put up this summer by Carlo Traversi, and after bumping around the talus I found it. Small Arms is found on the north side of the talus, close to the bottom of the slope, climbing a beautiful steep wall on edges and small crimps. It vies with Unshackled for the most beautiful line here.


Sizing up the last move on Small Arms, photo Caroline Treadway

Small Arms felt very doable and much easier than Clear Blue Skies, its oft-compared counterpart on the other side of Mount Evans. The second and the last moves are hard,while the others went very quickly. With a spotter and another pad (and a more healed tailbone area) I think this problem should go pretty soon, assuming the road stays open.

I had to get back to Boulder so after packing up, I headed back up to the road, stopping on the way to chat with various friends and acquaintances. Angie Payne, Flannery Shay-Nemirow and Jamie Emerson were trying a new Dave Graham problem, Little House on the Prairie, an innocuous looking V13 high up on the slope.

Jamie Emerson, Little House

Angie Payne, Little House

The view to the southeast, approaching the road

The walk out was tiring but oddly enjoyable as the views expanded across the Front Range and the sun added a warm glow to the ridges and broad slopes of Mount Evans. Given all the hype that this area has received recently, I wondered if it would actually be that good, but having explored only a little bit of the possibilities here, there is no doubt in my mind that I will be back soon.

A Flagstaff Climbing Video: 30th Birthday Roof (Tommy's Arete "Bonus")

2010-09-07T07:09:00.000-06:00

I was up at Lincoln Lake yesterday and it was amazing but I don't have time to write about it today. Here are two so-so videos instead. Sorry :)

30th Birthday Roof V6 Flagstaff Mountain from peter beal on Vimeo.

Tommy's Arete V7 RMNP from peter beal on Vimeo.

8C at Lincoln Lake?

2010-09-05T08:37:00.003-06:00

Daniel Woods and Dave Graham reported on 8a.nu that they both did Warrior Up, a roof problem at Wolverine Land, the newly developed area near Lincoln Lake on Mount Evans. Both note the problem as soft for the grade.

A fuller report is available at the Low Down.

(Update: Video of the ascent by Daniel)

Video Of Jamie Emerson's ascent of Evil Backwards V14

The cooler weather will see more high-grade ascents in the coming weeks, no doubt. For my part, I am hoping my lower back and pelvis feel better fast. The timing of last Sunday's slip-and-fall could not have been worse. I took a quick trip to Chaos on Friday afternoon and found that bouldering was very frustrating owing to the constant fear of hitting that area again. I am confident things will get better but time in the high country is running short.

Rough Gem

2010-09-04T07:26:00.002-06:00

My favorite kind of video; a beautiful boulder, atmospheric location, shot long. Wonderful. Found on UKClimbing via the Low Down

Nalle Hukkataival Rough Gem (8B) FA from ZeroSkillz on Vimeo.

Also it appears that Jamie Emerson has succeeded on Evil Backwards 8B+ at Lincoln Lake, for its possible 4th ascent. Nice work!

Flagstaff Trash Bash

2010-09-03T06:59:00.000-06:00

Flagstaff Trash Bash September 8

Watch Your Step

2010-09-01T07:51:00.001-06:00

On Sunday morning I made a very early morning run up to Boulder Canyon to try the Hug. While standing on the riverbank by the tyrolean crossing and checking the creek for a way across, my feet very suddenly came out from under me and I landed hard on my rear end, resulting in one of the worst falls I have taken in recent memory. I wasn't carrying anything and have been to that site many times before so no excuses, just a sudden slip and fall.

I am still recovering from it but am glad nothing more serious happened, such as a sprain or fracture of something, or hitting my head, any of which could have happened. I still ferried my pads across and tried the problem, which was stupid since over-the-head heelhooks are kind of difficult with a severely pounded posterior. The point of all this is to remind readers that incidents of this type can come out of nowhere. After a summer of tiptoeing across huge talus an hour from the road carrying three pads, I would not have guessed that I could take such a fall, literally next to the road. Maybe I let my guard down or was not quite awake. Whatever the reason, it was a hard reminder to never let your guard down.

Obviously I am glad I emerged with only a bruised butt and some scrapes. Sadly the climbing world recently learned of the death of Chloe Graftiaux, killed when a hold/block pulled while she was soloing easy ground while descending from a route in the French Alps, sending her for a 600-meter fall. A very experienced and talented young climber, Ms. Graftiaux was a master at multiple climbing disciplines with a plan to become a climbing guide. It is a shame that she is gone. While we can never know exactly what happened or why, the accident is food for thought. Always be aware and alert when climbing, even on the approach or descent and maybe especially then.

Adam Ondra Movie Preview

2010-08-30T18:10:00.000-06:00

ADAM ONDRA - a few shots from the movie from BERNARTWOOD on Vimeo.

Not much time for writing as the semester starts. I am wondering exactly how this movie is going to turn out. "The True Story of the Best Climber in the World"?

Defining the Problem: Continuing the Discussion

2010-08-22T06:12:00.001-06:00

Recently a discussion emerged on the interwebs about the possibility that Paul Robinson had renamed a Fred Nicole problem in Rocklands South Africa. Originally called Black Eagle, Paul had appeared to propose the new name "Bleagle" to reflect the new status of the problem, on which crucial holds had broken. Among the most vocal critics of this step was Jamie Emerson who asked hypothetically what exactly constituted a boulder problem and by association, who had the right to define and name it. Shortly afterward, Paul explained that no he hadn't renamed it and the affair died down, as these things do. But the more interesting question came earlier in Jamie's blog, " So how are we to understand our sport if we haven’t or don’t define what it is exactly that we are doing? I would argue that we have, in some sense, but this is so rarely discussed that I thought it would be interesting to do so here."

Now to me the renaming controversy was not interesting per se, and defining starts, sequences, etc. has merit but ultimately threatens to sink into arbitrary positions that beg for contradiction.But the topic did awaken a question regarding purpose in climbing. The question is, in its essence, what are we doing when we try to climb something? On the surface this seems idiotic to ask at all, a kind of question that only a philosopher could ask, yet in some ways the fact that such a question seems ridiculous applies perfectly to a ridiculous game like bouldering or climbing in general. In other words, by climbing we are arguing that climbing seeks to achieve something. What, we might ask ourselves, is it exactly and what actions are justified in the process?

The philosopher Aristotle proposes in the Nicomachean Ethics that all human actions aim at some good, and that the ultimate purpose of human effort is ultimately a state of flourishing, called eudaimonia in Greek. I tend to agree with Aristotle's vision of human purpose and find it helpful in understanding the general drift of human behavior. So what state of flourishing is fostered by climbing? Well some might argue that physical exercise is the benefit, that a "good workout" is a good reason to boulder or climb. Others might argue that we climb to seek new challenges or push the boundaries of the possible. A few might do it as a career. Aristotle rightly asks, "And then what?" What are the purposes of exercise, or money, or the belief in progression of difficulty? What problem is being solved by these actions? Again the idea of flourishing emerges, that we aim for some state of happiness that humans are destined for by their nature. A closer look at the idea of flourishing reveals a preoccupation with qualities perhaps best summed up under the terms reason and virtue. For Aristotle, humans flourish when they develop virtue in conjunction with their unique human ability to reason. So to Aristotle, climbing would have no important purpose if it did not foster human excellence through the exercise of reason and the development of virtue. And I think most climbers would, if pressed on the issue, tend to support the idea that climbing, as opposed to say, stealing cars, is relatively virtuous. It relies upon character traits (virtues) such as courage, prudence, generosity, honesty, etc. Physical and mental health seem to stem from the activity for many. So far so good.

Yet I think there is something deeper, and Aristotle points at this as well. He argues that the highest form of living is ultimately that of contemplation, of the exercise of reason in understanding the world, and that ultimately all other modes of existence are incomplete. Now climbing seems far removed from such high-minded ideals but I would argue otherwise. In other words, climbing asks of its participants to participate in a game that continually forces the habit of asking "What is the right thing to do?" This can be in the form of problem solving, as in how to do a move. It can also be in the situation of getting out of danger safely. And it can be in the form of acting ethically toward the environment and one's fellow climbers. At every turn, whether the climber recognizes it or not, the opportunity arises to consider one's actions and whether they result in virtue and flourishing or the opposite. And the most interesting part is that the game is not merely a game in the end, it is real in terms of the ultimate effects on the players.

So for instance, claiming an ascent that one has not actually done results not in happiness but uncertainty in one's own ability and suspicion that others may know the truth. Chipping holds implies not exercising the virtue of prudence and courage in admitting one's limits. And so on. What is interesting about Aristotle in this discussion is that he is relatively flexible, admitting that we all find our way to virtue individually, according to our abilities and situation in life. Using the virtues as guides, we aim for appropriate responses to challenges in life. Thus we learn by doing and in doing we develop our ethical and reasoning capacities.

For me, climbing is a marvelous way to move in the world, to discover things about the world, to discover new questions about the world, especially questions about myself and my understanding of the world. The actual minutiae, as in bouldering,, whether one has dabbed on a problem, or started on the "wrong" holds, or stashed pads, all point to a bigger issue (or problem, if you will), namely have I become a better person through my thoughts and actions? And as in climbing itself, the process is a slow one, marked by errors, retreats, and uncertainty, but always with the hope of genuine understanding as the ultimate end.

Angie Payne on Automator

2010-08-18T06:15:00.000-06:00

Recently, I haven't been posting on the news in climbing since A. there hasn't been too much of interest and B. many other sites do it. However a new standard has just been set in women's bouldering; that is, a woman has sent a solid confirmed F8b. Jamie Emerson is the first to post news that Angie Payne linked the Automator, a low line of sloping edges and crimps in RMNP and a well-known testpiece in the grade. From working it, I can attest to its difficulty personally and the list of those who have done it reads like a who's who of bouldering. Nice work Angie!

DPM has also posted good footage of Angie on No More Greener Grasses

A Pleasant Surprise

2010-08-17T07:33:00.000-06:00

As the fall semester picks up, time will be short and climbing trips strategic in nature. The seemingly ample leisure of an afternoon teetering across the talus of Chaos Canyon may have to give way to more focused endeavors. I have been trying to lay foundations for success by getting better acquainted with several potentially doable projects, the most recent of which is Element of Surprise. I went back up to Lower Chaos on Friday with Jenn Fields, the outdoor recreation columnist for the Colorado Daily and the Daily Camera to show her around and get to know a bit of what alpine bouldering is about. It was a fun afternoon and I got some real progress in on Element, doing all the moves including the exit crux and starting to get linkage.

