As climbers, we suffer from numerous injuries. One of the more common climber injuries is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow. Essentially this is pain on the inside of your elbow and it originates from overuse of the flexor muscles. All our gripping without exercising the opposing muscle groups is usually the culprit for climbers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been suffering from this condition for months now. I’ve been seeing a sports medicine doctor and slowly my severe pain has reduced. When I started rehab, my pain was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. After about three months of daily ice baths and exercises to strengthening opposing muscle groups (including a couple initial weeks of ultrasound), I was finally down in the 4 out 10 pain range.

So when I was contacted by the inventor of a device called Armaid, I was initially quite skeptical. First, if there was some device that would help, why didn’t my doctor or any literature mention it? Is this really going to help me and how long will it take? But since I really had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to try it out. The company saw a few of its customers were climbers and was interested to see what the reaction from the climbing community would be for this device. My goal was to test it out using my own pain and injuries as a guinea pig and provide some critical feedback to Armaid.

Amazingly, I felt pain relief from the Armaid device immediately. And before getting into details about Armaid, let me give you a quick summary. I’ve been using the device daily for about 2 – 3 minutes each on each forearm and my pain level has dropped at least another full notch on my pain scale after only a couple weeks.

Details of the Armaid Device

Armaid costs $99.95 and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Initially I thought was that this was a high price for an unproven device for notoriously cheap climbers. But after using Armaid and finding it actually works, I changed my mind about the pricing. Let’s assume you have medical insurance. For the price of about two co-pay sessions with a doctor or massage therapist, you’ve paid for Armaid. Comparing the cost of Armaid to all the other medical treatment I have received in the past for climbing related injuries, a hundred dollars is a steal.

The Armaid device works by relaxing and releasing tight muscle tissue by massaging and stretching muscles in the arm. It comes with a detailed DVD with instructional videos as you must use the device in a specific manner to achieve results.

The Armaid appears to be constructed well. The apparatus is made of a sturdy plastic mounted on a swivel that allows for moving to a variety of angles. There are different stiffnesses of the therapy balls that actually run over your forearms to adjust the level of pressure.

Another small climber-related complaint I had was the size of the device. Armaid is rather large (about 16″ long), but to mechanically achieve its mission I realize it pretty much has to be that way. My initial opinion (before testing it) was that climbers may not want to take it on our frequent road trips. After using it, I realize that if you have chronic pain like I do, you’re not going to care about the size and you’ll throw it in the car. It’s really not that big, but you can see for yourself in one of Armaid’s demo videos. It also weighs just over a pound so it’s not too heavy.

I haven’t seen much discussion of this device elsewhere, despite it usefulness. I did see a brief recommendation in Clyde Soles’ training book, but other than that the Armaid appears to be quite unknown to climbers.

My next obvious question was what is this company all about? Who are they and why should I trust them with my health?

Armaid’s Founder

I had several conversations with the founder of Armaid, Terry Cross, and asked him some very pointed questions that I knew climbers would be interested in learning before committing to this product.

Terry is a former sports injury and occupational injury therapist and I asked him how he came up with the idea for Armaid:

“I would see sometimes as many as ten clients a day and over time I began to develop repetitive strain (tendinitis) in my arms and hands. I began to do more self massage to maintain my own level of strength and fitness. This worked for a while by using my free hand to massage the other arm but this method often aggravated my problems and after trying several different products I felt there was not a good massage tool available for specifically helping the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. I tried many different prototypes and designs until I came up with the idea of using a lever (as in the mechanical advantage of a nutcracker) to easily amplify the pressure on the trigger points (sore areas) without using a lot of strength necessary from the free hand.

There is a particular type of therapy that I used as a hands-on therapist that I use constantly and it is the most efficient method I have ever found to work to relieve tight muscles. I built Armaid to specifically incorporate this therapy technique. To keep it simple, I call it “trigger point therapy” on our website. It is called different names depending if you are talking to an Occupational or Physical Therapist, Rolfing Therapist, Chiropractor, etc. I’ve heard it called Myofacial Release, Client Assisted Release, Active Release etc., but it is always the same technique of maintaining static pressure on a sore spot and then stretching the muscle under that pressure (see the “two therapies” video on our website). This releases the muscle fiber much more quickly and efficiently than cross-fiber technique or mere stroking (effluerage). It also has the added benefit of letting the sufferer discover which muscles and which range of motion is the culprit in their problem.”

And on who is using Armaid and why climbers should think about using it:

“Disgruntled sufferers that have had the surgeries, taken the drugs, been upset with unending appointments with expensive therapy sessions and still not happy and are looking for something that they can do for themselves. They hear about Armaid mostly through word of mouth or a search online. For the cost of one or two medical or massage sessions they can buy an Armaid and be in charge of their own arm, elbow and hand health.

