Posts Tagged ‘Climbing’
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 »
“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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I have to pee.
Trying to get back to sleep, I hug the down comforter around my body, pull my beanie over my ears and silently repeat to myself, “Go back to sleep. You can hold it.” After another moment or two, I reach over my husband to check the time. Crap. It’s 3:30am. There’s no way I’m going to make it. I sigh and begin the stealthy process of extricating myself out of bed and to the nearest toilet.
I peel off the blankets and crawl over my husband. My hand grips the edge of the cooler as I cautiously place my feet on the floor. I search in the dark for my shoes. Once they’re on the correct feet, my glasses perched on my nose, I quietly open the door and stare into the bright lights of the parking lot.
I look across the lot longingly toward the darkened Walmart. It’s usually open 24 hours, but this one happens to be temporarily closed tonight due to renovations. I notice the shadows looming from the back of the building. My requisite for bathroom breaks these days is pretty simple: a few dark shadows and a bush or two. I stumble forward, trying to shake the sleep from my brain. I stop abruptly when I see a man walking around the corner. Who’s up at this hour? Then I see another man. Then a few more.
The renovations. These guys are working at the Walmart. There are construction workers everywhere.
Where the hell can I pee? At this point I’m ready to squat under the lights in the middle of the parking lot; I’m that desperate. Then I spot my salvation. There, not 100 yards before me, is a tree surrounded by about 200 shopping carts neatly nested within each other, conveniently arranged in a large rectangle of wheels, metal and bright red plastic Cheezit advertisements on the child’s seat. That tree means there’s grass. I slink down the two-foot wide path toward the tree, keeping my eyes alert for curious construction workers. There I squat and look up at the stars.
Such is the glamorous life on the road. Peeing in the middle of a shopping cart corral. Yep. We’re living large. As it turned out, this kind of experience was far more common than the romantic notions we started with. There weren’t the hours of boredom I’d predicted or time to consume dozens of books. And despite our best intentions, our plans to train for an ultra marathon (me) and 24-hour endurance mountain bike race (my husband) were foiled by injuries brought on by our inability to train consistently.
The Original Plan
When my husband and I began the adVANture last November, we had visions of long days in the great outdoors, putting in hundreds of self-propelled miles on remote trails around the country.
We designed and custom-built our white cargo van, equipping it with a marine cooler in lieu of a refrigerator, a camp stove and small array of pots and pans, plastic plates and wine glasses.
No running water; no heat except for that generated by the motor; and a simple vent fan for hot days. We each got one brightly-hued bag for our daily clothes, a bag to share for our jackets and a bin for toiletries.
Although we sacrificed some space in our living area, we were proud of the “garage” we built—the space we created in the back held our mountain bikes and necessary recreating gear and tools. We stashed our climbing packs under the bed along with extra books and sleeping bags.
This was our home for 22,607 miles, through 25 states, two provinces, over 364 days.
When most people think of life on the road, two main demographics come to mind: single 20-somethings dirt-bagging between climbing crags and 50- and 60-year old retirees equipped with massive RVs touring via campgrounds and national parks.
It didn’t take long for us to realize we fit in neither category. Not only were we a 30- and 40-something couple, we were also working while we traveled (me building a life coaching practice and my husband designing websites).
We spent every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in either a Starbucks or a local coffee shop working from our computers and making phone calls from the van.
At times it did feel less than the romantic ideal we’d set out with.
But despite—or, in my personal opinion, precisely because of—the challenges and revised expectations, we fell absolutely and irrevocably in love with our van and life on the road.
Falling in Love With the Unexpected
Because it’s not about the big picture. Or meeting some pre-determined goal around climbing at a higher grade or number of miles you’ve put in.
It’s about all the moments of being alive and living your dream. Of being immersed in an experience that you’ve dreamt about for so long, you have to pinch yourself and remind each other that you’re doing it. You’re living it. Right then. In that moment.
So pay attention. Peeing outside a Walmart in Bakersfield, CA, in the middle of a shopping corral is part of the dream.