On Sunday, I had to stay closer to home and decided to travel up Boulder Canyon to revisit a nemesis from a while back. Hardboiled is a relatively unassuming short V11 with a steep start and a perplexing lip encounter and rockover move at the end. I fell quite badly from it one time while working it and then fell again,literally on the very last move, a few years ago. In other words I have a history with this problem. When I figured out the stream crossing(the log jam is gone) and got to the boulder, it looked pretty doable and the conditions not too bad. After a few tries, I started getting over the lip from the start and began feeling like this would go. A small refinement on beta and the next try it was done. A great sigh of relief followed. Now if I can just keep the send train chugging on a few others.

Summer is Winding Up

2010-08-13T07:42:00.003-06:00

The summer is ending all of a sudden, I reflected, as I wandered around the crusty jagged boulders of Upper Chaos on Wednesday. I went up there to try Barbed Wire Beard, which for once was dry. The weather was perfect, though a bit warm for this very crimpy problem. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the altitude was proving to be a problem here. A few inconclusive tries after working out the end was I all I had to show for my efforts. I feel as if I could get there feeling OK, the problem would go so it may have just been an off day. I did look around at other problems up there, finding the two-mover, Friday the 13th, for example which looks pretty good. But in general, it was mostly a wearying hot hike, quite a contrast from other times up there.

On Sunday, I stuck around Lower Chaos, hoping to make more progress on Element of Surprise. This is a relatively obscure problem, despite its excellent appearance and proximity to Tommy's Arete and Deep Puddle Dynamics, two of the most well-known classics in the Park. It could be because it is fairly low angle and very thin and crimpy and technical in nature. This is a style I tend to favor so it is a natural project for me to invest some time in.

After the initial rush of sending in the Park in May and early June, it would seem that everyone (who is anyone, which counts me out) is going to Lincoln Lake, high up on the summit slopes of Mount Evans. Wolverineland is the moniker being created for it, since a wolverine was sighted there in the spring of this year. Whether M56, as the creature has been named, is going to be psyched to come back to a place suddenly popular with boulderers is an open question. I will say that pine martens are doing just fine in Lower Chaos, as one started scoping out my Clif Bar at the base of Element of Surprise.

Riddles of the Park

2010-08-05T08:06:00.001-06:00

Mist Clearing Over Upper Chaos Canyon

As the summer winds down, I have been trying to catch up with bouldering in RMNP. The weather has been very difficult recently with virtually every afternoon offering a soaking rain that effectively shuts down the rest of the day. On one recent visit I did no climbing at all, thanks to wet holds and volatile weather. The photo above is a view looking into Upper Upper Chaos, named by Jon Glassberg as Super Chaos. It was taken from the vicinity of the Green 45 boulder, home of the remarkable Jade, V14.

Erica Block warming up

On my most recent visit, I did a few of the moderates in Lower Chaos, including a flash of Potato Chip SDS V8 and Geeks of the Industry V7. This formation is a popular warm-up spot and I met up with some nice folks here. Potato Chip was a bit scary actually to do, especially as you can check out all the moves from the ledge nearby, giving a false sense of security. What actually helped most, besides a good spot, was a few test jumps down to the pads below the problem giving at least the feeling that a fall would end up OK. We actually saw a woman come off and nearly slide off the edge. Only a solid grab from the spotter prevented it.

After this, we went over to the boulder just a few yards away where Geeks of the Industry is located. This is a great little problem on amazing rock. I had tried this about two years ago on a very bad day and never finished it. Today it went first try, going a bit more direct than the regular line I think. After this a bit of time was spent trying Secret Splendour but again with the rain, the session was shut down. It's been good meeting up with Dan Beall, a very talented young climber from California, and his friend Tim. The perspectives of people from out-of-town is always valuable and Dan's own turf of Bishop is of course amazing. I can't wait to go back there.

Geeks of the Industry V7 from peter beal on Vimeo.

So why the word "riddle"? For Park aficionados, the pun is instantly recognizable of course. However there is a deeper meaning. It is to say that the Park is variable in all its aspects. Grades are literally all over the map. Rock types seem to change from problem to problem and even move to move. Holds and body positions never cease to surprise me. The weather of course is notorious and the elevation has sent more than one boulderer back down with altitude sickness. The landings are almost always a problem, adding a curious kind of difficulty in its own right. Some people seem to fit right into it. Not me. I am still finding my way around and I have a suspicion that even with a new guidebook on the way, others will experience the same feeling, especially if they try to get on harder problems and explore their abilities as boulderers.

David Lama and Cerro Torre

2010-07-31T07:55:00.000-06:00

Red Bull can found in Upper Chaos Canyon, July 2010

One of the most interesting debates raging in the climbing community right now is the issue of Austrian climber David Lama's attempt to free climb Cerro Torre in Patagonia. Lama's sponsor agreed to underwrite the trip but wanted a high-production value film out of it. The quick summary is that in the effort to make a film of the climb, a team of guides added extra bolts to safeguard the film crew and ultimately abandoned a fair amount of gear on the mountain. The initial story is best read in this article from Alpinist.com.

