Imagine a place with perfect bouldering. Think world class. Think huge holds, perfect rock, and highly concentrated. Now think of Hueco Tanks. That’s the spot.
Jeremy Ho, a 27 year old route setter at Touchstone, and Alison Bagby, a 31 year old manager of the vegan San Francisco restaurant Millenium, headed down to the Texas state park outside of El Paso.
Michael Reynolds, a bay area born and raised photographer has a series of fantastic photographs adorning the walls of Berkeley Ironworks currently. The east bay gym's artist of the month, Reynolds began hiking and climbing in Yosemite and the Sierra as a teenager. “My photography was an out-growth of going the mountains and exploring. I was also a bit of a photography geek in high school. I was the kid with the camera, taking pictures for the high school yearbook, fussing around in the darkroom, etc. It really started as a vehicle for sharing my vision of the outdoors.”
Reynolds photography includes images from the Southwest, the mountains of the western United States and the Pacific coastal areas.
There's never been a better time to be a free soloist. If you're willing to put it all on the line and climb without ropes, there's a ton of amazing footage of the world's best unroped climbers out there. On February 12th, the National Geographic Channel will be airing a short piece about Dean Potter, one of the world's bravest individuals.
Potter climbed traversed from Thanksgiving Ledge on Lurking Fear to Round Table Ledge on The Freerider. The footage of him climbing ropeless on El Cap involves some seriously exposed 5.11+ granite ninja work. National Geographic also put together a short piece about making the piece.
Climbing and parenting: a balance between hanging on and letting go. Kate Reese McGinnis is a parent with a young child. When Annie was born, Kate thought her lifestyle as a climber would change drastically. The Red River Gorge climber didn't know what to expect. She's learned how to balance the climbing lifestyle with being a parent. Her story is just one of thousands of climbers with children. Across the bay area, climbers with kids crush. It's not an easy task but it's fully doable. Check out her inspiring story.
Pringle In Turkey
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 20:11
Touchstone athlete and renown global rock climbing super star, Ethan Pringle just returned from an exciting trip to Turkey.
After spending the holidays in Norway with friends, Pringle headed to Antalya, Turkey, to climb on the limestone crags of Geyikbayiri for three weeks with his girlfriend, Trine Hollerude-Odden. Daniel Woods, Emily Harrington, Sam Elias and other members of the North Face crew had traveled to the area and made a video series of the area. Pringle had seen the amazing climbing in the area. “It was steep limestone sport climbing with tufas and pockets. Some cracks too.” said Pringle. “It’s world class. It’s on par with Kalymnos.”
Mill Valley resident, Kyle O'Meara transplanted from Washtington earlier this year and has been crushing the boulders in Yosemite. He flashed Midnight Lightning, the Moffat Start to Midnight, the Force, and a number of other classic Yosemite boulder problems. He's documented a number of his ascents. In his latest video, he made a super proud ascent of King Air. This V10 by Leconte Memorial sits next to a short practice aid climb. The boulder problem is higher than the bolt ladder! Check out Kyle going all out on the problem with 4 pads and no spotters. Proud!
The folks over at Louder Than 11, Dave Wetmore, Max Zolotukhin, Natasha Barnes, Rich Crowder, Ryan Silven, and Jordan Shipman, spent ten days climbing in Yosemite earlier this winter. They came out with a rad video featuring some of the best problems in the Valley. Check out their 25 minute long movie of a ton of amazing pebbles.
