Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Spring Climbing Trip 2012- Part 2

'Choice Of Weapons' (v4)-- Rock Creek, CA

'Rusty Nails' (v2)-- South Bliss, CA

'The Elevator' (v9)-- Middle Bliss, CA

photos by Christian Prellwitz & Erika Curry-Elrod

Spring Climbing Trip 2012- Part 1

 'Little Mermaid' (v7)-- Joe's Valley, UT

 'Streetcar Named Desire' (v6/7)-- Joshua Tree, CA

photos by Christian Prellwitz & Erika Curry-Elrod

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

On the road...



Erika and I are currently in Lake Tahoe. We've been in Joe's Valley, Las Vegas, Joshua Tree and Bishop over the last twelve days. I know that sounds like a lot of places but that was mostly due to running from bad weather on our way to Bishop. Bishop was getting too hot, so we shifted to Tahoe for a few days. We're heading to Yosemite tomorrow where we'll be meeting my parents to show them around and spend some time in San Francisco. I'll have a video up at some point, but in the meantime here's a little stripped down version of one of my current favorite songs...Enjoy!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Telluride Bouldering Beta- Ilium Boulders Video



Here's some footage that I've shot over the last few weeks (a warm & dry March created some stellar climbing conditions) of some of the best problems in Ilium. There are certainly plenty of great problems that I didn't have the time to climb/film, but I tried to choose some testpieces, as well as some more obscure problems in order to entice people to check them out! My hope is to eventually do a movie like this for the Mine Boulders and the Tree House as well. We'll see.

The grades of several problems are different from the guidebook. These grades are just my thoughts after having the last five or so years to refine the grades a bit. Any comments/thoughts/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

A few notes on the last two problems:

-'Frogger Dyno' has been done by Scotty Michels and probably a few other people. It's actually the way the problem was originally done. Though it is somewhat contrived not to exit right towards the top, it is a great mental and physical challenge to attempt the direct dyno. The day I filmed this was actually the first day I ever tried it this way. It's exciting! There is a bolt on top (that you might want to back up) for working it out on top rope, if desired.

-'White Wizard Right' I started trying this when I went up to film 'White Wizard' because it seemed hard but plausible. It is somewhat forced as one of the hardest parts is avoiding the boulder behind you, but the moves climb beautifully. The moves aren't super hard (maybe v6?) but I needed to figure out a little more beta to avoid having my feet cut. Jim Hurst informed me the other day that Paul Pierce had come up with an exit similar to this recently, apparently using a heel/toe cam of some sort, though I think his exit took a different path since the exit holds I brushed were covered in dirt and lichen. If I find out more about this, I'll update this post...

Monday, March 12, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Few From Bishop-- February 2012



As has become a bit of an annual ritual, I escaped the snowy clutch of Telluride and headed to Bishop for a bit of midwinter climbing. On this particular trip, my housemate Malin came along. We enjoyed some fantastic weather (some days it was almost too hot to climb in the sun). The climbing was phenomenal, as always, and I enjoyed some good personal success. Here is a video of some of the climbs that I did while I was there as well as some of the scenery. It's also my first real attempt at making a video with my 5D. Hopefully there will be many more to come. Enjoy and make sure to watch the video in HD (the HD in the bottom right should be highlighted)!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

One Of The Best

'Itsy Bitsy Spider' (v7/8)

It's been a warm and dry winter here in Telluride so far, which has allowed for plenty of opportunity to climb locally. Here are some shots of one of my favorite lines in Telluride. Perfect crimps on a slightly overhanging wall to an exciting finish. If only it was a little taller...