advanced warning

i may soon need to switch this blog to private. if you wish to continue to view this blog, please send me an email to the below address. please use the following as the subject line, in all caps: "BLOG ACCESS REQUEST"

emailto: (((((iclimbbigrocksAThotmailDOTcom)))))))))

clear creek canyon / recession proof

a few weekends ago, a light snow fell on the i-25 corridor, night temperatures dropped to the low teens, and climbers everywhere awoke to discover that they became bitches overnight. session plans were dashed and the gyms were flooded... but not for a trifecta of intrepid boulderer super studs of doom. when asked if we would be bitching out, we boldly said NAY: WE ARE BUT MEN

and then we rokked out in clear creek canyon in surprisingly livable conditions.

learn this story. live this story. it is oh so much more profound than any of thems trifling aesop tales.

joe's valley / jitterbug perfume, eden, playmate of the year

some f bombs in the song. olson: EARMUFFS!

joe's valley / jitterbug perfume, eden, playmate of the year from sock hands on Vimeo.

joe's valley / brian capps' new one 'round left of 'battletoads'

so after a lazy sunday during which i got slapped down by 'battletoads', i started cleaning a line to the left on an immaculate face that looked easy. i couldn't do it at all AND it has supposedly been climbed before. boo. then, emerson started cleaning a great looking sloper line for me because i probably looked forlorn like a sad grandpa... then, IT turned out to be too hard for me. not for capps, though, who hooked it up with mad soill slillz. supposedly, i get to name it... or at least that's what he said via txt 4 minutes ago. so, NAME PENDING. muhahahaahahaa.

joe's valley / save yourself

joe's valley / beyond life

joe's valley / eden

tom demonstrates:

joe's valley / jitterbug perfume

morning wood

joe's valley / playmate of the year

in the morning, it begins

heaps beached

so, for the 3.8 people who visit this blog, while you wait for me to post media (which may take a while), go check out rylan's new post, which is full of lies and misstatements of fact. my dogs are angelic all of the days. wait, who's lying again? whaat? right? uggh right whaat?

eldo / elegant infinite

here's the shortened version to skip right to the boring parts... the climbing. enyoy, amigos.

elegant infinite - short version from sock hands on Vimeo.

eldo / 'elegant infinite'

some idiotic commentary for you. then, "sending" occurs in the last minute or so of the video. i suppose i had to put sending in it at some point. i didn't want to, though.

elegant infinite from sock hands on Vimeo.

Denver Climber's Coalition - Clear Creek Canyon clean up THIS SATURDAY

Please join us for our October Clear Creek Clean-up.

It will be October 17th starting at 9:00 am. We will meet at a pull-out on the left, not far past the first tunnel.

Hope to see you there!

http://www.denverclimberscoalition.org/

clear creek canyon / recession proof and FA of deficit disorder

so, despite horrendously gloomy and cold conditions BOTH days this weekend, rylan and i lucked out and found a few hours in the sun BOTH days. i'm posting a bit backwards, but here's a video of yesterday's shenanagans at 'recession proof' in clear creek canyon. mind you, it was cold... damn cold... on the drive up, the trees on the hillsides were encased in that thick frost that forms when a cloud literally freezes onto everything it touches. however, the bit of sun we had early in the session took just enough edge off of it to lift our spirits. thanks to asher for hanging out and playing video slave. the "fa" is technically a link of the "recession proof" start into the very cool moves of the "return to squiggles" variation.

oh, and i've been singing the word up! song for about a month in the fashion i always do: obnoxiously. but i must apologize... it is NOT rick james after all.

2009 / clear creek canyon / recession proof and FA from sock hands on Vimeo.

later in the day, before going home, i got to see glassberg, hork, draughn, emerface, rolson, and ze germans crushing on the dark waters block. very humbling to see all of em cruising moves that still befuddle me. dang.

rmnp / i comb my hair like god /aka/ mirkwood low OMG MORE MIRKWOOD

sorry phil.

2009 / rmnp / i comb my hair like god /aka/ mirkwood low from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / upper chaos / mirkwood AGAIN

mt. evans / curiously wrong and curiously strong / supabad radd doods, etc.

a couple sundays ago, matt miller and i busted out to evans for a late lazy sunday session of gnar. despite the cold wind and snow the day before, evans was toasty warm and the rock was greasy in the sun. regardless, matt fired off 'curiously wrong' on essentially his first go. well, he would have flashed, but i put my arm in the way of his foot when i bent down to move a pad. booo. for me, the session was a bit more laborious. i was trying a dyno line and dynos are always really really hard for me. good thing i fueled up the night before.

2009 / mt. evans / curiously strong n wrong. SUPERBAD from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / upper chaos / ladybug, the not bacon wall, and the malcontent

the droogs spin some laps on fun lines.