It must be made clear that Armaid is only useful if the problem is based in the forearm muscles that can create painful problems in the elbow, wrist and hand. The question that I always ask someone who is considering using Armaid is “Do you have sore forearm muscles?” if they say “yes” then I know that Armaid is perfect for them and will deliver relief when used as shown on the videos. Armaid will not be of use if the problem originates solely in the neck or shoulder region with a pinched nerve or injury “upstream” of the arm.

Armaid is not a cure all or a one-time magic bullet. It does give the sufferer a way to relieve their symptoms and to maintain their own hand, arm, elbow health. Armaid use is like brushing your teeth, regular maintenance is best for health because as an athlete you are constantly using your body and muscles and creating tension and metabolic waste products. That is why professional athletes have massages constantly before and after every work out and performance.

Summary

The Armaid is a useful product that can be used to supplement other healthy physical therapy for rehabilitating several conditions climbers experience. If you have chronic pain, the Armaid by itself will not cure you. But an overall change in habits along with this device can be an effective solution to getting back to lower pain levels.

* Special Discount *

Terry also gave me a special discount only for readers of All Climbing. If you mention you saw Armaid on All Climbing, you will receive 15% off your order of the device. Just mention it when ordering online or when calling them.

Disclaimer: It pains me to even write this, but let me reiterate – I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. If you have medical problems, please consult a doctor or other medical professional.

Well, it turns out one of the side benefits of her being born 10 days early was my ability to attend the premier of Rocky Mountain Highball last night at the Boulder Theater.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent climbing movie and I really only found a few minor flaws. The following are my impressions of Rocky Mountain Highball.

Before the show, the filmmakers mentioned that it took them over two years to make. That care and dedication for delivering this product was unmistakable throughout.

The title may lead the viewer to think this is just for Colorado boulderers. Rocky Mountain Highball was set in Colorado, but not specifically about Colorado. This is an important distinction. The film was more about the essence of bouldering and how highballs fit into the equation. How we as boulderers attempt to push our limits within the pursuit of bouldering. Rocky Mountain Highball appeals to all climbers regardless of style or geographic preferences.

That said, it depicted a nice overview of Colorado bouldering, really showing the breadth of rock type and quality here.

Rocky Mountain Highball had a great story line. Simply having a story, let alone an interesting one, is a major accomplishment for any climbing film. They started with examining the past, looking at the history of bouldering (not just highballs) and then progressed from the present to the future of highball bouldering.

The movie balanced between amazing footage of highball bouldering problems and short clips of commentary from boulderers both old and new.

The interviews with John Sherman, Pat Ament and John Gill were fantastic and likely worth the price of admission by themselves. Their insights and commentary on bouldering contrasted with the newer generation of climbers was striking.

During Rocky Mountain Highball I didn’t think much about the music until I started thinking about what I would say about the music! So I’ll take that to mean the score was unobtrusive and fit well with the climbing.

An often discussed topic, Rocky Mountain Highball took great care to dive into what highballs actually are and how climbers define them. Jason Kehl had one of my favorite quotes where he defined highball bouldering as when you personally feel like you’re too high off the ground (paraphrased). A highball for one person may not be highball for others. That’s really the essence of the experience, right?

It was also nice to watch a climbing film that wasn’t exclusively focused on the hardest boulder problems in the world. There were numerous problems shown that mere mortals could aspire to climb. Unfortunately, they were still scary and tall as hell.

There was also an all-star cast. From their web site:

Director/Filmmaker Scott Neel, and Yama Studio have brought in a huge cast of world renowned climbers, like Paul Robinson, Mark Wilford, Kevin Jorgeson, Lynn Hill, Daniel Woods, John Sherman, John Gill, Steve Mammen, and Jason Kehl. Having filmed more than 70 climbs with more than 35 athletes, this film proves to be an exciting journey through the world of highball bouldering.

Now for a couple negatives.

The film only showed names of climbers during their interviews, not during actual climbs. More frustrating though was the film only displayed the names of individual problems, but not the areas where they were located. As a new local to Colorado, there were many problems where I could place the area or specific boulder, but many I had no idea where they were located.

I spoke with @boulderdiaries after the show and he hinted at researching and publishing a list of the problems and their locations from the film. Or at least that was what I think I heard…

The only reason I can think of why they didn’t explicitly add the areas to the titles was the fact I mentioned above about Rocky Mountain Highball not really being a film about Colorado. Maybe by not highlighting the areas, the filmmakers were attempting to focus on highballing itself. Possibly true to their vision of the movie, but annoying nonetheless.

