Outdoor Retailer

This weekend my roommate Alex and I headed to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.  According to the website it is the "largest winter lifestyle and sports industry gathering in the world," and with 1000 companies and 20,000 attendees, I don't doubt that!  The trade show isn't open to the public because it is a professional event for buyers, distributors, and media, but we were lucky enough to get exhibitor guest badges so we packed up the car and set out for an epic weekend!  


Salt Lake City is about 850 miles from San Luis Obispo, so the drive took about 13 hours.  We left Thursday morning and arrived exhausted, later that night.  We checked into a motel (no car sleeping because Alex has pneumonia!  Crazy...), and tried to get a good night of rest for our big day.  We arrived at the Salt Palace Convention Center early Friday morning for the second day of the show.  We walked in and were instantly completely overwhelmed.  The show floor is ENORMOUS to say the least.  Each company sets up a booth, which actually resembles a small, very elaborate store in most cases.  Besides being overwhelmed by the physical atmosphere, there are people everywhere, and they are all very important, and all on a mission to take care of business.   


We had a few reasons for wanting to attend the show.  First, I will soon be graduating with a degree in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration and I wanted to get a taste of one facet of the industry, and see what kind of opportunities are out there.  Second, Alex wanted to talk to the climbing company 5.10 to see about possible sponsorship.  I also wanted to check in with a few of my contacts for some research projects that I'm working on.  Lastly, one of the companies that was there has an internship posted that I am interested in so I wanted to see if I could meet some important people and get my name out there, or at least give them a face to go with my resume.

We took a few laps around the show floor (probably equivalent to walking several miles, haha!) and both felt nauseous and lightheaded from the whole situation!  Alex worked up a bunch of courage and made an appointment with 5.10.  Five minutes later he was talking to a rep, and 20 minutes later, he was a sponsored climber!  Needless to say, we were both beyond PSYCHED!  He has worked really hard on his climbing and his presence in the climbing community and he definitely deserves this.  


We wandered around the rest of the day and I got to see some of my favorite companies like Ruff Wear, which makes great dog products.  We also got to see a winter clothing fashion show, which was pretty cool.  After awhile we were both wiped out and needed a nap.  After a rest, we headed to the Outdoor Inspiration Awards put on by Adidas and hosted by Sasha DiGiulian and Reinhold Messner.  It was SO, so neat to hear the two of them speak.  We got to watch the video of Sasha's ascent of Pure Imagination 5.14d which was amazing and very inspiring.  After the event, we headed for celebratory sushi and fill our bellies beyond their capacity.  


On our second day at the show, it was time for me to get down to business.  I relayed a message for a friend to a rep at Kleen Kanteen, which had a really cool booth.  I talked to Vertical Girl, a progressive clothing company that aims to inspire female climbers, about becoming a brand ambassador.  I looked for my main contact on my research project but he was out for the day, tried to talk to someone about the internship, but at the time that I was told to come back he was busy raffling off skis.  However, I made a great connection with Kevin Jorgeson about my research, which was great.  This project is going to be fun and super helpful to the industry which really motivates me to get after it.


The show floor gets pretty fun towards the end of the day when a lot of the booths have happy hours and give out drinks (mostly beer, though Arcteryx pretty much had an open bar, and Osprey was making White Russians), there are raffles, aaaaand on this day Chris Sharma and Daila were signing posters.  Woo hoo!  After this full day, we were super wiped out, and left the show.  We were surprised to find that it had snowed!  Finally, it feels like winter.  We got in the car and set off to knock a few hours of the drive.



Unfortunately, soon after we left, we encountered a pretty fierce snowstorm.  Fortunately though, there weren't many people on the road so we just drove in the middle of the snow covered road (snow accumulated pretty fast), and watched the snow blow past our windshield.  We stopped for the night, got up this morning, and gunned it the rest of the way home.  What a great weekend!


I learned a TON this weekend.  It was great to get such an intense view of the industry, meet a lot of cool people, network, and learn that I still have a lot to learn, which is always a good thing.  As my advisor always says, "you should always strive to be the least smart person in the room" that way you can always learn something new.

It finally feels like winter!

My Return

After a four-month hiatus, I have made my return to climbing.

Kind of.

Sort of.

Well… I’m working on it.

Star was cold so she put my vest on

If you’ve wondered where I’ve been between Squamish (August) and now, (aka prime Fall climbing season…) the answer is that I made a foray into the working world.  Yes, I, Laura Patton, got a job.  Not just any job, but a real, big girl job, that required me to dress nicely and work for eight hours at a time.  Aside from allowing me to go into the grocery store on a semi-regular basis and pick out the food I really wanted rather than getting whatever was the cheapest, all it did was reaffirm that the working world is not for me.  Between working 30 hours a week, going to school full time, and writing my senior project, the only free time I had left was 20 minutes before bed each night when I would sit on the couch and despair about the dismal turn my life had taken.  When I was applying for jobs I told myself that I could sacrifice climbing for six months in order to save money, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn’t true.  Sacrificing climbing was like sacrificing happiness, and that is for sure, one thing that I can’t live without. 

Promptly after leaving my job, Eric and I packed up the car and headed for Bishop.  It immediately become clear that not climbing/doing any physical activity for four months doesn’t do wonders for your climbing skills.  Fortunately, I was able to push all my old projects out of my head, and focus on trying climbs at my current ability (aka everyone’s warm-ups).  I really did enjoy going back to a bunch of classic V1’s, 2’s, and 3’s, trying hard, and sending them.  At night, when I got into the tent under a beautiful night sky full of bright stars, surrounded by the Eastern Sierras, I thought to myself, “this is where I belong,” and drifted peacefully off to sleep.

Can't beat that psych!

On the opposite end of the spectrum from me and my re-attained noob status, lies my roommate Alex.  In the last year, he has experienced a meteoric rise to boulder crusher extraordinaire.  Psych leaks from his pores and permeates everything around him.  On this same trip to Bishop, he sent his first V12 (SECOND ascent of Rastaman Vibration… very epic, look it up!), then his second V12, Aquarium, and ticked off several 11’s including Xavier’s Roof, a classic 10, Center Direct, and countless other problems.  Props!  Eric was also feeling the psych and during our pre and post Christmas Bishop trips he sent several longtime projects including Cholos V9, Fall Guy V9, and Sharma Scoop V8. Solid work guys!

Fall Guy V9

 So, back to my return to climbing.  So far in this post, I’ve gone on two climbing trips (Bishop before Christmas and again after).  I wouldn’t say I climbed a ton, but I did get back out there and try some problems, which felt great.  After that, winter break was over.  Fortunately, my rigorous academic schedule this quarter includes four hours of class on Tuesday and another four on Thursday.  And that’s all.  After my first “week” back at school we headed to Joshua Tree. 

So much for winter weather

Sharma Scoop V8 by headlamp

J-Tree is traditionally one of my FAVORITE places to climb.  I love single pitch trad climbing for its accessibility and simplicity.  We arrived after dark on a Friday night and the whole campground was lit up by an almost full moon.  I jumped out of the car, grabbed my harness and said, “let’s go climbing!”  Eric didn’t take much convincing and we had a fun moonlight guided climb up Toe Jam.  We filled the rest of the weekend with classic moderates like Sail Away, Illusion Dweller, Double Cross, Overhang Bypass and Rib Pinch.  The wind picked up and it got cold, but it felt so good to place gear, and even better to feel solid hand jams.  Such a delight!

Apparently this is the only picture I took in Joshua Tree

 That brings us to three climbing trips in three consecutive weeks.  Sounds like I’m back to my old self, at least statistically speaking.  Still, I know that I’m not quite there yet.  It still doesn’t feel quite right.

Yup, planking on Chacos

I think about previous breaks I’ve taken from climbing and my subsequent returns to the sport.  The first big break I took was about a year after I started climbing when I went to Honduras for six weeks.  Terrified of forgetting my newly acquired skills, I tied little figure 8’s out of twine while I swung in the hammock.  In the mornings I would do planks and push-ups on the concrete floor of my little room, where the crickets and scorpions crawled.  My roommate, Isa, would join me, and our host family would look in inquisitively, wondering what on earth we could be doing. 

Upon returning to the states, my climbing partner, Kelsey, who had just spent eight weeks in Nicaragua, and I tentatively took to the gym.  It was hilarious how awkward we felt on the wall.  We even began climbing at 6 AM before school started so we didn’t have to be embarrassed by a gym full of onlookers who kept asking, “what happened to you guys?”  Soon enough however, we returned to our old selves, climbing after school for four, five, or six hours at a time, doing laps in the lead cave, and eating doughnuts between burns.  We were definitely back. 

Keeping after it in Peru

My second long break came after another trip to Latin America, this time nine weeks in Peru, Chile, and Argentina.  On this trip, I didn’t worry too much, buildered occasionally, told myself breaks were good and that they made you stronger in the long run.  After that trip, Chelsea and I took our climbing into high gear, going out essentially every weekend of the next three quarters, alternating between Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Tahoe, and Bishop.  Immediately following school, we moved to Tahoe, climbed everyday, and then took fall quarter off from school, moved into the car, and either drove somewhere awesome or climbed everyday for the next three and a half months.  No question about it, we were back.

Based on these previous experiences, I have faith that soon I shall be back at it in full force, both physically and mentally.  And I can’t wait! (Although it looks like winter might actually be ready to start soon.)  Now to work up enough psych to go the gym…

     

Squamish Video

Here is a little video I put together of some Squamish Bouldering.  It is also on the videos page.

The Grand Wall, 5.11a A0

Climbing the Grand Wall was the culmination of our experience in Squamish.  We started out climbing the very slabby Apron routes and started working our way up to harder, longer, and steeper climbs.  After being in Squamish nearly three weeks, we decided that it was time to tackle a bigger challenge.

The Grand Wall is hard to miss, climbing up the beautiful face of the Chief.  It is easy to pick out two of the most classic pitches, The Split Pillar and the Sword by looking up at the wall from the road.  At 5.11, the climb was a harder multi pitch than either of us had attempted before, and it was sustained at the grade, unlike some of the other climbs we had done like the Squamish Buttress which goes at 5.10c, but only has one pitch at that grade and the rest at 5.7.  We decided to gun it, and left the tag line at home so we had no option of retreat.

The Topo

5 Stars, oh yea!

The night before the climb we got tons of beta from our friend Andy who has climbed the Grand Wall at least four times.  He filled us in on all the important details and we went to bed psyched!  We woke up early the next morning, grabbed the gear that we had racked the night before and hiked to the base.  As we arrived at the bottom of the climb, two other parties showed up behind us.  Luckily they were awesome people that entertained me at all the belay stations. 

The first pitch is a 5.7 R, which means there is a lot of space between your pieces of protection.  It is a bolted dike that goes for 42 meters and has all of THREE bolts.  We linked this pitch with the next 5.9 pitch which is also slightly runout.  The next pitch is an awesome traverse that goes at 5.10b.  The movement was really cool and at the end of the traverse you aid up a short bolt ladder. 

Looking down at the runout slab pitch

 The first three pitches went by really fast!  We were already far off the ground, and even better, we were at the base of the split pillar!  The split pillar is an awesome splitter (who would’ve guessed) that started at tight hands (for me.  Rattly fingers for people with fat hands), went to hands, off hands, turny cups, fists and then a bit of offwidth at the top.  Eric styled the pitch perfectly.  I had to lay back some of the wider parts but eventually made it to the next belay.

The Split Pillar

Eric styles it

The sword is a really thin finger crack with a tricky bulge in it (crux of the route).  At the top is another bolt ladder.  Eric cruised this pitch also and brought me up to the belay at the base of Perry’s Layback.  Perry’s is a huge offwidth crack, which is thankfully bolted (or we would have had to drag a bunch of #4s and #5s up).  The face that you smear on while you lieback is fairly smooth and given that it was a right facing corner and my right shoe was totally blown out, I had to pull on a few draws for this pitch.
  

A nice view

After this pitch, we were only two pitches from the top!  Eric was feeling a little tired (understandably so) so I led the next pitch, which was a very technical face climb.  It was a little more runout than I feel is ideal, but I inched my way up, feeling my shoes crumbling away beneath me.  After clipping the last bolt, there is a reachy 5.10 move, which involves you making it up a blank bulge to a mediocre jug.  The only problem is that there are no footholds or handholds to get you there, so if you aren’t 6 feet tall, you basically have to dyno.  I did some creative sideways aid climbing and somehow made it to the top of the pitch. 

My very sad shoes

The last pitch features an undercling traverse around a flake and then easier climbing to the top.  I was feeling pretty gassed when I went to follow this.  The undercling traverse again featured a smooth surface with no holds where you had to smear your feet.  Darn shoes need some rubber!  As I was traversing out I was thinking about how it would be really inconvenient to fall.  I was about to hit the corner of the flake when my right foot slipped off the wall and I went boink!  I looked up in dismay to see the flake 15 feet above me, and nothing but smooth polished wall in between.  Rats!  I had to climb up the rope and really hope I didn’t fall in order to get back into the flake.  Eventually I was at the top!

Woo!

We were both super psyched on the awesome climbing we had just completed.  The Grand Wall was super varied, and featured every type of climbing at a sustained grade and at high quality.  It was AWESOME!  Eric climbed it in excellent style, onsighting it, and I was psyched to get to the top with just a little gear pulling.  Although we had finished the climb, we were not down yet.  We had to traverse the Bellygood Ledge which is a very narrow walkway above a sheer drop off—scary!  Fortunately we made it safely back to the ground. 

Bellygood Ledge 

Drop off!

Climbing the Grand Wall left us really satisfied, and with our food nearly gone, our  campsite taken from us (we might have forgotten to pay for the last few days), and rain in the forecast, we decided that it would soon be time to leave.  The next day we decided to go out for one last boulder session.  Instead of sending some projects, I got a new one and worked it til it was almost dark.  Eric had put in a few goes on Mantra (V8) and decided to try a few more times.  As the darkness crept in he took off his shoes and threw in the towel.  While packing up, he noticed that the crux hold should be held like a pinch, not a sloper, and put his shoes on for one last go.  He stuck the crux!  As he was going for the top he made the unfortunate realization that the top hold was a sloper, not a jug, and came flying off the boulder and onto a rock.  No!  He twisted his ankle pretty badly and had to hobble out of the forest.  It was a bummer kind of way to end the trip but he is in good spirits and his ankle is feeling much better. 

We hit the road back home, feeling lucky to have gotten in so many classic climbs and to have experienced such great weather (no rain!  Unheard of for a trip to Squamish).  Today we’ll head to SLO to see the puppies (update on Star- second Vet’s opinion was that she did not need surgery), and we will await our next adventure!   

Adventures in the Forest

We have now been adventuring on rocks in and above the forest for two weeks.  It has been glorious!  The climbing here is so unique- the boulders are set amongst the huge trees of the peaceful forest.  Everything is green and moss and lichen covered.  Strange bugs and slugs creep around and funny mushrooms grow on many surfaces.  Despite the appearance that there are a lot of people here (based on the full campground and parking lot), it remains quiet and uncrowded in the trees.  The routes are also unique, with more tree-slinging, odd traverses and ledges than I’m used to. 

Since my last post, we have done LOTS of climbing!  We have completed 40+ pitches of trad climbing and done a fair amount of bouldering.  Eric sent Gibbs’ Cave (V8) and The Bulb (V8) and tried lots of other hard classics.  Two days ago he went a scary V5 called Doubt, a V7 called Undertow, and two V8’s- Autobody and Hunt’s Arete.  What a day!  I have sent two V4’s- Easy in an Easy Chair and Trad Killer.  I was getting very close on a really tall slab called Phat Slab (V5) but took a bad fall and am too scared to try it again!  We are looking forward to some more bouldering in the next few days and some more sends.

Most of our focus has been on route climbing.  It is hard to ignore the Chief as it sits there in magnificence overlooking the campground.  One day we climbed St. Vitus’ dance on the Apron, which featured a very lovely crack on pitch 3.  Our biggest day of climbing yet took us up Rock On (5.10a) to the Squamish Buttress (5.10c), which took us all the way to the summit of the Chief!  The view from the top was incredible and the climbing was great.   We linked several pitches together, so the whole climb ended up being a total of 10 pitches. 

We had another good couple days of climbing on the “Squaw.”  On our first day there, we climbed Birds of Prey.  I led the first two pitches of awesome finger crack, and Eric led the burlier 5.10 pitches.  Unfortunately, after our first day climbing at the “Squaw” we left our guidebook at the base of our climb!  The next day we hiked back up hoping to find it but it was nowhere to be seen.  We figured that as long as we had hiked all the way up to the base of the wall, we might as well climb something.  We didn’t have our guidebook, so we guessed where the start of another climb, Jungle Warfare (5.10a) was.  Well, apparently we guessed wrong.  The first pitch was an awesome splitter in a right facing corner that went from fingers to tight hands to hands.  The second pitch was an exposed face climb that probably went at 5.11c/d if I had to guess.  After that we went up some hand cracks, finger cracks and some slab and before we knew it we were at the top!  I was psyched that we didn’t epic and get stuck up there.   

 We had another big day yesterday, climbing Peasant’s Route on the base of the Grand Wall.  It was really inspiring to look up at the Chief from the Grand Wall.  Peasant’s Route is a stout 5.10c and we really enjoyed all five pitches.  After we came down we hiked over to the Apron and practically ran up Diedre a very class 5.8 corner crack.  It is supposed to be six pitches, but we did it in good style and linked everything.  We ended up climbing it in three 200 foot pitches, stretching our rope as far as it would go. 

Eric has amazed me with his ability to climb anything and everything.  He sends boulder problems quickly, sport climbs like a beast, and doesn’t think twice about tying into the sharp end on any trad climb.  Where I would usually hesitate and wonder if I have the skills to make it up every pitch on a climb (for example, I’m not so good at wider cracks so I might not choose a climb that had a pitch of wide crack), Eric just guns it!  He has confidence and the skill to back it up.  It is good to see him continually pushing himself to new levels in gear climbing.

While it is great to see Eric excel, it sometimes leaves me exhausted!  I have been left huffing and puffing while following a few pitches in the last week.  My calves burn, my fingers and hands tire, and I have to leave my pride behind and pull on gear every once in a while.  I love climbing with Eric and knowing that I have a rope gun to get me up any climb we tackle!

I also really miss climbing with Chelsea.  Chelsea and I both have pretty specific strengths and weaknesses in our climbing.  It is always really fun choosing climbs and splitting pitches based on what we excel at.  If there is a slabby or sporty pitch, I’ll take it.  If there is a splitter crack, Chelsea will get the lead.  I definitely miss my PIC and can’t wait until she is climbing again!

One nice thing about being in a place so long is that you start to discover the locals’ secrets.  One thing we’ve learned about is “Happy Hour” at the rec center.  This has nothing to do with drinks, but rather the price of admission.  If you go Monday-Friday between 11:45 and 12:15 it only costs $2 to get in.  Once you’re in, you can swim, hot tub and shower!  What a deal. 

