Re-adjusting your perspectives

Ultimate Routes. Steve McClure (left) and Lynn Hill both lost on a wave of rock in Gorge Du Jonte, near Millau.

Warning: long blog post! climbers only I suppose :)

So, this trip has been a new learning experience. I watched some of the Petzl Roc Trip at the weekend. The men and women's ultimate route was a whopping 90 meters long. I was just tired looking at it from the ground (and dying from a sore neck - it took about an hour per person on each attempt :).

As it happens, you can read the updated posts here (day 1 - Nina Caprez and Chloé Minoret onsight female route) and here (day 2 - Sharma flashes male route and Andrada comes close) about it and Steve McClure's descriptions of each route on the comments for this article. Seriously, to see someone climb a single pitch of 90 meters in one go is outrageous (albeit the men's route did have a sit-down rest two-thirds of the way up and as Steve pointed out, you can recover on the 7a piece). For me, it was a good reminder that just as I get used to the idea of climbing long 30+ meter pitches (most routes we've been doing abroad are shorter than this), they're already working on bigger and newer and more inspiring ideas.

It's an interesting year in climbing, Ondra and Sharma have gone to a whole new level of skill that we're all only just starting to realize. A recent article on UKClimbing pointed this out

.......This could be because European sport climbing attracts less interest over here than say, a good old British headpoint, but the reality is that, in terms of World climbing standards, Ondra's achievements are a significant step forward and an E9 headpoint isn't.

Is this the magic energy sauce? Petzl-branded energy drinks especially for the Roc Trip :)


I've been thinking quite a bit what the stand-out skill that most of these climbers has. I've watched Lynn Hill, Dave Graham, Steve McClure, Dani Andrada and a few others in random locations this year alone so would like to think I'm starting to get an idea :)
Strength is a huge factor (duh). I don't mean big muscles but rather raw strength to hang from any-sized-edge. I mean that they can basically hand one-armed from a door-frame edge (watch E11 for the demo and see the photo here of it from UKClimbing's review of it along with said picture of Dave McL one-arming on a door-frame). And from what I saw of the Slovenian National Climbing Team (yes, they're on a paid-for holiday - one of three each year - to Gorge Du Tarn :), they've all got fingers of steel and just don't get pumped on routes as they're so strong. I'd like to think that I've got pretty good finger power but in comparison to these people, I'm not even at the races. I know what my focus will be for this winter - more power and more laps on high intensity small holds. These climbers obviously have to do mileage on routes (see below) but if you're not strong enough on the holds, you just can't improve!

The second part of the skill-set is quantities of mileage on lots routes. Not just for stamina, but for the experience also - it increases your wealth of movement-knowledge by trying different moves and learning new positions (watch this video of Dave Graham and his footwork alone to get an idea of crazy, outrageous foot positioning.

And then, finally, there's just sheer mental strength. This is a willingness to just push and push and push when they're pumped, when all logic (and most likely their arms) are telling them to give up. There's also their willingness to just learn from the process and to enjoy just working and learning new moves and routes (watch the old Dosage footage of Sharma talking about not 'wanting' to climb his super-route Realization at Ceuse and just having go through the experience). To help you in this, I'd recommend The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training for Climbers (Amazon link). It'll make you challenge yourself and probably realize a few insights into yourself about life in general but boy is it worth it!


For everyone else, o.k. a one-armer on a doorframe is wayyy hard but think you could even make steps towards getting stronger? And think you'd enjoy and feel more confident in your climbing if you felt stronger on holds?

All ideas welcome!!!!


Image Credit:
#1: Spot the climbers - Steve McClure on the over-hanging prow in the middle, Lynn Hill lost in rock on the two ultimate routes at the Petzl Roc Trip, Gorge Du Jonte
#2: Petzl Energy drink. Photo by Naomi

Link Credits:
#1 & 2: Petzl Roc Trip
#3: UkClimbing.com
#4: UkClimbing.com
#5: ClimbingNarc.com

Review of GreenGuru Chalkbags

GreenGuru Chalkbags

While in Boulder visiting our friend Pepper, we ended up arriving on the weekend of the BoulderBoulder 10km run and there was a big festival / street-market ongoing as part of the fun. I came across this company while wandering the stalls and thought it was such a genius idea that they needed some promo/credit for their aspirations/ideas.

