StatsMix took TechStars founders out for a day of climbing in Boulder Canyon recently. I spoke about the relationship between climbing and building a startup in the following video taken during the trip:

If anyone is interested in trying out StatsMix, we’re currently in private beta so just leave your email on the StatsMix site and I’ll get you in as soon as possible.

Kolin Powick from Black Diamond posted another excellent gear testing article, this time on the different methods of extending slings on cam placements. He illustrates the three common methods he uses (same as mine) and then examines a sling-on-sling approach he thought was dicey.

The sling-on-sling method of extending a cam sling does save the use of a biner but in my opinion is cumbersome for both the leader and the second. It also appears to reduce the ultimate strength of the system, however, in most cases not so much as to be the weakest link in a real-world climbing situation.

Progression – Climbing Magazine

Petzl Reverso 3 belay device, Mountain Hardwear Runout climbing pants, Mammut Infinity 9.5mm rope, Black Diamond C3 cams – The Mountain World

La Sportiva Speedsters – straight outta bedlam

SuperTopo Guides To Zion and Tuolumne – Climbing Narc

Five Ten Team rock shoes – Sicky Gnar Gnar, Climbing Narc, Paul Robinson

Black Diamond Aura Harness, La Sportiva Mantis – Rock Climber Girl

Sterling Ice Thong 7.7mm twin rope – Colorado Mountain School

Patagonia Alpine Wind Jacket – SplitterChoss

Five Ten Copperhead – GetOutdoors

Black Diamond C3 and Oz and Petzl Reverso 3 – Dream in Vertical

In order to progress, you need to continually push your limits, both mentally and physically. I have always worked up the grades one letter at a time, sticking with the grade pyramid. Yet what is the worst that could happen if you push the bar and you get in “over your head”? You fall? You might as well just go for it.

(via Life in a Hippy Van: Stepping out of the comfort zone)

New S10 Black Diamond Products – TetonAT.com

Five Ten’s Prisms – The Mountain World

DMM Dragon Cams – UKclimbing.com

La Sportiva Exum Pro – Colorado Mountain School

Arc’Teryx Alpha LT jacket and the CAMP USA Alp 95 harness – GearFlogger

Chaco Pro Series Sandals – Trailspace.com

New dual axel cam from DMM – Carabiner development blog

New Petzl Tikka and Zipka headlamps – trailrunningSoul.com

If you’ve seen any good climbing gear reviews recently, please link them in the comments.

Back in 2002, I had a business trip to Silicon Valley and took a long weekend to head to Yosemite for some bouldering. There was only a smallish guidebook to the Valley bouldering at the time, but it was enough to get around and for me to sample the bouldering.

Since it was the middle of July, I was wise enough to head up to Tuolumne Meadows and avoid the 100+ degree temperatures and hordes of tourists. Unfortunately, there was no guidebook, but several climbers gave me rough direction to The Knobs.

As I was trying to figure out the correct parking pulloff, I saw what appeared to be an obvious looking climber. I pulled over, asked for directions, and was given tons of enthusiastic beta for the area. As I parked and gathered my gear, I kept thinking that guy looked really familiar. Then it hit me. It was Ron Kauk. He and Sterling Johnson were filming for their newest climbing video at the time.

In what was a completely random event, I and a few other climbers had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon bouldering with Ron and watching him climb some Tuolumne boulders as part of their filming. The combination of the beautiful scenery and spending the afternoon with a climbing legend will always hold a special place in my climbing memories.

So when Chris McNamara of SuperTopo asked me if I was interested in reviewing their new Tuolumne Bouldering guidebook, I excitedly accepted the offer.

If you’re familiar with other guidebooks from SuperTopo, then you’ll know what to expect as this guide follows their tried and true format. If you’re new to any of their guides, then you’re in for a great surprise.

This is the first edition of the guide, just released this July 2009. What I love about SuperTopo’s business model is when you buy the ebook, you receive three years worth of updates.

