Arc'Teryx & Outdoor Industry Newswire


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The latest stories from the world of Arc'teryx - Athletes, events, awards, and adventures.

  • El Cuentista - A Different Way

    El Cuentista: A Different Way documents skier Cornelia Zamernik’s experience running 168 km along a historic railway through windy Patagonia.

  • Luka Lindic

    My name is Luka Lindič and I come from Slovenia. I am 23 years old and in the past 7 years I have been getting more and more intensively occupied with alpine climbing. My goal for the future is to climb difficult routes on walls of the highest mountain ranges. Therefore I am undertaking my climbing development very meticulously and systematically. I have already climbed a large number of less demanding routes which has so far helped me gain the speed and efficiency on the big walls. I have decided to raise my level of competence gradually by doing lots of 'easier' routes and thus provide a solid foundation for the most difficult ascents. This has proved itself to be the right way as the quality of my ascents improves every year. My efforts were fully recognized when I was awarded the title of The Most Promising Alpine Climber for 2008 by Mountaineering Association of Slovenia.

    I am improving my all-round development as a climber by ascents as:

    Prezgodnji izliv, Bhagirathi II, India, ABO-, M8 WI6+ 6b+ 1300m (1. ascent)
    BIV, Bhagirathi IV, India, D+, WI3+ M 50°-70°, 1000m (1. ascent.)
    BIII, Bhagirathi III, India, ED, M5 WI5 6b, 1300m (1. ascent)
    Anderson-House-Prezelj route, WK7 Charakusa, ED, 6c V M 2200m (2. ascent)
    Swiss route, Julian Alps / Rakova Spica, V, M7 500m
    Ledenka, Slovenian Alps / Štajerska rinka, M8 AI6 600m
    Skalaška route + Couloir of dreams, Julian Alps / Triglav, V+/5 M6+ 1100m

    Camilotto Pelissier, Cima Grande, 8a+ 550m
    Route of fools, Julian Alps / Šite, 8a 350m
    Nero su bianco, Punta Brendler, Mont Blanc, 7b, 950m (on sight)
    Viki krema, Tofana di Rozes, VIII+/IX-, 850m (1. ascent)
    Persian cat, Bisotoon, Iran, 7a, 1000m (1. ascent)

    Game over, Dryland/Innsbruck, M13
    Tension, Dryland/Innsbruck, M12+
    Tool time, Kandersteg, M10+ (on sight)
    (all without spurs)
    Sport climbing up to 8b+

    I found climbing as the way of my life, because I like the way it affects my personality. Just with climbing I realized that with right motivation and determination I can reach almost any goal.

  • Mina Leslie-Wujastyk

    Age: 24

    Current Residence: Sheffield

    Athlete Bio:

    Mina Leslie-Wujastyk started climbing at the age of 8 at an indoor wall after her parents noticed her love for playing on any climbing frame available. She was hooked instantly and ever since it has been a huge part of her life. During her teenage years she climbed mostly routes and then moved to Sheffield after a short break from the sport. Mina rediscovered her love for climbing and has been totally engulfed by it since. She finished her degree in 2008 and took time out to go on a series of long trips; mainly bouldering. It was on these trips that Mina stepped up her climbing and has now climbed numerous V9-11 blocs across Switzerland, Fontainebleau and Rocklands. Still living in Sheffield, UK, she enjoys training for trips and also competes for the British Bouldering Team at international events.

    Mina has recently developed a liking for highball boulder problems, seduced by the impressive, classic lines such as Misericorde (7C+) and Irreversible (7C) in Fontainebleau. She also has recently climbed Big Golden (7C+) – one of the classics on her life time list….

    Mina also enjoys route climbing still and has climbed up to F 8a+ in the Peak District. She would like to focus more on her route climbing again at some point, but for now is very involved pushing herself in bouldering.

    Looking into 2012, Mina is training hard with hopes of competing well in the World Cup circuit and then going to Colorado in the summer for two months of bouldering.

    Website/Blog: www.minaleslie-wujastyk.com (still in the process of being set up….)

    Recent Media Coverage:
    http://www.bigstone.co.uk/climbing-team/mina-leslie-wujastyk/, http://vimeo.com/29225172, http://vimeo.com/35022331

  • Retail Sales Associate - Full-time

    Arc'teryx is an energetic and exceptionally innovative company, with over 400 employees. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo. At the foundation of our organization is a dynamic team of exceptionally talented, fun, and active people. North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

    Our modern head office is located on Vancouver's picturesque North Shore, near the Second Narrows Bridge, with a casual and fun work environment that supports and encourages work-life balance. We also have plenty of parking, a bike room, and a staff bouldering gym.

    We are seeking a fun and outgoing person to work at our North Vancouver Factory Store. As a Retail Sales Associate, you will help the store team provide the highest level of customer experience possible, while offering up to date and correct informative information regarding our products.

    Ideally you will have:

    • Exceptional customer service skills with upbeat, outgoing personality
    • Strong command of spoken English
    • Some knowledge of Arc'teryx product or outdoor equipment and outerwear
    • Participation or an interest in activities that utilize our products
    • Strong language skills in Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Japanese an asset
    • Previous retail or customer service experience an asset

    Your responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

    • Operation of POS system, processing of sales transactions
    • Greeting and engaging consumers in the store and on the phone, offering excellent customer service
    • Strong understanding and descriptions of current product
    • Actively maintain store appearance, keeping merchandise stocked and organized, while ensuring that the store itself is clean and well presented
    • Assist with inventory counts when required
    • Assist with re-stocking and pricing duties, including sale preparation as required
    • Participate in staff training and store events as required

    If this sounds like you, then please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1201-RSA-web" in the subject line of your email.

    Arc'teryx is an equal opportunity employer.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Thank you in advance for your interest in Arc'teryx.

    Printable Version

  • El Cuentista - A Painful Experience

    El Cuentista: A Painful Experience tells the story of skiers Kai Preugschat and Jacob Slot's attempt to ski as many Patagonia volcanoes as possible in 9 days, experiencing a volcanic eruption and overcoming a painful injury in the process.

  • Skitouring Around the Pirineo-Gavarnie

    We have been out one week climbing and skitouring around the Pirineo-Gavarnie area. We have had to move to the north face of the pirinees looking for the nice snow that there isn´t in the south faces...

    We skitoured the Midi de Bigorre mountain and climbed some goulottes of the west face of the Tallon. They aren´t very difficult so we try to find the most difficult parts and also did two on a row (250metres+350metres)...have a look….

  • Birds Nest Project

    Based in North Vancouver, Canada, Arc'teryx is bordered by the rugged Coast Mountains and the dense urban landscape of Canada's third largest city. The Birds Nest Project is an initiative inspired by employees with a desire to give something back to the local neighbouring community.

    Having our own manufacturing factory near Vancouver allows for local production and in-house research and development. It also leads to an environmental challenge: the accumulation of discontinued and residual outdoor performance fabrics. The project repurposes excess fabric and creates weatherproof capes to help offset the cold and wet of winter for those living on the street.

    Now in its third year, volunteer Arc'teryx employees donate their time to sew the GORE-TEX® capes at our local factory. The cape is designed by our in-house product designers to be simple to manufacture, increasing the numbers that can be made by our volunteers. It's also designed to be easy to use and provide a maximum amount of wet weather protection.

    In 2011, over 700 windproof, waterproof capes were distributed at the Harvest Project in North Vancouver and Harbour Light in Vancouver, two mission-style organizations that come to the aid of Vancouver's homeless and impoverished community.

    More information about our Environmental Statement.

    Harvest Project
    http://harvestproject.org

    Harbour Light
    http://www.harbourlightbc.com

    Basé à Vancouver Nord au Canada, Arc'teryx est entouré d'un côté par la chaîne de Montagnes Côtières et de l'autre côté par le paysage urbain et dense de la troisième ville du Canada. Le Birds Nest Project (projet Nid d'Oiseau) est une initiative née du désir des employés de redonner à la communauté locale voisine.

    Avoir notre propre usine de fabrication près de Vancouver permet une production locale et une unité de recherche et développement en interne. Ceci conduit aussi à un défi environnemental: l'accumulation de tissus résiduels non utilisés. Le projet réutilise donc les excédents de tissu et crée des capes résistantes aux intempéries pour aider ceux qui vivent dans la rue à supporter le temps froid et humide de l'hiver.

    Depuis trois ans déjà, des employés Arc'teryx bénévoles donnent leur temps pour coudre des capes GORE-TEX ® à notre usine locale. La cape est conçue par nos concepteurs de produits en interne pour être simple à fabriquer, augmentant ainsi le nombre produit par nos bénévoles. Elle est également conçue pour être facile à utiliser et fournir une protection maximale contre les intempéries.

    En 2011, plus de 700 capes coupe-vent imperméables ont été distribuées au « Harvest Project » de Vancouver Nord et au « Harbour Light » de Vancouver, deux organismes bienfaiteurs qui viennent en aide aux sans-abri et aux plus démunis.

    Plus d'Information sur notre Déclaration sur l'Environnement.

