it's cold outside!!

Scott, Rick, and I headed up to the Right Ghost in Teton Canyon today. We definitely had a great time learning how to ice climb again on our first day out for the season. It's a good thing we know how to rock climb! I'm headed to the Bozeman Ice Festival tomorrow and will be instructing ice climbing clinics most of the weekend. I thought it would be a good idea to get a few pitches of ice under my belt before heading north tomorrow. We ended up climbing as much rock as we did ice. I sure love this early season winter climbing. Conditions are engaging on the ice and rock is typically involved at some point along the journey. FUN...

I felt hopelessly slow on steep ice this afternoon.

Slide Show and Fundraiser

I'll be hosting a fundraiser for new bouldering terrain at the Sticks and Stones Climbing Gym on Main Street in Rexburg, Idaho on Saturday, December 8th at 7pm. The slide show will focus on my recent rock climbing trip to Kalymnos, Greece. To offer something for everyone, i will also showcase a few of the mixed alpine routes here in Idaho and talk about the evolution of these routes. Hopefully by the end of the evening you'll walk away with a bit more community spirit and motivation to get after whatever you dream of.

The fundraiser is the main focus of the event. A $2 admission for the slide show will provide you with one raffle ticket. You can purchase additional raffle tickets for $5 to increase your chances of winning climbing ropes, clothing, shoes, and other items donated by Mammut, Petzl, Liberty Mountain Sports, KLU, Metolius, Kayland and various other sponsors. All of the money raised will be donated to the construction efforts and the purchase of actual padding! Please bring your wallets, tell your friends, and support this worthwhile cause. For years, Sticks and Stones has supported the local talent in Eastern Idaho, often at the expense of not growing their business. It's time to give back and provide future climbers a place to get strong, meet other like minded individuals, and continue the growth of climbing here in Eastern Idaho.

The venue has limited space so come prepared to get close with your neighbors. It should be a fun evening of mingling and story telling. I hope to see you there...

Dean Lords

PS - For those of you who plan on attending, feel free to use the comments option at the bottom of this blog entry to motivate others to attend!!

HEAD CASE

"If you beat your personal best whilst climbing in a passive and careful way, you must be setting your goals too low."

I've often thought about this since reading it in the Kalymnos Rock Climbing Guide during the flight back to the U.S. It makes perfect sense to me when i relate it to how i onsight and redpoint routes. The percentage of pure commitment when a sequence doesn't feel right is pretty low for me. On difficult routes, i often spend enough time memorizing sequences that when i do finally redpoint the line, it's typically in a somewhat passive mode and with little struggle. There are those times when i do climb in the moment and succeed when things continually feel difficult and out of sequence, but i wish i could capture that head power more often. And now that I'm aware of it, I'm working hard to correct my lack of commitment. Self realization is pretty powerful if you are willing to accept the less attractive side of things and find the path to better yourself with that knowledge.

A lot of these thoughts are surfacing as i develop the slide show for the Sticks and Stones fundraiser in a few weeks. It's coming together, but i have a lot more work to do. I hope to see many of you there as it will be a great evening of community spirit. The venue is pretty small, so plan on being squished a bit!

The event information is located on the left side of this blog under EVENTS. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Metolius does it again

I had the chance to check these bad boys out this summer. Keep your eyes open for the new Master Cams. You won't be disappointed...

Master Cam™

With the most versatile offering of cams on the planet, Ultralight Power Cams,
TCUs, Offsets, Fat Cams and Supercams, why add a single-stem cam to our
line? The reason is that there is an infinite number of variables in the climbing
environment: hard rock, soft rock, parallel cracks, flared cracks, etc . . . Each
individual cam style excels at a certain set of variables. The Fat Cam’s wide
lobes greatly improve protection in soft rock while the TCU’s narrow head
widths greatly enhance placement versatility. The biggest advantages of the
single-stem unit are: they will fit into certain placements better than the
U-shaped body and the flexible, single cable reduces leverage to minimize
walking in certain placements. We set out to make the finest single-stem unit
we possibly could and the Master Cam is the result.

