Privacy: Dd sends this--frightening only because it's not far from the truth already...
Cars: Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions and comments on cars and car shopping, some funny stuff for sure. In the end we went with the Matrix. Better fuel economy than the Subaru, cheaper to buy, own and operate in the short and long run. If this link works it’s pretty cool to check out ownership costs, basically my spreadsheet but smarter.
Suddenly I'm seeing these cars everywhere--met a friend while getting lunch today, she had one, another couple of friends emailed to say they have 'em, it's an epidemic of Matrix/Vibe owners. I also liked the people at Charlesglen Toyota--the Subaru salesman might have been able to get me fired up on a Subaru, but I disliked the feel of the dealership and Subaru's pricing tactics. I was half expecting to get worked at the closing of the Matrix deal ("Oh, we under-coated the car and did out standard 602-point inspection, that's an additional $1100, " I've had that happen in the past), but it was again straight up and friendly. The car actually ended up costing a hundred bucks less 'cause I forgot about the GST credit on the Saab. So, all in all a good experience, I'd recommend Charlesglen to anyone looking for a Toyota.
Quick Review: just drove the Matrix up to Shark Mountain (about 45 minutes of iced-up dirt each way) to go skate skiing, it did very well, much more solid on the snow and dirt than I expected despite the “all season” stock tires. The big thing with the Matrix is that each gear is about one gear "higher" than I'm used to with a truck. Fifth gear on the Matrix is basically only useful for driving along a flat highway. If you encounter a steep hill in 5th it's often better to shift straight to third to keep the RPMs up--if the RPMs aren't over about 3,300 the car has no torque. But keep the revs over about 3,600 and there's lots there. We've put 250K onto the car in the last 24 hours, and the gas gauge is still well above half, and that's with the engine still breaking in. I haven't really driven the engine yet as you're not supposed to hammer on it during the first 1000K, but it sure does feel solid and smooth so far. I haven’t driven a high-revving four-cylinder in a few years so it’s going to take some time to get used to, but I like working with the engine, it’s a much more “connected” feeling than just relying on a V6 to pull.
The braking is very good and balanced—one problem I’ve had lately with cars is that the front wheels seem to loose traction well before the rear wheels, that’s disconcerting on snowy roads. The Matrix braking feels well-balanced.
Buying a smaller, more fuel-efficient car makes a lot of sense, especially with gas prices over $3/gallon (85 cents per liter). Ninety nine percent of the time I'm just driving to Calgary or to go climbing on the Parkway or somewhere, there's no point in spending twice the money on gas (and polluting the planet) by driving my truck. That's probably not a popular view here in oil-mad Alberta, but I've spent enough time in Europe where people just make smaller cars work. We had enough $ to basically buy whatever car or truck we wanted to without it breaking the bank, buying a smaller car is a choice. Yeah, we could have gone hybrid, but hybrids cost a lot more at this point and I live in Alberta where not using some gas is a provincial crime punishable by exile to Toronto... Diesel was another option, but diesel can be nasty on the environment. When bio-diesel becomes more plentiful that will be a good choice, I expect my next vehicle will be a diesel (the town of Canmore runs all their trucks on a bio diesel mix already), especially if it's a truck. Europeans can never get their heads around the fact that our trucks and SUVs run on gas, it just makes no sense. We had a diesel motorhome last year in Europe, it got better fuel economy than my smaller gas trucks ever did. There's probably a conspiracy theory about US manufacturers and diesel engines in there somewhere.
Workouts:
Friday: Good skate ski session at Shark (well, only 50 minutes, but slow going with the new snow and Sara Renner I’m not), nothing beats skate skiing for aerobic death, all four limbs going at once up a hill, boom, one aerobic death unit served up. Then quick yoga and a good session at the Vsion. Really hard mixed climbing is likely over for me this season, I want to develop some better cardio and focus more on a longer new routes. I still want to be able to climb hard mixed, just not bleeding edge. Fell off while doing my usual drytool circuit and landed flat on my back on the padded carpet, like a pancake, splat. It hurt and my ice tool ripped up my elbow a bit. Finished the lap once I could breathe again. Almost didn’t go and train because I didn’t want to push it after the Ouray crud, but I think I’m back up to speed, feel great this morning finally.
Thursday: yoga and an easy 30-minute run. I don't want to push too hard with the remnants of the Ouray crud in my system.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
New Route in Italy, Canadians in Mex, Oil in Iran
Canadians in Mexico
Are kicking ass en masse at the paragliding comp down in Valley, very cool. Nicole Mclearn is providing updates here.
Big New Mixed New Route in Italy
Albert Leichtfriend just emailed me a description of a wicked new 5-pitch mixed route he did in Italy's Dolomites, crazy ice and mixed from M8-M11+ ("real" grades, not trickery grades, he did it bareback as usual). He's having a great year, I'll see if he's OK with posting
details/photos.
Hard New Route in Austria
Marcus Bindler is really, really strong... I bet this is hard.
Iran and Oil
Here's an interesting perspective (thanks to Stoltz for sending it) on Iran, or rather why the US is really all wound up about Iran (it's not nukes..). Yep, it's all about oil. I've read this theory a lot over the last five years, the summary is that oil is traded in dollars, and this provides a huge free line of credit to the US. If oil were traded in something other thna $, like the Euro, that line of credit would come due in a nasty way.
Cars:
Decided to go with the Toyota Matrix, it's time to get a good little Japanese econo box and stop spending so much money driving around in circles... Thanks to everyone who sent notes and such, fun readin.g
Workouts:
FINALLY back in the game after a full week of death-by-cold suffering. Went for a good walk up the hill behind the house, then got it on at the climbing gym late in the evening. Bouldered for a while with actual shoes and chalk, it's clear that mixed climbing does nothing for finger power... Then did laps in the drytool cave (well, only three, but that's a start) followed by a brief power session. I don't want to get sick again so I didn't push hard, but for the first time in a week I did not get weaker yesterday. From what I can figure training is kind of like alcoholism--one day at a time, get back on the horse if you can't stay there for some reason. OK, shite analogy, grin.
Are kicking ass en masse at the paragliding comp down in Valley, very cool. Nicole Mclearn is providing updates here.
Big New Mixed New Route in Italy
Albert Leichtfriend just emailed me a description of a wicked new 5-pitch mixed route he did in Italy's Dolomites, crazy ice and mixed from M8-M11+ ("real" grades, not trickery grades, he did it bareback as usual). He's having a great year, I'll see if he's OK with posting
details/photos.
Hard New Route in Austria
Marcus Bindler is really, really strong... I bet this is hard.
Iran and Oil
Here's an interesting perspective (thanks to Stoltz for sending it) on Iran, or rather why the US is really all wound up about Iran (it's not nukes..). Yep, it's all about oil. I've read this theory a lot over the last five years, the summary is that oil is traded in dollars, and this provides a huge free line of credit to the US. If oil were traded in something other thna $, like the Euro, that line of credit would come due in a nasty way.
Cars:
Decided to go with the Toyota Matrix, it's time to get a good little Japanese econo box and stop spending so much money driving around in circles... Thanks to everyone who sent notes and such, fun readin.g
Workouts:
FINALLY back in the game after a full week of death-by-cold suffering. Went for a good walk up the hill behind the house, then got it on at the climbing gym late in the evening. Bouldered for a while with actual shoes and chalk, it's clear that mixed climbing does nothing for finger power... Then did laps in the drytool cave (well, only three, but that's a start) followed by a brief power session. I don't want to get sick again so I didn't push hard, but for the first time in a week I did not get weaker yesterday. From what I can figure training is kind of like alcoholism--one day at a time, get back on the horse if you can't stay there for some reason. OK, shite analogy, grin.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
I'm back! Plus Euro News etc.
OK, the fish bowl is off my head and the fish out of my lungs. Amazing how hard a disease can take you down, I've been totally worthless of late due to some heinous "ice lung" disease contracted on the Ouray trip.
Sports:
Albert Leichtfried sends an article in German on the spur thing. I don't read German well enough, but in case anyone does the article is here.
The Val D'Aone Ice World Cup is done, check their site out for results, video, good writing, photos etc. The site the best sports event web site I've seen in long time, something to emulate in the future. I really enjoy looking at stuff like this when it's done well. Too many sites are high-tech Flash disasters that load slowly and have lousy navigation. The D'Aone site isn't perfect, but they didn't spend the bank yet produced something cool.
Cars:
We currently have three vehicles in the driveway: An aging and near-dead Saab, a 4Runner I got on a great deal, and an old Aerostar van. None of them gets very good gas mileage, and with the exception of the 4Runner require more repair bills than I want. Yesterday I was full of snot, surly and running an attention span that makes George Bush look quick. I figured I was in perfect condition to go car shopping...
After spending dozens of hours on the web I'd narrowed possible replacements down to three cars: Toyota Matrix, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Golf. Here's a spreadsheet I did with all the variables, I'm a geek sometimes, but it helps me think. Kim and I headed into Calgary and got at it. We started with Charlesglen Toyota, which was hopping, but we got some good service right away from Ellery. No bullshit, just information and a test drive. No, "What do you want to pay a month" and other junk lines, just "Here's what it costs, here's what it does, how can I help?" The Matrix seems like a good car, 48MPG (all MPG Canadian--I hate this L/100K junk, it's totally counter-intuitive to me). It's got a surprising amount of room in the back and just seems like a well-designed car. We want good gas economy in one of our cars, even if it only got 40MPG it would be a lot better than any other car in the fleet, like twice as good (I drive fast, no way am I going to get the "stated" gas mileage." Ellery got us a fast, fair evaluation on the Saab, no BS again, no issues.
We walked out of the Toyota dealership pleased with our time, although I about fell asleep on the drive over to the Subaru dealership...
At the Subaru of Calgary dealership we got some "help" from a guy named "Joe." Now Joe is a "nice" guy, but he was a classic car salesman with all kinds of little bullshit tricks. "Are you in a positin to buy today? Because I can work my manager if you are." Yeah, right, Joe, tell me the damn price please. Or I'll cough in your face... None of the stickers were on the cars, so you can't get a real idea of MSRP, just what the guy says. Subaru's website sucks compares to Toyota's--Toyota gives you the total cost with all charges, GST, etc. factored in. Subaru's doesn't. I think they deliberately want to keep that information away from the consumer. The show room mirrored the web site--I wanted a number, Joe wanted a monthly payment number, eventually we got into a test drive.
The Impreza wagon kicks ass on the Toyota Matrix as far as being fun to drive, and it has 4WD. It also costs about $4,000 more, and gets about 30 percent worse gas economy. You can just tell that the Subaru was built to really drive, the Matrix is OK but it's basically a Corollla wagon. Matrix=super reliable, super solid, vanilla. Impreza=fun driving. The Impreza has about 40 more horses and is just locked down on the road, it felt like a fresh version of my all-time fav car, an Audi 4000Q I had way back in the day. Unfortunately Kim didn't like the seats, and we are looking for something to go to the airport in Calgary and over to Golden in, the Matrix is good on that. Same basic cargo space. I wanted Subaru to also evaluate my trade, Joe wanted us to "select a color" before he would even do that, eventually got it done... Then the "worksheet" came out. I hate worksheets, it's a ploy by the dealer to work payments and such, when all that really matters to me is, "How much does the car cost, how much will you give me for my POS Saab?" I finally got that clear to Joe, and the "worksheet" did reveal how hard the dealership was stacking MSRP with additional charges, thanks Joe... Car dealers often want to overwhelm you with bullshit until you feel like you're getting what you want, but I know what I want so stop with the BS already. I got trained for negotiation in Morocco, that trip has saved me many thousands of dollars since I took it 15 years ago--car dealers are flat-out amateurs compared to the Moroccans. Seriously--emotional blackmail just will not work on me anymore, nor will financial junk shows ("I'm doing everything I can here to make this work for you, help me out a bit." Bullshit, your average Moroccan has way more advanced tactics...).
