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With a total of 8 days over a 2 year period, Paul Robinson was finally able to send one of his hardest lines to date, Meadowlark Lemon in Gateway Canyon, Nevada (a subsector of Red Rocks).

This is Paul’s hardest FA to date, besides Lucid Dreaming. The send was caught on film by Chuck Fryberger’s film crew and will be featured in their upcoming moving “The Network.”

Of today’s (11/1/2012) ascent, Paul comments, “I considered it one of the best lines I have ever climbed on in the entire world. The boulder is super physical, yet really technical. The crux revolves around some really crazy heel hooks on the left arete.”

2 years ago, Paul put up Meadowlark Lemon stand and graded it 8B/V13. He considers the moves between the sit and the stand start to be an additional 8B, making the entire line two 8B’s linked together without a rest.

When asked about the name of the boulder problem, Paul said, “Meadowlark Lemon was an American basketball player that played for the Harlem Globetrotters. He was considered to be one of the best players ever and has a sweet name. The last move of my climb is similar to a slam dunk in basketball.”

via The 27 Crags Team

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Prana ambassador Kevin Wilkinson and I had the pleasure of spending two weeks over this holiday season vacation climbing and sharing a family holiday on the tiny Caribbean island called Cayman Brac, one of the three Cayman Islands. The main island, Grand Cayman, lies just under 500 miles south of Miami, offering a dreamy Caribbean setting complete with resort-style amenities, shopping aplenty, white sandy beaches, haute cuisine and night clubs. Eighty-nine miles northeast, Cayman Brac is the larger of the country’s two sister islands, measuring 12 miles long and a mile and a half wide. Just five miles away, Little Cayman covers slightly less surface area with only 10 square miles to the Brac’s 14.

Unique to the Brac is the feature that gave the island its name – a long band of limestone that rises slowly up out of the ground on the island’s west end, growing in stature to create a wide, mid-island rib, or bluff, that spans the length of the island and terminates in 100+-foot tall sea cliffs on the island’s east end. The word brac means bluff in Gaelic. The top of the bluff provides habitat for the Cayman Brac parrot as well as birds called brown boobies, which nest atop the towering cliffs above the bluff’s east end. Tucked into the walls of the bluff lie numerous caves, which have traditionally served as hurricane shelters for the island’s people, or Brackers, as they’re called, while also drawing interested tourists in for exploration. Both the Brac and Little Cayman are world-renowned scuba diving destinations as well.

About 15 years ago, my family “discovered” Cayman Brac and decided to make it a destination for regular vacationing. It was just my luck that the island happens to have established sport climbing on it, thanks to the efforts of a number of rock climbers through the years. Today, those efforts are spearheaded by Colorado-based climber John Byrnes, who owns a home on Cayman Brac that he rents out to climbers (and other travelers). He also runs the Climb Cayman Brac Web site, which includes a free, up-to-date climbing guide to the island’s sport climbing offerings. Though the harsh seaside environment corroded the original stainless-steel bolts on the island’s routes, creating a major safety concern, Byrnes has invested a vast amount of time, effort and money in replacing these and making sure that all new routes are equipped with specially designed titanium bolts called Tortugas, which have proven to resist corrosion.

We had the pleasure of sampling routes both old and new on our recent adventure to the island, appreciating all the work that has gone into making these outings safe and enjoyable. I hadn’t climbed on the Brac in at least seven years, which made even older routes that I’d climbed before seem new to me. We didn’t get the opportunity to rappel down the steep sea walls to climb routes on the point; rough seas during the first week and the family holiday time during the second kept us from that. But we did savor the incredible tufa outings available at Dixon’s Wall, as well as the short powerful climbs of the Love Shack and the more moderate, juggy and fun offerings of the Orange Cave.

The second week’s calmer seas drew us into the ocean every day with my family to explore the underwater wonderland that snorkeling offered, forgoing climbing entirely. One day after snorkeling, Kevin struck up a conversation with a local family that was spending the day out fishing, which resulted in the addition to freshly caught island fish to our dinner that night. Another day after snorkeling, Kevin retrieved some fresh coconuts, leading to another tasty meal addition. I also spent at least an hour walking nearly every single morning, exploring the island and seeing Cayman Brac parrots along with the gorgeously unfamiliar flora that flourishes even in midwinter there.

As always, it was a pleasure to spend time on the island, where the friendliness of the local community makes all visitors feel welcome and the friendliness of the climate makes me feel like I’m the most limber person in the world every time I stretch. Throw in a family visit and some fun limestone climbing, and it’s a recipe for an excellent holiday season, every time.

