Climbing videos to keep you entertained

Update: 18/11/09: modified some text and re-linked a video after a mix-up.


Some mid-week entertainment for you all - but you might want to give up some time to go through these, this is a compilation :) Note, this was written up in an evening, not during work time so you can be glad that I'm actually in work as this is published.

Via ClimbingNarc.com, check out the Mammut comp in Salt Lake City. For an idea of just how strong you could possibly ever get, watch the last few minutes of the Men's Final....


Excellent Women's Final also:



A really good interview with the infamous Chris Sharma (from when he visited Sweden), interviewer isn't great but he is just a volunteer climber so does pretty well (from ClimbingNarc again). As always, great insights from the top of climbing, if only most top-end sports stars were as grounded. And amusing to note that he didn't climb for two months while building his house, and still came 3rd in the World Cup comp :)
Interview 1:

Interview 2:

Interview 3:



Setting your own problems on an indoor wall and need psyche/ideas for pushing yourself? check CATSclimbing, one of the new bouldering walls in Boulder, Colorado. Video footage of their problems on the wall up to V14 (and yes, one of the non super-heroes repeating them).
E.g.:

Organic from James O'Connor on Vimeo.



For a chillout, courtesy of Joe Kinder's blog:

Climbing, Natalija Gros - Le Tango Vertical from Film IT on Vimeo.


Chris Doyle, a UK-based climber has been putting out some great movies. The first and now well-known (after UKclimbing linked to it, it now has supposedly had over 26,000 views) is of Rich Simpson training for the even more famous Action Directe (9a) in the Franenjura, aptly called Obsession. Lesson from all this: if you dedicate to anything, it pays off!

Obsession from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.



and his other footage from Cresciano (warning, each is 30 minutes long and much of it is worth watching). The other young UK star, Tyler Landman, appears regularly to tick off most of the problems on his first go. Stronnnggggggg:
Part 1:

The Power and The Glory Part 1 from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.



And Part 2:

The Power and the Glory Part2 from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.




Enjoy.

An education

Unknown climber on 'Captain Hook', Plantations, UK

Everything I do seems to be an education these days. I'm studying to be a secondary teacher and learning the subtleties/tricks/skill of standing in front of a bunch of teenagers and advising/educating them in ICT/technology (quite good fun as it happens, especially as I realize some of them were only born the year that I got my 1st mobile phone - they don't know a time without the internet or mobiles! But that's a whole other discussion for a different location :), an education in the theory of actualy education (and not just going into a classroom and reading off a Powerpoint), and an education in how weak I am, but also in how much stronger I could (and will be).
These are all potential positives though and I'm working my ass off to get better at all. I'm not sure which one is the more challenging, but it probably falls into the strength/power camp - I seem to really struggle at putting on muscle so once a route gets thuggy, I'm having to dig really deep. Teaching is tough but the pupils are kittens in comparison to some of the places/things I've seen/done!

It's pretty humbling opening eyes to new ideas and methods though - Amazing to see how many climbers here can comfortably do moves that I thought were only for the true super-heroes. You have to be willing to expand your thoughts to new concepts and ideas. Even climbing at new climbing walls, The Foundry and The Climbing Works, is a new experience with different route setters to give challenges. The Works is awesome for gritstone and Font-style climbing, the Foundry seems to work more for general route-style. Every session is a killer, I leave with my arms/back/shoulders hanging off me, but it's a happy feeling and I know that I'm improving with every session. Of course, it's the beginning of winter now so I'm making plans already for next summer - I've a few route goals that I aspire to - and to help me realize my goals, this winter's focus is strength and power, lots more of it.
For anyone interested also, now is the time to be making and setting goals for yourself for next summer. Always wanted to climb that route of xyz grade, why not start preparing now for it? Naomi is proving right now the benefit of training, I'm blown away by her progress from the use of the set of Rock Rings in the past 6-8 weeks. In her words, even the smallest rungs seem big now! For me even, I've been trying a few things that I never really imagined as do-able and am already pretty close to the point where I can consider doing it - a good reminder to always want to improve.

One interesting note from watching the other climbers is that my ideas of how to do certain problems or movement is more open than most (I rarely take beta before a route attempt and yet seem to do just as well as many of the route climbers here who practice heavily) - probably due to all the different locations and types of rock that I've climbed on over the years. Always knew I'd justify all that travel somehow ;)
On a more serious note, it's a good example to all of the importance of seeing new ideas, not just in climbing. I've been trying to integrate that into my teaching as well, some of the pupils seem to really appreciate it which is great!

we came, we saw, we climbed - Fontainebleau

the beauty of Font problems. Learning how to move off holds like the one above. Sorry, forgotten name of climber

The title describes it best. I'm just back from a week in Font. Short descriptions will suffice for it all:
- social: (lots of Irish and loads of my new Sheffield gang around). Awesome! The photo below shows about a third of the group.

- positive: I got the all-clear from the physio only the week before about my wrist (which I alluded to here and have had since Indian Creek, early June). Didn't need any ibuprofen as recommended by the physio too, sweeeeeet :)
- pysche!: watching some of the Sheffield gritstone climbers hang off things that I didn't even realize were holds (see top-most photo as a mild example). Took me over an hour to do the same problem, some of these guys were doing it as a warm-up. Lesson learned? I can hang off the smallest edge, but have a lot to learn with slopers.
- circuits: related to the wrist. I was told to start slow, so multiple easier problems seemed the order of the day. The Font circuits were ideal and the perfect intro. 30+ problems per day seemed like an ideal intro for the first few days. Thanks to Judith for that one.
- chatting: sitting down every evening and chatting about random life with a bunch of close friends. Especially thanks to Dave, Caroline, Judith and Tim for that one in our gite!

And finally, did I mention The Mighty Boosh? Dave, I'll leave you to elaborate on that one ;)

Bodes well for the winter months now too. Dave is showing tons of motivation for a winter of bouldering so that we can transfer it all onto routes next Spring. Bring on the punishing training schedule for the forthcoming months! Psyche!


The beauty of Font: learning to stand, and move, between holds when it's all down to the subtleties of movement and friction