Flight of the Wood Nymphs

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Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Original Post - May 8, 2018 - 06:47am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Published by LT 11, January 16, 2013
http://www.lt11.com/
http://paigeclaassen.com/flight-of-the-wood-nymphs/
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
May 8, 2018 - 08:34am PT
i'm so out of it, i don't know what to call that heel technique applied to the spot where a palm smear was iffy. hook doesn't seem right.

great production value, quite watchable. "there's castles here!" i gotta get young again
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
May 8, 2018 - 08:38am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
check out their YouTube page... Louder Than 11
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
May 8, 2018 - 08:52am PT
DETO
[Click to View YouTube Video]

and what came up next? FRANK!

[Click to View YouTube Video]
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
May 8, 2018 - 09:24am PT

Creative, playful and cool by Paige and Jon... well done...
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2018 - 09:28am PT
Hooblie said:
great production value, quite watchable. "there's castles here!" i gotta get young again

Exactly!

I first met Paige Claassen, now Paige Claassen-de Kock, when she was 14 years old.
At the time, in 2004, I was the Rocky Mountain Region sales representative for EVOLV. She was the star of a youth climbing competition league known as DCL.

I was acquainted with her parents. She was quiet, resolute, and focused. Though just a 14-year-old, I admired her qualities. Simply put, she's one of my heroes!
Check out her blog. Paige is quite a good writer and also shows an excellent eye when she picks up a camera:

http://paigeclaassen.com/blog/
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2018 - 09:33am PT
Another good one from Louder Than 11, featuring poignant interviews and a thorough, responsible treatment of access issues:

[Click to View YouTube Video]
Published by LT 11, October 15, 2012
http://www.lt11.com/
http://paigeclaassen.com/abyss-a-critique/
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2018 - 03:33pm PT
Oh yeah, and Paige is the founder of:

http://www.saeducationfund.org/
https://www.facebook.com/southernafricaeducationfund/
I started Southern Africa Education Fund because I firmly believe that education is the only path out of poverty. By making education more accessible and teaching kids and families that school is a safe and fun environment that provides long term value to an individual’s life, we can keep kids in school and encourage them to pursue further education and a life beyond manual labor. Currently, we provide a kindergarten and orphanage with 3 meals a day, school supplies, student fees, and facility renovations.
Excerpt above from Paige Claassen's interview w/Beth Rodden:
http://bethrodden.com/2017/04/paige-claassen-interview-thoughts-on-climbing-starting-a-non-profit-and-having-a-family/
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2018 - 05:46pm PT
Frank and the Tower: A Duct Tape Then Beer Semi-Rad Production. Ha!
... that's quite the human interest piece and Frank is quite the … climbing-calvinist!

A reformist/convert of a different stripe, he says:
I'm surely under the influence of The Tower.

 And he plays Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts: love it!
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
May 9, 2018 - 03:37am PT
well i'm late to the party.

i haven't been a proper consumer, yet the production has been movin' on.

a little catch up is in order because, frankly, the expression of what the sport is,
where details of compulsion have been laid out in heartfelt effort to connect,
are right here to be harvested with a click.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

man do i hate to be personally held accountable for my joy,
but do i ever appreciate the kids who aren't so constrained and
use all the tools to make the case.

i'm spellbound by anatomy when it is animated by will.
how it fits like a key to the lock, applied to the physical, tactile world
and from it comes a passage which splits time but lights up the moment,
then disappears into ether but for the memory of it.

excuse my use of the word watchable. these efforts are much more than that
mcreel

climber
Barcelona
May 9, 2018 - 06:31am PT
The Wood Nymphs video shows some 6As! That was great!
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 9, 2018 - 11:54am PT
Sacred Lands – A story of Bouldering in Indian Creek

I wonder how well these younger climbers appreciate the degree to which we value their performances?
You said it here, hooblie:

man do i hate to be personally held accountable for my joy,
but do i ever appreciate the kids who aren't so constrained and
use all the tools to make the case.

