Weather Update and Video

So everyone is bummed about the weather.  I just talked to Chappy and the forest is completely soaked.  However, he did say that he say Simon was out there underneath the Gibb's Cave boulder (good work following my advice, unfortunately you will now never trust me again).  Anyways to cheer everyone's spirits I thought I would post a Battle of the Berrics video.  This one features my favorite, Steve Berra, training for his up and coming match against Marc Johnson.  if this does not get you psyched to go and work on your flatground kickflips, I don't know what else to do.  

Weather Update

For those of who are getting psyched because of all this sunny weather, you may have to curb your enthusiasm. Reports from the forest indicate that the boulders inside the forest are still pretty wet, with boulders, such as supefly, being completely soaked. The night session on thursday night may be postponed unless we get some heavy Howe Sound winds. I will posted again as soon as I hear more.

The Circle of Life

In an uncanny turn of events, two members of the squamish climbing community brought in a new member to their families yesterday. Rhea and Israel had a beautiful baby girl named Winter Isla Cruces and Pat and Elaine Chung had a healthy baby boy named Cameron (Matthew?) Chung. Congratulations everyone!!! It's a baby making factory out there people!

Video Review: A week in Yosemite

Another week goes by, the weather changes, and we find ourselves back in the gym wondering why we have jobs and are not on the road full time at this time of the year. Trying to get psyched back into training mode today I was looking around the internet for a video that might try to inspire me to try harder. On the blog KearneyJourney, I came across a rad video by Walker Kearney with footage from this November in Yosemite. What a cool video! I met Walker and his sister Prarrie on my very first trip to Bishop seven years ago. At the time, Walker and I bonded over our hatred for the problem Iron Man Traverse, as both of us tried it for two days without prevail. Since that time, Walker's climbing has grown by epic proportions, with his eyes on big prizes all over the states and Europe.

So what makes this video so rad? The first 4 minutes of the movie begins with a montage of clips from hard problems and people falling off the top outs of a number of classic problems in Yosemite. It reminded me of the old slam sections in skateboarding videos years back and it really got me psyched to go out and try harder on the rock. Walker did a great job of editing these clips to get the maximum exposure of the variety of the problems in Yosemite, not to mention the music track chosen to keep you on the edge of your seat. The video finishes off with showing some start to finish climbing on a number of fine highballs, skipping through the boring top outs with some fast forward and keeping the viewer interested.

So where are climbing videos going in the future? Years back ,when I was in high school my friends and I were piecing together skateboard videos in our parents basements, with single sections on each riders, slam sections, and intros that would make you laugh your ass off. It was all a huge movement towards where skateboarding videos have gone now. However, the formatting of skate videos has not changed that much since then. So will climbing go the same way? Will we stick with the same formatt for climbing videos as we have seen time and time again? Will I continue to sit through long self absorbed interviews and even longer top outs? or the homemade video that only captures one angle? or are people going to start mixing it up already?

On a side note, if you have not been to the BIG UP site in while, you should check out their new video Tis the Season. These guys are getting really technical with their shots and the quality of their videos and it is paying off big time.

Second Time a Charm

Round two in the boulders today. Surprisingly, more people were out despite colder temps and a bone chilling wind that was ripping through the forest. After yesterdays efforts on more difficult climbs, Rich and I decided we would stick circuiting problems we know and love. We soon found ourselves in the Titanic area of the forest to begin our trek down memory lane. For those of you who need a better picture of the conditions in the forest, every problem we came to was dry and free from snow. Despite our best efforts to make it from one end of the forest to the other, Rich and I were left standing in front of the Animal Magnetism boulder by 3 pm with our tips shredded and our muscles complaining of the cold. All in all, a beautiful two days in January. Here are couple photos of today and yesterday, courtesy of the talented Mike Chapman and my own terrible camera skills.

Matt giving me the best spot a guy could ask for on Northridge Mini (Courtesy of Mike Chapman).

Rich basking in the sun while weezing through Airtight Garage.

Rich feeling the friction of winter on Mosquito Incubator.

Return to the Forest

This weekend brought back the sunny weather to squamish bouldering and let me tell you, it was off the hook. The forest was glimmering with hope when Matt, Rich, and I arrived with no one to greet us but our own enthusiasm. Mike Chapman turned up quickly to document our sends as the early afternoon light shone on our backs. Starting in the Easy area, we were quick to jump on a sweet sweet warm up circuit and hit up some old problems that are often ignored. As the day progressed, our journey found us back at the Black Hole area, where we lost most of our skin crimping in the winter sun. Save of the day goes to Matt Lucas who placed his own body as a pad when I fell off the last moves of Northridge Mini. Here is a picture of Matt escaping from the boredom of gym climbing. Wait a minute...is that a new spotting technique where you don't use your hands?

From the Horses Mouth

This post is for everyone who is psyched to climb outside this weekend. I wrote Chapman for a detailed analysis of the situation in the boulders and here is what he wrote back:

"its really good. crisp, but not too cold. problems with snow on top have some seepage, but there is tons to do. warm up areas are in good shape. weasel, no troblems, defenders and even black hole are all in perfect shape. rest of the talus is a bit worse because of snow on top. "

So there you have it folks. Outside bouldering is on for this weekend and I, for one, am pretty psyched to get back to the forest. See you Saturday!