New River Gorge

I've been a complete slacker about posting lately. Must be the summertime is making me lazy, or at least less inclined to sit in front of a computer processing photos and blogging. Since the last post, I went to the Red over Memorial Day weekend, Hawksbill mtn, and the North Side of Looking Glass. I also just got back from a 3 day trip to the New last weekend, and while the climbing was good as usual, swimming and deep water soloing in Summersville lake was the most fun. Here's a pic of Ben Newton getting airborn off the diving board rock at the Coliseum. More pics to come soon...if I can get myself in front of the computer again, that is.




Updated Pics:

Barnardsville @ nite

Went out to the Barnardsville boulder again on Wednesday with Robert, and Josh and Chris were there when we arrived. It got dark pretty soon after we arrived, but we set up some lanterns and got some cool night shots. Here's one of the best, of Josh on the way overhanging backside of the boulder with Chris standing by:

Back at it

About a month ago i totally bottomed out energy-wise from too much training for Purgatory (5.13a). I never did send the route, party due to temps getting too warm and partly due to breaking a hold in the crux at the end of the season (and probably partly cuz it's hard!). I actually lost 5 pounds in the training process, which is a lot when you're 6 feet tall and only weigh 160 to start with. Anyway, I ended up having to take about 3 weeks to a month off of training, and i spent a lot of the weekends doing fun laid back stuff like going to Table Rock with my girlfriend, Melissa. I'm just now getting back on the training routine (though I've modified it) and started climbing a bit hard again. This Sunday I went to the Barnardsville boulder with Howie and Ben. It's a fun place...but you've gotta be a V6 climber to get much out of it. I got a couple of cool shots of Howie and Ben on the sick roof on the frontside of the boulder:

Picture on Climbing.com

I just saw that one of my images has turned up on Climbing.com (thanks for the heads up, Zach!). Very cool. It's a pic of Dave Sharrat sending his new 5.14b route The Bad in Hickory Nut Gorge. Dave also climbed the crack to the left of the route, and it's a 5.13+ trad line called The Good. See the whole article here

College days

I'll be posting more about the last few weekends soon, but I wanted to post these pictures a friend sent me from climbing in Boone during my first year of college...in the late 90s! Thanks to Matt Bielejeski for sending these images my way (and for the nostalgia)...

Digital Masters: Adventure Photography

I haven't been posting too much lately because I've been busy with some non-climbing related stuff (trying to buy a Subaru hatchback!), and also because I have been busy wrapping up my editing work on a very exciting book: Digital Masters: Adventure Photography by Michael Clark.

I realized there was a market need for this book last year when I started getting more into climbing photography and couldn't find any books on the subject. Luckily, I work for Lark Photography Books, a division of Sterling Publishing, and I decided to get one made! I did a lot of research on who was out there creating killer images of outdoor sports and contacted Michael, a 15-year veteran of the industry (Michael has shot for almost everyone, from the climbing mags and National Geo Adventure to ads for Patagonia, Nike, Adobe, and more). Luckily, he was game to jump into the book when I contacted him and he did a really great job cranking it out over the last 5 or 6 months. Micheal's images are great, and luckily for me, his writing is top-notch, too! He was also a great guy to work with during the process. I think we're both very proud of the book, which will be available towards the end of 2009 or early 2010, and can be preordered from Amazon here.

The book covers tons of general information about shooting action in the outdoors, then gets into specifics about how to shoot the top sports like kayaking, climbing, surfing, mountain biking, and more. And yep, that's Chris Sharma deep water soloing on the cover. Great stuff! I can't wait for this book to hit the shelves.

The Last Two Weeks

I haven't been shooting any photos or videos the last few weekends, instead trying to focus on wrapping up some of my projects before things get too warm. I was at the Bald on the last weekend in March and had a great day sending a bunch of V5s and V6s, and then sending a V8 slab monster called Momma Lick A Boo Boo Day (Or something like that. Sorry for butchering the Bald names, Chris!). If you've been at the Bald in the last few weeks, you know it's been pretty amazing. Sure, it's getting warm, but the Trillium and tons of flowering trees are blooming, and the after all of the rain, there are little creeks running through parts of the field and Hickory Nut Falls is running strong. Very nice.