2009 / rmnp / upper chaos moderates from sock hands on Vimeo.

evans / curiously wrong

a couple sundays ago, situner and i made it up to the hume block at evans b. despite the cold temps and snow the day before, the conditions were very warm and greasy. regardless, si put the hammer down and killed "curiously wrong" in a couple goes. a top notch effort. very fun. yes yes.

i posted a poll.

but here is where you can post slurs.

rmnp / FA of "preemptive strike"

this line is taller and more substantial than it seems. it also has an obvious matched undercling start that will be very very hard [at least v12]. so, the established start is as depicted. because i said so. under official park rules, you cannot contest this decision which was made properly in my sole and absolute discretion. the benefit of this ascent under such rules of chaos shall inure to the benefit of my successors, agents, representatives, heirs, and assigns. BOOM, bitches. oh, and i also recognize a start with your left hand the same, but your right hand on the bottom of the arete, which i did immediately prior to the depicted start. i can do this. i can make it official. those are the rules. bwahahaahahahahahahaa

2009 / rmnp / FA of preemptive strike from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / mirkwood / i comb my hair like god.

ben spannuth killing 'i comb my hair like god' aka 'mirkwood low'. the track has lots o cussing, which i normally try to avoid, but the groove perfectly jives with ben himself: smooth hip hop flow on the rock and readiness to cut you. pure street. listen:

2009 / rmnp / i comb my hair like god / mirkwood from sock hands on Vimeo.

stabbing you photos stolen from ben. taken by ryan young?

and yes the video of ben starts late... the problem starts on opposing sidepulls, with a first move up to the sloping crimp that the video starts with.

rmnp / mirkwood

ok, before i post up the video of mirkwood / mirkwood low / i comb my hair like god, (may take a while), here are a ton of rad shots taken by none other than the age-midget known as asher shay-neimrow. asher, like his big sis, has pulled down so hard while climbing, that his finger bones have shattered like a senior's hip. oh nooz!

anyway, his trigger finger works. behold:

rmnp / barbed wire mustache / the epic

video from a couple weeks ago. some actual sending occurs, but really, that's not the point. the point is that we all had to come to grips with frustration... many-a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game.

2009 / rmnp / a couple wet days in the park... featuring barbed wire mustache from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / mirkwood : 'scuse me while i flash this bishass rig in yer facez. thnx!

actions speak louder than words, and these ^^^ are the loud words that ben's actions spoke to the rest of us.

this weekend, things happened. grand things. amazing things. and someday, i may tell you about them. or maybe not... because your faces irritate me, and sometimes make me wretch.

if you want posts, maybe first ask yourselves "when was the last time i canvassed a neighborhood and handed out flyers about how ill gnar rad straightouttabedlam is?"

or, maybe ask yourself "do i really deserve new posts? what can i do to make myself a better reader and participant of straightouttabedlam?"

mull that over, while ben demonstratesez mad skillz:

rmnp / the kind and storm shadow

hokay, so: sunday, after doing a bit of work early in the morning, was spent at the divine blocks on the bottom, forested side of emerald lake in rocky mountain national park. bob and lisa were in town, and thusly, the resident newmexitards chorvat, jarrod, and erica decided to meet up and climb. now, most who know me know that i am very very neurotic about rmnp sessions. if i do not arrive at the bear lake parking lot by 8:30, i'm constantly nervous of not getting a parking spot and having to do the ridiculous dance of either blasting by the rangers and parking anyway, or having to retrace the drive and take a shuttle bus. the later shaves an hour from your day easily... [and much more if the bullshit bus drivers do not allow you on their ride because of your pad. let me say this rmnp, while i have been staunchly opposed to pad stashing, if you do not revise the attitudes of your bus drivers towards folks with climbing pads, i do not know how you will ever eliminate the practice. to deny a spot on an empty bus to a climber because of the pad is completely inappropriate and if it continues, i will herald pad stashing in the park till my dying days. revise your policies to harmonize them. don't be stupid.]

meanwhile, back at the ranch: we lost bob and lisa to the parking situation and after waiting for about 35 minutes, i got antsy and hiked in with a bevy of pads. as i neared the blocks, of course the weather seemed to instantly change. the slow creeping of a dark cloud over the cirque above belied the fierce winds that whipped up underneath it. it went from placid to hectic in an rmnp minute. i was forced to use my rain jacket and chamois to cover some of the crucial finishing holds on the kind boulder, plastering them down from the whipping wind by heavy stones. i'm glad no one yanked the jacket off and died from cranial contusions. the wind was fierce enough that my jacket was flapping violently like a flag in a tempest... and then came the rains...

the bulk of the day was characterized by this cycle... periods of relative calm, punctuated with strong winds and rain squalls... not exactly what the newmexitards had in mind, but we made due, despite some violent shivering here and there.