I know this sounds a bit of schadenfreude, but I think some more footage of failures or falling during some of the problems would have added to the movie. I say this because some of the more dramatic scenes were when a climber topped out of a highball. Watching well-known, pro climbers literally shaking from the fear and anxiety of doing the highball really made the viewer relate in ways you don’t normally see in a climbing film. Especially noticeable was hearing Lynn Hill stress out near the top of one problem. You immediately start to think “if Lynn Hill is freaking out a bit on this highball, how really scary is this?”

Overall, Rocky Mountain Highball delivers on its promise of exploring the world of highball bouldering and more interestingly why climbers push themselves on these types of problems.

My Dad is in town this week and I took him with me to see the premier. As this was a much more climber oriented film compared to the recent releases of The Sharp End and Pure and since he isn’t a climber, I wasn’t sure he would enjoy it. Afterward, he said he loved it. That in itself should say a lot about the quality of the film. Creating a work that is climber-focused yet still delivers an impressive and powerful story line is quite an achievement.

Peter Beal and Dougald MacDonald both have some interested perspectives on this issue and I’d like to expand further on the topic.

Personally, I still enjoy reading climbing magazines. I subscribe to Climbing, Urban Climber, and Rock & Ice even though I’ve been considering letting my subscriptions lapse at times. I don’t get climbing news from magazines as they’re usually about a month behind. I love the photography, but that can be found abundantly on the web as well. Climbing video is important to me and you can’t watch a video clip of a sick new project in a magazine either.

So why have I continued to subscribe and read them then? It’s likely the combination of (mostly) good articles, reviews, accident reports (I think these are important learning lessons), and technique/gear tips they provide. Unfortunately, all of these could be ported to an online format.

What I would love to see is some sort of hybrid model from the climbing magazines. They could take a lesson from a main stream publication like the Wall Street Journal. I initially subscribed to the WSJ while in business school and at about $300 per year for a subscription to the delivered daily paper, it got to be too much (both in cost as well as paper volume).

After business school, I found the Journal offered the entire paper online for $99 per year. A fraction of the cost, though still a bit pricey, but well worth it in my opinion to still be able to read all the content I wanted while not having to pay for paper I was never having the time to read. Their site even provides the ability to have links to every article in each day’s paper sent in an email. The subscriber controls what and how much they want to read.

I was never going to continue to pay regular price for the paper subscription especially after my student rates ended. By offering the online version at a substantially discounted price, they were able to capture what economists would call the consumer surplus.

Climbing magazines have the opportunity to embrace this as well. How many climbers who are not willing to pay $30 per year on a magazine subscription may be willing to pay $5 or $10 for this same content online? A small percentage I am sure, but realize this is still $5 more than these publishers would have received otherwise.

True, publishers risk that some of their paying subscribers will migrate to the online only version, but with such relatively low subscription numbers as a percentage of the climbing industry’s participants, I would think it would be a welcome portion of additional revenue.

I’m not sure there is anything the magazines can do content-wise at this point. What else can really be added to print magazines? The future is online and it will be interesting to see how the they handle these critical decisions over the next few years.

Now my first jealous thought was “dammit, get back to work…”, but then I started thinking about technology and climbing. I know my agent carried some smartphone so he was probably checking his email and calling from the summit before rapping off.

Personally, while I’ve had the ability to do business while climbing (by using my iPhone at the crag), I’ve always hesitated for a couple reasons.

First, there are the financial issues. These devices are not cheap and I’m not interested in breaking one by throwing it into my pack while climbing. I know his can be mitigated with a nice case, but it’s still an issue.

The second factor is simply the separation of work from play. While I know many times working on a project or training for climbing feels like work, it’s still climbing. I’ve always believed that a bad day climbing is still better than good day working.

I’ve also been thinking about how mobile phones and other technology could be used for climbing, especially as guidebooks. Flashed is selling guides to some areas for the iPod. Mountain Project has a nicely optimized site for the iPhone. There’s also a couple climbing related iPhone apps now.

Each is a great idea, but relies on the premise that you’re willing to take your device out with you climbing.

When I look at my large collection of tattered and dirty climbing guide books, I can see that I’m perfectly happy to throw them on the ground and generally handle them with little care while out climbing. I’m not sure I’m willing to do that with an expensive electronic device.

With the relatively recent demise (and subsequent potential rebirth) of Alpinist and the launch of Dead Point Magazine (completely available online), where is climbing media headed?

Climbing guidebook services like SuperTopo and Dr Topo appear to have had some success with the PDF ebook model, but how many of you actually use them? And if you do, don’t you eventually just print them out to take climbing anyway?

Print media is not going to disappear anytime soon, but what will the future look like? Will print publications grow or should we begin to embrace the emerging digital formats? I’ll explore my thoughts on this question in part 2, but what are your opinions?