If you're based in the States, definitely check these guys out. They also produce a load of miscellanous bags (surf-boards - reused billboards!, laptop bags - recycled wetsuits!, shoulder bags - recycled soda bottles).

Basically, they're recycling loads of miscellaneous gear that climbers/bikers/outdoorsy-type people use. Ever wonder what happens to all those climbing ropes that are thrown away (or end up sitting in your press for who-knows-how-many-years after you've retired it). It turns out that the rope material is good for about 35 YEARS but that as we all know, we stop using the rope after only a few (and less if it's at a climbing wall or the like). So, with the support of some shops (big kudos to Prana for supporting this) which have containers that you can donate old gear (old bike tubes, ropes, fleeces, etc.), GreenGuru will take your old gear and turn it into something useful again.

I ended up buying the the chalk bag (from the 'chalk bag series' - all using climbing rope in some different/alternative form) they had on sale, that is produced from (taken from website):

• ough 100% USA-Made Recycled Cotton Canvas exterior
• Water-proof Bike Inner Tube rubber reinforced sides/bottom
• 100% USA-Made Recycled Cotton Fleece chalk liner
• Carabiner Loop
• Reliable Drawstring Closure with Slide Lock
• Colorful, reclaimed climbing rope trim

Basically, yes, it's a chalkbag but it's out of recycled materials and it's perfectly good at it's task, no sacrifices to be made! Genius. It's big too and easily accommodates my full hand for chalking up - the fleece on the inside doesn't seem to swallow half the chalk either as I've seen in other chalk bags, it's all there for you to grab.

The only complaint I can say of it is that there's no clip for a brush but it's a small complaint that I can live without for now and wouldn't let me not promote it.

The only part of the gear that isn't recycled is the stitching and the GreenGuru logo - pretty recycled if you ask me! Great products, great idea!

Rated 5/5 on Jun 30 2009

Vote on Neal McQ's Reviews at LouderVoice

Review Tags: climbing, gear, eco, chalkbags, recyclable

Music memories

I had a song on today, Wagon Wheel by 'Old Crow Medicine Show' (last.fm link and video link here, direct YouTube link at bottom of post) and I instantly relate to my very fond memories of my time in Carbondale a month or so ago and with my two awesome friends Cari and Scott (Cari is centre with the coffee, Scott is just behind in the middle). The rest of these fantastic people are those that brought us around Colorado and southern Utah and made us feel as if this was our home - I'll forever be thankful to you!
It got me thinking about music that I can relate to different memories in my life and how you'll always be stuck with fond (or maybe not so fond!) memories of a specific location or people that you were with.

I won't bore you with two examples but here's two:
- my first long road-trip around Europe with my buddies Rob and Andy will forever be imortalised by the music of 'Jimmy Eat World.' Back in the good old days of Minidiscs (remember those - still a better system than CD's?!?!) and I'm sure we must have almost worn out my player before we got home :)
- my first world trip and the supplied music of YOU because of this post :) The 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah' track, The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth, will be the music for 2007. Ahhh, fond memories!

What memories can you think of? is there trips (or anything that will forever remind you of a track?)

I'm in Gorge Du Tarn

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For anyone around France, I'm based in Gorge du Tarn (beside the town of Millau) for the next three weeks so make sure to give me a shout if you're around and keen to climb.....

Working hard in Rifle, and getting experience counts for A LOT

I already described in this post what the reputation of Rifle is.
"Lots of ego among the climbers.
Hard grades.
No easy climbs.
Polished.
Honestly, some of it lived up to it's reputation but most of it didn't. The climbers we met were so friendly, coming looking for me after I'd left my shoes accidentally at the bottom of a route, throwing out advice, sharing information, warning us to move our car when they were bolting. Even the super-heroes were inspiring with a certain Dave Graham admirably going to warn some locals who were climbing with some kids that they were in a dangerous location for rock-fall and that they should move to a better location (unfortunately, said adults followed their own ego first and refused to move much to everyone's horror as they used the top-rope to knock rocks off.....).