below are some shots bob brolio sent over... the kind and storm shadow stand. i didn't send the latter, but made great progress in a short blitz at the very end of the day. chorvat almost hooked it up for the send, but his hands iced out before the top. hopefully, we will each reel this one in before the heavy snows come...

chorvat, looking less desheviled and less facially deformed than i after our day:





yes, there's some blue sky... it was fleeting.. tucked between sets of rain squalls that came in like sets of waves due to the brisk winds.

rmnp / emerald lake / right side and kind of a big deal

kristen crushing the right side problem on the kind wall... grrrr face! and chorvat sets off on what i'm calling "kind of a big deal" which starts on the right side, climbs through these traverse moves, then joins "mr. whimpy"

this is rmnp climbing at its most classic... kind of a big deal is way better than riddles in the park. this is maybe truth.

rmnp / emerald lake / the kind, etc.

due to unfortunate circumstances, i was in colorado this weekend instead of celebrating a very good friend's wedding. fortunately, i was able to meet up w/ the NEWMEXITARDS!!!! and, between the rain squalls, we had a good time.

rmnp / mirkwood and the malcontent

mirkwood is a fantastic new line above the meadow boulder in upper chaos, rmnp. behold its grandeur. also, there's a fun warm up block a stone's throw down-canyon from mirkwood that now holds a low, crimpy traverse. i have tentatively called it 'the malcontent'. blake rutherford had done a direct problem from the same start a couple years prior, as well as a few of the other vertical lines on this block. there's also a foolish little line that we put in right above mirkwood in its little cove. i've called it 'turn the page.'

now you know.

and knowing's half the battle.

photo intermission

go check out peter's post on the pointlessness of posting sundry climbing news. HERE IS YOUR LINK. interestingly, i've been having these kinds of conversations with a number of fellow climbers... life choices, etc... sampling that greener grass and deciding if its green really is of a greater sweetness or plain old under-ripe.

i've had a blog post writing bouncing around my dome in dark times and in light for some time now... maybe it's time to put it down on that elusive electronic paper?

or, maybe it's time for me just to get back to work and stop the meloncholy cycle of self-contemplation?

after all, the less i try to seek my source for something definitive, the closer i am to fine.

yes i did just quote that. truth comes in a variety of musical packages.

deal.

what i should be posting at this point is that the flatirons climbing council and the northern colorado climbing coalition are having trail days in the flatirons and at horsetooth/rotary park, respectively.

this weekend.

if you are free, lend a hand.

rmnp / barbed wire mustache / attack of the strong kids

BOOM

rmnp / barbed wire mustache

rylan marshall gets a turn:

rmnp / barbed wire mustache

ok, massive barbed wire mustache photo assault brewing. first off, aaron of the michigan persuasion. aaron hung out with us all day and was the one who climbed with me on the marble at the end of the day... he came up huge and gets mad props.

behold:

Triple Crown Contest from La Sportiva

From Sportiva:

La Sportiva’s mytriplecrown contest!

Spill the beans... Tell us your Triple Crown experience.

Share your story and get a free La Sportiva T-shirt!
And the best submission will win 4 pairs of La Sportiva rock shoes!

How to Enter:
Attend Hound Ears Triple Crown
Get a Climbing Log Books at registration
But don’t wait, there’s only 300!
Jot down your climbing experiences from any of the three events
You must fill out the Log Book at least 1/2 way to qualify
We highly encourage you to add fun or interesting adventures that you encounter. We encourage creativity, photos and other additions!
Drop off, or mail us your Climbing Log Book
There will be drop off boxes at the La Sportiva Tent at all 3 events, and at Rock/Creek (North Shore) location
Or you can mail it directly back to La Sportiva N.A.
La Sportiva N.A. Inc.
Attn: MyTripleCrown Contest
3850 Frontier Ave, Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80301

A FREE T-shirt and a chance to WIN 4 pairs of rock shoes!
What are you waiting for?

More info: http://www.rockcreek.com/mytriplecrown/

rmnp / barbed wire mustache

on saturday, the 12th, rylan, jamie, and i joyously trudged to the upper portion of rocky mountain national park's chaos canyon. moments after leaving the parking lot to begin our journey, it began to snow ever so lightly. so much so, in fact, that it seemed to compliment the brisk temperature. we daydreamed of grand sends under pristine skies in the hypoxic environs.

we began our day at a little line dave graham put up as a joking afterthought: "barbed wire mustache." in fact, he didn't even log it on his scorecard, while paying heed to the classic counterpart, "barbed wire beard."

regardless, we began, and after playing on the beginning moves, i decided to go for the link of this short, fierce crimp fest.

much to my surprise, things went very well and i was able to reel in a send. it was magical and i was completely surprised. i hadn't expected anything so the idea of getting the camera out for video didn't even cross my mind.

