Something old is new again...

Somebody else has likely pointed this out already on the web somewhere, but a modern Crossfit "Box" looks a lot more like a gym from 100 years ago than a "modern" gym stuffed full of machines. A classic Crossfit line comes from the Terminator flicks, "Machines are the enemy." I was pondering that this afternoon as I banged my head repeatedly off the floor (also called handstand pushups) in my local gym (Athletic Evolution in Canmore, good gym). The amount of open floor space in there is a lot higher than in most gyms I've worked out at over the years; many of the "gyms" were really machine rooms with no space to move. I remember seeing photos of old-time gyms; rings, barbells, kettle bells, open space, simple stuff to develop functional movements. So, as usual, I got to surfing on the web tonight and found all this great stuff about training in centuries past. I screen-grabbed the picture from this site, worth checking out. Cool, everything old is new again. They even had rowing machines on the Titantic, which is somewhere between inspirational and ironic. For some reason I find this all "old time" stuff very cool.

I even ordered some books to see how these guys were training. I'm going to laugh myself silly if there's a workout in there that reads like, "Do AMRAP in 20 minutes of of five pull-ups, ten pushups and 15 squats" or something, ha ha!

Happy weekend.

Mountain Movement: Game on!

It took two months longer than I thought it would, but I'm finally done with the course syllabus for "Mountain Movement." The idea behind this course is to help people move more securely, enjoyable, quickly and with more overall comfort in non-technical mountain environments. The more time I spend in the mountains the more I realize the crux of many days is not the climbing or technical rope skills but the talus on the way to the climb, moving quickly down the steep slippery trail, or staying ahead of the nutrition curve while moving for hours at a time. I'm so fired up on all of this that I'm writing another book on the subject, and I want to continue the field drills I've been doing with some "guinea pigs...." The dates are July 15 through 18th, drop me an email if you're interested, should be fun!

Crossfit Level One Certification--quick notes on it and CF

I just returned from a really interesting weekend: A Crossfit Level One Cert. Just to be clear, I paid for the certification out of my own pocket (and for my wife), and I have no affiliation with Crossfit or any other fitness program, and never have. I started doing Crossfit workouts with my friend Josh Briggs while down in Brazil about five years ago; we had no equipment really, so it was mostly body-weight stuff, but I felt the impact of the workouts and loved the intensity. I continued to use CF occasionally and while on the road over the last few years, but last summer and fall I did a few months of direct "Workouts of the Day" or "WODs" and loved the results (one reason I think I survived the 24-hour climb I did with the dZi foundation). I'm now doing the WODs again after my winter season; I'm not sure how it all fits together, but I am sure I will never again go into a gym and do a set of bicep curls or really any isolation exercise unless it's to fix a specific injury or something. CF works better than that by any measure I can think of, as does sport-specific training for specific sports. (if the above makes no sense at all to you go check this out, thanks).

I learned CF's moves primarily on my own or with friends. This winter I spent a day in Calgary with Peak Power learning the Olympic lifts a little better, but I wanted more, and to understand more. This is why I went to a Crossfit Level One Cert (L1). These certs aren't cheap; $1,000 for the weekend. There were 55 people in our certification, and five trainers from CF. The trainers were damn good--professional, knowledgeable, charismatic and just all-around great at presenting. Seeing the presentations alone was worth the money for me, I learned a lot. Well done to them, thanks. I'm going to do some sort of critique of the cert at some point, but right now I'm just thinking too much about what it means to be fit, why, nutrition, and a bunch of other mental and physical fires the event kicked off in my head. That too was worth spending the money. My real short review of the certification is this: it's worth it from a value point, a learning experience, and many other metrics I use to evaluate an experience. There were problems, but for Christ's sake if there aren't problems in an intense two-day experience then there's not much point to it. I will go through those problems at some point, but I'm just on fire mentally thinking about fitness and CF and am more interested in that than going through relatively small problems with the cert.

Anyhow, I've spent the last 36 hours trolling the web, working out, and thinking a lot about fitness due to my experience at the cert. I've been training myself and others now for over 25 years. Crossfit has really shaken my view of fitness up a lot, and I am sincerely grateful for that. I can (and did at the certification) argue with various pieces of CF, but the whole is damn effective for life fitness. Not for sport-specific fitness, but at having a functional and strong body to work with. As I get older that is becoming more and more important to me; the first time I did a CF workout in Brazil I had to do Burpees. I realized I couldn't jump for shit anymore. I've been doing Burpees ever since. CF corrects my weaknesses because I don't create the workouts... Some of my friends do their own fitness programming along CF lines, but for me this isn't the way forward. I want the randomness that the CF main site WODs give to me. I'll get strong for my sports through doing the sports, and use CF to keep my body functional as I age.

One thing about CF is that, like anything successful, it has its haters and proponents. I've been reading like mad on the web about fitness theory, and of course getting an eye and brain full from the fully indoctrinated and the haters. Just so I can get this out of the way, I believe certain parts of CF are just wrong, or at least fully deserving of mockery. I also believe most western governments are disasters, but I'd much rather live in Canada or the US than say, oh, Somalia. A classic logical fallacy is to look for specific problems in a system and then take the whole system down as a result.... I'm good at that, and I could chew on CF's problems (I think the Zone diet is utterly useless, the CF games are in the same category as figure skating (a judged sport isn't), and that anyone using gothic fonts on T-shirts with things like "FORGED! should be drop-kicked in the head on the spot). There, I've outlined my main problems with CF, now can we move on? Seriously, the pluses are much, much larger.

The biggest training realization I've had in the last year is that I'm now training for two events at the same time: The rest of my life, and the specific sport I'm up against next. By the rest of my life I mean maintaining a high level of physical function as I get older. I want my joints to retain strength through a full range of motion, and to be able to broadly do anything I could at 20 now that I'm 43. Failing that, I want to be as functional as I can be as I age. This is what the CF is for at my stage in life. I'm also training for sports as diverse as kayaking, paragliding, rock climbing, ice climbing, alpine climbing and kid chasing. If I have basic strength and full range of supported motion in my body then I can train specifically for those sports through doing them. At 20 I trained hard specifically for climbing, and specifically for hard technical climbing, and I likely lost some function by doing so much isolation work... Now I need that function back. I refuse to accept that 43-year old guys shouldn't be able to jump. Or even 80-year old guys, at least more than any other 80-year olds. I've been thinking about this idea a lot, the CF level one cert really drive this idea home to me. The trainers are probably going, "Dude, that's what you got out of all our lectures???" but that's a great gift.

Now I gotta go train for life a bit, and maybe go train for climbing this afternoon by going climbing. The life training likely won't make me a lot better climber, but I'll be a fitter climber, and I'm not going to throw my back out when I lift a box of paint out of my basement like I did yesterday (no pain). And when I have to bust ass fast up a hill to a climb I'll do a better job of it. CF isn't the only way forward by any means, but it's a decent way forward, and it's open to interpretation and change. It's a bit like running Linux on your computer; it's an "open source" system, so you can customize it, tweak it, play with it, and argue with it. That's more fun than Windows if you're into that sort of thing, which most of us who claim to be into training are.

Give 'er! Direct cert review coming at some point, I'm just too fired up by some of the ideas to deal with that right now.

A few more "tricks" for moving fast on ice

NOTE: The following rests on the foundation of moving in control.

"Control" means securely, with solid belays, and with an attention to detail, as well as not falling off.

Moving well, or fast, on ice melts down to two basic components: The mechanical systems (most of the last post on multi-pitch ice) and then the physical stuff including technical ability, your partner, etc. This post has to be a bit brief 'cause I'm blowing off some other stuff to write this, but I've been thinking a lot about this in the last few months, so here are a few more things. Note that they also generally apply to single pitch routes. There's just not much technical difference between climbing single and multi-pitch routes well, it's the mechanical transfers that are different. My book goes into this all a lot more, but here are some recent thoughts:

1. Look at the route from the ground for at least five or ten minutes. Line selection is everything on long routes; if you want the "hero" line then you can find that, but most of the time on long routes you just want to get up the rigs as safely, smoothly and enjoyably as possible. It can be really hard to pick lines while on the route, especially on bigger and steeper rigs. A bit of short-term effort can bring a climber to a long groove of good ice that's not obvious while on the route... Stop, look. I often watch people struggle for literally hours on routes that would be a lot easier if they would just move over 30 feet or something. This study will also lead to good belay stances. Talk about this all with your partner; a team understanding just seems to help, and keep things running smoother.

