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6. 2011 Reel Rock Tour Website Unveiled
7. Video-ish Friday: 2010 Reel Rock Film Tour DVD
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Will Gadd Updates On Helmcken Falls Spray Ice Project from Climbing Narcissist

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Like I said last week, ice climbing is not my favorite variety of climbing to participate in or to follow as a sport.  That said, it is winter and there are a few things of note going on in the ice climbing world.  Josh Wharton and Dawn Glanc won their respective divisions at this past weekend’s Mixed Climbing competition at the Ouray Ice Festival.  Wharton’s victory comes just months after he broke his back in an accident in Rifle.  Elsewhere, the UIAA‘s 2011 Ice Climbing World Cup kicked off in Cheongsong, South Korea marking the first time such a comp was held in Asia.  My friend Dan has been living in South Korea for about a year now, and he was generous enough to put together this report from the comp:

Cheongsong, South Korea Ice Climbing World Cup Report by Dan Kopperud

Last weekend marked the start of the UIAA ice climbing season with the first World Cup event in Cheongsong, South Korea.  While the mixed/ice comps in Ouray and Canmore dominate the collective consciousness of North American climbers the UIAA events are where the rest of the world looks to for super technical mixed climbing and blazing fast ice speed climbing.

This was the first time a UIAA World Cup ice climbing event was held in Asia, and Korea made sure to show the rest of the world that they are to be taken seriously.  The event was held in the sleepy town of Cheongsong, which is in the midst of transforming itself into a winter sports mecca.  The comp was situated in front of a gorgeous backdrop of manmade ice and hard natural mixed lines in the Cheongsong City ice park.  While it was a beautiful setting, it only highlighted the contrived nature of the direction that the sport is heading: none of the natural ice or rock was touched save for the dozens of first time climbers trying out demo gear on WI3 toproped routes.  The World Cup routes were built onto a freestanding metal structure comprised of plywood, plastic and the now ubiquitous suspended ice barrel; none of which occur on any natural route.  This event can be held in any stadium that gets cold enough to maintain ice (are you listening Olympic committee?) and weather conditions no longer need to be a factor.

Despite these shortcomings (to a purist at least), the finals were spectacular to say the least, and if ice climbing has any chance of becoming a sanctioned Olympic sport this is the path to its legitimization.  The speed climbing was dominated by the Russians who seemed to be bred and trained since birth for sprinting 20m of vertical ice in a secret program that brings to mind Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.  Russian men and women hogged the podiums with Maxim Tomilov and Irina Bagaeva each taking first.  This event is rather pointless as the actual height of the ice can vary between 18-25m at an official event, and there is no one official best or even world record time to beat that people can talk about like they do with 100m Olympic sprinting.  Despite these criticisms, it is a fun event to watch and will surely make ice climbing a more palatable spectator sport to the uninitiated.

The difficulty portion had a more equal-opportunity and international feel to it as climbers from the whole Northern hemisphere were able to compete on a level playing field.  Korean climbers Park Hee- Yong (men) and Shin Woon-Sheon (women) each placed second, furthering Asia’s image as an emerging climbing powerhouse.  Last year’s winner and this year’s favorite, the Austrian Markus Bendler, narrowly edged out Park for first place while Russian newcomer Maria Tolokonina took top honors for the women.

While an event like this would be entertaining to watch, the emaciated speed climbers and purely gymnastic mixed climbers would seem strange and out of place in North America.  There is a growing rift between American mixed climbing and the rest of the world which is akin to Europe’s sport climbing dominance in the 1980’s.  Hopefully America will embrace this style of competition and work on becoming a regular host of a World Cup event in the future.  Despite competition mixed climbing’s inherent deviation of actual rock climbing by competing on artificial structures, the ultimate outcome will likely be the same as the effect it had on sport climbing: the boundaries of what is possible will be pushed and new, hard routes will go up in places that really matter: real rock and in the mountains.

Report From 2011 Ice Climbing World Cup In Cheongsong, South Korea from Climbing Narcissist

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Winter is here for much of us in the U.S. which means limited options for climbing outside.  Most of us turn to the gym to prepare for the coming spring thaw.  That’s a fine plan.  It’s what I’m doing.  But what if I told you there was this whole other world of climbing, ice climbing, where people seem to enjoy climbing their way up frozen water in the frigid winter air.  Is that something you might be interested in trying?

