For your viewing pleasure

As always I like to keep abreast of climbing literature (aka waste time not doing work). Although I'm not climbing much I still get psyched watching videos and reading reports.  So I've put a few videos up that I think are worth a watch.  Some form parts of series, you can go and watch the other videos in the series by clicking the link.

First up are some climbing basics.  If you're in to anything that isn't single pitch then you may at some time need to abseil (rappel for out US visitors) using a full rope length. This means tying two ropes together. The following video demonstrates this nicely!

Rock Climbing Basics 12: Knots for Rappelling - from Wild Country, Red Chili and Climbing Magazine. from Wild Country on Vimeo.

The one thing I might mention, which I don't think is such a good idea, is tossing the whole rope in one go. I picked this little tip up from Mark Twight's book (Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast, and High). Throw only half your rope and the feed the other half through your hand. Although this might seem slower, it will help with avoiding tangles etc.  There are some other very useful videos in this series such as how to extend your belay device when abseiling (helps with stopping your prussik back up sliding into belay and when cliping when arriving at the anchor) and clipping into the belay!  

Another series from wild country is with regard to training. James Pearson is doing a series on how to train at the climbing gym. There are currently only two videos out but they are good and considering he's now climbing some pretty hard and big routes I'm happy to take his advice. I reckon there will be some more in the series to watch that space.

James Pearson - Stamina Training - Part 1 - Endurance training for routes of more than 30 moves... from Wild Country on Vimeo.

Next up is The Smiley's Project - Committed: Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. These pair are just awesome. They are trying to climb 50 of Classic climbs in North America. They are a married couple and it's really inspiring to watch. If you think so too, you can donate some money to their project and keep it going as they are doing off their own back and anyone who is willing to sponsor them!

This video is both awesome and scary all at the same time. I don't think I've seen such a loose pile of choss in all my life and I can honestly say that this climb will most likely never appear on tick list...what do you think?

Mt Alberta's Japanese Route from Mark Smiley on Vimeo.

They've got loads of other videos on their site so go check them out!

A few more training videos coming up. First off is Jan Hojer. This guy has made some quick ascents of hard problems and has a fair few f8a/+ flashes to his name.  I think he might like campussing a little... :-P

Jan Hojer Training from Jan Hojer on Vimeo.

This isn't a how to video just to give some perspective  We all think we know how to train or that we are training as hard as we can but are we really? Not to say that you're not of course, but videos like this always make me question am I training as hard as I can or is it as effective as it could be...who knows!

Galina Parfenov is next with this a video that is somewhere in between a how to and just showing what she does.  I think it's going to part of a series (I've noticed there is a preview up for part two on her youtube page) so check back to see what part 2 holds.

There are lots of videos popping up at the moment about various training ideas and methods. Youtube has some videos which have been put up by people doing sports science degrees on climbing drills for techniques which are good.  Basically there seems to be more information coming out about what people are doing and why. 

The final few videos up here are just ones that I think are cool and again, super inspiring! Not much more to be said!

Careless Torque from Outcrop Films on Vimeo.

I can't get the video for this one so just follow the link, click on on page 9 and you'll see it.  It's a video of Dave Macleod climbing his 8c+/9a Flight the feeling.  The route is an extension to Ring of Steal which goes at 8c. I love Dave's mentality. After climbing Ring of Steal the obvious thing to him was that he must be able to climb something harder, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do the route, hence just bolt the head wall and do the harder direct finish.  

Hope you enjoy the videos and have an awesome weekend!