2. The same thing applies on a small scale. Ice is often radically different just a few feet to one side or the other. All the stuff about where to swing (in concave places, not convex) holds true. Good ice tends to form in lines; inside of corners, the thinner ice on the edge next to the rock (usually better than the fat stuff if the ice is only 3M or so wide...), etc. etc. You can take twice as long just by climbing one meter in the wrong direction.

3. If you do the above right you'll probably move generally OK.

4. How often to put in ice screws? As often as you need to, but always have enough solid gear in to keep you from either hitting the ground or a ledge feature that will operate as the ground. If I feel strong and secure I'll run it hard on steep terrain. But if gets ledgy and messy I'll always put in a screw just before pulling over a bulge above a ledge... It's all about the situation you find yourself in, or rather, knowingly climbed into 'cause you were reading the route above you and had an idea for the line developed on the approach. I have seen way too many horrible broken ankles, legs and other carnage from people falling off on ice, even while being lowered on ice and dropping a few feet onto a ledge. Crampons and falling just do not mix; sometimes you'll have good luck and it will all be OK, but personally I try to climb like any fall will result in a compound fracture of both legs. It's worked for 25 years.

5. If you can't lead most any ice pitch you encounter in under about 30 minutes and any ice pitch you encounter in under an hour then you're climbing over your head and shouldn't be there. Go back and learn how to climb better, or choose an easier line. I mean this. Alpine pitches are a bit different, but most pure ice pitches should take under half an hour to lead. If they're taking more than this you're either trying to climb up to the level of your ego (the pitch is too hard even if you think you should be able to do it), you're trying to impress someone else (same), or you've screwed up and are trying to get it done (it happens, I was there a month ago). Realize that you're pushing things, your partner is going to get cold and not be having any fun, and that you don't have a safety margin anymore. Ice climbing is fundamentally not about technical ability but balancing ability and ambition; I'm a lot more impressed with someone who can lead a "grade 4" smoothly and well than some joker who sketches up a "grade 6, dude!" then boasts about it in the bar. If I sound a bit sarcastic and maybe a little aggro here it's because I've seen far too many leaders on terrain far too hard for them over the years. I've left climbing areas rather than watch someone sketch their way up something. Compound fractures are messy, I don't want to watch.

6. Strength will help in ice climbing for sure, and all things being equal the stronger climber will kick ass on the weaker climber. But all things aren't equal. Most ice climbers need to train on ice way more than they do. Do 200 laps on a vertical ice climb and you'll likely have a clue about how to actually ice climb. Do 20 leads on vertical ice and you might not know much about ice climbing. There is a replicable, teachable, and organized method to climbing ice well; learn it well before you lead. Nobody would grab a rack of cams and head up a crack without ever actually having climbed a crack, yet that's what I see all the time on ice climbs from rock climbers. The idea is to move securely, smoothly, and at a speed that can be maintained with those two attributes...

7. Have fun. If you're not having fun and enjoying the place, the day and the setting then you're probably climbing too hard, and climbing fast is out of the question. I know I'm "on" when I'm psyched, moving securely, feel strong, and it's all working. I know it's off when I keep thinking about how I'm going to get some work done at the office or something, I feel cold, I'm climbing slow and awkwardly, etc. etc.

8. Bring a couple of little "family band" radios on long routes. These really, really cut down on confusion on ice climbs. I've seldom needed them on rock, but they are great on ice and cut down on yelling.

9. If the leader takes 30 minutes then the second should take under 15 from the time the leader yells "Off!" to when the second arrives at the belay. Enough said.

10. Train. This is the secret to climbing ice. In order of usefulness: Train on ice, drytool, train on plice, train in the gym (straight Crossfit will be enough), train however you can come up with but train.

OK, there's a rant, lots more to put down but I'm out of time. Have fun!

Notes on Simple Tricks for Speed

There's been a bunch of discussion over on rockclimbing.com about the last speed post, thought I'd post a few things that answered good questions on there:

-We use a single rope not necessarily to save weight (although if you add up the grams/meter it's a close contest), but because it keeps the belays a lot more organized and is generally a lot faster to deal with at transitions. Using two lead ropes invariably turns into a cluster once the ropes get a little icy or the belay is hanging, especially when block leading where the leader is on the "bottom" of the stack. Add in gloves, cold hands, fatigue, etc. etc. and a single lead line is just better when it's better. I use twin ropes, half ropes and single ropes depending on the situation, all have their place. For long relatively fat ice routes without a major approach (more than a few hours) I use a 70 or 80M 9.2 to lead on and a 7.7 (sometimes much thinner, but that gets technical and often isn't worth the hassle either) tag line. The tag line either goes in the second's pack or is towed by the leader or second depending on what's going on...

-A good belay on an ice climb is often one where the belayer can't even see the leader. A cave, a nook, some place that totally protects the belayer from falling ice is essential, and to not establish sheltered belays while leading a block is a crime punishable by free hotel-priced scotch for the second (if he or she isn't in the hospital). An attentive belay is always good, but ice climbing is a very different game than hard rock climbing... On a 70M pitch you're often run five to ten meters between screws, the belayer's main job is to catch a catastrophic fall and not short-rope the leader. There are of course times when every inch counts, and a good team will recognize those situations and respond appropriately.

-I'd generally rather have a belayer using a gri-gri than the other options while he or she is taking a leak, eating a piece of pizza, drinking, finishing a V-thread, and all the other chores that go into being a good team on a long route. I'm comfortable with that, but if you're not then by all means don't do it. Seriously, no sarcasm, you have to know your partner and the situation. Some partner's I'd trust with just an ATC while doing all of the above, some partners I assume I'm soloing even if they are looking at me the whole time. Definitely do use an auto-lock for belaying the second, no reason not to.

-All these points are about making the transitions and climb faster. There are likely safer ways of doing things; four screws at each belay, a screw every two meters on each 70M+ pitch, etc. etc. These transition ideas work great on relatively fat pure ice routes like Polar Circus, Willoughby routes or most Norwegian ice routes.

Simple Tricks for Speed on Multi-Pitch Ice Routes

After a week with my friend Andreas Spak in Norway I've got some things to say about speed on big routes. Andreas climbs faster than most, is always up for a big route, and is tough enough to get the job done, but I always seem to learn or re-learn some stuff when doing big new routes with him in Norway. Here are a few "speed" tricks for big routes that are primarily multi-pitch without walking steps (those steps call for T Bloks etc., not covered here).

-Use a single 70M rope to lead on. This cuts confusion at the belays down hugely. A good lead rope like the 9.2mm Nano has a far lower impact force than using twins (clipped together) or possibly even a half clipped singly (remember that the test for impact forces for half ropes is ridiculous for the way we actually climb on them, read up on it).

-Belay the leader with an auto-lock lead belay device. This allows the second to eat, drink, organize the belay, etc. Impact forces are a big discussion when using an auto-lock, I'll just say it's not something I'm concerned about with a good rope, good belay and decent rope management.

- The leader's belay sequence at the top of first pitch goes like this:

1. One super-solid screw in, clove hitch it to the upper hole (BD screws have two holes on the hanger), "OFF!."

2. Second super solid screw in higher than the first, clove hitch it the upper hole, tighten up a bit.

3. Pull up rope, belay second off an ATC guide on on the lower 'biner hole on the lower screw (yes, this actually matters!), stack neatly on one foot, or loosely if you've been smart and are using a cave or other feature for protection (which you always do, don't be all British/American and stand right in the way of the leader's falling ice).

4. "ON!" can be yelled, but by now you're vigorously yanking on the rope like mad to make it clear you're on belay, the second should already be moving by the second good yank or so. If he's not it's a felony for the second, "Slack belay management," and is payable by one beer.