This past weekend I tried to finish Purgatory (5.13a) in Hickory Nut Gorge, but got shut down hard. Why? Because I broke off a key hold in the crux! Oops. (Time for Weight Watchers.) Luckily, there are 2 ways to go through the crux with left and right sequences, so the climb isn't any harder. I was going with the right trending sequence...until now. I worked the left sequence and got through most of it after a couple of attempts. Maybe with this recent drop in temps I'll have one more go at it before things get too hot.

The picture below is of Robert Holcomb climbing a 5.10 crack in Hickory Nut Gorge recently.

Spring is Here

The time is getting close to start heading up to the High Country for some warm weather climbing. These pics were sent by Mike Stam. I'm looking forward to getting down into Linville Gorge soon and doing some more adventure bouldering.

Purgatory (5.13a)

Went back to the 5.13a in Hickory Nut Gorge on Saturday with Howie, Robert, and Heath. The weather was perfect--sunny and in the 60s (that may be warm to some, but I like to be able to feel my fingers). Both Howie and Robert finally sent, while Heath and I made some serious progress. I was finally able to put all of the moves together in a couple of hangs and make it to the shuts. Now if only I can get back before it gets too warm...


Robert Holcomb on the Crux of Purgatory (5.13a) from Frixtion on Vimeo.

Patio Roof on Wednesday Evening

Well, I finally got on my last tick list project for the season, and all I can say is: dammit...

(warning: the following video contains humorous grunts and some bad language...)


Patio Roof, Rumbling Bald (V8) from Frixtion on Vimeo.

Great Weekend

The weather couldn't be much different this weekend compared to last weekend's rain and snow storm. In a few days we went from full-on winter to about, um, early summer. We may be totally screwed as a planet environmentally, but it was a great weekend for bouldering. I took a half day off work on Friday to get in a good day at the Bald before it closed again sunday nite. I finally sent one of the projects on my tick list--Brackish Water, V8. A good crew also went to Boone on Sunday, and we basically had the whole place to ourselves.

03.07.09 Rumbling Bald
The three climbs seen here are Brackish Water (V8)--it's the overhanging, crimpy climb, Trad Boys (V5)--it's the highball, and a V5 problem on the back of the Power Pills boulder.





03.09.09 Grandmother
A perfect day in Boone spent with Howie, Pascal, Robert, & Ben. We warmed up in the Valley of the Kings, did some highball stuff at a place called The Tower (i think that's it...), and then got on Have Guns Will Travel (V7). We also attempted an unkown V8 to the left on this long wall, but none of us sent. We ended the day at the Mighty Mouse area. It was cool for me to finally repeat this climb; I haven't done it since about 2002 back before my shoulder blew out, and it's always been on my tick list to get back to.



Some video of Grandmother:


Pascal Tops Out Mighty Mouse (V5) from Frixtion on Vimeo.

Pascal pulls off the tricky top out on Mighty Mouse (V5) at Grandmother after a long day of bouldering.

5.13 Ain't Easy

If you read enough climbing magazines, a funny thing starts to happen. You see enough pictures of 12-year old girls onsighting 5.13, and you start to believe that it's easy. Add to that the fact that the top of the grade scale is now around 5.15b (this week, anyway), and 5.13 doesn't seem so far up the charts anymore. I guess I let this seep into my brain over time. And living in a land of boulders, I never have the chance to sport climb. Seems like if you can boulder V7-V8, you should be able to climb a 13... And these mental rationales are exactly why 5.13 is kicking me in the arse.

It's been a goal of mine since about 1997 to climb at least one 5.13 before I die. In the last month, I started working my first one. And so far it's not going so well (OK, make that pretty piss poor). After two full days on the line over a week-long period, I haven't even done all of the moves yet. I hang at almost every bolt. My bouldering arms are destroyed by this 5-bolt route. And now I'm having to get really serious about (ugh)--training. And even worse, endurance training.

I've been hitting PT bands at least 3 times a week, the climbing gym at least once a week (focusing on enduro and power moves), stretching, doing sit-ups, push-ups, and even doing laps on a crappy outside stone wall when weather permits. Even though it's time consuming to do so much training, I can feel the benefits even when I'm not climbing. The best benefit is just feeling more loose from the stretching. We'll see if all of this work over the last 2-3 weeks makes even a dent of difference on the route. Anybody got any additional training tips for making the push to 5.13? Maybe I should call my 12-year old niece and ask her...