My Climbing Pro Blog (every two weeks) presented by Climbing Magazine
http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/problog/michaelreardon/
LATEST NEWS:
6.15.07: To say it's been busy is an understatement. Climbing with Bachar at Mammoth, soloing two miles per day on three occasions at Tahquitz, onsight solo of a two-pitch 5.12a at Suicide Rocks, speaking to a Fortune 100 Company in Ohio, and buildering in Los Angeles all made for a busy month. But today - I'm on a plane to Ireland and will be there for a month. Stay tuned to the blog, this site, and youtube should have the latest video by tomorrow.
5.20.07: Just when I thought I was getting away from the heat, Marci and I took off to Vegas for a couple days R&R at the Red Rock Spa. We learned pretty quickly that I should never be confined in close quarters, much less with a hottub in the room. Can you say, "Cannonball!" Stopped by Red Rocks in the early morning and soloed a handful of routes up to 5.12b, but finally skipped out in the early afternoon when the temps rose to the triple digits.
5.12.07: The final day at Joshua Tree, the weather is just too hot to stay out there when Tahquitz is so close. Upgraded the Mojo Club membership on a 5.12....
5.5.07: Spent the day in Joshua Tree climbing with the Outlaws and having some fun. It's getting hot out here, but not enough to stop one of the Outlaws from simul-soloing "Tic Tic Boom" with me.
4.30.07: Had an absolute blast at the Ogden Climbfest! Big thank you to Jeff Lowe and the rest who showed up and gave their support to such a great cause. Hanging out with "Big Wall" Pete, Mike Anderson, Greg Lowe and Ron O was a highlight of my year so far. I'm writing up most of the material for the blog in the next couple weeks.
April 24: Just a quick reminder for those in the neighborhood to stop by Ogden this weekend for the Climbfest! I'll see you there! More info available at www.jefflowe.info.
April 22: Back from a week in Colorado where the weather tried to keep me inside, but finally let up and had a blast running some pitches in Eldo, bouldering in Flagstaff, and tossing a quick lap on the First Flat Iron. In the middle I had the pleasure of coffee and stories with some amazing climbers and living legends, such as Rolando Garibotti, Malcolm Daly, E-Z, Steven Dieckhoff, Crusher, and the amazing Bulgarian Clydehound! The trip also let me stop by the Climbing Magazine offices that also host My New Blog - make sure to stop by for the latest ramblings! This week's blog starts out peeing in the bushes with a trip down memory lane before the wondermutts and coyotes break the spell....
April 5th: Yes it's true, I soloed 1,000 routes in 30 days at Joshua Tree a couple months back. Brilliant photographer Damon Corso was with me for the experience and made Joshua Tree look absolutely magical - check out the eleven-page adventure in Urban Climber Magazine!
"Blood etched my fingertips into the quartz. Underneath my shivering knees, the frozen bricks of my feet stuttered on worthless smears..."
April 4: Damon Corso finally convinced me to go pebble wrestling at the Tramway Boulders near Palm Springs, California, and I can only say that I was absolutely stunned at the beauty of this place! A tram carried us through the air to the 8,000 foot peak, where we met plenty of tourists who got a variety of answers regarding the "beds" we carried, and after a ten minute walk, I saw what can only be described as paradise for those who prefer the smaller stones, with plenty of bladder tightening highballs mixed in! Damo and I met up with Rob Miramontes (guidebook author and amazing boulderer) who is working on a guide to the area and was kind enough to point out some classics, ass-hand me on some "easy" problems, and after a tour made my mouth water at the possibilities of highball testpieces. Damo was the king of the day when Rob showed us one particular highball that had been waiting for someone stupid - I mean "strong" enough to go for it. I gathered some frequent flier miles and bounce tested the crashpads, when Damon gathered his courage and sent this instant classic in proud style - ground up and cleaning the lichen along the way! Later on, I found a new project that tested the spirit with a reason to come back, and also sent the easiest V10 on the planet (a problem obviously mis-rated, but a great ego-boost!), but that's for another day around a different campfire.