    Harvest Project
    http://harvestproject.org

    Harbour Light
    http://www.harbourlightbc.com

  • Sheffield Adventure Film Festival

    SHEFFIELD ADVENTURE FILM FESTIVAL
    THE SHOWROOM CINEMA, Sheffield
    March 9-11, 2012
    www.shaff.co.uk

  • The Big LePowSki – The Freeride Event in Engelberg

    Happy Faces

    The first BigLePowSki event was a thrilling event for all those who took part last weekend in Engelberg. There were lots of happy faces all around despite the icy cold conditions.

    Last weekend the first BigLePowSki event came to Engelberg. The Igloo-Village at Trübsee was the starting point and meeting place for the freeriders, all of whom had signed up for special workshops. The Igloo-Village was so ice cold that a few members of the group couldn`t feel their toes after a short while!

    On Friday evening the participants, guides, helpers and sponsors met in the Ski Lodge for welcome drinks which included, of course, the Dude´s favourite drink: White Russian. As well as a short briefing from Markus Kaluza (Black Diamond), Jürg Buschor (Freeride Maps) presented the freeride maps.

    At 8.00 a.m. on Saturday the sponsors´ marquee was set up. At 9.00 a.m. people began to gather in front of the tents hoping to test a ski or still register for the workshops. The weather was perfect and the snow was in abundance. Altogether 34 motivated freeriders took part. Furthermore, test skis for casual customers walked the Black Diamond carpet. The freeride workshops were led by the Black Diamond pro riders Thomas Gaisbacher und David Pitschmann; Richi Bolt (Pieps) and mountain guide Ervin Jacomet, Engelberg mountain guide Remo Baltermia and the photographer Baschi Bender. Among other things the participants learned in the workshops was how to be safe when on the move in deep snow or how to take good photos. The BigLePowSki-Party took place on Saturday evening in the Eden-Bar. Beforehand Ueli Kestenholz presented his slide show featuring exciting pictures such as steep slopes in Alaska and speed runs in the Swiss Alps. Pure Adrenaline! An exciting moment was the raffle for the BigLePowSki-Ski. Everyone wanted the ski, and the lucky winner didn´t let it out of their sight! The proceeds from the raffle will go to a good cause.

    Sunday began just a little too early for some people. The cold weather and the sunshine managed to wake everyone up sooner or later. The participants were enthusiastic about the workshops and the material and are already enquiring about a date and place for next year. Without a doubt, it was a weekend that won´t be forgotten quickly judging by all those happy smiles!

    The BigLePowSki makes it next stop in Chamonix from the 23-25 March 2012.

    The BigLePowSki 2012 is presented by Black Diamond, Arc'teryx, Polartec, Diamir Fritschi, Pieps, Powderguides, Freeride Maps and Red Bull.

  • El Cuentista - About A Legend

    El Cuentista: About a Legend is a tale of skier Jeff Battaglia's encounter with Patagonia's legendary Santa Rosa storm, which in 48 hours brought 2 and a half meters of snow and excellent skiing before melting just a few days later.

  • Eye Of The Storm Trailer

    View the trailer for "Eye of The Storm" featuring Arc'teryx athlete Thibaud Duchosal

    First episode to come soon!

  • Argentina - A Skier's Journey EP3

    Argentina: A Skier's Journey EP3 is a road trip through some of Argentina's lesser known ski locations, covering nearly 4000km down the windswept spine of the seemingly endless Andes mountain range.

  • El Cuentista - The Storyteller

    The up coming 5 stories have been told on the front seat of Ford F100s, at asados in the field, to gauchos drinking cana at the Pulperia and in cold snowcaves on the Patagonian icefield. They are the stories Jacob Slot likes to tell!

  • Hanna Finkel

    Hanna didn't have a choice, when her father first put her on a plastic pair of skis at the age of 3. Then she went the way of a classic alpine ski racer until the age of 18. Thanks to the racing experiences and alpine racing competitions, Hanna has a pretty smooth but at the same time sportive and radical skiing style. Her skiing skills made her an ISIA-skiing instructor and to a writer and journalist for a German speaking Freeride Onlinemagazine. Since then the 25-years-old German started venturing on high alpine skitouring and freeride trips mainly in the Suisse Alps, the Dolomites, Austria, France and the Bavarian Alps – because that is where she grew up and learned how to ski from her parents, both skiing instructors.

    Hanna's passion belongs in the mountains. Apart from skiing, she is an avid rock and alpine climber as well as a mountain biker. Being out in nature, experiencing new and wonderful mountainous places but always making sure that having fun is at the core of all she does is what it is all about for her.

    Hanna looks forward to her new team: "I'm pretty excited to get to know some of the other Arc'teryx athletes and go skiing together. I'm also looking forward to all kinds of Arc'teryx winter events and of course, not forgetting the nice clothing collection and the technical equipment! I'm excited to be testing and wearing these products for both for work and play."

  • Design Developer

    Arc'teryx is an energetic and exceptionally innovative company, with over 400 employees. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo. At the foundation of our organization is a dynamic team of exceptionally talented, fun, and active people. North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

    Our modern head office is located on Vancouver's picturesque North Shore, near the Second Narrows Bridge. We promote a casual and fun work environment that supports and encourages work-life balance. We also have plenty of parking, a bike room, indoor staff bouldering gym, frequent summer BBQs and other events, as well as a great employee discount.

    We are seeking someone with strong problem solving skills and solid sewing ability to join our Advanced Research and Development team as a Design Developer. In this role, you will be responsible for supporting the Advanced Research & Development team and other design teams with concept design development, and work closely with Pattern Making and Product Development teams to manage progress from conception through to final sample.

    Ideally you will have:

    • 5+ years working in a technical design environment (ideally apparel)
    • Diploma or degree in Fashion Design or equivalent experience
    • Competent in sewing with industrial sewing machines and a good understanding of pattern making
    • CAD pattern making experience, particularly experience with Gerber, an asset

    Your responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

    • Assisting Design teams in developing unique solutions to meet Arc'teryx customer needs
    • Work with Director of Advanced R&D and Design Managers to create, document and communicate new concepts, construction processes, techniques and manufacturing solutions that meet Arc'teryx product ideals
    • Build partial or complete prototypes to allow solutions to be tested, reviewed or counter sampled
    • Work with Pattern Makers and Product Developers to see projects through to completion
    • Assist advanced R&D team to develop new standards and ensure consistency where new concepts are being applied to product lines, including working with Pattern Making, Product Development and Quality Control departments to prove and implement standards
    • Test various materials to assess suitability for various construction techniques and end uses
    • Assist design teams and respond to problems as they arise

    If this sounds like you, then please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1112-DD-web" in the subject line of your email.

    Arc'teryx hires on the basis of merit and is committed to Employment Equity.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Thank you in advance for your interest in Arc'teryx.

    Printable Version

  • Marin Roller Coaster

    I'm sitting naked in the front seat of my car, it's dark outside and I can hear the rain rasping at the roof of the vehicle. The car smells musky and the heater is blasting my exposed skin with warm canned air. I look over at the mound of muddy shoes littering the passenger side foot cavity of the car, assessing my quiver and the state of my legs, trying to figure out what sort of support I feel like. My suit pants and tie are in a crumpled heap on the passenger seat. It's the main reason I buy iron free work clothes. I peal on my tights, contorting myself in the tight space around the steering wheel, I put on a long sleeved t-shirt and zip up the brightly coloured jacket. Finally, I grab some gloves, my headlamp and a toque. I take a quick look outside, giving myself a temporary out, before opening the door, turning on my lamp and making my way stiff legged uphill into the woods.

    This scene loosely describes my past two months of running. While I've enjoyed most of my outings, a lot of them have been equally grim. I do most of my running after work, alone in the dark. I love the fact that I have time to run, but I also resent the fact that I often can't see more than what the beam of light on my head allows. To be honest, after a long year of running and racing, with some great results, I was feeling a little burned out. I was training hard, putting in lots of miles, but it often felt ridiculous. When I would go over to the Island on weekends to visit my wife, I would say hello and then ditch her for a long run. She deserves wife of the year awards for being so understanding. Doing what I know I needed to do to prepare for the TNF50-mile Championships was getting harder and harder. When I finally boarded the plane on Wednesday night, I knew that I was fit and ready to race, but I was also looking forward to a break.

    After a night in downtown San Francisco, in a beautiful quirky hotel right by Chinatown, I moved into a houseboat in Sausalito. While the place was charming and a very cool experience, I can safely safe that houseboat living isn't for me. The gusting Pacific winds rattled my rickety room all night and being a light sleeper, I had two nights of very disturbed sleep. Still, I was able to practice my French, Spanish, Kiwi and South African with the international runners staying with me and geeked out on upcoming shoe models.

    Along with some of the other International team members, I helped lead a 6 or so mile community run, along the hills of the Marin headlands, in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area on Thursday afternoon. The run was on some of the trails that would be in the race and having never visited the area before, it was not only fun to meet new people, but it was useful to get a sense of what the terrain felt and looked like. The trails were hard packed, rutted and exposed, but also very runable. It was also nice to be able to take in some of the views, with the city towers poking out above the hills, to see the rugged coastline and the contour of the terrain that we would be racing on visible all around me. As I said previously, I had initially come to the race excited to race against a world class field, but became increasingly motivated by the landscape as well.

