Climbing Narcissist » Pictures

Oz

Narc — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:25:46 +0000

This incredible photo essay by Keith Ladzinski from his trip to Australia last year with Dave Graham, Nalle Hukkataival and Ian Dory would make a great coffee table book don’t you think? (h/t Josh on twitter for the link).

Oz from Climbing Narcissist

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Understanding Patagonia

Narc — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:55:35 +0000

The news from the other day aside, things happening in Patagonia are usually outside my purview. It’s not that I don’t respect what climbers do there, it’s more that I have a hard time identifying with what it must be like to climb there since I’ve never done anything like it. Posts like this one from Mikey Schaefer that combine a story about a new route on the south face of Poincenot with some incredible photos sure do help though.

Understanding Patagonia from Climbing Narcissist

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Ten Sleep

Narc — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:11:10 +0000

As a sport climbing area Ten Sleep, WY was lurking somewhat under the radar nationally until James Litz blew through town last year establishing a slew of 5.14s over the course of a single season. This summer, the ever-psyched Joe Kinder setup shop in Ten Sleep, and he’s been reporting back on 5.14 getting sent by both himself and local Alli Rainey as well as chronicling his never-ending search for the next ill gnar cave to bolt.

Then there is the Ten Sleep guidebook written by Aaron Huey. Oh my, what a guidebook. If you’ve seen the book you know what I’m referring to. While it does a very decent job of directing you toward climbs at all the different areas of Ten Sleep that’s not what one takes away from reading the book. From the symbols of patriotism used to denote 5 star routes to the communist/military themed cover to the almost stream of consciousness musings of Huey the book is an interesting read from cover to cover. The book may not be “safe for kids”, but it’s definitely the most unique guidebook I’ve ever seen.

With the news about Ten Sleep fresh in my mind and a copy of the guidebook in hand, Mrs. Narc and I made a brief stop in Ten Sleep over the 4th of July to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out we weren’t the only ones with this idea as evidenced by the parking lot for the Mondo Beyondo on the 4th of July.

Colorado North

So, yeah it was a bit more crowded than perhaps I expected but then again it was the 4th of July. Either way, Ten Sleep is a pretty large area so we didn’t have too many problems finding good routes to get on although many of the “classics” from the guidebook did have lines.

A small portion of the "Mondo Beyondo"

The one thing that jumped out at me on all the routes we climbed was how closely bolted everything was. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but just be prepared to stop and clip pretty often.

Slavery Wall

Overall, the few routes we did try were quite fun and my only regret was that I wasn’t strong enough we didn’t have more time to try some of the harder routes the canyon had to offer. If I had to pick a favorite of the routes I did do I’d say that Save The Best For Last (5.11) at Wall of Denial was my favorite with School’s Out (5.10d) at Slavery Wall a close second.

There's rock everywhere in Ten Sleep Canyon

An added bonus to visiting Ten Sleep over the 4th of July is the celebration the town of Ten Sleep has throughout the weekend. The rodeo alone made the entire trip to Ten Sleep worth it. Don’t miss it if you have the chance. There’s also a very low key climber gathering that coincides with the 4th of July weekend every year that we did not get a chance to check out, but I suspect it was very enjoyable for those who did attend.

From Ten Sleep we made our way further west, stopping in the Tetons and Yellowstone before heading north to Glacier National Park. Here are some photos from the rest of our journey:

Ten Sleep from Climbing Narcissist

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2010 Hueco Rock Rodeo Photo Gallery

Narc — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:37:41 +0000

Merrick Ales has an excellent gallery of photos from the 2010 Hueco Rock Rodeo up on his website that includes plenty of shots of comp winners Daniel Woods and Alex Puccio. There’s also a short video from the comp up at DPM.

2010 Hueco Rock Rodeo Photo Gallery from Climbing Narcissist

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Kentucky Champagne

Narc — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:45:47 +0000

Last weekend Mrs. Narc and I made the 12 hour drive south to spend a couple of days bouldering at HP40. A nagging finger injury that flared up during my trip to Hueco way back in November prevented me from doing much practice climbing before our trip, so my expectations for the trip being productive from a climbing standpoint were not high. Sadly my expectations were about right….

Despite my failure to send either of the harder problems I tried, the new guidebook pointed me toward a few easier lines I had overlooked on my previous trips. I also finally tried 2 squeeze problems I’d never attempted (somehow), Millipede and Centerpede. Millipede was too much for me, but I was able to scamper up Centerpede in short order. Neighboring Bum Boy, a problem I’ve run laps on in prior years, spit me off despite repeated efforts. This is just how things go on these types of problems I suppose.

Regardless, I find it hard to have a disappointing day of climbing at HP40 no matter how things go. How unhappy can one be when you are surrounded by one of the most dense concentrations of high quality boulder problems in the country??

While the bouldering at HP40 was certainly enjoyable, the highlight of the trip came on our drive home. Inspired by my visit to the Wild Turkey and Four Roses distilleries last year, we made a detour to check out a couple bourbon distilleries on the western end of the so-called Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Our stops on this day included Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark.

