Footwear Choices in the Alps

As I got ready for the Alps I inquired to some friends who were already there as to what boots would be appropriate for the conditions this season. There has been quite bad weather and much more snow than is typical has fallen this summer. Most of the recommendations I received were that the “red boots” would be too cold and I should instead go with a Batura to stay warm. Having recently upgraded from the Trango GTX to the Trango Cube, I really wanted to try the boot out, so I brought both.

On our first afternoon up the Aiguille du Midi we did a small glacier stroll over to the Cosmiques Hut and I was plenty warm in the boots. I also noticed the afternoon slosh didn’t seem to saturate the leather on the outside like the red boots and stayed much more dry, due to the seamless uppers. The Cube was very comfortable without even breaking it in was therefore the obvious choice for the next day’s whiteout bad weather adventure. We wanted to head up to stay at the Cosmiques Hut for a night to acclimatize for the Eiger, so we headed into the clouds and proceeded to do the Point Lachenal Traverse. I never thought about my feet all day (the biggest feature I look for in a boot). The next day we headed back to the Midi Trasferiquie via Cosmiques Arête. Even on the shady side of the arête and on the small ice step, my feet never crossed my mind. I was comfortable all day.

Well acclimatized, we headed over to the Bernese Oberland wanting to climb the Eiger but with meters of snow still on the mountain, the huts still had not opened so we set our sites on the Monch and Jungfrau. At this point the was no “choice” in boots as the Cubes were the ones on my feet. We had a great couple days in the mountains with some beautiful summits. The boots did lose out to my Swing sandals on the flights back to the States.

 repost from: http://www.sportiva.com/live/live-archive/climbing-archive/fox-mountain-guides-footwear-choices-in-the-alps

Equivocation Hitch

The equivocation hitch, also known as the daisy of death, has been getting more mainstream use as of late in the guiding world. I went ahead and put together a tech tip for Fox Mountain Guides, and a few of us went out and “red-neck” tested it.

The EQ hitch is useful in a few different situations; the main one being when the ends of the rope are not available. I find this happens when short-roping clients as well as cleaning a single pitch climb with a Gri-Gri counterbalance. The latter is usually less applicable since time is not much of an issue when working in single pitch terrain. It is also a great LNT descending method when using trees as it keeps the rope from burning the bark.

During the testing Ron Funderburke and I had a few major concerns. We wanted to see what happened if the hitch inverted. We wanted to know if twists in the rope could cause enough force on the release strand to release the system. We wanted to know if the top angle was wide (larger anchor object or bolts farther apart), would the hitch hold as well.

In all the testing we came up with two ways for the hitch to fail. One – clip into the wrong strand; two – have too small of a “loop” on the end daisy, and by this we mean very small.

Rock Climbing Summer Camp Video

Here is a video that I put together of a Fox Mountain Guides’s summer camper’s thoughts on “The Seal” at Looking Glass Rock.

Guiding's Professional Problem...Follow up (2 Trends that will kill Crossfit)

Ok, so this article on Crossfit (pasted below as well) finally got me to write about a touchy subject in the guiding industry. It is amazing the parallels I see in these two industries’ problems. In the U.S., a guide or climbing instructor doesn’t need any training at all. Many folks just start a web page after a few years of climbing and proclaim themselves “mountain guides” and start taking people out on to the rock and into the mountains.

Others, like myself and those that I am proud to work with, take the long path of years of personal climbing followed by spending tons of money to educate ourselves through the only internationally (UIAA) sanctioned guiding organization in the U.S., the  American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA). This rigorous and lengthy process educates and examines guides on everything from technical skills appropriate for the discipline they are pursuing to soft skills like maximizing client rewards. Only then do we pursue the profession of guiding.  The result is extreme product differentiation between not only guides, but also the companies they work for.

The sad result for the industry and the public has been the commodification of climbing certification in the U.S. New certification organizations claiming to provide “equal” training to the AMGA have started showing up. One red flag that makes me question their ability to provide equal training is the fact two of the folks who started one of these organizations failed basic AMGA exams multiple times! So what quality are they providing? What was their motivation for starting alternative organizations rather than trying again to pass the basic exams of the only internationally-sanctioned guiding organization in the U.S.?