5. While the second is climbing you drill the V-thread. I like to use cord rather than use the ropes to feed the thread when descending, keeps the friction lower (stuck ropes really, really suck at night on the descent), plus the cord gives a nice place to clip into on the descent (saving more time on the route...). Build as much of the V-Thread as possible, normally you can get it all done unless the second is absolutely flying. He finishes it if you don't.

6. Second hits belay, clove hitch him to the V-thread with his rope first, then to the lower biner on the upper screw keeping things all neat and organized so the leader's rope will run free and leaving enough free rope so that when you take him off the ATC you have room to clove-hitch him neatly into the lower hole on the screw. Now you have three bomber pieces in the ice.

7. Quick switch of gear (second racks screws and draws separately, don't leave draws on screws, slow), leader on belay, gone.

8. Once the leader has two or three good screws in the second takes out one belay screw. After four screws the belayer take out all the belay screws, he's still attached to the V-Thread (I use 7mm cord for this).

9. When the leader yells "off" or the rope is down to a few meters the second takes off the belay jacket, and is totally organized and ready to move when the rope goes tight. Just unhook the 'biner from the V-thread, gone in way less than 60 seconds, like zero second.

I've spent way too much time thinking about the descent also, I'll cover that next time, but because you've already put the V-threads in most of the work is done and the descent should be very fast but not too fast, ha ha!

No transition should take more than five minutes. On a six-pitch route you waste at least an hour if each transition takes 15 minutes; most ice parties take a crazy long time on each transition, it's painful to watch. It's one thing to piss around on a three-pitch route in the sun, but even on that type of route I like to get up and down quickly if possible, it's good training for bigger routes or bigger links, and you only get better at moving fast by practicing the systems.

The second has to wrestle the rope a bit at the belay, but with an auto-lock that's OK.

I'm starting to use two super light packs on long routes (forgot mine for Norway unfortunately), the leader and the second each have a good light jacket, a little water, a little food, headlamp, etc. Works better than one heavier pack for the second most of the time, plus the second often has the rap line in his pack to keep the cluster at belays lower. I've yet to find a pure ice route where the weight of a belay jacket, 250ml of water and a candy bar makes a jack bit of difference to me on the lead (OK, maybe Spray On, that would be harder for sure!). But normal ice, no.

Repeat to top.

This is based on the leader doing two or more pitches at a time. I basically don't swing leads ice climbing unless it's really warm, the climbing is mellow, and I don't care at all about time. The second should arrive at the belay fully winded and sucking air; this is not the time for him or her to lead again, plus the leader is probably getting cold. In Norway Andreas led all of one climb, I got the two ugly ones, it worked well for us.

Note that there are no slings or cords used at the belay; what normally happens with a sling or cord is the knot in the sling or cord gets totally stuck if it's loaded at all, and is then useless for the rest of the climb. Plus using the rope to clip directly into the anchor reduces the impact forces a lot if the leader pitches straight onto it. Equalization is not something I really believe in anymore (long story, but basically it doesn't work practically for real climbing situations), I like to have two bomber screws as a minimum for a belay, and then back that up with a bomber V-thread. Using the rope allows these screws to be as close as 30cm or as far as 3M, which is a lot more flexible and faster, plus no more messing about with frozen knots in slings!

Fun, Sketchy, and Freaky "Fossens"

Norway 2010 is wrapping up. It's been a great trip--as always, Andreas Spak and I found insane ice, climbed it, and are destroyed. Christian Pondella came along to shoot some photos, but also ended up climbing a lot--dang photographers climbing our routes!

Link to Andreas Spak's blog, with LOTS more good photos!

Waterfalls are called "Fossens" in Norwegian, so everything has some consonant-colliding letter disaster followed by "Fossen." We climbed Fun, Sketchy, and Freaky Fossen, or at least that's what the real names sound like to us with our horrible ears for the language. We're going to use the "real" name of the waterfall from now on when reporting on it, this should cut confusion down. Full details below.

Yesterday Andreas and I climbed the classiest, the cleanest, the most stellar waterfall line I've ever done. It's the plum line in the Eidfjord area that I've seen (there are probably ten more equally good, the place is that insane). It was an all-day boxing match, a battle between desire, physics and sanity. Darkness started to fall on us while we were 7 pitches off the deck and standing below a 50M+ column of glass soda straws held together by crazy-climber glue. Below us was 450M of difficult, tenuous, downright challenging climbing. Maybe something like doing Sea of Vapors, then Nemesis then Curtain Call but, at least for me, more demanding all the way. You can't call a route an FA until you get to the top no matter how much you want to. Headlight on, shut up and swing. Then the spindrift started. Each placement involved 20 to 50cm of digging, same for the screws. Eight raps in the dark back down. I kissed the last V-thread on the way down that we had put in on the way up. done. Except for the walk down and four-hour drive. Stimulants were abused.

I'm pretty sure all the routes we did were FAs, but maybe Guy Lacelle did 'em, that's happened to me before. And does the FA of a water ice route really matter all that much? It's going to be different again next year, and if you don't know it's been climbed then what does it matter? And even if you do know it's still different every season, totally new ice... FAs are most useful for sharing where the ice goods are so others can go and have an experience on 'em.

Grades are increasibly sort of the same to me; beyond "it's steep, not steep, whatever" ice grades generally have far less to to do with how technically hard something is than what's going on in the leader's head. And, speaking personally, my head is a confused place while leading tenuous water ice... In kayaking we've pretty much given up rating rivers past class 5. All hard rivers are class 5, it's the people, picture and story that matter. For example, if a bud of about your ability and fear capacity runs a waterfall then it's about that hard. If he breaks his back then it's maybe more technical. Drops develop reputations--gnarly, friendly but looks gnarly, gnarly but looks friendly, etc. etc. People keep coming up with technical vs. danger vs. flow size vs. rescue options etc. for rating rivers, but in the end it's about the people, story and photo (I'll post some later, we're failing on that this morning, more coffee required). I think ice climbing grades past, "It's kinda vertical for a good distance and therefore WI 5" are likely useless. Almost all "hard" ice routes are some version of water ice 5 with bad gear. So all hard ice routes, like hard rivers, are "grade 5" plus the stories and photos... Yeah, I just rated something WI10, ha ha!

Photos etc to follow but here are the particulars so people searching the web will know how to get there etc. We found all of these climbs on the web or by looking out the window of our car.

Eidfjord New Routes 2010

Big Rig Across the Lake from Eidfjord ("Fun Fossen," not sure of name)

300M, like "Cascade" but way better.

FA Spak/Gadd/Pondella

February 9, 2010

Skykkjedalsfossen "Sketchy Fossen"

400M, WI 5+ R. A big piece of ice, nice.

FRA Gadd/Spak

February 12, 2010

Skrikjofossen ("freaky Fossen")

500M, (WI grade it whatever you need to feel good about the grade) Gives you everything you need.

FRA Gadd/Spak/(Pondella first three pitches)

February 15, 2010

2011 Note: Although it would seem pretty obvious, there is avalanche hazard in the Eidfjord area. Check this report out for why it's important to keep thinking about avi hazard anywhere in the mountains.

Simple Ice Tricks

Norway! I love climbing in the land of big new routes with my friend Andreas Spak. Yeah!

I've done more ice climbing this season than I think I ever have in a season--Norway is just the latest round. The dZi Endless Ascent effort started it all off, but for some reason I've just been swinging the tools a lot with a variety of partners. I love working on technique and tricks for moving on ice, and thinking about how to do it with a higher safety margin and less effort. Here are a few things I've been thinking and see a lot of:

-If you get a stuck tool regularly you're likely placing them both at the same horizontal level. Don't. It's a waste of effort, time and makes the leader far less secure because they have to wrestle a tool out while it's off to the side. Place tools roughly 30 to 60 cm apart vertically and roughly shoulder-width or a bit narrower horizontally.

-Completely stand up and drive you hips into the ice to finish the stand-up part of a movement. Most climbers don't, which puts more weight on their arms.

