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M.H. Mix Tape Vol. 3

Friday, July 15th, 2011

So first of all, Daniel Woods is a machine! He climbs 2 V13′s first try, 2 V13′s second try, and 2 V11′s first try. In six hours! As you may have read in my previous blogs, I’m a Hueco-afficienado, and have tried parts of four of these problems. They are HARD. Those are real V13s.

In order of appearance:

Li, V13… I’ve done the stand start to this (V7) and climbed on the sit start with Ethan Pringle. The feet are horrible and the giant move to the pinch just doesn’t make sense. Neither of us were able to do that move.

Liane, V11…Six minutes later (!!!), Daniel fires off this problem. I watched Ethan flash it on one of my rest days in Hueco, and I’m excited to get on it next time.

The Evangelion, V13…A hard, scary Dave Graham first ascent. Tall and crimpy, climbing over another boulder, AND it’s really hard. Obviously.

Slashface, hard V13…Same start as Evangelion, horrendous feet and sharp holds make this full value. Good friend and BKB regular Mike Feinberg (3rd place at UBC Central Park comp!) took this down this past winter. Watch Daniel’s feet just stick to the wall! Nutz!

Mo Mojo, V11…Daniel styles this problem and tops it out through the scary death choss. Originally graded V12, it’s no gimmie.

Finally, Crown Royal, V13…Daniel gets the second of this Sam Davis problem, traversing below the mega classic, Better Eat Your Wheaties, V8/9. A little contrived, but another hard addition. It’s awesome to watch him try hard at the end of this day.

Needless to say, Daniel won the Hueco Rock Rodeo, the outdoor comp in Hueco Tanks. I don’t need to say much about this video. It pretty much speaks for itself; holy cow!

 

 

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UBC in NYC!! OMG!!!

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

In case you’ve been living under a rock and hadn’t heard, the second stop on the Unified Bouldering Championships Pro Tour took place in our lovely metropolis a few weeks ago.  This marked the first professional climbing comp in NYC, with finals happening in Central Park.  Vasya Vorotnikov and Angie Payne came out on top winning a bunch o’ cash and the chance to flex their muscles in front of thousands of screaming people, many of whom were probably climbing virgins.  Great job Angie and Vasya!

 

For me, this was the biggest event I’ve been able to set at, and it was  a ton of fun working with the setting team.  The crew consisted of myself, Max Zolotukhin, Dave Wetmore, Jeremy Hardin, and Chief Setter Chris Danielson.  Chris and Jeremy have been setting events like this for a while now, and both amazed me with their abilities.  Chris has some ninja-like skills with a wrench and blew me away with his knowledge of the field of competitors, and basically all things setting related.  He and Jeremy have even mastered the one-leg ladder climb.  Yep, Chris managed to match the ninth rung…kinda blew my mind.


Photo Credit: Dave Wetmore (davewetmore.lt11.com)

 

Our job for the week was to set the qualifiers and semifinals climbs at the Cliffs at Valhalla.  With the help of gym locals Paul Jung and Kary Williams we busted out all the climbs in two days, leaving the third day to set up, forerun, and do some final tweaks.

 


Photo Credit: Dave Wetmore (davewetmore.lt11.com)

 


Photo Credit: Dave Wetmore (davewetmore.lt11.com)

 

After semifinals on Friday we shuffled on down to Central Park to tweak the finals climbs.  Due to the limited time to actually work in the park, the finals climbs were set a few months prior in a warehouse in Colorado.  They were then taken down, the wall was dismantled, everything was shipped to NYC, and finally the walls were put back up and the problems reset (by Mr. Kyle McCabe, bamf and workhorse extraordinaire).  We spent Friday night tweaking the climbs to account for the field of competitors and, more importantly, the hot weather.  We finished up by 3 a.m. and got ready for the big show the next day.

 

 

 

The Eastern Mountain Sports Pro rocks Central Park 2011 from NE2C on Vimeo.

 

 

All in all the finals went pretty damn well.  Comp climbing finally got a bigger venue, a bunch of people who knew nothing about climbing got super-psyched watching some mutants pull down, and Vasya got to do a one-arm in front of thousands of people.  My favorite moment of the day was the crowd’s collective gasp when Mauricio Huerta first did the 360 campus move on Men’s #3; it was great to hear all the non-climbers having their minds blown!

