Booty

Booty, and not the junk in the trunk kind.

I spent a lot of my early climbing years on a continual quest for "booty" of all kinds (both the climbing and not climbing kind, but focusing on the climbing here). Most of my early racks were made up of carabiners, nuts, cams and other stuff that I'd found or worked for up to a day to extract. I learned from two master booty retrievers (Fitz and Dave)--Fitz in particular had mad skills including special little socket wrenches and shims for popping stuck cams out. To this day I get a thrill out of extracting some perma-fixed piece off a crack, even though I likely already have ten of the exact same sized piece in various stages of rusting decay. It's just the idea of getting something for free...

This all came to mind as I read this post on Supertopo from Tradmanclimbs:

When I first started climbing back in the early eightys I was taught the booty game. It was supposed to be fun and honorable. the rules went something like this. 

#1 Any gear that you lose due to incompetence, getting spanked, fear, lack of skill , retrete, etc. becomes booty the moment that you give up attempts to recover said gear. The exception would be if you let it be known that were returning the next day at first light to resume recovery attempt. Once you give up on recovery attempts it is in fact BOOTY;) 

#2 Gear left in the parking lot is lost and found, NOT booty. 

3# Any gear left in the process of a rescue is NOT booty and shall be returned to the rightfull owners or next of kin. 

#4 Finders of booty may offer to return booty to the spanked party but you will lose face if you accept the offer. 

#5 it is extremly poor form to ask for lost booty to be returned to you. If the finders offer and you refuse the offer and they offer again then you may acept the return of the booty but you will still lose face and owe them a debt of honor. This debt may be eased but not completly erased by a gift of beer. (You and they will know that you are their bitch) It is best to suck it up and just say, hey, thanks for offering but you guys earned it. 

The booty game is supposed to be fun and a way for strong poor climbers to build their rack at the expense of rich weak climbers. As soon as someone gets hurt it is not fun anymore so everyone should pitch in, help out and try to get everyones gear back at the end of the day. 

The best form is to solo up to snag the booty gear or lead up but rapping in is acceptable provideing that all recovery attemts by the loseing party have been exausted. 

I am sure that its different by region but that is how we felt about booty in the north east. 

Supertopo is full of self-righteous posing by has-beens, wanna-bees, desk jockeys and poseurs (I include myself in all of that), but occasionally a good gem such as the above sneaks through the usual commentary on republicans, guns, abortion, religion or the ever-popular 1,000-post bolting discussion. Worth checking out. Thanks to whomever tradmanclimbs is for that post, yes. I still keep a map in my head of where to retrieve some kind booty...

Wheels: Best Invention EVER!

In the last 72 hours I've had a lot of fun with wheels. More fun with wheels than I ever thought possible...

First off, I was just out in Vancouver to do a show for the Arc'teryx sales meeting. The show went well enough considering it was four p.m. on an absolutely stellar day and I was the only thing standing between the reps and freedom! Great to catch up with some old friends too. Anyhow, immediately after the show a plan developed to go do a classic North Shore mountain bike ride. One of those take the car to the top and rip it down rides Vancouver is famous for (I think it was called CBC or something for those who know the area). Arc. had located some hefty but not insanely huge mountain bikes for the outing, and soon we were off. Or not--it turned into a cluster for a couple of hours until the more HDD types eventually lost it and we went blasting off into the woods.

I've been a recreational mountain biker for a lot of my life, and sorta thought I knew how to ride. I can bunny hop curbs, and have the scars to prove that I've spent time on the trails. But I've never ridden a full-suspension bike with six inches of travel or more front and rear, big tires, full-face helmet, etc. And I've never even seen a trail like the one in the Vancouver woods, much less ridden anything so totally insanely fun. It was like a legion of gnomes had spent entire lifetimes in the woods building with rocks, trees, and magic. It was a sort of giant Gerbil maze (remember those things?) for humans, all put together with the same painstaking care that I've seen in centuries-old German cobblestone roads. The quantity of work is just truly incredible. Put a big, full-suspension bike on that kind of terrain and it's just mind-blowing what you can ride down. I was giggling within 50 feet, laughing within 100 and screaming like a mental patient  in the throes of a full-fledged hysterical fit within five minutes. And it only got better.

A lot of the fun is in the trail's construction--there aren't all that many surprise obstacles to take you out, unlike on more natural trails. The trail is built to be ridden--you have to fall to fail. But the trail is also hard; skinny logs a meter or more above the ground that you have to link up to other logs, all kinds of little ladder systems in the air, just so much fun! It took every thing I knew about riding to keep moving, and I had to unlearn a lot too--the downhill bikes are really laid back, so you can ride much steeper stuff without going over the bars. I kept hitting the brakes and looking down some drop that I probably couldn't walk up, and then just rolling off... It was full-on, a lot of  "I'm gonna die!!!" moments every few seconds, stellar. And that was before we came to the jumps.

I used to really like jumping my BMX bike, but mountain bikes weren't tough enough to really huck on so I gave up on that program 25 years ago. Sure, little hops, but not straight off six-foot drops--that would break the bike and me for sure--I've broken enough rims to know that... Then I saw our fearless leader huck it, and it was game on. I haven't had so much fun in years. I've never ridden off anything higher than a couple of feet; six feet looked like a pitch of climbing to me, then you huck it and it's just so nice. I just found a brand new drug...

The only problem is now I need a new bike! And I'm maybe going to have to move to Vancouver. A sunny day there is truly fantastic, a work of art. If the weather were just a little better in winter I'd move there, but I can't handle the swamp aspect of things in winter. But the biking sure is good, maybe...

Also hit the Grouse Grind with some free time, and a quick bouldering session too. I'm pretty sure you could ride down most of the Grind is all I've got to say--my mind sure has been expanded.