-If you're getting pumped and you're not a complete novice it's almost always because your feet aren't at the same horizontal level, and aren't solid. Solid feet make for relaxed hands. If one foot is low when you stand up it will come off, making you out of balance. Kick twice as much as you swing.

-Look at the ice. LOOK at the ice. I can tell within about one swing and one foot placement how experienced an ice climber is; swing at corners in the ice, pockets, spaces between icicles, and kick in roughly the same places. But even if you know this you can't execute it without looking at the ice for every foot and tool placement...

-Swing with your elbow high, and the pick, head and shaft of the tool all in line with your wrist, forearm and upper arm. It's about getting the pick moving fast and accurately; 99 percent of people drop their elbow when they swing, which is a waste of effort, compromises accuracy, and reduces the vertical gain on each swing. Even worse is the "chicken wing" swing, with your elbow out to the side at roughly shoulder level...

-If you want to be a better ice climber go hang a rope on a vertical piece of ice and climb it a whole lot. Like 200 or more times. With crampons off, on, no tools, one tool, etc. etc. Many aspirant ice climbers drop the sport after spending a weekend climbing 4 pitches and freezing their asses off. Go TR like mad, then you lead fast, follow fast, and be secure while doing so.

Back to ice climbing here in Norway, only another 50,000 FAs to do until we run out of ice...

Some video fun

Here's a little video sports action of the Endless Ascent effort, shot by my friend Scott Milton. Memories, memories! Nice work Scott and team Arc. There are a whole whack of linked videos if you open the video directly on Youtube to.

I'm looking out the window on Norway, where an epic season is in progress. Jetlagged, over-traveled but still STOKED to get it on!

Redstone Winterfest

I just spent two days at the Redstone Winterfest, in Redstone, Colorado. Redstone is a small town on the western side of the Colorado Rockies. I've spent a bunch of days in the area over the years kayaking, hiking and a little bit of bouldering, but it's not a place I've ever really thought of as an ice or mixed climbing location. I was wrong about that, there are some great ice climbs and a whole horde of really good mixed routes, all on this interactive soft red sandstone.

I showed up on Friday morning, and wanted to warm up as I've only done one of day of mixed climbing this season. Since about October I've been focused on ice climbing, huge quantities of ice climbing; this has left me with pretty good endurance, but a little low on mixed power. Fortunately the first route I got, an M9, had an aggressive in-your-face boulder problem overhang to start with. Why, out of all the Redstone routes, did I get on that one? I am an idiot at picking warmups, but the local vibe was good. I fell off right away to get that over with and then spent an hour figuring out the intricate hooks, pebble grabs and micro-ice placements. Thanks to MB for the long belay. In what was to become a pattern, I got pumped right away, but the routes there often have cool rests if you're creative, so I'd de-pump, do a move or two, rest, sketch up a few feet pulling on cobbles, it was super fun but definitely a new style of climbing for me!

The locals run rock shoes sometimes, and switch back and forth from rock shoes to rock shoes with crampons bolted on, sometimes twice in one pitch! Chalk bags are common, and as the air temperature is often around freezing you don't really need gloves once you warm up. It's odd to bust out a 5.11 pebble move in the middle of a mixed route, but after a bit of a head-fake mentally I got into it, it's super fun!

The rest of Friday and Saturday turned into two of the more "pumper" days I've ever had. So pumped, almost falling off, hooks breaking, the smallest icicle I've ever successfully stood on (perfect temps for small icicles, warm but not too warm), just on the edge of pitching off but making it to the anchors. That type of, "I'm falling off now! No, wait, not yet, no falling, snagged a hold, OK, de-pump" climbing is pretty much my favorite thing to do in the world. I had a couple of decent onsights that I was psyched on given my relative lack of "M" fitness, super fun to get back into the mixed game! Lots of old friends from the Colorado days also showed up; Colorado was my home for almost ten years, and a piece of my heart will always respond to the blue sky, warm sun, mountains and good times I had with people there over the years.

I finished out my visit with a couple of laps on "The Drool," a classic pillar. Blue ice, red rock, Redstone! Thanks to the crew who let me rotate in with their TR session, good form.

I'll definitely be heading back there, maybe as a tie-in with the Ouray festival next year. I have some good-looking routes left to do, and some of 'em weren't even in! And this whole mixed climbing thing with a chalkbag has got me interested, Duane Raleigh and Jeff Jackson are coming up with some new ideas for sure.

Thanks to DR, AO, MB, Quint, Jefe and the rest of the psyched crew there, great trip!

Spray On

I'm just back home after climbing the coolest ice I've ever seen or climbed, anywhere in the world. Tim Emmett and I had a great trip, during which we climbed some insanely challenging and fun spray ice behind Helmcken Falls. There, I've said it, the rest is details in some ways, but here they are. It's a long read, but I'm just so psyched! I have seen the future of ice climbing, and it is sprayed on.

About ten or so years ago David Dornian and I started using the internet to look for big waterfalls. That's how we found Hunlen, which EJ and I climbed last spring (and that is the coolest waterfall I'll never want to climb again). I also saw a lot of photos of Helmcken Falls, in Wells Grey provincial park in BC. A huge quantity of water blasted off the lip of a supposedly 140M cave. Sick, but no way was that going to freeze, ever. But I found one winter photo, with the comment under it, "Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park. Even when it's -30C out this waterfall is too high-volume to freeze. The spray that turns to hoarfrost on the overhanging amphitheater walls could probably be climbed to give a really hard route though! (not by me) ." Drew B. posted that photo and caption, so in some ways he is responsible for the seed in the back of my mind.

But it's a long way out of the way to Wells Grey provincial park, and Helmcken. I just never got there, and didn't really believe the hype on the height anyhow. Finally, after years of scheming and thinking it could be worth checking out but not right now, my mostly English but slightly hybridized Canadian friend (he stole one of our women through marriage or the other way around, not sure) Tim Emmett showed up in Canmore (a day late--he seriously missed his flight by a complete day, amazing for someone who travels so much) and we were off at 4:30 a.m. to get to the falls in time to climb the route if there was a route. At 1:00 we stood on the rim and dropped our jaws. Helmcken is a stunning, complete bad-ass of a waterfall. There wasn't much white ice stuff on the back walls, but Tim and I sorted out a route down to check it out involving rapping over a really nice 20M column of ice. At least we'd have something to do on the way out.

As soon as were down at the bottom of the canyon our minds just flipped out. The scale is so hard to fathom in the pictures and even in person until you're down in the canyon. A pretty good-sized river rips off the edge of a massive cave and falls 141M (about 500 feet) to a pool below. You could play soccer (football if you're Tim) on the ice shelf behind the falling water. And the lower 100 feet or so were covered in the most insane ice formations I've ever seen. Have a look at a few of the photos and make up your own mind, but we were blown away.

But it's not all happy land; sharp daggers of ice line the ceiling of the cave, and the huge blocks of debris on the ice ledge along the wall told of serious death missiles falling from above. We sat on the edge of the huge (stadium sized, really!) cave and freaked out on the roar of the water, the mist, the ice along the bottom edge, the icicles in the roof, the whole scene. It was way too overwhelming to even think of climbing; we were afraid at first to even go into the cave. Or Tim was, I was up for it but Tim whined a lot. It would be funny if that were true, but if you know Tim at all then you know that hanging with Tim is like hanging out with the best dog in the world, a Labrador. And there was a very tasty stick to be had... An enthused Emmett is a dangerous thing, and he's always enthused. Soon we were moving again.

After figuring out a path on the ground through the dangers from above we headed in. It was warm, maybe minus two, and we found out right away that the huge spray ice formations were really unstable. If you just nudged them they fell off. We could push the little ones off the wall to make forward progress along an ice ledge on the side of the cave, but the big ones blocking our way forward were too scary to touch. We quickly figured out that a soft-ball sized piece of ice would knock multi-ton stalactites down, and carnage ensued as progress was made.