 

For further recap, check out these sick videos put together from our friends over at Louder Than 11

 

 

Unified Bouldering Championships EMS PRO Men’s Semi-Finals from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Unified Bouldering Championships EMS PRO Women’s Semi-Finals from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

 

 

-Jeremy “JB” Bini

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M.H. Mix Tape vol.2

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Vimeo and YouTube are filled with thousands of videos of people climbing in rock gyms, but that doesn’t mean they’re all worth watching. Online videos are a big part of climbing: they help you climb vicariously all over the world. But gym videos lack the appeal of beta knowledge and the beauty of the great outdoors. It’s no fun to see footage of a shaky, chalky problem in some dark gym.

That being said, The Insiders is awesome! Paul Robinson, Sasha DiGiulian, Vasya Vorotnikov, Dave Wetmore, Francesca Metcalf and Ashima Shiraishi are featured in this great Big Up production. It’s cool to see a bunch of pro climbers sending in Central Rock, Massachusetts. This short film also profiles the climbers well and you can get a good sense of what they’re about, as well as how they train in a gym setting and how they can apply that to climbing outside. Obviously, these athletes are some of the strongest in the world, and they are dominating both the outdoor climbing industry as well as the national competition circuit. Recently, Sasaha DiGiulian got 2nd and Vasya Vorotnikov raged (getting 1st for men) at the UBC Pro Tour comp in Central Park, yanking a one-arm pull up at the top of the final problem.

This was composed by Big Up to show gym climbing and promote the sport. They did a fantastic job with all the filming and editing and it make it really easy and exciting to watch. I particularly like the lighting in the gym, which is something most climbing gyms struggle with in videos.

It’s awesome to see Ashima climbing in it. She’s going to be featured in this year’s Reel Rock film tour, so we’re going to get to see lots more footage of her. It’s apparent to me that she doesn’t even come close to trying hard in this video. I don’t think they even realized her full strength. I routinely climb with her at BKB, and make up climbs for her that are practically V13. She is one to watch, and I feel psyched to watch her progress and become a national climbing sensation.

Headsetter for The Insiders is Chris Danielson, a representative for Teknik and E-Grips hand holds. He provides the holds for this event, using some of JB and my favs. Watch closely and see how many you recognize from BKB. He set some very unique movements, including the bat hang down swing dyno, done by Paul Robinson.

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M.H. Mix Tape Vol. 4

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Buttermilks Bouldering

A profile of Kevin Jorgeson in the Buttermilks shows many of the mid-range classics in the beautiful morning sunshine. Bishop, located in the Sierras, is home to many tall, aesthetic lines, as Kevin mentions in his wise and humble commentary about the area. Kevin has climbed 98% of the problems in Bishop and he is hungry for first ascents. The Transporter Room, V5, which he repeats (and claims its second ascent) is a classic high ball, is right next to Ambrosia, a super high ball V11, which Kevin put up last year (it’s featured in Progression if you’re interested).

The thing that makes this section so exciting is Kevin’s project attempt at the end. Why hasn’t it seen more hype? It has everything I would be searching for in a boulder problem. To quote Kevin, “I can’t imagine another climb anywhere else like it!!” The first ten feet of the problem has been climbed before by a friend of mine, Anthony Cheratuti, and is graded V13. However, it didn’t receive much attention since it didn’t top out. Once Kevin tops it out, I expect it will be in the V15 range. Two problems to the left is Lucid Dreaming, a Paul Robinson V15.

Check out the classics, and watch Kevin project in Bishop’s Buttermilks!

 

<iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/23288001″ width=”400″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″></iframe><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/23288001″>VIDEO PROFILE: BD athlete Kevin Jorgeson bouldering at the Buttermilks</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/blackdiamond”>Black Diamond Equipment</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

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Routesetter Review – 5.10 Warhawk

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

The run-down:

The Warhawk is  a beefed up, more supportive version of the Daescent–and thereby a big improvement.  If sized correctly, it’s a comfortable approach shoe that can edge and smear securely enough to cruise up to 5.8 (or harder if you’re daring) at the crag.

