Monday, March 28, 2011

Fred Beckey in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the UP this spring!

Neenah WI; 13
Marquette MI; April 14
Minneapolis MN; April 16
Climber
Fred Beckey
Presents an Illustrated Program -
Climbing North America
Alaska, Canada, The Cascade Range,
Sierra Nevada, Wyoming and the Southwest Desert
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
7:30 – 9:30 PM
Boys’ & Girl’s Brigade
Shattuck Room
109 W. Columbian Avenue
Neenah, WI
(There is a large parking lot to the South)

Suggested donation:
$5.00
If you can afford more, please give more.
If you can’t afford the $5, please give what you can.
All money beyond the costs of the event will be donated to the
Climbing Gym at the Boys’ & Girls’ Brigade or other Brigade needs.
For more information, contact
Bill Kelly     wkellywi@gmail.com





Friday, March 25, 2011

Kelly's fun Scale

http://kellycordes.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/the-fun-scale/


I first heard about the Fun Scale from my friend Peter Haeussler back in 2001, as we bushwhacked through thick Alaskan Devil’s Club en route to cold beers on his sailboat. I’d just come out of the Range, where Scotty D and I had a terrific climbing trip, sometimes terrifying but we loved it later – we’d put up two new routes on Thunder Mountain and made the probable first one-day ascent of Mt. Huntington. Anyway, while bushwhacking and salivating over the beers, avoiding the bears, and dealing with the Devil, it dawned on me that when engaged in Type II and Type III fun, I find myself dreaming about Type I fun. But the transient fix of Type I fun rarely lasts, at least without something deeper, something committing. And so I think … ahhh, nevermind – I could go on and on.
Here’s the Fun Scale:
Heading toward the upper parts of Mt. Huntington.  Scott DeCapio photo.
Leaving the good stuff and heading toward the final slopes on Mt. Huntington. Scott DeCapio photo.
Type I Fun – true fun, enjoyable while it’s happening. Good food, good sex, 5.8 hand cracks, sport climbing, powder skiing. Margaritas.
Type II Fun – fun only in retrospect, hateful while it’s happening. Things like working out ‘till you puke, and usually ice and alpine climbing. After climbing the West Face Couloir on Huntington, Scotty and I both swore that we hated alpine climbing. The final 1,000′ was horrific – swimming up sugar snow that collapsed beneath us, roped together without protection – and took nearly as long as the initial 3,000′ from camp. On the summit, Scotty turned to me and said, in complete seriousness, “I want my mom so bad right now.” By the time we reached Talkeetna our talk of Huntington turned to, “Ya know, that wasn’t so bad. What should we try next time?”
Scotty (L) and me back in base camp after Huntington.
Scotty (L) and me back in base camp after Huntington.
Type III Fun – not fun at all, not even in retrospect. As in, “What the hell was I thinking? If I ever even consider doing that again, somebody slap some sense into me.” The final 1,000′ of Huntington, when I stop and think about it…but, then again, a friend climbed it the next year and had perfect conditions.
I guess you never really know what sort of fun you’re getting yourself into once you leave the couch, which is fine, because it doesn’t always have to be “fun” to be fun.
Maybe the whole goal, the path of the enlightened, is to turn Type III situations into Type I fun. Right. Anybody had any luck with that?
~ by Kelly Cordes on November 2, 2009.

Goals

Write it down and it will happen!  right? RIGHT?

Lots of Trips planed for this summer and something BIG better/will/should happen.
1. The North Face of the Grand.
I will be there in Aug for a week or two working and climbing.  This route will go down, plus hopefully a whole lot more:)

2.The Diamond.
The East Face of Longs Peak in CO.  My old Climbing Partner and I will be there the end of July.  Not sure what route, what grade, but it will be HIGH and hard.

3. Comfortably leading sport routes into the mid 11's

4. Leading Trad to 11a
Close on this last fall, but I want more than one route in one location.  I want to travel leaving 11a Trad!

5. Bouldering V4 by the end of summer.
WTF? Bouldering!!! I cant believe I just vomited in my mouth!  But, in the gym I am projecting V3 right now, and as long as my finger feels good, I want to climb V4 in the Gym.  Maybe, just Maybe I will boulder outside sometime this season.....wont hold my breath though.

6. A century ride.
I cant believe that I have actually never ridden 100 miles at once, so this summer will be the time.

How????  Working hard and putting in the time! I will see if this helps as well; http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do  I am slow, fat and weak. That will change!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Yup, read this;

http://gravsports.blogspot.com/2011/03/ice-climbing-is-not-rock-climbing.html

Good response Will, I appreciate your words.  This same thing happened last season in Nipigon Canada.  The climber got pumped, pitched off the top of a pillar with no pro close to him because he was too pumped to put it in and landed in the hospital.  I have no idea if he is walking today.

The ice climber I look up to has only fallen twice.  One was on him, and he fell on a bolted mixed route.  The other time the dagger broke and he went flying.  And that is in like 20 years of Ice, good ice climbers just do not fall.

I fell once on a mixed route, hit the ground and fractured a vertebra in my back.  I haven't fallen since, and hopefully never will again.  My attitude has changed since then, and hopefully the video guy's attitude will as well.

Monday, March 21, 2011

A tail of two weekends...

Last weekend was spent in a smoke filled hotel/casino in the suburbs of Minneapolis selling shoes. Oh yeah, thats right.  A full, fun filled weekend at "Mistake" Lake in Shakopee. I sold some shoes to make some money and lost some money as well  in a silly video poker machine in the "non-smoking" part of the casino..ugh.  Got to love the crowd, what an interesting mix of people at a casino in the Midwest.


Jump to this weekend and I finally got out for a longer road ride, first over 40 of the season, and a little Drytooling at the gym.  I put up a new boulder problem at the gym and I have completed the first half.  I figure another day of work and I will complete the problem.  Below is Nic working the opening moves....then a hold broke..and he landed on his ass.  Just think if he actually picked up mixed climbing for the winter months.  He is stuck in the upper Midwest after all.

Sunday was a bummer as it rained all frekin day!  The plan was to spend the day at the Lake and climb some trad routes.  Oh well, there is always next weekend!


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Birkie 2011

COLD period.  It was my first day on my skis since Xmas.  I did the 52K classic course in just over 5 hours, so I was happy with that time.  One of these years I am going to actually train for this race!

The photo above is ripped of the "action sports international...whatever" crew trying to make a buck off me.  oh well.

How to protect your soft aluminum heads.

I have a few friends...well, most of my friends all climb with Nomics. Some of those people climb trad with them and don't bring a hammer a long with to pound in iron. I will pound in pegs myself as well, but just not as much as others do.

This is my Friend Bryan's tool, he uses it for everything....and if you look at the head close enough, just imagine what the back side looks like.  They are beat to hell, just take my word for it.

So, how to protect the Aluminum heads of your Nomics and prolong the life of them.  I say prolong the life, because the tool above is only two or three years old and the head is starting to get loose.  To do so, you need a hammer.  Two options. 1. Buy a Petzl hammer.  2.  Buy an after market hammer.

I chose option two;

I just received my hammers the other day, and without using them yet, pretty frekin sweet. They are light weight, low profile and once I put them on, I don't think that I will ever notice a change in swing.  Now I will be able to protect the soft aluminium heads on my Nomic and pound as much as I will ever want to.  I believe that this option is the best out there on the market right now.  Now, all I have to do is wait for Petzl to get there shit together and start shipping the new picks for me to use them...ugh