We collected moments as vast and diverse as the open ocean along the California coast, the bright coral seastars clinging to the rocks on the Olympic Peninsula and making fresh tracks in the snow-covered trails of Pisgah National Forest in NC.
They cover the ice-encrusted windshield we woke up to in Columbia, SC, the hurricane and oil-stricken Gulf Coast and the 6-degree high in Houston.
It includes two back-to-back 16-mile days running through snow, ice, mud and sun, up and down the Grand Canyon as well as the last-minute stop in Nevada to hike among the brilliantly vibrant blooms in an otherwise dry and prickly desert.
I love that I can recognize the difference between the rocks at Joshua Tree, Owen’s River Gorge, Red Rocks and Smith Rock. That when I see a photo of the cracks of Squamish I am transported to the dank forest of the Chief and the friendly atmosphere of the Howe Sound Brewery as I savor their Rail Ale Nut Brown brew.
Even when I think about the wavy symmetry of the washbasins in every Walmart bathroom; the interminable hours and mediocre Americanos of every Starbucks between South Carolina and California; and the never-ending decision-making process we went through daily regarding where to eat, where to sleep, where to work, where to run/bike/climb/hike/camp/shower/launder—I treasure them all.
It’s the moments that make up an adventure—and life, really.
The tedious and ordinary create the counterpoint for the extraordinary and sublime.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
~Amy Christensen
Amy is a certified life coach. Her company, Expand Outdoors, works with adventurous women, providing guidance and support as they seek to break out of the norm to live bigger, more authentic lives. She and her husband have parked their van in Boulder, CO and are slowly settling into life-in-one place (for now!).
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12/07 Bozeman Ice Hyalite Canyon, MT; www.bozemanicefestival.com
12/09 Sandstone Ice Festival Robinson Park, Sandstone, MN; www.sandstoneicefest.com
12/10 Dallas Rocks ABS Regional Competition Dallas, TX; www.dallasclimbing.com
12/10 Rock Spot Showdown Boston, MA; www.rockspotclimbing.com
12/11 City Rock Indoor Ice Climbing/Dry Tooling Comp Colorado Springs, CI; www.iceholdz.com
12/16 Western Slope Bouldering Series 2 Glenwood Springs, CO; 970-384-6318
12/17 Climb For Change: Triple Threat Team Comp Toronto, ON; andrew@revesmedia.com
01/05 Ouray Ice Festival Ouray, CO; http://ourayicepark.com/ice-festival/
01/06 Singapore Management University Gravical Singapore; climb@sa.smu.edu.sg
01/06 Kandersteg Ice Climbing Kandersteg, Switzerland; www.kandertal.travel/en/page.cfm/events/topwinter/iceclimbing
01/13 Chicks Sampler Ouray, CO; www.chickswithpicks.net
01/14 BLOC Climbing & Fitness ABS 13 Youth Divisional Tucson, AZ; www.rocksandropes.com/BLOC/site/home.html
01/17 Youngstown State University Boulder Competition Youngstown, OH; www.ysu.edu/reccenter/AdventureRec
01/21 New Zealand Rock Festival Whanguanui Bay, New Zealand; www.wix.com/whanganuibay/nz-rock-festival#!
01/25 Chicks Complete Ouray, CO; www.chickswithpicks.net
01/28 Western Slope Bouldering Series 3 Carbondale, CO; 970-704-4148
02/02 Mt Washington Ice Climbing Festival North Conway, NH; www.ime-usa.com/imcs/ice_fest.html
02/03 Chicks Quickie Ouray, CO; www.chickswithpicks.net
02/03 Chicks Graduate Ouray, CO; www.chickswithpicks.net
02/04 Lakewood Link Rec Center Rock Steady 7 Lakewood, CO; 303-987-5446
02/04 Metro Rock Dark Horse Championship Everett, MA; www.metrorock.com
02/04 Western Slope Bouldering Series 4 Vail, CO; 970-476-7960
02/11 University of Oregon Vertical Circus Climbing Competition Eugene, OR; dbauer2@uoregon.edu
02/11 Climb UP Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro, Tanzania; www.climbupsokidscangrowup.com/
02/17 South Fork Ice Festival Cody, WY; www.southforkice.com/index.html
02/24 Hueco Rock Rodeo Hueco Tanks, TX; huecorockrodeo@gmail.com
03/02 Western Slope Bouldering Series 5 Carbondale, CO; 970-476-7960
03/04 Adaptive Sports Center 7 Hours of the Banana Crested Butte, CO; 970-349-5075
03/31 Ohio State University Vertical Mile Challenge Columbux, OH; www.osumountaineers.com
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It’s a clear, dry, peaceful and sunny morning in the Red River Gorge. I woke up before dawn again, as I always seem to do these days. At least this morning, my dog’s ears weren’t covered with frost, as they were yesterday, meaning that temps will probably be more favorable for my hands today than they were yesterday – though yesterday I did manage to stay warm enough to take the plunge from the top of Madness yet again, after four days off. That marks the third time I’ve taken this gigantic whipper. Crikey.