Recently Lama, no doubt after prompting from Red Bull, issued a statement which if anything only aggravated the situation more. Primarily, as far as I can tell, Lama was unrepentant about one central point. "Bolts or no bolts, for many the controversy lies in whether or not someone should even attempt a production like ours on such a mountain. That question is what divides climbers. Film projects and photo shootings will always be a part of professional climbing and with that also a part of my life." This naturally leads to a question which is what is the point of climbing media of this type? Today climbing video and photography are increasingly available for free to a degree that I would never have believed possible when I was a teenager. And for the most part, I think it's OK. But I am wondering why there isn't more emphasis on environmental preservation, especially when a great deal of the media being produced is repetitious depictions of climbs that are neither new nor intrinsically interesting. I have reviewed a number of videos on this blog and increasingly find myself bored by those that focus on physcial action, such as sport climbing or bouldering. That was interesting for its own sake in the 80s and 90s when climbing was changing radically. Now that type of climbing is commonplace. Nobody cares about, say, video of Hueco Tanks, unless it tells an interesting story or in some way brings an important new angle to the place.

My feeling is that so-called "adventure climbing" is in much the same spot, that in the end nobody will care if Lama free climbs Cerro Torre, just as at this point another free ascent of El Cap is ho-hum. Climbing media as a platform for sponsor promotion is going down a similar road. Adrenalin rushes and spectacular scenery are a short-term fix and as the media becomes more disposable, the environment can only suffer collateral damage in the process. As the priority shifts from the climb to the film, clearly something is being lost. In chasing an image, we are looking at ourselves in the mirror and ignoring the self within and the world outside.

Bradbury Mountain State Park

2010-07-26T06:51:00.001-06:00

The second place I wanted to visit in Maine was Bradbury Mountain State Park. While there I had found some obvious and pretty good bouldering near the top of this hill (not really much of a mountain), it was only while wandering around the lower slopes that I found a remarkable small pile of huge boulders. This was back in the early 90s, well before crashpads, so I brought out a rope to rappel down and clean the best lines. The first was the amazing arete called Heaven, a V3-4 that would compare favorably with any problem I have seen of the grade anywhere. I did most of the others in the area,with difficulties up to about V8, before moving to Colorado in 1994.

On this trip, I mostly wanted to revisit the area and look around from the perspective of passed time. The first problem was finding the place as it had been 13 years since I last came there. Thus I missed a turn on the trail and embarked on a half hour of unnecessary bushwhacking through the trees. But at last I stumbled upon the boulders and took a look around. The first thing I noticed was the size of them. Although I had two good pads, the average height of the problems is over 15 feet, making the place more committing than most. The second was the nature of the rock, very crystally and sharp. So every attempt had to count, especially in the humid woods.

I really wanted to repeat Heaven so I set up the pads and started up. A few moves up, I could not find a crucial left hand, owing to the complex crystalline texture. But after a few more false starts, I found the good holds at mid-height and worked my way to the top. The second half is an elegant balancy, mid-5.10 arete section with just enough security to offset the sight of pads shrinking at the base. A classic highball experience.

Sadly I had to get back to the boat and didn't have time to climb much else so I found my way back out of the woods. Reflecting on the drive back to Portland, I realized that while I loved these areas, small, unique and rarely visited, they also had a role in limiting my vision of what was possible. The terrain around here is low-angle, technical, small hold climbing that ultimately rarely added up to a substantial level of difficulty. Yes the potential exists for harder problems at Bradbury but even for locals, I doubt the motivation is very high for working them out. So these boulders will remain as they more or less always have been, looming gray presences in the Maine forest, seeing the seasons come and go, and hosting occasionally the visit of a pilgrim or two.

Sea Level Climbing

2010-07-22T08:59:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I took the ferry from Peaks Island, where we are staying for a short vacation in Maine, into Portland. Growing up in South Portland, I learned to climb on the local sea cliffs and spent a lot of time climbing at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth. The rock is a very featured and fragile metamorphic type offering all kinds of holds and moves, typically in a gorgeous setting. Deep eroded pockets and extruded fins of gold quartz are common making unique and interesting holds. Though the climbing is not worth a trip unless you are already in the area, it is very different from the more typical granite in New England and I have no doubt that this kind of climbing made me more focused on bouldering as a climber overall.

I started at an area in South Portland that I actually first climbed at when I was about 10, soloing a fairly tall 5.7 wall when I was wandering along the shore with friends. Although I didn't start climbing seriously until a few years later this was a really transformative experience for me, making me in the end the person I am today, still deeply involved in climbing and the natural world. Climbing this wall alone, ground-up, with no idea what was ahead, instilled in me the idea that something was special about the act of climbing, something that has stuck with me since. Here is a still from video I took of doing this route on this visit, at least 20 years since the last time I climbed it.

Another important climb I did, this one a bit later, was on an adjacent formation called the Anvil, a striking 20-25 foot roof. I have rarely seen anything quite like this anywhere else I have climbed. A great jug haul leads to a committing reach at the top off very loose holds. It still tested me when I did it this time. Somewhere I have a picture of me on it at the age of 14 or thereabouts, painter's pants and EBs casting off up this amazing problem.

