I have another interesting topic for discussion tomorrow, but in the meantime here are a few links for your perusal:

• If you enjoy salivating over the posts at the Betabase blog, you should consider checking out the blog of Justin Alarcon.  In this post, he spends the day bouldering in The Valley with Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell.  Cool stuff.
• For those that have read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, you might want to check out the Frontline documentary on PBS tonight entitled “Storm Over Everest”. In the documentary, David Breashears & others present during the 1996 tragedy on Mt. Everest return to recount what happened on that fateful day.  It airs from 8 pm to 10 pm CST.

• Speaking of David Breashears, FRB has a great interview up with an old climbing partner of his, Steve Mammen.  Steve has some great stories to share about climbing in the Frontrange back in the 1970’s including his seconding of the Eldorado Canyon fright-fest Perilous Journey after Breashears got the FA.  He also has insights on what it feels like to climb at age 50 that make me feel like my clock is ticking…
• Daniel Woods is really cranking things up as his trip to Europe apparently comes to an end.  His most recent success at Magic Wood, Switzerland was his link of Dave Graham’s V11/12 Left Hand of Darkness into his own recently opened Remembrance of Things Past (V14) to create In Search Of Time Lost (V15).  These ascents bring his total of V11 or harder problems to an astounding 60 over his 6 month stay in Europe!  11 of these ascents were V14 or harder!  Jamie Emerson has a bit more background.

Photo:  David Pearson

• Paul Robinson recently added a V13 he calls Mendax to the Veritas boulder at RMNP.  You can see a few pictures of Paul climbing Veritas at the Sock Hands blogsite.  You can see videos of 3 of the 6 notable Veritas boulder problems at the RMNP video page.
• The newly redesigned Allclimbing has a nice review of the Revolution UZI crash pad.
• Also via Allclimbing is a post about the plastic used in Nalgene water bottles.  Frankly, I just find the whole situation confusing.  What, out of the things we use each day, isn’t going to kill us?
• Momentum Video Magazine Volume 3 is now available on DVD.
• Joe Kinder has another nice interview up at MVM, this time with Emily Harrington.
• Carlo Traversi has posted a few photos of his new V12 at Clear Creek Canyon called Paths of Glory.
• PlanetMountain has a recap of last weekend’s Melloblocco event that was unsurprisingly won by Adam Ondra (see below) and Barbara Zangerl.

Photo:  Giulio Malfer

• If someone could please translate this Dave Graham pro blog into English that would be helpful
• I climbed last night!  And it went pretty well!  Ahh yes, the spring season is upon us!  Oh wait….I’m having surgery again next Monday…time to set sights on that potential trip to the Frontrange for Labor Day…

Last night, Mrs. Narc and I had the pleasure of watching “The Australia Project”, a BSProductions film.  It follows the adventures of Matt Segal, Rob D’Anastasio, Emily Harrington and Brian Solano as they tour around Australia in the summer of 2004.  Guest appearances are also made by James Litz, Randy Puro and Brian Capps.  Areas like The Grampians, Nowra, Bungonia Gorge, Point Perpendicular and Armidale provide a perfect canvas for the differing styles of all these climbers.

Of all the movies I have reviewed lately (Spray, MVM Vol. 2, Dr. Topo DVD), I would have to say that “The Australia Project” is definitely my favorite.  It has great rock, cool problems and a diverse group of climbers that keep things interesting the entire movie.  If you liked the small feature on The Grampians that was in the extras of Dosage 3, you will most definitely like this full length feature.

Usually when I watch a movie of the “climbing porn” variety with Mrs. Narc she is easily bored, but not so with “The Australia Project”.  Here is what she had to say:

I really enjoyed the DVD.  Both the climbing and the commentary were enjoyable, though I could have done without the Joe Kinder intro, the superfluous screaming and the animal harassment - I’m not a fan of “bowling for wallabies”!

With this movie being a bit older, the major bonus for you is that you can now get your own copy of “The Australia Project” for only $10 plus shipping.  Check out the official BSProductions blog for more details.