    After another sleepless night on Thursday, I woke up on Friday feeling like a sack of hammers. I lay in bed as long as I could, but I just felt horrible. I had a headache, my sinuses were congested and I couldn't fathom the thought of running 50-miles the next day. I convinced myself these were just extreme "taper twinges", dragged myself out of the bed, had some coffee and went for a trot along a bike path. Luckily, my legs felt quite good, but I kept it short, went home and continued to feel rotten all day. Apart from going to package pick-up, I was anti-social and retreated into myself, trying not to worry about how much harder the next day would be if I was feeling off.

    Finally, after a much too early wake up call on Saturday morning and the usual pre-race rituals of bouncing around, trying to wake up and saying what would come across as largely insincere hellos on other occasions to friends I haven't seen since the previous gathering at a finish line, I found myself rolling along a rain rutted dirt road heading into the hills, surrounded by some of the best trail ultra runners around. The same cool Pacific breeze that had kept me up the previous nights was still gusting, but the sky was clear and we all bobbed down the path illuminated by a sea of undulating headlamps. There was some jostling as 20 or more of us squeezed onto the narrow gravel, the pace was quick, but mostly realistic, with a few seemingly inconsequential lamps moving quickly up the trail. I was struck by how dark it was.

    I scanned the crowd to make sure that I was with all the main contenders and I settled in, trying to find shelter from the wind as we made our way uphill. There was some light banter in the group and I commiserated with eventual race winner and lawyer, Mike Wolfe, about fitting training in with life. His calm, friendly demeanour, incredible results, grinder approach to racing and similar life situation have been a huge inspiration to me. It was comforting to hear that he also struggles with the dual personality existence that a lot of athletes have to live.

    As expected, we yo-yoed along in a pack of 15-20 runners for the first 15 miles, biding our time for the sun to rise. Some of the turns on the course were confusing and the odd runner would miss a corner before the group would call them back. I was happy to let others take the lead. Unfortunately, I can't chalk this up to any newfound wisdom, or a smart strategy, it was largely dictated by my stomach. Although the pace was solid, it wasn't excessively fast, but I continued to feel horrible. My stomach was in knots and my legs felt heavy. I would drift through the back of pack on each climb and then roll back into it on the downhills. Due to three days of steady wind, there was a lot of blown out debris on the course, which caught my feet a few times, but it was mostly smooth trail.

    I tried to enjoy the facts that I was trading places with Michael Wardian, Geoff Roes, Dakota Jones, Galen Burrell, Rickey Gates, fellow Canuck Ryan Day and a host of other very talented athletes. I expected that this pack would eventually detonate, but it was incredibly novel to snake my way along the switchbacks in a conga line of runners. I've spent an awful lot of miles racing alone this year.

    Uncharacteristically (Knee Knacker runners insert comment here), I had a really bad sense of where the course was going and since I was feeling horrendous, I had no idea that we had started the longest climb of the course. I was also surprised to realize that the sun was finally up. It would continue to be a perfect sun day for the rest of the race. I really wasn't with it mentally at this point. I tried to hold on to the group as we zigzagged up, but my stomach was failing. Since we were less than 2.5 hours into the race, the reality of the day becoming a long grind started to set in and I watched the group disappear up the climb. I convinced myself to run as steady a pace as I could manage until 4 hours and then I would allow myself to reassess how the day was going, so I plugged away.

    Somewhere up the climb I ran past an aide station and saw Anton Krupicka (you know a race is stacked when even the spectators are stud runners), I whined something to him and he told me to keep getting calories in, which I did. It was sound advice. I sucked back a gel and almost instantly puked. I washed out my mouth with water and I tried to gag down another gel. It didn't taste too good and I wretched again as I ran along. I'm not sure what it was, but at that point, something seemed to clear in my stomach, things settled and I almost instantly started to feel better. My legs seemed to come alive and I found breathing much easier and my attitude took a 180.

    Right around that time, I noticed Tim Olson charging up behind me. I remember being told that he was a good climber, so I made it a goal to try and stay ahead of him. Together, we slowly began reeling in other runners and I started to enjoy the day a bit more. When the lead group came roaring past us on the out & back section, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they weren't miles up the road. It also looked like there were more and more victims from the fast pace and I settled into trying to pick up some shrapnel from the group.

    The thought of gels continued to make me sick, so I filled my water bottle with Pepsi and nursed the bottle away. I was told quite clearly by many volunteers that it was Pepsi not Coke as I screamed into aide stations yelling for the brown sugar water which was sustaining me. I ate the odd container of Shot Bloks and sucked back a few salt pills. Endurance racing is often about problem solving and my stomach was clearly being a problem, but once again, Coke, sorry, Pepsi, worked magic for me and my stomach settled. I was able to get in some calories and fluids that way, fuelling myself along.

    Tim and I continued to roll down the trail together. We both commented on how enjoyable it was to run with each other and we started cruising along and we continued passing people. Pretty soon I realized we were into the top-10 and moving well. We both assumed that one or two other runners would probably come back to us, but we both also have enough respect for everyone else out there not to necessarily expect it to happen. I continued to monitor my body and push up against my limit. I was happy with how everything was feeling and I really started to enjoy the day.

    Somewhere in the 30-35 mile range, we began to mesh in with the 50-km runners as we ran through the forest. People were kind enough to clear the track as we ran past, Tim shadowing me the whole way. I passed Ryan, who was having a phenomenal debut 50-mile race, but who was also beginning to hurt a bit and thought I saw Michael Wardian up the trail. I reminded myself not to get too excited, since there was lots of running left, but I definitely felt a surge. As I passed Michael, I caught a glimpse of Geoff and another runner up ahead and got another jolt of excitement. I caught Geoff as we headed up some stairs and he told me that he was having a rough go of things on the climbs, but he also told me the guy ahead was hurting too. It's always too bad to see champions like Michael and Geoff struggling, but like champs, they kept plugging away and I wasn't going to wait around for one of them to get a second wind.

    As I finished the climb, my French support team, began to chant my name, which, once again, lifted my motivation. I was now in third and feeling quite good. I was getting time splits to Mike and Dakota up the road. I knew that they were a ways up there and were battling it out. I realized that my only hope of catching either of them was that their head to head racing would lead one of them to crack. Not surprisingly, neither did.

    I definitely struggled at times in the closing miles. My quads were sore, I was getting a bit tired and I was caught off guard by a steep exposed climb, which had a strange camber. Not knowing how far into the race I was, I assumed that I would be running for about 7hours and budgeted my effort accordingly. However as I came into the last aide station, I remembered reading that it came about 45 miles into the race and realized that I'd be finishing closer to 6:40, which, once again, was a big mental lift. Suddenly having 20 minutes knocked off your run time in a race on tired legs is a wonderful gift. I couldn't see Tim, Geoff, or Michael charging behind me, so I settled back into my steady strong rhythm and tried to make the miles tick by as quickly as possible, peaking around the corners trying to see if Mike or Dakota might be up the road.

    As I neared the finish line and realized that I'd finish 3rd, I was ecstatic. I honestly didn't know if I'd be walking 30 or more miles at the start of the day and I was happy to be able to pull myself out of a nasty slump and turn things around. It's hard to explain to non runners, but sometimes your body magically sorts itself out over the course of a long run. That was definitely my experience on the day. While I would have loved to have been in the mix with the front group for longer and especially duking it out with Mike and Dakota up front in their epic battle, I ran the race that my body allowed me to on the day and I feel like I did my hours of solo night running proud. It was a great way to finish what I can only describe as a dream season.

    After racing my first 50ks last year and finishing my first 50 miler earlier this year, I realize that I still have a lot left to experience in the ultra world. I'm really excited and curious to try my hand at a 100-miler or two next year and to keep experiencing new races in interesting places &/or against top level competition. But before I sit down and hash out a plan for 2012, I'm going to kick back and enjoy what's left of this year. I'll let my shoes keep stinking up my car for a bit longer as I dust off my skis and trade in the rain for some snow sports for a little while and cross my fingers for some Western States lottery luck.

    Race results available here

    Gear:

    Food:

    • Cliff Bloks (2 strands)
    • Cliff shots (maybe 4)
    • Overstims gels(maybe 3)
    • Coke/Pepsi (4 water bottles full)
    • 10 salt pills

  • The Grandes Jorasses

    The most renowned north face of the Alps is the Grandes Jorasses. The route is exciting: climbing Desmaison with one bivouac at the start and one at mid height. Since early fall, my sights were set on its summit.

    Jonathan Griffith, a photographer and friend, suggested we try the Grandes Jorasses with Andy Houseman, an English climber, and use the opportunity to get some interesting pictures of the route. Good idea!

    Sadly, our start was poor. Andy arrived from England and I was coming from Nice; no time to acclimatize! A 5am start from the first bivouac was difficult and much too slow to reach our goal. A weather check revealed one small 24 hour window of nice weather and winter conditions. Not enough time! We decided to reach the summit instead by climbing a famous ice tobbogan : the Linceul – the Shroud. New objective: to see the sunset at the summit of the Pointe Walker. Keen, excited, the first section was an 800 meter long, obstacle-free, gully with superb ice. Surprising and welcome, as it had been very cold in the previous days and we wanted to move quickly.