Hit the Red Bull X-Fighters on Saturday night in Calgary. This is freestyle motocross competition, meaning Red Bull built a bunch of insane jumps in the bottom of a big stadium and invited the best freestyle motorcycle guys in  the world to come session.  Whoever does the raddest stuff in a minute and a half or so wins. I've seen a lot of rad stuff over the years--BASE hucking, kayaking, surfing, climbing, but nothing comes close to what these nut cases can do on a motorcycle. There's a ton of video out there of the X Fighters, check it out. I'm really glad I didn't find out about this sport when I was younger, I would have been right into it. Yeah, moto X isn't the cleanest sport environmentally, but damn is it cool to see someone hanging by their knees from their handlebars 50 feet above the ground while a stadium full of people goes off. A friend said moto X is the most accessible action sport going to the general public, and I agree. Climbing 5.10 or 5.14 all kinda looks the same to the public, but a backflip 50 feet in the air without hanging onto the handlebars? Yeah, that's harder than a straight jump... 

So here's to wheels: Best invention ever!

New Web Site

It's still a work in progress a little bit, but thanks to all the offers of help after my whining post about web design I ended up with some help: www.willgadd.com is now live again. You can actually order DVDs, books, email me, it all works. And one guy did it... A few people thought I was bitching about them personally in regards to other sites I'm working on; I wasn't, the problem was with willgadd.com. Problem fixed. Thanks.

Machavok Creative did the work, we're trading some coaching and party favors to get it done. The coaching side of things is taking off these days. I think a lot of people know what to do, they just need some structure to help do it. I provide that structure and some insights from decades of doing a few sports at a decently high level. I really enjoy the process of helping people climb, fly or just move better in the mountains. I'm always thinking about this stuff myself, it's great to start sharing words and ideas with other people and make good progress together. I've been building "assignments" and analysis modules in the evenings, plus putting together a collection of various writings on physical and mental performance. There might be a new book in there...

The lousy spring has been great for getting office work done; now it's time to start going harder outside, at least as soon as the latest snow melts. Yesterday we had snow, but it was unlike any other snow I've ever seen. There were flakes the size of Pringles potato chips falling out of the sky like little parachutes. Amazing to think of all the vertical cycles those snowflakes must have gone through in the sky to build to that size. I had to go outside and have a direct look at the snowflakes; it wasn't easy to figure out their structure due to how warm it was, but I think they were accumulations of many snowflakes, more clumps than flakes. Anyhow, it was gorgeous as it came down even if I am cursing the very idea of snow at this point.

Web, GPS, Weather.

First off, thanks to the many people who emailed to offer their help with my web site. I had no idea I had actual talent reading these rantings, thanks! I've got a solution thanks to you.

I seem to be becoming a sort of technology nerd. I've always liked little black boxes that do cool stuff. Paraglider pilots are the biggest tech nerds on the planet with any claim to also be athletes. They use GPS tech, flight computers, the web, etc., and most seem to spend more time geeking out than actually flying. But I've noticed aerobic athletes are getting into that GPS use, along with guides, geocachers, even climbers. GPS units produce waypoints and tracks; those tracks are useful for everything from scoring paragliding competitions to building waypoint files (nice to have when you're lost inside the ping-pong ball on a ski traverse or descent). I'm working on a project involving popular hikes/scrambles and GPS tracks at the moment, more on that in a month or two, but check this site out, kind of a cool multi-sport track thing. Lots of stuff like this out there now based on both stand-alone GPS units and mobile  phones with GPS units in 'em... The Spot is becoming more popular too, and it's useful because it doesn't rely on a cell signal to call for emergency help. Many older outdoor types are leery of new tech, but if there's one theme I can see in the outdoor world that's changing it very rapidly it's satellite-based technology...

About ten years ago I did a trip into a remote area where one of our group went down hard with an unknown ailment. Luckily he lived, but that was the last big trip I did without a satellite phone--I don't want to ignore technology that could save someone's life, even if that means a less independent trip. I firmly believe in self-rescue, but not to the point where I'll stake a friend's life on that style of outdoor fun. I have mixed feelings about having communications in remote areas; obviously it's a resource that can be abused, but it can also save my life. I now have my own sat phone and also rent it out to friends (people who aren't gear idiots). I'm not sure where all this tech is going, but I am sure that it's going to change our outdoor experience both positively and negatively. I think it can be mainly positive if we embrace it and use it, or mainly negative if we fight it and don't learn to use it well.

Spring is now finally starting, after one of the worst Aprils I can remember here in the Rockies. I had a good ride yesterday with a friend, even though we were pushing through up to two feet of snow on a ride I've done snow-free in March almost every year I've lived here in Canmore. The rock on Saturday was warm even in the shade though, so it's time to get chalky, sweaty, sunburned, and all the other fun stuff that goes with warm temperatures. I am so glad for that!!

Happy Spring. I mean it this time.

Odds and Ends

First off, some poetry. I'm normally not a big poetry fan, but have a listen to this. I think it's pretty good writing about living a risky life. If that link doesn't highlight Nanci Lee's poem then scroll down to listen to her Icarus poem. Yeah Icarus! I heard Nanci Lee perform it on satellite radio while driving back from Jasper, it actually got me fired up to listen to it again. I haven't listened to any of the other poems on that page, one good success with poetry is a good day for me.

Here in the Rockies spring showed promise, then utterly failed to get the sprung part done. In fact, I think it's still frozen in place. If I were a poet looking for an image of spring I might say that spring this year is a returning robin who died when the water in the bird bath froze fast around his legs while he drank. Good thing I'm not a poet, but spring is ugly in the Rockies this year.

I'm stuck between seasons right now, and not liking it. I love training, but it's unclear what to train for at the moment--there is a civil war going on for my summer plan. Climbing, flying, kayaking, the factions are armed and fighting fiercely for their agendas. There's a river up north, an ocean to fly over, a mountain range to climb. I'd like to do all three trips, but each idea is a battle that will will be won after some mental blood is spilled. The crux of trip planning is not how much of what goes where but developing the "why" of the trip, the seed of an idea that grows into something so big and cool that it sweeps you along in its wake. I've always done trips that I basically thought would be cool to do, and then planned the logistics from there. Maybe that's just a short local ski tour, or a longer trip to a foreign country, but the idea is always, "Wouldn't it be fun to..." Spring normally sets some of those plans in motion, but the ice climbing is still better than the rock climbing, and the rivers have more ice than water in 'em.