Well, I was quite wrong in that regard. Chuck Fryberger’s Pure takes the genre to a new level. Pure was one of the more unique climbing films I’ve seen. This may be good or bad depending on your preferences. Let me explain a bit further.

From the opening, the viewer is struck by the beautiful cinematography of the film. Strong climbers and spectacular climbing areas are combined with an outstanding soundtrack for maximum impact. To be honest, I think the music in many climbing films is a liability, but in Pure I felt it added tremendously to the experience.

The overarching vision of Pure was to look at strong boulderers at areas across the globe while experiencing their approach to bouldering and its “purity”. In this regard, the film succeeded.

However, if you’re a fan of watching extended, intricate, and detailed climbing sequences of an entire problem, you may disappointed with Pure. Chuck forsakes showing the complete sends of many problems for the overall artistry of the film. The viewer will often only see the crux of the problem or a particularly exciting sequence of moves. You’re not going to watch many boring top-outs in Pure. Actually, one of the few top-outs shown in the film was quite interesting as some of the boulders in Innsbruck were snow covered for the sends.

Much of the bouldering footage was done in what I could best describe as stop motion. I was not the complete, flowing movement you’re used to seeing in other climbing films. Instead of showing entire sequences, Pure was more action oriented, skipping to the best moves in the problem. I found this exciting to watch, though I suspect there will be some viewers who will not like this approach.

Some of the featured climbers in Pure included Nalle Hukkataival, Kevin Jorgeson, Cody Roth, Kilian Fischhuber, Anna Stoehr, and Fred Nicole. They were shown bouldering at Rocklands, South Africa; Sonoma County, California; Fountainebleu, France; Innsbruck, Austria; Vail, Colorado; Arco, Italy; and The Vallei, Magic Wood, and Brione, Switzerland.

I had the impression watching Pure that there was a heavy dose of Nalle Hukkataival. This was not necessarily a negative though, because Nalle was extremely impressive to watch as he crushed problems. But it did seem there was a disproportionate amount of him in Pure.

The opening footage of the Rocklands was spectacular even though we’ve all seen video from there before. Kevin Jorgeson bouldering along the coastline in Somona, California was unique as it’s not quite well known for its bouldering. But as Kevin said in the film: what it lacks for in quantity, it makes up for in the quality of the lines.

I did think there was going to be more footage in Colorado. Now that I’m a resident, I can’t help but be interested in seeing more of my local areas. Colorado is listed on the film’s web site, but the only Colorado climbing in Pure was of the Teva Mountain Games in Vail.

This leads me to my only other minor complaint. I found it unusual to see footage of climbing competitions in Pure (Vail and Arco). I’m not necessarily against this, but it seemed a little out of place with the rest of the film. If taken in the context of following Nalle Hukkataival around the world bouldering, it makes more sense; but I don’t think this was a documentary of Nalle. Don’t get me wrong, the footage of these comps was great, but it just didn’t seem to fit in as seamlessly as everything else.

I also took a brief survey of some of my various climber friends in attendance and the response was very positive. The only negatives brought up were the ones I’ve mentioned above and are really minor depending on your pre-conceived notions of climbing films.

Overall, I really enjoyed Pure. It’s not a movie you’re going to watch to acquire exact beta for a problem, but the film takes you to these climbing areas and immerses you in the action. Pure will get you psyched to climb and in my opinion that’s the purest test of great climbing flick.

A few other notes from the Pure premier:

• A trailer was shown for Rocky Mountain Highball. One word – awesome! The premier of this film is in Boulder on April 27, 2009. This is also the due date of my first child. My wife was not pleased when I said I hoped the baby comes late so I could go to the premier…
• Mike Brooks of FrontRangeBouldering.com interviewed me briefly before the show. It was loud and I was drinking beer so I cannot be held accountable for anything stupid I may have said.
• For his train of thought impressions of the film, Boulder Diaries took live notes during the premier.
• Some complained on Chuck’s site about the computerized narrated voice in the trailer. It didn’t bother me at all, but it is still used to transition between the high level sections of the climbing areas in the movie.

I wasn’t sure what I’d get out of a weekend of ice climbing just with girls, because I’ve always climbed with boys. Of course I’d come away with sore shoulders, bigger calves and more mad girl-climbing skills, but what else would be on the table at a women’s weekend? After an insanely fun weekend in Ouray at the Chicks With Picks Betty Ice Ball, I compiled a list of five things you’ll get more of when you climb with Chicks:

More Potty Talk: A lot can go wrong when you have to pee with a funnel. (I won’t go into it here, but trust me — things can go really wrong.) Consequently, stories about pee funnels abound when you climb with women. After one of the dinners at the Ice Ball, a veteran Chick recounted a pee funnel story from her climb of Denali: The tube of her beloved Freshette landed in the “toilet” at a high camp, sending her into total panic. How would she do the deed in a rope team with men now? A friend sent her to see the only other woman on the mountain, who, though she boasted about only using a hardware-store funnel herself rather than those fancy pee funnels, had a spare Freshette. The woman turned out to be Dawn Glanc, who served as a guide for this year’s Betty Ball (and won the Ouray Ice Fest comp in Januray).