We made our Slider Nuts over 25 years ago, so we are no strangers to flexible,
single-stem designs. The Mater Cam combines a nice, flexy cable with an
ultra-narrow head for hard aid or free climbing. Since we invented the CNC
milled cam-stop, we naturally applied them to Master Cams. We also joined our
silky-smooth trigger assembly with an ergonomic thumb piece to provide
precise control over placement and retraction. The longer body affords
additional reach when top-stepping or stretching for that hard-to-get placement.
The Range Finder system also provides critical placement feedback for those
who need it. Master Cams are hand-built right here in our Bend, Oregon shop.
Each one is thoroughly inspected and every unit is tested to 5 kN. Master Cams
are CE and UIAA certified.

rust never sleeps

Not one to let things rest, I equipped another project at the Crank Cave just a few days after red-pointing Riff Raff. Nat and I drilled the new line yesterday and spent the afternoon today working out some of the sequences. One thing is for sure, the climbing at this area is so very cryptic. Body tension is King, power is Queen, and thinking is the Joker. I thought Karma Police had some pretty wild sequences, but as I'm finding out, this new project is much more thought provoking! Most of the routes at Crank Cave aren't your typical cave thuggery. I'm having to learn new movement concepts that stretch beyond my typical imagination. It's very exciting to have something make you smarter as well as stronger. I think that is why I've put the effort into equipping these new lines. People want to get stronger. I want to get smarter.





This is a fun wide angle photo i shot of Nat climbing Drug Train. Can you believe it's November, 15th??

new bouldering terrain anyone?

Need a new rope? How about shoes? Maybe other valuable items you don’t want to pay full price for? Here’s your chance to win some big ticket items, such as a rope, and support a good cause at the same time. Here’s how…

I am organizing a fund raiser to build new terrain at the Sticks-n-Stones climbing gym in Rexburg, Idaho. For years, the owners have allowed me to train after hours and bring in a few of my dirt bag climbing friends who would otherwise not be seen in the gym! Sticks-n-Stones are great community players and really get behind supporting the local talent in the area; often at the expense of growing their business. We feel it appropriate to give back and help grow their business by raising money for new bouldering terrain and padding.

I will be offering a slide show featuring my recent trip to Kalymnos, Greece and other rock climbing destinations; along with ice/mixed climbing and alpine climbing to give a well rounded presentation. It’s easy- show up, and purchase lots of raffle tickets for items donated by Mammut, Petzl, Kalyand, Metolius, Liberty Mountain, and others! All of the money will be donated to the purchase of building materials and padding. The more money we can raise the closer we will get to building the desired terrain. It’s a win, win situation. Even if you don’t walk away with a new rope, you will have new terrain to get strong on. Donations are always welcome too!

We are in the process of finding a suitable location for the event, but in the event that the cost of a venue will cut into the new terrain funds, we will hold the fund raiser/party at the Sticks-n-Stones gym. The date is not set yet but will be one of these: December 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th. I will update this as soon as I have the venue. I just wanted to get the word out now so people have an idea what’s happening.

If you have questions, suggestions, or want to get involved, please contact me via email at deanlords@gmail.com

I hope to see all of you there for a fun night of community spirit.

Dean Lords

bringin' the psych

Heather and I spent Friday at Crank Cave with Matt, Jerry, and Garon. I finished equipping the route Nat, Rick, and I started on Wednesday and did some final cleaning on it and my new warm-up route, Drug Train. Matt jumped on his project and took two hangs on his first go. Then Heather sussed out the moves on my newest project left of Karma Police while i hung out and took some photos. I think i'm pretty excited about this new cave route. The stone is really good and the movement flows once you lock into the sequence and find the knee bars! Check out The Spotlight section below and left for some additional information on the Crank Cave. This area of the Blackfoot River Canyon now offers thirteen routes including the most recent Drug Train 5.11a, Love to Burn 5.12+ (a traversing route from El Hefe 5.12a, to the Riff Raff anchors) Riff Raff 5.13-, and the recently red-pointed project, Soul Power 5.13- . It's really coming together.

