All.I.Can.

So I bought "A Fine Line" the other day. I'd watched it at Nic's and liked it enough to download a copy too. It's a good flick and I can honestly say it's one of the better climbing videos I've seen.

That said, it still left me without something. Don't get me wrong, the cinematography was amazing and the composition of many of the shots was absolutely beautiful. On top of that, my expectations may have been a bit bloated because it's received an incredible amount of press for being a step better than anything else out there, past or present.

At its core though, it's still just a climbing video. It still follows that same script that we all know. Boy finds a friend. Friends climb very hard. Friends go on trip. Friends climb very hard on trip. Friends get homesick and come back home. Friends find new area. Chick climbs for a bit. Friends climb amazing looking, perfect line. Roll credits.

How they ended the movie was PERFECT. Beyond perfect, really. Peter Beal was great and was a perfect voice to lay over everything else. Jimmy and Brion came across on video wonderfully and I absolutely loved the scenery and setting shots.

What I did like about it was that it was more than just another video. There were set shots that were perfectly composed. All of the textures in the film came out amazingly and I really enjoyed the extra clips that made it stand out among its peers.

More than anything, it has "re-watch" value.

At its core though, climbing is years behind other sports in terms of the quality of our videos/movies/films.

I don't like skiing. I don't like to watch it. I don't like to do it. It's just always seemed clunky to me and I haven't been on ski's in 15 years. I've gravitated towards snowboarding ever since I tried it years ago and it's always seemed more "fluid". More natural. I enjoy watching and doing it more than I ever enjoyed skiing Personal preference.

This morning though, Huston posted an absolutely amazing clip from a ski film called All.I.Can.

Words won't come close to giving it the justice it deserves so I won't speak to the clip too much. Click the little HD button. Let it load. Watch it on full screen. In my eyes the Ueli segment from the Eiger is the only thing that even comes remotely close to this in terms of quality, and that one is a long ways off from this.

I hope climbing can produce this type of quality at some point in the future.

Stunning.

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

Climb X

For as much as I don't like Mad Rock shoes, this made me happy:

Santa Fe Springs, CA November 29, 2011: To avoid the trouble and costs of a long trial, Nelson Sports and Climb X have reached an agreement. As with any settlement, comprises were made, but prior untrue statements of the Defendants, for the most part have been exposed and the public can now understand that Climb X and its products were never affiliated in any way with Mad Rock or Nelson Sports. To cover the highlights of the agreement, both parties have agreed to the following terms:

- Defendants Garland, Climb X Gear, and Climb X have paid a total sum of $150,000 as a Settlement Payment.
- Defendants are prohibited from using Nelson’s Trade Marks.
- Defendants are prohibited from representing in any manner or by any method
Whatsoever that Climb X products are sponsored, approved, authorized by
Nelson/Mad Rock
- Defendants are prohibited from representing in any manner that Defendants are in any way affiliated, owned, or owned by, Nelson/Mad Rock.
- Defendants shall implement changes in advertisement and future print media regarding product names that have been copied.
- Both parties agree not to disparage the other party.
- Defendants must publish for 6 months, under the heading “About Us” on the Climb X website the following:

A) Garland was never an officer, shareholder or director of Nelson Sports
B) Climb X, a Nevada Corporation, nor Climb X Gear, LLC has never been affiliated in any way to Nelson or Mad Rock
C) Young Chu was the primary designer of the products
D) Garland has never been to the “Mad Rock” factory and has no knowledge of any problems relating to the factory.
E) No “Climb X” branded product won any awards prior to Jan, 2010.



We are still in the process of working with our legal team to update the “About Us” page on the Climb X website. Please be aware that these prohibitions and restrictions are only for products, advertisements, etc. in the United States of America. Be on alert for advertisers and distributors that do not adhere to these restrictions outside the United States.

Firsts

I enjoy looking back on "firsts" and "lasts", a lot. I like the odd significance of them and find them really interesting. I took my last picture with the D70 yesterday. Here it is:


I thought it was appropriate.

And then today, after getting a couple of memory cards, I took my first picture with the D7000.


The D70 has been with me since 2004 and I'm actually having a tough time giving it up. It took some amazing pictures over the years and opened me up to a whole new world of knowledge and opportunities. Cracks, dents and all.

That said, the D7000 is kind of amazing. I'm planning on having a ton of fun with that thing.

I hope you enjoy some of the last pictures I took with the D70.

Updates

Couple of nice updates around here.

1 - Sam finally did Anchorpoint. So did Blake. Well done you two, it was only slightly terrifying that you both topped out direct instead of traversing left on jugs at the break. I'm glad we made it up there to see it.

2 - Peter did Beautiful Soup and Soupmaker. While I'm not totally sure why, he did Soupmaker instead of just trying Keymaker and then couldn't do Keymaker. Either way, he'll do it next time I'm sure.

3 - Ian did the Ivory Face and Purple Dragon. For those that don't know, Ivory is a very pretty wall up by Fat Pants. While it's a cool looking face, and obviously hard, it has a striking similarity to the dead vertical crimping nightmare, Ice. Curious to see if this will see any repeats.