Eventually we were in the back of the cave in a relative safe zone. Huge banana-shaped icicles littered the walls and ground, and in fact blocked us from even getting to the back wall. It would have been suicided to walk under the danglers, but more thrown ice (Tim favored something called a, "Cricket Bowl Hurler" shot, while I was more of basketball shot kinda guy) cleared a path through the Indian Jones terrain traps and back to the wall. At that point we both sort of ran out of energy; how to climb the ice? For there was ice, but it was on a 45-degree or steeper wall, and not anywhere thick or strong enough to hold a screw...

I've put up a lot of mixed climbs on lead, and after a while the solution became obvious if not really what I wanted: Bolt it. I wanted it to go on natural gear and screws, but the compact volcanic rock wasn't having any of that. I stood on a huge fallen stalactite and the first bolt went in. The next one went in while I was hanging on two equalized ice tools in the soft ice, as did the third bolt. I got the fourth in after ripping a tool and slamming violently off the wall when I fell. Did I mention that Tim is an experienced British "trad" belayer? Good thing, as I would have decked it hard without him being on the rope. Nice one Tim, thanks.

After that Tim and I sat on the ice and looked up; the fourth bolt was directly overhead, and they were spaced well enough to prevent a groundfall while climbing but barely. We climbed out of the canyon by headlamp that night with smiles, and the realization that there was no way in hell we were getting to the lip without a week's worth of effort and time, likely more. Our psyche was massive, just running around in circles massive. Now I know how Labradors feel all the time, it was just awesome to discover something so damn cool!

In the morning we were back at it. I got about four more bolts in then turned the sharp end over to Mr. Emmett, who was nearly ready to levitate up and help out. Despite never having aided off ice tools before (Tip: put short tie-offs around the upper grip of the new Fusions for extra reach) he did a great job and got us to an alcove at the end of the continuos spray ice, about 90 feet of climbing from the back wall, but only about 40 feet off the ground!

And then it was time to send. Our fallen pillar had unfortunately broken, so you had to stand on the stump end and literally jump through space to latch a couple of blobs on the wall. Seriously, that was the mandatory start! I have never had so much fun climbing ice; sometimes you'll get a big roof from a broken off pillar or something, but this was just mental. You had to be really careful to swing accurately in the blobs of ice, and test the placement each time. This is incredibly strenuous when hanging locked-off on a 45-degree wall. Poor placements would rip, which was funny if you were belaying but not so funny on the lead. I've been doing a lot of endurance training this year but not so much power training... I got so damn pumped my forearms are still hurting, but a combination of desperate tricks (hooking an elbow on my ice tools) and a really wild stemming rest at the mid-point got me to the anchor, and then Tim had a nice battle but pulled it off (nice work for your second ice route of the year amigo!). We sat around eating and talking about the grade; it is a whole hell of a lot harder than anything I've ever climbed on ice. The only thing I could compare it too is M10 or harder drytooling, but you have to swing for placements instead of just hook. WI 10 is the lowest grade I can give it with a straight face; many people who can drytool M10 will find the ice climbing a lot harder I think, it's real, honest, cuts-on-your face ice climbing. Not one single drytool move in the whole pitch; pull up, lock off, work for a placement. Just like normal ice but on a 45-degree wall. So much fun!

On day three we were back in the stadium to see what we could see, but the temperatures were jumping every hour, and massive danglers were cratering into the floor of the cave like something out of a bad movie where the whole evil-guy palace blows up and the heroes run away. Or something like that, it was sketchy and we ran away.

It's been a very warm year in Clearwater and Wells Grey Park, so apparently the spray ice is a lot smaller than it normally is. It may all re-form, or the sun may be too high already for it to come back, nobody knows. What I do know is that I'm going to be back next year for sure. You could theoretically do a drytool route with the odd bit of spray ice to the lip right now, but there are pictures where the whole thing is spray ice... That's the future to me; another hard drytooling route is just that, but a 500-foot route on the spray ice? Magic.

I'm always looking for evolutions in my favorite sport, ice climbing. Mixed climbing was one step for me, now I've seen the possibilities for another development. Thanks for a great trip Tim, yeah!!!

Notes:

In winter the Helmcken Falls lodge offers rooms for two people (two beds) with breakfast and a hearty dinner for $125 (total--not each, total. $62.50 per person per night with food). It's a really cool lodge, friendly owners, and a great place to base out of. There are other possibilities in the area for climbing that warrant a visit, let's leave it at that... Happy Exploring!

PS: The height of most waterfalls is exaggerated. Helmcken is supposed to be 141M high, but I figured that was an exaggeration. In the photo it looks about 100 feet high. But those trees on the lip are BC trees, not spindly little Alberta trees... It's fucking huge. Cool photo here.

Endless Analysis #3:Nutrition

Stuff I ate: 1/6 of an amazing, salty, peppery, mouth-savoring steak. One slice of pizza. About 10 or 15 Clif Blok packages (love the 3x Sodium!). Two or five Clif Bars of various types, maybe more. A nice pastry or two (thanks Matti and Ines!). A french fry or two. Maybe 5,000 calories all-in with the breakfast on the day of the event?

Stuff I drank: Eight Red Bulls. 18 liters of water/electrolyte mix plus another six or so after the event. An entire tub of Clif Electrolyte mix. Two coffees (thanks Java for the java!). One small but real hit of single malt scotch in honor of Guy Lacelle (who didn't drink so that's kinda funny, thanks Bill B., I took the bottle to the memorial in Canmore and shared it out).

Successes: Bloks, RB, electrolyte mix.

Failures: Steak (puked it up on the bottom of the canyon, no big thing, I was impressed with the color at the time...).

What could have been better: Fresh fruit, more simple sugars in the form of minty stuff, more simple sugars in general. The protein and fat are critical for me after about six hours, but I over-planned that and didn't have enough super-simple sugars on hand. When you're burning a whole truckload of calories every hour you need incredibly simple sugars, or at least I sure do. Because I was often on the edge of puking (anaerobic burns or close to it each time, a sure way to get close to your puking limit) I had to be very careful with what I ate and drank. A Clif Blok a lap, solid food at the start of the rest period every hour (about ten minutes if I was doing OK), just riding the edge of calorie absorption and intake vs. rejection. I'm stoked I only puked once, and it was pretty benign really.

What I did right:

Thanks to Dave Marvin, Aaron Batte and Jim Nowak I drank enough liquids in general. They had the bottle on top, I hit it up every lap pretty much, slightly warm water with lots of electrolyte mix in it. I am certain, based on past experience with long climbs and some really stupid planning that I would have imploded without the electrolyte mix in the water. That is critical. I was sweating despite the freezing temps, I wanted salt a lot, which for me is a sure sign that I need to drink more sodium...

I quit almost all caffeine and RB for two weeks before the event, and didn't take my first RB until at least four hours into the ascent. Every single can I drank had a strong impact on my performance, it just works, that's why so many guides are carting around cans in the mountains for both themselves and their clients. I buy the stuff when I travel, hundreds of dollars every year just so people are clear that I do fully use and believe in the stuff, it's not just a logo on my head.

I had a whole whack of different boxes of Clif Bars (I paid for these, pro deal, but I have no deal with Clif), the different flavours, products and tastes really worked for me.

What I learned that applies to other super-endurance stuff:

More heavy-sugar liquids. This was working well for me, I'd up my intake of those. Fudge, cheese, peppermint patties. I wanted each one of these "foods" so much at various points! More of an effort to consume "X calories/hour," and have that tracked by someone. I really blew it a couple of times, and while I never bonked I did lose my focus until I got a 100 or so calories back into the system. That's all it takes to get back into the game, kinda cool... I figure I must have burned at least 10,000 calories in the 24 hours, quite likely a lot more based on my heart rate and time spent climbing vs. resting. Who knows, hard to figure out, but interesting to guess.

I'd also pay more attention to how I was loading my energy systems in the days leading up to the race. I think I was likely taking in too much carbohydrate and not enough high-quality protein and fat, especially in the morning of the event. I've found over the years that I perform better when I'm careful with my diet in general, and especially in the few days leading up to a huge push or whatever physical torture I'm enmeshed with. I was a bit distracted in Ouray, and got hungrier than I should have a few times before the Endless Ascent started. I also had the stomach flu two weeks before the ascent; I honestly think that hurt me. Little things matter.