It has been a week or two of good videos over at the Momentum Video Magazine…if you are a premium subscriber:

• Going back to last week, there was some renewed buzz about James Litz’s unrepeated V14ish problem Warpath at the City Of Rocks, ID when Ty Landman and Jamie Emerson paid a visit. Ty put in some good work on the full problem while Jamie sent the initial section which is a V11 in its own right called Jared’s Roof. You can see the footage of Jamie climbing Jared’s Roof in the free area of MVM. Remember that you can still see the full footage of James on the FA of the problem in the archives of the MVM Premium Section. It is still probably one of the best problems in the entire archives, it looks that good.
• Next up is footage of Isaac Caldiero repeating Dave Graham’s Cloverland (V13) in Moe’s Valley (no excavation required). Good stuff.
• Alex Puccio and Giovanni Traversi in Joe’s Valley which was ok.
• Fred Nicole, yes THE Fred Nicole, bouldering in Colorado with Chuck Fryberger. The free version shows him climbing the iconic Ripper Traverse (see below) while the premium area also shows him climbing at Little Owl Canyon and Newlin Creek. Can’t wait to see when Fred gets to some of the modern alpine areas.

• And most recently is the footage of Ty Landman crushing LCC. The free version gives you him climbing Sharma’s Spinal Twist (V13). The premium version shows him crushing Maisch Roof (V11) and Dominatrix (V12/13). Again, really good stuff although no footage of the Bully flash which was disappointing.

If you aren’t a subscriber and want to find out more information, you should check out my review of the MVM Premium Section along with my follow-up post.

Look for footage coming soon to MVM of Dave Graham climbing The Island (V15) and Daniel Woods climbing Remembrance of Things Past (V14 or 15?), both from Chad Greedy.

The 2007 Summer bouldering season in Rocky Mountain National Park was one that will undoubtedly be looked back on as one of the most prolific in the short history of bouldering in the Park.  By my unofficial count there were at least 7 V11 or harder new problems established and over 30 repeats of those problems.  Aided by a plethora of world class boulderers like Daniel Woods, Ty Landman, Paul Robinson, Sean McColl, Dave Graham, Tony Lamiche and others spending extended amounts of time, the number of double digit problems climbed was astounding.

Coming into the season last year, the problem on everyone’s mind was the so-called Green 45 project that Daniel Woods would later call Jade (V15) after his FA in June.  It was repeated in short order by Ty Landman and Paul Robinson (pictured at left courtesy of Steve Woods).  Other notable new problems from last year were Paul Robinson’s Don’t Get Too Greedy (V13) and Nick Sherman’s Wildcat (V12).  Women also had a good year with Ashley Lloyd becoming (I think) the first woman to climb a V12 in the Park with her repeat of Super Kind.

It seems doubtful that this upcoming season will be as productive with no Jade-like projects on the horizon and Daniel Woods in Europe and Paul Robinson in South Africa half the summer.  Hopefully the below videos will help get your juices flowing for whatever project you have in mind, wherever it may be.

Due to the size of the list and poor load times with all the videos on one page, I split them up into 4 separate pages for your enjoyment:

Miscellaneous RMNP Bouldering Videos

Daniel Woods RMNP Bouldering Videos

Ty Landman RMNP Bouldering Videos

Jamie Emerson RMNP Bouldering Videos

Problems featured include (ranging from V5 to V15): Jade, Freaks of the Industry, Don’t Get Too Greedy, Aslan, Nuthin’ But Sunshine, Gang Bang, Suicide Seasons, Two Ton Tongue, Next Friday, Dead Racoon, Friday The 13th, Riddles in the Park, Power Of Ten, Lone Star, Left El Jorge, Stripes, Bulgin’ Out, Wildcat, Hydratwist, Automator, Secret Splendour, The Aristocrat, Handi-Capps, Centaur, Tommy’s Arete, Both Sides of the Spectrum, Right El Jorge, Skipper Roof, Skyscraper Left, Gobot, Freshly Squeezed, Veritas Sit Start, The Werewolf, Golden Rows of Flows, Reternia, Sunspot, Weeping Willow, Stranger in a Strange Land, Kind Traverse, Super Kind, White Wizard and Whispers Arete

Climbers featured include: Daniel Woods, Ty Landman, Jamie Emerson, Dave Graham, Seth Allred, Sean McColl, Jeff Landman, Jackie Chiddo, Luke Parady, Nick Sherman, Angie Payne, Harry Robertson, Ryan Olson, Mike Feinberg, Isaac Caldiero, Simon Moore, Paul Robinson, Giovanni Traversi, Ashley Lloyd, Kelly McBride and lat but certainly not least, Justin Jaeger.

