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I first heard about Albarracin many years ago. I heard good things and bad things over the years and finally decided that I had to check the area out for myself to be the judge. I made the drive from Lisbon, Portugal to Albarracin in hopes of colder temperatures and majestic sandstone. To my amazement, it was everything I had ever dreamed of.

The climbing in Albarracin is some of the best bouldering in all of Europe! There are big proud boulders in all directions and tons of potential for new lines. I spent my first few days climbing many of the classics of the area but soon found some amazing projects that i was quite eager to try. One of which was on a big boulder and was super steep, much like a lot of the climbing in Albarracin. The climb looked really gymnastic and powerful. Out of all the projects I had seen I was most psyched on this one!

The first day I tried the line I was unable to do either of the crux moves but felt close to both of them. The crux moves are back to back and both are quite low percentage, especially the second one. The first hard move involves jumping to a bad pinch and holding a hard swing. Once you do that you have to match the pinch and do the hardest move on t he climb, a long blind dead point to a very small crimp high up on the face of the boulder. I fell here countless times!

On my third day of trying, I was beginning to get really close.

Unfortunately the weather was not looking so good and it began to rain. I was forced to stop trying for a bit. A lull in the rain finally emerged and I waited 15 minutes or so to let the top out dry slightly. After one bad try, I found myself topping out what would be the first ascent of “Helicopters on Beaches” 8B+.

I am really psyched to have put up such a classic hard line in Albarracin! I think that this line is one of my best FA’s to date and I look forward to people putting effort into repeating it in the future!

After hosting the world premiere of Welcome to the Hood in Madrid, the search is on again for new boulders all around the world!

Paul Robinson, prAna Ambassador

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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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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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Functional Apparel for the Unconventional Spirit

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Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.

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During the two main event days, climbers went out climbing on their own, participated in an outdoor climbing competition, or attended event clinics. Clif Bar donated hundreds of Clif products for clinic participants, enabling everyone to grab some to take along on their way out to the crags – really cool. The clinic topics ranged from improving a variety of sport climbing or trad climbing skills to wilderness first aid, among others.

Kevin and I taught prAna/Petzl – sponsored Fall-Safe clinics on both Friday and Saturday. These clinics aimed to help climbers with some previous lead climbing/belaying experience to overcome the fear of falling by learning how to fall safely, as well as how to catch a lead fall safely while sport climbing. We started each day with a thorough talk about the safety inherent in climbing equipment, as well as sharing some basic pointers about belaying and falling, followed by a lead-falling/lead-belaying demonstration.

After that, it was on to having the participants start falling and belaying each other. We backed them up with a loose top-rope to inspire confidence, while still keeping the feeling of lead-falling real. They started out with small falls under or just at the bolt, and gradually progressed so that everyone was able to take much bigger falls from above the bolt confidently and safely – and able to belay these bigger falls confidently and safely as well.

Our clinic participants proved to be avid learners who were excited to work toward mastering their fears and challenging themselves. Seeing people’s confidence in the equipment, themselves, and each other grow throughout the day was awesome. I’ve honestly never had so much fun watching so many whippers taken, or seen so many smiles and laughter from falling climbers and their belayers. As one of the clinic participants put it, “It’s sort of a different approach, climbing up and just knowing that you’re going to purposely fall off.” By the end of each day, we saw safer belaying skills and more confident leaders. Hopefully everyone who participated will now be able to enjoy their future climbing experiences with much less risk of injury or being overcome by joy-robbing fear.

Every night after climbing, competing, or clinics, climbers congregated back at the event venue. Vendor booths offered freebies galore, including yoga classes and massages from prAna (for which the list filled up to the max in about five minutes) and poster signings by prAna Ambassadors Chris Sharma and Paul Robinson, among many others. Climbers could also sate their thirst either at the beer tent or at prAna’s no-booze bar, which offered bubble tea and other fruity nonalcoholic beverages. Crowd-pleasing events kept spirits high and interest engaged, from the sumo crash pad contest to the dyno comp, as well as the mysterious Crouching Clowny, Hidden Monster, which left people shaking their heads and wondering exactly what they’d just seen take place (guess you’ll have to wait until next year to find out if you missed it this time).

Kevin and I showed up not knowing quite what to expect, having never attended the event before, but we left already stoked to be a part of next year’s New River Rendezvous.

~Alli Rainey, prAna Ambassador

Be sure to check out all the pictures at http://ow.ly/51XIs and Tag yourself and your friends!

Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.

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Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.

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On March 8, 2011 I first woke up at 6 in the morning. I felt very anxious about climbing that day. Two days prior, I had come agonizingly to sending The Story Of Two Worlds and making it second ascent after Dave Graham in 2006. I could not fall back to sleep as I kept thinking about the climb and what it would take to send that day!

I finally fell back to sleep and was in and out of sleep for the next few hours. I woke up for good at around 10:30 and prepared for the day in Cresciano. By noon, I was ready to hit the boulders. My friend, Fernando, and I warmed up and he tried his project for a little while. I began to get really psyched as the temps were getting good. I felt anxious but most of all psyched. We made the trek over to the boulder, I finished warming up, and set my pads under The Story Of Two Worlds. I cannot count the amount of times I have done this but it truly felt like a routine.

I tried a few of the ending moves to fully warm myself up and the rested for a few minutes. I sat at the base of the boulder and thought about the moves and in my mind… I knew I could do it. I just had to keep it together and climb the boulder flawlessly.

I took a few deep breaths, pulled on, and climbed the boulder to the top! It was an amazing feeling! I toped it out into the sunlight of the afternoon. It felt so incredible to be climbing the final slab of my project that I had put so much effort into over my entire European trip.

This climb feels like a huge stepping stone for me. I have now climbed many of the hardest established climbs in Ticino. It is now time for me to leave my mark here in Switzerland. I have a ton of projects and can’t wait to get to the top of them soon!

More to come!

~Paul Robinson

Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.

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