August 27th was the first annual Rifle RendezSPEW and Clean-Up at Rifle Mountain Park, CO. The Rifle Clean-Up is yearly event where locals come together and help maintain Rifle as a world-class climbing destination.

This year however my boyfriend, Andrew Bisharat, and I took the reins with the objective of making it the biggest and most fun clean-up yet. The goals were simple, provide a ridiculously fun day of climbing and cleaning followed by an after party not to be forgotten.

After watching the ski video GNAR, Andrew has been dreaming of a way to bring the game of G.N.A.R (a game that allots a point value to ski runs as well as a variety of bonus and penalty points throughout the day) to Rifle. The annual clean-up provided just that opportunity. Thus was born the game of S.P.E.W (Send Points for Elitist Wankers).

In the game of S.P.E.W you earn points for sending routes throughout the day and for participating in sanctioned clean-up activities, such as replacing bad bolts and biners, building belay platforms, participating in trail work, etc. . . You can also earn bonus points for doing anything deemed awesome (i.e. brushing holds, calling the send, onsighting, wearing a costume to the party, and so on). But, you can lose points for doing anything deemed “unawesome” (ie. driving your car from one parking lot to the next, calling the send and failing, wearing a daisy chain thong, etc. . .) For a complete list of rule visit http://eveningsends.com/2011/08/the-rifle-rendezspew/

The day of climbing and cleaning was followed by what I’m sure will be considered the best Rifle party of all times, at least until next year. The challenge of dressing as a Rifle route was met by many, with such amazing costumes as Living in Fear, Glue Fairy, Merry Maids, The Beast, Le Specimen, several versions of Euro Trash, several member of the Bad Girls club, Mouse Trap, Quick Draws, Brown Chicken, Firearms, King Fisher, Gay Science, and I’m Not a Philistine to name a few.

The after party left everyone happy by providing copious amounts of burgers and brats, as well as lots and lots of beer, provided by the always generous Adam Avery and the Lander Bar. With full bellies everyone enjoyed the biggest raffles I’ve ever seen, and a dance party complete with a DJ, disco lights, and a fog machine!

When all was said and done, the Rifle RendezSPEW was a huge success. We raised $3000 to be used for future improvements to Rifle Mountain Park. We also completed a number of clean-up projects which included, cleaning out the fire pits in all of the camp sites, building a bigger and better belay platform under the project wall as well as a picnic area across the stream in an effort to keep people out of the road. Old ratty quickdraws were removed and new steel ones were added to many routes, bad bolts and anchors were replaced throughout the park, several routes received a shiny set of glue in bolts, and trails and downed trees were addressed and improved.

I hope to see more people and even better costumes next year!

Thanks to the Access Fund, Big Agnes, Black Diamond, Backbone Media, CAMP, ClimbTech, Cypher, Deuter, Edelweiss, Five Ten, Grivel, La Sportiva, Liberty Mountain, prAna, Patagonia, Rab, Rock and Ice magazine, Singing Rock, Sterling Rope, Summit Canyon Mountaineering and Wolverine Publishing for the amazing support!!! Special thanks to CAMP, ClimbTech, Liberty Mountain, and the American Safe Climbing Association for their donations of steel hardware that is being used to keep Rifle safe and user friendly. Thanks to Avery Brewing and the Lander Brewing Co for supplying the beer.

~Jen Vennon, prAna Ambassador

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This weekend I traveled to Boston to participate in Stop #2 of the Dark Horse Series. It took place this Saturday the 4th at MetroRock in Everret, Massachusetts. The qualifier round was 3 hours of redpoint format with hundreds of people waiting to try the amazing problems set by Dave Wetmore and crew.



Finals problems were really fun! Dave and crew did a great job setting for the comp. Interestingly, men and women shared the same problem #1 which was a run-and-jump to a huge, round volume followed by a dyno around a corner to another huge volume then a drop down to another volume identical to the first one with an even crazier dyno to the finishing hold. A very unique problem and one of the best in the competition.

The rest of the problems were great too. Women’s #2–a sloper problem–really bouted me. Slopers are my weakness. A fun problem nonetheless which Francesca floated impressively. Problem #3 was more my style, crimps up a steep face. I fell going for the finishing hold after narrowly sticking the last tiny crimp below the lip. Problem #4 had very good holds on it with big moves and no feet. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to move off the last sloper to the finishing hold and was too pumped to finish. Francesca was able to hold the sloper with way more authority and did the problem with ease.

The men all looked very impressive during the redpoint round and it was hard to tell who would end up in 1st. Men’s #3 looked really hard on small jibs on volumes and small slopey pinches. Max figured out a really smart way to skip some holds by grabbing one of the right handed pinches with his left hand and getting a heal hook on the volume to gain a small incut undercling but didn’t have enough juice for the next huge cross near the top. An impressive effort. Brian Kim quietly crushed and Vasya Vorotnikov turned on the kill switch and made an exciting flash of Men’s #4 and clearly dominated the evening by topping all of the climbs.

After all was said and done, Francesca Metcalf and Vasya Vorotnikov came out on top in 1st place. Here are the rest of the results;

Women
1. Francesca Metcalf
2. Natasha Barnes
3. Melissa Godowski

Men
1. Vasya Vorotnikov
2. Brian Kim
3. Andrew Kim

It was fun being back in Boston again and seeing friends that I met last time I was there. Good times were definitely had. I’m excited to go back for the Dark Horse Finale in February and see what Dave et al have in store.

My last day there Max and I ventured out Bradley along with some others and braved some very cold temps to try and make bouldering happen.We managed to make a pretty good time out of it and it was great to see how psyched everyone was to climb despite the freezing conditions. I almost sent a really nice arete with the encouragement of Jeremy (who did send) and I got to check out Max’s crazy hard project that he’s been telling me about. Shit looks HARDDDDDDDDD!!! Then we rushed to the airport only to discovery that my 7:30 flight was delayed and kept getting delayed until we finally took off at 10:30 putting me back in San Francisco at 2am. Exhausted to say the least!!!

I’d like to thank my sponsors Five Ten and PrAna for making this trip possible. Stay tuned for more photos and video of the competition…

THE ADVENTURES OF KATE MCGINNIS

This weekend was the 7th year of Triple Crown at Horse Pens, AL. I have been there every year for the past seven and it is starting to make me feel very old. I can still hang with the big guns though, placing a very close second to Alex Puccio. Go Team Five Ten! The weather was beautiful with temps a little on the warm side for the ancient sandstone slopers that characterize this amazing little boulderfield. The comp was full of the usual sending energy that brings people back, year after year, to try their hardest. Having just returned from the Greece trip, my endurance is there, but my bouldering power is still not back at full force. Highlight sends of the day included Slider (V9), Ghetto Superstar (V9), and repeating some of my favorites in the boulderfield (Consumption, Chevy, Stepchild, and Great White). Kenneth and I had a great time hanging out with old friends and getting back to bouldering. We headed out to the ranch Friday afternoon to set up the prAna tent, climbed all day Saturday, and stayed up making tea and giving away clothes to a bunch of really psyched folks throughout the night. The booth was a huge success: the prAna presence at the event was definitely strong! Here’s a few pics from the event. . . more to come