Holy shit, Kafka was a climber!

24 May

Anna Stohr, crushing (ba haha) in a scrapyard in Switzerland, photographed by Rainer Eder.

(Source: Daily Mail)

24 May

David Lama, climbing steel girders of a blast furnace in Duisburg, photographed by Rainer Eder. And yes, it’s real.

(Source: Daily Mail)

24 May

This is to know a mountain; to inch one’s way up it from ledge to ledge; to break one’s nails on its surface. To feel for handholds, for footholds, face pressed to its stone cheek. The long look at the traverse, the scrutiny of each fissure. And the thought that it has all been done before is of no help.

— R.S. Thomas, from ‘The Mountains’

12 May

James Kassay playing peek-a-boo. Or not.

But it has made me oddly patriotically proud to hear that Kassay has made it through to the finals of the Boulder World Cup in Slovenia. Crush it, James!

Update: James ultimately came 5th in the competition, the best ever result for an Australian male in a World Cup. He did, indeed, crush it. S-weetly.

(Source: eddiefowkephotography.smugmug.com)

6 May

Bouldering in the Arctic (by peterkneen)

6 May

Rannveig Aamodt, on Sport and Art (5.13c). She shattered both ankles, amongst other injuries, in a fall in April 2012. For the whole story, see her blog - but be prepared to wince. A lot.

6 May

The rock is like the surface of the sea, constant yet never the same. Two climbers going over the identical route will each manage in a different way. Their reach is not the same, their confidence, their desire.

— James Salter, from ‘Solo Faces’

(Source: gutfiremagazine.com)

my trainer - we call her La Bestia, and she is awesome - decided to test my maximum strength by hanging weights off me and making me do pull ups. The idea was to increase the weights until I could no longer execute a full pull up. I thought I’d top out at maybe 15kg, but … kinda stunned us both by maxing out at 30kg, which is just under half my body weight.

Anyway, I was thinking about that ri-di-cu-lous study that came out about how women can’t do pull ups (here’s a nice refutation of it, which also explains the science of pull ups) and … well … I do bite my thumb at you, pseudoscientists!

(I should add, so what, they’re just pull ups, and they don’t make me a better climber in and of themselves … but … since I started training I also sent my first ever V5, and this pleases me!)

25 Apr

Look at this sweet sandstone, in the Z Bend gorge, Kalbarri.

Top, Gareth W. on his project (sent! on his 29th attempt!), ‘Fuck the Law’ (26 / 5.12c). Middle, the gorge from the lookout at the top. Bottom, c’est moi, seconding and cleaning ‘Crankshaft’ (24 / 5.12a) (this was John D,’s project, which he also sent. The crux move was pretty burly).