since you asked

Believe me, I hear you. But what does that mean? A...

2009-11-10T10:04:43.267-05:00

Believe me, I hear you. But what does that mean? And why does it keep you sane? What about climbing makes it the right outlet for you? That's what I'm trying to dig up with this post and a couple more that I've got brewing.

it keeps me sane

2009-11-10T09:05:52.293-05:00

it keeps me sane

And repeating tired cliches is the height of cleve...

2009-10-30T12:40:46.928-04:00

And repeating tired cliches is the height of cleverness.

Sport Climbing is neither

2009-10-29T13:54:04.638-04:00

Sport Climbing is neither

The way I see it, your reflection doesn't have to ...

2009-09-29T15:51:30.736-04:00

The way I see it, your reflection doesn't have to be that complicated. You just have to figure out whether it is rock climbing in general you truly enjoy, or just bouldering. No reason convincing yourself that you should be clippig bolts simply because the bouldering conditions aren't good.

Perfect example: I know for a fact that a good friend of mine would always choose an intense gym pulling session over a a day of mild bolt-clipping. The dude likes to pull hard, always. He is a boulderer for the most part, and this is the satisfaction he gets out of the activity.

For me this is unthinkable. I would rather be climbing 5.3 slabs all day outside than pulling plastic indoors. As a matter of fact, I'd rather be outside just looking at a rock than indoors pulling plastic.

This is a leisure activity; the only measure of worthiness should be your degree of enjoyment.

I'm vaguely disturbed that you know I have a blog....

2009-09-28T09:52:38.730-04:00

I'm vaguely disturbed that you know I have a blog. And that you're using it as a forum to talk about WoW. But I guess it makes as much sense as talking about climbing, so whatev.

This reminds me of a similarly Euro phenomenon: F...

2009-09-25T23:59:30.546-04:00

This reminds me of a similarly Euro phenomenon: For some reason, the best WoW guilds are and always have been European. Which makes no sense to me, on a number of levels (the parent Co. of the game is American, there are a lot of Americans with loads of free time, money, and inclination, we adopted PC's a lot faster than they did, eckt eckt eckt).

What's my point? No idea. Maybe that Europeans are weird...? At the very least, we can conclude from these two examples that Europeans are superior at fringe activities that require fanatical devotion to excel at.

Is this why some mean lady wrote a comment on my "...

2009-09-19T23:18:25.214-04:00

Is this why some mean lady wrote a comment on my "sierra blaire coyle needs to wear pants" post saying that my "blog" was all wrong about something or other? I wondered, how could that be? The whole blog is wrong? But we have completely contradictory perspectives. Thanks for clarifying. These are the first precarious steps toward idiocracy.

-sendaustin

It's Euro English. Photo caption "Hans Euro in bou...

2009-09-14T18:26:00.997-04:00

It's Euro English. Photo caption "Hans Euro in boulder Jolly Crank F7c+"

See also bloc

Why did you have to go for Rocky? Anybody who know...

2009-08-10T18:51:10.653-04:00

Why did you have to go for Rocky? Anybody who knows anything knows that Rocky's the man. I'm a bit disappointed frankly. And btw, all the Rocky flicks have something unique to offer. hell, there's even a robot in one of them, and hulk hogan!
You could've gone for Friday the 13th, now that would've work as an analogy.

Glad I could be of service :)

2009-08-07T09:41:09.561-04:00

Glad I could be of service :)

word man... even more depressing than wondering if...

2009-07-20T11:26:31.409-04:00

word man... even more depressing than wondering if we can stick to a 'training' regimine is whether our bodies will put up with it... even if the gumption is there, sometimes tweaks, pulls, pain, and straight-up damage prevents it.

rage!

a few more days dude, a few more days... My Spidey...

2009-06-21T20:40:21.557-04:00

a few more days dude, a few more days...
My Spidey sense tells me it'll be sunshine and lollipops starting next thursday, as soon as we touch down at Rumney, that is.

I almost went with pantywaist, but I prefer the sl...

2009-06-10T14:00:52.600-04:00

I almost went with pantywaist, but I prefer the slightly more gender neutral feel of milquetoast.

brah, being is relative and stuff. all the social...