Even if you’re like Mrs. Narc and you (allegedly) can’t stand the smell of bourbon, touring these distilleries is a real treat. The combination of driving the back roads of Kentucky, visiting historic buildings and learning about the distilling process is something anyone can enjoy. If you like bourbon the free tastings are a bonus!

If you are looking for a fun detour during your next trip through Kentucky, here is how I would rank the 4 distilleries I’ve visited thus far:

Maker’s Mark – Free cookies, excellent tour, free tasting. One of the more in depth tours and the only one that shows the bottling line. Hand dipping a souvenir bottle of MM was cool even if it was wildly overpriced.
Four Roses – Unique Spanish architecture, a quality tour and 5 separate samples including 2 straight from the still. Bring a designated driver…
Wild Turkey – Cool tour but NO free samples.
Jim Beam – No tour and only 2 samples, one of which was Beam Black. Weak. Only bonus is the proximity to I-65 (roughly 10 minutes).

If you had a different experience or have been to one of the other distilleries on the trail feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip:

Kentucky Champagne from Climbing Narcissist

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Quick On The Draw 2010

Narc — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:00:58 +0000

10 years

That’s how many years I’ve attended the annual competition Quick on the Draw (QotD) at my local climbing gym, Adventure Rock. It’s a bit hard to believe really both in the sense that I can’t believe I’ve been climbing for over 10 years now and also that I can barely remember what any comp prior to 2009 was like. Over time the memory of the individual comps has sort of blurred together in my mind:

What was the theme of the comp in 2003? Ducks? That box of cereal?? Pirates??

What years did I compete? 2004? 2006? So few, yet I still can’t remember.

Didn’t Alex Johnson used to be a girl? Oh that’s right, there are 2 of them (and they’re both strong).

Remember when Rockman used to be a climber? Actually, yes…

Clearly my memory is only going to get worse as I get older and each January I’m inevitably on the sidelines recovering from my latest injury. With both of these things in mind, I’ve been trying something new the past few years at the comp. Instead of abusing my body catching 40+ lead falls I started taking pictures instead.

Anyone that has tried taking pictures under the natural lighting in most gyms knows the conditions are less than ideal for taking good pictures. Since I don’t really know anything about photography nor do I have any envy-inducing equipment, I’ve used the trial and error method to slowly improve the pictures I get at each subsequent comp. For instance, one thing I learned this year was the importance of charged batteries. Mine almost ran out mid-way through finals. I of course had no spares, and I was 30 ft. off the ground stuck in my photo perch until after the comp ended. Fortunately, I was able to pace myself and make it to the end of the show.

In my mind the pictures themselves never turn out spectacularly although I do think they’ve gotten better in the 3 years I’ve done them. Hopefully they will help the people in the photos remember what they were doing late one January day in a climbing gym in Wisconsin. I know I’ll remember. Or maybe I won’t. Who knows…

Below are a few shots from the comp with the rest residing on the ClimbingNarc.com Facebook page*. Check it out. Become a fan. Enjoy.

As an aside, thanks to Sign-A-Rama Milwaukee for making the excellent sign-age. For those that don’t get the “Buick on the Draw” reference it goes back to the comp theme for this year. The Q on the comp flyer looks like a B to some which is where Buick comes in. It’s winter in Wisconsin so this is what entertains us. Deal with it.

*If Facebook isn’t your thing, you can see the pictures here as well.

Results from the comp can be downloaded here

Quick On The Draw 2010 from Climbing Narcissist

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Photo Friday: Hueco Tanks & RRG

Narc — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:00:02 +0000

By popular demand, here are a few more pictures from my recent trip to Hueco Tanks. The first 3 are of a well-known problem on North Mountain, Babyface (V7), courtesy of Danielle Vennard. For whatever reason I’ve always had an attachment to this problem, and it was really the only problem I wanted to be sure and send on my trip. In a perfect world I envisioned being really fresh and flashing the problem. I do not live in a perfect world.

By the time I finally got around to trying Babyface it was our 4th day on out of 5. Keep in mind I hadn’t climbed 4 days total in the entire month leading up to the trip. I can honestly say that I have never felt so tired and sore before heading out for a day of climbing, but it’s not every day that I’m in Hueco Tanks so I decided to make the best of the day.

Knowing I had almost no skin and barely any energy to spare, my warm up consisted mostly of walking around the boulders at the Gymnasium enjoying the view. When everyone was ready, we made our way to Babyface where I was promptly shutdown by the very first move. Really shutdown.

Babyface, North Mountain – Click any picture to see a larger version

Photo: Danielle Vennard

After some work I figured out the first move only to keep punting trying to find the correct spot to grab the next crimp. To me the beauty of a problem like Babyface is that you have to try from the ground on each attempt, but that also made it quite difficult to figure out the top moves given how much skin and energy it cost me each time I left the ground.

Photo: Danielle Vennard

Eventually, I found the right spot to grab the right hand crimps, but I was too tired to get my feet high for a throw out left to a big jug. Knowing that my skin was not going to last much longer on the somewhat sharp crimps I decided to get desperate serious and stop trying to get my feet up to do the last move (like I’m trying to do in the picture below).