My first inclination when presented with a similar question was a resounding NO.  Ice climbing combines three of the things in life that I like least, namely being cold, being wet and being absurdly pumped.  However, I gave the sport a try a couple of years ago and then again once last year.  You know what?  There was something strangely enjoyable about the whole process, and both Mrs. Narc and I found that we enjoyed our brief attempts at ice climbing quite a bit.  Am I about to run out and buy boots, crampons and tools to make ice climbing my winter activity?  Not quite, but I still had fun trying it.

This is where ice climbing festivals come in.  Held throughout the country during the cold winter months, ice climbing festivals, even more so than rock climbing festivals, are a great way to try the sport out with little or no commitment.  Many events have demo gear from sponsors you can try out without having to make a huge initial investment.

One such festival of local note here in WI is the upcoming Ice Pit Festival held at the Ice Pit near Green Bay on January 15-16.  For a mere $10 per day you can give ice climbing a try with a really psyched and supportive group of local climbers.  If you’re around I strongly encourage you to make the trip up and try it out.  Who knows, you may even like it!

Rock and Ice has an article on their website which lists a few other ice festivals going on around the country.  Check it out and get out and give ice climbing a try…then get back in the ROCK gym to get ready for spring!

Update:  Via Justin at Petzl is this more comprehensive list of upcoming ice climbing events around the country

Give Ice Climbing A Try? from Climbing Narcissist

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Alpinist Interviews Will Gadd After Endless Ascent from Climbing Narcissist

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• After leaving Arkansas, Paul Robinson moved on to Red Rocks, NV where he’s established 2 V13s (Meadowlark Lemon and The Grand Hustle), repeated another V13 and climbed a handful of V12s.  Check the newly redesigned DPM for video of Paul doing Wood Grain Grippin’ (V14) in Arkansas.
• Matt Wilder added a new problem in the hard V12 or easy V13 range called The Bandersnatch to Hueco’s West Mountain:

This new problem is a good candidate for the list of hueco classics with its varied movement, length, ground level location, and striking feature. Like the mythical bandersnatch, this problem warrants some fear mainly because an unplanned fall from one of the several heel hook moves could result in an unpleasant tumble down the slab behind the climb. Mostly, though, the climbing is safe.

• Starting 2010 much like he finished 2009, Adam Ondra opened A Present For The Future (5.14d/5.15a) at Madonna della Rota, Italy
• Congratulations to Will Gadd for climbing 194 pitches of ice in Ouray, CO over a 24 hour period this weekend to raise money for dZi Foundation.  That’s over 29,000 around 25,000 feet of climbing!
• The so-called super project at Boulder Canyon’s Cob Rock aka the “last great problem on the Front Range” has received a lot of attention in the past week or so.  Likely V15 (at least), this problem has been tried unsuccessfully by many of the world’s strongest climbers.  Jamie Emerson was there yesterday when Daniel Woods did all the moves and he has an excellent post with photos and some thoughts on longstanding projects.  Here is some video that Chad Greedy put together to give you a better feel for the problem:

• VideoClimb.com has a nice post of the top 10 most popular climbing videos of 2009
• Dave Graham, Jon Cardwell and Kilian Fischhuber all repeated Dani Andrada’s Buma Ye (5.14c) in Margalef, Spain.
• Jamie Emerson lists his top ten climbing sites
• How much does it cost to go on a seven month international road trip?

Throw in a contingency plus a few hundred dollars for oversize baggage fees (crashpad) and we get to our grand total of $11,000 for seven months of international fun. If you are a climber in need of motivation to save money, I’d say this is a good place to start. I’d take the trip of a lifetime over buying a house or new car any day of the week!

• From half way around the world, Renan Ozturk and Cory Richards are producing some amazing videos as they undertake an effort to do a first ascent on the 6000m Tawoche Himal:

TAWOCHE 2k10 dispatches #2 from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

• Continuing his return to form, Chris Webb Parsons ticked off The Mystery (V12 although many 8a commenters seem to indicate this problem is ripe for a downgrade) at the Buttermilks in 2 tries.  The Low Down has a nice interview with Parsons and the Dungeon Training blog has these videos of him climbing The Mandala and The Mystery:

• Nice gallery of pictures from the fall gathering of Petzl athletes in Spain
• And in case you hadn’t noticed, ClimbingNarc.com has undergone a bit of a redesign for 2010.

