Yvon Chouinard interview on TreeHugger
February 22, 2008
TreeHugger has an interesting interview with the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard.
Read more
Popularity: 14% [?]
The Nuts Museum slideshow and history
January 13, 2008
ChossMonkey.com points us to The Nuts Museum where enormous amount of old climbing gear is displayed in a slideshow.
Along with tons of pictures of old gear, the article that accompanies the slideshow contains a history of nuts and other types of pro.
In 1961, a blacksmith from Sheffield, John Brailsford, then a teacher of engineering technology, created the ever first purpose designed nut, the Acorn. Three sizes (1 inch, ¾ inch and 5/8 inch) were turned on a lathe from extruded aluminium alloy. John Brailsford also tried Tufnol (a resin bonded fibre used by Rolls Royce or Hoover for making light weight, silent gears) and brass for their different properties of hardness. Since the Acorn had a machine nut sitting on its top and threaded on the same sling, this « nest of nuts » offered two options, the machine nut or the Acorn. They were probably the first nuts to be marketed in England, by the Roger Turner Mountain Shop in Nottingham.
Popularity: 35% [?]
Climbing Video: Will Gadd climbing icebergs
December 31, 2007
The cold weather keeps me thinking of ice climbing. Here’s a video of Will Gadd climbing icebergs.
A higher quality MOV video can also be found at National Geographic.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Upcoming Ice Climbing Festivals in 2008
December 30, 2007
The following is a collection of all the upcoming ice climbing festivals in 2008.
January 4 - 6, 2008
Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival
The 8th annual Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival will be held in the Bernese Oberland. Over 450 ice climbers are expected to attend this festival in Switzerland.
January 9 - 13, 2008
Ouray Ice Festival
The 13th annual Ouray Ice Festival will be held in the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado.
January 11 - 13, 2008
Adirondack International Mountainfest
The Mountaineer and Adirondack Rock and River have teamed up to host the 12th annual Adirondack International Mountainfest in Keene Valley, New York.
February 1 - 3, 2008
Michigan Ice Fest
This is the 25th year of the Michigan Ice Fest located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
February 7 - 10, 2008
Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival
One of the premier climbing events in the country, the 2008 ice festival will be the 15th annual running of the event. This year they even have an Ice Fest 2008 blog. I’ve been to this one twice and it was great.
February 15 - 18, 2008
South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival
The 10th annual South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival bills itself as the “Friendliest Little Ice Festival in the Northern Rockies” and will be held in Cody, Wyoming.
February 16 - 17, 2008
Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash
I’m not sure how long this festival has been running, but the Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash will be centered out of the Sunrise Cafe in Jeffersonville, Vermont.
If there are any upcoming ice festivals I missed, please leave a comment below.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Crack climbing technique
December 7, 2007
You can never have too much insight from great climbers on their technique. Steph Davis has an article on her blog, High Places, discussing her techniques for climbing cracks (via splitterchoss.com).
The key to pure crack climbing, as with every type of climbing, is the feet. I like to start from the basics, which with cracks, is the hand crack. Hand cracks are the nicest, easiest thing you can climb, so you can focus on body position and movement technique, rather than the more precise jamming. If you have never done a handjam, it will feel alien and bizarre at first, but just slide your hand straight into the crack, and flex it, especially the meaty area under your thumb. It will stick, and that’s a handjam. I always say, if I fall out of a handjam, I deserve it :), so I tend to run it out if I’m in solid handjams.
Photo by Dru!
Popularity: 26% [?]
12th Annual Mountainfest in the Adirondacks
November 22, 2007
Taking place in New York’s Adirondacks, the 12th annual Mountainfest will take place this winter January 11-13, 2008.
A full schedule of classes include beginning through advanced ice climbing, snowshoe mountaineering, and avalanche fundamentals.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Petzl Charlet Sarken Crampon Recall
October 12, 2007
Petzl has posted a recall for all its Petzl Charlet Sarken crampons.
Recent customer experience has shown that the front points of SARKEN crampons are susceptible to premature wearout following heavy use. This means cracking of the metal forefoot near the front point(s), followed by possible breakage if usage continues.
Petzl has stopped sales and production of these crampons and is recalling all SARKEN crampon models because we feel that the potential lifetime of the crampons should be longer than user experience has demonstrated.
If you own these crampons, Petzl has instructions on their website.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Ice Climbing at the New River Gorge
March 6, 2007
I heard some rumors about the ice climbing at the New River Gorge, but hadn’t had a chance to actually get up there this winter. With the arrival of March and the warmer weather, it looks like I’ll have to wait until next season to get some ice climbing in locally.
It’s really not that hard to figure out which areas at the New to explore to find possible ice climbing though. If you climb there enough, you’re quite familiar with the various small waterfalls and areas that stay perpetually wet from drippage. All make excellent potential ice climbing areas.
I saw an article in the Charleston Gazette with some great pictures of the ice climbing this past season at the New.
This February provided a string of subzero mornings followed by afternoons in which temperatures failed to venture above the freezing point, making small watercourses plunging into the New River Gorge and the cliffs surrounding nearby Summersville Lake solid enough to climb.
Ah, next year I’ll unpack my ice tools, screws, and crampons…
Technorati Tags: climbing, ice climbing, west virginia
Popularity: 20% [?]
Climb like Dean Potter ad
June 22, 2006
This is pretty funny - a humorous take on the Dean Potter climbing Delicate Arch controversy.
Climb like Dean - but without all of the controversy. Build a full-size Delicate Arch climbing wall in your own back yard - plans included!
This blueprint is an actual public service ad (PDF link) from the National Parks Conservation Association. (via The Piton)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Superclip review
June 18, 2006
Wired Nut has a review of a new stick clip tool, the RockTools Superclip. Looks like it may be a better alternative than the Trango Squid.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Climbing tech tips
May 19, 2006
Climbing Magazine has all their tech tips nicely listed on their site now.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Rock Climbing Europe
May 15, 2006
Stewart Green, author of Rock Climbing Colorado and other guides, has written a new climbing guide to Europe called Rock Climbing Europe.
“Rock Climbing Europe” is an oversized, sturdily bound paperback guide that Green finished after 15 trips to Europe for research, climbing and interviews with climbers.
“When I started going to Europe in the 1990s, it was difficult to find information there,” he says. “You had to translate guides from French and Italian, and all you had were hand-drawn topo maps and no photographs.”
Green’s guide includes climbing routes with maps and photos in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Germany and Norway - all places, he says, that are steeped in a great climbing tradition.
The result: a climbing book that is part routefinder, part travel guide and part travelogue, with tidbits about the weather (the best climbing in Belgium’s Freyr is between April and late October); cultural highlights (Gothic architecture abounds in Bolzano, Italy); and food (Provencal cooking in the south of France features olive oil and garlic).
Popularity: 23% [?]
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