One year ago I sat idly and watched as my friends enjoyed a beautiful, warm winter day of cragging at the New River Gorge in West Virginia…. I reminisced of moments from weeks prior: the sound of our machete as it cut through thick vines; the unmistakable metallic squawk of the Bearded Bellbird; waterfalls; flowers; heaven on earth; black flies; dazzling views; big walls; dirt in my eyes; ant bites; the sound of a breaking bone…
I bought the C.A.M.P. Scorpio V-Threader as a replacement for my C.A.M.P. Joker, a near-perfect v-threader that I dropped in the Alaska Range. Though both tools are light, simple and thread Abalakovs effectively, two differences make the Scorpio frustrating and ineffective at half its purpose.
The Pursuit” chronicles two trips to the land of the midnight sun. “The movie is very much self shot,” says Aaron Mulkey, “I wanted to keep the sense of adventure in the film.”
Earlier this month, Neil Chelton, Ross Kain and Andy Kirkpatrick attempted the second ascent of the Russian Direttissima (EX: 5.10- 100 degrees, 1800m, Arkhipov-Dmitrienko-Malygin-Tsyganov, 2006) on the Eiger’s north face, and produced this video. They turned back in warm conditions on the A5 pitch…
An exciting video of Steph Davis and Mario Richard BASE jumping and then climbing a Steve Hong and Steve Carruthers’ route, Glad To Be A Trad (5.13a, 50m), in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. According to Desert Rock: Rock Climbing in the National Parks, written by Eric Bjornstad, the line climbs a right-facing dihedral to a thin crack on the upper face of the canyon wall.
Aerial footage of Dawn Glanc and Tim Emmett climbing in Iceland’s West Fjord gives us a new perspective on big ice routes. The wide-angle lens of the hovering aircraft shows the full context of the climb–the coast, turf houses, treeless landscape and snow-covered roads–not just the up-and-down views of typical climbing films. Within this setting, the two climbers look almost insignificant.
While the design looks too strange to be functional, and the price tag steep, I have to admit the performance of this odd shape signals a notable advance in ice axe technology.