More Nudity: If you’re not afraid to bare your ass to the wind and other climbers in the Ice Park (assuming you’re not using the aforementioned Freshette), you’re probably not afraid to do it back at the Vic in the relative privacy of your room. Maybe my roommate and I were just exhibitionists, but when you’re queuing to get in the shower next so you don’t stink at dinner, you start peeling off baselayers. If other women came in the room to download the day of climbing while you’re toweling off, well, no time for modesty when you’re hungry enough to gnaw on your backpack. There’s nothing titillating about this, no grab-fanny going on here. That happens while we’re out climbing, fully dressed.

More Love: When you totally rock some climb, dude — and you will at Chicks, because you’ll have some of the best guides around, regardless of gender — expect high fives, fist bumps, puffy belay-jacket hugs and cheers. When a guide throws a contest into the clinic, like making it up in the fewest swings, expect stiff competition from your pals…and those puffy hugs in the end, because your competitors have grace. The love-fest won’t go unnoticed. Nearby climbers seem a little jealous (could just be that you’re climbing with Kitty Calhoun), and one commented with a smile that we were having way too much fun.

More Mascara: I’ve never climbed in makeup. Probably because I almost never wear makeup. But for some reason, I spotted a lot of Chicks wearing mascara while ice climbing. I didn’t look further into this trend, but I’m assuming it’s waterproof. How could it not be waterproof, right? Ice melts after it nicks your face. A few Chicks wore lip gloss, too, and I had to wonder how that doesn’t end up on your glove when you wipe your nose with the back of your hand. I don’t really get it, but it does look nice — much nicer than the layers of snot accumulating on my gloves. Perhaps I could learn something from the glam climbers.

More Climbing: The Chicks guides keep you moving. You start at 7:45 and climb until 4 p.m. You have 30 minutes to scarf lunch and move to your next clinic. When you get there, be prepared to work. Even when the guides don’t seem to be pushing you, they are. Sarah Hueniken, the guide for my mixed clinic, kept sending us further and further up routes by simply saying, “Do one more move.” This was the last clinic of the weekend, and I was wasted, but as soon as someone untied, she’d get me to keep going with a mere, “You’re up, Jenn,” and a smile. On the last climb, a tall M7, she summoned me to the rope and said, “Well someone needs to go get the quickdraws.” Indeed.

Jenn Fields is a writer and editor from Longmont, Colorado. She has written for Bicycling, Mountain Bike, Backpacker, Climbing and the Boulder Daily Camera. Her personal web site is http://www.jennfields.com. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Chicks with Picks just celebrated its tenth anniversary of teaching women of all abilities how to ice climb and improve current skills. More info can be found at http://www.chickswithpicks.net/.

As Twitter hits the mainstream, climbers are increasingly using the service to communicate and share. A few months ago, the Rock Climber Girl took the initiative to setup a wiki to keep a list of the growing number of climbers on Twitter.

Unfortunately, manually maintaining a wiki was going to be too much work as Twitter’s growth continues. So I decided to take the idea a step further and create ThinkClimbing.

ThinkClimbing is both a directory of climbers (and everything climbing-related) on Twitter and well as a real-time stream of all the climbing related tweets.

Current Features

• Search for people tweeting about climbing near you. Just enter your location in the search box.
• Weather forecasts. If you use a postal code for your location, the current weather forecast for your area will be displayed above the nearby climbing tweets.
• Directory of climbers and everything climbing related including retailers, manufacturers, media, blogs, sites, gyms, organizations, guides, and climbing schools. If you’re not already in the directory, please get yourself registered by signing up.
• Quickly retweet, view tweets, reply, or direct message from any climbing tweet.

Planned Features

• Search for users by name or location.
• RSS feeds to alert you when new users are added.
• Clean up the design and make everything a bit more shiny and polished.
• Ability to find climbers based on your specific climbing interests and abilities.

Registering on ThinkClimbing

You may wonder why you should bother registering on ThinkClimbing. Here’s are the big reasons:

• Add yourself to the directory of climbers on Twitter. ThinkClimbing doesn’t ask for your Twitter password, just for your username. No worries of us ever spamming or hijacking your account!
• New features are planned that will be using the profile you create on ThinkClimbing. In the future, you’ll be able to add information about your climbing interests and abilities that will help you connect with other climbers.

