Flight of the Wood Nymphs

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

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.

I'm surely under the influence of The Tower.

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.

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.

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.

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.

here I thought it was going to be about all the babes splitting as soon as the dirtbags showed up

“Climbing is becoming obsolete for men,” says Claassen. “I think it’s going to become a women’s-only sport.”

here I thought it was going to be about all the babes splitting as soon as the dirtbags showed up

I think it's important, at least for myself, to stay focused on why I love, why I climb, because it's what I love – and when I look at a route, you know, it doesn't matter what the grade is: if it's a beautiful line and you know, it excites you, then you should just go for it.

It sounds very cliché but honestly, having fun is the most important and I think at least in myself I always climb my best when I'm happy. Maybe I'm a little frustrated [when] I want to send a route or I want to make a move, but I think that's more just determination, but really when it comes down to it, my best days are when I'm happy and excited and enjoying the time with the people around me. So I just … Put yourself in the environment that you love and that makes you the most joyful and then I think that's where you can really excel and you can really learn from others.

For me I've had so many men and women which have really inspired me to train and to try harder and to go on trips, and you know, explore areas I haven't explored before. And in the future I'm hoping that I can be a role model for young girls like myself at this point, um, to keep climbing and to follow their passion no matter what it is, if it's ballet or if it's rockclimbing. I think it's important to have a role model. So, it'd be an honor at some point if people saw me how I see a lot of the women I've always looked up to.

Over the past few years the gender gap has really narrowed and for the years coming I think that it's going to, there's going to be a big change and more women, more young girls are coming up in rockclimbing, so, watch out boys, ha ha!

And I really really like how Matt and Will re-tool the Old School.

This thread gives hope that young people may save the world. Not climbers, but other young people. The young climbers kind of give me an idea of how rad the non-climbers could be, though.

Today the delegates met with representatives, senators and other government officials to discuss matters pertaining to the Recreation Not Red Tape Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (which expires this October), the Antiquities Act and energy development.

Last year, 2017, the collaborative event grew to a veritable mob of over 50, including AAC and AF staff and board members, and such visible climbers as Alex Honnold, Libby Sauter, Kai Lightner, Sasha DiGiulian and Tommy Caldwell. This week at least 65 persons will take part, from May 9 to 11. This year’s crew of influential climbers includes repeaters such as Honnold, Sauter, Caldwell and DiGiulian, also Quinn Brett, Lynn Hill, Margo Hayes, Bethany Lebewitz, Mikhail Martin and Maricela Rosales. (See full list below.)

We envision a community in which kids receive the education necessary to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Jon and I visited Wesley Memorial Primary School, a rural elementary school whose library is supported by Room to Read, our non-profit partner in South Africa. By releasing this video, and other content about our time in South Africa, we hope to raise $10,000 for Room to Read.

I built this mythical route up in my mind, which Andrew referred to as the Digital Warfare Project for the strain it puts on one’s ‘digits’ – 15 degrees overhung, smooth, orange and grey streaked sandstone with just enough shallow pockets and thin edges to go. Hard, just my style, perfect. Andrew generously passed this golden prize, the opportunity to make a first ascent of the world’s coolest route, off to a random girl from the States (a million thanks Andrew!).

While in Russia, we’re supporting Women’s World Banking, which helps low income women access financial services, including small business microloans so they can independently support their families. Due to NGO restrictions, Women’s World Banking is not currently active in Russia, however they are the only global network that focuses on women. Women’s World Banking has served over 19 million clients, and 73% of those are women who now benefit from insurance, savings, and small business loans.

While in Italy, I’m supporting Save the Children, which helps children around the world access nutritious foods so they have the energy to study, play, and grow.

I’m a sport climber. More specifically, I like climbing clean faces with thin crimps and delicate feet, preferably 10 degrees overhanging.
However, part of my goal in Italy was to gain experience on multi pitch and traditional routes, things I don’t make time for at home, thanks to tunnel vision for sport routes. While I love sport climbing and plan to continue pushing myself on difficult sport routes, I think it’s important to have an understanding and respect for all types of climbing.

I’ve learned a few important things from these experiences. Most obviously, I enjoyed setting up belay stations and placing cams more than I actually enjoyed the climbing.

Sometimes, miracles happen. Making the second ascent of Art Attack, an 8c (5.14b) granite slab in northern Italy’s Val Masino, was nothing short of a miracle. Since Simone Pedeferri established the route in 2004, Art Attack hasn’t seen a repeat, likely because not many people enjoy slab climbing.

