CabinLog.org

Just starting to get caught up on a lot of news this morning, but apparently some great bouldering happened in Colorado very recently.

Jamie Emerson reports that Angie Payne made the first female ascent of European Human Being (V12) in Rocky Mountain National Park.

pimpin’ and crimpin’ has some additional photos of Angie on the problem from a prior attempt.

Finally, the ClimbingNarc gives us full coverage of not only Angie Payne, but also of Alex Johnson’s recent send of Clear Blue Skies (V12) and Alex Puccio’s send of The Marble SDS (V11/12) all in Rocky Mountain National Park.

ClimbingNarc also makes a great point about reporting “first female ascents.” As women continue to push grades as hard as men, hopefully we can eventually stop designating between the two. I’ve been as guilty on this blog as everyone else in covering this, but the sooner it becomes simply about the climber and their significant achievement, regardless of gender, the better.

While the “top X” of anything can be heartily debated, take a look at this clip from The Top 20 Classic Boulder Problems of North America released last year by Flashed Climbing and Rock & Ice.

Over 500 top climbers were asked to name the most classic boulder problems in North America. This is a countdown of the top 20. The all female cast features some of the sports top climbers with each problem show casing a different athlete such as Cerre Francis, Kate Reese, Charlotte Jouett, Alli Rainey, and others. Director and producer Nathan Cando has created trailers for Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator and now brings his talent to the climbing industry.

Included in this trailer is footage of the following boulder problems:

• The Pearl, V4, Red Rocks, NV
• Bumboy, V4, Horsepens 40, AL
• Pinch Overhang, V7, Horsetooth Reservoir, CO
• Anorexic, V5, Priest Draw, Flagstaff, AZ

If you’ve seen the entire film, what would you change about their list?

Cloudveil is having a big end of summer sale with discounts ranging from 20% - 60% off regular prices. The sale runs from 8/22/08 through 9/1/08. After browsing the sale myself for deals, I can tell you there are definitely some stellar buys in there (via Splitter Choss).

As I mentioned in my last post, we moved to Colorado this week and I was obviously excited about all the new climbing opportunities in my backyard. In my rush to get on some rock, I ignored the fact that my body was exhausted from all the packing, driving, unpacking, and moving around of heavy boxes and furniture. Instead of resting, I decided to head to Carter Lake early this week after work. Why there first? No idea really, just probably the simple fact that it was listed near the front of Phillip Benningfield’s Colorado Bouldering!

So guess what happened? Yep, I tweaked my index finger shortly after what I thought was enough of a warm-up. Lesson learned (I hope). Luckily, it’s feeling better and I should be climbing this weekend.

So while I didn’t get any pictures of actual bouldering (I was also the only climber there), I did take some scenery shots of the boulders and lake.

Instead of posting a few of the pics, I decided to try out the new Flickr embedded slideshows:

A few notes for the anyone visiting Carter Lake that doesn’t really get mentioned in the guidebook:

• Most boulders are on the west side facing the lake which means it was hot as hell in the afternoon (especially on an August day)
• The trail to the set of boulders where the Kahuna Boulder lies is hard to see. There’s mention of a cairn, but I only saw one close to the down climb and at that point I already knew where I was.
• If you’re not a resident of Larimer County, the annual pass for Carter and Horsetooth is $85 per year. Unfortunately, it runs on a calendar starting in January, so if you were to buy one right now, it would expire December 31, 2008. A day pass was $7.

I wrote a few months ago about my eventual move to Colorado. Well, after much effort, I’m finally here. My wife and I drove the 1520 miles from Blacksburg this past weekend and we’re trying to get settled.

On my prior post both here and on my personal blog, many asked where I was planning on living and offered up a bunch of suggestions. We had to do a quick close on our house and had only two weeks to find a place to live during the busiest time of the year. We ended up renting in the southwest part of Longmont. So far it seems like a decent compromise - the area is much cheaper than Boulder and still only 15 minutes away. And the silver lining is we’re closer to RMNP, Carter Lake, and Horsetooth Reservoir.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, there’s a lot I’ve been working on and can’t wait to start getting it onto All Climbing. Now that we’re at our new home, I’ll be able to dive in.

Czech climber Adam Ondra redpointed WoGu (5.14) in Switzerland

Red River Gorge’s Torrent Falls re-opens to climbers

Peregrine closures lifted for all USFS and non-FS climbing areas in North Carolina

Dave Macleod frees Echo Wall, Scotland

China closes Mt. Everest for spring cleanup in 2009

Nicolas Favresse makes second ascent of Cobra Crack (5.14)

Today we have a guest post from Sara Lingafelter who writes at the climbing blog RockClimberGirl.com.