The naïve but excited consumer who thinks they are comparing apples to apples is probably the biggest problem facing the industry.  Most certified guides and companies are within a few dollars of each other for the products they provide due to the fact that they are typically working within the same constraints. When the general public chooses a company based on the lowest price, they are typically just getting someone who has little to no training (or inferior training) and probably very little experience. When they get done with their climbing day, they have that experience as the basis for their expectation of both the price and the quality of the day, and they are none the worse for the wear because they have no idea they received what could have been grossly incorrect information from affable “guides.”

Indeed, I have seen pictures of companies in our area and across the country that are blatantly teaching wrong and/or dangerous techniques that in real life at best don’t work and at worst are patently dangerous. To make matters worse, these companies often have ratios as high as ten clients to one guide. You might not even get noticed, let alone receive good instruction during the day. The only way these companies can make it is to sell rock bottom pricing and pimp themselves out on the Living Social sites.

The only way we are going to see guiding and climbing instruction stay out of the trap that Crossfit is seeming doomed to will be if insurance companies, the government, and the public all start demanding a minimum standard like that of the internationally-recognized AMGA.  The result will be that the companies who are providing the budget adventure will have to get training and will then see why legitimate companies with professional, well-trained guides charge what we do and why we can’t afford to sell our services on the “social groupon” sites that are the more appropriate for non-professional entities. I wouldn’t get my doctor or lawyer off of groupon; I wouldn’t want to find someone taking my life into their hands there either.

Reposted from Next Level Crossfit:

2 Trends that will kill CrossFit

by Nathan Holiday | Feb 19, 2014

A good example of what’s wrong with *what some people think* CrossFit is.

CrossFit has done more to change the landscape of the health and fitness field than any other athletic movement. If you deny that, you either don’t understand what it is, or your emotions are fueling your opinion. Whether you agree with what is done in CrossFit culture or not, the fact remains that in less than 10 years it has changed how the world views fitness, as well as expanded awareness in many other sports. And whatever the future holds, it will be more impressive because of CrossFit.

Killer Trend #1CrossFit as a commodity

A commodity is basically a service or product that is based solely on price relative to others within the market. Commodification is when that good or service loses differentiation within the marketplace. The reason Coach Glassman was so successful was because he delivered an extremely high quality service along with an ultra-effective gamified fitness methodology that no one had ever seen before. The early adopters saw it, and replicated it well. So it spread like WILDFIRE.

Then more people got involved. Some lacked the quality to demand premium prices. So they dropped their prices to reflect the service. But because they were still a “CrossFit,” and they were advertising their low rates, consumers would wonder why one gym costs $130 and another $200+. And, obviously, if CrossFit is the same everywhere, that consumer would choose the cheaper choice. Then other deals like groupon or living social enter and deliver an extremely low-value, potentially dangerous and watered down version of CrossFit. The client leaves thinking WTF the big deal is with the hype. Sure, it’s cool, but not worth $200+ a month.

Now we get calls a couple times a week from potential clients asking about price. “What do you guys charge for unlimited?” The trend has started. People are shopping around, basing their selection solely on price. And soon, as more gyms drop their price and are holding classes with 20+ people doing ugly airsquats, CrossFit is no longer CrossFit. It becomes a distorted and weak resemblance of what it was originally meant to be.

Killer Trend #2Uneducated Coaches with little to no experience

This ties intimately with the first Killer Trend. CrossFit is comprised of people and, let’s face it, some people suck. People are popping up everywhere with a new found interest in fitness. They get obsessed and decide they want to help with all this positive change. They think… “man, it’s done so much for me… I want to give back.” So they open up a gym with no experience and soon realize that this whole ‘business thing’ is harder than they initially thought – not to mention they have no idea how to successfully manage the health and fitness of 100+ people. A CrossFit Coach should be a PROFESSION. Not a hobby. Not something you off-handedly decide to do after a year of group classes. Sure, get your Level 1, expand your education, learn everything you can – teach some classes and gain experience. But PLEASE! don’t open up a gym! Give it at LEAST 4 years of ongoing education, experience and reflection before you even entertain the idea. Too many people have no idea what they are doing, and all the stupid ass videos on the internet of people doing dumb stuff is testament to that fact. Or you can just take a look at the programming debacle in gyms across the country. The answer to everything is not GO HARDER, GO LONGER or GO HOME! Fitness is a little bit more refined and elegant than that.

