News & Notes – 02/10/2010
10. Feb, 2010 
9 Comments
It’s been a bit of a slow news year month week so there’s not much to report of late. ABS Nationals, probably the biggest and most important indoor bouldering comp of the year, will be taking place this weekend in Alexandria, VA. Results of the comp are used to determine the U.S. National team for World Cup events like the one being held this June at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO. The running orders listed on the ABS website show that it should be a pretty stacked field as usual. Hopefully the recent snowpocalypse won’t have a negative impact on people’s ability to make it to the comp.
On the subject of comps like ABS Nationals, I’m still continually amazed at the number of people that compete given the cost. Even though Nationals is often in Boulder, many of the competitors have to fly across the country, find lodging and pay over $100 to USA Climbing to compete in the event. All of this to most likely climb for 20 minutes. It’s not something I would ever do, but then again I pretty much blew out my shoulder just thinking about trying some of the problems from last year’s comp so what do I know.
With that rant over, here are a few news/links worth noting:
- Best of luck to Kelly Cordes as he recovers from a rather horrendous sounding injury to his leg.
- On her first trip to Hueco Tanks Alex Johnson made quick work of Diaphanous Sea (V12ish) and Power Of Silence (V10).
- Also in Hueco, Kensuke Hamada repeated Fred Nicole’s Martini Roof testpiece Esperanza (V14). By my very unofficial count this is the problem’s 12th ascent.
- Blake Rutherford recently established a new V12 called The Godzilla Indirect Sit Start at Arthur’s Rock near Fort Collins, CO. Check out Firetherig.com for pictures.
- Dave MacLeod’s new book 9 out of 10 make the same mistakes sounds like a pretty interesting read based on these reviews from Mountains & Water and TheLowDown.
- TheLowDown interviews Iker Pou after his 2nd ascent of Demencia Senil (5.15a) in Margalef, Spain
- Five Ten has a nicely redesigned website
- The Access Fund announces their 2009 Sharp End Award recipients
- Pretty excellent (and long) documentary about famed climber Reinhold Messner
- Whiskey!
Related Posts
Tags: Access Fund
Climbers: Alex Johnson, Blake Rutherford, Iker Pou, Kelly Cordes, Kensuke Hamada, Reinhold Messner
Areas: Arthur's Rock, Hueco Tanks
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I ordered Dave Macleod’s book they day it came out and I gotta say its damn good! I bought it from his site and it had flat rate shipping, including to the USA.
Man I think that weather report made my morning. A must watch for the psyched weatherman. Glad we don’t have a snowpocalypse in Cali. I might have to move to mexico…
I’ve been to Nationals twice, once when it was in MD and I lived there. Once in boulder because Lizzy’s aister was competing. Both times I participated in the Citizens comp which had fairly low attendance but was pretty fun.
I have a few friends who are unhappy with USAC for the really high prices per the amount of climbing time. It was pretty strange in 2008 where someone was charging people to climb the finals problems after nationals was over…
I cant see the Messner docu because im not in the US. Anyone know where if I can see it elsewhere?
Cool Big wall climb in Brazil. The video is interesting since it seems they got a bunch of “normal” media attention.
Too bad I can’t understand portuguese.
I’m pretty surprised to hear about ABS Nats being held in Alexandria, it’s a nice gym for bouldering, but there are certainly better…. hmm…
The bouldering in Alexandria just got completely redone.. so unless you have been there recently it’s probably different than you remember.
I’m not excited about getting on a plane and heading to VA in these conditions. Flying into Baltimore (all flights canceled today) tomorrow – we’ll probably be stuck at the airport due to lack of transportation means from there. I guess there’s no way to cancel the show – but a lot of people are not going to risk traveling out there. Why not pick a southern state for winter months comps?
Our family has traveled to Salt Lake, Boulder (2), San Francisco, and now DC for USA Climbing comps. It’s been a sacrifice financially but I have no regrets. Our family has had so many great experiences that it was definitely worth it. It’s not about the 20 minutes of climbing it’s about doing something together as a family that you love. If you have kids you’ll understand…
I would agree that it’s a great event for kids and their families to go to. I was referring more to the college demographic that seems to make up most of the Adult comp field. I could probably have made that a bit more clear.