How does it work?

Using Twitter’s APIs, we pull in any mention of climbing, bouldering, or mountaineering along with a few of the major climbing-related hashtags being used. In addition, our search algorithm tries to remove unrelated discussions.

The image below show how to use the #climb hashtag:

Please let me know your thoughts on the development of ThinkClimbing. There’s a feedback tab on the site, you can leave a comment below, or let us know using the feedback form.

The following day, on Friday, February 13 at 7pm, All Climbing is hosting a meetup / welcoming party with Andrew Hyde (a startup guru in Boulder) for Steph. Andrew is a good friend of Steph’s and helped setup her blog. We share a common interest in mingling the techology and climbing communities.

The location is still to be determined, but we’re currently taking names of those interested in attending. If you’d like to come, please sign up here.

Also, if there are any other organizations out there that would like to help sponsor this event, please contact me.

I know some climbers will be in town for the ABS Nationals at The Spot and if you have some time I hope you can join us for this meetup with Steph.

If you use Twitter, please check the wiki and if you’re not on it, fill out this form and we’ll get you added.

I use Twitter in two different accounts: @tmarkiewicz is my personal account and @climbing is centered on the blog and climbing.

Come join the conversations on Twitter!

Clif. The name is synonymous with climbing (perhaps it’s the logo?). If you’re like me, then you’ve always enjoyed Clif Bars, but rarely buy them because frankly, you’re a cheapskate. Nutritious? Yep. All natural? Absolutely. Tasty? You betcha! In fact, it’s amazing that anyone can successfully sell any product to a bunch of jobless, dirtbag climbers like ourselves, right? We’d rather just eat the dust of last weeks trail mix!

In recent years, Clif has been on a tear to diversify and expand their product line, releasing 9 new food products since 2004. However, since I’m rather oblivious to that sort of thing, and haven’t spent much time in climbing gyms recently (traditional Clif strongholds), I failed to notice…well…ALL of them. A recent sample of Clif Shot Bloks at an ultimate frisbee tournament piqued my curiosity, inspiring a flurry of research (read: tasting).

Today, we discuss: Clif Kid Organic ZBar.

My first thought? Clif has a line of kids products? Well, they do now, having released a second item, Clif Kid Twisted Fruit, last year.

I eat local, organic, non-processed food almost exclusively, so I’m always a bit skeptical of anything in a package, and generally that means foods with as few ingredients as possible (especially those ingredients that sound like they came from a laboratory: monogluxysodiobenzoate?). However, it’s hard to argue with the ingredients of the Peanut Butter ZBar:

Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Peanuts, Salt), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice Syrup, Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Fig Paste, Organic Peanuts, Organic Oat Flour, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Organic Oat Fiber, Natural Flavors, Organic Chocolate (Organic Unsweetened Chocolate, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin), Salt, Baking Soda.

Let’s just call it: a bunch of whole food ingredients pressed together.

What do they taste like? Basically ZBars are smaller, less dense (more bread-like) versions of Clif Bars, with a little drizzle of frosting on top. And tasty! Yes, I’m an adult, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying food aimed at children. Right?

My thoughts on the 6 different flavors, listed in order of preference:

• Peanut Butter – My favorite! I don’t like peanut butter cookies, but love any peanut butter & chocolate combo. This tastes more like the latter.
• Chocolate Chip – Reminiscent of Quaker Oats Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars. Or even the S’more flavor. That’s a good thing!
• Blueberry – Tastes like a dense, chewy blueberry muffin.
• Apple Cinnamon – Surprisingly good considering I generally don’t enjoy this flavor.
• Chocolate Brownie – Still decent, basically a chocolate-chocolate chip taste. Though somehow less chocolaty than the Chocolate Chip?
• Honey Graham – My least favorite, and the “least strong” in terms of flavoring. It also happens to have the least amount of sugar.

Again, I try to eat local, organic food whenever possible and usually make my own goodies from scratch, but I realize that isn’t always possible. Clif has similar beliefs, expressed right there on the packaging: “In raising our family, we always wish to find organic snacks to nourish our kids as they compete in sports, study or just play with friends. We prefer to make them food from scratch, but life gets busy, so it’s not always possible. That’s why we created Clif Kid Organic ZBar – a baked energy bar made with whole oats..”. You get the picture. They do a great job with consistent, healthy, authentic products.

(Photo missing. Next time I’ll remember to take a picture BEFORE eating!)

Although I was a little saddened that the bars are frosted (just a snaking drizzle across the top), they still serve as a huge step up from most food products aimed at children in terms of healthfulness (no high fructose corn syrup!), organicness, and environmental responsible…ness. The real selling point is that they retail for roughly half the cost of a Clif Bar. So grab one for yourself…er, I mean your kid.