    In our haste however, 200 meters above the bergschrund, the rope twisted around my piolet and having forgotten a slinger leash, the tool ended its life in the ‘shrund. Not knowing the steepness of the climb above, I flirted with a safe retreat… but in the end I went on with one piolet, securing each move and blowing my calves with the effort. Everything considered it was a fantastic experience that added some spice to our climb. Next time, I will consider bringing a spare tool…

    We arrived at the summit just in time for the light show created by the last rays of the sun on the mountains and had a wonderful view of Mont Blanc and its surroundings.

    Our bivouac (meaning a hole in the snow) was a few meters below the high point, at around 4050 meters. Sunrise surprised us with a very low temperature; I estimated that it was then -20c. We were back in Chamonix a few hours later, carrying with us memories and some very nice shots of the climb!

    Until the next time…..

  • Development Team Managers

    We are looking for detail-oriented individuals with a strong knowledge of apparel construction to join our team as Development Team Managers. North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

    Arc'teryx is a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, high-end technical outdoor clothing and equipment. In the past year, we have gone from 406 employees, to over 480. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo.

    This role is responsible for managing a specialized team of Product Developers, Pattern Makers, and Sample Sewers in their efforts to manage product from design concept through production readiness while ensuring a consistent level of quality, fit, and performance.

    We have 5 newly-created Development Team Manager roles available.

    Do you have:

    • Knowledge of apparel construction, material construction and properties, pattern making, costing, bill of materials, embroidery and surface applications
    • 8-10 years experience in design, development, production or merchandising
    • Proven skills at problem solving, interpreting design intent and product innovation
    • Proven performance history with domestic and offshore vendors and manufacturers
    • Strong verbal and written communication skills
    • Extreme attention to detail
    • Ability to manage multiple priorities
    • Intermediate to advanced computer skills in Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft Office

    And are you interested in:

    • Providing day-to-day leadership and guidance to category Product Developers, Pattern Makers, Sample Sewers
    • Training the team to work closely with other internal departments to deliver production worthy samples and specifications
    • Reporting team performance metrics regularly to management team (e.g. product category execution against the corporate calendar, workflow, team capacity vs. line list requirements)
    • Ensuring use of standard spec documentation to provide sufficient details to accurately produce finished goods, maintain an accurate database of BOM information, aid raw material purchasing, and support Quality process
    • Enforcing use of standard costing practices and up to date references to provide accurate prototype estimates, product category cost and margin analysis
    • Guiding Product Developers in negotiations of new product cost sheets with factories, working with internal teams to ensure consistent RM values, and appropriate direct labour values are utilized
    • Supporting factory execution of new products to ensure Arc'teryx continues to achieve state of the art opportunities for product innovation
    • Ensuring that Arcteryx brand standards are met

    If so, we'd definitely like to hear from you. Please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1112-DTM-web" in the subject line of your email.

    Arc'teryx hires on the basis of merit and is committed to Employment Equity.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Thank you in advance for your interest in Arc'teryx.

    Printable Version

  • Friends of Shames - A Skier's Journey EP1 [Season 2]

    If your beloved ski hill ran out of money and had no choice but to close, what would you do?
    With time running out for majestic Shames Mountain in Northern BC, local skiers from Terrace, Prince Rupert, and Kitimat have decided to take matters into their own hands and buy the ski hill as a community co-operative.

  • Baffin Island - A Skier's Journey EP2

    High in the Canadian Arctic, 5 friends venture to the frozen fjords of North West Baffin Island during spring time.

  • Kick the Vik Eco Freeride Contest

    KICK THE VIK

    ECO FREERIDE CONTEST

    Maigels hut, Oberalp Pass, Switzerland
    March 16-18, 2012

    www.kickthevik.com

  • South East Couloir

    Pointe de la Lune ou Punta di Ceresole, 3777 m Gran Paradiso range.

    South East Couloir, 1st ski descent 20 November 2011 by Rémy Lécluse and Glen Plake 600 meters. 40 à 45° with some parts at 50° Grade: 5.2 E3

    "We skied on the moon…."
    While taking clients on a ski trip through the eastern ridge of Gran Paradiso, also called Cresta Gastaldi, I noticed some beautiful, intense couloirs. The approach is long, and has to be done through Val d'Oro, but I filed it away for a future time.

    November 2011
    It has been blowing hard in the Chamonix valley; the weather forecast shows a large amount of precipitation falling on our approach. After a few days skiing, researching the conditions, I sent my friend Glen Plake a text message: I am going to try a new thing tomorrow in Gran Paradiso. Are you coming along???
    His answer: "Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    The classic approach involves at least three hours of walking with skis, so we decide on the approach via Teleccio Dam & Val Piantonetto, where the road goes up to 1917m - less walking, more skiing! At 2200m, the Pontese hut is a great stop to swap shoes for touring boots and skin up to Becchi Pass at 2989m through 20 to 30 cm of deep powder. Not so bad!

    The descent is amazing. Much better than our yellow half-barrel shelter for the night and dinner: freeze-dried Colombo for Glen and chili con carne for me. A gastro-romantic evening….

    Breakfast is served a t 6am. Pack up and reach the bottom of the couloir at 8am; summit by 9:30. Parts of the couloir are corn snow that we must ski before the shade returns and ice along with it.

    From the top, a stunning view south to Maritime and Ligurian Alps.

    Short climb down a snowy chimney into the couloirs with pitches of 40 - 45°, with some pitches around 50° or more, but beautiful. It is a rare ambiance. Quiet, steep.

    The rest is a party: down through amazing powder, up to Becchi Pass and down again, one hundred perfect turns through boulders and pillows, like heroes – until the final 100m of breakable crust.
    Back to earth.

    Rémy thanks: Arc'teryx, Dynastar & Grivel
    Glen thanks: Elan, Julbo, Salewa

    Rémy Lécluse

  • Season 2 Episode 22

    We were humbled, beat down, and in the end, inspired. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Deep Pow - Thibaud Duchosal

  • Thibaud Duchosal

    Thibaud Duchosal is a freerider in the truest sense. Raised in Les Arcs, France, like all kids in the valley he started skiing slalom and racing very young and as an adolescent, turned to freeride and exploring the exceptional terrain that was his backyard. As did his mentors, Enak Gavaggio and the Troubat brothers, Thibaud turned his passion into his profession. Beginning with photo shoots in Scotland and Uzbekistan, the skier discovered travel and a love of other cultures. He joined film production companies Invert Prod and Garchois Films, and the competitive circuit. 2009 was his best year, finishing 6th overall in the World Tour, but an ACL injury sidelined him late in 2010. After a summer of rehabilitation and a firm belief that people are defined by the obstacles they overcome, he is back for another year of endless winter, pursuing light and unexpected environments with photographers. Look for him in Argentina, Russia, US and France, or portfolio pages in ski magazines and a new series of videos, Eye of the Storm.

  • Season 2 Episode 21

    It’s all about your progression and your potential, as you progress more your potential increases. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Chalchschijen is calling……again!

    The original team: Jürgen Bissig and myself, joined by Pascal Siegrist – problem solver, and Robert Boesch, photographer. Last year, we were chased out of the wall by hair-raising conditions, 35cm of new snow and avalanches. But the challenge unleashed something in us we couldn't hold back and this gave us the motivation to try it one more time! Spiri and I were psyched to the very maximum. We racked up the gear and food, dragged as much as we could along the exposed and extremely strenuous hike through the Maderaner Valley to the bivouac site below the wall. The next day we fixed pitches to the highest point reached on our previous attempt and then descended. Our plan was to return one week later with the rest of the gear and everyone ready to rumble.

    Red light! The weather forecast turned from good to bad. Shit, not again!!! Inconsistent weather made us sit out the entire summer. 2 long months of waiting....

    Suddenly, the long-awaited window of a high-pressure system showed up. One day later we arrived at the bivouac, psyching up to beat the wall. The following morning, the necessary evil of big wall climbing began: jumar up the now delicate fixed ropes, hauling massive weight until we reached the highest point and set up the portaledges. Everything seemed perfect.

    The next pitch was a difficult 8a. Meter by meter we climbed, hooked and bolted our way up; it seemed endless. Doubt started to circle. And then worse; we arrived at an absolutely blank wall, with no way of free climbing it. This was not in our plan! Forced into plan B, we tried to top out on the summit by following a steep and weird crack system to the right.

    To our surprise and relief, we actually made it to the summit in perfect conditions, along a natural line where everything went quite fast. The time we gained here gave us the opportunity to work out the upper part of the route and to freeclimb some of the pitches up to 8a+ on the following days. The weather was amazing and it only rained once. We stayed dry in the overhangs and found a way to fill up some water bottles with a dripping stripe.

    On the sixth day, Robert Boesch jümared up to the portaledges with 4 fresh beers in the bag. We had a big party – fourteen nights over four years, full of ups and downs, but finally we could celebrate our first ascent! One we hope to redpoint next year:"Out of Space" 8a+ (5.13c) / A1, 605m (18 pitches)

    Cheers!!!
    Jvan Tresch

  • Jvan Tresch Out Of Space

    Erstbegehung am Chalchschijen 2011 - Jürgen Bissig, Pascal Siegrist, Jvan Tresch

  • Season 2 Episode 20

    If you’re having fun, and you’re enjoying the people you’re with and the places you’re at, you’re winning.… you’re ahead of the game. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Jonathan Siegrist - NWO

    Actual footage of Jonathan's most recent ascents including New World Order.

