John Frieh

A well designed training program should include exercises at appropriate loads/reps to address and slowly alleviate issues/injury resulting from the chosen task... in your case climbing. Basically you shouldnt have to wear knee sleeves. If you really have knee issues devote some of your program to correcting it. If you dont then dont wear them.

Hey guys just a heads up but Pete is in AK until the end of the month. Plan on waiting until at least June.

Good commentary on climbing among other things: http://dbkk.dk/images/stories/Vince/vince%20anderson.mp3

Good point Pete. Working with people that have more experience and expertise in a particular discipline is a great way to make rapid progress on the learning curve.

Occasionally I will carry the #11 BD hex but generally any speed on route I may gain from carrying hexs instead of cams is lost on the time spent cleaning the hex. I almost always opt for cams. That said I would argue and I think most would agree the route you are looking at will dictate the rack you bring. I always approach it from the perspective of "what is the minimum I need to bring?" and then go from there.

I've got a few of the wire gate version. PM me if interested.

:laf:

"We're too connected to fail."

Nice. Any pics of the NE face or Upper North Ridge?

Looking to climb this week (May 14-18) either in or around Portland. A few hours at the rock gym before you go to work or some cragging... whatever you're available for. Give me a shout

It should be pointed out that doing CrossFit or some other program designed for well rounded health and fitness is critical to ensure lifetime healthiness of the athlete. Ever wonder why detached bicep is rampant among the old guys on super topo? Because all they have done their entire life is pull pull pull and never anything in opposition. Same with endurance athletes. Trail running is a great way to get your cardio for alpine but if you arent squatting from time to time and doing other things to ensure the health of your posterior muscle chain you will have knee problems at some point. Everyone should break up their year into pre, post and in season and adjust their program accordingly. Doing the samething day in and out will set you up for injury. That would be a reason to do some CrossFit (or something similar) from time to time

Apparently I can only climb 5.8 (Hi Pete ) and therefore have no right to comment in this thread but here goes: - CrossFit's goal is to make you a "well rounded athlete". You are not world class at any one thing but instead okay at several things. As they like to say "outlift the runner, outrun the lifter" - CrossFit uses a variety of exercises that have existed long, long, before CrossFit came into existence. CrossFit claims they were the first to combine them into workouts, often named after girls (Fran, Diane, etc). This is highly debatable but not really important in this discussion. - Due to CrossFit’s surge in popularity most people will assume doing things like box jumps, Olympic lifting, pushups and really anything for time that you are doing CrossFit. This is not the case. - Many of the exercises CrossFit uses will make you a better climber. A quick example would be the front squat is the single best exercise for developing core strength. You want to climb steep sport routes? Front squat. - The two major drawback for doing CrossFit for climbing and really any sport is CrossFit is a one size fits all program. Following the main site workouts or even your local gym’s workouts will not give you the specificity you need to improve in climbing especially if you are fairly developed in your climbing skill set. Secondly it lacks true endurance work. True cardiovascular endurance training BEGINS at ninety minutes. Doing only CrossFit is a great way to lose your endurance base. - So is CrossFit a good program? Not really. It’s okay at best. If you are serious about improving your climbing the first step would be to sit down with a coach for an hour and talk about where you are and where you want to be.

Exactly. Hence the "product placement" shots at the start... that said I have no objection acknowledging the great companies that support the Copp Dash Inspire Award. Same here. I like my climbing partners but I like spending time with my kids and staying employed more... hence this approach. As the classic saying goes "this is what you want, this is what you get"... it comes down to doing the best you can with the cards you were dealt. I do what I can at home to offset my carbon on trips. Since last fall the 20 solar panels on my home have produced 1515 kilowatt hours of energy

Fair enough. It's apparent to me we arent going to see eye to eye on carbon and outjectives and what is and isnt proud... but hey... it's cc.com... I should haven known better. Glad you guys at least liked the video. Zac Hoyt whom I've met a few times flew in to snag the first winter ascent of the Devils Thumb a few years ago and fell into a crevesse on his hike out to the sea (he thought he'd save some money hiking out instead of getting picked up). As a result a large, helicopter assisted rescue ensued.

