Interesting Items

I read about both of these on Sonnie's blog and I've been mentioning them to people. Here's the first interesting idea: Stealth Paint. Josh, you should offer this as part of your resoling business. Seems simple, yet very effective.

http://sonnietrotter.com/2009/05/11/the-truth/

And here is mention of a Stanford research team's work with cooling core body temperature by cooling the hands. With the hot summer in the Lou, this is a relevant article about how performance (both aerobic and anaerobic) is affected by body temperature. Might be a reason to hold some icy packs between burns on a project, unless you can afford the $4,000 device.

...From the Article...
"They found that when people used their cooling device during anaerobic exercise, such as weight lifting, where the time to exhaustion is very short, the effects on exercise performance were dramatic. “We helped a weight-lifter increase his capacity to do pull-ups from 180 to 600 in the same time period after six weeks of training,” notes Grahn. “And we've seen professional football players triple their anaerobic exercise capacity in four weeks.”

During aerobic exercise, such as running, conducted in the heat, the device greatly extends endurance. “Under the right circumstances, you can double the endurance of someone working at a fixed load,” says Grahn. “This has significant implications not only for athletes but for people such as factory workers and military personnel who work in hot environments.

Core Thoughts

Sonnie Trotter of Cobra Crack and other various hard trad ascent fame recently posted an article on core strength on his blog (see a link to his general blog on the right). I read it and promptly forgot about it, until seeing this NYTimes article.

Notice any differences? I thought they contradicted each other, but now I think they both support the need for a well-rounded and developed approach to core strength, except that most people screw it up, by accident or misinformation.

Jackson Falls - June 14, 2009

Climbers - Yusuf, Calvin
Weather - sh!te-ish

The weather was supposed to be good. Better than the previous weekend. High of um, 86 or so, leaving us with good climbing weather in the morning. So we arrived, high anticipation, noting it was a bit humid. Then we noticed it was seeping. We headed over to Spleef Peak to do some warmups, found it too wet, then headed over to the Gallery. That too, was damp, but doable, so I climbed Earthbound .10a, and promptly greased off at the first sloper section. Greased off a few more times, before sending the rest of it. Great start. Yusuf climbed, using some creative beta and skipped the slopers. Smart.

While Yusuf was climbing, we heard some thunder in the distance. Now Yusuf is what I would describe as a, "deliberate and measured" climber. Takes his time, analyzes his moves and uses an unhurried method. Normally works great, except it started pouring in the middle of his climb. Usually, this prompts a climber to climb faster. Not Yusuf. Finished just the way he started, never no mind any rain. :)

We then sat a bit dejectedly, waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't look good, and we started eating food and planning an exit strategy. We packed up and were headed to the rope ladder, when the sun started peeking out... ?? Determined to make a day of it, Yusuf and I found Puff .11a, 3 routes to the right of the Falls. In the book it's 2 routes to the right, but the first route must be newly bolted. Puff was miraculously dry, and Yusuf had fun putting the draws up. Somewhat thin climbing, to a nice cruxy sequence, along with the requisite Jackson slabby/slopey topout. I fell there figuring out the beta and sent next go. Yusuf then opted for Hydra .12c, immediately to the left, which we'd heard was a, "one move wonder" climb, the implication being it wasn't worth the effort. It's short; 3 bolts, maybe 40 ft tall, but it looks full value for all 40 feet. You do some work getting up there. The pockets were seeping, so Yusuf struggled to link the moves and we decided to come back in the Fall when temps were better and it was a bit drier. I, rather wisely for once, decided against that climb.

We then found Spleef Peak to be dry, so we hopped on The Garden Route .10a, which was very fun slab, and Blue Spark 5.8, also fun slab. They both felt equally hard to me, which is weird, but not surprising given my poor understanding of slab technique. Yusuf once remarked that my slab climbing consisted of some "ghetto climbing." Ugly, but it works.

By this time the humidity had rolled back in... if you've been there or are from the area, you know exactly how this feels. 3pm and we bailed. We were both a bit drained from the heat, but I still never regret getting outdoors, no matter the weather.

Captain Burke's Blog from the (former) Empire

Many of you already know that our dear Captain Edwards is over in England. I've been getting many questions about how he's doing, so I wanted to remind you of a blog Soph created. Check out the link to the right under "Our Friends" for Lord Captain, Knight OBE. His Eminence posts there regularly (in fact he just updated the blog today).

Jackson Falls - June 6, 2009

Climbers - Yusuf, Calvin

Weather - fantastic.

Yes, June 6, generally accepted as unreasonably humid and a nasty time of year to be at the Falls and outside. But we were blessed. Lucky. Both, probably. Yusuf and I traveled to the Falls and experienced a wonderful day of climbing and weather.

As usual, Yusuf was late a few minutes, but we got started without a hitch. Upon arriving, we saw only a few people in the parking lot. WTF? But we weren't going to question our blessings... we hurried down to the Gallery to start warming up. We first climbed Group Therapy, .10c (the usual), then Sore Throat, another .10c about 4 climbs to the right of Group. Fun climb, with just enough spice to make it interesting.

We discussed heading to Bursting Out by Battle Ax Tower, but logistics won out and we headed to Cro Magnon, which had a line of 5 people waiting. Nevermind. Saw Russell and Katie (from the gym), and a few other folks we knew from trips down there. Two climbs to the left of Cro Magnon is Little Johnny Jewel, .11b. At first, we thought we had the wrong climb. You really can't see any holds. It looks horribly blank.

The descr reads, "Difficult entry moves..." which felt about right. This route reminded me of all the Mt. Lemmon crimpy (pumpy) climbing. It's all on your fingertips. You start with an undercling, high step/smear, long reach to another undercling (!), thumb that, figure out something with your other hand, then attempt to staccato your other foot up. Whew. From the undercling, up left to a now visible pinch, then another smear into another undercling (!!). Alarm klaxons were now going off in my forearms and I had only climbed 1/4 of the route. It eased up, but stayed very sharp for a couple more bolts, until you hit a strange dual pocket pinch, which didn't feel quite good enough but was, and high stepped-reached to an edge. I didn't scream on this route, but I was inside. Yusuf, of course, onsighted it, then encouraged me up it.

We then took a long break, which I desperately needed. Soon after, we headed over to Snakes Roof, and took a look at some climbs. Yusuf decided on Here Come the Snakes, .12c, which has a nice face start (big moves), and continues for 3 bolts through a roof with an entry big move, then holding on for dear life (from what I could see). Yusuf styled it second go. I think the crux of this route is stick clipping the first bolt, when your only stick is a tent pole contraption. That bolt is on the roof (???) and is about 22.345743 feet high, or about 2 inches too far away, no matter how hard you try. After 10 tries, Yusuf finally managed to clip it from his perch on my shoulders.

I opted for Umbrella Girls, .12a, a Josh Portell route bolted a few years ago. It's not in the book, but rockclimbing.com has it at .12a, which might be fair. It felt easier than Everybody Needs Friends. Very nice route though. Classic Jackson slopers, with some long moves and creativity required early. The latter half has good rests and a couple power moves, but nothing harder than V2/3. It went second go, which felt good.

We met up with Lauri and Vanessa (from the gym), who had been there with friends/family camping for a few days. They were climbing the 5.8 at Royal Arch. Yusuf finished on Archangel, .10a, a nice slab I climbed with Josh and Catherine several posts ago. I tried Sunflower, .11a (I suck at slab, but .11a whatever dude). True to form, I did it bolt to bolt, with the second bolt requiring many, many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then simple desperation, the third bolt requiring many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then finally ghetto technique (ask Yusuf).

It wasn't the absolute best way to end the day, but I still had fun (I think) on the climb. I will be back to try it again when the temps are better for slab. Saturday, it felt harder than Galaxy 500, a .12a/b on Big Starr.