I actually think it’s funny, to climb so far and try so hard and get dumped on such a huge winger multiple days in a row. This experience perfectly illustrates the ludicrous nature of my lifelong passion – I love to climb arbitrary lines of rock features, stopping to clip my safety rope into specially made devices secured to expansion bolts that somebody put in the rock so I could do this. On Madness, I climb all the way up to big resting places, and then I hang out there breathing and visualizing what’s to come, trying to maintain my focus and predict when the resting should stop and the climbing should start. And I don’t put my rope into the final two of the draws because the end of this route pushes me hard enough that even pausing to pull my rope up to clip wastes energy. And so my penalty for failure is a gigantic free fall, sailing downward through the air from more than a hundred feet up, like having a giant trapdoor open up under my feet every time I can’t close my hand around that last hold. Ridiculous.
How utterly inane; it’s why the kind of climbing I do (sport climbing) is so hard to explain to the uninitiated, that great big world of normal people out there who participate in or watch more mainstream sports. People easily grasp the idea of climbing mountains. Who amongst us sport climbers hasn’t had the question put to us on numerous occasions, “You gonna climb Everest?” because that’s what most regular folks envision as being a climber’s top dream. The concept of deliberately climbing up random lines of rock features, features that are sometimes reinforced (Madness has a few of these) so they don’t break off, just because it’s hard to do and feels really cool escapes them, as do all the rules that go along with this practice – such as, you have to lead it for it to count, because you have to be willing to endure the consequence of failing being a small or big fall without a rope above you. Just because we’re human and have a built-in instinct to avoid free falling from high places, this adds to the challenge, even if it doesn’t much increase the danger or risk level in any true way on most sport climbs. And I agree with this rule – leading makes sport climbing more fun and more challenging for me, for sure. The threat of the trapdoor opening up under my feet makes me try harder than I would if it weren’t there. (I also hate the tangle of the top rope, how it interferes with moves and all that.)
Working a climb can be an awesome personal journey every time, even if it’s senseless in so many ways. All sports really are silly and absurd; humans play games for fun, and to forget this is to forget the whole point. Despite all our disagreeable qualities (of which ironically we all certainly couldn’t agree as to which ones actually are disagreeable, if that makes any sense), as a species we do have a solid and sound appreciation for crafting challenging games that engage and push our beings’ potential. Climbing is an exceptionally cool one to all of us who’ve fallen into it through whatever path, because it requires a coming together of the mental, physical and emotional parts of a person for an in-the-moment experience, no matter what kind of climbing a particular individual engages in. There are certainly tons of other sports out there that provide similar whole-being experiences, too, a testament to how much we humans like to have fun and how fun we find it to challenge ourselves.
It’s amusing to me that something so silly and meaningless in and of itself can have so much meaning and dictate so much of what I do and will continue to do for the rest of my life (I hope). I can step back and see how nonsensical it all is and I can laugh at myself for trying so hard and investing so much time and mental, physical and emotional energy into sport climbing and everything that surrounds it. Anyone climbing anything doesn’t mean anything, really, not in the big picture or grand scheme of things. I kind of feel that way about most everything humans do, though. I try to remind myself on a daily basis that 100 years from now, I’ll be long gone, and nobody living then will give the slightest sh#$ about anything I did in my life. It’s the best way to keep it all in perspective.