  • Sales and Inventory Analyst

    We are seeking a detail-oriented, analytical outdoor enthusiast to join our Forecasting team. North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

    Arc'teryx is an energetic and exceptionally innovative company, with over 400 employees. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo. At the foundation of our organization is a dynamic team of exceptionally talented, fun, and active people.

    Our modern head office is located on Vancouver's picturesque North Shore, near the Second Narrows Bridge. We promote a casual and fun work environment that supports and encourages work-life balance. We also have plenty of parking, a bike room, indoor staff bouldering gym, frequent summer BBQs and other events, as well as a great employee discount.

    As a Sales and Inventory Analyst, you will assist with forecasting sales for a range of product categories, work with sales and other department managers to create and manage forecasts throughout the sales cycle, and works to optimize the planning and allocation of inventory for retail stores.

    Ideally you will have:

    • University education in Economics, Mathematics, Business or Statistics
    • 2-3 years experience in wholesale and/or retail inventory management (buying, forecast analysis, etc.), preferably within the outdoor or ski industries
    • Detail-oriented with advanced analytical skills; very experienced with Excel, MS Access or Sequel, and other analytical tools
    • Strong organizational skills and excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
    • Able to function as part of multiple teams and be able to work with minimal supervision
    • Comfortable working and managing multiple deadlines
    • Creative problem solving ability with a willingness to adapt to a changing work environment

    Your responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

    • Analyze data to improve decisions relating to inventory requirements for both B2B and/or B2C business channels
    • Participate in corporate budgeting and planning processes
    • Work with corporate inventory forecasting and manufacturing teams to provide input on retail demand forecasts
    • Study historical trends and current market analysis to improve size and color forecasts
    • Analyze trends and preparing feedback for management
    • Work to solve problems related to distribution, fulfillment and consumer satisfaction
    • Facilitate special order programs for consumer demand
    • Develop tools and processes to accommodate corporate growth
    • Assist the Manager, Forecasting and/or Executive team in specific tasks and projects as assigned

    If this sounds like you, then please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1111-SalesInv-web" in the subject line of your email.

    Arc'teryx hires on the basis of merit and is committed to Employment Equity.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Thank you in advance for your interest in Arc'teryx.

    Printable Version

  • Arcteryx Ice Climbing Test Center Cogne

    Climb Ice and Mixed and test our gear!

    Residence Les Nigritelles
    In Cogne (AO), Italy
    Phone: 0039 0165 749270 – call before you come
    www.nigritelles.com

    open every day from 8 AM – 9 PM between Dec 02, 2011 and March 11, 2012

  • Season 2 Episode 19

    There’s going to be some hardships….and it makes it all that much more worthwhile because it’s hard and not easy. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 18

    You don’t catch ‘em all the time. If you did, it’d be boring. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 17

    This is Thomasina’s life, the way she’s chosen to carve out her passion. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 16

    That elusive goal was to put it together from start to finish, chasing the dragon if you will, and we finally got it. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • The Big LePowSki

    Come join us and learn how to minimize the risks of skiing in powder snow with the Dude.

    St.Anton, Austria
    16-18.12.2011

    Engelberg, Switzerland
    13-15.01.2012

    Chamonix, France
    23-25.03.2012

    Sogndal, Norway
    13-15.04.2012

  • Season 2 Episode 15

    You get to actually play with gravity and playfully ski down mountains, I don’t think I’ll ever really be bored of that, it’s way too much fun. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Joe Grant

    Growing up in France, Joe spent most of his time outside, mainly climbing and backpacking. It wasn't until his early twenties that he discovered running as a simplified extension of both of these activities and a fast and light way to explore wild places. He has since become a top competitor on the US trail and mountain ultrarunning circuit in races ranging from 50 kilometers to 100 miles. Last year he showed his versatility winning his first 24 hour track race and completing a 96 mile unsupported run across the Tonto plateau in the Grand Canyon.

    Having traveled extensively around the world his favorite mountains to run remain the Colorado Rockies that he first came to know at the age of twelve on a trip to the Maroon Bells. Having fastpacked around Annapurna, he dreams of some day returning to the Himalayas to run more extensive routes across the range.

    Joe is primarily inspired and driven by spending time in nature. He is influenced by a multitude of sources from beautiful, wild places to people who offer authentic expression of their relationship with the natural world such as surfers, climbers, artists, spiritual thinkers and philosophers.

    Joe runs his own business, Alpine Works, offering avenues and inspiration for people to explore wild places on foot. He writes a blog and coaches individuals for ultra-distance mountain and trail running events. www.alpine-works.com

  • Season 2 Episode 14

    As long as I’m moving I’m pretty happy and if I can keep that momentum, then I feel better. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • The British Invasion

    Last weekend I had the chance to take out the UK's current rock stars, Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, to a place in the desert which boasts a very high concentration of sandstone roof crack routes and boulder problems. The climbs vary from thin fingers to massive off-widths and can be up to 50 meters long! Needless to say, they were very excited to get the tour and I was excited to take them back to my old stomping grounds and to a left over project or two.

    Tom and Pete (aka the "Wideboyz") had just come off probably the best month of off-width climbing that has ever occurred and were ready for some more inverted craziness. In addition, another friend Pee Wee, (the Canadian crack climbing "manimal") was eager to send a project of mine that drove me nuts a few years back! Me, I didn't even know what kind of shape that I was in because I have been getting crushed by a local project of mine for weeks now. Fitness aside, we were all out to have a good time and do some rock climbing.

    The weekend turned out to be a blast, Pee Wee was getting ever closer to unlocking the secrets of my old 27 meter overhanging nemesis. Pete and Tom took turns bashing it out upside down on yet again, another 5.13 off-width and I even managed to resend one of my favorite routes of all time, Army of Darkness. What I enjoyed the most about the weekend was learning more about how to solve problems on climbs. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses and we have to exploit them on routes in order to complete them without falling. One man's hand jam is another man's fist jam or one man's dyno to a finger lock is another man's "no way in hell!" I was able to see how truly differently we all climb and how it all works out in the end to get through a tough or tricky sequence.

    Get outside and have an adventure!

    Piz : )

  • Season 2 Episode 13

    Fishing for steelhead in the winter is like a lot of things that are good, it's a thing that doesn't come easy. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Fall 2011 Whiteline

    ARC'TERYX Whiteline garments engineered with GORE-TEX® product technology have raised the limits of outdoor performance, aiding snowsports athletes in their quest for greater physical accomplishments with superior protection and maximum personal comfort.

  • Season 2 Episode 12

    Finally, in 2010 Greg decided to tackle his dream of 2 million vertical feet. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Euphoria, Set Back and a Quantum of Solace

    October 2011

    Expedition to Kyzyl Asker, Himalaya, September 2011
    After my last two previous failed expedition attempts with Thomas Senf and Wolfgang Russegger to the "Red Soldier", the 5842 meter high Mount Kyzyl Asker, in late fall of 2010, I knew I'd go back to try again. I traveled for the second time to the remote mountain range Kookshal Too, of Thien Shan, in Kyrgyzstan. Our goal: to ascend the South-East face of Mount Kyzyl Asker. Tried by many alpinists, without a successful ascent so far.

    I would not have chosen the steep 1200 meter high wall, with a variety of difficult ice and rock climbing sections as a goal, if it wasn't a real challenge in terms of testing both my climbing skills and mental strength. Therefore I knew what to expect. After a long winter climbing trip to Scotland, months of endurance training, and a fast ascent of Mont Blanc, I felt perfectly prepared to face this upcoming endeavor.

    On our trip through Kyrgyzstan, my 11 years old son Emanuel (Manu) accompanied me to the base camp for his first time. We lived modestly with the Nomads for several weeks because this was such an experience and was so fulfilling. My friends Wolfgang Kurz (Wolfi) and photographer Franz Walter accompanied us on our travels. Starting from Lake Issyk Kul along to Lake Song Kul then up to the town of Naryn, not far from the Chinese border. Exploring Kyrgyzstan while riding on the back of a horse together with my son was a wonderful and intense experience.

    In my luggage I also brought along my paraglider, which has recently become a new passion of mine. Being able to get a different perspective of the landscapes from a bird's eye view after climbing a mountain and peacefully gliding down to the valley like a soaring bird is a wonderful combination for me. Wolfi and I have climbed many mountains just so we could paraglide down to land in front of our yurt camp later on. What a delightful experience.

    We met my two climbing partners; Wolfgang Russegger and Charly Fritzer in Kyrgyzstan at the beginning of September. I was already perfectly acclimatized and euphoric when they arrived, the joy of seeing them, our reunion, plus the anticipation of climbing the mountain and the expectations were tremendous.

    Just before reaching our base camp our enthusiasm came to an abrupt stop: our truck got stuck in the swamps for several days. Intense rainfalls had soaked the tracks and there was no possibility of continuing our ride. 20 kilometers and 1000 meters in altitude separated us from Kyzyl Asker, where our base camp was located. Manually transporting our materials to the base of the mountain would be an enormous challenge for everybody! Thankfully at the last minute our driver managed to free the truck "Ural" from the swamps.