Tech Specs:

» An ultra lightweight approach shoe.
» Perforated nubuck leather upper promotes a supportive fit and breathable environment.
» External heel counter straps for enhanced support.
» Heel pull tab for easy on/off.
» Lightly padded tongue and contoured collar for added comfort and performance.
» EVA heel wedge for increased stability.
» Stealth® rubber outsole is ultra light and offers exceptional durability.
» Weight: 11 oz

The Whole Story:

I was eager to try the new Warhawk, having inherited an old pair of Daescents from NY hardman, Ivan Greene (a big fringe benefit of knowing Ivan and having the same size feet) and beaten them to pulp for 6 months routesetting at BKB.  The Daescent was (and is) a good shoe for setting–light-weight, comfortable and more than adequate for testing moves mid-set.  My only beef was with their complete lack of support and the way they got floppy and toothless as time wore on.  The Daescent was truly an indoor animal. With the Warhawk, it looked like 5.10 took my beef and put it right back into the shoe.  Thicker tongue, stiffer sole for better edging.  I had to try it.  So I did.

I took them straight to the Gunks for a day of trad.  On the approach, I tied them snug (I lace them more openly around the gym) and hiked the stairmaster up from the parking lot to the carriage road with my mind on my feet.  The EVA heel wedge and the extra heel padding of the insole combined to protect my heels from gravel and jagged scree, while my toes in the Stealth rubber-randed toe box felt grippy and precise with each step.  Good thing, because my quads were on fire…stupid stairmaster.  All day, as we scrambled along the base of the Trapps from Shockley’s Ceiling to Wonderland, the Warhawks kept me nimble as a mountain filly while protecting my feet.  In fact, they would have been perfect, if I had sized them correctly, and therein-literally-lies the rub.

I wear a size 10 street shoe and when I was sizing at Send Supplies, the size 10′s felt like a great compromise between my approach shoe needs and my climbing shoe needs, but after a couple hours of scrambling, I realized that I probably should have sized up by a half size, sacrificing a little bit of climbing precision for more walking comfort.  It’s tricky–all shoes in the Warhawk’s class are a marriage of two ideals, approach perfection and climbing adequacy.  Beware, when sizing, of skewing toward a snugger fit.  It’s gonna cramp your style as soon as you try to walk any farther than from your sesh at BKB to your sesh at Canal Bar.  Me, I’m going to have to try to take the ol’ shoe stretcher to ‘em.  Luckily this pair will see most of it’s action inside BKB as I set routes for all you plastic-pulling weenies and for that calling, they do me proud.  So next time you’re grovelling through one of my V4′s and cursing me for a hack setter and no kind of gentleman, remember I probably did your project in my approach shoes.

Snuggles!

 

Ben

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Da Trapps, Da Nears

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

We had nice day of shralping the gnar this past Thursday. The day kicked off in the Trapps, and ended down in the Near Trapps.   Although a bit tired, we all managed to climb some cool stuff, and check out problems that Jeremy, Ben and Mark hadn’t been on before. Overall it was a relaxed, mellow outing.  Here are a few pics, and short clip of Bini ticking Cream Cheese V6 in the Nears.

Ben cruising “The Million Dollar Problem” V5, in the Trapps.


Grateful Dead member Gerry Garcia out for a shralp.


Gerry pulls the crux of “Rock Star” V5

Crush the pinch! GK on “Karajo” V10/11


Out for a trip on Ken’s Crack 5.7


MH on the lovely “Suzie B” V0+

Boss Man Ben on “New Pair of Glasses” V7

 

Cream Cheesey from BrooklynBoulders on Vimeo.

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M.H. Mixtape

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Rarely a night goes by when I don’t sit down and watch a few climbing videos from various blogs around the web. It’s a great way to keep the psych high and learn good beta, as well as see my friends send. There is obviously a huge variety of climbing videos out there; some are short, grainy, raw pure sending footage, and then there are others which are feature-length and action packed. Because I’m such a connoisseur of fine climbing media, I thought it might be cool to write a weekly blog about what videos are worth watching.

 

As this is the first week, I’m going to keep it close to home: New England. This video features some of the classic harder problems and some great personalities. Max and Dave both live in Boston and work as Route Setters. Jon lives in Boulder and also sets routes. I’ve climbed with these three and they’re a lot of fun. I’ve  also had the pleasure of climbing on all of these problems except for the last one (Stand and Deliver V11) and this gets me excited to try it. Aesthetic problems, antsy beats and ridiculous outfits make up this full-bodied movie.

 

From the BKB route setters, here is a sick movie from fellow setters.

(By the way Jon, Bradley is in Connecticut not Massachusetts.)

New England Bouldering • Bradley, Pawtuckaway, and Great Barrington • Jon Glassberg, Dave Wetmore, and Max Zolotukhin from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.