I've had some fun getting the "hype", also known as PR, part of my life re-sorted. Th new demo reel is finally done, and after a long battle a new website (after dealing with several "designers" I got annoyed and put up something basic at www.willgadd.com, I'll refine that more but good enough for now). If anyone knows a web person who doesn't need to work with a designer, a coder, some proprietary BS software, a gaggle of elves and a blank checkbook to produce a solid site please drop me a private email, but I'm bitter on the subject at the moment and my interview process with any "web designer" will be confrontational and likely short. I did my first web sites back in the early nineties, on Frontpage. "Professionals" absolutely hated that program, maybe because it did as good a job as they could at the time, but it worked. Apple's latest offering, iWeb, is several years behind where Frontpage was in about, oh, '98. I used a pirated version of Dreamweaver for Gravsports.com, and rely on a friend I work with to do gravsports-ice.com. I've decided pirating software is lame, so I spent four hours yesterday downloading Rapidweaver, Komposer and several others with the hope that they would work half as well as Dreamweaver. I fired each program, they all suck compared to Frontpage '97... Anyhow, I'm getting well off topic. I used iWeb for willgadd.com, it does work but is a typical Apple consumer product in that it only wants to do what it wants to do, not what I want it to do. I like Apple's "pro" products (Keynote, Final Cut Studio, Aperture) but iLife drives me nuts, I know iWeb is headed to the same garbage can as iPhoto, Garbage Band and the rest of the junk in iLife.

Anyhow, it's time to go hike up a big hill as fast as I can, that usually improves my attitude and fitness level. I hope spring has sprung where you are, 'cause it's late to the party here.

Ice Climbing on Discovery

My friends Scott Simper, EJ Plimley, and I shot some video when we climbed Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir provincial park. Discovery's Daily Planet decided to do a six-minute piece with the footage. I selected some footage and sent it over, they cut a really nice six-minute piece--click here to check it out!

Doing climbing shows for television can be a risky business; there are a few small liberties taken with the footage and climbing, but overall I'm really happy with it as I think it shows the experience we had accurately--fun, a little dangerous, and in an amazing place with good people! Thanks to the crew at Discovery for doing a good job with a subject I really care about it.

WG

Shane McConkey, Focus.

My friend Shane recently hucked and it didn't work out. I've had a real down week thinking about his death and so many others over the years. I smile when I think about Shane (I don't think anyone who ever hung out with him for more than 20 minutes doesn't smile when thinking about Shane), but the aftermath for his family must be rough. Shane wasn't a super-tight friend, but we did some cool stuff together over the years through Red Bull, and had some ideas for trips in the future. I'm damn sorry it didn't work out for him, not because he died, we all die, but yet again for his family (wife and young kid). 

I had some talks with him about BASE jumping a few years back, and he was around the Twin Falls bridge scene for a bit when I was there and starting to dabble with BASE. He felt quite confident in the parachute, and I eventually came to share his view. The technology is pretty good now, likely far better in terms of consistent functioning than the human cargo under the parachute. I quit BASE jumping simply because I didn't think I could devote enough time at it to have a decent skill level, and because I know myself well enough to know that I fuck up regularly. I can often get away with a little error or two while climbing, kayaking or even flying my glider, but I make too many errors to be a good BASE hucker. With training I could probably develop the right skill set mentally, but I don't have time for that training. I reluctantly walked away from the edge of BASE despite Shane's opinion that it could be done relatively safely. I agree with him that it can be done with relatively safely with good risk management, but not for me. I hear his words today even though he's gone. He'll be missed, he was a good man. He used to always give me shit for tucking my t-shirt in; I'm gonna wear it tucked in a lot more in photos just 'cause he would have seen the photo and sent me a heckling email...

The way I often deal with the loss of somebody is to work on something around the house. I have the Chris Muller Memorial bark garden out front, the Karen McNeill back yard among other projects, and now the Shane McConkey coat rack. It's gonna be sweet, two rows of nice varnished VG fir with some stylie Lee Valley hooks. Hey Shane, you got a coat rack as a memorial, ha ha! Maybe I'll put something like, "World's Greatest Skier," or was it, "Greatest Skier in the World" on it? Shane loved sending himself up, might as well continue the tradition. Now I gotta go varnish it a bit more, might as well make it look good. Shane always made it look good... Unfortunately I didn't quite sand it perfectly, just like I wouldn't have quite got that pack job right every single time. Unless you're Shane you've gotta know your limitations, to mis-quote Clint Eastwood. Shane just never let something like limitations get in the way of a fun day, and that was cool. 

The Seasons are a'changing....

My friend dD has this theory that we "push" the seasons. In the fall, while it's still OK for rock climbing, we're itching for ice. We trash our ski bases on junk snow, then don't take advantage of the season's best conditions in late March and April 'cause we want warm rock... It's like we need to re-calibrate our seasonal aspirations about a month later, so we get the most out of each season. But no, we're not like that, and I'm out lusting after warm rock even though the ice hasn't melted out. I had hopes to get one more big ice rig done this season, but it has by all reports melted out, and, ah, I wanna go rock climbing... And fly my glider, and paddle my boat. In short, I'm fully over winter. OK, maybe a few ski turns on a warm spring morning when the corn is perfect, but I do not want to feel the claws of winter again. That said, this is Canada, and it can snow in August and probably will.

Happy Spring!!

Showing up, getting up.

The last blog article prompted some really good words from people, thanks for that. I started writing this in response to those comments, it grew into what follows...

I will NEVER look down on anyone in the gym or who is just breathing hard because anyone who has simply shown up and truly tried has done a great thing. All of us are athletes when we're moving, the relative level of that athleticism is far less important than the act of moving. I have been very unfit, injured, depressed, stressed-out or just plain non-functional an annoying amount of my life. I've also been so psyched and motivated that nothing else but the session mattered. But no matter where you are mentally or physically just showing up in the gym or simply breathing hard is a statement of hope, an expression of, "I'm gonna fucking try." And that's cool. Most of the "developed" world is devolving into couch ornaments, so anyone who just shows up to breathe hard is truly a hero in my book.