But, given my lack of adventure or 24-hour racing experience, it worked out pretty well thanks to everyone who helped directly or indirectly. You can't measure words of encouragement in calories, but they are just as important. Thanks.

Endless Analysis #2:Training

Training for dZi Endless Ascent

First off, today was my first day back on the ice, two weeks to the day since we finished Endless Ascent. I'm losing one fingernail, and the soles of my feet are still bruised. No more cheap socks ever!!!!! Other than that I'm OK, and it sure was fun to mixed climb today!

So how do you train to climb ice for 24 hours? That was the question I started asking myself in about June, and for once the internet was short of answers. I had a further problem in that I had some elbow tendonitis that was still clearing up. Or not clearing up, depending on the day... But the idea slowly took over my head, and the following is how I trained.

In April and May I rock climbed a ton, then had some elbow problems... In June and early July I was primarily kayaking with a few rock sessions mixed in, but paddling always starts the healing process in my body. I got way into kayaking again, great sport! Rodeo sessions, big days on the river, beating about in the woods but always going at it pretty hard. I reached a level of skill in kayaking I hadn't had since about 1999, which was a ton of fun. Thanks to Patch, Becky and many others for the motivation.

Around the middle of July I added in the Crossfit main site (www.crossfit.com) workout of the day or "WOD." I'd been messing with the WODs for a while and done CF cycles in the past, but in July I'd do these workouts on the days when I wasn't too worked from paddling, mountain biking, hiking and flying or whatever, and do "catch-up" workouts as part of the warmup if I missed a session. Just the standard CF warmup is a lot of work, and the improvements in my ability to handle the sessions came quickly. Plus it's a whole lot of fun! Lacking direct coaching I put in a lot of time looking at the exercises on the web videos etc, and learned a tremendous amount.

In August I was still kayaking some, but put more of my emphasis into Crossfit. My elbow was steadily improving--unless I went rock climbing and pulled on ropes to belay... For some reason that was guaranteed to set me back a week's worth of careful icing and rehab. I was also doing once or twice weekly sessions of ART with Torben in Canmore, that felt effective to me (ART seems to work the best for me, thanks to James McIntyre in Calary for the original rehab). I primarily trained Crossfit at Athletic Evolution in Canmore, thanks to Brad for the motivation. Athletic Evolution isn't a CF affiliate, but they had the bars and bumper plates, it's a damn good traditional gym. Ya gott love a place where the owner gets psyched to blast the WOD with you.

In early September we did the first descent of the Atnarko, a tough river that flows from Charlotte Lake down toward Bella Coola. It was a real bitch of a run, four days instead of the planned two, and a lot of very difficult boat wrestling around log jams, etc. etc. Magical place, great trip! I felt a lot stronger even after only a couple of months of Crossfit--I think that at my advanced age (42) I had a host of weaknesses in my body's basic function (jumping, squats, presses, etc. etc). Crossfit put the light on those weaknesses, and helped correct them. CF isn't perfect, but it's damn effective for general physical fitness. I have no affiliation with CF.

In mid-September I fully committed to the 24-hour ice climbing idea. My elbow wasn't perfect, but it was holding up with regular maintenance and careful use. I wasn't sure it would hold up for 24 hours, but if you don't commit you don't find out.

Kayaking and ice climbing share a surprising amount of movements; hanging onto a paddle isn't wildly different than hanging onto a modern leashless ice tool, and repeatedly pulling and pushing on the paddle is a lot like doing the same with ice tools. Crossfit was taking care of my legs and the rest of my body, as was all the hiking I was also doing. Although I didn't know it at the time, I think those long river paddling sessions built a huge endurance base in my upper body and even mind.

From mid-Septmber to mid October I just did Crossfit, but added some specific climbing exericses (flicking tools overhead, subbing one-arm pulldowns for pullups, a few other additions) that fit into my Crossfit warmups. I also did a lot of hiking up hills and wrestling a two-year old at night to work on my sleep deprivation. Seriously.

In late-October we were having real problems with ice here in the Rockies; normally there's lots, but it just wasn't happening. I further tuned my Crossfit workouts to reflect the sort of workload I thought I might experience climbing for 24 hours. One-arm lat pulldowns on a rope (my elbow was doing well enough to handle this load) in sets of 50 (that sure is fun...), lots more air squats. The basic move of ice climbing is a staggered hands low-weight pull-up with the balance of your weight in a basic air squat. Feet at the same level (this is the most common mistake in ice climbing--your feet should always be at very close to the same level), hike feet up with straight arms, push up with legs, place high tool, repeat to the top. Feet always at the same level, tools never at the same level, twice as many foot placements at least as tool placements...

In early November I got out on the ice a little, but there just wasn't that much that was in that was steep enough for good training. I hit what there was (Nemesis, etc. etc.), but doing a three-pitch route just does not offer the required volume of movement, nor does it take enough time (with modern tools and gear Nemesis can be done pack to pack in under two hours, with only about 30 minutes of actual climbing--the hiking likely provides more training, as does climbing mixed routes in the area). I moved farther away from Crossfit and more toward developing the specific strength of vertical or near-vertical ice climbing (hanging onto my tools for long periods in my garage, calf raises, etc). I then built the Plice (http://gravsports.blogspot.com/2009/11/its-come-to-this-plice.html), which was great, and did more specific workouts in Texas during US thanksgiving. I was also doing some very long days out in the woods hunting for ice and generally beating around. Lots and lots of early starts, late nights, long walks.

By the last few days of November I was finally able to run laps in Haffner and Marble Canyon. Initially 1,000M (3,000 feet) was all we were hitting. Temperatures were really, really cold, so we were doing 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off. This meant basically sprinting on top rope for 20 minutes, climbing anywhere from 300 to 700 feet as we got better at climbing fast for 20 minutes. Without Brad, EJ, Gordon, Scott, Ian, Keith and everyone else who sessioned the Endless Ascent would never have happened! Having good training partners is truly essential to success.

I tried for a basic day on/day off schedule as my body allowed or felt good about, and got a solid 12 ice sessions in by Dec 31 plus a lot more on the Plice. The Crossfit and Plice were savagely effective; I wasn't getting sore on the ice at all, even as we bumped the days toward 6,000 feet of climbing. The 20 on/20 off was fair to my partner and me; if I were going well I could pump out 6 and sometimes 7 laps before the alarm on my phone went off... I would be thrashed after each of these sessions, truly sick of climbing, cold, and just done. This was not a comforting realization when contemplating climbing for 24 hours. I was also worried that the 20 on/20 off format would not be effective for long-duration climbing. But you simply can't climb slowly enough on vertical ice to make it "easy aerobic," your arms and calves pump out. You need to climb, rest, repeat. In retrospect I worried way too much about the lack of long-duration low-intensity climbing-specific movement, doing 20 on/20 off was excellent. Or maybe it was the long kayaking days in the summer that provided the base? Hmmm...

I learned a lot about ice climbing fast and efficiently through all of these thousands and thousands of feet. When you're doing huge volumes of ice little differences in movement patterns add up quickly. I developed huge calluses on my little fingers from hanging onto the Cobras and new Fusions. I learned so much about dynamic movement on ice, momentum, and a subtle hip push very similar to the finish of a good squat that, when combined, really helped a tremendous amount. I've now been ice climbing for over 25 years off and on, and perhaps the most important thing I've learned is that being a good ice climber is all about mileage on ice. This training program took my mileage and understanding of movement on ice to a whole new level for sure. I was never bored while running laps believe it or not, it was always a game to climb better and better, and figure out what that meant. I know my heart rates pretty well from years of wearing a monitor, the spikes were violent.

On January 1st I did some easy solo laps then some TR laps in Ouray, followed by bigger sessions on roughly January 3, 5 and 6th. I rested on the 7th and 8th except for teaching a clinic (thanks for the fun to all who came!) and a bit of media posing. On January 9th I went into the hole and had at it. I figured I'd done more than 150,000 feet of ice and Plice plus all the off-season training, long kayaking days and Crossfit.