Mark

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Perfect Day

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Really, this past Friday was a perfect day of bouldering.  The energy was wonderfully positive, light, and fun.  It is rare that everyone will climb something at or above their limit. This clip that Eric threw together for us expresses the day’s energy far more than a written blog post could.

Gunks Bouldering – March 2011 from e b on Vimeo.

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OMG Shralping the Gneiss Gnar!

Friday, March 11th, 2011

So on Tuesday March 1st  I come into the gym, and then the dudes (Mark, Jeremy) are all  “Yo’s dude, we think we shralp outside tomorrow, you are coming, so you best be psyched!”  And I’m all thinking, dang this is quite dope, but alas t’is my lovely lady’s birthday, and I am ill prepared for the journey to most delicious gneiss boulders.

After a wonderful dinner and such things, I wake up the following day and rumble off to meet up with Jeremy, Mark, and the illustrious Eric.  Perhaps the most punctual of boulderers,  we all rendezvoused within 2 minutes of each other  at the prescribed time (9:30am in case you had the thoughts of wonder).  Complete aside, but the great hall at Grand Central Terminal is one of my favorite places in Manhattan, and I would encourage you to check it out if you’ve never been there.  I digress.  So the dudes and I are riding up on the train and it is becoming more and more apparent that my footwear is going to be horribly inappropriate for the day, as the snow becomes thicker and thicker the farther north we progress.  Too bad I have 8 years of experience climbing at The Pond and low and behold forgot to mention to everyone how snowy it can be there in March.  Yops.

Anywho, we were greeted by much snow, and only Eric had boots, and Jeremy was using some innovative technology to keep his feet warm and dry (plastic bags he wrapped his feet in).  At the very least the Moby area was dry and we were able to climb around on a few warm ups, and tear it up on Moby Stand, and Assis, V4 and V6 respectively.  Quite a nice boulder problem.  After hucking some number of laps of which I cannot recall on Moby, we walked around the back of the boulder to Catharsis.  Catharsis is an incredibly dope, albeit short problem.  Fantastic rock, holds and movement yield one of the lines that I use as a benchmark for the V9 grade.

Mark and I had done the line previously, but I enjoy it greatly and repeated it a few times.  Eric and Jeremy were very close to sending, and had some excellent goes.  I foresee them crushing it in the future.  Further attempts to boulder were stymied by the volume of snow, and the increasing chill of our feet.  After trundling about for some 20 minutes trying to get to the next boulders, sometimes punching through the snow up to our hip, we decided it was probably best to hike out and shralp another day.  Which we shall do.

~Garrett “Slowchacho” Koeppicus

Eric slip, slap, sloppin up the slopes of Moby.

GK pulling down on his favorite type of hold: Le Pinch.

Jeremy busting out the the opening move of Catharsis, pzzzzzaaaak!

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Day 4, RAIN!!

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Another day setting at the PRG, today we nearly finished all the problems for the redpoint round, thats nearly 70 problems. These climbs cover the complete grade spectrum and will get the kids psyched. For the red point comp we’ve divided the gym up in 14 sections with 4 or 5 climbs per section. There will be a judge for each section watching the kids climbing and signing score cards. Each section will also hold 2 finals climbs.

This section is for Ivan. Today I can across this,

This crimp is a classic old school pusher hold. There’s a famous line in Dosage 1 where Ivan said ” Itsy bitsy crimpers, maybe just a little bit too heinous on problem number 3″. He’s reffering to a move off this crimp.

It rained hard all day. The PRG is located right between 2 rivers and they’ve been rising drastically all day. As we left the bridge nearly flooded, and water was about a foot below the gym. Sandbags have been set up around all entrances in hopes of keeping out the water, if the gym were to flood. Hopefully its not flooded when we get back in the morning.

Sandbag blockade.

After getting back to Jeremy’s Mrs. Bini had cooked a fantastic dinner of quesadillas. She had also made us the best brownies I have ever had for Desert. Jeremy and I both ate way too much and felt sick.

Jeremy enjoying the Brownies.

Check back for the final day of setting, Day 5.

Mark

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Day 3, Hunger

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Thankfully I felt much better waking up this morning and Mrs. Bini’s delicious chocolate pumpkin bread really helped. Jeremy and I, both feeling well rested, arrived at the gym around 10 and got to work. We stripped the rest of the bouldering wall. You should see the gyn now, it’s such a mess.