Update 1/12/10: Following up on the Chris Webb Parsons note, check out his website for some thoughts on grades and how 8a.nu affects things.

News & Notes – 1/11/2010 from Climbing Narcissist

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News…

• Fresh off a successful trip to Hueco Tanks, Jimmy Webb had a pretty stellar day at HP40, AL.  He did a new right variation to Ghetto Superstar that is likely V10, and he also pulled off the 2nd ascents of James Litz’s Genetic (V11, FA video here) and Lee Payne’s Illusions (V12).  Back in November he added 2 V11s to HP40 in Stingray Low and Matchmaker.  Be sure to check Webb’s blog for videos from his recent trips to Hueco, Arkansas and Little Rock City.  Here’s one from his day at HP40:

Hp40 from Jimmy Webb on Vimeo.

• In the past month, Carrie Cooper has done 3 V10’s (Cosmic Tricycle Sit, The Black Hole and The Receptionist) at the Priest Draw outside Flagstaff, AZ.
• Charlie Barrett had a good holiday weekend, sending both Spectre (V13) and Mandala SDS (thinks V13 with tall guy beta) in Bishop, CA.  Kevin Jorgeson also repeated Spectre, which was first done almost 9 years ago by Dave Graham.  Here is an interview Barrett did with DPM back in November.
• The 2nd leg of the Dark Horse Bouldering Series was held on December 12th at MetroRock in Everett, MA with Francesca Metcalf and Rob D’Anastasio winning their respective Pro divisions.  Here’s a brief video of the comp:

…And Notes

• If ice climbing is your thing there is a great event coming up the weekend of January 16th, 2010 at the Ice Pit near Green Bay here in WI.  For $10 you can check out gear from several companies and climb until your arms are numb.  Check this link for more info.  Here are a few photos from my trip to the Ice Pit last year:

• Interview with Wolverine Publishing’s Dave Pegg
• 1981 Climbing Magazine article about climbing at Devil’s Lake – Lots of great old photos
• Tim Kemple sounds off on the state of the editorial world in outdoor publications:

More recently however, in an effort to save $ a lot of the niche magazines started getting rid of their photo editors orothers double time as PEs (NONE of the 5 national climbing publications have a photo editor). Also as a means to save money, magazines have been hiring ’staff’ or ‘contributing’ photographers and writers who often work below established freelance space rates or are paying up to a year late (yup even the big ones).

The images getting pulled these days aren’t the best ones that have been refined through months of experimentation; they are the ones that are cheap or they are run small to avoid paying higher page rates.  I know this is a broad generalization, but it is entirely true in most of the outdoor publications AND ITS MAKING MOST THE MAGAZINES SUCK.  The magazine that goes to print today isn’t the best magazine its the cheapest one that won’t piss off any advertisers.  I know this first hand, when I was working as a contributing photographer for a publication last year I often had images that filled a request but I thought they stunk, so I would never submit them… that really pissed the publisher off.

• The blog ClimbingHouse recently had a nice 2 part story about an old school climber, Rusty.  Part 1 can be found here:

By the end of his undergraduate program, Rusty was anxious to do some climbing. College in Pennsylvania doesn’t allow for much of that. Sure he’d been on summer trips, but aside from that, he had not been able to really summit anything substantial as of late. So when Alex Lowe called him about a new route in Yosemite, he jumped at the chance. As one of the best free climbers in the world, Rusty’s friend from the days as a Yosemite bum was eyeing a new route on El Cap called Jolly Roger. His friends always seemed to call him when it came time to do the stimulating routes.

• …and part 2 here:

“[Climbing] is not as important as it seems. Don’t overestimate it and if you don’t, you’ll probably enjoy it longer because you won’t make it play a role in your life that it can’t really play. It can’t be like religion. It’s a temptation to confuse the intense experience of climbing with something that’s more life fulfilling. I think the people who did that ended up unhappy.” This is undoubtedly the salient nugget of wisdom in this article. It was Rusty’s interpretation of what Dale Bard told him as a young climber. Climbing is one of those unusually addicting activities, which makes its participant susceptible to placing a higher worth on it than is appropriate. The climbers who have not fallen in this trap, it turns out, tend to enjoy their sport more in the long run.

• And finally, here is a nice video from Chuck Fryberger & Prana about a legend who needs no introduction:



News & Notes – 12/29/2009 from Climbing Narcissist

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