On January 10th at noon we all (THANKS!) finished. 194 Laps, 13 or 14 in the last hour thanks to a "bonus" offer for the dZi foundation. I kept moving for an average of at least 50 minutes an hour for the entire 24 hours. My longest break came when I attended Guy Lacelle's memorial.

I know I could have trained better, but I think my biggest mistakes came during the actual climb, not in training for it. This was a complete stab in the dark, a total shot into the unknown for me, and broadly I was able to hit my goal and keep climbing. So, in short, the physical training worked. It wasn't easy, and more on that later, but my body did its job far better than I thought it would. I wanted to climb about 11,500 feet, and by a conservative estimate did at least 25,000. I was amazed at what my body could do, I genuinely never thought that possible. And my arms are still smaller than my wife's for Christ's sake!

My mental training consisted primarily of visualizing horrid situations, and how I would deal with them. If I broke my ankle and could still hop I visualized how I would do my best to keep climbing. I practiced climbing with one tool in case I hurt a hand or arm, and with my elbow locked in case my tendonitis got so bad I couldn't bend my arm. I hopped some pitches on one foot to simulate climbing with a minor or serious broken lower leg. My one over-riding mental image was that, unless I was unconscious or totally unable to function in the opinion of those around me, I would keep climbing no matter what. I spent so much time visualizing moving in extreme pain, with bad stomach cramps, with injuries, and wanting to quit but punching through anyhow that during the actual climb I always felt sort of OK. Yeah, I puked, yeah, I wasn't all there mentally and it sucked at times, but I had put so much mental prep into deciding that no matter what happened I was going to keep moving that I never seriously doubted I could keep going for one more lap, and those laps added up. Plus I could never have looked any of the great people who were helping out, cheering, heckling or just being there in the eye and quit. No way.

I often thought that it would be very pleasant to stop and stop hurting, to get some sleep, to slow down, but my mental state was always based around the basic premise that unless I was seriously injured or completely out of it that I was going to keep climbing. So I did, that was my standard.

I always put a tremendous amount of negative thinking into my gear, nutrition/hydration, clothing, etc. etc. I'm going to write about what I used for all of that in future pieces, but I solved a lot of potential problems by running really negative scenarios and then solving the wild problems my mind could come up with. In my shows I talk about the "Positive Power of Negative Thinking," and I really believe in doing just that. Yeah, think positive, but only after a tremendous amount of critical and detailed preparation. Negative thought and planning yields positive outcomes in critical situations.

I have some designs on other 24-hour stuff unrelated to roped climbing, and writing this stuff down now may help me in planning that. More to come, this is one epic blog post!

Stretching: It's all changing again.

I'm supposed to be writing about the Endless Ascent, and will get back to that, but I keep getting off on tangents. One thing I'm very interested in is stretching, and how to stretch effectively. Many of the same questions that plague/make "fitness" interesting are also in the mix for "stretching" and flexibility.

What is our goal with our stretching? Do we want to be more "flexible?" Have a better range of useful motion (meaning the athlete can move his or her body through the range, not just sag with gravity as is commonly done)? Prevent injury? Be able to do the splits like Jean Claude Van Damm (Bloodsport: if you haven't seen it and are an athlete you have to watch this movie, Van Damm was rad back in the day!). What does it mean to be adequately flexible? These are all good questions that I don't think I've asked myself enough.

I alway start with my personal experience when evaluating any protocol. I've done static stretching (hold a position for some time between five seconds and minutes), yoga (interesting), and some dynamic stretching.

My personal results can be summed up like this: Dynamic stretching seems to result in increased useful range of motion. Very long (two or more minutes) static stretches seem to result in increased range of motion, but not as clearly ROM that I can control. My current version of speed yoga seems to result in feeling better and more conscious of my body, but without huge increases in ROM. I hurt myself too quickly in ashtanga Yoga classes to judge how well that worked, but it was fun playing until I got hurt repeatedly. Bikram didn't put me in a position where I injured myself, but I don't have regular access to Bikram.

We were all told not to "Bounce" (dynamic stretch), that long static stretches were the way to warm up and be stronger come game time, and that static stretching reduces injures. Just in: All of this is likely bullshit. More on this here.

The most flexible people I watch, at least in terms of ROM that I'd like to have, are dancers (ballet, break and modern), gymnasts and various martial artists. All do a lot of dynamic stretching (and also have a lot of injuries, but I suspect those injuries have more to do with massive over-use than stretching). Yoga people are often flexible and some are very strong (doing L-sit to handstand or various plange maneuvers), but often as a group that I've seen relatively weak at holding a limb up or in a stressed position. Not all, and all you Yogis are going to get your matts in a bunch, but compare Bruce Lee to any sort of Yoga type--who would you want to be? I thought so, but peace, let's do a few sun salutations, I'm into to it too.

After watching a lot of climbers, kayakers, and other athletes I'm starting to think that "flexibility" (ROM in a non-muscle activated position) has little to do with either one's skill at most mountain sports or direct injury avoidance if done shortly before the game/event. I'm starting to think that training useful range of motion dynamically may be the way forward based on the two articles above and a bunch more research I've done. And this is a huge departure from how I've been looking at stretching over the years...

What this means for me personally is that I've got to learn some new information on stretching, really think about it, and modify my habits to be more effective. I am holding my range of motion as I age, but it's sure not increasing. I also think some of my injures of late (adductor groin pull, leg flexor pull) have been due to poor range of motion, and muscle imbalances brought on by weight/gym training to fix muscle imbalances...

The more I train and act on goals the more I learn about what doesn't work, but the more I also learn to trust what I see works, and what I see the best athletes in a given sport doing to succeed. I know of no better principle than "Specific Adaption to Imposed Demand." Even for stretching.... Makes sense: if you want to increase the range of motion in movement then do the movement to the point where it stops, repeat. Interesting idea, it just goes against 20+ years of training. I love it when I think I understand something and then it changes. This is the moment when faith gives way to searching for a deeper understanding of a problem. I've got a problem with stretching, time to figure out how to do better.

Mountain Movement

In the last 25 years I've spent a lot of time formally and informally teaching climbing, kayaking, paragliding and a few other sports. I've taught some very diverse groups, ranging from the very unfit to the uber-fit. I also do some sports performance coaching, and enjoy the hell out of that. I really love seeing and helping people with both the mental and physical gymnastics of sports on a competitive or recreational level.

Out of all this I've come to realize that fast and safe non-technical movement in the mountains is not all that basic, nor instinctive for most people. Relatively few people can move well across a chossy hillside, over talus, across a rounded and slippery river bed, or feel secure on a short step of higher-angle loose terrain. But the acquisition of these skills can be sped up immensely with a little coaching. I'm now working (slowly) on a book about mountain movement that covers pretty much everything from running talus to staying warm in winter. I want to test some of my theories and ideas this spring, and this is where you may come in...

Want to spend five days in the Canadian Rockies in early July having a lot of fun, falling down, getting wet, suffering and generally being outside a lot? I'm going to run a five-day mountain movement course, open to anyone but aimed mostly at the relatively new outdoor sports enthusiast. No more than five people, five days, either bare-bones or you arrive at the Calgary Airport and stop thinking about anything but movement. I'm working up a syllabus based on my book right now, drop me an email and I'll send it out if you're interested.

Also, if you have good tricks for helping people move in the mountains (non-technical movement) I'd love to hear them, thanks!

Endless Analysis #1: The Damage Done

It's Thursday, and I'm feeling halfway decent after the Endless Ascent. Over the next week or two I'm going to go through a few different categories of experience I had during the recent 24-hour climb for the dZi foundation: Damage, Math, Nutrition, Training, Gear, and other stuff as I think it through. The whole experience was one of the best of my life, and one of the worst (funny how the two ends of the experience spectrum are so close sometimes...). I can't stop thinking about it! Again, a huge thanks to everyone one who helped out, from the people on the bridge at single-digit hours in the morning to belayers to friends to the dZi, thanks! James Biessel photo to left, thanks!