what do you get, then? some photos that belie the darkening blanket of snowy skies pulling fast over head. ...some photos i forced rylan to take while i did my best to pose down on the crux crimpers once again. though their size is exaggerated due to the lens, i think these are some of the smallest holds i've ever put my pounds on.

the video that i snapped shortly after these photos gives a better flavor of the actual felling of the day. that post... pending.

la sportiva speedsters : interim review

warning: stream of consciousness:

the design is prime. interestingly, the speedsters' sole wraps over the front of the toe and turns into the toe-hook rubber patch. this provides a rounded and not chiseled edge under the fronts of the toes, but despite this roundness, they still edged well - they stuck to some fairly heinous dime edges last weekend. in fact, they have worked well in every single regard that i have tried them in... excelling in high stepping on thin edges (where a soft shoe permits more contact through the move rather than the hinge effect caused by stiffer shoes, which sometimes cause sudden slips as the contact patch of the shoe changes through the roatation of the foot during the move), and gloming onto blocky or sloping features.

they got it right with the big toe rubber. i have not had to do any big league toe hooks, but some basic ones on my basement wall were very secure, as with the solution, which is the best toehooking shoe i've used thus far, across the brands. plus, the toe roll over rubber design will help greatly with durability...

also, the heel is built with a much smarter design from a durability perspective and is a bit lower profile than the cobra/muira. so, it seems to fit into thinner features better than sportiva's other shoes... which is important in competing with the jet 7 and dragon, since their narrow heel profile sometimes gives them an edge on very fussy, thin heel hooks... the speedster seems to make up ground on those others and i can't wait to test it out on 'elegant infinite' and 'riddles in the park'. also, re: heel design: sportiva finally covered the terminus of the sole-wrap-up with the slingshot rand, which i hope will reduce the snagging and tearing that i experience with the muira heel.... the muiras hook so solidly that the only thing to give is the cement, and the heel piece peels off for me. the new design on the speedsters should totally neutralize that peeling problem for me. so, speedsters: a good heel hooking slipper. ... not mutually exclusive concepts anymore!

and finally, the sensitivity... i'd argue that they're not quite as sensitive as the mantra s, but in many ways the slightly lower sensitivity has come with massive gains in performance and durability... so it more than evens out in favor of the speedster.

finally, the xs grip 2 seems pretty sticky thus far. i'm not sure what the marketing angle is on this... stickier or more durable or both, but so far i have zero bad to say about it.

i'll post up more as i think of more.

oh, and i sized mine the same as my cobras. in retrospect, this was a good decision. if i sized them any less, as for the mantra, i would have had issues.

so: speedsters and cobras 38.5
mantra s 38.0
muira vs 39.5
solution 39.0

the break in is rapid and without any pressure points.... basically, once on, the shoe feels like a boa constrictor, but without any bite (a consistent squeeze). once you've climbed in em a little while, they form to your feet PERFECTLY. no dead space for me, no undue tightness or hot spots. perfect.

i would say that i've had to be mindful of the seams on the elastic where it meets the leather on the inside of the shoe. if the elastic seam rolls over, it forms a ball that can make your feet sore. if you simply smooth it out with your finger after you put the shoe on, the discomfort is entirely avoided.

mt. evans / failure on 'ground control'

after spending the labor day morning doing paperwork, i busted up to mt. evans, despite the heavy skies. i was blessed with a few periods of dryness and set to work on one of the lowest climbs at evans. it's another one that would be so amazing if only it started higher off the ground. in any event, let your secret competitive side feast on my failure:

mt. evans / FAILURE / 'ground control' from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / fuzzy wuzzy and barbed wire beard

the name is no confirmed: 'fuzzy wuzzy'. but-for the dab potential at 11 ft, it is a fantastic crimping testpiece. and no, my body didn't touch the meddling stone on the send. my shirt obscures it, but it was totally clean.

then, there's barbed wire beard. a much harder crimping testpiece. after working the crux for a bit, i tried the starting moves and just kept going. before i knew it i had stuck the left hand bump to the outer-most crimp and was locking off to the lip jug. i got my fingers in it, but sagged off. i totally could have grabbed it, but i was so shocked, that i just let myself fall off. the kids call this punting. i call it idiocy. anyway, i had to battle back to put the actual send together... thought i was going to bonk before i could do it, but this time casey didn't strike out.

i didn't add any music because the grinding fingernails and joints were amusing to me and you can hear how silent it was up in upper chaos this day.

rmnp / barbed wire beard and fozzy from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / upper chaos / barbed wire beard

yo i couldn't help but post the shots of pirate jemerson. yarrrr.

i sent some of the better ones over to him. check the other shots out HERE.

rmnp / upper / not bacon wall area / ladybug traverse and hateB

photos care of emerson

castlewood canyon / after work salo session / punani

2009/ castlewood canyon / 'punani' from sock hands on Vimeo.

rmnp / green 45 stand, and prelude to phil's send of jade