Broken Shoulder, Social Scene

Hurricane Igor has kind of put an exclamation point on the ending of the climbing season here on the Avalon.  A strained rotator cuff and the fact that getting on a rope now involves some serious logistics has left me on the low end of the motivation scale.  Already my thoughts are turning to the possibilities next year could hold.  Along those line I have some pictures of some tremendous looking possibilities I discovered recently on a pre-Igor road trip.  My phone is being saucy though and refuses to share with the computer.

Lately I have found myself being much more social in my climbing than ever before.  I can't climb super hard in the short term so I have been enjoying the casual process of sending a few moderate boulder problems with good people.  Much of this enjoyment stems from the latter part of this year's road trip. Once Phil headed back to NL I met up with an amazing crew from LA.  They were psyched on bouldering, I was psyched on not having to troll for partners in the parking lot.  The social experience was even better than the bouldering and this is in-spite of the fact that I had several breakthroughs in terms of my own climbing during this time.

This crew included some of the very best people I have met in a long time.  Everyone was supportive, as psyched to see a friend send as they were to top out their own projects.  When it got hot we climbed at night, headlamps and attention focused on each person in turn as we flailed, yelled, tried hard, and occasionally succeeded, all the while laughing far more than anyone can deserve to.  Days were spent swimming, laughing some more, and taking occasional trips into town for WiFi and copious amounts of organic chocolate milk.

So for the time being I am attempting to rest, heal, and trying hard not to compare the bouldering scene here with what I had out that way.  One of the side benefits of climbing with this particular group was the fact that Jeremy was an incredibly talented photographer specializing in celebrity portraits, and Liz was a really talented photography student.  Liz recently completed a photo album of our time camping and bouldering in the forest.  Check it out.

TIS WITCHERY!!!

In the past two days I have pushed more buttons on Facebook than I have in the previous five years.  We are in the marketing stages of the Reel Rock Film Tour and the majority of our marketing efforts will be of the online variety.  Of course, for someone who knows how to do little more than post photos the learning curve is Himalayan steep.

Watching the real time response to information you have put out on the net is creepy fascinating.  Within hours of announcing the show I was receiving texts "Dude! the reel rock tour is coming here!"  People starting confirming their attendance to the showing, more people got invited, some declined.  I watched it all; cell phone by my side, email open in a separate window.  I was the very definition of "plugged in" and stayed so for far longer than was healthy.   The next morning I paid for it with a massive headache and the effects of basically sitting on a couch for eight hours eating granola bars and hitting the refresh button to a degree that, in theory, might prompt medical professionals to prescribe a variety of behaviour altering substances.

The climbing community, once known for its roaming "cities are death" mentality has now embraced technology, social networking, and all things that come from those three magic bars of a WiFi signal.  Next day video has replaced Long later written accounts of superhuman feats from the cutting edge. These videos do cut away the hyperbole, we can see routes or boulder problems for what they really are.  Personally whenever I used to picture the latest project to go down I thought of routes that were longer than any rope would allow and boulders that had no moderate moves.  Still, there is an elegance to well written accounts of truly great feats. Which is better is a personal opinion, pros and cons to each and all that.

One undeniable benefit of modern technology is experienced solely by those who try to document such feats.  Check out the video below for an example of leading filmmakers using leading technology to bring us cutting edge climbs.


GOAL ZERO Behind the Scenes: Peter Croft and Lisa Rands take on the Incredible Hulk from GOALØ on Vimeo.

News

My apologies for the stuttered start to this thing, it's been an eventful few days that were actually set into motion by the post on the Reel Rock trailer below.  After finishing my tea and watching said trailer a half dozen more times I checked out the tour schedule.  My previous outdoor film festival experience being limited to the Banff Mountain Film Fest, I assumed Reel Rock would be similar; someone travels with the films and presents them yada yada, big deal, blah blah.  No sir, many of the venues all seemed small and random.  There were five shows in Quebec and none in BC.  Weird.

It seemed like the show was available to anyone who stepped up and wanted to host.  So I sent off on email thinking that maybe next year would be a possibility.  To make a long story short the Reel Rock Tour will be coming to St. John's NL, but it won't be next year.  Instead we are going to put this show in a little less than two months.

The Reel Rock Tour will be showing in St. John's on Saturday November 6th at the Inco Innovation Centre at 7:00 pm.  Tickets will be $10.00 in advance, $12.00 at the door, and we are giving the little ones a break by letting kids under 12 in for $8.00 cuz you know, recess snacks and juice are expensive.  More information, including where you can pick up advanced tickets, will be forthcoming in the next few days.  I would like to sit on the selling details until we actually print the tickets and hand them off to ticket agents.

More information about the tour and this year's films is available at their official site, which can be found here. There is also one Facebook page for the entire tour that can be found right here.  I will also be posting much more info and news in the coming weeks.  I hope everyone is psyched, and if you're not, click on the trailer below a few times.  Usually does it for me.

Trailer

I ran across this little gem while enjoying my morning tea.

The Reel Rock Film tour is an annual tour of the best climbing related films.  With no headlining film this year those lucky enough catch the show will have to make do with six short films that cover everything from Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson doing some extreme pebble wrestling to Uli Steck treating extremely large mountains like...well I have no frame of reference, I can't think of anything that I sprint.  

When I first saw this trailer I thought "how many years till St. John's could host something like this?" Then I looked at the schedule and noticed they are doing many smaller shows in Quebec and none in BC.  It seems like if someone steps up and wants to host a show Reel Rock is onboard.  I just finished sending an email to them with a few inquiries.  Obviously, it's a little late for this year but next year... Would this fly here?

Blogging

A year ago I started a blog to avoid sending mass emails to update my family as I climbed in Squamish BC.  Two weeks ago I returned from another trip to Squamish during which I realized just how much I missed the process of writing and documenting.  Years ago I went down to swing my feet free on the moderate overhangs of the Shawangunks in New York.  I didn't take a single picture.  Every now and then I am reminded of some event or circumstance from that trip and a rush of memories flood back, but I can tell that the memories are fading and will continue to do so. Hindsight eh?

The whole point of this little corner of the interweb is more personal than it is communal.  It helps me remember good climbs, good people, and especially good moments.  Climbing continues to be the medium through which I experience uncommonly tangible moments of growth in both the narrow scope of my climbing and the overarching realms of perspective and personality.  

This blog is a way for me to track that change, remember those moments, and become inspired to do it all again.  Thank you for reading.