That being said, to actually have a passion is a wonderful thing for a human being, no matter how preposterous or inconsequential that passion might be or appear. To care about something deeply enough to really invest oneself fully in it is to experience the full range of being human, I believe. Intense emotions, no-holds-barred physical effort, and supreme mental control all come into play in climbing. It’s fun because of this, because it pushes us to experience a heightened sense of our humanity, to live up to our human potential. It’s been likened to a drug because of this, and that likening isn’t entirely inappropriate. Who among us sport climbers hasn’t felt that undeniable rush, that supreme high that comes from clipping the chains on a hard send, and the terrible sense of defeat when our body or our mind fails us in this effort?
To be one of the humans who for whatever reason not of my own doing happened to be lucky enough to have been born into a country that allows its people enough freedom to do as they please with their lives, and to be one of the humans who for whatever reason not of my own doing happened to be lucky enough to be born into a country with citizens who on the whole enjoy access to lavish luxuries when compared to most humans in the world is in my eyes an utterly incredible stroke of luck. We have hot running water, electricity, clothing, astoundingly diverse and abundant foodstuffs to choose from and all sorts of commodities available at our fingertips for our entertainment.
Every one of us who has the privilege and opportunity to go out and climb, to be so selfish in doing exactly what we want when we do go out climbing, should be giving thanks every day we climb for the undeniably incredible circumstances that make it possible for us to play outside on giant natural jungle gyms just for fun. That’s all sport climbing areas are, really – playgrounds for people of all ages. All that should ever happen when people go sport climbing is that every person should have an awesome, fun-filled day, send or fail or flail, just savoring and appreciating the wonderful thing it is to be alive, to be human and to have the freedom and opportunity to participate in such an activity, an activity that’s engaged in for the sole purpose of having fun – which is perhaps one of the qualities of our species that I find the most agreeable, that no matter who we are or what we do or what we think, nearly all of us really do just want to have fun.
~Alli Rainey, prAna Ambassador
UPDATE: The day after writing this blog, Alli Rainey did indeed clip the chains of Madness — without taking the plunge again. Here are some images of the route…
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We spent a few weeks in Colorado back in October for the occasion of a prAna meeting in Boulder. It was a short vacation but an inspiring one. We stayed with Chuck Fryberger and his girlfriend Sarah Marvez very good friends as well as both excellent climbers; they showed us many places, most of them new for us. It is always fascinating to spend time in a place with so much background and climbing history as Colorado. It is kind of the birth place of bouldering in the new world. Big personalities like John Gill first, Pat Ament, Bob Williams (and many more)…Followed by Jim Holloway, Jim Michael, Steve Mammen, Jim Karn, Christian Griffith to the actual stars like Dave Graham, Daniel Woods, Paul Robinson, Angie Payne, Carlo Traversi, etc. This is one of the most active scenes around the world and there is a big range of boulder illustrating each period.
One of the nicest climbing moments of this trip was the ascent of one of the famous Holloway problems from 1975: “Trice”. It waited more than 30 years for the first repeat by Carlo Traversi. Since then Chuck told me it got maybe ten ascents. This way the consensus grade was 8a+ or v12. It was still some discussions going on because every repeater used a left foothole (not used by Holloway) that some considered off line and changing the original character and difficulty.
The prAna meeting was very close to Flagstaff, so we spent a few days there and eventually I took the opportunity to try this famous “Trice”. The upper left foot felt really crunchy to me and so I tried what could have been the original way. This means: feet straight below the bulge, the left foot kind of smearing and the right foot low on a small vertical edge, lock your fingers on a shallow pocket and go controlled to a small sloppy edge then jump to the top. The last climbing day just before a snow storm, conditions were perfect and after some warm ups and a few tries, a cold wind came and finally friction was good enough to complete the problem. It felt really satisfying to stick this last move. Retrospectively I would like to tell all my respect to Jim Holloway for his performances in bouldering, which are still great inspiration for all of us.
~Fred Nicole, prAna Ambassador
Here is some classic Fred…
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