Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

Twas The Week Before Christmas

T’was the week before Christmas and all through the gym,

All the staff members were excited especially Ryan.

You see all the climbing holds were hung on the walls with great care

By Old Dean Dean, the route setter, who always puts them there.

And Mike, the teams coach, face twas burnt red,

As visions of waves crashed through his head.

And Maggie in her riding boots, and Will in his cap,

Watched as Pat struggled with Dean Dean’s

Sand trap.

When from the back cave came a large clatter,

Young Wyatt ran from the desk to see what’s the matter.

Banez had blown what would be a flash,

And in frustration landed his fist on the wall with a smash!

Cailee proclaimed “It’s frustrating I know!

But climb like Tobin, amazingly slow!”

When, what to my wandering eye should appear,

A younger climber flashing the route that Banez was near.

With focus and strength, the young climber moved quick.

“So young. So strong. It makes me feel sick.”

You see old climbers like Neilski do nothing but complain.

While young climbers, like the ones on the team, would rather train.

Now Campus, now crunches, now two finger pockets

On slopers, on pinches, if its greasy we’ll chalk it.

To the top of your project, to the top of your wall.

Now send away, send away, send away all!

And these directions they hung, they hung in the air

As Maggie 2 played with the dread in her hair.

“Ive seen the kiddies get stronger, stronger that’s true.

I can do the same and get stronger too!”

So Maggie called Brad and Brad called Katrina

to meet at the gym with their mutual friend Alina.

Who texted Brittany to get a hold of Tate

To get a hold of John Baur who’s generally late.

And all of the climbers meet up at the gym,

all thanks to a boss because if not for him

Their would be no place for climbers and no other way

For me to wish all the climbers a happy holiday!

Thanksgiving Challenge

Queen Creek from the ground.

 Another Thanksgiving Day has passed which meant for some climbers here at SBRG a couple extra days off. One of the ironies of being a climber is that days off from work does not necessarily mean days off from doing work. Case in point, I chose to do a grueling eight-hour, over-night drive to the sun scorched desert strip mall known as Tempe, AZ. I somehow convinced my climbing partner, that this was going to be a rad trip.

The Amazing Basalt Pockets of Queens Creek

After two days of recovery from both the drive and stuffing our faces, we received some beta from the local climbing gym about where to pull down on choice roadside choss. They suggested Queen Creek Canyon which is made up of 80 foot, slightly overhanging basalt cliffs that look like my cousins from Louisiana spent the weekend honing in there 20 gauge skills. Awesome little pockets with sneaky jugs hidden throughout. We spent the day getting pumped out of our gourds and relaxing in the desert sun, success. 

The take-away's from the trip to Tempe:

1. Never drive to Tempe again.
2. The climbing community is amazing because of folks willingness to share the things that make them psyched. The world at large can take a few pages out of the climber handbook for being awesome ambassadors for the things they love.
3. Training sports specific endurance is boring yet necessary.

So here are some tips for training climbing endurance.

Run- It's boring, it's not climbing, but it's good for you!

Traversing- Put on the headphones, turn up the hair metal, and stay on the wall as long as you can. Vary the size of both handholds and footholds to add pump. Remember to find those rest positions on the wall.      

*Try to traverse SBRG's bouldering wall for a terminal pump.

Up, Down, Up's- Climb up a hard route, down an easy route, up a hard route... repeat until your workout resembles the route your interested in trying. You can play around with the sequencing of difficult routes in your workout as well as how to rest and recover on the wall. The key is volume, so to stay on the wall.

Happy Trails!!