Top ten reasons to rock climb with girls:

1. Some of us have nice thin (but strong!) forearms, itty bitty wrists and long fingers; perfect for cleaning stuck nuts and walked cams. I rescued a blue Camalot on a route at Tuolumne that wouldn’t have been retrievable by any of my guy partners without some extremely creative antics and additional hardware.

2. You’ll be the envy of the other guys at the crag. You’ll be the extra-super-envy of the other guys at the crag if your female climbing partners are traditional leaders.

3. If you’re climbing with girls, you’re more likely to have other girls approach your party and chat folks up, because hey — you’re presumptively non-creepy enough for some girl to rock climb with you. And the corollary applies: you’ll spend a lot less time lost, because we don’t hesitate to stop and ask other climbers (or gas station attendants, or grocery store clerks) for directions and/or routefinding tips.

4. Food and drink. Subject to exceptions, there are usually yummy leftovers when you eat with girls. You also get to sample tasty treats like Luna Bars and that awesome vanilla cinnamon oatmeal without having the cute girl at the grocery store checkout raise her eyebrow at you for buying food with the words “for women” on the label.

5. Our overnight kits generally include such important but often overlooked items as Aleve, eye drops, fingernail clippers and chap stick with SPF.

6. When getting to know new partners, we tend to understate and/or underestimate our relative skill… which tends to lead to pleasant surprises on get-to-know-you routes instead of the epics that can occur when a new partner overstates their skill.

7. Come on, admit it… sometimes you actually like the “Lilith Fair crap” we listen to on road trips. As much as you try to hide it, we can hear you singing along.

8. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find a girl climbing partner with whom traded backrubs after a long day of climbing qualifies as sports massage and not flirting. True story. It can happen.

9. No matter how long we go without a shower, we always smell better than boys for the long drive home.

10. I’ll spare you the “climb like a girl” coaching because despite the fact that I just wrote a partly tongue-in-cheek guest post full of gender-based generalizations, the generalizations that climbers make about boys being strong, powerful and dynamic and girls being graceful, technical and static don’t sit well with me. But, to make a long story short, just like we can learn a thing or two from you… you can learn a thing or two from us.

What have I missed? Share your thoughts in the comments, or pop over to rockclimbergirl.com for more on my climbergirl life.

All Climbing thanks Sara Lingafelter for today’s guest post. You can read more from Sara at her blog RockClimberGirl.com. You can also find Sara on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/theclimbergirl sharing her thoughts.

I just received an email from an old climbing partner directing me to an announcement on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission site stating that New England Ropes is recalling two types of their ropes.

The company says the reason for the recall is the ropes “may not pass the required 5 falls, and may pose a serious risk over time.” Specifically affected by this recall are the Maxim Apogee and Maxim Pinnacle:

Two types of climbing ropes have been included in this recall, the Maxim Apogee 9.1mm and Maxim Pinnacle 9.5mm. The Maxim Apogee 9.1mm is a 48 carrier climbing rope. The colors are yellow and black, and red and yellow. The model numbers are 3411-91 and 3415-91, with date codes 060801 thru 080601. The UPC codes are: 75396312299, 75396312298, 75396312301, and 75396312300. The Maxim Pinnacle 9.5mm is a blue 48 carrier climbing rope. The Model number is 3403-95, with date codes 070201 thru 080601. The UPC codes are 75396312292 and 75396312293. The date codes and the UPC codes are on the original packaging.

These specific ropes were sold between August 2006 and June 2008. So if you recently bought a Maxim ropes, you better check your rope and possibly contact New England Ropes.

I’ve been looking for a new climbing shoe for a while that was either a velcro or a slipper for mostly quick on/off while bouldering. I currently climb with La Sportiva Miura’s for just about all routes and I absolutely love them. They have the best fit and performance of any climbing show I’ve worn. But lace-ups are lace-ups and they take time to put on. Albeit not that much time, but when you’re bouldering it starts to add up and get annoying.

So I’ve been exploring the different options and decided to try the Evolv Optimus.

The Optimus is a new line of shoes designed by Chris Sharma for Evolv. The Optimus is a slipper and has a more cambered last while the Optimus Prime is a similar velcro version.

In the store, I found both fit well. A US size ten was very snug and I couldn’t even get my foot into a 9.5, so that made the sizing decision quite easy. While trying them initially I thought I’d like them a tad bit smaller, but a 9.5 was impossibly small and after climbing in them a few days, I’d say the fit was fine.

