Chuck again.

Nelson and I are back from another filming trip for our upcoming feature, The Scene. I thought I’d give an update and drop a few of our video frames into the blog for everyone to enjoy. It was an eventful trip and I cant wait to get back to the New again next season.

This trip came directly on the heels of our visit to Austria and Italy (plus Slovenia and Croatia for Nelson). After a short visit home to Colorado we packed our bags once again and headed out to West Virginia and the New River Gorge. I guess we never really UN-packed our bags… but anyways… The New was calling.

The New River Gorge, West Virginia

The New River Gorge is one of the bastions of traditional climbing in America. Early development there happened just behind or even concurrently with other major areas like the Gunks, Yosemite, and Eldorado Canyon. It’s been visited in the past by legends like Lynne Hill and has seen first ascents from almost every high-profile climber who was ever active in the East. Despite its popularity and bullet-quality quartzite stone, the New has been somewhat isolated from the modern era of headpoint trad climbing – where climbers rehearse the moves and gear placements on a route extensively on top-rope prior to attempting the climb on lead. North Carolina resident Pat Goodman has started picking across the cliffs with fresh eyes and an arsenal of gear and techniques that allow him to complete – albeit dangerously – fresh lines on cliffs once thought tapped out.

Pat Goodman

Also on the team was Boulder local Matt Wilder, who has extensive experience in difficult trad climbing, and has visited the New enough to feel comfortable on the rock there. Pat introduced Matt first to a hard line he put up a couple years ago called Fitzcarraldo. Graded 5.13b, this short line encompasses essentially three difficult boulder problems on a medium-height grey bulge. Sparse protection and technical moves meant that Matt was right at home, and he was able to make a fast repeat for the route’s second ascent. It was interesting for me to observe as these two amazing climbers toggled between easy-going comedians and focused, precision climbing machines. The tension at the crag is hard to describe when a climber is tied in, ready to leave the ground, and they start entering the mental space to complete moves that – if screwed up – could kill.

Matt Wilder gathers his thoughts prior to attempting Fitzcarraldo.

Matt Wilder at the upper crux of Fitzcarraldo. Three small cams in 30 feet of climbing = DONT FALL!

Both Matt and Pat balance their climbing with other pursuits. Pat does the occasional hardwood flooring job to make ends meet, and Matt works here and there for the Boulder Rock Club as he continues his studies at CU Boulder. Mornings and evenings were spent with me logging the huge amounts of data from the cameras, Matt working on the umpteenth revision of a paper on human attention patterns, and Pat talking with prospective flooring clients.

Matt works on his computer prior to heading out climbing

Matt and Pat spend a couple days each rehearsing the moves for their projects on top rope, and figuring out the gear placements required to minimize the danger. The two projects were somewhat similar. Each has a lower and upper crux with a resting position in the middle. Pat’s route actually starts with two back-to-back cruxes in the form of a burly compression boulder followed by a technical stemming sequence in a small dihedral.

Matt works the upper crux on his project

Finally the boys decided to take some attempts. Pat fell several times on the first boulder problem, and then again on the second boulder problem, hitting the ground on two occasions when a micro-nut popped. He casually stated ‘well that was a ripper piece… it’s supposed to do that’… right Pat. Sure. After failing several times, we started losing hope but Pat seemed to be up for another shot at the route.

Pat Goodman begins the first crux of his project

Pat stuck the first and second cruxes, took a long rest, and cranked out the final roof to create The Scavenger, in honor of his ability to find new lines on cliffs once thought to be totally tapped.

Pat Goodman on the FA of The Scavenger, .13c

Matt’s first attempts ended with falls on the lower boulder problem, but he too eventually pulled through and was able to *barely* pull off the upper crux and finish the climb.

Matt Wilder on the FA of The Golden Bullet, .13d

West Virginia is beautiful and I really feel like our video segment will capture a lot of the best parts of one of the best climbing areas on the planet. We’re hoping for a Spring release on the video, but we still have a lot of work to do!

Oh, and lastly…

Chuck here.