Anyhow, here's a list of the damage done:

Lungs/Nose

I keep having bad nosebleeds, and my lungs are still sore. After about 12 hours of climbing I started nose-breathing a lot, a trick I learned from Kim years ago. Breathing only through your nose is a way to stay roughly below your anaerobic threshold, and it moisturizes the air going into your lungs a lot more. I did this from about hour 16 on because I was already coughing some; I've noticed this problem before when going really hard in the winter for more an hour or two, but it was worse in Ouray than I've ever experienced, likely due to the huge load and time span I was asking out of my body. So I started nose-breathing, which worked great, but the high-altitude cold air really thrashed my nose and lungs instead of just my lungs... I think that although the relative humidity in Ouray is probably pretty close to the relative humidity in Canmore the actual quantity of moisture molecules available is likely lower due to less oxygen etc. to hold moisture in the air... Someone with better science than me feel free to step in, but the end result is that my nose and lungs are seriously thrashed. Both are improving, but still a little annoying. Interestingly, I found this on the New York Time site today.

Feet

No blisters! I climbed for about the first 16 or 18 hours in my Scarpa Phantom Lite boots. I've used these boots a lot, they are super warm and comfortable for me. But the soles of my feet started to hurt a lot after about 14 hours. I'm mostly blaming my sock selection; I normally wear these reasonably thick socks, but for some reason I wore a little thinner and lower quality socks, which compressed out more. I switched them out after 16 hours and put on the fruit boots and new socks. After the event I couldn't walk in my bare feet on hard floors, it was just too painful. Still hurts, but not too bad.

Fingernail

Yeah, I'm gonna lose a fingernail. It makes typing painful. Whine, whine, but it's funny how much much one fingernail can hurt! I don't remember what I did to cause the blister disaster that's seeping out from under the nail but there it is.

Hand blisters

I have never, ever heard of anyone getting blisters on their hands ice climbing. I switched gloves something like nine times in 24 hours, maybe more, but I've got blisters from ice climbing. I never would have believed it possible.

Harness rash

Not too bad, but tight pants are out for a bit. I think I did most of the damage in the last hour, when I wasn't taking the time to adjust my clothing properly. That's really important! I have had worse rash aid climbing for a few hours really.

Calves

Bloated, painful and hard like rocks for two days after the climb. OK now, but I'm not going to be doing calf raises or climbing ice for a few more days. Nope.

Sore hands

Back in the day when I was sport climbing a lot I had a sure-fire system to figure out how messed up my hands were: if I couldn't close the pads on my tips to the joints on my palms I was over-trained. I still can't do this. Creaky tendons, no "injury" pain, but seriously worked.

Right Knee

I was asking for a pretty quick lower when possible, and boy was I getting it! Amazingly, 194 laps I only had one "bad" drop moment, and I banged my knee pretty good during that moment. It's OK, but I feel it walking around for sure.

Neck

I think I looked up for tool placements and down for foot placements so many times that I just wore my rubberneck out. Better, but I had about the range of motion of a lineman for a few days.

Weird eyeball ding

During a training session a guy unintentionally knocked a small piece of ice down, and I looked up just as it hit on the white part of my eye. That's still hurting, but getting better.

Dehydration: I drank at least 18 liters of water during the event and four more after, but I wasn't even close to hydrated until 24 hours after the event... More on this in the nutrition section, I think I blew the hydration thing a bit.

General

Sore pretty much everywhere! I waddled through DIA on the way home on Monday, but I always feel like this after pushing too hard.

But I'm definitely "OK" overall, which surprises me. I have had some chronic problems with my elbows over the years for sure, and I was icing every night for months before this event. I was mentally completely prepared to tape my elbow at 90 degrees and keep climbing, or do anything it took to keep moving. In fact, while training I repeatedly thought about how I was going to keep moving on one foot, with one arm, whatever I had to do. When I could just keep climbing with no deep chronic pain or shooting new pain I was really psyched! More on training in a later piece, but it worked well enough to keep me moving, and I don't think I did any lasting damage to my body on this effort, or at least nothing new.

I hit the gym last night for a light workout (ten minutes rowing then 30 of yoga stretching, followed by five rounds of thrusters, pullups and situps, a combo I like), and then a slow skin up a local ski hill this morning before taking a few runs. So I'm OK.

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web10w/wfeature-gadd-endless-ascent-ouray

PS on the Math--My personal belief is that Pic of the Vic, the route I was on, is at least 40M high as Vince Anderson's excellent guidebook suggests and my personal experience backs up (you couldn't TR it with a single 70, the rope is well past 1/2 when lowering in on a 70M). Others think it's 45M or maybe a bit more. Me, I'm going with the lower number of 40M until someone actually measures it. It's better to err on the low side than the high side in this sort of thing I think.

Endless Ascent Ends

I'm back home, sitting at a desk and trying to type with (seriously) blisters on my hands and a fingernail on my right hand that protests every time I use it to hit a key... Who gets blisters on their hands ice climbing? I've never heard of it before, and would not have thought it possible...

But the 24-hour push is done. Over the next few days I'm going to write more about different portions of the climb, from the nutrition successes and failures to the physical damage to the training and so on. There's just too much to put into one post, and I had a lot of time to think about things while doing the climb...

The main thing I'm feeling this morning is that I was incredibly lucky to be involved with such a fantastic group of people. Twenty three belayers, three "team managers," the dZi, the hundreds of people who showed up in small or large groups to cheer and keep me moving, so much incredibly positive energy from so many people. Today there is just no room for anything but an incredible sense of appreciation for everyone who was even in the smallest way involved with the Endless Ascent. What I'm going to remember most about the whole experience is not how much ice I climbed (I'm actually not at all sure about that number, lots of different route height guesses, comedy), how much it all hurt, but how lucky I am to be part of the community of people who came together for the dZi and the climb. It was a swirling mix of enthusiasm, support, shared love for the Ouray Ice Park, and excitement. I am deeply humbled and thankful for the experience, it will effect me for the rest of my life.

Here's a fun video clip from the Endless Ascent, thanks Yuieno!! And some nice pictures...

More later, my finger has had it with typing and it's time for another liter of water and another nap. Thanks, thanks, and THANKS!

No More Training

In two and a half hours I'm going over the edge of the canyon at the Ouray Ice Park. In the 24 hours after that I'm going to climb out as many times as I can, belayed by 24 great people, helped by dozens more, and motivated by all of you who have made a donation to the dZi foundation, sent encouraging words, and just plain old been enthusiastic. Thanks!

We think we've sorted a live web cam on the https://www.endlessascent.org/ site so you can follow along with the battle. There's a functioning donation button there even if you're Canadian (postal codes threw it for a loop initially).

I just finished a huge breakfast after an early breakfast. Calories in, effort out. Here we go!!

Better...

The Ice Park emptied out yesterday--I always see the park in the midst of the ice festival, when hundreds of climbers attack the hundreds of routes (Hundred? There sure are a lot!). But by about 2:00 yesterday things were slowing down, and Jason N. and I got in there for some speed laps. 20 minutes on, 20 off, giving it! Three sets of that, then I did a solo session into the dark for a bit to up the distance. I bought a new ascender thing from Ouray Mountain Sports which made the whole process much smoother. Did about 30 laps again, but the difference in how I felt from the last session was huge.

For starters, don't dry your socks with fabric softener--this makes them incredibly slippery in your boots, which sucks when standing on frontpoints... Figuring out why my heels were lifting so much and why my calfs were cramping so bad in the last session was positive, way better to figure that out now than during the climb! I was also low on calories last session I think, but a huge burger the night before along with some other food plus a concerted effort to get a whack of calories down my throat during the day. In the last week I've been sick, traveling, eating irregularly, it just hasn't been that good. But it doesn't take all that long to put the pieces back together if given some time and quality food (I don't normally eat hamburgers, but the burger at Drake's in Ridgway is the absolute best thing I've eaten in months, insane!). I'm also already much better adapted to the altitude--you wouldn't think going to 8,5000 feet from 4,500 would make that big a difference, but it does when you're going hard. Plus seeing more friends and just getting the mojo going is worth a lot, the energy is building.

I'm training today and Wednesday and then I'm done with that, it's game time on Saturday at high noon.