    My son Emanuel departed in the company of Wolfi and Franz, and he made it safely back home just in time for school. This time the pain of parting from my Manu was almost unbearable. A pain that normally fades away when the task at hand begins, but I was condemned to idleness.

    What nobody had expected, my two Austrian climbing partners got really sick after reaching our base camp. With the altitude of 4000 meters and the cold preventing a speedy recovery, we began the tiresome material transport to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) with an already respective delay. In the process of our material transport, Charly disappeared in a crevasse of the authoritative labyrinth on the Cormova glacier. Thankfully he didn't get injured, but we were thoroughly shocked of this occurrence. After only 10 days we reached the ABC, with all our needed materials.

    A weather check with meteorologist Karl Gabl from Innsbruck promised a few days of stable high-pressure weather. Should we already try our goal after the tedious start of our expedition? I was full of energy and very motivated to proceed, so immediately we all agreed to pursue our goal, as Charly proposed it would be a good idea to benefit from the good weather that was predicted.

    Finally we were good to go!

    On 12th September we started to climb the steep ice route very early at 4 o'clock in the morning. We reached the only useable bivouac place 10 o'clock in the morning, close to 5300 meters, but the sun had already started to melt the ice. With the threat of severe icefalls it was an easy decision to wait until the next morning when the ice would be more solid. Unfortunately, Charly soon showed clear signs of the beginning of a cerebral edema. The decision was clear: rappel down immediately!

    Thankfully Charly recovered after descending back to the ABC, but Wolfi's motivation slowly dwindled away after all the adversities and a one week long compulsory break. No wonder! Doubts and recurring health problems weakened the whole team and also challenged our social cohesion. I had a hard time accepting that under these circumstances another try on the mountain of my dreams, Mount Kyzyl Asker, was again out of my reach.

    After all, I've had this specific goal in my mind for two years. Poured all my heart and soul into it, focused on it, subjected my life and training to it, and invested so much time and energy into this project. Should all of this have been in vain? Should we forgo our goal? Just quit and go home? NO! We were looking for an alternative, a reward for all our efforts we achieved thus far.

    Quantum of Solace – first ascent – first complete ascent of the Great Walls of China 5100 m
    Grade: ABO, WI 7+ , M7

    We needed solace and found it at the "Great Walls of China", 600 meters high. While the already physically shaken Charly suffered from yet another stomach upset and remained at the ABC, Wolfi Russegger and I started climbing the route at first light. Steep and overhanging sections of ice and rock, with tricky placement of protection, required all my psychological strength and climbing skills. Fragile ice pillars, overhanging rock-/mixed sections alternated with waist-deep powder, where we found very little stability. With great concentration and full dedication of all my will-power, I reached the highest point of the wall shortly after 11 o'clock. Satisfied I belayed Wolfi, who was also emerged smiling after the ascent.

    On 29th September, just a few hours before the onset of winter, the truck reached us and drove us trough a fierce snowstorm back to civilization – back to a long-awaited warm shower!

    Thanks to all my sponsors for their trust in and support of the entire team.
    (Arc´teryx, Gore-Tex, Lowa, Julbo, Black Diamond, Red Chili, Hilleberg, UP Paragliders)

    Text: Johanna Stöckl

    Photographer: Franz Walter (franz.walter@nanuuq.net)

    Franz accompanies the trip of Ines and Emanuel to the base camp of Mount Kyzyl Asker. His film project "Tyndýk, Reise durch Kirgistan" (Tyndýk, travelling through Kyrgyzstan) will be released in spring 2012. On the website www.tyndyk.com background information, photos and trailers will be posted regularly.

    In my new multi-media show "In Fels und Eis" (rock and ice) I talk about my latest projects. Premiere at the IMS on 23.10.11 in Brixen. My book of the same title will be available in bookstores from February 2012.

    More information at:
    www.ines-papert.de

  • Knut Myking

    Born/Age: 13.08.1984
    Current Residence: Sogndal/ Aal, Norway
    Guest appearance in Field productions:
    -Being there (2011)
    -Eyes wide open (2009)
    Career accomplishments:
    - Skiing deep powder every winter.

    Although he was raised in a mountain valley, Knut Myking does not take the wilderness for granted. His approach to it grows stronger with each year, his focus as well—to have as much fun as possible while respecting the laws of nature. He is an all-year outdoor athlete, on snow or on wheels, which has contributed to his unique, award-winning way of riding. By constantly tuning his mountain sense, the coming years will see his experience and the joy of big rides progress hand-in-hand.

  • Andy Mann

    A man of many passions, Andy has spent the last 12 years of his life finding a way to live all his dreams out at once. As a full time professional photographer and filmmaker, he also finds time to write and perform live acoustic music across Colorado, travel the world developing and climbing routes of all styles - (Big Wall, Sport, Trad, and Bouldering), satisfy his obsessive fly fishing habit, & pursuing other interests that he says, "fills the down time." Currently living in a cabin at the mouth of Eldorado Canyon in Colorado, Andy finds most of his needs for adventure 100 yards from his front door. Needless to say, Andy pounds our gear as hard as he possibly can & relishes any new opportunities to do so further.

    Andy's pursuit for a career in adventure media began in 2005, when he first started assisting fellow team shooter, Keith Ladzinski, and learning the finer points of the medium throughout 2006 on a two month stint in Rocklands, South Africa, where he also helped direct his first climbing film with team climber, Fred Nicole. Since then, Andy has worked on or produced 5 other major feature films, over two dozen short films, and grown substantially as an editorial and commercial photographer. Working as Senior Contributing Photographer for Climbing and Urban Climber Magazines from 2009-2011, he has shot over 2 dozen feature articles on the sport, and locked in the most cover shots in UC Mag's history.

    Andy presented his work at the 2010 Squamish Mountain Fest and continues to present slideshows across America, and work closely with nearly every member of the Arc'teryx climbing team. This, his third year on the Arc'teryx team, finds Andy busier than ever before with his passions - spending over 300 days in the field shooting and filming the cutting edge of adventure. To track Andy and his evolving works, please visit his 6 year running blog at (www.mannphoto.blogspot.com), his website (www.andymann.com), or follow him on Twitter (@3StringsMedia).

  • Season 2 Episode 11

    For me the season means, going out and working on the list of climbs that has just meant so much to me, that I want to repeat them as a disabled climber. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Swiss Bavarian Climbing Expedition to Quvnerit Island

    South Greenland 2011, Swiss-Bavarian Climbing
    Expedition to Quvnerit Island

    The South of Greenland offers an incredible wealth of technical rock climbing on big granite faces, some of them directly over the ocean. Tasermiut Fjord has seen most of the climbing activity of the last decades, but some climbers have ventured further south to climb on the more remote islands and fjords around the Inuit settlement of Aappilattoq. Huge routes have gone up in the Torssukatak Fjord, on Pamiagdluk Island and on other walls in the vicinity. There is still a staggering potential for rock climbing in this area. Many big rock faces and unclimbed summits await the climbers who are curious enough to head to the southern tip of greenland.

    Quvnerit Island, 25 km south of Aappilattoq and just north of Cape Farvel, has seen its first recorded visit by climbers as early as 1971, by a Scottish group of the St. Andrews University. In 2004, during their first and very successful expedition, a Swiss-Bavarian team (Caroline Morel, Michi Wyser, Tom Holzhauser, Ivan Tresch, Michi Tresch, Wanja Reichel and Toni Lamprecht) put up the first hard rock climbs on Quvnerit Island with 9 routes of up to 1100 meters in length and difficulties of up to 7c (5.12). And 2010, Nico Favresse and friends on their Piolet-d'Or winning Greenland trip, visited Quvnerit Island and climbed more hard routes on the same amazing pillars.

    At the end of July 2011 the Swiss-Bavarian team made their second visit to Quvnerit Island. During their 6 week trip the group of Caroline Morel, Andres Lietha, Michi Wyser, Tom Holzhauser, Michi Tresch and Toni Lamprecht once again found an incredible climbing playground. 10 beautiful new routes with difficulties of up to 7b (5.12b) and more than 5000 new climbing meters were established on some of the world's finest granite.

    With great weather the new routes "Via Corradojillo", 6c (5.11a) (Morel/Lietha/Wyser) and "Private Universe", 7a+ (5.11d) (Holzhauser/Tresch) were the start to a wave of first ascents on the west coast of the island. A week later "El Martillo", 6a+ (5.10b) (Morel/Lietha/Wyser), "Rascana", 6c (5.11a) (Holzhauser/Lamprecht/Tresch) and "Bondola", 6a+ (5.10b) (Morel/Lietha/Wyser) were established, all on perfect rock in the breathtaking setting of the Itivdliap-Pularia Fjord.

    During the next two weeks the team enjoyed very stable weather and more lines of exceptional beauty and on immaculate rock were climbed alpine-style. The team Morel/Lietha/Wyser put up "Lucky Mushrooms", 6b+ (5.10d), "Northern Comfort", 6a+ (5.10b) and "Waslala ", 6a+ (5.10b), all comparable in quality to the best granite routes in the Alps. The longest route, "Another Walhalla", 6a+ (5.10b) was climbed by Holzhauser/Lamprecht/Tresch along one of the 800 meters high, crack- riddled "Golden pillars" on the North coast of the island.