Next door to the Subaru of Calgary dealership was Fifth Avenue VW, in we went. We promptly took the Golf apart (cargo cover off, headrests off, etc) in the showroom, and a guy named Byron came over and asked if we needed help. Yep, in a minute, thanks. He retreated but pointed out his office. Perfect. Eventually we needed help and Byron did a good job, no sales BS, just info, here's the sticker price, here's what we have. That is good service. He just gave us the Golf to test drive instead of riding with us, again a nice difference compared to the Subaru lot, and Bryon was pleasant and informative upon our return. I've rented Golfs a lot in Europe, they are good basic cars but feel softer in Canada, and I'm suspect of VW's reliability and re-sale. But the dealership experience was very good.
Kim wanted to test drive the Matrix again, so back to Ellery and Toyota. This time I drove the Matrix hard, but Ellery had no issues--he races bikes, so sliding the Matrix a bit on gravel didn't faze him too much, although Kim got car sick on the second test drive. The Matrix is a pretty fun little car--it's a well thought-out, simple and economical rig. Not as much fun as the Subaru, but cheaper to buy and cheaper to own for sure. Then my cold really fired up and the day was done, I almost fell asleep on the way home...
All three of these cars are good cars, and with the exception of the VW depreciate very slowly, making buying used ones a bad deal until they have 100+K on them. I also want to get rid of this Saab and can't sell it to an individual with a straight face unless they're a Saab freak or something, so new is the way to go for now. So what are we going to buy? Kim is all for the Matrix, I guess I am too, but the Subaru is a lot more fun and much better in the winter than the Matrix. Overall I'd say the odds are good for the Matrix, I can always buy an old Audi and trick it out again or something, we need a "commuter" style rig and the Matrix is definitely good for that. And it's time to reduce the fleet in the driveway, the 4runner is for sale (and likely already sold), we'll keep the van as it's great for "cargo," and be back to a two-car driveway.
Back to "real" work.
Workouts:
Coming soon! One week with nothing, biggest break from training years, but I just did not feel up to it.
Sports:
Albert Leichtfried sends an article in German on the spur thing. I don't read German well enough, but in case anyone does the article is here.
The Val D'Aone Ice World Cup is done, check their site out for results, video, good writing, photos etc. The site the best sports event web site I've seen in long time, something to emulate in the future. I really enjoy looking at stuff like this when it's done well. Too many sites are high-tech Flash disasters that load slowly and have lousy navigation. The D'Aone site isn't perfect, but they didn't spend the bank yet produced something cool.
Cars:
We currently have three vehicles in the driveway: An aging and near-dead Saab, a 4Runner I got on a great deal, and an old Aerostar van. None of them gets very good gas mileage, and with the exception of the 4Runner require more repair bills than I want. Yesterday I was full of snot, surly and running an attention span that makes George Bush look quick. I figured I was in perfect condition to go car shopping...After spending dozens of hours on the web I'd narrowed possible replacements down to three cars: Toyota Matrix, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Golf. Here's a spreadsheet I did with all the variables, I'm a geek sometimes, but it helps me think. Kim and I headed into Calgary and got at it. We started with Charlesglen Toyota, which was hopping, but we got some good service right away from Ellery. No bullshit, just information and a test drive. No, "What do you want to pay a month" and other junk lines, just "Here's what it costs, here's what it does, how can I help?" The Matrix seems like a good car, 48MPG (all MPG Canadian--I hate this L/100K junk, it's totally counter-intuitive to me). It's got a surprising amount of room in the back and just seems like a well-designed car. We want good gas economy in one of our cars, even if it only got 40MPG it would be a lot better than any other car in the fleet, like twice as good (I drive fast, no way am I going to get the "stated" gas mileage." Ellery got us a fast, fair evaluation on the Saab, no BS again, no issues.
We walked out of the Toyota dealership pleased with our time, although I about fell asleep on the drive over to the Subaru dealership...
At the Subaru of Calgary dealership we got some "help" from a guy named "Joe." Now Joe is a "nice" guy, but he was a classic car salesman with all kinds of little bullshit tricks. "Are you in a positin to buy today? Because I can work my manager if you are." Yeah, right, Joe, tell me the damn price please. Or I'll cough in your face... None of the stickers were on the cars, so you can't get a real idea of MSRP, just what the guy says. Subaru's website sucks compares to Toyota's--Toyota gives you the total cost with all charges, GST, etc. factored in. Subaru's doesn't. I think they deliberately want to keep that information away from the consumer. The show room mirrored the web site--I wanted a number, Joe wanted a monthly payment number, eventually we got into a test drive.
The Impreza wagon kicks ass on the Toyota Matrix as far as being fun to drive, and it has 4WD. It also costs about $4,000 more, and gets about 30 percent worse gas economy. You can just tell that the Subaru was built to really drive, the Matrix is OK but it's basically a Corollla wagon. Matrix=super reliable, super solid, vanilla. Impreza=fun driving. The Impreza has about 40 more horses and is just locked down on the road, it felt like a fresh version of my all-time fav car, an Audi 4000Q I had way back in the day. Unfortunately Kim didn't like the seats, and we are looking for something to go to the airport in Calgary and over to Golden in, the Matrix is good on that. Same basic cargo space. I wanted Subaru to also evaluate my trade, Joe wanted us to "select a color" before he would even do that, eventually got it done... Then the "worksheet" came out. I hate worksheets, it's a ploy by the dealer to work payments and such, when all that really matters to me is, "How much does the car cost, how much will you give me for my POS Saab?" I finally got that clear to Joe, and the "worksheet" did reveal how hard the dealership was stacking MSRP with additional charges, thanks Joe... Car dealers often want to overwhelm you with bullshit until you feel like you're getting what you want, but I know what I want so stop with the BS already. I got trained for negotiation in Morocco, that trip has saved me many thousands of dollars since I took it 15 years ago--car dealers are flat-out amateurs compared to the Moroccans. Seriously--emotional blackmail just will not work on me anymore, nor will financial junk shows ("I'm doing everything I can here to make this work for you, help me out a bit." Bullshit, your average Moroccan has way more advanced tactics...).
Next door to the Subaru of Calgary dealership was Fifth Avenue VW, in we went. We promptly took the Golf apart (cargo cover off, headrests off, etc) in the showroom, and a guy named Byron came over and asked if we needed help. Yep, in a minute, thanks. He retreated but pointed out his office. Perfect. Eventually we needed help and Byron did a good job, no sales BS, just info, here's the sticker price, here's what we have. That is good service. He just gave us the Golf to test drive instead of riding with us, again a nice difference compared to the Subaru lot, and Bryon was pleasant and informative upon our return. I've rented Golfs a lot in Europe, they are good basic cars but feel softer in Canada, and I'm suspect of VW's reliability and re-sale. But the dealership experience was very good.
Kim wanted to test drive the Matrix again, so back to Ellery and Toyota. This time I drove the Matrix hard, but Ellery had no issues--he races bikes, so sliding the Matrix a bit on gravel didn't faze him too much, although Kim got car sick on the second test drive. The Matrix is a pretty fun little car--it's a well thought-out, simple and economical rig. Not as much fun as the Subaru, but cheaper to buy and cheaper to own for sure. Then my cold really fired up and the day was done, I almost fell asleep on the way home...
All three of these cars are good cars, and with the exception of the VW depreciate very slowly, making buying used ones a bad deal until they have 100+K on them. I also want to get rid of this Saab and can't sell it to an individual with a straight face unless they're a Saab freak or something, so new is the way to go for now. So what are we going to buy? Kim is all for the Matrix, I guess I am too, but the Subaru is a lot more fun and much better in the winter than the Matrix. Overall I'd say the odds are good for the Matrix, I can always buy an old Audi and trick it out again or something, we need a "commuter" style rig and the Matrix is definitely good for that. And it's time to reduce the fleet in the driveway, the 4runner is for sale (and likely already sold), we'll keep the van as it's great for "cargo," and be back to a two-car driveway.
Back to "real" work.
Workouts:
Coming soon! One week with nothing, biggest break from training years, but I just did not feel up to it.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Lung Crud
Not much to write, as I'm down with some sort of lung and sinus-filling disease, as are many of the crew that went to Ouray. Good luck to everyone competing in the first world cup of the year in Val D'Aone, that's a really fun comp, kind of wish I was there!
A small west-coast mag just ran a nice piece on the berging trip Ben and I did last spring, check it out.
This is also coolif you're into climbing, bondage or whatever with knots, thanks to Senor Stoltz for link.
Workouts:
Nothing useful. Drinking water. Not happy about it.
A small west-coast mag just ran a nice piece on the berging trip Ben and I did last spring, check it out.
This is also coolif you're into climbing, bondage or whatever with knots, thanks to Senor Stoltz for link.
Workouts:
Nothing useful. Drinking water. Not happy about it.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Back to Canmore
First place trophy thanks to Jeff Skoloda.After a wicked week at the Ouray Ice Festival Kim and I have made it back home to Canmore. The mutt (chili dog) was excited to see us, thanks to Jen for taking care of her.
Kim and I stayed an extra couple of days after Ouray to visit with friends and do a little climbing. After so many visits, Ouray is starting to feel like a second home, and that's a good thing. It's a huge gathering of climbers also, I saw a lot of friends I hadn't seen in years (or at least since the last Ouray). I'm definitely planning on going next year.
I often feel a bit down after a good win or big trip, but Ouary has left me fired up. Maybe it's all the Mexican food I ate down south? I start eating Mex at the Que Bueno in the Denver Airport on the way south (near gate B55 if you're in the DIA, I think it's pretty good, especially the Tamales). I always eat there on the way through DIA, it's the first sign of Mexican civilization on the way south. The main problem with Canada is the serious lack of Mexicans--I've yet to find any good Mexican food here, I always bring bottles of salsa and jars of chile stuff back with me, but it just isn't the same as a big old plate of Mexican food... Maybe Mexicans don't like cold weather or something, but I'd sure appreciate it if a few more would move up here and bring their food along. Maybe beer and some sun too... Although I'm off beer for a while--Michael Gilbert (Ice Fester Local and comp organizer) remarked, "You know, we're not all alocholics here" after another night of debauchery at Ouray...
It was a trick to get back from Ouray with the trophy--I don't keep many trophies from events, but the Ouray trophy isn't just a piece of tin with a plaque on it, it's a piece of art that I'm very happy to have won. I think it's the coolest ice trophy I've ever received, so I packed it all up carefully and it made it home to take pride of place among the other Ouray trophies Kim and I have won. I'm going to try and get some more information about it, but Jeff Skoloda was the main artist along with an Ouray glass blower (send me the name and I'll add it here).
So it's good to be back home and de-toxing from a great event.
Workouts:
I had to take a rest day after the comp on Monday, I often feel beat up and just generally worked after a big event.
On Tuedsay Jason Nelson (of Lisa and Zane fame in Ouray) and I headed up the Camp Bird road for some climbing. Harry Berger had gone up there on Sunday during the speed comp and done something like 10 laps on Goldline (M10+) in an hour, pretty impressive, Jason and I were considering trying to match that action but got distracted as usual. We warmed up on Jason's new M8 on the side of Slip Sliding Away, (forgot the name as usual), great route for the grade--nice drytooling to a thin pillar, good fun. I was going to try for the second ascent of his M9 to the right of Slip, but it was pouring water. The sun in Colorado is just crazy strong, as soon as it touches ice it's like sun on a vampire.
We then headed to the Poser Cave, home to the classics such as Goldline (m10+) and Jason's new route, which I again forget the name of. I had a go at it onsight but broke a hold about halfway up, then dogged the rest of it with Jason's enthusiastic beta. It's a bit harder than the rest of the routes in the Poser cave, but I was able to get it second try then started the training action by downclimbing it while Jason added difficulty with appropriate heckling. Jason also did a lap on it, then we had at Gold Line for a while, doing up and down laps before finishing the session by doing a pullup every time we used a new hold on the way up. That hurt. Thanks to Jason for a wicked session!
Wednesday was a travel day, just did some quick Yoga as some sort of cold settled in and we got home too late to do antything useful.
Got back last night and had to get up early (well, 8:00) to go and work on the "How to Ice Climb" DVD project with Pat Morrow as well as Chris and Scott, thanks to them for making my technique tips look like they work.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Ouray Ice Festival 2006
I’ve been off the net traveling to and competing in the 2006 Ouray Ice Festival, so sorry for the lack of verbage.
The Ouray Ice Festival is likely the largest ice festival in the US (Conway and Keene might be bigger, they are both good "big" festivals too). I first attended the Ouray Ice Festival back in about 1996 when I was living in Colorado, so this was my “decade" anniversary for the ice fest. I always try to make it to Ouray, but often can't--I think I've only made about five festivals over the years, although things have gotten a bit fuzzy. The festival is a gathering of ice freaks, gear freaks, and the town of Ouray around the Ouray Ice Park, a deep narrow gorge with a fat pipe full of water running along the top. The fat pipe of water is critical, as the Ice Park taps into that water and creates more ice along the mile-long length of the gorge than all the rest of the ice in the state of Colorado put together. There are hundreds of fantastic ice climbs, and an increasing number of entertaining mixed climbs. Gear manufacturers lend out all the latest ice toys, clothing, boots and whatever else is related to climbing--one booth this year even had a very cool folding kayak (they did not offer demos in the gorge), so the "try this out" section of the show is pretty broad.
THE COMP
2006 Ouray Ice Festival Comp results here:
I usually compete in the "difficulty" and "speed" competitions, held on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I've competed a lot over the years in ice/mixed climbing, and now regard myself as "semi-retired." It takes a special comp to get me motivated to strap on a bib and get amongst it all, but Ouray is definitely special. For starters, most of my ice-related friends show up here, and with the nightly dinners, slideshows and parties, the opportunities for serious debauchery are pretty good. I'm hung over for the second day in a row, but back to the comp.
Normally Ouray is an invitational event, meaning the organizers only invite whomever they feel are the top climbers around. This year Michael Gilbert and the rest of the crew here added an "open," meaning anyone who wanted to could compete for a space in the finals. Those of us who had either won the event or done well in the past had a "bye" into the big show on Saturday. Men and women compete on the same route in the final, which is cool as it can show exactly how strong women have gotten at mixed climbing--especially Ines Papert. Last year she, Harry Berger and I were the only people to complete the final route, and Ines did it the fastest for the overall win. All three of us were back again this year, and as we were seeded to climb last due to our places last year we warmed up together. It felt more like any day out mixed climbing with friends. Eventually Harry headed off to compete, while Ines and I continued warming up. Ines and I did a very, very thin mixed line called "Seamstress," and it was just nasty thin climbing complicated by the fact that Ines and I had taken off our crampons to get a better pump. I got stupid pumped finding the micro flakes, and it took a little bit longer to climb the line than I thought so I had to rush right off and rap down into the canyon.
It's always a bit intimidating rapping into the bottom of the Canyon to wait your turn to do battle on the route. The noise from the huge crowd reverberates dully over the rush of the water, and the sky is only a sliver of blue above the dark walls. I always feel like I'm on a mission to escape back to the sun...If you climb the route then you get to untie in the sun, but if you fall off then you have to do what the competitors were calling "The Walk of Shame" out the bottom of the canyon. I wanted no part of the walk of shame... I told Harry, "Good luck" as he left our small alcove and started up the ice to the start of the mixed route. He didn't get lowered back down, so I figured he had managed to avoid the walk of shame, which meant he had done the route. My turn.
I still felt a bit pumped from my "warm-up," but I often climb better a little pumped than cold, and the opening 50 feet of ice was pretty casual and got me into a climbing groove. There was a small wooden platform where you switched belayers before starting about 40 feet of overhanging rock to an ice curtain and the sun, and at the platform I suddenly noticed the massive crowd lining the viewing stands. The crowd was loud and positive, I could hear a lot of my friends yelling and it fired me up. Belayers at many comps are kind of stern and objective, but at Ouray they always have a smile and a "good luck," it makes things feel a lot friendlier. The opening hooks on the mixed section were bomber--I'd just done battle with micro hooks on the warmup, so this just felt super casual and solid in comparison. I had a good time pulling from jug to jug to about the halfway point on the route, where things got a bit steeper. I knew I had to climb fast to beat Harry, but I was having so much fun I totally forgot about Harry. The music and the crowd were going off, it was a hell of a lot of fun and totally motivational. I got a bit confused just past halfway up the route and wasted some juice, but eventually found a hidden hold. I could hear the crowd laughing when I finally spotted it and pointed it out with my finger. I looked back at my belayer and he was laughing with me too, it was a moment. The last 20 feet of the route went well, I had to do the "hug a tool" trick (elbows wrapped around a cammed tool instead of hands to take a load off the forearms), but made it onto the ice without too much of a battle. On the ice I could hear the crowd yelling, "Go, go!" and remembered that I was in a comp and raced to the clip the final draw. My time was faster than Harry's, he came up to me and said, "Damn on-sight mixed climbing..." It's really hard to find the folds on natural rock compared to most artificial comp routes. Harry is likely stronger than me, but I had read the holds faster, probably because I've spent so much more time on natural routes than comp routes in the last few years. Harry had redpointed Alcatraz, M12, on his second try last week, bareback style. He can remember sequences better than anyone I know and is very fit this year.
Last year we had both sent the route and then watched Ines climb it faster, so we found a spot to watch Ines, climbing last. She, Harry, Louis-Julien Roy, Jay Audenart, and a bunch of other people were all climbing sans spurs. The rules this year banned "trickery" such as leg hooks over tools and so on but spurs were allowed, it takes some commitment to just head up a mixed competition route without spurs when many of your fellow competitors are using them. Ines had a hard time finding some sequences low on the mixed section, but as usual climbed smoothly and cleanly up to the hidden hold move that had baffled me. She is clearly a lot stronger than almost all of the male competitors, and has put tremendous time into her climbing--despite climbing with no spurs and on a still-broken ankle she made it look smooth. I respect that a lot. Unfortunately she just missed a small ice hold and put her pick in a bad spot. Without spurs to hold her feet onto the rock she had to do a swing out onto the ice hold and it blew when she loaded the swing, dropping her back into the canyon. She still handily won the women's division, and would have placed fourth overall against the men. Harry and I were the only two to climb the route, and I found the sequences a couple of minutes faster so I won.
I sometimes start to feel a bit old at 38, but then guys like Guy Lacelle (over 50) remind me that age doesn't automatically mean dysfunction. Guy placed a strong 8th! My bud Rich Marshall, now 42, placed a very strong third. It's good to see my friends rip it up, especially those older than I am--I'm not going away anytime soon, grin... The "Eh Team" was well-represented in the finals, with Canadians taking 7 of the top 15 places. Jason Nelson, a local, was the top-placing American. He's going to show me some of his new routes tomorrow, fired up for that! There was a bit of a judging cluster on the final route. One of the reasons I really don't compete much is that I hate scoring/rules clusters. Kim C. shot video of almost everybody in the finals and took some from various vantage points--based on this video I don't think the judges had a very good view of the route, and the confusion with the results reflect this (nothing huge, but every place is meaningful for the competitors). In Ouray ties are also broken by time--if two competitors reach the same vertical height then whomever fell off the hold first wins... Most of us at the competitor meeting wanted this changed, but it stayed the same. I try to basically ignore the rules and just climb the routes in competitions, it's more fun for me that way, but I have an over-developed sense of fair play and seeing some of the scoring issues takes a bit away from the overall stellar event that Ouray is. I'll continue to compete and am getting together with some of the officials tonight to talk judging/rules; hopefully this will be sorted for next year.
Sunday's speed event was fast and, for me in my hung-over state, brutal. Sean Isaac and I went head to head, but it was Vince Anderson, fresh from climbing a big new route in Pakistan with Steve House, who put the heat on me, coming to within two seconds of my combined time. I respect Vince and Steve, two "Alpine Style" mountaineers, for competing in a mixed competition, good style. A lot of mountaineers won't compete in Ouray for various reasons, but Steve and Vince showed that there are at least two alpine climbers in North America who can climb technically hard outside magazine writing. Scott Semple deserves some respect as well, I tried to kill him a week ago while training (dropped a block of ice on his arm), he qualified through the open then landed on his bad arm while walking out after the open, and felt it crunch some more... An X-Ray confirmed that he had indeed broken it (likely the week before). So, despite climbing with a broken arm in the Open he still made the finals... Tough. He couldn't climb in the finals due to pain but wanted too.
The more times I visit Ouray and climb here the more I like it. If you've never been here it's absolutely worth a trip, the easy access, sunny skies and most of all the great community make it a "must climb" place. There's really no other place in the world with such easy access supported by a great town. I'll be back.
Some good photos up here
wg
The Ouray Ice Festival is likely the largest ice festival in the US (Conway and Keene might be bigger, they are both good "big" festivals too). I first attended the Ouray Ice Festival back in about 1996 when I was living in Colorado, so this was my “decade" anniversary for the ice fest. I always try to make it to Ouray, but often can't--I think I've only made about five festivals over the years, although things have gotten a bit fuzzy. The festival is a gathering of ice freaks, gear freaks, and the town of Ouray around the Ouray Ice Park, a deep narrow gorge with a fat pipe full of water running along the top. The fat pipe of water is critical, as the Ice Park taps into that water and creates more ice along the mile-long length of the gorge than all the rest of the ice in the state of Colorado put together. There are hundreds of fantastic ice climbs, and an increasing number of entertaining mixed climbs. Gear manufacturers lend out all the latest ice toys, clothing, boots and whatever else is related to climbing--one booth this year even had a very cool folding kayak (they did not offer demos in the gorge), so the "try this out" section of the show is pretty broad.
THE COMP
2006 Ouray Ice Festival Comp results here:
I usually compete in the "difficulty" and "speed" competitions, held on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I've competed a lot over the years in ice/mixed climbing, and now regard myself as "semi-retired." It takes a special comp to get me motivated to strap on a bib and get amongst it all, but Ouray is definitely special. For starters, most of my ice-related friends show up here, and with the nightly dinners, slideshows and parties, the opportunities for serious debauchery are pretty good. I'm hung over for the second day in a row, but back to the comp.
Normally Ouray is an invitational event, meaning the organizers only invite whomever they feel are the top climbers around. This year Michael Gilbert and the rest of the crew here added an "open," meaning anyone who wanted to could compete for a space in the finals. Those of us who had either won the event or done well in the past had a "bye" into the big show on Saturday. Men and women compete on the same route in the final, which is cool as it can show exactly how strong women have gotten at mixed climbing--especially Ines Papert. Last year she, Harry Berger and I were the only people to complete the final route, and Ines did it the fastest for the overall win. All three of us were back again this year, and as we were seeded to climb last due to our places last year we warmed up together. It felt more like any day out mixed climbing with friends. Eventually Harry headed off to compete, while Ines and I continued warming up. Ines and I did a very, very thin mixed line called "Seamstress," and it was just nasty thin climbing complicated by the fact that Ines and I had taken off our crampons to get a better pump. I got stupid pumped finding the micro flakes, and it took a little bit longer to climb the line than I thought so I had to rush right off and rap down into the canyon.
It's always a bit intimidating rapping into the bottom of the Canyon to wait your turn to do battle on the route. The noise from the huge crowd reverberates dully over the rush of the water, and the sky is only a sliver of blue above the dark walls. I always feel like I'm on a mission to escape back to the sun...If you climb the route then you get to untie in the sun, but if you fall off then you have to do what the competitors were calling "The Walk of Shame" out the bottom of the canyon. I wanted no part of the walk of shame... I told Harry, "Good luck" as he left our small alcove and started up the ice to the start of the mixed route. He didn't get lowered back down, so I figured he had managed to avoid the walk of shame, which meant he had done the route. My turn.
I still felt a bit pumped from my "warm-up," but I often climb better a little pumped than cold, and the opening 50 feet of ice was pretty casual and got me into a climbing groove. There was a small wooden platform where you switched belayers before starting about 40 feet of overhanging rock to an ice curtain and the sun, and at the platform I suddenly noticed the massive crowd lining the viewing stands. The crowd was loud and positive, I could hear a lot of my friends yelling and it fired me up. Belayers at many comps are kind of stern and objective, but at Ouray they always have a smile and a "good luck," it makes things feel a lot friendlier. The opening hooks on the mixed section were bomber--I'd just done battle with micro hooks on the warmup, so this just felt super casual and solid in comparison. I had a good time pulling from jug to jug to about the halfway point on the route, where things got a bit steeper. I knew I had to climb fast to beat Harry, but I was having so much fun I totally forgot about Harry. The music and the crowd were going off, it was a hell of a lot of fun and totally motivational. I got a bit confused just past halfway up the route and wasted some juice, but eventually found a hidden hold. I could hear the crowd laughing when I finally spotted it and pointed it out with my finger. I looked back at my belayer and he was laughing with me too, it was a moment. The last 20 feet of the route went well, I had to do the "hug a tool" trick (elbows wrapped around a cammed tool instead of hands to take a load off the forearms), but made it onto the ice without too much of a battle. On the ice I could hear the crowd yelling, "Go, go!" and remembered that I was in a comp and raced to the clip the final draw. My time was faster than Harry's, he came up to me and said, "Damn on-sight mixed climbing..." It's really hard to find the folds on natural rock compared to most artificial comp routes. Harry is likely stronger than me, but I had read the holds faster, probably because I've spent so much more time on natural routes than comp routes in the last few years. Harry had redpointed Alcatraz, M12, on his second try last week, bareback style. He can remember sequences better than anyone I know and is very fit this year.
Last year we had both sent the route and then watched Ines climb it faster, so we found a spot to watch Ines, climbing last. She, Harry, Louis-Julien Roy, Jay Audenart, and a bunch of other people were all climbing sans spurs. The rules this year banned "trickery" such as leg hooks over tools and so on but spurs were allowed, it takes some commitment to just head up a mixed competition route without spurs when many of your fellow competitors are using them. Ines had a hard time finding some sequences low on the mixed section, but as usual climbed smoothly and cleanly up to the hidden hold move that had baffled me. She is clearly a lot stronger than almost all of the male competitors, and has put tremendous time into her climbing--despite climbing with no spurs and on a still-broken ankle she made it look smooth. I respect that a lot. Unfortunately she just missed a small ice hold and put her pick in a bad spot. Without spurs to hold her feet onto the rock she had to do a swing out onto the ice hold and it blew when she loaded the swing, dropping her back into the canyon. She still handily won the women's division, and would have placed fourth overall against the men. Harry and I were the only two to climb the route, and I found the sequences a couple of minutes faster so I won.
I sometimes start to feel a bit old at 38, but then guys like Guy Lacelle (over 50) remind me that age doesn't automatically mean dysfunction. Guy placed a strong 8th! My bud Rich Marshall, now 42, placed a very strong third. It's good to see my friends rip it up, especially those older than I am--I'm not going away anytime soon, grin... The "Eh Team" was well-represented in the finals, with Canadians taking 7 of the top 15 places. Jason Nelson, a local, was the top-placing American. He's going to show me some of his new routes tomorrow, fired up for that! There was a bit of a judging cluster on the final route. One of the reasons I really don't compete much is that I hate scoring/rules clusters. Kim C. shot video of almost everybody in the finals and took some from various vantage points--based on this video I don't think the judges had a very good view of the route, and the confusion with the results reflect this (nothing huge, but every place is meaningful for the competitors). In Ouray ties are also broken by time--if two competitors reach the same vertical height then whomever fell off the hold first wins... Most of us at the competitor meeting wanted this changed, but it stayed the same. I try to basically ignore the rules and just climb the routes in competitions, it's more fun for me that way, but I have an over-developed sense of fair play and seeing some of the scoring issues takes a bit away from the overall stellar event that Ouray is. I'll continue to compete and am getting together with some of the officials tonight to talk judging/rules; hopefully this will be sorted for next year.
Sunday's speed event was fast and, for me in my hung-over state, brutal. Sean Isaac and I went head to head, but it was Vince Anderson, fresh from climbing a big new route in Pakistan with Steve House, who put the heat on me, coming to within two seconds of my combined time. I respect Vince and Steve, two "Alpine Style" mountaineers, for competing in a mixed competition, good style. A lot of mountaineers won't compete in Ouray for various reasons, but Steve and Vince showed that there are at least two alpine climbers in North America who can climb technically hard outside magazine writing. Scott Semple deserves some respect as well, I tried to kill him a week ago while training (dropped a block of ice on his arm), he qualified through the open then landed on his bad arm while walking out after the open, and felt it crunch some more... An X-Ray confirmed that he had indeed broken it (likely the week before). So, despite climbing with a broken arm in the Open he still made the finals... Tough. He couldn't climb in the finals due to pain but wanted too.
The more times I visit Ouray and climb here the more I like it. If you've never been here it's absolutely worth a trip, the easy access, sunny skies and most of all the great community make it a "must climb" place. There's really no other place in the world with such easy access supported by a great town. I'll be back.
Some good photos up here
wg
Monday, January 09, 2006
Steel Koan: Cineplex route sent
On Saturday I sent the hardest mixed climb I've ever done--Steel Koan, in the Cineplex. It was a good day to send, -1C with a full crew of friends out giving it in the depths of the Cineplex. I'm always amazed how much energy a good group of people can add to climbing, so thanks to everyone who was up there (Raph, Scott, Rich and Steve, who almost all took a turn holding the rope, and everyone else who worked on the route with me (The Guys, Barfy, etc). It's been a long time coming--Steel Koan took many days of effort to figure out--drilling, cleaning, frigging, it all adds up to one sore back and a lot of trips up the Parkway. I did it on my second day of redpoint attempts, but I spent a half-dozen days unearthing the route before attempting to redpoint it. The climbing is dynamic and aggressive, more of a power outing than a long endurance route, although climbing 25 feet of very steep terrain followed by 30+ feet across a dead-horizontal roof and then some hard ice does demand endurance. I learned a lot on this route, and that's where the name "Steel Koan" came from. Initially the route seemed incomprehensible, but as my front lever strength came back (spending October in Nepal didn't help with my fitness) the moves started coming. There is no one crux, just powerful and intricate body movement for many moves in a row. Big "Game Style" swings, dynos, body tension, and an intricate finish on a wild ice curtain protected by screws driven straight up into the ice add up to something totally different and fun. It seems as hard as the extension I added to the Game Last year, but the movement is much more technical. I'll just rate it plenty hard enough for me. I'm actually bummed out today, this project gave shape to my fall and early winter, what now? I'm planning on visiting Austria to try Albert's "Game Over," and then Scotland and Norway, but the Cineplex beast was what I've been training for and thinking about for a long time. It's like the end of a good relationship or something, I really liked it! On the other hand my back, arms and fingers rejoice that I don't have to do the swings anymore!
Explanation for the name: If you've ever read any Zen philosophy you've probably come across a "Koan." Koans are hard to define--they are questions that Zen followers consider, such as:
Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?
-Hakuin Ekaku
More on this Koan from Wikpedia:
"...in the beginning a monk first thinks a koan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the koan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the koan. The koan is both the object being sought and the relentless seeking itself. In a koan, the self sees the self not directly but under the guise of the koan...When one realizes ("makes real") this identity, then two hands have become one. The practitioner becomes the koan that he or she is trying to understand. That is the sound of one hand." - G. Victor Sogen Hori, Translating the Zen Phrase Book 11.
The traditional answer to this koan is " ", or possibly to thrust out one's hand. The reference to two hands is understood as a metaphor for dualism (yin/yang, subject/object, etc) and intellectual discrimination, while the reference to one hand is a metaphor for nondualism. But more irreverent and humorous answers have been proffered, involving various ways of slapping the fingers of one hand against its own palm. It might be as simple as "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".
Style: "Bareback, no trickery." Doing this route comp style would still be solid M12, there aren't many features to hook a spur on. Body tension is everything, a lot of the moves are horizontal laybacking along thin seam across a roof. With full trickery it would be relatively easy, and a offer a very fast but less interesting answer to the Koan. Many of the holds broke repeatedly, and to stay honest I have to say that the line between cleaning and flat-out hold chipping is getting very blurry on high-end mixed climbs done on shite rock. I am unsure what the future of very hard mixed climbing will be due to this dilemma, here's a koan to play with: "If one tap is cleaning, how many taps are chipping?" As a sponsored climber I'm supposed to just spew about how bad-ass the climb is (and I am spewing, grin), but that's the complete picture of this route, I can look at myself and you in the eye if I tell it like it is.
That about sums up the experience of climbing this route. That journey seems far more relevant than success, although success is always satisfying--for about 24 hours.
Description:
Start right of The Game, climb big overlaps with swings, cross the Game, continue across thin crack in huge roof, pull techie ice curtain at the end
Explanation for the name: If you've ever read any Zen philosophy you've probably come across a "Koan." Koans are hard to define--they are questions that Zen followers consider, such as:
Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?