I did a few other problems that were standards for me when I climbed here regularly in my teens in the late 70s, mostly in the V2-3 range, with good movement on steep terrain, climbing more like limestone than anything else. In a very real way this area served as my local climbing gym, even down to the cushy landing on deep sand. Sadly, the terrain was so featured that harder climbing was not really feasible, limiting my ability to push limits further, but nevertheless it was a great training ground. I was interested to see traces of chalk visible and am pleased that people still climb here. I will have a video of some of the problems up shortly.

After this I went over to Fort Williams to do a little climbing underneath Portland Headlight. There is an excellent slightly overhung 12' wall with numerous problems on it, some a bit committing due to the width of the shelf below. I spent many hours here developing problems and climbing them repeatedly. Again nothing really hard here exists, with the hardest clocking in at V7 or V6 but the position is superb and in summer, once the sun is off the wall and the sea breeze kicks in, you are experiencing probably the best conditions south of Bar Harbor. I climbed most of the best problems here including the traverse and called it a day and headed back for the ferry to Peaks Island.

In a way every time I come back to these areas, I am revisiting my childhood and the memories of the places and people from a different time. However it doesn't feel nostalgic but more reaffirming of the value of choices I have made to be a climber. Even as I have followed different paths in life, this theme remains constant.

Alpine Bouldering Ethics

2010-07-15T16:18:00.005-06:00

I have been up in the high country quite a bit recently and have been considering what it is that makes alpine bouldering different from bouldering in the lowlands or the gym. Clearly above all it is the magnificence of the surroundings, their relative inaccessibility and the presence of powerful natural forces, sublime even, that have created the playground upon which we climb. Other famous bouldering areas in the US such as Bishop, Hueco, etc., in the end lack this fundamental characteristic of an austere and almost alien distance from civilization and culture. In a word they are closer to wilderness.

Sadly this sense of wilderness is a fragile presence, one easily displaced by signs of human activity. Is it possible to respect these vital characteristicsof the alpine setting, those ultimately untamed and untamable aspects that make the high country so desirable? Here are some points for discussion.

1. Leave No Trace

This means an obsessive effort to erase any sign of human presence among the boulders. These signs include:

Chalk: A good ethical norm is to always leave the boulders free of tickmarks, excessive concentrations of chalk on holds, and chalk spills. Chalk is a tool and should be used as such, sparingly and appropriately. Do not chalk footholds, ever. Nothing in terms of letters, numbers, etc ever should be marked on a boulder. Never use pof, ever.

Trash and Litter: This should be no-brainer. Pick it all up, including anything you see on the way in and out and put it in the small plastic bag you brought for the purpose. Tape does not just disappear by itself and scraps of food are harmful to wildlife. Chalk spills are litter. See pad-stashing, below

Erosion of Landings: There is little question that the marks left by bouldering on rock are miniscule in comparison to the footprint left on the vicinity of the boulders. The two primary problems are the "Halo of Death" and terracing landings. The halo effect is created by the traffic around the base of boulders and the presence of belongings thrown on the ground, smothering and crushing plant life and creating conditions that promote erosion. Crashpads are particularly effective in this regard, but so are clothes, shoes, etc. They all affect the base negatively, however unintentionally. Therefore leave your stuff on bare rock whenever possible, step on bare rock whenever possible, and be very selective about where crashpads are placed. Never throw a crashpad unless you are absolutely certain it will land quietly on a bare rock surface.

Alteration of Landings: Landscaping or terracing is the practice of making flatter safer landings at the base of problems. This is something that has gained in popularity with the rise of alpine bouldering and its talus-filled surroundings. It seems like a judgment call at best and certainly one that should be done in conjunction with land managers at least. Unilateral landscaping on a big scale has run into trouble in the past in many settings. It may be better to toprope a line and headpoint it with a bunch of pads. Is landscaping any different than chipping? Food for thought.

Chipping and Brushing: Altering holds so you can climb a problem is called chipping. Generally speaking if you use anything besides your fingers and bodyweight to alter a hold, you are skating on thin ice and should seriously consider your motives. Glueing holds is unnecessary; if the hold breaks, it breaks. End of story. Brushing to remove lichen, dirt, etc., needs to be thought through carefully. It should be done with low-impact nylon if at all possible and kept to a minimum. If the problem is worthy, the subsequent traffic will clean it up. There is no sense in tearing out moss and lichen for mediocre problems. Using metal brushes on rock is generally speaking a very bad idea. Don’t do it.

Pad-stashing: This is a perennial hot button issue in bouldering, especially with the long approaches and altitude gains typical of alpine locations. Those huge talus caves are so convenient to store a few pads and save a lot of effort on the next visit, maybe providing the edge on the next project. If you are thinking about stashing, ask yourself if you really deserve the grade on the problem that you are trying. Stashing pads is bad for the environment, obviously shows human impact and visitation, and represents a me-first mentality foreign to the problem-solving attitude requisite for bouldering. In a nutshell it is cheating. If you find stashed pads, it is a judgment call as whether to use them. Whether to remove them is a personal choice. See litter, above. If say three people carry two pads each, that should be enough to cover most problems. Pack them in, pack them out.

