back in Cape Town

And the little girl at the hostel wants to use my iPhone. Okay ....


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A big Vedauwoo Spread

Cloudveil ran one of my photos as a 2-page spread in their workbook! Very psyched to see my work in print.

Nalle ate a whole bag of chips.

And I've got the video to prove it.

Frames from Evans

Went up to Evans yesterday and caught Paul Robinson on an early repeat of a new problem called Big Worm. Very cool movement considering it's basically just down in a hole.

I've put a couple frames from the video up on my site. A cool shot down by the creek and a shot of Paul right in the thick of the problem. Click on over to my web site, scroll down, grab a frame and check it out:

Grab a frame from the video

Clean Water

It is now the middle of the rainy season in Ethiopia and I understand from speaking with Ryan at Wine For Water that the villages we visited are now up and running with clean water infrastructure. One of the villages had to completely re-dig a well that we had seen them starting to work on during our visit, but by conservative estimates there are now about 2000 people who have access to clean water that did not have this basic need met as recently as March.

Wine For Water is doing some great work and I'm very proud to be involved with such a well-organized charity. I'm working on cutting a shortened version of the original video as a way to get more people involved and raise awareness.

Wine For Water Website

anxious

I have nine days before leaving for Africa and a lot to take care of before heading out. Nervous!

DBC - In a word: Awesome

I have been bogged down with work and unable to get out on the rock for the time being, so I found myself in town yesterday evening for the grand opening of the Denver Bouldering Club. I was very psyched with how the place looks. They skillfully built what is basically the raddest home wall you've ever seen. One thing you won't see here is birthday parties and blind-date top-roping. This is a perfect facility for training to get better at rock climbing. It's a breath of fresh air for me after over a year of having to come up with the motivation to train at Rock'n and Jam'n, which, if you are a boulderer, is neither.

Over the last year I have proposed many ways to make Rock and Jam a better place to boulder, and all my suggestions were roundly ignored - even ones having to do with safety such as 'tighten the holds so I dont land on my neck... again'. But what do they care. I'm just a paying customer.

After seeing the DBC I was reminded of just how cool it can be to have big, simple plywood angles, and enough room so you're not always worried about someone falling on your head.

The only downside of the DBC is the cost. Whereas at Paradise the drop-in bouldering price was $6, the price at the DBC is $15, and you need to be invited by a member - which is basically pricing code for 'non-members are not welcome here'. The membership has an 'initiation fee' of $150 which mystifies me as to the purpose. What about me signing up for a membership costs you $150????? The monthly cost of a membership to the club is expensive compared to Paradise, costing about twice as much for a gym of about 1/6th the size. In the words of the Flight of the Concordes: "What are your overheads?!?!?"

That being said, I was overjoyed to plunk down my money and get a membership at the discounted $75 initiation rate. This simple gym will eventually become the focal point of the Denver bouldering community and I plan to spend lots of time there when I'm not travelling to climb and film.

http://denverboulderingclub.com/