April 2: What was supposed to be a full day of climbing at Malibu Creek, ended up being cut short when I climbed over a cement piling and had a fish hook stab in and out of my palm! Looking at the rusty lure dangling in the middle of all that meat made me pause for a bit and give thanks for having thick skin from all this climbing. I yanked the thing out, caused the appropriate amount of bleeding and made my way to urgent care, where they know me by name at this point, and got the appropriate shots that numbed my shoulder. It didn't stop an evening of training, but do the cures always have to hurt more than the injuries?
March 31: Tahquitz at last! A quick coffee with some friends in the morning and the hike once again woke me up for the upcoming season at altitude. The snow still filled the north side with a bit of ice dropping off the main headwall, but the south side was perfect temperatures and it felt great to get off the ground again and run a quick 50 pitches. Met up with Nick (he of the head first diving incident that brought a few stitches) and it was great to catch up and find this former party-boy not only cleaned up, but climbing strong and smiling big with his long-time girlfriend and their bouncing baby. A strange world we all live in as we continue to grow up....
March 22: Sun was up, breeze was cool, and Malibu Creek brought another 50 lap day. The greens are really coming out in the hillsides and though we're a bit low on the water levels, the creek was high enough to prompt a couple new boulder problems over the water. Looks to be a great season out there.
March 20: Updates on the media page and appearances page completed.
March 13: Just got back from the REI Demo Days at Joshua Tree. It was great to see old friends and meet some new folks. The slide show on the 11th was once again a great experience even with the minor tech hurdles and late start. Once again, it was amazing to meet folks afterwards that were extremely kind with their comments and questions. The next day brought both beginners and experts to the cliffs where legends such as Randy Leavitt and Malcolm Daly gave advice for all level of climbers to learn from. Of course the women seemed to get a little blush not just from the heat, but from my younger twin Chris Lindner.
Chris and I during last year's HERA event in SLC (photo: Duvaki Murch)
For those that don't know, Chris is the uber-climber that's been sending 5.12 since he was knee-high and has the audacity to be extremely nice with a laugh that melts more than a few women's hearts. Keep an eye on Chris, not just because he's stunningly handsome like his older twin, but because he's looking lean and just moved to SLC where the climbing is great and the climbers a core group of dedicated souls pushing some limits.
Later in the day after running some laps and helping some folks get the most from their climbing, three enthusiastic climbers from the local military base stopped in for some much needed climbing. Two of them had just finished a tour overseas, the other was getting through college, and all three were having such a great time, it was infectious to the rest of us. After Todd Smith and I soloed a few easy routes, the boys were so amped up, they jumped on their hardest route to date (on a rope of course) and with all of us (including class act legends Jim Bridwell and Mike Graham) screaming support, one got the project, and the others came really close! It's moments like these that make me proud to be a climber.
Four Climbers - three in need of a tan, the other a haircut!
March 8: Media updates ("media" on the left bar) coming this week that include a quick video from soloing at Dalkey in Ireland one morning in January! Also check out print ads from Metolius Climbing and Acopa as well as a quick piece in American Fitness.
March 2: Back at home and barely survived. The second half of the tour was fantastic with great people at every show! However, Zach and I discovered that we both have a penchant for trouble when we're bored, and there was plenty of down time in between each show. We buildered at every stop, with the occasional touch of real stone wherever the weather didn't force us inside. A big thank you to Matt for the bouldering tour of Boulder (I'll definitely be back in April to taste Eldo and the Flat Irons), the Front for a laundry stop, and the Missouri police for letting Sunshine the Love Doll ride shotgun. Some stories can never be told in full....