I’ve had some fit issues with some of the shoes I’ve tired recently. Specifically, the heel in the La Sportiva Katana was just too big for me (I even tried the women’s version but still didn’t like the fit). I was surprised to then find the heel fit nicely secure and snug in the Optimus. Unfortunately, after some climbing in them, the height of the heel cup is a little too high for me. While climbing I felt it digging into my heel a bit too painfully. This may not be as noticeable as I climb more in them, but an issue nonetheless.

Overall, I like how the Optimus climbs. The rubber is quite sticky and appears to be two generations past my last pair of Evolv’s (the Evo). My Evo’s used Evolv’s TRAX XT-3 while the Optimus uses the XT-5. What this really means, I have no idea. But I can at least assume it’s a new, improved version of their rubber and it does feel pretty sticky. Then again, they’re new shoes and I’ll have to revisit that statement in a few more weeks.

From just the appearance, the Optimus toe is very boxy looking. This rounded, symmetric toe box fits much better than I thought they would based solely on my first look at the toe area. The overall look of the shoe is subdued. All black rubber with bits of yellow peeking through does make the Optimus look sharp though.

There’s rubber all over the shoe and Evolv was very generous in this area. My climbing partner commented on this fact, but also added there’s rubber even in places he felt would never be needed. My counter argument was you never know what kind of crazy smear you’ll need on some bouldering problem, so I’ll take all the rubber I can get!

Pros

• good, snug fit (all relative to my foot of course)
• very sticky rubber
• decent price versus performance
• tons of rubber all over the shoe

Cons

• heel cup is too high for me and cuts into my heel causing pain
• aggressive shoe not great on slabs or face climbs

Specs

Here are the specs for the Evolv Optimus slipper. Most of this is straight from the company.

• profile: semi symmetrical down cambered (CS1 last)
• sole: 4.2 mm TRAX XT-5 high friction rubber
• rand: 2.2mm TRAX duro-rand
• upper: perforated elastic Synthratek synthetic upper with mositure wicking qualities
• lining: unlined
• midsole: MPX-1: 1.3mm stiff poly-dynamic full-length midsole
• Evolv offers split sizing for an extra $30 if you order through their website?
• price: $109

Summary

Overall, if they fit you without discomfort in the heel and fit in the toe box, the Optimus is a good value. As long as the heel cup issue subsides, I’ll be using these as a primary bouldering shoe or for use on short, steep sport routes. While they fit fine, the Optimus will not be my pick for a high performance shoe on most routes (La Sportiva Miura’s again are my choice here for pretty much all routes - perfect fit, edge on a dime, smears great), but for bouldering they look like they’ll shine.

Lots of things have been in the works over the past couple months thus the lighter posting schedule. So I just wanted to whet everyone’s appetite on some upcoming posts.

More gear reviews will be coming including an upcoming review of the new Evolv Optimus slippers. I just got a pair of these and have only been able to use them in the gym. This weekend I’ll be taking them to the New and giving them a full workout.

Another review will be the Revolution 12 Gauge crash pad. I’ve had plenty on mileage on this pad now and a review is almost done.

I’ve taken a ton of pictures recently and haven’t posted any. I’ll be sorting through these and getting some new ones posted.

There’s also a top-secret project in the works. Why even mention it if it’s top-secret? Good question - just felt like I needed to mention it lest you think I’m slacking.

Finally, if you have any interest in the Aron Ralston story, check out an older post I wrote. The comments keep coming (64 now) and there’s a fun flame war brewing. Nice for the entertainment value at least.

Here are two interesting videos from bouldering crash pad maker Organic on how they design and make their crashpads.

(via Organic and B3bouldering)

Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama set new speed record on the Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite

Results of the lead-climbing competition in China

Yosemite Museum at Yosemite National Park is featuring new exhibit dedicated to rock climbing

Bill to ban bisphenol-A (BPA) was introduced to Congress

Nau purchased and re-opend by Horny Toad

With the recent Nalgene and BPA bottle scare, I decided to start replacing my collection of water bottles. To be honest, I hadn’t looked at bottles for a while. I like the standard lexan Nalgene wide-mouth bottles, so I just kept buying them when needed without even really looking at other options. I also know many climbers are big fans of SIGG and CamelBak.

While looking for new bottles, I was amazed at the numerous ways manufacturers can create complexity and choices for something as straightforward (at least in my mind) as a water bottle.

For my usage, primarily on climbing trips, I much prefer a wide-mouth bottle to the narrow drinking versions. While the smaller lids make drinking easier, I like the ability to add liquid, ice cubes, and drink mixes quickly to the wide-mouth bottles. I’ve always preferred the overall flexibility as well as the easier cleaning aspect of a wide-mouth.