With tons of full color pictures, the Tuolumne Bouldering guidebook by Chris Summit is an excellent resource for over 20 Tuolumne bouldering areas. This thin book is only 72 pages in length but covers everything you need for each area including:

• number of problems
• best time of day
• difficulty range
• driving directions
• the approach

I particularly liked the blend of problem guide pictures with climber action shots of many areas. I believe the trend toward full color guidebooks is excellent as it can solve the old problem of not being able to see the routes on black and white images (anyone remember the old Seneca Rocks, WV guidebook?). The photos of problems in Tuolumne Bouldering use a picture of the boulder (with no climber) superimposed with a red line outlined by white and a problem number corresponding to the text. Very visible and easy to follow.

The guide’s introduction also includes everything you need to plan a trip to Tuolumne Meadows especially the all-important weather and lodging information.

For each bouldering area, Chris Summit (yes, he says that’s his real name!) provides an overview plus some historical context where applicable. There’s also two mini articles by John Bachar and Ron Kauk.

I was also pleased to see a star rating for each bouldering problem. I’ve been seeing too many guidebooks moving away from this and it really disappoints me. I understand that placing a quality rating on a climb or boulder problem is subjective, but regardless it gives the reader a baseline to see what stands out above the rest. Chris uses a star rating of one to four where every problem gets at least one star. I would have liked to have seen what this meant. Is one star worthwhile or just so-so? A legend/guide to the star rating system would have been useful.

But looking at the star rating system leads me to a question. Are there problems with zero stars and if so, were they not included in the book? The back of the guide says it includes the best boulder problems in Tuolumne so I’m assuming the crummy ones were left out. This can be good and bad.

I’d say that while Tuolumne Bouldering covers over 275 boulder problems, I’m always a bit wary of “best of” or “highlights of” guidebooks for an area. Mainly becuase I end up needing to warm up on a bunch of problems and they occasionally are less than stellar. Are these then not included? I’m usually more inclined to see everything and then make my own decisions about what to avoid based on star ratings. My apprehension was completely appeased though with an appendix in the back of the book that lists other areas worth exploring and possibly not completely developed yet. The obvious advantages to a best of guide are the smaller size and a conciseness that allows you to focus on hitting the best problems.

If you’re interested in checking out the format of the guidebook, SuperTopo offers a free PDF chapter for the Tamarack Boulders.

Overall, this guidebook is a must have for any climber planning to visit the area and do some bouldering in Tuolumne Meadows. I wish this was available for my first trip years ago. Even if you only have eyes for the classic routes, take an afternoon to sample the bouldering and I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Sure I went climbing regularly but I wasn’t really trying. I took the easy way out. I toproped whenever someone else was willing to lead. I climbed the same routes regularly. If I was leading and my knees where at a bolt I would take instead of going for it. Basically, I sucked at sport climbing because I deluded myself into thinking that I was trying, when really I was giving 50% most of the time.

via Will Gadd

He was one of the first climbers to train for the sport like he was an Olympic athlete. Bachar was renowned not only for his physical prowess but even more for his mental mastery, his ability to put fear at bay and push the limits of the possible. In Yosemite he created an ­extremely bold route called Bachar-Yerian, which he climbed with a rope but with protection so sparse that any mistake would have likely been his last.

via @SuperTopo

Let me make this clear: my review of Vibram Five Fingers shoes is self serving. The more people who know about them, the less I will be stopped by total strangers asking “What are those?”

Basically, the Five Finger shoes are the antithesis of footwear technology – not much more than a flexible, semi-form fitting rubber sole attached to the bottom of your foot. You can feel everything. I actually find myself wanting to walk more often, and taking strange paths home just to feel the difference between concrete, grass, and gravel.

What are they for? Everything. I’ve worn mine:

• Walking around town
• Climbing easy routes (these aren’t great for cracks, dime edges or
  smearing)
• Hiking (both with and without a pack
• Sprinting
• At work (caveat: I’m in Boulder!)
• Trail running
• Playing soccer on astroturf (amazing ball control)

Why should you get them?