    Another highlight was the 600m route "Serratit", 7b (5.12b), above a north facing glacier basin in the center of Quvnerit. The team Holzhauser/Lamprecht/Tresch free-climbed 12 very demanding pitches between 6b+ and 7b to the summit of the "Asiaq" tower. The constantly steep route offers face climbing with hard boulder sections, an incredible 120 meter "dream-dihedral" and crack climbing from finger- to hand-, fist- and off-width near the summit. All routes were climbed clean and on-sight, without the use of fixed gear and in "one-day-pushes". To finish the stay, a small bouldering area offering 30 excellent problems was established near base camp.

    This great climbing trip was blessed with good weather. During the 5 weeks on Quvnerit there were only 4 days of rain and storm during the last week. Access to the climbs from the base camp on the North shore of Quvnerit Island to the walls was made by little boat trips. The dangers of sudden storms, big waves, strong currents and fast moving ice should not to be underestimated. Unfortunately Caroline Morel was injured by rock fall on her last climb of the trip and had to suffer a long odyssey on her way back to Europe. It is highly recommendable to carry a satellite phone on such a trip in case of emergency.

    The logistics of an expedition to South Greenland require careful planning. Nanortalik Tourism Service proofed very helpful and hospitable in organizing the logistics of this trip, providing all practical and moral support needed for a successful climbing trip to South Greenland, including reception of cargo, charter boats and boat rental, hotel bookings etc.. Contact over http://nanortaliktourism.com/ Cargo was shipped to Nanortalik from Aalborg with Royal Arctic line. http://nanortaliktourism.com/

    Here is an overview of the climbs established during this trip:

    Quvnerit Island / Itivdliap Pularia Fjord:

    Piz Rascana
    - "Corradojillo ", 6c (5.11a), 300m (7 pitches), 1. Ascent: C. Morel/ A.>

    Lietha/ M. Wyser August 1st 2011
    - "Rascana", 6c (5.11a), 450m (10 pitches),1. Ascent: T. Holzhauser/ T. Lamprecht/ M. Tresch August 5th 2011

    Dos Canones I
    - "Private Universe", 7a+ (5.11d), 550m (12 pitches), 1. Ascent: T. Holzhauser/ M. Tresch August 1st 2011
    - "Lucky Mushrooms", 6b+ (5.10d), 600m (10 pitches), 1. Ascent: C. Morel/ A. Lietha/ M. Wyser August 11th 2011

    Dos Canones II
    - "El Martillo", 6a+ (5.10b), 500m (10 pitches), 1. Ascent: C. Morel/ A. Lietha/ M. Wyser August 4th 2011

    Bondola
    - "Bondola", 6a+ (5.10b), 450m (9 pitches),1. Ascent: C. Morel/ A. Lietha/ M. Wyser August 7th 2011
    - "Northern Comfort", 6a+ (5.10b), 600m (12 pitches),1. Ascent: A. Lietha/ M. Wyser August 20th 2011

    Quvnerit Island / Sivinganerup ima Fiord:

    Asiag
    - "Serratit", 7b (5.12b), 600m (12 pitches), 1. Ascent: T. Holzhauser/ T. Lamprecht/ M. Tresch August 14th and 15th 2011

    Golden Pillars
    - "Another Wallhalla", 6a+ (5.10b), 800m (16 pitches), 1. Ascent: T. Holzhauser/ T. Lamprecht/ M. Tresch, August 11th 2011
    - "Waslala", 6a+ (5.10b), 600m (11 pitches),1. Ascent: C. Morel/ A. Lietha/ M. Wyser August 15th and 22nd 2011

  • Serratit 7b Greenland 2011

  • Season 2 Episode 10

    With such diminishing returns, it can be hard not to see fly fishing as a dying sport - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 9

    We all have an idea of what success looks like.…We do our best to fashion that vision into a reality. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Jim Martinello

    Jim Martinello's life, and his photography, thrives on passion alone. His commitment to friends, family and adventure is second to none, and he spreads his infectious enthusiasm with everyone who comes across his path. He is a very well-rounded, all-around athlete, who undertakes a wide variety of action sports, adventures and experiences to keep his spirit alive. Although not a professionally-educated shooter, Jim's photography speaks volumes about the true essence of the outdoors.

    There are great photographers who try and participate in high-risk sports to get the shot, there are incredible athletes who shoot lacklustre images, and then there's Jim Martinello. He is both athlete, adventurer and photographer who captures bold imagery while actively participating in a vast array of outdoor pursuits. A typical year in Jim's life might look something like this: expedition paddling on the Pacific Ocean, skiing steep lines and deep powder in the Coast Mountains, climbing new routes in unexplored regions, and a bunch of family camping trips with his wife and two young children.

    He shoots from the heart, and it shows in all of Jim's images. He has shown his work in dozens of slideshows, and has been published in The Alpinist, Mountain Life Magazine, Rock & Ice, the Canadian Alpine Journal and many more. His recent trip was an adventure film with National Geographic.

  • Paul Bride

    Always looking for a physical and mental adventure with his camera, Paul's inspiration comes from turning a thought into a finished photograph composed of clean lines and natural light.

    Photography allows Paul to travel with a purpose, when he combines creativity and adventure he can take his images to another level. His motivation comes from the loneliness found in some of the most remote places on earth.

    Based in Squamish, BC, Canada, Paul's photography has spanned six continents.

    Known globally for his climbing and adventure images Paul also works in fine art and ownes a gallery in Squamish.

    Please visit www.paulbride.com for more examples of his work.

  • Matterhorn via Bonatti in 7 hours 14 minutes

    The North Face of the Matterhorn witnessed a great, fast ascent yesterday at the hands of 23-year-old Patrick Aufdenblatten and 26-year-old Michi Lerjen-Demjen, who climbed the face in 7 hours and 14 minutes via the route established by Walter Bonatti alone and in winter during his extraordinary and historical ordeal from 18 to 22 February 1965.

    The two Swiss alpinists form a formidable team and have climbed together from Yosemite to last year's repeat up the Z'Mutt Nose via the line established by Alessandro Gogna and Leo Cerutti in 1969 right up the Matterhorn North Face. Aufdenblatten and Lerjen-Demjen reached the start of the route last Saturday but conditions were not ideal and so they opted to wait for better conditions which came just a few days later. On Monday they ascended to the Hörnlihütte and at 03:35am they set off for the Bonatti route which, an important detail, they had never climbed previously.

    One hour and 5 minutes later they reached the Bergschrund, from where the first section up steep mixed terrain begins, directly beneath the Zmutt Nose. They then climbed past the Traverse of the Angels, seven diagonal pitches which thanks to ideal conditions they dispatched with easily. Three and a half hours after having left the hut they had already climbed past this section of the route and they then entered the upper half of the North Face. At this point the terrain is difficult and requires utter concentration, especially when simul-climbing as Aufdenblatten and Lerjen-Demje were. Four hours later, a mere 7 hours and 14 minutes after setting off, the Swiss reached the summit, while 10 hours after the start they were comfortably back in the Hörnli hut.

    After the ascent the duo told us "Even if we're achieved a top performance, in alpinism you simply cannot compare single ascents with one another. What made us very happy though was to receive congratulations from Üeli Steck, this recognition meant a lot to us! It's clear though that we didn't have neither the same conditions, nor the same style of ascent as Ueli. It's a development of what others have done before us. Our performance will be followed by others. Not necessarily to break records, but to improve personally!"

    The 1200m of the Bonatti Direttissima are graded ED+ and were repeated for the first time by Polish climbers R. Berbeka, J. Strycznski, R. Sfafirski and A. Zyzak from 12 - 13 August 1966. Although the route hasn't been abandoned altogether, it is rarely repeated. In 1994 French climber Catherine Destivelle repeated the route alone over four days, while in March 2006 Swissman Ueli Steck climbed the line in 25 hours. Last but not least, this April the Marco Farina, Arnaud Clavel and Mauro Rossetto carried out what is believed to be the first Italian repeat.

  • Maciek Ciesielski

    Date of birth: March 17, 1980
    Current Residence: Poland/ Chamonix, France
    Website/Blog: http://www.goryonline.com/Blog,0,0,735,0,B,blog.html

    Recent Media Coverage:

    • 100 porad Gór: featured coverage in this book
    • Taternik (Polish edition of American Alpine Journal): feature on ascents in Nepal and climbing in Yosemite with disabled persons
    • radio interview on Polish national radio—Program One

    Career accomplishments:

    • Speed ascents on El Cap: Zodiak, 8.5h, Nose 10h,Lurking Fear 11.25h
    • Second ascent of Central Scrutinizer
    • Greenland: White Stupid Man, Nalumasortoq first free ascent, second in total; War and Poetry, Ulamertorsuaq
    • Patagonia: Iper Mermoz, Aguja Mermoz first free ascent and second ascent in total; Franco-Argentina, Fitz Roy free ascent
    • Alaska: 4 ascents in four weeks

    Athlete Bio:

    Poland is mainly flat and Maciek was born in the flattest area; the only mountain around was the garbage pile behind the house. Lucky for him, his physics teacher, a great alpinist and person, inspired Maciek to climb. Since then he has always been lucky with partners, often climbing with more experienced colleagues and learning from them as much as he could. This luck even followed him into marriage, although the lessons there aren't as easy to absorb.