-Hakuin Ekaku
More on this Koan from Wikpedia:
"...in the beginning a monk first thinks a koan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the koan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the koan. The koan is both the object being sought and the relentless seeking itself. In a koan, the self sees the self not directly but under the guise of the koan...When one realizes ("makes real") this identity, then two hands have become one. The practitioner becomes the koan that he or she is trying to understand. That is the sound of one hand." - G. Victor Sogen Hori, Translating the Zen Phrase Book 11.
The traditional answer to this koan is " ", or possibly to thrust out one's hand. The reference to two hands is understood as a metaphor for dualism (yin/yang, subject/object, etc) and intellectual discrimination, while the reference to one hand is a metaphor for nondualism. But more irreverent and humorous answers have been proffered, involving various ways of slapping the fingers of one hand against its own palm. It might be as simple as "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".
Style: "Bareback, no trickery." Doing this route comp style would still be solid M12, there aren't many features to hook a spur on. Body tension is everything, a lot of the moves are horizontal laybacking along thin seam across a roof. With full trickery it would be relatively easy, and a offer a very fast but less interesting answer to the Koan. Many of the holds broke repeatedly, and to stay honest I have to say that the line between cleaning and flat-out hold chipping is getting very blurry on high-end mixed climbs done on shite rock. I am unsure what the future of very hard mixed climbing will be due to this dilemma, here's a koan to play with: "If one tap is cleaning, how many taps are chipping?" As a sponsored climber I'm supposed to just spew about how bad-ass the climb is (and I am spewing, grin), but that's the complete picture of this route, I can look at myself and you in the eye if I tell it like it is.
That about sums up the experience of climbing this route. That journey seems far more relevant than success, although success is always satisfying--for about 24 hours.
Description:
Start right of The Game, climb big overlaps with swings, cross the Game, continue across thin crack in huge roof, pull techie ice curtain at the end
Friday, January 06, 2006
Hockey "cross training," Hafner, training
Yesterday I went into Hafner with Pat Morrow and a group of willing victims to do some test-shooting on a DVD Pat and I are working on. About half of Canmore later showed up to train for Ouray, it was an entertaining spectacle as everyone was going for it. Dale Robotham took the "best whip" award not once but several times, this guy really goes for it despite not fitting into the "spring chicken" category anymore, good on him. One of the great things about living in the Bow Valley is that many of my friends go climbing when they want to, not just on the odd weekend. A Thursday in Hafner may be more packed than a weekend day, that's the sign of a healthy attitude toward "work" I think.
All the people we had out to play "students"for the DVD ripped it up, always fun to see people progress quickly, it's one of the best things about teaching ice climbing. We'll see what happens with the DVD. Lisa Paulson and Glen from the Warden Service were out cutting logs on the trail on the way in, thanks. The Wardens around here are good people, I hope I continue to meet them while having fun and not when I'm getting yanked off a climb in a rescue--although I'm glad to have them as a last-resort back up, few places in the world have such competent rescue.
Workouts:
Thursday (yesterday): Supposed to be a rest day after yesterday's efforts, but ended up running a bunch of speed laps and actually kind of getting worked... I hadn't speed climbed since Ouray last year, it takes a lot of juice as fast speed technique is nothing like "normal" ice cimbing, 50 percent of your weight is on your arms.
In the evening I ended up playing shinny (pond-style hockey for those not from Canada) with a bunch of other climbers, it was pretty clear who the climbers were on the ice and not because of their stellar skating. Good fun, all ages, but I got WORKED sprinting up and down the ice and trying not to get smoked every single time by teenagers and their younger brothers. Hockey is a wicked sprint workout, left me gasping and with sore muscles not used to the motions, I haven't played ice hockey in, oh, about 20 years. Some of my favorite workouts are spontaneous fun, just saying "yes" to something different instead of being a lazy-ass.
On Wednesday I went for an hour run, then went to the Vsion with Josh Briggs. We trained power first, and I was actually able to hold a full front lever for about .5 seconds, still a hell of an improvement! Handstand pushups went well too, Briggs is strong on those, then we did some fun lock-off training, painful, followed by some drytools laps in the Vsion cave. Five of those after power training was really more than enough...
All the people we had out to play "students"for the DVD ripped it up, always fun to see people progress quickly, it's one of the best things about teaching ice climbing. We'll see what happens with the DVD. Lisa Paulson and Glen from the Warden Service were out cutting logs on the trail on the way in, thanks. The Wardens around here are good people, I hope I continue to meet them while having fun and not when I'm getting yanked off a climb in a rescue--although I'm glad to have them as a last-resort back up, few places in the world have such competent rescue.
Workouts:
Thursday (yesterday): Supposed to be a rest day after yesterday's efforts, but ended up running a bunch of speed laps and actually kind of getting worked... I hadn't speed climbed since Ouray last year, it takes a lot of juice as fast speed technique is nothing like "normal" ice cimbing, 50 percent of your weight is on your arms.
In the evening I ended up playing shinny (pond-style hockey for those not from Canada) with a bunch of other climbers, it was pretty clear who the climbers were on the ice and not because of their stellar skating. Good fun, all ages, but I got WORKED sprinting up and down the ice and trying not to get smoked every single time by teenagers and their younger brothers. Hockey is a wicked sprint workout, left me gasping and with sore muscles not used to the motions, I haven't played ice hockey in, oh, about 20 years. Some of my favorite workouts are spontaneous fun, just saying "yes" to something different instead of being a lazy-ass.
On Wednesday I went for an hour run, then went to the Vsion with Josh Briggs. We trained power first, and I was actually able to hold a full front lever for about .5 seconds, still a hell of an improvement! Handstand pushups went well too, Briggs is strong on those, then we did some fun lock-off training, painful, followed by some drytools laps in the Vsion cave. Five of those after power training was really more than enough...
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Iceberg Video Project
Last spring I went to Labrador with Ben Firth and climbed bergs near Makkovik. Randy and Lorie from the Adlavik Inn took care of us, and were great to work with. Randy is a fun and very competent guy who brings his native knowledge of the area along. Anyhow, we went and climbed some bergs in a really wild place. The bergs were terrifying--we wanted grounded bergs close to shore but there weren't any ("Should have been here last year, they were on the beach in front Makkovik!), so we wound up climbing drifting bergs way off-shore. This was very engaging and definitely the most dangerous thing I've ever done, but also very cool. Anyhow, I've spent the last week doing a revised cut of this film (shot by my buds Scott Simper and Pat Morrow), it's back with Emerge Media in Calgary now, we worked on it again last night. Emerge Media has done the "real" edit on my last two films, Martina and Graham are super solid to work with. One of the things I like about making films is that I get to work with good people of my own choosing. Anyhow, spent all day yesterday working on the film, then Calgary in the evening, the film is looking much better. Discovery also ran a piece from the trip, a good six minutes on the experiences Ben and I had.
Workouts Jan 3:
Nothing. Nada. Computer ass all the way.
Workouts Jan 3:
Nothing. Nada. Computer ass all the way.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Canadian Election
As of today the Conservatives are ahead of the Liberals in the polls here in Canada, followed by the NDP and the Quebec Bloc. This just amazes me--the Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, is an idiot, yet he's very popular here in Alberta. Just to make it clear on why Harper is an idiot: he made a big deal out of the Iraq invasion, saying Canada should have taken part. That alone means there's no way I can vote for him--if he were in power when the US invaded Iraq then Canadians would be directly taking part in that idiocy. His domestic policies are even more bizzare, but somehow he is getting votes in western Canada and even Onterrible. I think people in Canada are just sick of the corrupt, over-fed Liberals, and see the Conservatives as the only viable option. Nobody is going to win a majority in the upcoming election, so we'll likely have a conservative minority government, which will be a cluster. This might actually be a good thing--the Bloc, Liberals and NDP won't let really idiotic legislation through from the conservatives, same for the conservatives with the NDP, Liberals, and the Bloc. On the other hand everybody will be doing deals and trading for pet programs, our budget surplus likely won't be in a year or two.
I'm going to vote Green. Here in Alberta the Greens don't have a flower's chance in a Canadian winter of winning, but the Greens now have official party status due to getting something like 4 percent of the vote in the last election. We're seeing a lot more of the Greens in the media, and their long-term view is something we really need in our politics. A lot of people think of the Greens as being primarily a bunch of tofu-eating tree huggers, and many are, but they are the only party really saying anything different in this election--they are at greenparty.ca, check it out. They are for proportional representation, something I'd like to see, for smarter health care, for fair trade (not the multi-national companies as is Harper), etc. This guy makes a much better case than I can: for voting Green. So, with all the massive power of this forgotten blog, I'm endorsing the Green party for 2006! I'm not eating any tofu though, that stuff is nasty and reportedly may in fact be bad for you...
Our (Wild Rose riding) Green Guy is Sean Maw, seems like a good candidate.
Workout January 2
Trying to finish off a video edit and hating it, but still managed to hike/run for an hour on Lady MacDonald with Kim and Chili, then hit the Vsion in the evening. The Vsion is great for training, where else can you boulder on plastic with your ice tools in a gym? Quentin and I marked a 25-move drytool problem then got really pumped trying to do it. Eventually did it, but I was still really beat up from the Cineplex on Saturday--it's amazing how just six routes mixed climbing can destroy my body. In sport climbing I need to climb at least ten hard routes to get this messed up, and even then it's usually just my forearms and a few isolated muscles that get torched from hanging on, not every muscle in my body. Anyhow, did a few laps then did sets of front levers and handstand pushups. Even though I was tired both of those went better than they have the last few times, my ass is only mostly sagging on front levers instead of totally, and I hit a massive FIVE handstand pushups on my first set... Following sets were stronger too. Starting to balance for at least half of the handstand pushup movemet each time too instead of my feet sliding on the wall, fun to see improvements.
I'm going to vote Green. Here in Alberta the Greens don't have a flower's chance in a Canadian winter of winning, but the Greens now have official party status due to getting something like 4 percent of the vote in the last election. We're seeing a lot more of the Greens in the media, and their long-term view is something we really need in our politics. A lot of people think of the Greens as being primarily a bunch of tofu-eating tree huggers, and many are, but they are the only party really saying anything different in this election--they are at greenparty.ca, check it out. They are for proportional representation, something I'd like to see, for smarter health care, for fair trade (not the multi-national companies as is Harper), etc. This guy makes a much better case than I can: for voting Green. So, with all the massive power of this forgotten blog, I'm endorsing the Green party for 2006! I'm not eating any tofu though, that stuff is nasty and reportedly may in fact be bad for you...
Our (Wild Rose riding) Green Guy is Sean Maw, seems like a good candidate.
Workout January 2
Trying to finish off a video edit and hating it, but still managed to hike/run for an hour on Lady MacDonald with Kim and Chili, then hit the Vsion in the evening. The Vsion is great for training, where else can you boulder on plastic with your ice tools in a gym? Quentin and I marked a 25-move drytool problem then got really pumped trying to do it. Eventually did it, but I was still really beat up from the Cineplex on Saturday--it's amazing how just six routes mixed climbing can destroy my body. In sport climbing I need to climb at least ten hard routes to get this messed up, and even then it's usually just my forearms and a few isolated muscles that get torched from hanging on, not every muscle in my body. Anyhow, did a few laps then did sets of front levers and handstand pushups. Even though I was tired both of those went better than they have the last few times, my ass is only mostly sagging on front levers instead of totally, and I hit a massive FIVE handstand pushups on my first set... Following sets were stronger too. Starting to balance for at least half of the handstand pushup movemet each time too instead of my feet sliding on the wall, fun to see improvements.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Happy New Year
Happy New Year! Yeah, it's an arbitrary date where everybody gets all fired up about the next year and drinks stupid amounts of alcohol for no good reason, but the world needs more holidays like that. Christmas feels pretty over-commercialized--my parents celebrate the solstice, which is likely where the whole Christian Christmas thing came from anyhow--far easier to appropriate an already-existing pagan festival for a new religion than come up with something original. I'm all for celebrating more daylight, here in Canda we're down to a skinny 8 hours of light in the winter, I can't wait for the days to get a little longer! I generally make what I view as achievable resolutions on New Years, we did that as a group this year and then just swapped resolutions we wrote on pieces of paper. Interestingly, people seemed to get the resolutions they deserved. Mine are to "Get all the POS non-working cars out of my driveway ASAP." Hey, all the cars work, just not at the moment... And one other one I already forgot so it doesn't count.
Spent New Year's Eve in the Cineplex Cave with Guy Lacelle and Guy Tremblay, two strong francophone climbers. Learned some interesting new Quebecois words while the Guys worked one of the best M9 routes in the Rockies, the Cineplex. Both sent it last try of the day, good efforts. I beat the hell out of myself first beating the holds in on my new route, then falling off it. It's nice that it's basically organized now--one of the problems with climbing shit rock with your ice tools is that the rock tends to break until it's all cleaned up. It's taken me four days of effort just to bolt and get the route cleaned up enough to actually climb. I had three redpoint burns on it, but it's really hard, best I could do was two very long hangs. The moves are so continuously powerful that as soon as I lose a bit of power I'm done, it's impossible to keep your feet on the small features in the horizontal roof. The climbing is super technical--keeping your frontpoints on the little edges is critical for the dynamic moves, but doing so requires several "front lever" moves...
Workouts:
Dec 31: Cineplex Cave, 2XM9 warmup, 4XMhard. Absolutely pounded.
January 1: Wanted to train today but my back, lats and stomach were totally thrashed so rest day. Went for a walk to get rid of hangover and did some Yoga.
Spent New Year's Eve in the Cineplex Cave with Guy Lacelle and Guy Tremblay, two strong francophone climbers. Learned some interesting new Quebecois words while the Guys worked one of the best M9 routes in the Rockies, the Cineplex. Both sent it last try of the day, good efforts. I beat the hell out of myself first beating the holds in on my new route, then falling off it. It's nice that it's basically organized now--one of the problems with climbing shit rock with your ice tools is that the rock tends to break until it's all cleaned up. It's taken me four days of effort just to bolt and get the route cleaned up enough to actually climb. I had three redpoint burns on it, but it's really hard, best I could do was two very long hangs. The moves are so continuously powerful that as soon as I lose a bit of power I'm done, it's impossible to keep your feet on the small features in the horizontal roof. The climbing is super technical--keeping your frontpoints on the little edges is critical for the dynamic moves, but doing so requires several "front lever" moves...
Workouts:
Dec 31: Cineplex Cave, 2XM9 warmup, 4XMhard. Absolutely pounded.
January 1: Wanted to train today but my back, lats and stomach were totally thrashed so rest day. Went for a walk to get rid of hangover and did some Yoga.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Mixed tricks, aging
Mixed Movement:
I've been climbing mixed routes without spurs for the last couple of years, and the more I do of this the more fired up I get on the movement. Initially I thought I'd just end up doing more Figure-4 moves on steep terrain, but the reality is that I do about the same number of figure fours on a given route as ever--sometimes a figure 4 is all there is to do. But I've discovered a bunch of new moves (new to me anyhow, I'm sure others are well up on these) that make BB mixed cimbing a lot more fun than the the "spur over head, repeat to top" style that was en vogue for a while. I find myself climbing mixed routes much more like hard summer rock routes--here are some of the "tricks" we've been using lately on the steep cave routes or roofs.
Raking: Use the points under the ball of your foot on edgesor ice to "rake." You still have to keep body tension or your foot blows, unlike a spur, but you can really use the "rakes" to rest and setup for hard moves. It's a lot like having your foot on a bucket with a rock shoe--good as long as you have the body tension. You can also "paste" your points and let the rakes work a bit, this works suprisingly well even on relatively smooth rock.
Rake cams: Stick the side points into a crack feature then twist your foot--these can be bomber if done in a good spot, pretty cool. Still require body and foot tension to stay on.
Toe/foot Cams: These were key to climbing Alcatraz in Colorado last year--hook a "rake" point on an edge under a small roof, then cam your frontpoint or toe against something. It has to be done really precisely to hold well, but again it's a common move on rock routes, feels good. On routes with big horizontal cracks you can get a great heel/toe cam with the same trick. Sometimes it's even possible to get a no-hands rest, but it works your stomach really hard...
Heel Hooks: Again, just like rock climbing. Sometimes you can use the spikes on the back of your crampons for better friction in ice, or the rubber rand on your boot on rock.
Drop-Knees: These kind of died in the modern "power" era of rock climbing according to my bud Sonnie Trotter, but they are back with a vengance in mixed. They work better with mono-points and fruit boots for sure.
Dynos: Yep, with ice tools... Big reaches are really hard without spurs, often I find myself pasting my feet and trying to lock a big move, then falling. The solution is just to dyno. It's hard mentally at first, but I'm getting way into it for speeding things up through difficult sections--all key to beating the pump clock on steep routes.
------------------------
Aging
As I get older (38 now) I find my training needs to be more flexible. I can still train about as hard in terms of volume and intensity, but exactly what I do in any given week or even month seems to add up differently than it used to. New exercises cause more damage than they used to for example, but exercises I have done regularly for years don't, even if I haven't done them in weeks. Slight variations in diet, drinking, sleep, sickness (a cold for example) or just life impact my training much more than they used to. I used to basically never take a designated training day off no matter what I felt like. Now I do--sometimes that means three rest days in a row, like over Christmas when I didn't feel great, but then I'll come back and feel like training hard for three days in a row. At the end of a month my total climbing/training days still seems to add up to around 20-25, but it is definitely a much less structured process than it used to be. Surprsingly, this doesn't seem to hurt my overall results (I climb better each week at this point). No real point to this commentary, I just find it interesting to see how my body and mind change as I age...
------------------------------
Dec 29's workout: Power
Did the usual 30-minute Yoga session in the evening then went to the Vsion (climbing gym), where I focused on front lever power and lock-off power, two tricks the line I'm working in the Cineplex requires a lot of. Feeling a bit tired after yesterday's session in Hafner. Warmed up by bouldering at the Vsion (I'm a worthless POS on plastic at the moment, mixed climbing does NOT make you strong there!), then six rounds of front levers on rock rings (can't do one good clean front lever right now, but it's coming back, just did my best effort then one-leg extended levers, qick cycles to failure) alternating with hand-stand pushups (sets of 3-5, I'm weak on those too) followed by a half-dozen rounds of big lock-off moves on the peg board. Finished up with campusing on the peg board and messing about with some figure fours. A couple of weeks ago I watched a couple of the younger climbers at the Vsion (Seb and Zak) busting out front levers, it inspired me to get after it again. These guys are STRONG, and got that way through regular training. Many mixed climbers aren't very strong (myself included) compared to well-trained rock climbers. I can think, "I'm getting pretty strong" when I can do half-assed front levers when other mixed climbers I train with can't, or I can recognize the truth that I'm weak and need to train harder when I see the youth busting them out way better than I can. No excuses for my ass dangling low on front levers...
Goal: Send my new route in the Cineplex...
I've been climbing mixed routes without spurs for the last couple of years, and the more I do of this the more fired up I get on the movement. Initially I thought I'd just end up doing more Figure-4 moves on steep terrain, but the reality is that I do about the same number of figure fours on a given route as ever--sometimes a figure 4 is all there is to do. But I've discovered a bunch of new moves (new to me anyhow, I'm sure others are well up on these) that make BB mixed cimbing a lot more fun than the the "spur over head, repeat to top" style that was en vogue for a while. I find myself climbing mixed routes much more like hard summer rock routes--here are some of the "tricks" we've been using lately on the steep cave routes or roofs.
Raking: Use the points under the ball of your foot on edgesor ice to "rake." You still have to keep body tension or your foot blows, unlike a spur, but you can really use the "rakes" to rest and setup for hard moves. It's a lot like having your foot on a bucket with a rock shoe--good as long as you have the body tension. You can also "paste" your points and let the rakes work a bit, this works suprisingly well even on relatively smooth rock.
Rake cams: Stick the side points into a crack feature then twist your foot--these can be bomber if done in a good spot, pretty cool. Still require body and foot tension to stay on.
Toe/foot Cams: These were key to climbing Alcatraz in Colorado last year--hook a "rake" point on an edge under a small roof, then cam your frontpoint or toe against something. It has to be done really precisely to hold well, but again it's a common move on rock routes, feels good. On routes with big horizontal cracks you can get a great heel/toe cam with the same trick. Sometimes it's even possible to get a no-hands rest, but it works your stomach really hard...
Heel Hooks: Again, just like rock climbing. Sometimes you can use the spikes on the back of your crampons for better friction in ice, or the rubber rand on your boot on rock.
Drop-Knees: These kind of died in the modern "power" era of rock climbing according to my bud Sonnie Trotter, but they are back with a vengance in mixed. They work better with mono-points and fruit boots for sure.
Dynos: Yep, with ice tools... Big reaches are really hard without spurs, often I find myself pasting my feet and trying to lock a big move, then falling. The solution is just to dyno. It's hard mentally at first, but I'm getting way into it for speeding things up through difficult sections--all key to beating the pump clock on steep routes.
------------------------
Aging
As I get older (38 now) I find my training needs to be more flexible. I can still train about as hard in terms of volume and intensity, but exactly what I do in any given week or even month seems to add up differently than it used to. New exercises cause more damage than they used to for example, but exercises I have done regularly for years don't, even if I haven't done them in weeks. Slight variations in diet, drinking, sleep, sickness (a cold for example) or just life impact my training much more than they used to. I used to basically never take a designated training day off no matter what I felt like. Now I do--sometimes that means three rest days in a row, like over Christmas when I didn't feel great, but then I'll come back and feel like training hard for three days in a row. At the end of a month my total climbing/training days still seems to add up to around 20-25, but it is definitely a much less structured process than it used to be. Surprsingly, this doesn't seem to hurt my overall results (I climb better each week at this point). No real point to this commentary, I just find it interesting to see how my body and mind change as I age...