Pinotage /ˈpɪnətɑːʒ/ PIN-ə-tahzh[1] is a red wine grape that is South Africa's signature variety. It was bred there in 1925 as a cross between Pinot noir and Cinsaut (Cinsaut was known as "Hermitage" in South Africa at that time, hence the portmanteau name). It typically produces deep red varietal wines with smoky, bramble and earthy flavors, sometimes with notes of bananas and tropical fruit, but has been criticized for sometimes smelling of acetone.

"Working on an 8 pitch route. Rising traverse starts down around the toe of that buttress at the very lowest point of the crag, climbs up about 60’, then traverses these two parallel seams for another 100 ft before turning the corner to the wall in the photo, leading to 6 pitches up a natural line midway between the skyline and the brush. Finishes on a diorite buttress about a third of the way across the photo from left to right - pretty much the highest point on the Wall. All 5.9 and mid 5.10 pitches, killer rock. 60% gear protected. Longest route in SD County."

Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow:[2]
1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
2. Merging of action and awareness
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness
4. A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
5. A distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered
6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience

Those aspects can appear independently of each other, but only in combination do they constitute a so-called flow experience. Additionally, psychology writer Kendra Cherry has mentioned three other components that Csíkszentmihályi lists as being a part of the flow experience:[3]
1. "Immediate feedback"[3]
2. Feeling that you have the potential to succeed
3. Feeling so engrossed in the experience, that other needs become negligible

We all climb, travel or go on adventures because we get to meet people, see amazing places and learn the simple things about life along the way. We learn how other cultures value the things that make their country special. We learn how to eat soup with chopsticks. And we learn that we really aren't all that different after all. Each of us wants to challenge ourselves and support those around us: this is why we climb

Confidence is like a bonsai tree. It’s delicate branches take ages to grow, but when put in the wrong hands, those wisps of life won’t last long … I found myself in Yangshuo, China on some of the world’s steepest, most physical climbs with atrophied forearms and the core strength of a hippopotamus.

While in India, I’m climbing to raise money for Apne Aap, an Indian based organization working to end forced prostitution. In India, the average age for a girl to be sold into prostitution is 9-13, and she may spend 10 years working off her selling price without pay.

I wanted to climb some of the most obscure, beautiful sport lines in the world, in locations that would force me to learn about myself, about the world, and about the people in it. What better place than India?

Did you know that women and girls make up 70% of the world’s 1 billion poorest people? Or that a child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5? These are statistics from CARE, a Lead Now supported organization that helps the poorest communities in the world unleash their full potential.

1997
Touchstone acquired CityRock of Emeryville, which was one of the first indoor climbing gyms built in the country. Gym members could now enjoy the benefits of multiple locations; but with a population of over two million people in the greater Bay Area, there was still SO much room to grow!

2000
Realizing that the East Bay market was underserved by CityRock’s moderate size, Touchstone embarked on an ambitious project to build a new gym that was nearly three times as large. Berkeley Ironworks was completed in the spring of 2000, adding a huge fitness area, a yoga studio, and indoor cycling room, revolutionizing the concept of what a climbing gym could be.

Time spent in Cajas feels almost mythical. It can’t be real. Wisps of mist float down the valley and in and out of hills. Beautiful grass plumes litter the hillsides. Each turn plops you at the bottom of a different rock face – blank and slabby, steep and rippled, cracks, features, single or multi pitch. The approach to some cliffs requires a horse.

While in Ecuador, I’m climbing to raise money for Heifer International, a global non profit that applies the “teach a man to fish” philosophy by helping bring sustainable agriculture to impoverished communities. We’ll be visiting two rural villages in Ecuador where Heifer supports local projects – one involving llamas and alpacas and the other regarding soil enrichment.

We first climbed at El Arrayán, a technical basalt area with blocky roofs and sharp thin crimps. El Arrayán turned out to be my favorite cliff around Santiago, particularly because a great horned owl watches over the cliff from a low branch throughout the day (can I get a hooo hooo, Lisa Hathaway!?).

Over the past few weeks, we’ve spent some time working with VE Global, a non-profit organization based in Chile. VE Global works with residential homes, community centers, and schools in Santiago to support children at social risk. Many of these kids are victims of abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment, and lack positive role models in their lives. VE organizes volunteers from around the world to serve as mentors, educators, and representatives of social justice at the children’s homes.