After making the mess, todays mission for me was to set one of the 12 to 14 boys final problems. I took my time, but i’m really happy with how it turned out and I think the kids will really enjoy it.

We can’t give away the problem so heres a half picture of it and the mess.

So now you’re curious why the post is entitled the hunger, about an hour into setting the boys problem I started to get really hungry and Jeremy refused to get lunch. Fast forward an hour we finally left for the BBQ place next store and it’s closed. In the end we had to order food and wait another 45 mins. I nearly died. However I did have my first real Philly Cheese Steak!

After that epic we had an major fore-running session. We climbed lots of things including the hardest mens problem. Another problem which has to be perfect; after a few tweaks we made it happen.

Jeremy making sugestions.

We still have the BKB holds ready to set finals with, and Jeremy’s getting really excited.

Check back for day 4 tmr.

Mark

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Second 2011 Attack on Hueco Tanks. BOOM

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

After my first trip to Hueco Tanks this season, I felt I had some unfinished business.  The second trip was all about non-stop climbing.  Me and my good friend Mike Fienberg only had 4 days to get in our takedown.  So we decided that we would not take a rest day and see what we could do.  On my last trip I tried to do the problem The Full Monty, but was not able to fully figure out the crux move.  The  move involves a very hard left hand through to a  half pad gastone.  I was only able to do the move a couple times on my first 2 sessions working the problem.  After trying the Full Monty my first day of the 4 day siege and feeling pretty horrible on it,  I knew I would only have one more chance.The Full Monty V12 Hueco Tanks Texas

On my last day of the 4 day trip I made it back to the area they call the Gunks in Hueco Tanks State Park, where the Full Monty is located.  I would only have a short period of time to do the climbing seeing as how it is blazing in the sun for most of the day and once the sun is off it there is only an hour or so til the park closes and we would have to hike out.  I had a couple good goes but was not putting it together.  I took a long break and walk to the top of another boulder and laid in the sun.  After my break I got real focused and in was able to bang it out not 10 minutes before we had to hike out.  For me doing this boulder problem was a milestone.  I have dreamed of climbing this hard since I started climbing 7 years ago.  I cannot express in words the level of psych that I felt topping out the boulder.

Once the climb was completed it was celebration time.

I woke up the next morning, went to the airport and upgraded to first class for the trip home.

And as always a special thanks to V-Line Climbing and Evolv for the gear

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Day 2, The Sickness

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Day 2 at the PRG was a rough one for me. I woke up feeling really sick,  it stayed with me all day. However I did set a few problems and had a short fore-running session.

The highlight of day 2 was setting the hardest finals problem for the 11 and under girls and boys (Ashima status). Setting a problem for a smaller person isn’t necessarily harder, it just takes a little longer. For me I like to make sure all the moves are shorter than me locking off to my mid bicep. Finals problems have to be perfect, the goal is for it to get progressively harder separating the field and creating good results. Unfortunately I can’t show any pictures as they have to stay top secret.

So Ill donated slots

Check Back For day 3

Mark

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Day 1, Junior Bouldering Invitationals

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

After a long drive to the PRG in Coatesville, we were ready to set. Jeremy and I met the rest of the crew Dino Norcini and Keith Dickey.

We stripping the remaining walls for for today and rounded up all the dirty holds. At the PRG they don’t wash their holds in a dishwash instead we took them to the car wash, where we pressure washed them clean.

With all our clean holds we got to work and started setting. Jeremy and I set 3 problems each, paying great attention to detail, working hard to make these problems really fun and kid friendly.

After we fore-ran our work and made a few changes.  We spent a few hours working on harder problems for the redpoint part of the comp. I set a red problem in 9 to 11 range the follows the right arete in the picture above, not sure how it came out but i”m happy with. We’ll be climbing those tomorrow.

The comp format. There will be a 4 hour redpoint comp where competitors can climb on 70 problems of all grades then those who qualify will climb 4 finals problems to decide the winner. The Kids are divided up into 3 categories for each sex, 11 and under, 12 to 14 and 15+.

Check back tomorrow for another update.

Mark & Jeremy

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We Three Geeks (Video)

Monday, March 7th, 2011

A short video highlight of some amazing Australian bouldering from Ethan Pringle, Mark Feinberg, and our own Mark Heal. (Profanity warning.)

3 Geeks in a Day from BrooklynBoulders on Vimeo.

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