------------------------------
Dec 29's workout: Power
Did the usual 30-minute Yoga session in the evening then went to the Vsion (climbing gym), where I focused on front lever power and lock-off power, two tricks the line I'm working in the Cineplex requires a lot of. Feeling a bit tired after yesterday's session in Hafner. Warmed up by bouldering at the Vsion (I'm a worthless POS on plastic at the moment, mixed climbing does NOT make you strong there!), then six rounds of front levers on rock rings (can't do one good clean front lever right now, but it's coming back, just did my best effort then one-leg extended levers, qick cycles to failure) alternating with hand-stand pushups (sets of 3-5, I'm weak on those too) followed by a half-dozen rounds of big lock-off moves on the peg board. Finished up with campusing on the peg board and messing about with some figure fours. A couple of weeks ago I watched a couple of the younger climbers at the Vsion (Seb and Zak) busting out front levers, it inspired me to get after it again. These guys are STRONG, and got that way through regular training. Many mixed climbers aren't very strong (myself included) compared to well-trained rock climbers. I can think, "I'm getting pretty strong" when I can do half-assed front levers when other mixed climbers I train with can't, or I can recognize the truth that I'm weak and need to train harder when I see the youth busting them out way better than I can. No excuses for my ass dangling low on front levers...
Goal: Send my new route in the Cineplex...
Thursday, December 29, 2005
I'm BACK!
Right, I've been in Nepal and all over, finally back home in Canmore and finally training hard again. I came back from Nepal tired and with a bad case of the post-trip blues. I often find the aftermath of big trips very difficult mentally--all my energy and focus goes into creating something, then it's done, it's hard to fill the resulting void. Total commitment to an idea means just that, there's not a lot of room for the rest of the world or even myself when I'm in the midst of planning or executing a trip. I find it very difficult on return to do the daily life tasks, train, or get much of anything productive done. Nepal was a great trip, but we failed miserably to climb our planned line on Teng Kang Poche. I could write volumes about why, but the reality is that we just didn't have what it took in terms of organisation, commitment, weather, conditions, etc. It was a great trip with fun people, but I hate failing. I know I'm supposed to "learn" from failure, but failure sucks, and I've failed enough to have learned that very well. I spent a week after Nepal looking listlessly at the computer screen and reading pulp fiction. Then I started to climb mixed routes again, and I can feel the energy building. Nepal put me in a truly horrendous climbing condition--a month of hiking up hillsides at altitude makes you aerobically fit, but I am fundamentally a technical climber, not a high-angle backpacker (alpinist). That's the one good realization to come out of the post-Nepal blues: I know what I am a bit better. If I go back to Nepal I'll go back with either a technical mindset or a hiking mindset, there is no middle ground for me. Easy climbing disturbs my ability to enjoy the mountains--I'd rather just go hiking and groove on the mountains. If a rope is involved I want it to be there because the climbing is hard enough to be the only thing that matters. Mixed climbing for me is hard--on the average mixed route I'll fall off, pumped silly, and I don't want it any other way. We've been playing with some new styles for mixed climbing of late, this link goes to some of that. Basically I'm really exicted about mixed climbing again, I'm working a new line in the Cineplex, up on the Parkway. I've been training consistently since early Novemember, but it's still too hard. It's just too crazy good, three big swings and then some horrendous moves for 25 feet across a thin crack in a flat roof. Everytime I go in there my stomach feels like it's been beaten with a baseball bat, perfect. I hope to get it done by the time I head for Ouray, we'll see.
Workouts: Basically just a ton of mixed climbing for the last month, with an emphasis on front lever power and power endurance. I train in at the Vsion when I can't get out mixed climbing, but absolutely nothing trains you better for mixed climbing than going mixed climbing. It's a volume game, mixed climbing is jus too weird for anything but mixed climbing to simulate the movements and head space required. Yesterday Scott Semple, Raphael Slawinski, Valerie Babaonov and I spent the day in the Hafner cave doing laps. I did Cave Man, m10 four times, with as much downclimbing as I could handle each time, and three laps on Fire Roasted, M10. The Hafner cave is the best training cave we have around here, plus it's a really nice place to hang out. The 30-minute walk is just long enough to get really warm on. Last time we were in there a big crew from Japan was also in there, going at Caveman with intensity. Toshi, a Japanese bud of mine from Banff, was working Caveman bareback and getting close, he's fired up.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Red Bull X Alps, I'm in Austria
I'm in Europe writing and otherwise reporting on the Red Bull X Alps, this link goes directly to my rantings, check it out--this is one crazy race across the length of the Alps. Mad travel to get here--Kim and I went from Calgary to New York City on the evening of August 1, did a guest appearance on ESPN's Cold Pizza (right after the guy who plays "Deuce Bigalow", a D-quality movie if there ever was one, but entertaining hanging out with him and his entourage in the back room) on the morning of Aug 2, then flew out that afternoon to Munich, arrived Aug. 3in the morning, took a train for a couple of hours, drove for a couple of hours, met up with the Red Bull media crew that evening, crazy three days of travel. It's now Thursday morning, feels like I've been gone a week already. My cell phone works here and I have to do on-line reports for the X Alps gig so I should have regular email. So far McDonald's is proving to have the most reliable WiFi, scary situation to work in but when you need net you need net...
Workouts: This morning I can barely remember the last few days of chaos, but Monday was a short run followed by pullup/pushup/situp suffer fest done as fast as possible, Tuesday was early a.m. yoga, TV show, 5X 5muscleups, 25 squats, 20 lying stomach things, 3X 10 dips, "typerwriter" pullups, weighted back extensions. In Gold's Gym, full New York city freak show but good session, ran around New York for 20 minutes too, that's another freak show. Wed. was sit in a planes, trains and automobiles... Still psyched that I managed to stuff it all into the scheudle, been mad.
Workouts: This morning I can barely remember the last few days of chaos, but Monday was a short run followed by pullup/pushup/situp suffer fest done as fast as possible, Tuesday was early a.m. yoga, TV show, 5X 5muscleups, 25 squats, 20 lying stomach things, 3X 10 dips, "typerwriter" pullups, weighted back extensions. In Gold's Gym, full New York city freak show but good session, ran around New York for 20 minutes too, that's another freak show. Wed. was sit in a planes, trains and automobiles... Still psyched that I managed to stuff it all into the scheudle, been mad.
Friday, July 29, 2005
The Willi, Paragliding, Fitness and lack of
It's Friday, I was "competing" in the Willi Muller XC event in Golden most of last week, and got behind on the Blog postings as usual.
The Willi: This is a great event. I've been flying XC in Golden for over ten years--my first long flights were there, and I continue to love flying along the big peaks. We had a couple of decent days, but I think I'm burned out on flying at the moment, I've done a lot of it this year. Keith and I flapped down the range for about 30K one day and I just never really got my groove on, we both flew out and landed despite being high. Brett, our best Hang Glider pilot, is finally showing what can be done on a hang after many years of lackluster hang glider efforts (the hangs and the paras fly on the same range each day, normally we kick ass on the hangs despite the fact that hangs glide way better, go way faster and all-around ought to dominate the meet). Anyhow, Brett has done some very cool out and return flights.
I finally had a good one on Wednesday, flew 50K out with my bud Othar Lawrence and then back some. It was slow, difficult going on the way south despite having a good tailwind, not really getting high, turning circles in harsh lee conditions, but fun enough. Othar had had enough after about 40K and bailed, I continued on to about 55K out and then thought, "what the hell, I'll try to go back." The day wasn't going to offer up any huge downwind distance, and flying 150K down the range for a late night retrieve/hitching festival doesn't honestly fire me up all that much, I've done it a dozen or more times. Maybe that's arrogant, but it's true, I'm not interested in downwind XC flying unless I'm going to break Chris Muller's old XC record of 244K, or think I can do a huge out and bck flight. Anyhow, I wasn't that high, but flew into the wind with a lot of bar until I found a spine sticking off the main range. Came into it low, then ridge soared it all the way up to the main ridge, a gain of something like 1500M from ridge soaring, pretty cool. The main range runs more or less north-south, and the wind was blowing 20-40K north, so against me. Hmmm... I noticed that right on the main ridge the wind was a bit more west, so I following the ridge back north between the high peaks north, surfing through mild rotors from sub-peaks until it got really trashy. About to give up, I noticed that my groundspeed on my GPS was 30km instead of 20 or less. Hmmm... The air was buoyant, so I kept flying along the ridge a few hundred feet over the jagged rocks and watched my speed climb all the way to 35K. I was definitely well into the lee of the next big peak on the range, and my speed went up to about 40K. Interesting... Down to about 100 feet over the alpine meadows glowing in the late afternoon light I surfed up the lee side of the peak and hit a boomer thermal that yanked me through the rotor and put me up to almost 11,000! Cool, go on glide. At all of 15kmh... Soon I was back on the ridge, and the same increase in speed happened as I glided toward the next peak in the lee. Cool! Banging thermal right in the lee, through the trash, 11,000, 15kmh, back into the lee, repeat.
I did this for 25K until running out of steam. I'd pushed my luck a little flying so deep in the lee, and decided to call it a day. I flew out into the valley, where it was blowing about 40K. Picked a field and settled into it vertically, but not before throwing the best roll reversal I ever have, the wing got WAY down there, yeah! Ryan Letchford was there with the truck, perfect, a cold beer was exactly what was needed after five hours of flying to go 70 or 80K, honestly not much for Golden and nothing distance-wise for the contest. Still, I'd look at that flight back into the wind as one of my best of the season, I learned far more than if I had of just kept blowing downwind like a dandielion. Part of the fun of paragliding is that you can try new things, and, as Vincene told me, "Ya gotta have a GOAL!" As usal she's right, I got motivated flying back into the wind, it was a challenge.
Golden has been turning on late all week, I have to get ready to go to the X Alps on Monday so I called it good and drove home a day early to get some work done. You really need to be in the air and going by about 12:30 to either fly big downwind distances or have a shot at the world record out and back (213K), neither of which looked likely. I had a great week of fun flying and hanging out with friends new and old, that's about what matters in the end. Josh Briggs just called, today wasn't very good either. No not very good at Golden still means longer downwind flights than are possible at any other location in Canada, grin. I would love for the Canadian Paragliding Nationals to come back to Golden, Lumby has been fun but it's just not as much fun as flying in the big peaks for hours and hours.
Workouts: Not much, lousy week for training, paragliding just wastes me. This often happens during flying season. I just have to remind myself it's OK, relax, fitness comes and goes with the seasons.
The Willi: This is a great event. I've been flying XC in Golden for over ten years--my first long flights were there, and I continue to love flying along the big peaks. We had a couple of decent days, but I think I'm burned out on flying at the moment, I've done a lot of it this year. Keith and I flapped down the range for about 30K one day and I just never really got my groove on, we both flew out and landed despite being high. Brett, our best Hang Glider pilot, is finally showing what can be done on a hang after many years of lackluster hang glider efforts (the hangs and the paras fly on the same range each day, normally we kick ass on the hangs despite the fact that hangs glide way better, go way faster and all-around ought to dominate the meet). Anyhow, Brett has done some very cool out and return flights.