February 20: Landed in Baltimore to a different level of cold - I mean the kind of cold temperatures that make the lungs freeze and the compensation excuses flow. Spent the first two days playing around the buildings of downtown where architecture over the last couple centuries still remain. Stunning brickwork and gargoyles replaced the crimps and slopers of the desert granite I have in California, with the occasional belly laugh from people getting a knock on their window several stories up. The weather kept us inside for the evenings until finally the ABS Nationals! If you haven't been to one of these events, I highly recommend that you do. I spoke the previous evening to a great crowd, but it was the comp the next day that brought the energy levels to a new high. Hundreds of screaming fans cheering the best boulderers this planet has to offer - and once again, Daniel Woods made everything look easy as he walked away with the trophy. A few of us went back to the hotel to celebrate good times, which prompted a five story buildering-fest in the atrium, and a very clear full "moon" for those at the restaurant looking through the glass ceiling.
The next day we found ourselves in Philladelphia with more buildering in the streets, campusing under the railroads and traversing the bridges over the rivers, which brought the usual crowds and the occasional glance of the police. Life tossed a quick fastball when the ebay auction for HERA was over and I found myself purchased by a tall Belgian as a gift for his well-well-well-well-well endowed wife (as featured on Howard Stern - you can't make this stuff up) for two hours of what can only be described as the punchline to the joke that begins with, "a rabbi, a priest and an alter boy enter a porn shop".... They were a great couple with plenty of spirit, and for her first time climbing she did an amazing job to which it would not surprise any of us to see her dancing among the stones in the coming seasons.
A few whiskey-inspired nights with the Mojo Knitting Squad (you think climbing naked is difficult, these nutjobs are handling sharp objects!) of Team Bury the Dragon, and days climbing in the streets gave plenty of campfire gossip and blackmail potential before heading into the Ivy League land of the University of Pennsylvania. Just prior to the show, we had the typical computer issues with a lack of connection to the projector which caused plenty of chaos as everyone tried to find a solution that included taking apart several registers at the local shop in an effort to find the right cable. Then suddenly, I found myself in the middle of one of those bad movies where the nuclear scientist that saves the world is a stunning brunette, only this wasn't a movie and she was blonde. I was completely at a loss for words when a beautiful blonde casually walked into the midst of our madness with a handful of mesh and metal and stated calmly that she was going to make a cable from scratch. I responded with a chuckle to which I was quickly corrected that this woman with the body of a porn star and the face of an angel was actually a physicist. Only at U Penn! A special thanks to all who attended, not just for listening to me babble, but for the additional monies raised for HERA (big thanks to Sam, Jess and Colleen for everything they did!) through the auction and the questions posed after the show. It is folks like you who give people like myself confidence in what the future may bring and I look forward to seeing all of you again the next time I'm around!
Back at the hotel, I discovered a "present" from two of the Outlaws that found me trying to explain to the clerk that Zach and I didn't order "Buckey Bob's Rodeo Butt Boys" forty-six times.... Sitting here with a cup of tea, I'm already thinking of the fall when the leaves turn and the weather is perfect for the sends. Zach's in the Jeep honking the horn and getting us on the move for the next round - New Jersey, Colorado, Utah and Vegas - each with adventures of their own. See you soon.
February 8: Yeah yeah yeah, it's true - I've been pimped! Click here for details for how YOU can help HERA.
January 26-February 5:
Dom, a friend who flew in from
The highlight of the day came during an onsight solo of “Blazing Saddles” (UK E2 5c/US 5.11-) that still held the original wooden pegs from the first ascent decades earlier. Still wet from the previous evening’s rain, not to mention the personal issues of time zones, travel, and whiskey recovery, Dom and I laughed like schoolchildren as I subsequently slid to the ground from two-feet up due to the wet slab beginning, then higher up over a back-breaker, shoved my hand into the secure crack, only to scream and remove it with several dry gorsebush needles jammed under my nails, then momentarily stopped moving upward due to the cuff of my pants being stuck on a granite spike and finished the overhanging epic with a phenomenal slip of the foot that made me appreciate the sticky qualities of a solid handjam (gently placed of course)! A slap on the back with appropriate slander calmed the nerves and gave enough encouragement to solo back up a second time in perfect style to remove the disgrace I provided moments before.