Alli Rainey, prAna Ambassador

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As we enter a new year, all of us here at the Access Fund would like to thank you for your support in 2011 and share our Top 10 victories from the year.

1. Mobilized climbing conservation with the launch of the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team, staffed with expert trail builders who travel the country 10 months of the year, improving climbing access trails and helping climbers and land managers create long term stewardship plans for their local crags. The Conservation Team completed eight projects from Kentucky to California in their first two months on the road.

2. Continued to strengthen the grassroots climbing advocacy network by hosting the National Access and Stewardship Summit, which brought together climbers from across the Americas to share best practices in climbing stewardship, land conservation, policy, and local support and mobilization.

3. Prevented astronomical fee increases for climbing Mount Denali and Rainier, showing the federal government there needs to be public participation prior to implementing drastic recreation fee increases and that climbers are willing to pay their fair share but will not be an ATM when budgets get tight. Read the rest of this entry »

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“You’re going to Texas to rock climb? Really?”

“We’re going to Hueco, as in Hueco Tanks- not W-A-C-O,” I replied to my non-climbing friends at work just before quitting my job.

Hueco Tanks State Park is recognized as America’s best bouldering area twenty miles east of El Paso, Texas. Climbers come from all over the world in the winter months to boulder here. Our Spanish friends, including the acclaimed Berta Martin Sancho, traveled a full twenty four hours just to spend a few weeks at this magical place. It is inspiring to witness all the talented climbers and to be able to share this common bond.

So, I have a confession to make- I suck at bouldering. It’s my biggest weakness as a climber. I’ve only been outside bouldering a handful of times, and I struggled on the warm-ups. I realize the only way to get stronger is to work on your weaknesses, but this was downright humiliating. I originally thought of Hueco as a means to get strong, but I dreaded the idea of not being on a rope for weeks. Arg- I guess I should do some “practice climbing” to build power for hard cruxes on routes. Two years ago I visited Hueco for the first time and tried a classic V7 called Daily Dick Dose. I probably shouldn’t have worked on a problem that hard, given that I only had a few V5s under my belt. But something about this climb intrigued me. It seemed so simple- basically three hard moves- gymnastic and steep. I felt a little pressure to attempt to boulder harder. I had made small progress on the problem years ago, but failed to complete it on my short ten day stint.

When we arrived in Hueco a month ago, I really wanted to revisit this boulder problem, and thought I must be able to do it by now- I felt stronger. Nope- the moves still felt nearly impossible- how could this be? I thought I’d never break the V7 barrier. It would be the long-standing joke, “Ha, ha! Heather can climb 5.13 but can’t boulder V7- isn’t that funny! Ha!”

Chris and I originally planned to spend only a week or so in Hueco, but we were hooked! Even though I sucked, bouldering was definitely growing on me- there’s nothing like the energy of seasoning with a good group of friends. We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado, then maniacally returned. We talked about goals of the trip, and I really wanted to send a V7- that was my only real climbing goal of the trip. For me, climbing this grade would be a breakthrough- I could finally move on. Chris rolled his eyes and said I’d be climbing that in no time- I thought no way- my confidence was at a low.

Our second day back to Hueco I felt a bit stronger, I had just a little more core and lock-off ability. I attempted the problem, and no! It couldn’t be! The moves still felt horrendous and nearly impossible. I felt defeated. After laying flat on my back for a minute, rehearsing the moves in my head, I knew I had to get even. I had to try my absolute hardest. I pulled on with a renewed and fiery spirit and to my surprise I was able to do the first move! About ten tries later, with each try feeling a little stronger, I was able to link the moves I’d had trouble performing before individually. I had to fight, but I did it! I sent my first V7. Phew- I can move on with my life.

The last two days of trip I did two V8s- what a surprise! I finally began to feel a little bit like a “real” boulderer.

The mental strength required to deal with repeated failure is the toughest part of climbing and, for that matter, many aspects of life. Eventually, if you work hard enough for something you are passionate about, you can succeed. We all have days we feel unaccomplished and it is a struggle to keep on trying- like getting schooled on the warmups. For me, the harder I work on something, the more satisfaction I ultimately receive- even if it is just V7.

~Heather Robinson, prAna Ambassador

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As we prepare to move to the new prAna HQ, we found this long lost letter from Chris Sharma… enjoy

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