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Brion Voges Lost In The Hood

Free clips for Chris Sharma ?King Lines? climbing video?

Interested in downloading high-quality clips of Chris Sharma climbing?
Today I checked out the website for Chris Sharma’s King Lines movie - and there’s a new addition!
Early versions of the DVD didn’t feature all of the extras properly, so the website features downloadable clips from the extras.
This won’t replace the need to buy the DVD, but [...]Climbing clothes Jeep rock climbing Indoor rock Climbing

More Updates From The Dawn Wall

A brief update after the first 3 days of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's push up a new free route on El Capitan's Dawn WallMore Updates From The Dawn Wall from ClimbingNarc.com



Related posts:Push Begins On El Cap For Caldwell & Jorgeson
The Season Begins For Tommy Caldwell & Kevin Jorgeson On El Cap
Live(ish) From El Cap With Kevin Jorgeson
Latest On Mescalito From Kevin Jorgeson
Climbing Videos: Tommy Caldwell & Kevin Jorgeson On El Cap
Final Mescalito Dispatch Of 2009 From Kevin Jorgeson
First Mescalito Update From Kevin Jorgeson
Video Of Tommy Caldwell Working On Freeing Mescalito On El Capitan
Climbing slings Climb aconcagua Climbing videos

Muy Caliente

In the ?no fall zone? on Muy Caliente E10 6c, PembrokeI?d never been to Pembroke before, so obviously I?ve been a bit of a headless chicken over the past week spent there. There?s a lot to do! First up I met up with Harry and the team to shoot for a couple of days with them for their documentary ?Mastering the Matrix?. We talked a lot on camera about my perspectives on finding success in sport or tasks in general, the differences between success and happiness and misconceptions about risk taking. I?d been invited to take part in part because I discussed a lot of this in the practical context in my book. The lessons from sport for the wider world are fascinating and it was a good discussion.After talking for ages, it was time to put it into practice. So we went to the cliffs and took some falls. We practised falling, taking 30 footers off ?Test Case? E3, in St Govan?s. It totally reminded me how often you have to practice falling. I was actually a little nervous before the first one. A couple of months of no trad falls and the unfamiliarity of falling plays absolute havoc with your leading confidence and climbing efficiency. If you don?t believe me you?re either a nutter, operating way below your potential, or more likely kidding yourself. After this I took the opportunity to have a quick play on Tim Emmett?s E10 ?Muy Caliente?. Moves done first try, link done first try. Game on.


Setting up for the technical crux, the crucial nut clippedI asked the guys if they wanted to stay an extra day and film me putting my money where my mouth is and blasting up that runout. I must say that my knowledge of Tim?s lead attempts really spurred me on to get on the lead myself. I think Linford Christie would struggle to prevent a boulder splat from 50 feet up if you fell off the end of the runout. Tim?s  lead attempts despite not having linked it on a top rope are an exemplar of taking it right to the limit. A fine effort of boldness. I linked it second go and still felt it was a serious proposition, especially while nervously fiddling in the wire at the end of the runout, all too aware of the long stretch of rope below me.Once past the runout it?s just a matter of unleashing every bit of power in your fingers on the technical crux. You don?t want to have to do that runout again! E10? Maybe just, because of that runout. It?s certainly easier than To Hell and Back, but maybe a slightly bigger undertaking than Achemine.


Mid-technical crux on Muy Caliente


With that in the bag, I headed to the pub with Pickford and rendezvoused with the gang for the next shoot! Next up our plan was to shoot some nice climbs for a few days for Black Diamond Equipment. Myself and Tim climbing, Diff, Katie and Dave Pickford shooting. The next hardest route to get on was Pickford?s line ?The Brothers Karamazov? Originally given E9 but later downgraded to E8. However, Dave pointed out that the line hadn?t been done in one big pitch. The second pitch is E7 and was led on a separate day from the main pitch by Pickford, Birkett and Mawson (as far as I know). Dave reckoned that cleaning up this niggle would make it definitely E9.On day 1 we had a go but sea spray stopped both of us in our tracks. Instead we wandered up some nice E5s which were lovely. Next day we got thoroughly soaked by rain and opted to just to Pleasure Dome E3 and Manzuku E1 in the wet. Once we discovered that climbing soaking limestone in gloves was easier than soggy chalk we got on fine and had a nice day.But ?The Brothers? (needs to be said in a Welsh accent for full effect) needed doing to round things off. So next day after the rain stopped we were there again, this time with both of us feeling like going for it. In the end, by the time conditions were right and we were ready, the sun was low in the sky, the waves were getting closer and there was time for only one lead. So we drew straws. I won and Tim graciously let me go for a good scrap on the wall, struggling at first with warm slippy slopers on the crux, and then rope drag just where I didn?t need it on the upper E7 half. But just after sunset, I topped out with a big pitch behind me and a big smile. Video and pics from all this will be on BDs site sometime soon.Great trip!PS: 600 mile drive home, as always, was the most dangerous part of the trip. As I pulled up at a traffic jam I looked in my rear view mirror to see the guy behind driving along looking down (presumably at his iphone) and not braking. So today I have some minor whiplash and a smashed up car to deal with.