The slide show that evening at The Bar Code in
Arriving in darkness, we made it to the house we were to stay at in Beaufort with just enough time to grab a quick meal and a few hours sleep before Damien O’Sullivan, John, and Sally arrived for the next day’s adventures. The area around Dingle is one of the many pathways to understanding the traditions and lure of
So many climbs, so many days....
The sun kissed us between clouds and once again I couldn’t help but smile in admiration as Damien and John kept with pure traditional ethics and bounded up the routes in grand style, leaving nothing behind but the occasional splash of chalk when they finished. I soloed a couple classic lines, gaining comfort with the territory, then ventured out to three stacks nearby. Traversing to the stacks was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life! The ocean was gently moving up and down against the wall, but was doing so with swells that pulled back to reveal sharp rocks created to devour even the toughest of souls, only to hide them and come back against the wall upwards of twenty-feet! To get to the first stack, I had to do a no-hands split with one foot on the stack, the other on terra firma, and gently reach over to a pinch arête while ignoring the death waiting below. Climbing the stacks on all sides, while looking across the ocean towards
Sea Stacks on the Coast
The slide show in the evening was held at Kate’s Cottage near the Gap and the audience filled the place with a warmth and kindness words fail to describe. Questions afterwards were once again revelatory but what struck me most about this night was the sheer diversity of climbing talent in attendance and their common bond of treating the rock with the respect it deserves. Once again, the show went too quick, but many of the folks joined us for a pint afterwards, and I had the pleasure to finally sit with my host, Con Moriarty.
My earliest images of climbers are of large bearded men who didn’t climb so much as conquered everything in their path while devouring life at a gallop. Con is that man. A gentle giant, with a fitness few could achieve, this living climbing legend carries his soul for all to see. Thick dark hair and a beard flecked with grey surround his piercing eyes that no woman can ignore, and like the other Outlaws in my life, we became kin the moment we met. Con and I peppered each other with questions, only to pause during a walk to the house where we listened to the night under a bright moonlit sky, excited that the weather would once again be sunny and warm for the next day’s adventures.
There are many ethical issues in the climbing world regarding how an ascent should be done. Some climbers advocate bolts, others claim bolts destroy the potential for future generations. My stance has always been a simple one - Denigrating the rock by placing unnecessary bolts, chipping, or gluing is a selfish pursuit that refuses to allow a future generation with greater skills and technology to find their own paths up this marvelous, though limited, terrain. However, climbers are passionate individuals who will always follow their own paths and many times disregard the paths given to us in our past, in an effort to gain short-term gratification, that in turn, ruins the potential for a future generation. In
I’ve been fortunate to climb in many areas around the world, but the Gap of Dunloe is one of those places that comes directly from my dreams. Bright colors dot the lush green valleys, with stunning purple stone and white quartz towering into the clouds. In this heavenly place, Con and others over the decades have maintained the highest ethic of no bolts (other than the occasional pin for an aid line) while still putting up ascents that range from easy slabs to overhanging pumpfests to splitter cracks soaking gear every centimeter to runout horrorshows that would make the greatest warrior cry. And in this beauty, the ethic debates have begun to heat up.
One Small Part of the Gap of Dunloe - photo: Valerie O'Sullivan (valerieosullivan.com)
Walking up the hills, earning the sweat on our backs, Con filled me in on the history of this grand place, both archeological and climbing, and pointed out historical landmarks my eyes would have otherwise missed. In his stories, was one that involved the placing of a bolt on a route several years ago with the audacious claim that the route would not go without it. The route was never finished which prompted a smile from both of us when I asked if he would mind my giving it a go on a rope.