Human waste: Empty yourself as much as possible before hitting the trail. Sh*tting in the woods even relatively distant from the boulders is no longer low-impact in today’s bouldering environment. If the matter is urgent, hike at least several hundred yards away and do it in an open spot where sun and rain will dissolve your mess quickly. Do not pee in caves or under steep overhangs. Again move well away from the site.

2. Conduct
Noise: One of the most curious aspects of alpine bouldering is the desire to bring the sounds of civilization along. This can include loud conversation, shouting, and recorded music. I hike to get away from that not to hear more of it. If you need an iPod, wear the buds and leave the rest of us in peace. No amplified music can compare to the sound of the mountains. Silence is golden.

Noise is also one of the highest impacts on wildlife and shouting whether climbing or encouraging a climber upsets and alarms birds and other animals, causing them to abandon young or use precious energy evading an imagined foe. You are not Chris Sharma and you should know better. Consider it an extra challenge to avoid and count it like you would dabbing on a pad.

Clustering: Boulderers love to get together, no doubt about it. But when does it become more like a regular party and less like a climbing party. In larger numbers, boulderers get sloppy, voice rise, litter is left for others, lowest-common-denominator conduct becomes the norm. The talus in Chaos or Evan for example is not a backyard patio, it is a beautiful and rare spot, unlike any other in the world. Treat it more like a church and less like a bar.

Spray: Related to noise but a bit different, spray is going on about how great a climbing area is and not troubling to emphasize the need for minimal impact. It includes making videos or shooting photographs showing problems climbed with stashed pads, climbers hiking in with just daypacks obviously using stashed pads, and problems with obviously groomed landings. Articles and blog posts should be similarly aware of this need for environmental awareness. Publicizing public lands bouldering is not necessarily the issue but discussing it without a responsible mention of low-impact conduct and Leave No Trace ethics is not helpful. Boulders are not like a terrain park at a snowboarding area.

Dogs: Don’t bring them to bouldering areas ever, just don’t. Unless you are the owner of the perfect dog and can guarantee your dog will never bark loudly, chase wildlife, sh*t near the boulders, maul other climbers, steal other people’s food, dig holes, fight with other dogs, run through fragile vegetation chasing sticks etc., you have no business bringing a dog to a bouldering area.

These are the main areas in which I see room for improvement in climber conduct. Constructive suggestions are welcome.

Chaos Theory

2010-07-12T07:44:00.001-06:00

Lots of high-altitude hiking this week. After doing Gang Bang Arete, I decided a change of scenery was in order. Unfortunately Boulder got rained out on Wednesday so it was off to the Spot and a good session there, doing more 5-spots in one session than I have done for a while. I felt reasonably rested by Friday so this time I headed up to Upper Chaos. I really wanted to look at Barbed Wire Beard and Golden Rows of Flows and get a better look around up there. After an epic boulder-hopping hike with two crashpads, I found myself at the base of Pterodactyl, an amazing looking V12, but also a sign I had gone a bit too high so I dropped down and made my way to the meadow. After bumbling around a bit, I managed to orient myself properly and found Barbed Wire and also two crash pads. Uh-oh moral dilemma time here. But actually I didn't think too much about it. Opting to be a hypocrite and also preserve my back and head I moved them to the base of the El Jorge Boulder to try to the right problem. Right around this time Ryan Y from Boulder showed up so now the landing was pretty safe. After some intense inspection, I tried R El Jorge and flashed it.

I was quite surprised to do this, especially as it had taken me at least a week of serious attempts and literally dozens of tries to do GBA, rated V8 and only one try to do R El Jorge, rated by many at V9. While I put it down as V9 on my 8a scorecard (hypocrite again, I know), really V6 would be appropriate, V7 tops, if I judged by how it felt. Then I wanted to try Golden Rows of Flows. This is essentially a two move problem, hitting a very small edge LH off a sloping undercling and grabbing a decent edge from there. Stepping off the ground felt pretty easy and within a few goes I was hitting the crimp. After some frustrating attempts, including slipping off both holds simultaneously, I stuck the crimp and did the rest of the problem. This presented another dilemma. Again if GBA took numerous attempts and days and GRF took about 45 minutes and maybe 10 tries, should it be given V7? Grades. Sigh...

Sunday I went up to Upper Chaos again on a very quick trip to try to do Barbed Wire Beard. This is essentially a nice v3 traverse into a hard V10. Very cool thin edges and a crux near the very end. Lots of rain, a bit of wind and thunder; it was feeling like October up there. I was under a tight time deadline here, made worse by a twenty-minute rain-induced timeout on the hike through the big talus. When I got to the problem, there was water dripping down it and things were not encouraging. Even a paper towel stuffed in the good keyhole slot couldn't keep it dry. The hoped-for quick send was not to be. But I did most of the moves quickly and hope to be back up there when I return from a vacation trip to the East Coast.