Thanks to Ryan for the guest post. If you enjoyed this, please check out his other posts at The Reluctant Eater, where he writes about eating local, organic food, and promoting a healthier relationship with food. Ryan also has a best of The Reluctant Eater collection.

You know you’re watching a great climbing film when your palms are sweating and you start trying to chalk up. Most of the films presented last night at the Reel Rock Tour gave me that reaction and I was pleasantly surprised. With so many trailers and clips floating around the Internet, I think I started to get a bit jaded; but the Reel Rock Tour delivered in a big way.

The night was divided into two parts. The first half of the evening showed the filmmaking contest winners followed by relatively short segments from Grand Canyon Walls, Dosage: South Africa, The Aerialist, and On Sight. After an intermission that went on entirely too long with a pull-up contest and gear giveaway on stage, the premier of The Sharp End was shown.

The first four films were simply amazing. Maybe it was because they sliced them down to the best bits to show us, but the video definitely highlighted some of the exciting climbing that is happening across the globe.

At the Boulder Theater last night, the entire crowd gasped as they watched Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, and Chris McNamara climbing in the Grand Canyon. I’m sure the reaction stemmed from the fact that most, if not all of us, had never realized there was that much climbing there.

In Dosage: South Africa, Paul Robinson, Tommy Caldwell, and Daniel Woods take the viewers on a tour of the bouldering in South Africa. Again, there was some simply amazing footage here. It’s always enjoyable to watch elite climbers work though their methodology for successfully achieving their projects.

After the intermission, it was on to the big show. In what was probably one of the most visually stunning climbing films I’ve seen, The Sharp End delivered breathtaking footage and cinematography. Starting with climbing in Boulder, Colorado traversing the world before ending in Europe with Dean Potter’s free solo / base jump, The Sharp End provided the viewer a glimpse of how some climbers are pushing the edge of the sport.

There was a heavy dose of the historical throughout the film which I thoroughly enjoyed. While not a documentary, the transposing of old photos in classic areas like Eldorado contrasted the footage of climbers like Hank Caylor pushing themselves on X rated routes.

One aspect of The Sharp End that I was not so sure about was the heavy focus on base jumping. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable to watch, but initially it felt disjointed as in “hey, I’m watching a climbing flick why so much of this?” Granted it was climbers like Dean Potter, Chris McNamara, and Steph Davis performing the base jumping, but it was a good portion of the film nonetheless.

By the end, I understood why the filmmakers included the non-climbing aspects because of how it helps tell their overall story. Overall though, I found the slack lining, tower jumping and base jumping a little bit too much. Was it interesting? Yes, but I’d always prefer more climbing when possible. But while many climbing films simply show footage of climbing, The Sharp End tells a story and a good one at that.

While The Shard End isn’t a film I’d likely buy and watch over and over for the climbing; it was an excellent movie overall. An interesting story line combined with outstanding visuals make Sender Films’ The Shard End a must see.

Top ten reasons to rock climb with girls:

1. Some of us have nice thin (but strong!) forearms, itty bitty wrists and long fingers; perfect for cleaning stuck nuts and walked cams. I rescued a blue Camalot on a route at Tuolumne that wouldn’t have been retrievable by any of my guy partners without some extremely creative antics and additional hardware.

2. You’ll be the envy of the other guys at the crag. You’ll be the extra-super-envy of the other guys at the crag if your female climbing partners are traditional leaders.

3. If you’re climbing with girls, you’re more likely to have other girls approach your party and chat folks up, because hey — you’re presumptively non-creepy enough for some girl to rock climb with you. And the corollary applies: you’ll spend a lot less time lost, because we don’t hesitate to stop and ask other climbers (or gas station attendants, or grocery store clerks) for directions and/or routefinding tips.

4. Food and drink. Subject to exceptions, there are usually yummy leftovers when you eat with girls. You also get to sample tasty treats like Luna Bars and that awesome vanilla cinnamon oatmeal without having the cute girl at the grocery store checkout raise her eyebrow at you for buying food with the words “for women” on the label.

5. Our overnight kits generally include such important but often overlooked items as Aleve, eye drops, fingernail clippers and chap stick with SPF.

6. When getting to know new partners, we tend to understate and/or underestimate our relative skill… which tends to lead to pleasant surprises on get-to-know-you routes instead of the epics that can occur when a new partner overstates their skill.

7. Come on, admit it… sometimes you actually like the “Lilith Fair crap” we listen to on road trips. As much as you try to hide it, we can hear you singing along.

8. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find a girl climbing partner with whom traded backrubs after a long day of climbing qualifies as sports massage and not flirting. True story. It can happen.