In the gym I train at most regularly there's an older lady who comes occasionally. She moves slowly, stiffly, but she's my hero because she moves, and because she's in there. I sometimes think of her when I'm a bit stiff or tired, and I know she would still go, so I do too. There's a great group of young kids who train so hard that I often train at the same time just to watch them and try and to keep up with their energy. There's an older guy (well, not much older than me!) who has taken low-income living to an art form; he's too cheap to buy a chalkbag, but he's my hero because he's in there. When I see a truly fat person running or just hiking up a hill I invariably want to start cheering from the bottom of my heart out loud, but I don't 'cause I don't want to scare 'em or make them feel bad somehow. Some little pretzel dude running along like a damn gazelle? That's cool and all, but moving athletically with an extra person strapped to you? Now that's an athletic accomplishment I can't dream of but that truly inspires me. Maybe these people don't "train" in the same way I look at it, but they are busting a move, and that's powerful. Winning isn't always about winning something. Often it's about just showing up, and anyone who shows up and does his or her best is my hero.

But if anyone is actually training to be better at whatever level then I want them to not waste the time I have doing useless repetitions of useless exercises. I also believe time spent doing any sport should be fun, exciting and challenging. If it isn't some combination of those things then nobody is going to keep at it. There must be a million barely used treadmills put into landfills every year. The following edited lyrics from Fugazi sum up a lot of things in my mind:

I am a patient boy
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait
My time is water down a drain

Everybody's moving
Everybody's moving
Everything is moving,
Moving, moving, moving

Please don't leave me to remain
In the waiting room

Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
(Tell me why)

Because they can't get up
(Ahhh... Come on and get up)
(Come on and get up)

But I won't sit idly by
(Ahhh...)
I'm planning a big surprise
I'm gonna fight
For what I want to be

And I won't make the
same mistakes
(Because I know)
Because I know how much
time that wastes
(And function)
Function is the key

-Fugazi

I hope everyone found what was needed today, be it sore lats, time with their kids, or just a smile out of something new in life. Now I gotta go train, thinking about all this just got me too fired up. Get up!

Training, Sickness (not the good kind)

Training thought of the day:

I travel a lot, and get to see a lot of climbing gyms. This gives me an insight into how people are training not only at my local gym but around the world. I could write about climbing gym fashion (England loses, the USA wins, Canada does well), but I'm personally annoyed at the moment. I'm annoyed because wasted effort, especially my own, annoys me. Sometimes wasted time and effort can be funny to watch (my dog chasing sticks), but if the goal of training is to get better then wasting time is just that. It just grates on me to see people "training" who won't get any improvement out of what they're doing. I can't help it, and find it funny to make this realization even while being powerless to reduce the feeling of annoyance. I'm like a dog with a stick...

Anyhow, here's how the training scene at many gyms works: The women walk in, talk to the guys, then sit down and stretch for 15 or 20 minutes. They are often very flexible, and show it off. Then they boulder for a bit on the longer endurance problems or lead on the less-steep walls, and often can't hold any reasonable body tension to save their lives. They rely on their relatively good contact strength (often women are lighter and have relatively good contact strength) and endurance to climb. Often they won't dyno, and stay away from the steeper terrain in the gym.

The guys walk in, talk to the women, and then stretch for about two minutes before jumping on the big rungs of the campus board, Bachar ladder or the steepest terrain in the gym with the biggest holds. They then do pullups, pushups, and join the women for a few rounds of ab crunches or some other useless maneuver that will result only in more buffed abs. And before someone his thong in a knot, there are many women who can do a front lever and many men who can do the splits. I'm working with the stereotypes I see.

Now, I might be missing the entire point of "training." Maybe it's to build better abs and look manly/womanly to the opposite sex in the gym. Henry Rollins does a good skit about this. But what the women usually need to be doing is training true core strength; this means the ability to put their feet onto holds and keep them there on overhanging terrain. They also could use some more bicep/lat power, and learn how to dyno. The men could use front-lever style training too in general, as well as more contact strength, better flexibility and always, always loads more endurance... Seldom does a man fall off a route because he can't pull up with his arms; it's almost always because he can't hold onto the 20th hold on the route. If you're a man think about the last time you fell off; was it your forearms or biceps that weren't working?

But we never want to train what we're BAD at. Women are good at stretching in general, so they "train" by stretching. Men are often better at arm burl, so they "train" that. Last night I saw a guy with buff biceps and lats crank laps up and down a ladder; but he couldn't do an endurance problem that should be piss-easy for him if he had anywhere near the relative endurance that he had power in his arms. I watched a woman repeatedly flail at putting her foot on a small hold at waist level while hanging on small holds... It should be an "easy" move relative to what she could hang onto.

Jim Karn once berated me (he likely doesn't even remember the day) for training my strengths. That lecture stuck, and it's been reinforced over the years by many more high-end climbers and personal experience. I used to be terrible at holding onto pockets, like many North Americans of the era. I then spent months hanging onto pockets on a finger board, and today I'd say my pocket strength is slightly better than my crimp strength. My power endurance still sucks; I now train primarily on crimps and non-crimped "contact" strength power endurance when training for rock, 'cause that's what I suck at relatively speaking... The trick is to recognize your ever-evolving weaknesses and work primarily on those. Yeah, we all need to stay well-rounded, but most of us roll far more like triangles than wheels while climbing if we make an honest assessment of our climbing strengths and weaknesses. Even if we try to focus on our weaknesses we'll still probably end up training our strengths too much anyhow. My goal is to be able to walk up to an overhanging jug fest or a gently overhanging Rockies limestone slab fest and get to the top at roughly the same grade. If I can reliably on-sight 5.12 cave routes and yet fall off pimpy 5.11 routes then I'm not the climber I want to be...

That's today's rant. After two weeks of feeling like a one-person mucous factory I'm coming back at it. I'm still focused on ice and mixed climbing, but spring is calling, and my spring resolution is to build my contact strength up. I'll also be seeing my shrink about my annoyance problem, and some other weaknesses in my life that would take 50 blog entries to cover. I'm constantly training to remove weakness both from my body and mind; sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's why training today is as interesting as it ever was. The challenge is the challenge...

Hunlen Photos

Hunlen Falls: 280M, 5.9 A2* Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, BC.
Will Gadd and EJ Plimley, with help from David Dornian, Andrew Querner, Scott Simper and Christian Pondella.
*5.9 A2 is the standard Canadian Rockies grade for any climb. How the hell do you even begin to grade something like this? It just makes no sense with traditional ice, rock or M grades. Maybe 5.10 A2, it was kinda hard.

Still haven't had time to write about the rig, but here are a couple of Christian Pondella photos:

Two down, one to go

I'm the kind of tired you only get after a week of non-stop going as hard as you possibly can. EJ Plimley, Scott Simper, Christian Pondella and I just got back from Hunlen Falls, located between Williams Lake and Bella Coola. Google the rig, it's big. We sent. I'm up against it with all the life stuff that's accumulated over the last two weeks of travel (four days after being in Japan I was sitting on the side of a frozen lake in Tweedsmuir park with a huge mound of gear and wondering, "What the hell just happened???), but I'll post up with some photos etc. once they are loaded off the computer. It was the best climb of my life for many reasons--people, place, effort required to get it done, climbing (no bolts, all natural gear, full madness on overhanging spray ice), just the full-meal deal on a big rig.

That makes two (the still-"secret" Jimmy Skid Rig was the first February 20th edit: Not so secret anymore) out of three for the big routes I wanted to get done this season. There are three options for the last route, conditions and travel tolerance will determine the final effort. Last year I was injured, I am fully determined to make this year the best climbing season I've ever had. It already is--getting just one of these monsters done would normally be enough, but I have this complete psyche for winter climbing right now that's pushing me to blow off all sorts of responsibilities and get out CLIMBING. The one thing I can't blow off is my family, I'm glad they understand the madness on a personal level, and that I will recover some degree of sanity when the ice melts.

Game on! I just need a bit of sleep first...

PS--The current issue of the ESPN mag has a story on some ice-climbing poseur. Don't believe the hype, but the author did a good job in my opinion, or at least he didn't make the poseur or ice climbers in general look more psychotic than we usually do... Nice one Tim.

Japan Cup, and real fitness

Japan Cup:

This was a great event, full of life, energy, good climbers (strong!) and a great sporting attitude. One of the very best things about climbing for me are the great people I get to meet around the world. The Japan Cup was full of positive energy, psyche and love for the sport. It's not easy to be an ice climber in Japan; if you live in Tokyo you're driving for at least three hours to reach ice, and more likely five or so. The ice on Hokkaido is reportedly easier to reach, but still not "easy." To be a Japanese ice climber is to truly love the game of ice climbing.

In brief, the comp is held on 40-foot tall scaffolding built around the remnants of an old charcoal factory. It was a warm year, but there was still enough ice to get the job done, and the wall was massive and very well-built. The village, Kuni, is really supportive of the event and the structure. It's a bit like a Japanese version of Ouray--there's even a really nice hot spring!

I'm still jet-lagged after the short trip, but very happy to have been involved with such a great event. I set routes, taught a huge clinic and gave a show, but mainly came back with a strong appreciation for Japanese climbers. I am FOR SURE going back, thanks very much to everyone who helped me so graciously. Fantastic! I'm going to write an article about the event and will post a link when that's up.

Fitness:

A friend sent me this link. Insane. Totally insane.

The bags are now packed for the long drive north and west to the super-secret BC rig... Drive 12 hours, fly in, climb. I can't wait to get there and see if it's frozen up a bit more! More on that later, like in a week when  we get out...

Play safe enough,

WG

One down, two to go

February 20th edit: Not so secret anymore

For the last three weeks I've been hard at work with some friends on a new long mixed route. It's sick--long, hard, cool ice, wild place. On Friday we pretty much got it done, but we need to go back and sort a few things out to call it legitimately done. Leaving ropes and gear strewn all over the place does not constitute a successful ascent in my opinion, we need to clean our mess up. I'll post up once that's done, but I thought I'd share a few experiences on the route:

When I drop a tool I expect that it will stay dropped. As we rapped in the near-darkness I tied an orange Fusion onto a white 80M rope and lowered it toward the snow (the route overhangs so much that you're not anywhere near the route!) so I could see if the end reached. Normally I'd know it reached 'cause I'd rapped from the same stance before, but part of the rope was still hanging over my head 'cause it was attached to another rope that was very stuck somewhere farther up... I saw the tool land on the snow, turned around to help my bud start to rap, and turned around again to see the tool hovering in mid-air like some sort of bad science fiction horror movie. A few rocks swirled around with it; rocks! I have never seen rocks get ripped off reasonably flat ground and levitated into the air before! Later I read the historical weather from a weather station on a ridge close to us; the wind was gusting to over 160K (100MPH). We were in the lee, and the wind roaring up the face was still strong enough to cause chaos. I've never felt wind like that in the lee before, it was kinda frightening.

My partner rapped first, and I helpfully clipped my pack onto his harness so clearing out the belay cluster would be easier. Unfortunately the Fusion on the end of the rope managed to get stuck into something way off to the side, which resulted in some fun antics to get it unstuck. I watched my partner get blown through about a 100-foot arc and slam into the wall with two packs on, it wasn't good. His knee should heal soon, sorry about that!

The crux pitch is long, hard, and aggressive. Lots of lockoffs, front-lever style tension and general giving it all-out. I've been training for this route and another one for months, but it still took everything I had to get it done. Every lockoff, every one-handed deadhang from my tools and every front lever I'd done at the Vsion played a part in keeping it together on the redpoint. I was skipping clips, breathing like a horse and wobbling like a drunk when I finally reached the ice. I had to stand there on the vertical ice for ten minutes before I could swing a tool. I haven't been to that state of climbing in a while; where you decide that falling doesn't matter, clips don't matter, all that matters is GOING UP. The training, the psyche with my partner, it was all there in spades and worth all of it.

Now we just have to get the stuck ropes unstuck (actually, I think there are no less than NINE up there) and the other bits down. We ran from the base in the dark in a totally disorganized state as we were terrified of the rocks that were getting blown off the route, or maybe off the ground and then up and then down on our heads, it didn't matter which if one hit us. I watched a heavy 70M static stream directly up past my belay at one point that day, it sure was wild!

More on that route later, there's some unfinished business up there to clean up.

I'm off to Japan tomorrow for the 5th Japanese Cup competition, a show, a clinic, etc., back on Monday. Seems bizzare to go so far for so short a time, but there are two more routes here in Canada I'd like to finish up this season so the clock is fully ticking. One of them is a ski-plane ride and a long drive away, the other is right off the road... It's good to have projects, we'll see if they go down. And my friend Andreas Spak just emailed me from Norway--they're having an EPIC season there, the photos from one of his new routes might just drag me over there in March if I can still swing my tools...

The season is ON!

Carabiners: my opinion...

Carabiners are literally the pieces that hold all my climbing hardware together. Good carabiners are critical pieces of gear, but I see a lot of junk out there. Here are some of my thoughts on what works well for winter and summer climbing carabiners. I primarily use Black Diamond carabiners as that's who I work with, but invariably I end up using bits and pieces from other people's gear. The following is based around BD's line of 'biners but applicable to most carabiners

Locking Carabiners.

Screw-gates rule. Carabiners that "auto-lock" are great in the store, but hideous in real use most of the time. Do NOT use any neato self-locking carabiner in winter, doing so will only annoy the hell out of you and could be dangerous if it permanently freezes shut. It's easy to operate a screw-gate even with reasonably thick gloves on, but try to set up your belay device with an "auto-cluster" 'biner and you'll likely have to remove your gloves. You'll definitely have to remove your gloves if there is even a smidgen of ice or hard snow stuck into the mechanism, which there often is with auto-cluster biners. 

If you're doing a multi-pitch route and have to deal with a minimum of three locking carabiners (two on your ATC to belay the second, one on it to belay a leader, plus all the other uses for locking carabiners) per pitch you'll likely stop using auto-lockers after a few pitches due to the annoyance level. They are also a huge waste of time, even if they don't freeze shut. Figure an extra ten seconds per biner to sort it out with gloves on and that's an extra minute per pitch (six locking/unlocking cycles per pitch minimum). On a ten-pitch route that's ten minutes, or more if even one of the damned things freezes shut.

You're also more likely to drop your belay device or yourself--trying to open the auto-lock with gloves on while holding the rope and your device is an epic. Many "auto-lockers" totally cease functioning in wet and cold conditions, or at least stop locking  properly. With a basic screw gate these problems are almost always pretty quick to solve (whack the sleeve gently with a pin or ice tool, worst-case scenario hold the carabiner in your hand for a few seconds until it warms up), but with an auto-lock I've had to untie or cut cord to get the problem sorted before I froze to death or became so angry I hurled the whole mess off the cliff.

In summer I still like basic screw gates over auto-lockers, for many of the same reasons. It's common when doing multi-pitch routes to have to sort out various pieces of rope, cord and the anchors; this is near-impossible to do while holding the auto-locker open with one hand, rotating it, etc. I know many schools like to teach or guide with auto-lock biners, but if you're not a student then auto-"irritaters" are just that. Hint--if you're hanging at a belay and tighten your screw gates while hanging on them they will be hard to open. Loosen the screw gate before unloading the biner.

I do have a couple of smallish "pear" biners for belaying with, the rope runs smoother and belay devices tend not to get "stuck" in the angle. I keep these biners with my belay devices. I also have one weird old carabiner with a wide "spine," that one works well when using it with an ATC or other auto-block, if the ropes not totally loaded it's easier to feed slack by turning the 'biner.

Some people use the big auto-lockers for fixing ropes, as a screw-gate can be opened by contact with the rock.  When I'm climbing for myself with friends I generally use two non-locking carabiners with the gates reversed--nothing beats that, and it's still manageable if I have to move it around. For film or industrial rigging I use super-heavy steel biners, often auto-locks. In this situation I'm not pressed for time (even if I am), and want something ridiculously bomber in case of a very weird of very high-load situation, something that happens occasionally when working with power winches or hauling systems. I also won't be watching the rigging sometimes, so overkill is good. The auto-lock carabiners also deter people from messing with them...

General use carabiners:

Wire gates rule for most types of climbing. Anything else is too prone to blockage with ice and snow, and also reduces the span between the gate and the "spine" of the biner more than necessary. Most of the time I use the smallest, lightest biners I can get my hands on (the BD Oz or Neutrino). I carry a few huge wire gate biners to rack pins on (screws are racked on ice clippers). Sometimes old-school ovals are nice for racking on or clipping pins in confined locations, but an Oz will fit just about anywhere an oval will and some places an old-school oval won't. Aid climbers and other bondage fans also like ovals; enough said then.

The difference a rack of Oz biners (28g/1oz) makes to the total weight of a big rock rack can add up to several pounds. For example, if you're doing a big rock route you might have 48 or more carabiners between you and your partner (biners on two sets of cams, quickdraws, biners on slings, etc.). If you use an oval or other heavy (2 oz or more) biner your rack will weigh at least three pounds more. That's 1.5 liters of water, a six-pack of beer, six hamburgers, a huge belay jacket, you get the idea... 

For sport climbing I like draws with no "gate catches" on the bolt end, and a big-mouthed wire biner on the rope end. Cleaning draws off overhaning routes with gate catches sucks, they catch on the bolt. Big-mouthed wire-gate biners are really easy to clip the rope into, which is what you want. As an aside, any route where your belayer can still accurately toss you a beer after you've lowered off is a slab. Just wanted to clear that up.

I have a silly quantity of carabiners that I've gathered over the years. I just really like having the right tool for the job. Not to brag, but I probably have 200 biners and use 'em all. Even with all that I don't have enough to have the exact perfect setup for everything. I find myself building sets of quickdraws for alpine climbing (Oz biners on both ends, skinny long slings for the webbing), then rebuilding a set for sport cragging (Positrons and Live-Wires), and then yet another for mixed climbing (fat webbing that will take the abuse of tools stuck through the biner) with positrons and Live Wires, and then yet another for long free rock climbs... If I could only have one carabiner for everything I'd go with all Neutrinos, they are big enough to use for most things and light enough not to be a waste of metal. Hey, that's it, using fat carabiners isn't just heavy, it's an environmental waste too.

If I'm going new-routing I try to always bring a few "POS" biners to leave for raps. These 'biners will work for other stuff, unlike rap rings or Maillon Rapides (quicklinks), and make pulling the rope a lot easier.

That's how I see it. There are a thousand safety discussions to be had about carabiner choice, but this is what I've found works over the years. I've broken three carabiners over the years, and seen another half-dozen fail for one reason or another. Good carabiners are important, and remember that two non-lockers is better than about anything else for high-stress or "weird" situations. I've never seen two non-locking biners with the gates reversed fail.

Outliers

I'm in the midst of reading a very good book, Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers." Although I'm only half-way through this book, it has already taught me a few interesting things (to be great hockey player you'd best be born in the first three months of the year). The first half of this book is much better in my opinion than his previous two books, both of which I read but didn't find much in that reading to inspire me. Outliers is different. Many of the ideas are, like most good ideas, seemingly obvious at first glance,  interesting with some thought and brilliant after some reflection (I read that math theorems also follow this progression of opinion). 

The best piece of information in there so far is the idea that to be really good, approaching mastery, at something you have to put in about 10,000 hours at it. The second is that there are thresholds for natural ability; to be a successful lawyer you need to be "smart enough," but not necessarily brilliant. To be a good athlete you need to be good enough, but not necessarily the most talented. They are plenty of smart people doing very poorly at the game of life. There are plenty of climbers with natural talent who do very little with it. Most of the really good athletes I know in any sport were not the most naturally talented when they started, but they practiced like demons. Maybe for about 10,000 hours... 

This is something to think about. If you want to be a really good skier you likely need about 10,000 hours of thinking about snow, skiing in snow, rolling in it, whatever it takes to get to that level of understanding and skill. 

Another idea in the book is that successful people also have unique opportunities, and the desire to involve themselves in those opportunities. Bill Gates had access to a, for then, high-end computer to play with, and play he did--for at least 10,000 hours. I had access to a lot of rock and ice, and while I wouldn't claim to be remotely "successful" in the sense of Bill Gates, I've been both lucky enough to have had early opportunities and to have wanted to use those opportunities. If I had been born in Manitoba to a stockbroker I doubt I would have taken up climbing or river kayaking, at least not at as young an age as I was able to by having parents who were into the mountains and lived there. Wait, maybe if I'd been born to stockbrokers I would have had better money sense...

Anyhow, it's a good read and worth thinking about in terms of not only athletics but also life. What are we truly successful at, and why? Those of us on the backside of 40 are likely realizing that some doors are now closed simply because we don't have 10,000 hours to put into something new, nor are we likely to have the opportunity to pursue certain things. If you're 20 you're already way too old to ever be a great basketball player, but there are a lot of professional avenues still open to exploration. Interesting.

WG

Destroyed

Walk in lousy snow for four hours. Work on a cool new route with two younger guys for six hours. Get kinda scared and very physically pummeled. Rap in the dark. Walk two hours back out in the dark. I haven't been so destroyed in years, great day!

I've joined in on an existing project to help get 'er done. Two pitches of cool mixed, two of moderate but very nice drytooling, then one really hard pitch to the ice, then a couple of pitches of ice above that! It just doesn't get any better than that. Thanks to W. and B. for a solid day, the old man is feeling much older today but will recover.

I was enticed to this route with the following description: "Oh, it's great. Perfect rock, golden huecos out huge roofs, we've pretty much cleaned and bolted all of it, you've just got to come up and work it!" The part about almost being done the bolting was true, the rest was pure fabrication. The rock is classic Rockies choss, there's not a "golden hueco" in 200K, and there's a lot of cleaning to do. But it sure was an effective description to get me up there, and the route is truly world class. It's long, exposed, and fantastic, just have to get back in a few more times and get 'er done. Congratulations to B and W for working on it, lots of motivation went into the rig already!

Training is just that. Days like yesterday are where it gets real, and you see if all the training actually worked. A lot of people get stuck in what I call the "training trap," where the training becomes more important than the actual action you're training for. It's easy to see results when training; it's all nice and organized, improvements are consistent and measurable, and the training environment is generally pretty comfortable. But strap on a big pack, beat through the snow, haul your way up a couple of hundred meters while just giving it all-out and see how you function during the day. That's the reality, and that's what we train for.

I need to train a little harder. Game on.

Auto-Block Belay Devices and Other Winter Thoughts

There was recently an ice climbing fatality near Cody, Wyoming. This story hit me hard because I can see myself making some of the poor calls that led to the fatality, and that started me off writing this long post. Please read the story at the link above, the following won't make much sense without the full story. My full respect, condolences and sympathy to all involved, fatalities are the worst part of mountain sports.

I do have some thoughts on the accident. In short, the leader was at an anchor while the second approached the anchor, big avalanche, leader was OK, second unfortunately found dead after the avalanche passed. All the rope had slipped through the leader's belay device, so the second fell/slid the rope's distance while being pounded massively. The leader had two screws at chest level and was belaying off the anchor with a non-blocking belay device. 

A few thoughts on this:

-First, I won't be surprised if the facts of this accident change with time. It's early yet, and things may not be as they seem. Mainly I'm sorry the accident happened, condolences to family and friends. This was an accident. Accidents are the worst thing about mountain sports.

-I highly doubt any belay device or configuration would have made a difference in this situation. It was a massive slide likely with enough debris and force to kill anybody in the way. But a smaller slide or a smaller slide that also hit the belayer could have been fatal to the second not due to the trauma but due to the belayer being unable to hold the rope while he was being pounded, and the second falling the rope's distance as a result. An auto-blocking device would be a better idea.

-I don't think belaying directly off the anchor with a non-blocking belay device is a good idea. Especially if that device, as is reported, was likely at or higher than the belayer's waist. I can't see it being easy to hold your arm up to generate sufficient friction to hold the fall, as would have happened in this case. I can hold maybe 50 pounds over my head with one hand for any length of time, and that's in the gym with a very controlled weight directly over my head. Not a rope whipping around with all sorts of weird vectors. The moment the belay  rope isn't pulling "up" on the belay device is the moment it starts sliding, and is then more difficult to hold...

-If the brake side of the rope is less than 90+ degrees off the loaded end of the rope then there just isn't likely to be enough friction to hold a high load. If the two ropes are parallel very little friction will be generated. Even a top-rope load can be hard to hold until the rope is pulled into proper position by the belayer. Anyone who has held a climber from above while top-roping for any length of time with a non-locking device knows that it takes some careful positioning of the rope to make this comfortable. I don't think the belayer has much chance to hold a more powerful fall with the device above waist-level, and while pulling "up" on the rope. The belay device would have to be at knee level or below to be effective, then you could pull "up" on it. 

-The solution for me is straightforward: use an ATC Guide or some other auto-block belay device when belaying the second off a solid anchor. In Canada and Europe this is the common method of belaying the second, but it's still less so in the USA for some reason. This is changing, maybe due to international guiding standards, but I still see a lot of people using a non-blocking belay device for the second when it would be far more suitable to use an auto-block to do so (90+ percent of the time while ice or rock climbing, less so with alpine climbing). 

-If you're going to use a non-locking belay device for the second then it should be on your belay loop. Not clipped to the anchor, not extended off the anchor with a sling, but on you. That way you'll always know which way to pull even if you're getting pounded, upside down, getting pulled off the stance, whatever. There have been several bad accidents where the belayer was injured seriously but held the belay when it was off his harness. 

Again, I don't think it likely would have made much difference in this accident how or what type of belay was being used, the situation was just off the charts in terms of power and violence. An auto-blocking device could even have generated enough force to blow the primary anchor and kill both climbers; this sort of situation is just drastic. I had one large slide go over my head while in a cave once; even while totally protected I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, the power was just insane. But I do think there are a range of situations below the magnitude of this one where an auto-block belay device rigged to a solid anchor would be a better choice and might might make a big difference.

There are situations where belaying the second with an auto-block doesn't make sense, but part of being a good climber is understanding enough to recognize those situations and build your belay system appropriately. Most of the time when I use a belay device for the second straight off my harness I do so because I'm concerned about the strength of the belay and want to take as much force as possible on me and my stance. I keep the rope very tight in this situation and recognize that I'm doing something dubious, or at least well outside what is commonly "safe."

There are some other things in this story that bother me precisely because I've made the same bad calls:

-Not being aware of the avalanche hazard. "Hey, it hasn't snowed much, should be good." This is not a good assessment of avalanche hazard. Read the avalanche forecast, look for the signs, understand enough to make a call.

-Assuming there is no hazard just because "this area has no hazard." Almost every ice climb I've ever done has enough snow above it to be a hazard. Snow is heavy.

-Not being able to see the top of avalanche terrain while moving through it (cornices, wind loading, etc.). If you can't see the wind loading and terrain above you then you have no idea what's going on. 

-Not paying attention to the obvious signs of instability (debris piles on the route, etc). We all want to go up, and it's easy to rationalize things so we keep doing that. 

-Not thinking about the terrain trap nature of ice climbs. This has killed at least two friends; even "small" slides funneled into the wall of an ice climb can be lethal.

Right, not sure why this story hit me so hard but it really did. Maybe because I can see myself making some of the same errors. Again, the facts may change, and this is absolutely not meant as a critique of the accident at all, just things for all of us to think about as we go ice climbing.

The Long Walk

I just did the second biggest travel and walk to a non-existent climb I've ever done. The all-time record for hours of travel vs. hours of not climbing was on a route in Nepal, but the trip up north over the last week was pretty close in terms of travel time (16 hours of driving) walking (three days) and amount of climbable ice (very little). But it was still a great trip, and we're thinking of heading back in later this year if the temperatures remain cold. It was really nice to get out into the woods for a week, even if camping at -25 is a little chilly. There's just something fundamentally satisfying about living out of a pack for days at a time, and sleeping like a log every night from the day's efforts. We saw no people at all where we were, and I don't think many people ever go in there during winter. I hope to get back. And no, I can't tell you where this non-frozen route is... But it sure would be cool if it ever froze up properly! Thanks to the team who went on the trip, great fun despite the lack of ice.

I have two other big projects on the go for this winter. I've decided to focus on finding big new water ice first ascents for the rest of the season. These are generally a long walk from the road, but I've done everything I want to close to a road so GAME ON!

Best,

wg

Happy New Year!

The quantity of writing on this blog is directly proportional to the amount of time I have and how inspired I am. When I'm psyched I can get a lot done when under life's fire, but when I'm down, well, not much gets done. The temperatures have been ridiculous here in the Rockies, and I gotta admit I'm down about that. Some friends from France are going back a week early because they've had it with these disastrous temps. I asked if I could go back with them but they told me I had too much to do, and they're right. So the lack of posts reflect both temperature-induced torpor syndrome (five points to whomever figures that one out first) and the quantity of stuff I've had going on. Two magazine articles, a journalist inhabiting my life, Christmas, kid, parties, shoveling the walk, feeding the fire and a whole list of other excuses for the limited climbing and posting I've done lately. I have stayed on the training bandwagon though, getting stronger! See the picture for my latest training tactic, it's a triceps workout from hell combined with kid care!

But there are going to be even fewer posts for the next week, as I'm packing duffels and and clanking gear like mad. The quest is on, and we're off tomorrow morning. I can't say much more about it than that, but there's a big route out there, time to go hunting for ice!

Best,

wg