Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Jorgeson Interview at Deadpoint Mag
Probably the best of the interviews with Kevin Jorgeson that I have seen is at Deadpoint. In a great post, Jamie Emerson discusses his goals for the year at his site which has me thinking about mine. More later, right now I am just trying to get the spring semester started.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Posted on UK Climbing--Best Climbing Video in Ages
On a less humorous note and written with real insight and feeling is this account of mountain rescue in Wales.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Approach to Lower Chaos--Memories from July 2008
The Park is buried under snow right now but some readers might enjoy a quick recap of the walk up to Lower Chaos. I'll replace the audio soon.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
News Feature
For readers' convenience, I have added RSS feeds for the major news sites on the upper right, allowing easy updates on what's going on. Please let me know if I should add others.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Latest Grade Obsession: The Walk of Life
The latest downgrading issue has arisen with Dave MacLeod's ascent of Walk of Life first done by James Pearson and graded E12. Macleod's blog explains his experience on the route and reasons for rating it E9. Naturally this has created a little stir in an otherwise moribund climbing news climate with questions about Pearson's motivations for rating a route E12. Bjorn Pohl, one of the people at 8a.nu, really takes Pearson to task at his blog in a surprisingly direct fashion. I quote:
How is this possible? Who or What is to blame?
1. Is it simply a question of James having to get out more, repeating other people's hard routes to get a grip on the grades?
2. Has James felt too much pressure from sponsors (real or imagined), affecting his judgment?
3. Has James been consciously misleading us to get the headlines?
4. Is the E-system to blame?
This is a good example of when someone ought to back away a bit and let the dust settle instead of insinuating that another climber is a liar with not enough experience or judgment. I would respect the contributions of a climber like Pearson who has walked the walk a lot more before before I would condescendingly state "everyone is allowed to make a mistake or three."
How is this possible? Who or What is to blame?
1. Is it simply a question of James having to get out more, repeating other people's hard routes to get a grip on the grades?
2. Has James felt too much pressure from sponsors (real or imagined), affecting his judgment?
3. Has James been consciously misleading us to get the headlines?
4. Is the E-system to blame?
This is a good example of when someone ought to back away a bit and let the dust settle instead of insinuating that another climber is a liar with not enough experience or judgment. I would respect the contributions of a climber like Pearson who has walked the walk a lot more before before I would condescendingly state "everyone is allowed to make a mistake or three."
Sunday, January 4, 2009
New Traverse at Flagstaff, Sunday Training
As anyone who has followed this blog will realize, I spend a lot of time at Flagstaff Mountain. The reason for this is not merely convenience however. Given the proximity to one of the world's must competitive climbing scenes, one would expect Flag to be totally climbed out, especially since 50 years of bouldering history have unfolded there. Such is not at all the case however and I have been diligently filling in the gaps and getting some really good training in as well.
A recent project was a L to R traverse on a wall a bit north of First Overhang, where the Mateus High Step Traverse is. This traverse has some of the most continuous crimping on the mountain and its sole flaw is the good sized foot ledge at the base. However if you want to do an interesting and steep V9 line on incut edges check it out. There are literally dozens more lines, traverses, and variations in solid double digit territory on the mountain. The prejudice that many have against climbing here has allowed some very interesting and difficult problems to go untouched which is a shame. A legacy of misinformation and sandbagging has only exacerbated the problem. Thank you, Chip Philips, for selflessly sorting out truth from fiction.
A quick session at CATS this morning was cold and pretty miserable but after putting Sophia down for her nap, I worked out a bit downstairs on the weights and fingerboard. I have a 1/8" and a 1/2" thick wood strip that I use for hangs, weighted hangs, one-hand hangs, pull-ups, regular and weighted, and front levers. I am up to 20 regular pull-ups on the 1/2 and 10 on the 1/8 edges so far.
There was an item in the newest issue of Rock and Ice (but don't bother with going to the website; it's not very good) from Julian Saunders, an osteopath from Australia about weighted pull-ups which I think was rightly blasted by Sonnie Trotter at his blog. Saunders argues that weighted pull-ups are useless for climbing, that they aren't sport-specific. I can't understand this position because by that logic, sprinters, for example could only get stronger by running fast, not by explosive power workouts in the gym. If you are genetically gifted with super-strong fingers or can spend endless days on hard problems, I suppose gym training is redundant. And there is no doubt that returns can rapidly diminish and injuries result. But I agree with Sonnie on this, there is no better way to radically improve finger strength than adding some weight and trying to hang on.
A recent project was a L to R traverse on a wall a bit north of First Overhang, where the Mateus High Step Traverse is. This traverse has some of the most continuous crimping on the mountain and its sole flaw is the good sized foot ledge at the base. However if you want to do an interesting and steep V9 line on incut edges check it out. There are literally dozens more lines, traverses, and variations in solid double digit territory on the mountain. The prejudice that many have against climbing here has allowed some very interesting and difficult problems to go untouched which is a shame. A legacy of misinformation and sandbagging has only exacerbated the problem. Thank you, Chip Philips, for selflessly sorting out truth from fiction.
A quick session at CATS this morning was cold and pretty miserable but after putting Sophia down for her nap, I worked out a bit downstairs on the weights and fingerboard. I have a 1/8" and a 1/2" thick wood strip that I use for hangs, weighted hangs, one-hand hangs, pull-ups, regular and weighted, and front levers. I am up to 20 regular pull-ups on the 1/2 and 10 on the 1/8 edges so far.
There was an item in the newest issue of Rock and Ice (but don't bother with going to the website; it's not very good) from Julian Saunders, an osteopath from Australia about weighted pull-ups which I think was rightly blasted by Sonnie Trotter at his blog. Saunders argues that weighted pull-ups are useless for climbing, that they aren't sport-specific. I can't understand this position because by that logic, sprinters, for example could only get stronger by running fast, not by explosive power workouts in the gym. If you are genetically gifted with super-strong fingers or can spend endless days on hard problems, I suppose gym training is redundant. And there is no doubt that returns can rapidly diminish and injuries result. But I agree with Sonnie on this, there is no better way to radically improve finger strength than adding some weight and trying to hang on.
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