Fourteen years ago, as a climber just barely clinging to the game, I was running on fumes. I had just brought a bunch of shoes up to the base of one of the cliffs at Indian Creek for Evolv, in support of an event called Chicks on Cracks. Lisa Hathaway was one of the reigning divas that day. After the event, ready for one of many grueling road-weary pushes to another rock shoe demo, I pulled around the corner at Big Bend on the Colorado River. Lisa appeared from behind a very large boulder, stepped out into the roadway, made a welcoming arc with her slender arm, and in a gesture of fait accompli – she flagged me down. I came up alongside her, rolled down the window and she said: "Pull it over Roy: time to boulder."

She's got to be one of the finer human beings out there in the climbing world, doing really neat stuff for herself and others. Lisa reminds me of Mari Gingery from the Stonemaster era, late 70s. Strong fingers, superb body control, keen mind, very analytical and full of life. One after the other, she gave me beta on a slew of really fun problems. I'm guessing nothing harder than V3-4, but wow, it was like I was her marionette. No way was I getting up any of that stuff without her diligent and thoughtful tutelage. The representative for Five Ten, a much younger guy, was also along for the ride. I've enjoyed only a handful (okay, make that two handfuls) of good bouldering sessions in the last couple decades, and that was just stellar! She finished up by demonstrating this really cool double overhanging arete. I didn't even bother trying: why make a mess of such a wonderful offering on her part, both in the coaching and in her capstone performance? Thanks Lisa!

http://rockandice.com/people/lisa-hathaway-ive-learned/

https://www.facebook.com/Chicks-On-Cracks-157345227626947/
L

climber
A place with cats...lots and lots of cats
May 9, 2018 - 04:23pm PT
What a totally enjoyable thread, Tarbusterbaby!
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 9, 2018 - 05:38pm PT
Park Life – Yosemite Bouldering

Lots to like in that video!

Hooblie said it:

a little catch up is in order because, frankly, the expression of what the sport is,
where details of compulsion have been laid out in heartfelt effort to connect,
are right here to be harvested with a click.

Though it didn't tag quite the same narrative sweet spot as did Flight of the Wood Nymphs, it sure was a wonderful tour of Valley bouldering. We all bouldered a lot BITD, and put an awful lot into it, but you look at the stuff these last few generations of climbers are clinging to: forget about it!

And we see candid interviews, fleshing out where these climbers are coming from, and where they think they might be going: that was good stuff. A lot of them struggle with all the issues we did in our own time: am I "all in" or do I try to retain some semblance of attachment to society?

The guys are just absolute beasts. I thought maybe I could relate to Natasha Barnes and the kind of things she was going for, but when I witnessed her finger power? No way was I ever touching that stuff, even in my prime. Then I remembered that she was a hitter at the competitions back in the 2000s.

Watch Natasha crimping her way up the V8 Bruce Lee at 3:20. She's got skills!
And she also wants to have a life: you go, girl!

Heart of Darkness, V9 at 4:15, looks so, so good.

Same guy, Ryan Sylvan on the highball Flatline, V8, at 6:55, now that's good living!

And then Jon Glassberg on the V12 Yabo Roof at 18 minutes: I bouldered a lot with Yabo BITD, and he might have started working on that problem, thus the namesake, but I don't think he was ever quite powerful enough to top out!

Same goes for the Cilley problem, V10, Dick was a damn good boulderer, but that thing looks sick.
Leroy: you out there? That really your baby?

And that V12 problem Dogwood, right at the end: now that is one beautiful line.


LT 11: you guys rock!!!

https://natashabarnesclimbing.com/about-2/
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 9, 2018 - 05:39pm PT
Albarracín – Flight of the Wood Nymphs

hooblie said:

i'm spellbound by anatomy when it is animated by will.
how it fits like a key to the lock, applied to the physical, tactile world
and from it comes a passage which splits time but lights up the moment,
then disappears into ether but for the memory of it.