Soon. I owe you an email also! We didnt shoot nearly as much video on Dickey so I doubt we'll put a video together. Perhaps a slideshow at sometime... Sure does. The only thing bigger than my carbon footprint is my tick list :laf: In all seriousness I could understand at face value it might seem like that but everyone since 2007 including Colin Haley, Mikey Schafer, Fred Beckey, Jens Holsten, Max Hasson, etc etc has taken a plane from Seattle to Petersburg and then a helicopter from Petersburg to the glacier. Unless you know someone in Petersburg with a boat you must take the chopper.. or swim I guess But yeah: staying 3 days or 3 weeks has the same exact carbon footprint as the flight time is exactly the same. I would argue staying for a shorter period of time is actually a slightly smaller footprint as it requires less gear which means less fuel burned flying to the glacier and less impact on the glacier (human waste, etc etc).

I would highly recommend watching this full screen. What will you do this weekend? [video:vimeo]38327717

Considering you live a short drive from both a gear shop that stocks them as well as the cilogear manufacturing site that really shouldnt be that hard to do... get off your butt! Help send Pete to AK!

Thanks dude. I dont know about a new sport... perhaps just a different way to approach climbing in Alaska for those of us that only have three weeks of vacation a year to work with. "If it’s important, you’ll find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse" I hope to see you all at the Feathered Friends show Thursday. Beer for Vantage!

Stay tuned for the Fairbanks fast food alpinism spray. Nothing yet... Schooner and Chewtoy are slacking! Or still passed out on top of peak 3

If you've ever enjoyed listening to the Dirtbag Diaries podcasts... I suspect you will enjoy this event. :brew: :brew:

Protein consumption is only a small part of the bigger picture: are you sleeping in a 100% black room? Are you getting 8 hours of sleep? What recovery practices are you doing on a daily basis? Weekly? Monthly? What is your diet? How clean is it? etc etc etc

A few pics. If you want to see more pics come to the Feathered Friends show this Thursday. Check the events forum for details

The best part was knowing Mulkey will be enjoying the "fruits of my labor" for as long as Doug owns that bag :laf:

:laf: Well played Daniel. Thanks for the props dudes. Apologies for the lack of photos but we shot everything in RAW which means they need to be cleaned up first... they are way too dark right now. In the meantime if you want to see some great photos AND video... some tilted... some not... you should all come to the 3 Types of Fun event next week! It is a fundraiser for a toliet at Vantage... who wouldnt want to support that?

Trip: Mt Dickey (Ruth Gorge) - NE Face "No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise" (FA) Date: 4/1/2012 Summary: First Ascent of the Northeast face of Mount Dickey on April 1-2 2012. John Frieh and Doug Shepherd. “No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise” 5,000', VI WI5R M6 Details: On March 30th, Doug Shepherd (Los Alamos, NM) and I, John Frieh (Portland, OR), flew from Talkeetna to the Ruth Glacier below Mt. Dickey in the Ruth Gorge. We spent March 31 skiing around the Gorge checking out possible routes and allowing the unsettled weather to move through. After some discussion we finally agreed to attempt the unclimbed northeast face of Mt Dickey. On April 1st we crossed the schrund at 7 am and were immediately faced with challenging terrain to negotiate: thin ice, vertical to overhanging snice and snow mushrooms made for slow progress and minimal gear placement options. After a full day of climbing we only had 3000 feet of climbing to show for our efforts. We chopped a bivy ledge and settled in for a chilly night. Day 2 started with us climbing up to our hoped exit off the face, only to find enormous snow mushrooms chocking the chimney system. Rather than bail we opted to traverse north around the NE ridge, hoping to find a different exit off the face. A 30 meter rappel landed us in a runnel system splitting the north face of the NE ridge. We followed this up to the seracs that overhang the true North face, nicknamed "Walmart". After a brief food, water and psych up break while still sheltered from Walmart, we blasted two quick pitches through the seracs onto the summit slopes. After some trudging we reached the summit around 8 pm; 37 hours after crossing the schrund. We descended the West ridge of Mt. Dickey and around 1 am on the 3rd we reached our camp back on the Ruth glacier. Later that morning Paul Roderick of Talkeetna Air Taxi picked us up and brought us back to Talkeetna to make for a brief four days in the range. Sorry for the shortage of photos... I'll try to add some later. Approach Notes: You may find a cheaper air service but you will not find a better service. Fly TAT