Friday Five – A Mixed Bag

This month’s edition has no theme, just a collection of things from across the web that I’ve found worth reading. I hope you enjoy them too!

Dave Graham is an interesting dude, and here he shares the process of his latest bouldering send, Memory is Parallax. Not his hardest, but a meaningful one to him. My favorite line from the post: “I am a Mainer, Cameron a Delawarean, and Chad a Native American. We were born to be in the harsh elements, bred from warriors, raised by ninjas, forced to sleep out side all winter as children.” Good stuff.

The ice in Redstone is pretty meager this year, with the lack of snow and generally warm temperatures. However the last couple of seasons have been excellent, and this is a video of one of the many new routes that went up last winter. Jesse Mattner from Camp nabs the second ascent of the delicate thin ice testpiece, Silver Surfer.

Silver Surfer Second Ascent from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

Alex Honnold recently spent some tim in Baja, freeing some old aid lines on the Gran Trono Blanco. A nice writeup by Alex and some great photos from Andy Burr over on the Black Diamond Journal.

Will Gadd has seen his fair share of death in the mountains, and reevaluates the climbing community’s general acceptance of risk, as well as his own personal limits. A sobering read that’s well worth the time.

And in the how-can-I-take-better-care-of-myself department, Urban Climber has some great tips for using massage to keep your forearms and shoulders happy despite your insistence on trying that tweaky boulder problem over and over again.

Have a great weekend everyone!