What is most enriching to me is the opportunity to witness how well these climbers, most of them in their early 20s back in the early 2010s when the films were produced, adapt themselves to the rock architecture in a way that is so perfectly attuned to the task. I can empathize with the love of their endeavors.

Watch the first video once more, from Albarracín: go to 8:00, LaFuente, 7C. You can see in Paige's movements a discrete syntax, the way she fits her body to the stone as if composing a piece of music or constructing a mosaic out of multicolored shards of tile. And her prose and photography are similarly well organized: clear, fluid, and a joy to comprehend. These young people apply themselves to their task with mastery and in this complex, difficult world, the simple act of bouldering embodies all the importance of purpose and meaning. Well, for me, it does – and I'm sure it's the same for most of you readers.

An educated, quieted, and ordered mind is something human beings cultivate to more fruitfully interact with their world. And when done right, when a life is lived wholeheartedly, it's nice to see when it spreads into the whole of one's being.

Check out Paige's short piece on getting her act wrapped around bouldering, and tell me if it doesn't reflect the self-same movement skills we see in the video:

http://paigeclaassen.com/the-epiphany/

Then look at her photographs and you'll find the same constitutional and compositional harmony:

http://paigeclaassen.com/switzerland-in-photos/
http://paigeclaassen.com/namibias-skeleton-coast/

The music selections for the Albarracín piece are absolutely pristine.
They convey the European culture, the cool chill of the forest, and the delicate application of mind and body.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

[Click to View YouTube Video]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albarrac%C3%ADn
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 9, 2018 - 05:39pm PT
Deciding Boulder Comps – the Art of Akiyo Noguchi

Spatial awareness, problem solving, movement skills, physical preparation.

Hard bouldering, whether indoor or out, may be of more interest to many of us old retro-grouch trad climbers than we might assume.

Case in point: I got this YouTube from Stevie Haston's Facebook page. Stevie belongs to the blood lineage of celebrated alpinist Dougal Haston, has climbed many of the iconic North Faces of the Alps in record time for his day (and solo), and has done plenty of hard trad routes, as well as sport climbs. He and I are about the same age. Needless to say, he's graced with better genetics and is still hard at it!

Check out the wonderment of Akiyo Noguchi’s fitness and movement skills:

[Click to View YouTube Video]

From John Burgman, to whom I've been feeding a ton of source material for a book he is writing about the history of competition climbing in the US:
(I was involved in the implementation of both Snowbird '89 & the Berkeley Greek Theater World Cup of '90, among other early US competitions)

This video of Akiyo--it was done by Udo Neumann, a German guru who has coached the German bouldering team in the past, but he was also one of the big names in Fountainebleau in the 1980s. Most notably, Udo was the was co-author (with Dale Goddard) of a book called Performance Rock Climbing way back in 1993...pretty much the first book to present climbing entirely as a sport --with all sorts of chapters about physiology, diet, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiyo_Noguchi
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
May 9, 2018 - 06:06pm PT
ALL the elements of aspiration, beauty, commitment, cunning, deliverance and, to put a point on it, ardent pursuit of the cosmic shrug ... are right there for the grasping in boulder world
jbaker

Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
May 9, 2018 - 06:27pm PT
This is a beautiful thread. Reminds me of what is most beautiful about climbing and just being out in the mountains.
justthemaid

climber
Jim Henson's Basement
May 10, 2018 - 07:49am PT
Hmm.. maybe I'm just jaded from growing up around too many LA film students trying to be "artsy"... or maybe I'm sick of bouldering videos? Guess I'm a minority on this one.

Devils towers vids are pretty cool though.
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Topic Author's Reply - May 10, 2018 - 05:18pm PT
Oh, so that's how it's going to be – playing tough with me, huh, Skippy?
Back 'atcha with my all-time favorite boytoy-retro-chic-antihero ad!


From ROCK & ICE, #152, July 2006
And I'll have you know this is filed on my hard drive in a folder called: ART!
Messages 1 - 20 of total 62 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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