Dave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakesYork climbers Cat climbers Mast climbers

What now?

After I did Rhapsody at Dumbarton in 2006, I pretty quickly packed up and moved to the Highlands of Scotland. There were lots of reasons for doing this, climbing being just one. The ?climbing reason? was largely to find the most adventurous, arduous new routes I could lay my hands on, and try and do them. To Hell and Back, Echo Wall and more recently The Usual Suspects. All climbs where the actual climbing is only a small part of the deal. I?ve spent a ridiculous amount of time walking into Scottish coires in the rain with three ropes and two racks in my bag. I buy cleaning brushes in packs of 24. I?ve given myself three overuse injuries from cleaning new routes. On The Usual Suspects I think I spent 10 days on the rope on Sron Ulladale with my rockshoes just dangling from my harness before I finished finding, rigging and cleaning it and could actually start to move on it.I?ve been doing first ascents for 12 years now and still I love it. Not in a count ?em up ticking kind of way. It?s the creative expression of every stage of the process that I?ve enjoyed so far. Over the past few years I?ve really revelled in the inaccessibility, the awkwardness and the pure endurance factor of time and effort needed to open new routes on trad gear in the remotest possible places.But climbing never has been about one channel for me. When judging the value of experiences, people often refer to how ?memorable? they were. This makes sense. I was reading Steve McClure?s column in Climb today and he was talking about how he found his long redpoint battles most memorable for him. I feel exactly the same. For me also, there is no substitute for the detail, the intricacy of the moves and the tactics and the totally enveloping focus of the redpoint effort, with all extraneous thought and movement distilled out by a thousand rehearsals in body and mind. Every bit of time, effort, sweat and will that goes into it, all add to it?s value.I don?t think my memory of the smell and the summer sun on Echo Wall sessions will ever diminish. Or glissading down Observatory gully at 11pm in the sunset feeling totally at home. Or the roaring wind throwing me about on Sron Uladail, ropes rubbing on sharp edges, soaked to the skin as I looked for lines to climb. Mountains and mountain trad climbing inevitably make a deep stamp in your memory by their power. So is that an argument to forget everything else and go trad climbing all the time? No!Memories are important, but they are not everything. We have to live in the moment too. Everyday needs and pleasures are also important. You might not remember your regular walk to your girlfriend?s or school or work on a particular day several years ago. But the everyday act of walking is something really important to lots of us. To say you?d soon miss it if it was taken away from you is a bit of an understatement. This everyday routine of climbing movement is the other side of climbing for me, and I know it is for lots of people, even if they don?t necessarily think of it that way. Whether it?s the exercise, or the emptying of the mind for a while, or the movement or whatever - it doesn?t matter. If you look at it directly it seems mundane. But the bigger picture shows that it becomes important to you. Especially if, like me, you?ve done it for 17 years.I often feel like this in September. A long ?summer? of labour intensive mountain new routing leaves me counting the hours of being wet, walking with large sacks, shivering and hauling about on ropes and realising this comes at the expense of actual metres of hard moves climbed. This season, like all the previous, I have some fine adventures to show for it. If the last warm days, dry mountain crags and partners collide, I may yet have more. Now though, the pendulum needs to swing the other way and I need to climb some hard moves again. 

Short term plan: time to boulderDave MacLeod

My book - 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakesMount kinabalu photos Famous mountains Mount everest

back at it?

So I?m back on the blogging front? I know? It?s been way to long, I cant even remember when the last blogged but my site tells me April 22 was the last real post, and wow, that was a long time ago? So much has happened in my life since then, I can?t begin [...]Jeep rock climbing Indoor rock Climbing Rock climbing gear