I finally had a good one on Wednesday, flew 50K out with my bud Othar Lawrence and then back some. It was slow, difficult going on the way south despite having a good tailwind, not really getting high, turning circles in harsh lee conditions, but fun enough. Othar had had enough after about 40K and bailed, I continued on to about 55K out and then thought, "what the hell, I'll try to go back." The day wasn't going to offer up any huge downwind distance, and flying 150K down the range for a late night retrieve/hitching festival doesn't honestly fire me up all that much, I've done it a dozen or more times. Maybe that's arrogant, but it's true, I'm not interested in downwind XC flying unless I'm going to break Chris Muller's old XC record of 244K, or think I can do a huge out and bck flight. Anyhow, I wasn't that high, but flew into the wind with a lot of bar until I found a spine sticking off the main range. Came into it low, then ridge soared it all the way up to the main ridge, a gain of something like 1500M from ridge soaring, pretty cool. The main range runs more or less north-south, and the wind was blowing 20-40K north, so against me. Hmmm... I noticed that right on the main ridge the wind was a bit more west, so I following the ridge back north between the high peaks north, surfing through mild rotors from sub-peaks until it got really trashy. About to give up, I noticed that my groundspeed on my GPS was 30km instead of 20 or less. Hmmm... The air was buoyant, so I kept flying along the ridge a few hundred feet over the jagged rocks and watched my speed climb all the way to 35K. I was definitely well into the lee of the next big peak on the range, and my speed went up to about 40K. Interesting... Down to about 100 feet over the alpine meadows glowing in the late afternoon light I surfed up the lee side of the peak and hit a boomer thermal that yanked me through the rotor and put me up to almost 11,000! Cool, go on glide. At all of 15kmh... Soon I was back on the ridge, and the same increase in speed happened as I glided toward the next peak in the lee. Cool! Banging thermal right in the lee, through the trash, 11,000, 15kmh, back into the lee, repeat.
I did this for 25K until running out of steam. I'd pushed my luck a little flying so deep in the lee, and decided to call it a day. I flew out into the valley, where it was blowing about 40K. Picked a field and settled into it vertically, but not before throwing the best roll reversal I ever have, the wing got WAY down there, yeah! Ryan Letchford was there with the truck, perfect, a cold beer was exactly what was needed after five hours of flying to go 70 or 80K, honestly not much for Golden and nothing distance-wise for the contest. Still, I'd look at that flight back into the wind as one of my best of the season, I learned far more than if I had of just kept blowing downwind like a dandielion. Part of the fun of paragliding is that you can try new things, and, as Vincene told me, "Ya gotta have a GOAL!" As usal she's right, I got motivated flying back into the wind, it was a challenge.
Golden has been turning on late all week, I have to get ready to go to the X Alps on Monday so I called it good and drove home a day early to get some work done. You really need to be in the air and going by about 12:30 to either fly big downwind distances or have a shot at the world record out and back (213K), neither of which looked likely. I had a great week of fun flying and hanging out with friends new and old, that's about what matters in the end. Josh Briggs just called, today wasn't very good either. No not very good at Golden still means longer downwind flights than are possible at any other location in Canada, grin. I would love for the Canadian Paragliding Nationals to come back to Golden, Lumby has been fun but it's just not as much fun as flying in the big peaks for hours and hours.
Workouts: Not much, lousy week for training, paragliding just wastes me. This often happens during flying season. I just have to remind myself it's OK, relax, fitness comes and goes with the seasons.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Willi XC first two days
Windy, windy, storm, windy. Golden didn't have a great weekend for flying, but was good to see a bunch of friends and all the improvments at John and Cathy MacIsaac's golden eco-adventure ranch near Nicholson just south of town. Pretty cool campground directly beside the landing zone, it's the most euro-style flying/camping setup around. Nice sites, casual, decent prices. The Muller Wind Sports party Saturday night well, Tihi on the grill and everyone on the keg.
The Psychosis downhill was going on today in Golden--there are some insanely good downhill riders doing that gig, don't know how they ride down stuff most people can barely walk up, amazing. OJ, Chris and Miles did various cool aerial stunts for the crowd both Saturday night and Sunday as part of the RB Air Force. Their parachutes kept opening kind of low for my taste, but they seemed to be having a really good time...
My parents, Ben and Cia Gadd, were in town all weekend to visit and chase me as they have done other years, but the chasing was pretty limited as nobody went anywhere including me. I did launch the "wrong" direction last night facing east out over the Kicking Horse Canyon, got blown down the ridge for a bit, then into the lee and out to land. In the near-dark. At least I did manage to pull off a stall on my Zoom over the LZ--no great accomplishment obviously, but I'm an XC pilot not an aerobatics pilot so I was pumped, pulling down on the brakes and watching the glider fold up just isn't right. This was the 20th stall of my life maybe, I hope I get to like 'em more. It got my mom wound up a bit too. I just like my glider flying, but if I'm going to fly competition wings at speed I need to have better skills at recovering them via stalls and such. I learned in Chelan (US NATS, last week), that in order to win you need to hammer the speed bar, which makes any paraglider less stable. Less stability=more wing foldups...
I'm back at home in Canmore tonight, back to Golden Monday a.m., the forecast for the next three days looks GREAT!
Workouts Friday and Saturday:
Friday: Ran 30, then as many rounds as I could do in 20 minutes: 10 L-sit pullups, 6 handstand pushups, 20 air squats (with good form). About puked per normal.
Saturday: Got all of 30 minutes of stretching in while parawaiting, rest day.
The Psychosis downhill was going on today in Golden--there are some insanely good downhill riders doing that gig, don't know how they ride down stuff most people can barely walk up, amazing. OJ, Chris and Miles did various cool aerial stunts for the crowd both Saturday night and Sunday as part of the RB Air Force. Their parachutes kept opening kind of low for my taste, but they seemed to be having a really good time...
My parents, Ben and Cia Gadd, were in town all weekend to visit and chase me as they have done other years, but the chasing was pretty limited as nobody went anywhere including me. I did launch the "wrong" direction last night facing east out over the Kicking Horse Canyon, got blown down the ridge for a bit, then into the lee and out to land. In the near-dark. At least I did manage to pull off a stall on my Zoom over the LZ--no great accomplishment obviously, but I'm an XC pilot not an aerobatics pilot so I was pumped, pulling down on the brakes and watching the glider fold up just isn't right. This was the 20th stall of my life maybe, I hope I get to like 'em more. It got my mom wound up a bit too. I just like my glider flying, but if I'm going to fly competition wings at speed I need to have better skills at recovering them via stalls and such. I learned in Chelan (US NATS, last week), that in order to win you need to hammer the speed bar, which makes any paraglider less stable. Less stability=more wing foldups...
I'm back at home in Canmore tonight, back to Golden Monday a.m., the forecast for the next three days looks GREAT!
Workouts Friday and Saturday:
Friday: Ran 30, then as many rounds as I could do in 20 minutes: 10 L-sit pullups, 6 handstand pushups, 20 air squats (with good form). About puked per normal.
Saturday: Got all of 30 minutes of stretching in while parawaiting, rest day.
Friday, July 22, 2005
The "Willi" and such
The weather forecast for Golden just gets better and better for Monday and Tuesday. Even Saturday is looking OK, good for the Psycosis fest tomorrow and party tomorrow night. For those of you who don't know what the Willi is, it's a week-long paragliding comp where the tasks are open distance every day. The Willi is named after Willi Muller, who pioneered flying in the Rockies and deserves remembering for his strong character and the contributions he made to flying around here among other things. It's one of the best paragliding competitions I do, I really look forward to it every year.
The basic program is to fly as far as possible, usually down the range past Radium and on to Canal Flats. Extra points are given for flying from Mt. 7 to anywhere down the range and all the way back. Last year Keith MacCallough and I had few great days, flying a 168K flight out and back on the best day. That flight went almost to Radium from Golden and back, a great day of flying. Golden is probably my favorite flying site in the world, there is nothing like bombing along the tops of peaks for huge distances. There are a lot of good pilots coming including Canadian HG champion Bret Hazlett, should be a great week of going far and high, yeah! Hope to see lots of friends there. My friends OJ and Miles are in town, wanted to do a little base jumping but too windy (I don't jump anymore, I was just going to walk up and down).
Yesterday's "maintenance" workout:
Ran on Bench for 30 minutes, did Yoga. I'm glad to be at home where it's easy to get out the door and do stuff, plus the dog is motivational...
Roger Chayer photo of Chili, the high-speed mutt caught in an unusual still moment.
The basic program is to fly as far as possible, usually down the range past Radium and on to Canal Flats. Extra points are given for flying from Mt. 7 to anywhere down the range and all the way back. Last year Keith MacCallough and I had few great days, flying a 168K flight out and back on the best day. That flight went almost to Radium from Golden and back, a great day of flying. Golden is probably my favorite flying site in the world, there is nothing like bombing along the tops of peaks for huge distances. There are a lot of good pilots coming including Canadian HG champion Bret Hazlett, should be a great week of going far and high, yeah! Hope to see lots of friends there. My friends OJ and Miles are in town, wanted to do a little base jumping but too windy (I don't jump anymore, I was just going to walk up and down).
Yesterday's "maintenance" workout:
Ran on Bench for 30 minutes, did Yoga. I'm glad to be at home where it's easy to get out the door and do stuff, plus the dog is motivational...
Roger Chayer photo of Chili, the high-speed mutt caught in an unusual still moment.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
First post
I've been posting Blog-style writing for a long time, thought I'd make it easier for everyone to use by posting it here.
A lot of my old stuff is up at www.gravsports.com under the gadfly pages (link at right). If you check that site you'll see my web skills are weak, that's why this is here now.
On deck this week is the Willi Muller paragliding event over in Golden, BC, along with the Red Bull Psychosis. I'll be posting daily or near-daily commentary on that event as it progresses.
It's been one hell of a month, starting with the Canadian Paragliding Nationals (Canadian Champion, second overall, RESULTS) to an iceberg climbing trip in Labrador (check out FHM mag Sept 8), to the US Paragliding Nationals down in Chelan, WA (First, RESULTS).
So welcome to the page, hope people enjoy it!
Each day I'll also post my workout routine from the day before, whatever it was. Early summer is full-on paragliding season for me, so I tend to spend a lot of time flying and relatively little time working out, but I try to maintain some level of fitness through it all.
Yesterday's Workout: Canmore, Alberta
Rode the mountain bike for an hour on the Canmore bench with Kim, went to the Vsion and did one of my favorite standard off-season workouts: 100 pullups in sets of 20, 100 pushups in sets of 20, and 100 lying stomach things in sets of 20, for time. I got it done in 28 minutes but was tired and other excuses. You have to do 20 pullups before moving to pushups, same with pushups before doing the stomach cruncher mess...
A lot of my old stuff is up at www.gravsports.com under the gadfly pages (link at right). If you check that site you'll see my web skills are weak, that's why this is here now.
On deck this week is the Willi Muller paragliding event over in Golden, BC, along with the Red Bull Psychosis. I'll be posting daily or near-daily commentary on that event as it progresses.
It's been one hell of a month, starting with the Canadian Paragliding Nationals (Canadian Champion, second overall, RESULTS) to an iceberg climbing trip in Labrador (check out FHM mag Sept 8), to the US Paragliding Nationals down in Chelan, WA (First, RESULTS).
So welcome to the page, hope people enjoy it!
Each day I'll also post my workout routine from the day before, whatever it was. Early summer is full-on paragliding season for me, so I tend to spend a lot of time flying and relatively little time working out, but I try to maintain some level of fitness through it all.
Yesterday's Workout: Canmore, Alberta
Rode the mountain bike for an hour on the Canmore bench with Kim, went to the Vsion and did one of my favorite standard off-season workouts: 100 pullups in sets of 20, 100 pushups in sets of 20, and 100 lying stomach things in sets of 20, for time. I got it done in 28 minutes but was tired and other excuses. You have to do 20 pullups before moving to pushups, same with pushups before doing the stomach cruncher mess...
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