• There is growing evidence that “high performance” running shoes may actually cause more injuries
• You’ll strengthen your feet beyond what is possible in normal footwear
• Traveling on foot becomes much more fun
• Better balance on uneven surfaces (I’m actually more likely to step on smaller stones and branches because I can feel them – and won’t wobble)
• They can solve lower back problems (see Tim Ferriss’ post for a good explanation)

That sounds great, but what if you have __________ (fill in the blank: high arches, flat feet, pronation, weak ankles, etc)? Well, I would ask you this question: why would you be born with feet you couldn’t use as is? What do you do for arch support? Use your arches. What do you do for ankle support? Use your ankles.

I have high arches myself (my footprint in the sand is two unconnected imprints) and have not had a single problem. Two days after my track workout (complete with sprinting) my arches were killing me. And then a strange realization – was this the first time in my life I’d ever felt the need to stretch my arches? It was. The next day I felt fine – and my feet were stronger than ever before.

The best part is that my occasional lower back pain is gone. Heels on our shoes push our hips forward, arching our lower back. This doesn’t happen with my VFFs. Why are we wearing footwear that is bad for our posture and makes our feet weaker? Pretty crazy when you think about it!

The cons:

1. Don’t overdo it. It takes a little while for your feet to get stronger. Work up to longer hikes and runs.
2. Unwanted attention. Extreme introverts might have a problem with strangers approaching to ask about your Vibram Five Fingers. In particular, I catch women and children staring at my feet constantly.
3. If you wear them for more than a few hours consecutively, you’ll need to wash them. Your feet won’t be hot, but the shoes will be stinky.

Find a store and try them on for sizing purposes (for reference: I wear an 11 mens US, but ended up with size 42 five fingers – your situation might be different). There are 4 different styles. I own the KSOs but have not tried any of the others, so I can’t enumerate the differences, other than saying that the Flows are thick neoprene on top and more suited for water-only activities.

Expecting to walk home in the Classics, I went with KSO because I did not want an open top which would likely collect dirt and pebbles on the trail.

Anyone else own these or seen them around? I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the last few weeks.

You can order the Vibram Five Fingers online from Amazon.

Special thanks to Ryan Wanger of Everlater for writing this guest post. I’m still not 100% sold on these shoes, but he’s been doing a good job trying to convince me!

GearFlogger looks at pro reviewing the DMM Wallnuts and also reviews the Arc’Teryx Dually belay parka.

Cupcake Mafia reviews the PrAna Natural Sticky Mat for yoga and the Petzl Bug Bag. That Bug Bag intrigues me.

The Adventure Blog reviews the REI Traverse Pack. I just bought one of these to use as my main laptop bag.

Sicky Gnar Gnar looks at the Five Ten Projects, while ClimbingNarc reviews The Players DVD.

SplitterChoss reviews the Black Diamond LiveWire quickdraw and the Petzl Fuse 9.4mm rope.

The Mad Rock Con-Flicts (and especially their rubber) was reviewed by straight outta bedlam.

reel deep snow looks at the Five Ten Freerunner

More trad gear as the RockClimberGirl reviews the Black Diamond Camalot C3.

Colorado Mountain School discusses the Sterling Ion 9.5mm rope and the Black Diamond RPM pack.

It Came from the Garage reviews the Mammut Champ Pants.

And finally, RockClimbing.com reviews the Five Ten Projects.

With the next installment of the gear review roundup, I’ll be changing the format a little to make them easier to scan and read.

- incorrectly using a standard belay device as an autoblock device
- using multiple biners as the “brake bar” in order to make taking in rope easier

Regarding the multiple carabiner test, they found that using two biners increases the amount of force required to take rope in and increases the amount of holding force.

Check out the post for the full results.

(via @BlackDiamondUSA)

I’ve started reading the book One Move Too Many as it was recommended to me by several different climbers. I’ll be posting my full thoughts when I’ve finished the book, but I can already tell you that this is a must have for any climber, especially those dealing with specific injuries.

One idea from the book really stands out to me. The authors discuss warming up and state that:

Scientific studies have shown that bringing the pulleys and tendons up to a perfect state of “readiness” requires about four routes or 120 moves of climbing.

Think about that statement. Do you warm up that effectively? Do you climb four easy routes as a warm up? I’d wager that the vast majority of climbers do two routes maximum and call themselves warmed up.

More thoughts on this book are forthcoming, but I thought that tidbit was too interesting to not share immediately.