After doing some anchor replacement work last weekend in the Creek, several of us have decided it’s time to look at our own backyard and get things up to speed. Mostly we’ll be focusing on the Puoux and No Name, as most of the other crags in the area are new and the anchors are all in good shape. If you know of any routes with detoriating anchors or protection bolts, please send an email to badbolts@splitterchoss.com.

In other news, I recently revisited two sites I had seen before but appear to have done some upgrades. The first is ClimbingWeather.com. Now, truth be known, I’m a weather fantatic. My wife thinks I puch too much faith in the forecasts (probably), but I love reading the discussions and the nitty gritty of it all. However, if you just want to know the simple facts at your favorite crag, ClimbingWeather.com makes it easy. They have the site organized by area based on the system used at MountainProject.com. Simply find your area and crag, and presto, the weather is brought to you courtesy of NOAA.

The other site is ClimbingInjuries.com. Often it’s hard to get good advice on climbing specific injuries, even from a doctor. Here the owners have compiled a lot of good info, and have even launched a forum where you can ask questions. Obviously if you get hurt and have access to good medical care, you should seek that first, but this is a great place to get some questions answered and maybe point you in the right direction.

Enjoy!

Tonight’s the night! 7pm at the Glenwood High School Auditorium, $10 at the door, cash only. We’ve got a bunch of great films lined up, in addition to a silent auction and loads of free stuff to give away. And once again, all proceeds go to benefit the new Glenwood Climbing team. See you there!

You can also buy tickets in advance with a credit card here.

And only the clueless are shocked…

It’s the talk of the climbing world right now. Everyone’s favorite super glossy mag Alpinist is calling it quits. A quick perusal of the announcement over on the site shows many people upset (and maybe surprised?) about this. And it is unfortunate, as I think the mag was excellent, and only recently I finally threw down for a sub. Without a sound business model, however, it was only a matter of time. Dougald Macdonald has an excellent take on it, which may be especially enlightening for folks who haven’t spent any time in the magazine business. For those of us who have, however, it was more of a surprise that they lasted this long, with only the deep pockets of their sugar daddy, er, I mean founder, to keep them in it. It’ll be interesting to see if someone buys it and tries to turn it into a profitable mag. If so, you can certainly expect to see more ads, as that’s how you make the money in that there magazine business.

Here’s a little something to pass the hours if you’re stuck inside on this beautiful Friday. Some of the more interesting new climbing sites I’ve come across recently.

ClimbingVibe.com - A great place to stay up-to-date on news from around the climbing world. The site is user generated, and allows you to post and vote on news items you think are important. It’s basically a Digg type site for the climbing crowd. Put the rss feed for this one in your reader and you’ve got an easy way to keep tabs on news from all over the climbing web. Very cool.

VideoClimb.com - A video site that promises “a new video every 48 hours.” Seems pretty ambitious and I haven’t been paying close enough attention to see if they actually keep up with that. Regardless, there’s some good stuff on here, perfect for wasting away the hours. You can comment and rate the videos, which appear to be hosted on YouTube.

ClimbClips.com - Wow, the web geek in me really digs this site. The guy who built it obviously did a lot of research and created a site that’s rich with features. Too bad Momentum didn’t put this much thought into what they made. The videos are hosted right on the site, with the ability to embed them other places (blogs, forums, etc.) Other features I like: full screen playback, chat with other users, personal profiles and friends. Obviously this site relies on other people to make the content, so hopefully folks will get motivated and send some love their way.

Hot off the press is a topo to a new area in Glenwood Canyon called the Quartzite Wasteland. After we found good quartzite at the Dead Horse crag, Mike started looking around for other possibilities and came across this zone. There’s about half a dozen routes that make for a nice day of climbing. One pitch in particular, Charcoal Burger Daydream, is excellent and it’s worth checking out the cliff just to climb on this route in my opinion. The approach is pretty casual, a quick walk down the Glenwood Canyon bike path and then up the hill to the cliff. The routes range from thirty to one hundred feet tall and you’ll need a rack of cams to supplement the bolts. Check out the beta page for more info. Thanks to Mike for making this crag public. The man can simply not be stopped. I have only put in a couple new lines this year, but he continues to bring you new routes to climb on with every passing day. Viva la choss revolution!