2009-06-10T02:06:11.348-04:00

brah, being is relative and stuff. all the social mumbo-jumbo you refer to will be like reading wingdings if you get vegetablized on a huge tumble so i say.... FREEDOM!!!!!!

or, like, feel the wind...er... v10.

Totally in agreement with all of the above. Very w...

2009-06-09T18:47:22.858-04:00

Totally in agreement with all of the above. Very well put indeed!

And I don't know about you being a milquetoast (I had to look that one up believe it or not). I do know that milktoast is a really cool 10d route at the 5.8 crag. Not risky in the least.

so much potential vengeance.

2009-06-02T11:24:28.029-04:00

so much potential vengeance.

train power-endurance. it offers the best turn ar...

2009-05-17T08:04:00.000-04:00

train power-endurance. it offers the best turn around for 4 months.

then you can win at sport climbing.

wiiiinnnnn!!!!!!

ahhhh, if I had the answer to everything.... But t...

2009-04-23T14:25:00.000-04:00

ahhhh, if I had the answer to everything....
But then again, I do have these:

Yes, when you're tied in, holds are less sharp, unless you're projecting some heinous 13+ stuff. Rumney for example: not hard to find mid-12s with mostly big holds and big moves between them. Big holds I mean by bouldering standards.

Yes, I actually do believe there are less bugs around crags than there are around boulders. Unless the crag overlooks a swamp. But bugs are hell for everyone. It's illegal in Canad-eh, but I know you guys can buy some flesh-melting 90 proof deet stuff.

And sweating in a harness sucks for sure, but it's either that or staying home fixing shit around the house and sweating just the same.

The bigger issue, though, is how one approaches the whole climbing gig. See, I don't mind climbing fun 10s all day if it's too hot and sweaty to try more committing stuff. But bouldering V0s all day would probably bore me. And I'm not a project driven climber. I have a ticklist, but I'm in no rush to tick anything.

Oh man, now this comment is going on a tangent from tissue's post, and I just realized I could've summarized the whole thing in one sentence: climbing outside when it's hot and sweaty beats not climbing, climbing in a gym, and climbing in a garage.

very scientific.

2009-04-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

very scientific.

Thanks Rocky Bal-bro-a. Let me know when you're ma...

2009-04-22T21:23:00.000-04:00

Thanks Rocky Bal-bro-a. Let me know when you're making the trek south. I'll show up with my ancient 10.2 rope and poor routefinding skills.

Dude, that is it. Next time I drive down to Rumney...

2009-04-22T14:56:00.000-04:00

Dude, that is it. Next time I drive down to Rumney you are most definitely dropping by as well.
I mean look: my finger gets stuck in the biner at every single hard clip, no joke. I cannot for the life of me find good rests on a route, unless it's a ledge I can lay down on. And I can't do hard moves period, regardless of where I am in relation with the last bolt.
It's a match made in heaven: we'll go climb, leave bail-biners on long 11s, and work that awesome three bolt 12a proj and spray about it at baker river campground in the evening.
I don't know how it is with bouldering, but sucking at climbing takes almost none of the fun away from sport climbing.

Now I have to go write a post about how I was a poseur back when I was a skater as well.

@tommy: Interesting ideas. I can kinda juggle 3 ba...

2009-04-22T14:08:00.000-04:00

@tommy: Interesting ideas. I can kinda juggle 3 balls, 7 just sounds absurd. Also, I've got no garage and no one should spend more time than absolutely necessary in my basement (health reasons). Also I've got no garden and no space to put one. Also no hang board or pull up bar so no front levers. The notebook, though...

@stevie: I know, man, but I'm totally remedial on a rope. I mean basically totally helpless. Can't clip, can't rest effectively, can't do hard moves above protection. It's a mess.

i'm rope climbing as well. in fact, i start this ...

2009-04-22T13:10:00.000-04:00

i'm rope climbing as well. in fact, i start this weekend.

hopefully i'll be amazed by how much endurance i have.

I know, I know, flame suit on, but I can't resist:...

2009-04-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, flame suit on, but I can't resist:

You know, there is such a thing as a roped climbing season that's just getting underway.

just sayin' is all.