Photo: Danielle Vennard

I rested long enough for my skin to stop sweating and gave a proverbial “last try”. When it came time for me to get my feet up for the last move I went for broke and jumped instead. Somehow, I latched the big left hand hold in a helicoptering scream reminiscent of Obe Carrion in Free Hueco. To say I was psyched would be an understatement.

After a short break I did the comparatively much easier V7 Daily Dick Dose and called it a day since it hurt to even touch rock at that point. A day like that day really taught me a lot about what is possible even when you don’t feel great physically.

Here are a few more pictures of Kevin on some Hueco classics:

The Long Haul (V8), East Spur

El Burro (V3), East Mountain

All you need to send in Hueco Tanks

Sandboarding in White Sands National Monument

As an added bonus, here are a few pictures a reader, Stefano, sent me the other day. They just so happen to be of a route at the Red River Gorge that I have something to say about, To Defy The Laws Of Tradition (5.10 a or b, I don’t remember which).

Just about everyone I talk to thinks this route is one of the best 5.10s at the the Red, but for some reason I’ve never been a fan of the route. I like to think it’s because of the massive streak of chalk pasting every potentially usable and non-usable hold on the route, but it could also be the big whipper I once took pumping out at the anchors on a route I felt was well within my abilities. You take your pick. Thanks to Stefano for the pics!

Photo Friday: Hueco Tanks & RRG from Climbing Narcissist

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Worth The Wait

Narc — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:24:16 +0000

It only took me 10 years, but I finally climbed at Hueco Tanks a couple of weeks back. After climbing 6 out of 8 days and sampling a seemingly endless list of high quality problems I have only one thing to say: it was worth the wait.

We spent 3 days climbing on North Mountain, 2 on East Mountain and 1 on the East Spur. I tried my best not to get wrapped up in trying any single problem for an extended period of time, my main goal was simply to climb as many high quality lines in the V4-V8 range as I could. Despite having to spend the first 2 days getting back in shape, I felt like the trip was very successful. Some of my favorite problems included Moonshine Roof (V4), Hobbit In A Blender (V5), Meddle Detector (V6), Babyface (V7) and the one that got away, Ultramega (V8).

Since it was my first trip to Hueco it was also my first experience dealing with the well known regulations governing access to the park. For those that are not aware, 3 out of the 4 areas in Hueco cannot be accessed without a guide. This means you either pay $20 a day to climb with a commercial guide or you find a guide willing to take you on a volunteer tour. It may just be a matter of false perception, but it seemed to me like the 3 restricted areas held more fun lines than those found at North Mountain, the so-called “self guided” area. Coupled with the relatively high rate of $5 a day per person to camp and the cost of a trip to Hueco can get pretty steep. Of course, the fact that people jump through all these hoops to climb in Hueco should be an indication of just how good an area it is.

The other thing that really struck me while wandering around the endless corridors of boulders was the vision it took to establish many of the park’s testpieces. I think that many of us could walk up to most problems under V10 and at least visualize someone climbing the problem. Actually seeing famous problems like Nagual and Slashface in person and seeing just how improbable some of the holds are was really eye opening. To me it crystallized why many people are so interested in reading about high end ascents, especially hard first ascents. On a related note, Fred Nicole’s amazing ticklist of FAs listed in the guidebook is amazing.

Here are a few pictures from the trip, I should have video of a few problems soon. Click a picture to make it bigger.

Rocks

Narc on Sign Of The Cross

Kevin on Moonshine Roof

Ricky trying hard on Try Hard

Kevin digging in on Guns Of Navarone

Worth The Wait from Climbing Narcissist

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Photo Friday

Narc — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:38:36 +0000

A few photo links to inspire your weekend: bouldering at Castle Rock, ID, sport climbing in Kalymnos, Greece and any post from the El Cap Report.

Photo Friday from Climbing Narcissist

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Anchorpoint

Narc — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:15:17 +0000

The weather this Summer in Wisconsin has been a climber’s dream. Temps have rarely gotten higher than 80 and many perfect sunny days in the 70′s have been there for the taking which is a far cry from normal. Of course, I haven’t been able to take much advantage of these conditions due to various injuries, but I finally got to Devil’s Lake on Saturday with Mrs. Narc and Peter to check out a few of the newly re-discovered boulder problems I’ve been reading about.

My main goal for the day was the problem Anchorpoint (V6/7) which I had walked by on previous occassions but never attempted. After a lackluster warm-up that included my getting bouted on a neighboring V3, we quickly turned our attention to Anchorpoint.

Climbing a bulging prow with a series of sharp vertical crimps, Anchorpoint is really a must do. Peter and I worked out beta appropriate for our respective heights and the sendtrain soon commenced. Here are some photos from our efforts:

Peter

Narc

After the sendtrain on Anchorpoint we checked out several other areas of the park, and Peter secured Employee of the Day honors with impressive quick sends of Venus Rising (V7) and Perfect Medium (V8/9).

The temps on Saturday barely made it to 60, and Fall appears to be fast approaching. It should be another great season of climbing in Wisconsin!

A cool slab behind Anchorpoint

Thanks to Mrs. Narc for taking most of these pictures…

Anchorpoint from Climbing Narcissist

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