The Sandstone "Granite" - photo: Valerie O'Sullivan (valerieosullivan.com)
Climbers tend to take individual credit when they send a route, but a rope makes it a team effort. Gear holds a fall and my harness (dusty as it is) could hold a tank but it is the person on the other end that decides the leader’s fate. The friendship and encouragement of Damien’s belay was the only reason I made it cleanly to the top. I popped over the final roof to a smiling Con and a junior Outlaw (who’s name will remain anonymous since he and his friends skipped school to climb with us for the day!), as we made plans for my return to solo the thing. After all, I led it clean without the bolt, there is no reason why it can’t be soloed as well. Owen, a strong boulderer and one to watch for the future, flowed up and sitting with the sun on our faces, I asked Con about an aid line a short distance away.
Another Sunny Day in Ireland - photo: Valerie O'Sullivan (valerieosullivan.com)
Twenty years prior, Con had put up the three-pitch route, and aided through the second pitch that consisted of a forty-foot horizontal roof. Daylight was fading, but with permission granted, I asked Damien if he would once again belay and listen to my whines in an attempt to free the route. A quick “yes” and one hundred feet later, a sling on a spindly twig and a rusted pin were my only protection as I campused hand over hand over the void. Twenty more feet and I reached the last chance to place a piece of protection. Hanging by one arm, I slammed a piece of gear above my head, hoping it would hold. The final jug was mere inches from my reach, prompted laughter and screams to finish the beast, before a slippery edge sent me whirling into the air, ripping my last piece along the way. Fifty feet later, the roar of relief and madness escaped among the gang, and shortly later, on the ground with darkness quickly coming on, plans began to form in hopes of a return trip.
On the plane back to
January 25: Updated the Appearances page with the latest tour info, including two of the dates in Ireland. Though I'm not looking forward to the ten-hour flight, there is nothing better than a warm drink among my friends in Ireland. See you soon!
January 24: Back in Malibu Creek where I had the pleasure of hanging out with photographer Jim Thornburg and the delightful Nikki. Jim and Nik have been on the constant roadshow traveling around Southern California sampling the best the area has to offer and it was great to give them a tour of the overhanging classics so close home. The weather was warm and the water high enough to provide the excuse we needed to slander Jim until he finally went for the best boulder problem on the west coast - "Sink or Swim" aka "Crank Sessions, or Swim Lessons". And the man did it proud... twice.
Giving Jim the Beta on "Hole Patrol" (5.12b)
January 20: Hung out with Wes at Joshua Tree in the warmth the previous weeks refused to give, and racked 100 laps.
January 17: Soloed "EBGBs" at Joshua Tree a couple times then finished off the day with "Up 40" and the scariest, running dismount on the planet! I called Bachar, one of the Outlaws who had done it previously, and we talked about how he had prepared for the jump. First, he measured the twenty-foot span with a rope, then practiced on the ground, landing with a forward roll to avoid falling backward into a thirty-foot chasm of doom. A couple weeks later, he soloed the route, then counted seven steps back, ran, and cleared it without a problem. "So how'd you practice for it?" he asked. I shuddered in embarrassment, then explained that I just stepped back and launched. Of course I missed the forward roll and instinctlivey clutched myself tight to stop the backward fall. Yeah, a natural blonde with the moments to match.
January 11: HERA, a charity dedicated to the awareness and finding of a cure for ovarian cancer as well as host of the Climb 4 Life events has invited me to be on their advisary board, which was humbling to say the least. Obviously I accepted and look forward to helping raise awareness to their cause. For those that are not aware of this devastating disease, please stop by the HERA website (herafoundation.org). My upcoming slide show tour will also be raising funds and awareness towards this great cause.
January 10: Just back from another amazing trip at Joshua Tree. Weather was fantastic and soloed fifty laps on the classics. Gallery page updated and off to Ireland in two weeks before coming back to the states for the slide show tour starting in Baltimore - more details listed under the Appearances page.
January 1: Celebrated the New Year by hanging with the Outlaws and putting up some first ascents at both Stoney Point and Joshua Tree during the last two days.