We haven’t been taking too many rest days because there is so much to climb, but when we do we have a great time.  Today we went up to Whistler to check out the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We saw lots of people mountain biking and ate some delicious ice cream.  We’ve also been swimming at lakes, and walking around and exploring.

There is a great community of climbers here (including some famous ones), which makes for a great vibe and a wonderful place to chill out.  It is very relaxed here and we sleep in late almost every day.  On the weekends, the parking lots overflow with people coming to hike to the top of the Chief.  For some reason I have started calling these people ‘tourists,’ even though they are almost all from BC. I get amused by the puzzled looks we get from the ‘tourists’ while cooking our breakfast out of the back of our car. 

Anyway, back to the climbing.  There is just so much of it, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed!  We are thinking about staying a little longer than we originally planned so we can do a few more of the things that we want (or we could try waking up before 10am).  The bouldering guidebook has over 2500 problems in it and even the select route guidebook has too much to choose from.  Eric would read me bedtime stories in the form of route descriptions (until we lost our book).  “Pitch 3, 5.10.  Start up the right facing corner and climb left to a tree.”  I fall asleep under the silent forest canopy dreaming of climbing.  When I wake up in the morning, the rock awaits :) 

Squamish

The Rockzilla comp!

We are currently on a rest day in Squamish after four awesome days of climbing here.  We left from Napa, California, after attending an awesome bouldering competition at Rockzilla.  I placed 4th for the women, and Eric placed 4th in men's in terms of points, but there was a three-way tie for 3rd, which put him on spot out of finals.  Finals were really intense!  

Giovanni Traversi on Men's Problem #3

After a nice sleep in the back of the car, we hit the road!  It was a beautiful drive and before we knew it, we were in Eugene, Oregon.  We met up with some great friends from Cal Poly, Ben and Chrissa (recently engaged!).  They lent us some inner tubes and we had a relaxing float down the river.  

After the nice cool off, we jumped back in the car and motored up to  Portland.  There we stopped at Rogue brewery for a good beer and then headed to VooDoo for some crazy doughnuts.  We were welcomed into our friend Casey's apartment with gracious hospitality, and got another good night of snoozin before we hit the road in the morning to head further North.  We made a quick stop in Seattle at REI and before we knew it we were crossing the border into Canada.

It was slightly stressful at first, trying to keep my speed at the right kilometers per hour while navigating through Vancouver.  At one point I headed the wrong way down a one way street, but crisis was averted and we made it to Squamish as it got dark.

We spent the night in the car and were able to find a sweet camp spot the following morning.  Then it was off to the forest in search of awesome boulders!  We were not disappointed by the awesome granite blocks that filled up the forest floor.  Everyone told me that Squamish grades were soft, so I was expecting to crush.  Well, it seems that I may be a bit out of shape, because not too much crushing has occured yet.

Nonetheless, we are having an awesome time getting on super classic problems.  We have also gotten on a bunch of awesome routes.  We took the Snake (5.9) up the Apron.  It was 5 pitches and we swapped leads up a fun corner.

We are looking forward to getting on some more long trad climbs in the days to come.  A good friend from my Planet Granite days, Sarah, showed up a few days after us and we have been enjoying her spirited and enthusiastic company, as well as the company of a Canadian named Brian.  Yesterday we all headed to Cheakamus for some sport climbing.

On our rest day, we headed to the farmers market and got some awesome deals on veggies.  At one stand, they let you fit as many bell peppers as you can into a plastic bag, and the bag costs $4.  We were able to fit 6!  We also headed to Alice Lake for a swim and to the Rec Center for a shower.  Squamish is BEAUTIFUL!  Really loving it!

This post is a little scatter-brained, but at least it provides an update :)  The bad news so far is that I blew out my trad climbing shoes on our second day here!  Noooo!  The one re-soler in town was going to charge me $60 to fix them (and that's Canadian dollars!), which is about 50%+ of the price of a brand new (full-priced) shoe.  Bummer.  Other than that, we are all smiles!