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Climbing, Adventure, Gear & Choss
Rants
So This Is The New Year
It’s 9 o’clock on New Years Eve, and to an outside observer, the silver mini van making it’s way through the desolate stretch of country between Wells and Las Vegas, Nevada would appear no different than the few other cars on the road this night. However, if you could zoom in and see what’s going [...]
The Top 5 Things Developers Say to Get You to Their Crag
Route developers are a curious breed. They spend countless hours, money, blood, sweat and tears creating what they hope will be climbs that others will enjoy. They get dirty, they put themselves in scary situations, they trundle loose rock, they endure endless criticism about why they put the bolt there, where the anchors are, etc. [...]
Does Hard Climbing Matter?
I picked up an issue of Deadpoint Magazine at the Boise Front over Christmas, and was reading their recap of the year, which talked about how climbing standards yet again went through the roof in 2012. And it made me wonder, does that matter to me, a passionate climber of average skill, to read about [...]
Does Climbing Hard Matter?
In his latest TNB, Andrew Bisharat asks if hard climbing matters. You know, all those folks out there crushing routes that are impressively difficult. It’s easy to dismiss his question with a simple no, all that matters is having fun, but I think there’s more to it than that, and to pass it off so [...]
Wear and Tear
The contrast was stark. The day before, we’d been climbing on cracks that had seen relatively little traffic. The edges were crisp, the face holds had incut to them and hadn’t been worn into sandy slopers by thousands of eager hands and feet. We weren’t at one of the “classic” walls, but the routes were [...]
Does the Off Season Exist Anymore?
At first, I was surprised. What were so many people doing here on a Monday, during the first week of October? We were on a school trip to Indian Creek, and there were quite a few folks hanging out in the main campground. Don’t they know Creek season starts in November, when the climbing everywhere [...]
Don’t Forget to Look Around
I’m sitting at my computer, sipping coffee, while George Winston plays in the background, with a hood pulled over my head and low lying clouds clinging to the mountains outside. There’s fresh snow above 12,000′, and the hill sides are draped in a yellow gold that seems to radiate its own light. Plus, I climbed [...]
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
Partners are so underrated. As climbers, we often like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists, but the truth is, without a partner, climbing isn’t a whole lot of fun. Sure, you can go out and chuck solo laps on a micro traxion, but that’s like going to the movies by yourself. Sort of fun, [...]
Live and Let Live
We live in a culture that thrives on comparing ourselves to others. She’s a better climber, you’re richer than me, I’ve got nicer hair, so on and so forth. As climbers, even though we like to think we’re different than mainstream society, we tend to follow these same social norms. You don’t have to look [...]
Black Canyon Sunset
Hmm, it’s quite a bit later than I was hoping. Is this still a good idea? It’s only six pitches, that should go quick, right? It IS the Black… How long does it take to get to the base? I don’t know, it’s been awhile, maybe 30 minutes? That should leave us enough time. OK, [...]
Sometimes, It’s Something More
Sometimes, climbing is just climbing, something we do for fun on the weekends. At its worst, it can become an addiction, as harmful to the climber and their relationships as the abuse of any controlled substance, recklessly pursuing pleasure like a junkie in search of the next high. But sometimes, climbing is something more. Sometimes, [...]
500 Days of Summer
I was sitting with a friend on a bench at the base of a wall in Rifle the other day (yes, we have benches AND permadraws, it really is heaven). It was hot, we both had our shirts off, and sweat covered our bodies. And we we’re loving it, talking about how great summer is, [...]
Training…in the Summer?
As summer has shown up quite early this year, things are full steam ahead for after work cragging on the local cliffs. But after reading Sonnie Trotter’s excellent piece about how simple training for climbing really is, it got me thinking about the idea of whether or not to train during the summer. In the [...]
Livin’ the Vida Local
We were faced with a classic first world problem: where to go climbing for the weekend? It had been so warm lately that the local cragging was in full effect, but it was spring after all, and a desert trip seemed to be in order. The weather forecast, however, showed highs near 90, and there [...]
Route Developing Faux Pas
After eleven years of living in Colorado, I finally filled in a big empty spot on the map: I went to Shelf Road. I was there with a group of students on a week long trip, and we climbed a truckload of pitches. Being on so many different routes, I got to thinking about the [...]
New Western Slope Guidebooks in the Works
I wanted to get the word out that there are new guidebooks currently in the works for the Western Slope. Yes, that’s books, plural, because it’s going to be a two part volume. Rifle will have it’s own book (volume 1), and then the rest of the crags in the area will have their own. [...]
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9/29/12
A Festive Fall Weekend
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7/11/2012
The 2012 International Climbers’ Festival
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