Last year I made a few predictions about the Colorado alpine bouldering season that proved to be true.  Look for 2008 to be the year of the female climber in the Park…

Not much Earth shattering news going down lately but here are a few things to check out from the past few weeks:

• Joe Kinder prepared nicely for his 2 month trip to Spain with his recent FA of Golden Direct (5.14c/d) at the Cathedral in Utah.  You can read more about it here, here and here.  Look for footage soon on MVM. This may come as a surprise, but I have to admit that I am starting to “get” Joe Kinder.  For a long time his over the top persona and mangling of the English language had turned me off, but I am starting to come around.  I have a hard time not appreciating his enthusiasm for any and all things climbing.  Joe is in Spain right now with Chris Sharma so it should be interesting to see what is going down over there.
• Carlo Traversi made an early season visit to Mt. Evans this past weekend to find conditions at the Dali Boulder surprisingly good.  He managed to send No More Greener Grass (V12) and Super Gui (V11, pictured below) before succumbing to altitude on the hike out.

Photo:  Greg Mionskie

Daniel Woods - The Dagger (V14)

Photo:  Jason Pinto

With last night being whipper night at team (sorry Tony) the below video that I found at the newly redesigned Splitter Choss Blog seems especially pertinent.  The video demonstrates 3 techniques that are used when belaying with a Petzl Gri-Gri.  The first 2 methods are good, the 3rd is apparently bad.

Last night was the first time I had belayed in a while, and I realized that I use the 3rd, apparently undesired, belay technique shown in the video.  I know that taking your right hand off is taboo, but trying to manually feed rope through a Gri-Gri like it is an ATC inevitably leads to you shortroping the life out of your climber.  Am I the only one that has been belaying unsafely for the past 8 years??

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Dr. Topo has been around for a long time now providing quality mini-guidebooks and videos free of charge. It was just a matter of time, but they recently released their first DVD: The Big In Japan Double Feature.

People that have been following Dr. Topo for a long time will recognize much of the content on the DVD; however, that shouldn’t deter you from considering picking up a copy for yourself.

As the title suggests, the DVD is a double feature of bouldering in Japan and bouldering at Horse Pens 40 in Alabama. Rather than try to recap for you what all is featured on the DVD I would encourage you to check out the promo page they have that gives you a very specific idea of what you will be getting on the DVD. Here is the trailer:

I thoroughly enjoyed both features of the DVD, and I was surprised to find that each feature was packed with extras that you don’t normally see. Each one has several short extras in addition to the main feature, and there is extensive audio commentary for the entire DVD that I don’t believe I have seen on any other climbing movies. Unlike some movies where climbers talking is generally not a plus, the commentary on the Dr. Topo DVD is actually a net positive. It’s funny, informative and to the point.

You can order a copy of the DVD for $30 shipped at the Dr. Topo store. I would recommend this movie to anyone that would enjoy seeing the diverse and distinct bouldering areas in Japan or if you are a fan of the bouldering at HP40. It is also a great movie if you are interested in gleaning beta on just about all the V8’s at HP40!

Thanks to the guys at Dr. Topo for providing a free copy of the DVD for the recent tournament we had as well as providing a copy for review.

These days I don’t get to spend as much time on MVM as I would like, however when I received an email from a reader alerting me to a possible ethical lapse in one of their latest videos I was sure to check it out.

What I found was a video featuring Isaac Caldiero bouldering outside of St. George, UT. He had scoped out a nice new line coming out of a very low cave, but he felt like it could start lower in the cave if only there was more room underneath the roof. In order to create more room underneath the boulder he dug out the base of the boulder with shovels (see below):

With all the problems that climbers already cause at climbing areas with erosion simply from moving around and using pads, digging a large hole in the ground seems a bit excessive. I assume that this wall is probably in the middle of nowhere and a certain amount of manicuring of boulder landings takes place all the time, but how much is too much? What does everyone else think? Take the poll and leave your comments.

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Back in October, the brothers Alex and Thomas Huber broke the record for speed climbing The Nose on El Capitan…twice. Their first effort only broke the previous record held by Yuji Hirayama and Hans Florine by 3 seconds. Below is videos of their second attempt on 10/8/2007 where they improved their time by 3 minutes to an astounding 2 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds!  It’s not the best quality, but you get an idea of just how they are able to move so quickly.