Rattlesnake Mound

It's like Where's Waldo, just with Katie...can you find her?

Katie and I took a day off yesterday and went up to Rattlesnake Mound. It's a fairly new area and is pretty cool. A tornado came through a couple years ago and took out most of the trees in the area. Everything felt wide open but it got really windy at times. Made for a cool atmosphere though.

We warmed up on the House Boulder and got warm pretty quick. In the sun it was perfect out and we were down to t-shirts and sweating. After packing up our stuff we went over to Chaos. It is on my list for the year and I wanted to give it a good flash go since it was very much my style. I promptly blew the flash by missing the first hold and went to work on it for real. I was able to get all the moves worked out pretty quickly but my skin was suffering badly from a solid month of not climbing more than once a week.



Chaos is about 6 moves long and is full on power crimping. For me the crux is going to be bumping from the first tiny crimp to the second, bigger, crimp. I couldn't quite put it together yesterday but we may be going back tomorrow for more. It should go down then. The moves are all really fun and it was a good effort by John to put it up last year. Well done sir!!!



After getting completely cold at Chaos we went over to the sunny side of the bluff again to explore a little. We found a nice little boulder with about 5-6 really fun warm ups. There is potential for some more but it's a nice little boulder and has cool exposure to it. The setting is unique and was a great way to cool down after a great day.




I approve!!!

Ancient Radness : West Bluff Lunge

Back in 2005, right after I moved back to Wisconsin, Peter De Salvo took a bunch of us on a tour of the west bluff at Devil's Lake. We started out at the top of the bluff off of the fire road and went to a bunch of boulders that were all new to me.

Standing above the rest was a lunge problem in the middle of the forest. We bushwhacked our way back to it and in a small corridor there were 5-10 problems. Right in the middle was a striking arete standing over a 2-3 foot tall boulder right in the middle of the landing. We stacked the pads around it and stuck Steve Day on top of the boulder to spot everyone and went to work.

After waiting around, taking pictures and watching bad beta for way too long I stepped up and did the problem second go. Tom, Peter and I think Kelsen followed soon after. The landing, coupled with a fairly committing final throw, made for an extremely satisfying last move.

Here are a couple of pictures from the problem. I'd love to go back up there and make a proper trail around the top of the West Bluff. Thorns are no fun.

Canoecopia

At the end of Saturday. Tired enough to put a pot on my head and pose for a picture.

This past weekend our sales agency took four of our brands(Sea To Summit, Jetboil, Petzl and AMK) to the largest paddlesport event in the nation, Canoecopia. Over 25,000 people attend the three day consumer event each year and some travel from around the world for it. I definitely talked to a number of Euro's this weekend about which dry sack they wanted. More than half of the people I talked to weren't even from the Madison area.

For so many the attendees this is the kickoff to their paddling season. Seeing as I don't paddle anything, this event is a bit lukewarm for me. I have fun but by the end of the weekend I'm pretty ready for it to be over. The crowds are massive and can be incredibly intense at times. For about a 6 hour period on Saturday we had well over 50 people in our 20 foot by 30 foot booth at all times.

One thing that strikes me about the paddlesport community is how positive they are. All weekend long everyone there was genuinely happy and didn't want to be anywhere else. Perfect example was Sunday Morning before the doors opened. While I was groggy and half awake, everyone in the entry way, all 1000 of them, started to clap in unison trying to get the doors open sooner. That was the last thing I was expecting.

All in all it's a great event and brings the entire community together for a weekend. It's something that every industry should have.

On that note, it looks like Katie and I may have a day or 2 of climbing this week. Her ankle was doing better until this past weekend and hopefully it can recover enough to feel OK for this week. Unfortunately I have yet to try the Projects out, but will give them a good workout tomorrow I hope.

It's sunny and 60 now. Wish I were outside...

Projects

So I caved and got a pair of the Five Ten Projects. They arrived yesterday and after a little bit of work, and fear that I ordered the wrong size, I was able to get them on.

Initial impressions:

- Fit - They're pretty narrow and kind of baggy on the sides. Very similar, actually, to the original V10's in that respect. The metal loop that the velcro goes through hits the top of my foot a little weird right now but that may change in the future after they break in. The heel fits better than the V10 heel did, but still a little baggy on the outside. I like how the shoe feels, as a whole, more than the Jet7 right now. I don't like to compare across brands too much, but they definitely don't fit me as well as the Testarossa's or Booster's did. Very classic "Five Ten" fit and shape. If the Velcro Dragons fit you well a decade ago, these should too.

- Sensitivity - I haven't climbed in them yet, should be able to sometime in the next couple days, but they definitely feel soft. As they should. Should be interesting to see how they actually climb. Curiosity caught me on this one and I hope I like them.

- Rubber - A bunch of press has been made out of the new rubber but initial thoughts are very "meh". Rubber is rubber. Whether it's C4, HF, Onyx, Mystique or something else, it all comes down to the shape of the shoe. No big surprises here.

- Sizing - Most people I talked to went a size and a half down from their Dragons. While I don't own any Dragons, I'm a pretty standard 8 the times I've tried them on. So I went with a 6.5 in the projects. They should work out well after shoe stretch. They've got pretty soft uppers and should stretch a fair amount.

I'll give another update once I try them out a couple times. Fun fun.

Ancient Radness : Jenga(V7)

These shots are from a couple years ago up in the west bluff talus field. A crew of about 9 people and pads made our way through the upper fields and put a ton of work in on some super sketch landings for some massive highball projects. Nothing too hard but stuff with nonexistent landings and bordering on solo height.