So back to the stashed pads. Someone commented in a previous post, and obviously the gossip train rolls quick in Boulder, that I had used the two stashed pads (by the end of the week, the word will be I used four and I will have left my own up there as well) and hence was "all talk." This is a tough call, and related to some issues that I had recently been discussing with Jamie Emerson. Jamie urged me to moderate my comments and tone and after some consideration, I have agreed with this approach. To be doctrinaire on the point is to be unrealistic. If you are alone up there and can add to the safety margin, would you be a hypocrite for using stashed pads after you had denounced their use? Sure, why not but then again so what? Does carrying two of them up there with you offset the sin? Maybe, in part. But the truth is they are up there, just like the many improved landings, and it is common sense to go ahead and use them, unless you are really trying to make a point. I have tried to make my point already by carrying more than most other boulderers ever will. Will I rely on their presence? No. Will I haul them out of there? Again, no. It is far too much effort with the load I already am bringing up and will only annoy people I know who they may belong to and who do rely on them. I am not going to play law enforcement on this issue. If this makes me inconsistent and a hypocrite, I will just have to try to live with myself. I know that a. I am not stashing pads myself and b. I am carrying far more up there than others. If you have constructive comments on how to resolve this point, please feel free to contribute.

The Bouldering Book Project

2010-07-09T07:42:00.001-06:00

In the past two months or so I have been busy researching and writing for a new book I am working on for The Mountaineers Books on bouldering. Along with this writing I have started another blog called The Bouldering Book. This blog will include snippets from the work in progress, thoughts on the process both of writing and mastering the art of bouldering, photos, interviews with boulderers, and so on. The blog is in its incipient phase right now but will continue to build through the fall and winter as I develop the book. It's a big project but one that I am excited about and will keep you posted on continuously here as well.

Park Life Contd.

2010-07-06T07:38:00.001-06:00

Conditions were excellent up at RMNP yesterday but I was feeling tired from several hard previous sessions. After a sluggish warm-up and some chalk-testing, (I have tried three different types of chalk out up there since Metolius is just not working out anymore. Results to follow), I wandered over to the Centaur boulder to see how GB Arete felt. It felt terrible but slightly more doable, so I started working on it again. Strangely, I found I had the strength to cut down the swing after the first move and soon had the dyno move in hand. After a couple of failures, I stuck the dyno and held it together on the throw to the top and the nemesis was done. The hardest "V8" around has been climbed and I can move on.

A couple of things to note. While I like climbing alone, there is no question that group energy can assist in getting some motivation that initially might have been absent so thanks to the crew that was there that afternoon. Also the air was dry and breezy like I have almost never found recently there so the slippery opening holds felt quasi-sticky. Anyway, I will be moving on, though the Marble Sit looks appealing. Two recent videos give some perspective on this side of the boulder.

Alex Puccio: The Centaur from Prana Living on Vimeo.

Aslan V14 - Carlo Traversi from Carlo Traversi on Vimeo.

Props to both climbers, especially Carlo's proving you don't need to stash a pile of pads to do a hard and scary problem. Thanks everyone for the suggestions on dealing with this issue and yes, stashing pads definitely is coming back in vogue this season. It's a shame. Keep the ideas coming.

How Not to Leave Your Mark in Chaos Canyon

2010-07-03T08:02:00.003-06:00

Obviously RMNP is not the pristine bouldering area it might once have been but it is clear from a number of things I have seen and heard recently that boulderers are not doing what they could to help keep it as natural as possible. Above is someone's contribution to the problem. This information was added to the overhang just left of the Automator, a pretty ordinary piece of rock at best. Nobody really needs to know (and probably nobody cares) about the grade of this problem but in any case, nobody needs to write it on the boulder itself. I am assuming this has been erased by now. I didn't have a brush when I took the photo. Obviously it's not as bad as the photo below. This was some graffiti recently added to Flagstaff Mountain and a great argument for outlawing spray paint. Thanks to Andy Mann for the photos.

But the impulse to mark the rock is essentially the same and it should be stopped. No excuses, no rationales, no nothing. Leave the rock the way you found it.

I am also seeing and hearing indications that pad-stashing is creeping back into style. I am thinking Upper Chaos especially but I have heard of climbers leaving gear elsewhere as well. I have seen a few groups of "hikers" who were obviously boulderers (sorry, the big shoulders and Organic packs don't fit the typical hiker profile) cruising on up the trail, free of pesky burdens like crashpads. I guess they were going to "freebase" Eternia or some similar objective. I cannot emphasize enough A. how weak it is to stash gear and B. how easily Chaos could be closed because of poor climber behavior while RMNP comes up with a more restrictive management plan. Needless to say I feel a bit foolish carrying two and a half pads plus gear when I see others carrying nothing but a light daypack but I know it's the right thing to do. I am planning on a survey hike very soon to see what's up at Upper Chaos. I am not looking forward to the results.

Rocky Mountain Highball: The Mountains and Water Review

2010-07-01T14:37:00.006-06:00

Rocky Mountain Highball, a climbing movie three years in the making, is a truly unique production since it is that rarest of creatures, a meditative bouldering movie. As an exploration of what it's like to climb on the edge of soloing, it mostly lacks the usual dynamic double-digit efforts of the typical bouldering video, RMH depicts a niche of climbing that only a few brave individuals routinely explore, a niche that ironically was once mainstream in bouldering, especially before the advent of bouldering pads. The historical interviews at the beginning illustrate this truth well and time spent with John Gill and Jim Holloway, among others, is always instructive on what it was like when bouldering was not the popular pursuit it is today

Primarily focused on the Front Range, RMH shows a wide variety of Colorado climbers at various locations, most of them familiar to locals in Boulder, near where much if the action is filmed. None of the boulders or locations are named in the film, which is a pity as many are on public land and fully accessible. Visitors will have to do some digging around to find some of them but that shouldn't prove impossible.

