Four Short Tahoe Bouldering Movies

Trip Report

Wednesday July 19, 2006 11:01pm


	Chris McNamara climbing above the bridge near the Snowshed Wall on Donner Summit Credit: Eric Volz

These four shorts explore Tahoe's classic problems and the lengths some people go to get to them. This footage was shot during the research of Tahoe Bouldering guide. That fall got a big dumping of snow and skiers were get deep powder on Halloween. The bad news is that many of the access road were snowed in. The good news is that many of the access road were snowed in (it made for some great boulder-pad car tows and Subi Rally Car driving). The films were made by Eric Volz and edited by Katharine Miller. Thank you Metolius for the the pads!

Lover's Leap
Brian Cork climbs a bunch of classics in the Lover's Leap campground then gets eaten by the 5.12 offwidth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSwdfW9CJmI

Echo View
Mark Nicholas works on one of the bazillion hard projects he has sent in the Tahoe area. Eric Volz then climbs some of the classics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpy9r4FL4zE

Donner Summit and Bliss
A tour of some of the best Highball classics at bliss. Then a few donner classics with cool stormy clouds and evening light. We wanted to get to the saddle boulders that day, but high snow blocked us. At least we got some good Subi rally car footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqSMdaZqauc

Trip Report Views: 398

Chris McNamara

About the Author
Climbing Magazine once computed that three percent of Chris McNamara’s life on earth has been spent on the face of El Capitan—an accomplishment that has left friends and family pondering Chris’ sanity. He’s climbed El Capitan over 70 times and holds nine big wall speed climbing records. In 1998 Chris did the first Girdle Traverse of El Capitan, an epic 75-pitch route that begs the question, “Why?”

Outside Magazine has called Chris one of “the world’s finest aid climbers.” He’s the winner of the 1999 Bates Award from the American Alpine Club and founder of the American Safe Climbing Association, a nonprofit group that has replaced over 5000 dangerous anchor bolts. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and serves on the board of the ASCA, and Rowell Legacy Committee. He has a rarely updated adventure journal, maintains BASEjumpingmovies.com, and also runs a Lake Tahoe home rental business.

Comments

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KP Ariza

climber

SCC

Jul 19, 2006 - 11:06pm PT

Cool shot Chris, don't know if I'd call that a "boulder problem" though, 5.10 free solo more like, eh?

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.

Jul 19, 2006 - 11:31pm PT

compression issues won't play the first 3 even after the update to allow or mpeg4

mooser

Trad climber

seattle

Jul 20, 2006 - 07:54am PT

Great stuff! The Donner movie won't load, even though the rest will. Anyone else having this problem? I miss Donner something fierce! By the way...if you want to see a HILARIOUS movie filmed at Donner, intended to be a serious movie about climbing and teen angst, catch "Take It to the Limit." A must-see flick that will make you think twice about climbing in bare hands again, or without a snakebite kit!

mooser

Trad climber

seattle

Jul 20, 2006 - 08:12pm PT

OK, I waited long enough and got the fourth one. Toooooo fun. Some of my favorite problems on the film. Missing Donner even more. Thanks!

426

climber

☬

Jul 20, 2006 - 08:23pm PT

Nice. Those are some good frame grabs on this site (stills) for the pics of bliss (I assume). Usually they turn out a little funky...

I like the Echo View clip a lot...nice hard pulls...who "hasn't been there" with Mr. Nicholas?

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Author's Reply

Jul 21, 2006 - 06:09pm PT

hmm. bummer more folks cant watch it. anyone have tips for making quicktime movies more viewable?

Brock

Trad climber

RENO, NV

Jul 21, 2006 - 06:42pm PT

Was up at the snowshed wall on Tuesday 7/18 and there was some big camera boom/rig atop of the Aerial arete/ Corrugation Corner area. Anybody know what they were filming???

Ran into a couple good ole climbers I had not seen in over a decade up there...Good ole...YSD (D Griffith).

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Jul 21, 2006 - 07:44pm PT

cool stuff!! Nice probs! The first three videos loaded and played immediately, the 4th took about 1 minute to load (cable modem, OSx.4.7)

I think I've done that OW problem @ the leap right in that main boulder spot?

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Author's Reply

Jul 21, 2006 - 09:04pm PT

yeah, that offwidth problem is listed as V? but i thinks it confirmed at 5.12. i dont think that problem could even be put on the V Scale! unless you wanted to call it "V-seriously-awkward/nearly-impossible-except-for-super-old-dad-trad"

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.

Jul 21, 2006 - 09:59pm PT

so can everyone else see em, all?

I'll reinstall QT if so.

Hardman Knott

Gym climber

Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca

Jul 21, 2006 - 11:56pm PT

Try encoding the videos as .mov files using Sorenson 3.
Much more compatible than H264 or MPEG-4, which require QuickTime 7,
as well as a processor fast enough to decode these types (my 400 Mhz Pismo chokes).

MPEG-1 is the most compatible format of all, but results in files twice as big.

Hardman Knott

Gym climber

Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca

Jul 22, 2006 - 01:29pm PT

Update:

Tested on Mom's Toshiba laptop after a fresh install of QuickTime 7.1 for Windows...
(uncheck the spam invitations and leave the e-mail field blank––it still works)

The first 3 played instantly, but the 4th wouldn't play until all 23 MB was downloaded.
This took 2 or 3 minutes on a 1.2 M/bit DSL connection. It looks to me that the 4th
vid was knott set to Progressive Download, which allows the vid to start playing
almost immediately while the rest of it finishes downloading.
Chris, You might want to have that one re-encoded so it will be the same as the others.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.

Jul 22, 2006 - 03:15pm PT

Back in the 80s, not that I climbed there a lot, but that OW was well known to be 12+ OW. True FA info was unknown.

You (read in my dreams) can almost layback part of thing. Way powerful.

smith curry

climber

nashville,TN

Mar 31, 2007 - 08:53am PT

I just want to remind everyone that Eric Volz is still in serious jeopardy, and needs your help. Friendsofericvolz.com and this short movie on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YChhOHrFA4 tell the story.

climber

tahoe

Apr 2, 2007 - 09:58am PT

That offwith is a real shoulder masher, at least until you get out of it and layback the top. The jams through the crux could accurately be described as "interesting"