And yes, the grades feel hard. Like most of the top-class crags in the world, Rifle does everything in it's power to show you your weaknesses. I learnt that while I'm relatively strong considering I haven't bouldered/trained in months, I'm still lacking in lots of power on routes. Anyone who has been to Ceuse or Siurana will know that for both, you'll find that if you haven't put in the effort, you won't get the payback on the routes you try. Rifle is no exception.
But there was amazing positives. As a post on Joe Kinder's blog said recently, experience on different rock does wonders for your climbing as it increases your range of techniques to use while climbing.
I've been lucky in that sense as much to my surprise, after realizing only a few weeks ago that I've climbed in 15 countries, that experience counts for a lot. I was still onsighting 5.12's in Rifle and it only came down to my experience. I'm not overly fit or super-hero strong right now but I managed to climb some routes in a style I never expected. I tried what for me is hard, a 5.13a (7c+) onsight one-day. I got 6 bolts up it before a silly mistake led to take the plummet off the route. But from there, there was only one other move that confused me enough to fall off. My experience of climbing on so many styles meant that I saw knee-bars, squeezes, presses without even thinking about it. For anyone climbing, make it a goal to climb as many different styles and locations as possible. It'll increase your range of movements exponentially.



For those of you who are having to be indoor climbers regularly, stop climbing your own problems and start trying your friend's. You know those ones that your friend does first-go but you can't even pull onto? Yep, they're the problems you should be trying more often. If you can't do it easily, it means that you can only learn something by trying them.
For those of you who are setting problems for yourself, I always had a benchmark that if I could do the climb in less than 10 goes, it was too easy. Make it a goal to set problems that challenge you, you're always getting better then and won't get stale.



Image Credit:
1) The park entrance sign for Rifle National Park
2) Onsighting the tricky 'Feline' 6c/5.11b/c - a great route for finding out what your onsighting experience level is like. Tricky from the 4th bolt all the way to the chains!
3) How more psyched and motivated can you get?!? Cari, our awesome host, STILL climbing with a ruptured tendon. Thankfully it was on the back of the hand so as long as she didn't bend her finger it was fine :)

Surviving Indian Creek

I've been reading and thinking a lot recently about my own thought processes. An interesting insight happened recently - I found a piece that showed that I automatically think of the pessimistic view when it comes to something but that I'll then come up with the positives for it and let them override the negatives as I realize there's more positives. As it happens, I wrote this post in exactly the same fashion. Interesting to see my quirks showing up and learning about myself. What way do you work?

So, Indian Creek....For me, honestly, I struggled at Indian Creek. I found the climbing frustrating and sore. Jamming my feet and hands in cracks only seemed to cause blinding pain and lead to me "feeling the bones in my joints moving around" (as one person described it to me and perfectly described what I was feeling). I left with a sore wrist and a very sore ankle from stuffing them in cracks. And it was frustrating that if the crack was a perfect size for me, it didn't even feel like I was getting a work-out, but if it was too thin/fat, it felt near-impossible.

But there were loads of positives from it. I did get to experience one of the most beautiful places in the world and I did get to learn how to improve my crack-climbing technique for other locations (and have already been used at other crags where I'd least expected to). I also learnt that I'm a very 'wide' climber, i.e. I spread my body out wide and like to make the most of all features around me to climb. Climbing in a very straight line felt horribly claustrophobic for me but I also learned some new movements from it that have already benefited my climbing in other locations. And I also started to trust in Cams/Friends, something I haven't done since watching a friend badly break his ankle from one not holding a fall. So, all in all, it was a worthwhile experience and while I won't be rushing back (Of course, from my last post, it does mean that I should be going back there cause I need to put the time in - 3 days isn't going to cut it to become a proficient crack climber :)., I did find the experience truly amazing.

And who knows, maybe I'll be walking up routes in Fair Head at some point in the future!







Image Credit:
1: Indian Creek taped gloves. An interesting skill that you pick up at the Creek is the manufacture of these. They definitely make a difference!
2: Indian Creek guidebook sitting below the crag as Pepper shows us how to really climb cracks. Humbling.
3: And I thought I was fanatical about climbing. Finn the dog, chases a tennis ball 24 hours a day, every day. Psyche!!!!!
4: avoiding crack climbing in style. myself getting shut down on a 5.9!