So when I found an accessory cap replacement by humangear called capCAP, I was intrigued. The capCAP is intended to simply replace your current cap on any major wide-mouth bottle with their narrow, easier drinking version.

At first I was a bit skeptical that a replacement cap would make any sense, but after using it non-stop over the past few days I love this product.

The capCAP easily fit on my wide-mouth Nalgene bottle with no issues. The first thing I noticed was the rubberized lid on the small cap. This is what you will always be grabbing to open the bottle for drinking and it gripped well with a nice feel to it. This small, yet important feature will be useful out at the crags when hands get greasy, sweating, and chalky.

The other really noticeable design feature is how the drinking spout is curved ergonomically. No spillage and very easy to drink from.

The capCAP’s 2-in-1 design provides both the small cap as well as still giving you access to a large cap for filling the bottle. I like the fact that you get the easier drinking from the smaller cap without losing the functionality of the large cap.

So what does this all cost? The big question, right? The capCAP retails for $5.95 at stores like REI. The average wide-mouth bottle runs from $6 - $12 so your total cost for a bottle after adding the capCAP would be about $14. Not too bad for what you get, especially if you compare it with a narrow mouth SIGG bottle (a one liter bottle runs about $22).

Pros

• very comfortable
• best of both worlds - small-mouth and wide-mouth
• extremely grippable top lid
• ergonomic drinking spout
• BPA-free and PC-free
• works with all major wide-mouth bottles including Nalgene (wide-mouth, OTG and stainless), CamelBak (all sizes), Cyclone, Guyot stainless, and many others
• the carrying loop feels stronger than the standard ones provided with the original bottle

Cons

• currently only comes in one color choice (I don’t mind one color, but I know many do).

Summary

If you like the flexibility of wide-mouth bottles (or already own a bunch of them), but want to drink out of your bottle easier via a narrower spout, you can’t go wrong with the capCAP. Despite the extra cost on a bottle, the product is definitely worthwhile.

Disclaimer: All Climbing was provided a capCap for this review with no strings attached. We do not write reviews for products with any predetermined outcome.

The trailer for Perfecto, a Mike Call climbing video, showing deep water soloing in Mallorca, Spain coming Summer 2008 (via Get Outdoors and Climbing Narc):

Omega Pacific recently released a notice instructing owners of their Link Cams to look for a potential defect:

In May 2008, we became aware of situations in which axle nuts were not properly and permanently fixed on the axle assemblies permitting the cams to potentially become disassembled. Upon receiving the units, our Quality Assurance department launched an exhaustive investigation to determine the cause and establish correction of the issue.

Our QA inspectors have determined that the returned units were allowed to progress from one assembly station to the next without this important step having been completed.

It was determined, based on identification by lot numbers, that the cams returned were manufactured prior to the implementation of upgraded quality assurance procedures and employee training sessions which were instituted in May 2007. At that point, new work instructions were written, additional quality inspection steps were introduced and employees were either reassigned or retrained to reduce the likelihood of such lapses in quality from occurring.

Full information, including how to determine if your Link Cam needs to be repaired, can be found at the Omega Pacific web site here.

Here’s a good 8+ minute video showing how Sonnie Trotter trains in the climbing gym with an intense campus and hangboard workout (via TubeGuide).

The Southeastern Climbers Coalition as well as pimpin’ and crimpin’ have interesting interviews with Jason Kehl on their sites. Check them out.

Climbing video of a new 30 foot 5.12+ hand crack, My Little Pony, in Chekamus Canyon, Squamish, BC via the Backcountry Blog.

There’s a part 2 coming and hopefully we’ll get to see the lead (and maybe some big whippers off that crack?)

Sonnie Trotter repeats Dave MacLeod’s Rhapsody (E11/5.14c R) in Great Britain

Hot Aches Productions writes about filming Rhapsody

Tommy Caldwell frees Magic Mushroom (VI 5.14a) on El Cap in 20 hours and 2 minutes

Results from the Bouldering World Cup in Vail, Colorado

Dosage Vol. 5 world premiere review

One of my favorite new climbing bloggers, RockClimberGirl, is featured in an interview on FrontRangeBouldering.com.

Chris Sharma climbs new 9a+/5.15a in Spain

Recap of the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival

Steve McClure climbs new 9a+/5.15a in Yorkshire, U.K.

Ueli Steck wins 2008 Eiger Award

The Access Fund Climbing Preservation Grant applications are due June 15th

Results of the Dimarock International Climbing competition

Alpinist has an update of the Alaska Range climbing season