Ouray 2008

It was the comp finals yesterday and this year there is another new champion. Between climbs we were watching the last few qualifiers climb; Jeff Mercier made a huge effort to top out with 1 of his 20 minutes remaining then Ines Papert cruised up to the final move with bags of time to spare but then couldn't make the move despite about 5 attempts at a dyno from a fig4. Then came Evgeny Kryvosheytsev who flew up the route locking deep moves on the rock section to miss out holds every one else used. He had it in the bag for sure until his tool blew from a plastic hold on the 45 degree finishing board. Jeff Mercier wins........next week he will be on Jedi Mind Tricks when we are there.........come on arms.

Jeff Mercier giving it all and hooking the top of the steep finishing board (Dan Alonso)



Evgeny K on the qualifying route.

Not competition photos.................



A Fistfull of Steel (Dan Alonso)



Another Fistfull of Steel (Dan Alonso)

I love it when a plan comes together

It has been a pretty amazing few days so far, a bit of a grind getting the last few bits of gear together before leaving early sat then two days travel to get to Ouray. And it has been a bit of an adventure of lost bags (for a short time) and lost Malc and Kat (for hours!). When we finally pulled out of the car hire place in an oversize 4x4 (Dodge Durango) it seemed like an overkill, it wasn't, as we were to find out later. First we collected Dan and his gear and this filled the truck then the snow started.



The pkoto is of a single lane with 1 metre high banks of snow, later in the journey it snowed and it was only the banks that showed where the road went. We have also found time to do some climbing........


Dan on The Troglodyte


Malc


Me clipsticking past the hard moves.

After the steep climbing I tried some mixed lines where you can use your feet. Shit. I have a lot to learn!!

A Small Snack!

Days of old. Danny with his monster sandwich.

Ouray

Click HERE for vids of the comp

Digital Revolution reaches Poland

Martin has written some articles about chalk climbing on this interesting site, one slight hitch for me is they are in Polish (the photos are good though!) Digital Article

check this

Digital Revolution

Currently the hardest route on the chalk .............. and now Digital (the line that starts where i tie in) has seen a quick repeat. On his second session on the route Flower (Martin) (from Poland) has got those arms working and grabbed the second ascent. Good effort me thinks, especially as during the first session (once through all of the moves) Martin wasn't doing any fig4's.

Here we go......

A nice warm up to whet your appetite for the approaching winter season.