Okay, back to the cave. Matt took another go on his project and with all of us cheering and yelling, he plowed onward; fighting gravity and the pump to get the red-point on what he is calling Soul Power (5.13a?)! Oh man, what a fight! We were all inspired to say the least. With the psych Matt brought, i jumped on my new route and fought for the red-point. At one point, Heather said, "At least sound like less of a girl if you're gonna scream." Okay well, what can i say... it helps me! So anyway, lots of fighting and screaming got me to the anchors. SWEET! Riff Raff (5.13a/b?) is born. Pretty exciting. The cave is really starting to take shape. It's amazing to see it transform into the vision i had for the place almost fifteen years ago.

Lock up your daughters and run for your life! I just got an email saying that the Ja Man (Jake) will be returning to Eastern Idaho this January. Holly Crap! Just when i thought things couldn't get any better with having strong partners around, it does! Not only a strong rock climber, Jake and I work very well in the alpine environment. He's definitely going to bring the psych for everyone to drink from. I can't wait! It won't be long before Jake and I resume the momentum Abe and I had a few years ago in the central mountains. Yee Haw!

LOVE TO BURN

A day spent equipping choss at Crank Cave is a day worth writing home about! The weather has been incredible for rock climbing. Yesterday i opened a nice pumpy 5.11 warm up i dubbed Drug Train. I've gained a bit of new vision after being in Kalymnos and am having a blast building art in the cave. Made some progress today on my latest monster piece, Love to Burn. You climb through the crux moves on El Hefe then break right for a horizontal journey into space! (photo)




Also today, Matt T. worked on the project line he equipped earlier this year. Oh man, it's brilliant! I can't wait to work on it a bit more after Matt gets the redpoint. I hope it's this year. (You can do it :-) I believe it will be one of those routes that will max out the FUN meter. Rock snobs beware! I gave it a go after bolting and a few thrashings on Love to Burn. His route beat me down for sure, but it left a huge smile on my face! Thanks Matt for all of the hard work you do for our community of climbers.

she sends...

Early this Spring, Heather equipped her first sport route in Blackfoot Canyon at an area called Crank Cave. The cave isn't much to look at with its junked cars and graffiti; the occasional body dump for a dead animal or two, and approximately one half mile down canyon from the county dump. Sounds worthwhile and aesthetic doesn't it! Let's just say the routes climb better than they look! The place is pretty much designed for having fun. If you're interested in making statements of ethical proportions or a name for yourself, I'd suggest looking elsewhere as the place is pretty much a worthless pile of volcanic choss!

Now, with that being said, fun is the name of the game at the ole Crank Cave. If you're looking for something other than that, you're outta luck! The routes are short, powerful, sharp, and for the most part, a barrel full of good times. Heather's route, The Bride of Crankenstein, is one of the better routes, if not the best route in the cave to date. Weighing in somewhere in the 5.12 range, Crankenstein pulls through a horizontal roof to a fun headwall above. Short, sweet, and to the point. She's flamed out some of the area's better climbers on their first few attempts, sending them away with bruised ego's. Heather worked on the route a few times this spring until the temps and my traveling schedule kept her away for several months. The hard campusing moves onto the headwall kept her little short body from succeeding.

Heather and the gang headed down for one of the last cave sessions of the season today while i was out of town. Crankenstein was knockin' them off one by one. As recounted by others over dinner this evening, Heather tied in and floated up the route, clipping the anchors on her first attempt of the day! Some even used the term "effortlessly"... Needless to say, she was pretty excited about the whole thing. Me too!! It's such a neat experience to see someone experience for the first time the entire process of new routing. From cleaning and equipping. To working and failing. To finally succeeding. It's absolutely priceless.

Here's to many more in your future Heather...