The film faces a number of challenges, the primary one of which is pacing. Climbing of this type is potentially less visually interesting because the climber being filmed must be careful and calculating in terms of attitude, precise and controlled in terms of movement. The graded difficulty is rarely of significance; instead the highball experience is predicated on keeping a cool head off the deck. Unfortunately for film-makers, the people who tend to do well at this game are low-key, understated characters who don't necessarily provide the most interesting interviews. The pursuit of highball bouldering is primarily internal in nature and capturing this kind of inner psychology on camera is not easy. Moments of levity occur, particularly in the form of a garrulous John Sherman, but they are relatively rare, hardly surprising given the risks encountered and being discussed by the climbers. There is no question that in the end, it's a serious game and spontaneity is a potential problem.

To offset these issues, the film-makers have focused on aesthetics, looking at the problems in terms of setting, line, light and overall ambiance. The talents of the photographers and editors are in full evidence in this regard. Long shots and pans emphasize the incredible settings that these problem are located in. The forms and colors of the boulders become the principal actors in many sequences. The viewer has to be ready to think about bouldering in a different spirit, a contemplative and reflective one that puts the boulder and its environment ahead of the climber.

Alli Dorey on Mavericks V5 in Clear Creek Canyon: A still from RMH

Nevertheless, the subject of the film is founded in risk and some of the climbs are risky indeed. The Skyscraper in Rocky Mountain National Park or Yellow Christ in the Flatirons are not really safe to fall off from in any circumstance. They are climbed beautifully, immaculately even but they are not really bouldering. A line is crossed somewhere, discussed in the film to a certain extent, but ultimately left to the viewer to decide upon.

Personally I tend to agree with John Gill's initially expressed desire to define bouldering as climbing movement separated from risk. In my view, true highball bouldering is really a form of "relatively safe" soloing and it seems to me that the seriousness which accompanies the soloing mindset ultimately permeates the film.If you are looking for a lighthearted punchy film, RMH would not be it. It reminds me to a certain extent of the British film Hard Grit but somehow less intense, sometimes almost too casual in its attitude toward the risk of serious injury or death. I think a closer look at this dilemma of risk and reward would have helped viewers better understand what's going on and why the allure of risk and difficulty draws some climbers more than others. The film maintains a certain psychological distance from its subjects that I feel might have been overcome to good effect. This type of climbing has taken a heavy toll on some of the climbers featured and the compulsion to risk it all again and again on a high boulder problem seems worthy of closer examination.

To sum up, RMH is a beautifully photographed and edited journey through the experience of bouldering on tall blocks. I will probably never climb any of the problems, well most of them anyway, unless I am on a toprope. When I was much younger, the lure of executing hard moves well above the ground was often there. For me the appeal of bouldering now is usually this; what is the hardest, most aesthetic problem I can do? Nevertheless, I am impressed by the excellence of the film and the obvious effort that the film-makers have put into documenting the difficult and serious pursuit of highball bouldering in Colorado. If you are at all into the sport of bouldering, you must see this movie.

I will be interviewing Andy Mann about this film and publish that discussion soon.

Article in the Camera/Colorado Daily

2010-06-29T15:25:00.001-06:00

Jenn Fields, reporter for the Boulder paper, contacted me recently about the practice of sharing information about boulder problems via blogs, Facebook, etc. I have a lot of videos posted at this blog for this purpose. She also talked with Jon Glassberg, routesetter at the Spot and prolific video maker. The story was a good look into the changing landscape of media in climbing. I definitely think guidebooks have a permanent role in the climbing world but there is no question that, regardless of climbing level, more and more climbers do a Google search to see if a video is available for their project. The widespread availability of cheap cameras and editing software has pretty much ended the idea that climbing video per se is special and a more information-based model for video is taking over. Obviously bouldering with its short video times and dynamic nature is a perfect fit.

Speaking of video, the short clip I made of Jimmy Webb on European Human Being was posted on 8a.nu and was seen well over 2000 times that day. I just happened to pull out the camera in time for what turned out to be Jimmy's last try, the one he took after he was supposed to be done. Moral of the story? Always have the cameras on hand and ready.

Also speaking of videos, I will soon post a review of Rocky Mountain Highball, kindly sent to me by Andy Mann.

Rocky Mountain Highball - Official Trailer from Yama Studio on Vimeo.

Rocky Mountain Highball - OFFICIAL Bouldering Teaser from vas entertainment on Vimeo.

European Human Being V12 RMNP: Video

2010-06-25T15:42:00.000-06:00

European Human Being V12 RMNP from peter beal on Vimeo.

This was a great fight to the finish. With this problem Jimmy Webb has done everything V11 and up in Chaos except Freaks of the Industry which is buried. I probably don't need to add that it's a long-term project of mine. See you up there!