Tired of explaining to hikers walking by what that “thing” on your back is? Me too. It can be a daunting task: Explaining how you love climbing small rocks but usually aren’t successful and thus require cloth-encased foam to fall onto when you fail, yet again, at your “project.” Many hikers will ultimately be uninterested, most…
Category: Lists
Backup Plans for Blowing a Finger Tendon/Pulley
No, I haven’t blown a tendon or a pulley, but some days my left ring finger aches enough that after 1,000 words my typing is reduced to my grandfather’s pointer-finger-only method. And then I go climbing. While I occasionally figure-eight tape my fingers to make myself feel better–the placebo effect works wonders–I’ve heard enough two-months-off horror stories…
Auto Belays: Why They’re Simultaneously Great, Okay, and Terrible
By 2023 most gyms will likely have Siri-like auto belays for partnerless toprope fanatics. Climbers will simply press a fingertip to a small screen and don their wireless earbuds to have a soothing female voice ask them, by name, if they’re ready to climb. You’ll be able to tell Siri if you prefer a loose…
Seven Reasons to Encourage Your Friends to Toprope
Toproping tends to get a bad rep in the climbing world, and for many good reasons. It’s pretty hard to “cheat” and let your belayer take weight off through the crux if you’re on lead, and toproping (usually) isn’t as scary as tying into the sharp end. However, sometimes it can be beneficial to encourage…
Seven Ways to Continue Training with a Leg Injury
So you sprained your ankle, broke your leg, tweaked your knee, or did something else to cause pain to your lower appendage(s). No problem. Sure, you’re bummed that you have to take a few weeks off during prime bouldering season and your 4X4-training schedule is shut down, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop…
The Ten Rules of Toproping
Hayden Kennedy gave the closing keynote presentation at this year’s International Climbers’ Festival in Lander, Wyoming. His topic: The 10 Rules of Alpinism. His presentation was by far the best, as he didn’t stumble over his words like several other athletes, despite being more than a handful of beers deep, and he talked humorously about…
The Seven Summer Climbing Trip Essentials
Shoes, chalk bag, harness, ATC, I go over the essentials in my head. Food, check; water, check; melatonin…shoot it’s still on my nightstand; I throw it into my bag. “I’m sure I’m forgetting something,” are my favorite parting words when embarking on any climbing trip. However, there are a few things you should always bring…
BEWARE: The Dangers of Trail Running
Living in Colorado, I’m surrounded by beautiful hiking, biking, and trail-running paths switching back and forth up the Rocky Mountains. After work, I can run up to a rock formation resembling a mushroom with a natural throne-like seat on top or snake through fields of wildflowers up to a green lake at the base of…
Rest Day Activities
As much as we’d like to, few of us can climb hard for even five days in a row without suddenly being unable to send V4 (or V1 if you’re me). If you’re climbing outside on a week-plus-long trip or just psyched on a project near home, your skin is likely destroyed after a few days,…
12 Ways to Hate Climbing
Buy a gym membership and feel like you have to “get your money’s worth.” Set a schedule and climb five days a week on the same problems/routes whether it’s pouring rain and 33 degrees or sunny, 55, and perfect in every way for sending your outdoor project(s). Even better, do this to yourself every day….
What You Should Know About Girls and Camping
First of all, yes, girls do camp. Not all females are innately afraid of nature and believe that a Marriott in the woods is camping. Some of us actually enjoy sleeping in tents, even for a week or more at a time. However, before you embark on a camping trip with a girl there are…
Seven Reasons Why Dirtbags are Awesome
They do what the rest of us simply talk about doing: They climb all the time. When was the last time you took a week off to go on a climbing trip? When was the second to last time you took a week off? How many times between those two trips did you talk about…
Coffee. Tape. Climb. 