I joined the Army at 18. Spent 5 years during that time lifting weights and reading every book I could find on old school strength, powerfliting, weightlifting, nutrition and health. I got out of the Army in 2008 and started interning at Team CrossFit Academy in Monrovia, for more than a year I learned about what original CrossFit was all about. I continued learning everything I could – everyday, constantly reading. Over the following 3 years I worked with hundreds of clients doing one on ones, program design or nutrition work with them. THEN I opened a gym. And even then, I still felt like I didn’t know SH*T! Not saying any of this to brag or say this is the right way, just to illustrate a path that makes more sense to me then: Sedentary my whole life, did 6 months of group classes at a random CrossFit, got my Level 1, opened up a gym…

If these things aren’t addressed, it’s just a matter of time before CrossFit changes for the worse, or dies. It all starts with you and me. It starts with us constantly striving for personal excellence and never settling for the easy route. Easy is NOT CrossFit. Deliver extreme value. Charge premium prices that accurately reflect that value. Educate yourself and those around you constantly. Build a culture of discipline…

Ice Climbing "A Leader's Game"

Ice climbing is one of the essential tools for alpine climbing. Moving efficiently across mixed and ice terrain is a must to be efficient in the mountains. Ice climbing as a sport itself has exploded over the past ten years. There are now “ice fests” all across the country, and many folks attend these, take clinics, and try out all the new exciting gear.

This year in New Hampshire, I helped run the first ever Advanced Ice course that Fox Mountain Guides has offered, with the main focus on leading ice. In this course we talk about the seriousness of the leads and how ice climbing isn’t like rock climbing in that falling is not an accepted part of leading. We look at videos like this one ( Dracula Fall ) and this one ( Kennedy Gully ) We talk about what went wrong and how to avoid these problems.

By the time we put our guests on the sharp end, they tend to style WI3+/4-. The reason: they understand they can’t fall. We teach them to be very methodical and to move with the confidence of an unroped ascent. They understand what the risks are and accept them before they leave the ground. I can teach someone who is reasonably athletic to climb WI4 by the end of a day. As they follow me up a climb, they can use my pick holes and can trust less-than-marginal tool placements and have scrappy feet without the thought of falling and twisting an ankle…or worse.

Vince Anderson was speaking at the Adirondack Mountain Fest this year and pointed out that probably the top 10% of the crowd of climbers could get up the hardest ice lines in the world. He then went on to say that it would be unlikely that even 1% of us could lead them. I would have to agree with that. I will try anything on top rope; put me on lead and my self-preservation starts to kick in. This is a no fall activity. Ice climbing is much more serious on the sharp end; it is in fact “a leader’s game.”  The mental fortitude it takes to lead a more serious ice line is out of the realm of most ice climbers. This is because we are pushing the line between soloing and having a rope on. If every rock climber had to start soloing instead of placing protection on lead, we would see a huge number of people who would only top rope most climbs (me included). Due to this, leading hard ice pitches puts you in a state of focus you can’t get when the rope is above you. It is a game I like to play!

Edit 2023: I now own Pisgah Climbing School and our guides instruct ice climbing in the southeast as well as throughout the greater US.