I’m just back from a couple weeks of filming in Austria and Italy with the Innsbruck crew. We’re hard at work on our new film, The Scene, which will profile a few of the big climbing communities in Europe and America. Innsbruck is unique in a few ways. The geography means it’s an ideal place for climbers to live, since it’s close to year-round climbing. It is also home to a nice gym called The Tivoli and a unique group of people with a unique culture of success. I’m not sure exactly HOW dominant the Austrian team is on the world cup circuit, but it definitely is fair to say that over the last seasons there have been few podiums without an Austrian or two standing on them, both for routes and bouldering.

Innsbruck Austria, late fall 2010

The mountains over Innsbruck

The undisputed king of the Austrian competition scene is Kilian Fischhuber, who I’ve had the chance to include in both PURE and CORE, and now in The Scene. Kilian is a super-talented rock climber but has achieved quite a lot of notoriety for his amazing consistency in professional competition bouldering. Consistently making the podium of bouldering competitions is about as hard as consistently winning at ‘Rock -Paper – Scissors’. In a sport where the slightest slip spells failure, consistency is an impossible dream for most. Kilian trains hard and represents himself, the Austrian team, and his sponsors in the media frenzy that is an international competition. Part of the concept of the film is not just to look in from the outside on our featured athletes. We also want to join them on the inside and look out alongside them.

Kilian sorts out the media at the IMS competition in Brixen, Italy

We traveled to Brixen, Italy to cover the IMS Invitational Bouldering Competition, where a select group of athletes competed for the top prize of 1500 Euros. Nalle Hukkataival came down from Helsinki for the comp, and walked away with a big win over a talented field that included Kilian as well as American climber Paul Robinson. It was great to see Nalle climbing in such good form, and his flash of problem #3 was quite spectacular.

Winners Alex Puccio and Nalle Hukkataival battle the final route

On the womens side, Alex Puccio was able to power down enough problems to take first place, amid tough competition from Alex Johnson and Anna Stohr. There were lots of familiar faces in the competition, and we even stole a little interview with the legendary Jerry Moffat before going out and hitting the clubs to celebrate.

Alex Puccio waits for the competition to begin

Innsbruck is not just about the competition scene however, and while there we had the chance to document a few difficult sport climbs on the amazing China Wall, a multi-pitch limestone face that lies just to the Northwest of town. This is where Much Mayr comes into the story. Much is one of the unsung heroes of European climbing. A university student majoring in psychology, Much has spent much of his life in the mountains, doing high level sport climbs, solo climbs in the Dolomites, and guiding others for skiing and climbing adventures. Much recently completed a very difficult sport route with a crux so nasty it was considered impossible by many. These are some of the hardest moves I think I’ve ever filmed on a sport route.

We also caught up with one of our usual suspects, Cody Roth. We love hanging with Cody and filming him on whatever he has going on. In this case, red pointing a hard route.

Cody enjoying the China Wall above Innsbruck

The view from the sport climbs at the China Wall above Innsbruck

Innsbruck is beautiful this time of year and as the first snow falls on the mountains we are back home and prepping for our next trip to the New River Gorge to film with Matt Wilder and Pat Goodman.

Cheers!

Chuck

Apologies to our dedicated readers for going temporarily AWOL, but as you can see we’ve been busy getting our delectable new website up! Please check it out as it includes much of our most recent work. And much thanks to Keith Driessen of OhThatsGood for its creation.

Currently, Chuck and Nelson are in Austria completing a segment for The Scene. To give you some perspective of their whereabouts, please take a look at the map below. The boys have been filming somewhere near the smaller octopus’s right front tentacle.

Europus

Hmmm… maybe political propaganda maps aren’t the clearest way to get my point across. How about this one?

Europe According to Germany

Okay, that’s better. For the past two weeks Chuck and Nelson have been filming in Innsbruck (located in the eastern part of Schnitzelreich) with the likes of Patxi Usobiaga, Much Meyer, Cody Roth, and Kilian and Anna, among others. Next up is a trail of cinematic destruction [see the path above] following Patxi from the World Cup Competition in Kranj, Slovenia to the limestone climbing mecca that is Spain.  Stay tuned as there will certainly be more tales and images in the coming weeks!