Slopers

Well,  last night I went into the gym and climbed around.  It went petty well,  but I figured out something about myself.  I am terrible at slopers.  People always joked that I would be more likely to crimp a sloper than to hold it properly but I never realized to what extent. 

If the sloper has a thumb-catch, I am typically okay, but big, exposed slopers with nothing but sloping surface really get me.  Even slopers that you can kind of "meat-hook" aren't too bad, but something about them is really hard for me.  It also doesn't help that I spent the last 3 years climbing at Hueco Tanks where slopers are not as common.

Here is the problem I was having trouble with.  It's probably about a V8 and I kept getting to the last move and not being able to get to the finish.

One thing that was nice, however, was that I was working on a problem that one of the guys there made up which involved two of what I previously thought were my weaknesses, and did very well.  The first was a very dynamic move to a small crimp, which was much harder than I expected it to be.  Then I pulled up from there with just one hand on the small crimp past my shoulder rotation reach, relying solely on my left bicep.

It is really great to be seeing results from my workouts.  I hope they keep coming.

Campus Board!

For a while now I have been trying to figure out how to put a campus board up in my apartment without being completely in the way.  Finally I have figured it out.  In college, I built one that just happened to be out of the way enough to not bother anyone.  In this apartment, I don't have that luxury.  Therefore I had to build one that could be put away and to Alex's specifications, wasn't ugly.  Cue the following series of pictures.

The initial step was to build a frame out of 2x4s that was 2' by 4'.  It would be the base for the plywood to mount to.  We didn't get any pictures because we were so excited about the build but it was pretty basic carpentry.  I attached the plywood with wood screws and used carriage bolts to attach legs.  To the back I attached a 2x4 with hinges onto three more 2x4s (pictured later).

Once we had the base built and the legs attached, we mounted it on the wall and got to painting.  I started with masking tape and made rock walls.

Then we got to the computer and printed out some silhouettes of climbers.

Alex very meticulously cut out the climbers with a knife.

Once the climbers were cut out, I sprayed the backs of them with adhesive and applied them as a stencil.

I made sure to keep their feet and hands touching the rock to give the appearance of them climbing the faces I had previously made.

Once I had them where I wanted I did any of the necessary masking to keep my stencil clean.

I had a few cross sections to cut away and it was ready to paint.

Once I started peeling the tape away, the design started to take shape.

A few pieces to remove and we almost had a work of art.

I used tape to keep the climber safe and create rope back to his belayer.

Viola!  A work of art...now let's make it useable.

I started by taking the cut dowels and drilling pilot holes.

Keeping them level, I attached them with wood screws.  

After a good bit of time and lots of drilling later, I had a functional campus board.The legs, attached with a carriage bolt, take most of the weight.

The top is held by a chain, making it adjustable with a small carabiner keeping the chain attached to the screw eye.

As mentioned before, the 2x4 with the hinges is screwed straight into the studs behind the wall.

And there you have it.  It is a functional, collapsable campus board that is not an eyesore.

Let me know what you think!

Hueco with the Baylor guys.

So, Alex is in Ecuador doing POYi which is the Photo of the Year competition. She is helping to facilitate the competition and most importantly making good connections with people in the photo world. While she was gone I had a few chances to go out and climb with some guys from Baylor. It was a lot of fun and I ended up getting a few new V7s and got really close on some V10s. We'll see how everything goes down but today I am really sore and tired. I'll train tomorrow and wed and see how climbing goes this weekend. Here are some pics from this last week. Also I put up a video of "Be Flat - V4" on youtube if you want to check it out.


Here I am on "Schadenfraud" A really fun V5 in the bottom of Martini Cave


Here is a one finger snag on "Be Flat" as I was trying out different beta for Landon.