Every Day is the Last Best Day

Mamaw and Papaw as I refer to them.  Papaw would play endless hours of pitch and catch or sneak me out to McDonalds to get a cheeseburger and maybe stop by and get a pack of baseball cards against my grandmother’s knowing. He never had but just a few dollars in his wallet and we would always spend most of it. He joked that Mamaw would not let him have anymore. I assume that many of us have these fond memories of a grandparent, parent or loved one in our life.  As we grow older these memories carry us through good and bad days and are something that can never be taken from us…

I still have these memories that provide comfort but as I walked into the care facility that my Grandmother had to put my Grandfather in this last Holiday season, it was evident that  we may not always have comfort in these memories. My grandfather has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t recognize much of anything anymore. It is sad to see him perk up as he looks at a picture of himself and my grandmother on their Harleys and for a split-second you see the joy start to flow into his face as if he was getting ready to remember his entire life. The words start to come out; I get excited to hear a story and see the life in him and then, stuttering, he can’t quite find it and his expression is blank once again.

Every day is his last best day. There is no getting better. He is in perfect health. He is losing the memories. Tomorrow, he will just be further from those memories.

The worst part is for my Grandmother who has done all the right things to keep my Grandfather as healthy and mindful as she can. We all hold on to the last bits of memories that we can get out of him and hope that he is happy in his mind.

Plane tickets were booked for Kyrgyzstan today. I am going with some of my favorite guests that I have become friends with over the years. They are rad to adventure with and the memories from this trip will be unforgettable. I hope…

Living in the moment has never been so important.  A life lesson that my grandfather has taught me.

The Gigi (In Response to Steph Davis)

The Gigi (In Response to Steph Davis)

I am writing this blog in response to Steph Davis’s blog on the Gigi. I think the device is a bit confusing to the general user, and it takes more knowledge to use than one might think. While I agree with Steph that the Gigi is a great peice of gear,  I think that there are some thing to consider.

One is weight. The Gigi is 2.4 oz; BD ATC-guide is 3.1 ; Petzl Reverso 4 is 2.1. So the Reverson IS lighter.

The Gigi does tend to wear out–maybe not as fast but I am on my 2nd one and I don’t use them as often as my Reverso. They will last longer than the Reverso or ATC though.

The Gigi is easier to pull rope through but this is also its downfall: it only accepts larger ropes as smaller (think twin or small doubles) can flip and the device not “auto-lock” any more. Rob (a fellow AMGA certified guide) shows in detail some specifics about this here: http://www.elevationoutdoors.com/blogs/master-of-none/the-kong-gigi-totally-cool-if-used-correctly/

Steph talks about needing a different device to belay the leader. She is correct in some ways, which means that now you need another device! You can actually belay a leader with the Gigi and I believe the manual actually shows this. The key here is using 2 carabineers; which of course is more weight.

Steph says the Gigi is not made for lowering.  She is right in the fact that it is not made for lowering just as it isn’t made for lead belaying and/or rappelling. You can lower a climber with it just like you do with a redirected plate or atc, and this is very similar to rappelling. There is very little friction here, just like when rappelling. Here is a short video on flipping an ATC-guide.

I do agree with Steph’s statements about the time savings and being able to take care of yourself at the belay while bringing up your partners. I also agree that whoever invented it was genius……for their time. I think we have far superior devices for everyday use. With that being said, I will use one when my tendonitis flairs up mid-season from belaying thousands of feet of rope a day, but I still won’t leave home without my Petzl Reverso 4!

AMGA Doug Parker and Roger Baxter-Jones Memorial Scholarship

I received the Doug Parker and Roger Baxter-Jones Memorial Scholarship for my Alpine Guides exam and here is the video that I put together for it!

Seattle

I have been in Seattle for awhile now trying to train for my AMGA Alpine Guides exam, mostly on my mountain bike… The weather has been less than ideal, partners keep bailing (mostly for legit reasons), and I have rekindled my love for mountain biking. My last bike was purchased in 1997 and was a Trek Y-33, at the time, one of the best bikes made. I went to the Trek dealer and started looking around… Disc Breaks, 5″ of travel front and rear, 29er what??? Man, a lot has changed! I ended up getting a new Trek Fuel 9.8 ex and sales rep Jim told me to head to Tiger Mountain; so I did. It was the perfect ride, possibly the most fun I have ever had on a bike. I have now logged 200 miles in the last week. Here is some footage mostly from Duthie Park, WA: