Memory

Time has a way of playing tricks on your mind. It's always nice to get a reminder that you were completely wrong about something that you'd previously been so sure of.

A couple weeks ago I got this from Todd.


After hearing that he had a full video from his birthday challenge in 2004 I made sure he knew I'd love a copy of it. I never really expected him to send one so I excitedly ripped open the envelope.

I found this.


After looking forward to seeing it so badly I was kinda crushed. I talked to Todd again and he said he'd send a new one.

Then today, after a terrible trip up to the lake with far too much snow and wind to explore anything of any worth, I came home to this.


This time it was in one piece.

I can't tell you how fun it was to watch it. Soon, hopefully, more of you will be able to as well.

Remo and I had chatted for a few minutes about it earlier this week and we both decided that Bud White, Beautiful Soup, Massive Vertigo, The Zipper and Martini Madness were the problems we most looked forward to seeing.

On top of those, I couldn't wait to see Bulbous. I just wanted to confirm the beta that had been stewing inside my head for 8 years now. That he went out to the crimp first, and then to the pinch.

RV and I spent days trying that beta. Whenever I talked to anyone about the problem I insisted that the original beta was to move out to the crimp first.

When the footage rolled up and Todd went out to the pinch first I was stunned at how wrong I was. I actually couldn't believe it.

Now I truly have no clue what the difference between Bulbous Left and Bulbous Left Center is.

Time has a way of distorting memory and this was a prime example of that. For whatever reason I'd ingrained it into my head that the beta that Todd used was the crimp beta, despite that this had no basis in reality, whatsoever. I'm sorry to everyone that I spewed the wrong beta to! I'm sure there are many of you out there.

All that aside, the video is a great glimpse into Todd's generation and Neuman's narrating is hilarious. It's very rare that you get to see the end of a generation in such a stark moment. Within a year, everyone in the video except for Nick Rhoads had either stopped climbing or moved away from Madison.

It's incredibly impressive to see the full circuit again, and in particular, Todd doing Beautiful Soup and Massive Vertigo with terribly hard beta as his 29th and 30th problems of the day.

On top of that, we finally get to see where Bud White started!!! Check it out!


I'm excited for some other people to see this. I'll keep you up to date and let me know if you want to check out a couple clips. We'll figure something out.

Here's a couple of shots from my beautiful day today.



30 MPH winds and blowing snow make exploring a helluva lot less fun.