Purple Dragon is a midpoint start of the Corner Project and while the true prize still awaits, I think it is absolutely fantastic that Ian is finally working on hard, independent lines. It's something that Nic, Remo and I were hoping for when Ian moved to town and it's nice to see his efforts focused on this.

I remember showing Ian the Corner Project a handful of times and each time he was very unimpressed. I'm not sure what changed but I'm happy he's up there trying it. That's one of the big disappointments for me this year, that I haven't been able to work on that particular wall a bit more.

Aaron and Dobbe - It seems they had a great day up at the lake on Sunday and spent time falling off of nearly everything in the park. Jenga, Moj, Alpine Club and I'm sure many more. I believe numbed out hands may have been responsible for the failure on Super Slab.

Quote of the day: "Our hands were so cold that on the bump move on Jenga, our brains couldn't work fast enough to open our fingers up. We just kept punching the hold!"

Nice work boys.

As for me, Katie and I had a great afternoon up on the East Bluff. It was nice to have a bit of solitude and calm. I always enjoy the days that I get out with Katie and this was no exception. The time we're able to spend together means the world to me and while my job is taking me a bit further from climbing than I'd like, it's nice to know that I can have a nice, quiet day of climbing with my wife.

We went up to Fat Pants on the East Bluff so I could try it out. After a lackluster flash attempt I figured out the moves on my second or third try and then spent the next hour or so puttering around on it. Eventually after a prolonged effort that included stupid beta, machine gun efforts and numb fingers, I was able to finish it up nicely.

I can honestly say that this is among the top three new problems that has gone up this year and it was a good effort to put it together. I can also say that I'm extremely glad that none of the detached blocks are on, as they would have made a surefire classic into something much less.

Fat Pants joins Muffin Top and Tipping Point in the quality over quantity category. I'm glad it's here and people should go do it.

Now, adressing Peter. A couple weeks ago you made a comment about how there haven't been any pictures. You know what happens when you complain here? I hold out even longer. Instead of getting good pictures, you get this:






I'll post pictures when and where I want. Until then:

Alpine Club

RV
Eggnuts
Remo
Vince Evans
Brian Runnells
Jeremy Hemberger
Steve Day
Kelsen Alexander
Brenden Hefty
Jason Houston
Jeff Sillcox
Chaz Warren
Chris Esser
Aaron Kaetterhenry
John Dobbe
Jamie Emerson
Myself
Countless others

Last night Katie took her name off the list of people that have tried Alpine Club but haven't climbed it.

Nice work Katie!

Made Up Drama

I'm not going to say much about what's been going on lately other than it makes me, and others I've spoken to, incredibly sad. The main reason for the existence of this site has been to create a community and I feel like up until very recently we had a damn fine one. Everyone was nice, everyone cared about the lake and things were super positive.

It seems something has changed this fall and we now have a fractured and divided community. It's petty, stupid and childish. Honestly, it makes me want to climb with only my closest friends, just to stay out of it all.

I've worked very hard over the years to build up a community like the one we've had in the past and to see it go this way is frustrating, to say the least. At this point I'd love to see everyone leave their personal differences out of it and grow the hell up. I think we'd all like to see that.

Five Ten

Yep, here's my obligatory "five ten just got bought by some German bitches" post. As most of you already know I'm sure, Brian is on the ball with the big news and is letting everyone know that Five Ten was bought by Adidas.

I'm always enamored with news like this. Always. I find this side of the industry super interesting. What I love the most about it is the guaranteed reaction from everyone in the climbing industry:

"lame...no more 5.10s for me"
"Sell outs!!!!"
"Booooo! The 1% strikes again!"
"I love my 5 10s, this is horrendous. I wont wear anything made by Adidas!"
"the consolidation of the industry continues. long live the small independent brands!"
"Before you know it, we'll be seeing 5.10 in Walmart similar to when The North Face was bought by a publicly traded company. It is now all about the bottom line for 5.10, which will most likely (unfortunately) lead to it's downfall. Baaaad move, guys."
"obviously they don't understand the customer. nike will take over lasportiva next then it will be LA sportiva."

All of the above quotes were taken off of deadpoints bookface wall. It happens whenever any company is bought by another, in any industry. It happened to Gregory/BD in the exact same way.

And what's the takeaway from Gregory/BD nearly two years after the fact? All the Gregory reps are still Gregory Reps. The offices moved to Salt Lake. Both companies are posting record growth and are putting out some of their most innovative and useful product in years.

That said, my first thought was similar to the sentiments above. It's always worrysome so see your favorite company go from being small, family owned and independent, to being owned by a multi billion dollar conglomerate.

I hope that in the end things will work out and nothing major will change. I hope that this will allow 5.10 to have better processes and better sourcing abilities. Above all, I hope this allows them to have more innovative product at a wider range of sizes.

And yes Brian, they should bring back the original V10.