We made some time to try a Peter De Salvo classic, Jenga. It climbs up a mini dihedral to some good slopers and a throw for a jug. Hefty made quick work of it and sent on his second go. First go he missed the crux hold and fell trying to bump it up again(see picture number 1). Burly. Definitely a classic and sadly I couldn't finish it up that day.

Jenga is a complete pain to find unless you have the super secret squirrel beta(phrase shamelessly stolen from Katie). I'll be happy to give that out but I give no guarantees you'll be able to find it.

I recently found a whole stash of old pictures from Devil's Lake that I thought I had lost. In all of those are pics of the 45 degree boulder, Smooth Operator/Bud White and a bunch of others too. I'm going to try to do weekly radness postings for your viewing pleasure.

Photo credits go to "Sweaty" Steve Day.

Climbing Shoe Technologies

I've been wanting to post about this for a little bit now. As many of you know I'm a complete dork when it comes to climbing shoes. They occupy way too much of my time and I over-analyze each little thing about shoes. There have been a couple of new shoes coming out though that have caught my eye.

First up is the Five Ten Project. I'd seen pics of "Nicros Nic" wearing them last year on Justin's blog and was wondering what they were. Come to find out earlier this year that they are the new performance shoe from Five Ten. As of late I haven't been super impressed with Five Ten's offerings but this one is a little different. They've created a new last for this shoe and it has kind of a unique story to go along with it. The Project comes with a 2 millimeter outsole and no midsole. Yep, no midsole at all. By taking out all of the extra material they've made a shoe that is apparently way more sensitive than anything out there. They are also using a new rubber and are touting it as stickier and more durable than Stealth HF.

For the first time since the original V10 I'm excited about Five Ten and I'm actually really interested in getting a pair of these. While I don't think that they'll be a great workhorse, they should make a nice compliment to the quiver. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that they won't edge too well but should excel on steep terrain. Everyone seems to be sizing them down a size and a half from the Dragons to accommodate for stretch.

Next up is the La Sportiva Speedster. Right now it's debuting in Italy/Europe and is set to start shipping here in the states come fall. Sportiva got rid of the Venom for 2009 and is hoping that the Speedster will take the Venoms place. It looks like La Sportiva is making a move for the sensitive shoe market as well with this shoe. Same as the Project it does not have a midsole, but instead of a 2mm outsole the Speedster will have a 3mm outsole. I'm going to guess that durability is going to be a bit better with the Speedsters since it has XS Grip and also has a little bit of a thicker sole.

After loving the Cobra and then being really disappointed with the Venom, I'm curious how this shoe will fare. I have a lot of friends who really loved the Venom but it never seemed to fit my foot that well. It had a tendency to flatten out really quickly and lose its downturn. This is going to happen to any shoe, especially a slipper, but I was never a fan. Also, I may be the only person out there that really likes the green color.

Now on to the funky stuff. I came across this today and couldn't believe it. After formerly working for Vasque I'm pretty intimately acquainted with the BOA lacing system. I think it works pretty well for Snowboard boots and works moderately well for trail runners. I never really thought I'd see it on climbing shoes. I guess someone was bound to do it, right?

Check out the Millet Boa 1st climbing shoe. I'm kinda speechless right now and don't know what to think. I can't think of any reason why you'd add the Boa system as opposed to Velcro or Laces. Rather than making something that's functional and useful, it seems like they made something different, just to be different. It'll be interesting to see if this catches on but I'm guessing this will go the way of the Keen climbing shoes that never made it to production a few years ago.

I'd climb so fast if I had those!!!!

Tick List

So I realized that I never did a true tick list for the upcoming season. I'm always torn on whether to do a tick list or not. Partially because I always fail miserably(see birthday challenges 1 and 2 for examples) and partially because my interests change fairly radically. It's nice to lay out what you want to do though, so I figured why not.

So here it is, the list of radness. Enjoy...

- Sandstone Violence - V8 - After coming so close on the FA I lost so much interest in it after get hit by a loose block. I've only put one day of half hearted effort into it since Fall of 2006. I really need to just sack up and finish this thing off.

- Battle of the Bulge - V7/8?(unrepeated) - I spent one day on it on one of my first days back last fall and got spanked. I'm in much better shape now and want to get back on this one.

- Highly Executed - V7 - Spent a few days on this last fall and got close. This one isn't really high on the list but would be nice to put down.

- Chaos - V7(unrepeated) - Sweaty put up this line last year and it looks really good and kind of my style. Would love to dispatch this one. The rest of Rattlesnake Mound looks really cool and I'm really looking forward to spending time out there this spring.

- Alpine Club - V9? - I would absolutely love to climb this stupid little problem. 3 days of work with no progress is enough for me. One of the benchmark climbs for me at the lake. NEED to do this one. It's been on my mind for far too long.

- Beautiful Soup(V8)/Keymaker(V10/11) - Having only really spent a day on this problem I'd love to have a couple more this year. Beautiful soup is very doable but I'm not sure about the Keymaker. There is more interest in hard bouldering at the lake this year already and it should be a good season.

- Body Karate - V9 - RV and I had a solid day on this a year and a half ago and it'd be a fun one to finish up. Just need to find time to go back to So Ill.

- Instinct Sit - V10 - I would absolutely love to finish this up. It felt surprisingly doable and the moves were really fun. Another Fall trip to LRC may be in order....

I'd be happy to do any number of these really. Here's to hoping the weather is kind to us this year...