9. No matter how long we go without a shower, we always smell better than boys for the long drive home.

10. I’ll spare you the “climb like a girl” coaching because despite the fact that I just wrote a partly tongue-in-cheek guest post full of gender-based generalizations, the generalizations that climbers make about boys being strong, powerful and dynamic and girls being graceful, technical and static don’t sit well with me. But, to make a long story short, just like we can learn a thing or two from you… you can learn a thing or two from us.

What have I missed? Share your thoughts in the comments, or pop over to rockclimbergirl.com for more on my climbergirl life.

All Climbing thanks Sara Lingafelter for today’s guest post. You can read more from Sara at her blog RockClimberGirl.com. You can also find Sara on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/theclimbergirl sharing her thoughts.

There’s been numerous articles recently written on the problems that have surfaced regarding Nalgene bottles. Since most climbers own one of these, I decided to look into what is actually going on.

I was in the REI in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia recently and I didn’t see a single Nalgene bottle on the shelves. A foreboding sign itself. There’s usually an entire row of shelving with the now ubiquitous bottles in all shapes and colors.

Following the move made by Canada’s MEC, REI has now pulled all Nalgene bottles from their shelves. Nalgene has announced that they will stop making bottles out of polycarbonate.

Polycarbonate contains a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) which has been linked to numerous health problems including breast and prostate cancer, brain damage, endocrine system disruptions, higher levels of testosterone in men and women, recurrent miscarriages, and chromosomal defects in fetuses.

The National Geographic Adventure blog has some a few pointers on what to do now that you know the problem exists:

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY BOTTLE HAS BISPHENOL A IN IT?
Look on the bottom of the bottle for a number surrounded by three arrows. Polycarbonate bottles are categorized as number seven. Note that seven is the catchall “other” category for plastics—all polycarbonates are seven, not all sevens are polycarbonates.

WHERE DO I BUY A BPA-FREE BOTTLE?
REI has the new Tritan Camelbak bottles and BPA-free Nalgenes in all its stores. Elsewhere, stainless steel bottles from Guyot, Klean Kanteen, and Sigg are options, too.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER PLASTIC BOTTLES?
Nalgene’s old-school bottles, milky colored and soft sided, are made of high-density polyethylene and free of BPA. Thin-walled, soft plastic bottles like Evian uses are plain old polyethylene.

It appears the key to finding out if your bottle is made of polycarbonate is to look for the number 7 on the bottom of each one. For a full listing of the seven types of plastics check out this chart.

Nalgene’s website has a section with all the relevant FDA and health data as well as their own FAQ on the issue. In addition, the company has set up a new site called Nalgene Choice that will help consumers pick new bottle from their product line.

And on a final note, Trailspace gives us some ways to reuse our old polycarbonate bottles.

I was introduced to Nau by Andrew Hyde during my trip to Boulder in March. During a brief chat at the TechStars office, Andrew recommended I stop by the Nau store in Boulder before leaving. He praised the quality of their sustainable clothing and fact that the company was founded by former Patagonia employees. So I figured I should check them out.

I did manage to stop by Nau and was very impressed by their clothing. In particular I saw one fleece on the sale rack that had it been in my size I would have bought in a heartbeat. Some of their pants made for climbing or other outdoors activities were quite impressive. I made a mental note to come back and shop when I returned this summer to live in Boulder permanently.

So I was a bit shocked to see the news that Nau is closing. From their blog, Nau’s explanation for closing:

In the current highly risk-averse capital market, we simply could not raise the necessary funds to continue to move forward. We believe this is not so much a reflection of the viability of our business, but the result of an unfortunate confluence of events. Just as we could not have predicted the sudden groundswell of environmental consciousness that blossomed at the time we launched our business, we did not foresee the current crisis in the capital markets. At this time, investors are loath to invest in anything; especially, it appears, a company like Nau that has the audacity to challenge conventional paradigms of what a business should be.

It’s interesting to see how fast the market can change for any type for product. I’m personally in the process of closing down a company I founded three years ago, so I know first hand how this goes.

In the end, a good team of entrepreneurs will not be held down, so I look forward to the next great idea from the Nau founders and employees.

TreeHugger has an interesting interview with the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard.

The founder of Patagonia started out when he was little more than a teenager, selling his home-forged climbing hardware to ‘dirtbagger’ mountaineers like himself. Although all he really wanted to do was travel and climb, he had a knack for innovation and invention, and Chouinard Equipment Co. evolved into Patagonia, arguably the most successful outdoor clothing company in history. In his fifty-something years of experimentation, Yvon Chouinard has racked up a list of industry firsts that defies enumeration, yet he describes himself as a reluctant entrepreneur who really just loves to climb, surf, and kayak the wilds of the world, and hopefully save them along the way.

The interview is broken down into part 1 and part 2.