    In climbing, Maciek is attracted to the commonality between disciplines, which is why he does almost every type of climbing and looks for solutions in equipment and clothing based on his year-round experiences.

    2002 was a breakthrough year—Maciek left his career as sewage engineer and flew to Alaska where he made four ascents in four weeks. A move to Yosemite followed and thus began his climbing rhythm: winter in Patagonia, the US or Canada, spring in Yosemite, summer in Pakistan or Greenland. Life following the sun and the snow.

    After trying to make his living collecting pine cones (a very profitable job in Poland) he decided to go pro and began the IFMGA guide course. Any spare time beyond that goes to his family— a new born son, beautiful daughter and the best partner he has ever had, his wife.

  • Season 2 Episode 8

    When it comes to fishing, it can be hard to tell who caught who. His life is fishing. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Fred Nicole Challenges Le Boa

    LE BOA: It was one of those longterm projects, which you never know if it will go for sure. I started trying it two years ago. It was just after completing "L`Isola che no c`é". I enjoy having this kind of projects where you can go back over and over again, and slowly, try after try, you start to visualize the complete picture of it.

    It is a sitdown start on a big snake like looking structure, which also gives the name to the problem. Some powerfull moves on pockets underclings that bring you to a tricky traverse with more pockets and a finish with long moves into a big flake. It ends in another problem called "Mosaik", rated V11 or 8a. The first four moves are by far the hardest, but the last ten are quite delicate and bring a great dimension to the line. You can see the start of it at the end of the movie by Bernardo Gimenez: http://www.prana.com/blog/tag/fred-nicole/

    For me it was difficult to find the good conditions to do this problem, when I was able do the moves it was to cold or to wet to complete and the dryest season was usually to warm to even try the moves.

    Conditions last March were ideal, dry and mild for the season, even windy with a bit of sun. It was a perfect early spring day. And most important, I was feeling kind of fit. A few days before, I did my best try in the problem falling at the very end, and the close departure for India was one more factor to make me climb more accurate. It was my lucky day and I could finally feel what it was like to chain so many hards and delicates moves.

    Most of the time I don't grade my boulders anymore, but people are still curious what they could be. On this one my feeling lies around 8c boulder, as it felt as the hardest boulder I ever did on pockets. For sure the hardest thing since "L'isola che non c'é" and reckoning the time spent on it anyway an important line for me.

  • Season 2 Episode 7

    It's definitely not the sort of place you can afford to crash more than once or twice. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Johannes Hoffman

    Career accomplishments: Some first ski descents in the Austrian Alps. Being part of Europe's biggest ski movie: Lifelong. Competing in several big mountain competitions

    Johannes started skiing at the age of 4 on the snowy hills around Innsbruck. Until he saw MSP´s ski movie 1, starring Shane McConkey and Seth Morrison ripping steep and deep powder, he didn´t really like skiing. Inspired by them, Johannes bought his first "fat" (84mm) skis and year by year the skis have become wider, the cliffs higher and the descents steeper! After competing in many big mountain competitions, Johannes focused more on touring, ski mountaineering and skiing off the beaten track. He was invited by the Aestivation Crew to join their huge ski movie, Lifelong. A broken collarbone in December 2010 almost ended this project for him, but luckily he was back on skis two weeks after surgery.

    Presently, Johannes studies Geography at University of Innsbruck. The city is surrounded by big and steep mountains within 25 minutes' reach - the perfect headquarters. In winter 2012, aside from joining Aestivation for their new movie, Johannes will begin working on his own film, a project about skiing, camping and living in remote places in Tyrol. In between studies and work, a few big mountain competitions and some sick first ski descents.

    Johannes' blog

  • Jonathan Siegrist Trip To Canada

    Although I had visited Canada briefly in the spring of 2010, when I returned this summer, my host Scott Milton quickly discovered I basically knew nothing of the place. Within hours of my arrival he was inundated with questions about his homeland; 'What on earth is a 'Looney'? 'What the hell does the giant 'N' sticker on all these cars mean?' 'Why am I suddenly everyone's 'Buddy'?' 'Does it ever stop raining?' He patiently informed me about the dollar coin, new drivers, Canadianisms and the annual predicted rainfall in Squamish. Over the next few weeks the stream of questions slowed as I got a proper taste of what Canada is all about.

    The priority of my visit was, of course, to sample some of the best stone Canada has to offer. As I alluded to before, the weather did not permit much of any climbing around Squamish, so right after the Squamish Mountain Festival we escaped to Vancouver Island. After a short and dreary ferry ride we made our way up to Horne Lake, a premier limestone crag situated near the center of Vancouver Island. It's a small crag but the routes pack a punch - most climbing out an impressive tiered roof system. The rock is of the highest quality, exhibiting blue drip stone features like tufas and colinettes over solid blocky limestone. It's impressive.

    On down days we moved over to Parksville on the eastern coast for some good food, cold beer and local flavor - the annual sandcastle building festival offered a bitchin' rest day activity. My favorite sends at Horne were 'Dinosaur Highway' 14a, 'Driven' 14a/b, 'A.D.A.T.O.' 14b and 'Quarter Century Girl' 12a.

    We stopped off in Squamish to tick the uber classic 'Grand Wall' 5.11 on the Chief before heading over to the Canadian Rockies. Here we settled into a nice camp spot outside of Canmore and sampled just a few of the many local crags. A long, albeit beautiful hike up a crystal clear stream bed takes you to the towering cliff, Planet X. Upon initially seeing this crag I was hugely inspired - blue streaks down a 35 meter wall with a crowning, steep visor. Unfortunately, the style of climbing was less motivating-- awkward movement up strange features characterize this massive wall. I eventually came around to the style, and thoroughly enjoyed the thuggy 'Kurrgo' 14a, 'Shooting Packer' 13b and 'Moon Walk' 11d.

    Next stop was the famed Acephale, home to a rich history and many of the Country's hardest routes. This short, overhanging limestone cliff has an array of bouldery, powerful climbs. Due to some dodgy weather we only ended up with one day at Acephale, but it was a pleasure to climb the varied and technical 'Unknown Stuntman' 13d, and 'Army Ants' 13c among others. The hike is kinda brutal, but an awesome waterfall and a remote feel are certainly worth it.

    The surrounding landscape in the Rockies is drop-dead gorgeous, making the views alone worthy of a trip. Between climbing days we explored beautiful Canmore, enjoying great coffee and doing our best to get by on a budget (not easy). I couldn't quite tell if the hot springs in Banff were actually hot or it was just the swarm of humans heating the pool-- in retrospect I would have had another day old muffin for my $8.50 thank you very much.

    On our way out of town we spent an afternoon at the spectacular Lake Louise. After dodging tourists and repeatedly explaining why Scott was carrying such a huge pack we got some awesome climbing in on incredibly featured quartzite. Although there is not much difficult terrain, this is an area not to be missed. I absolutely loved the stunning arete, 'Dew Line' 11c and the new face climbing test-piece 'Tsar Bomba' 13d.

    That night we jumped back across the border, finishing our three week trip with high spirits. I managed to get a number of great climbs done, and experience a wide array of Canada's best crags. I even learned a thing or two about Canadians and life in the great white north-- they're a psyched and pleasant people, not afraid to sandbag here or there and seemingly unaffected by awful weather patterns. Ever-welcoming Canadians make a hell of a good Caesar and show us Yankies a pretty damn good time... if you've never been, I'd suggest you have a visit.

  • Season 2 Episode 6

    If you see me on paper, I'm disabled for sure. In person, I don't think of myself as disabled. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 5 4 3 2 1

  • Adam Barker

    Raised amongst Utah's Wasatch Mountains, internationally acclaimed photographer Adam Barker has a passion for photography matched only by his zest for life. Known for bold landscape and active lifestyle imagery, his love affair with exceptional imagery has translated into stirring editorial work for Outdoor Photographer, Skiing, Ski, Powder, Flyfish Journal, USA Today, The Drake, Adventure Fishing, Mountain Sports & Living, and many more publications. He has drawn praise for his teaching style at workshops both domestic and abroad, and has drawn similar accord for his instructional DVDs. Barker has produced imagery for a varied array of commercial clients including Black Diamond Equipment, Volkswagen of America, Deer Valley Resort, Suunto Watches, Loon Outdoors and many more. When not shooting, Barker can be found spending time with his wife and two sons, or "product testing" in the mountains, on the river, or wherever else nature happens to call. Visit www.adambarkerphotography.com to see more of his work.

    Web: http://www.adambarkerphotography.com/ Blog: http://www.adambarkerphotography.com/blog FB: http://www.facebook.com/AdamBarkerPhotography Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/adambarkerphoto

  • Jed Conklin

    Born in the Ohio River town of Owensboro, Kentucky in 1977, Jed Conklin began pursuing photography while studying at Western Kentucky University where he received a bachelor degree in both photojournalism and print journalism. His first photography job landed him in Pinedale, Wyoming where he was an intern at the Pinedale Roundup. Later Conklin would intern at the Concord Monitor, the Jackson Hole News and Guide and would be hired fulltime at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington.

    In 2007 Conklin started Jed Conklin Photography. The preceding years have been quite the adventure for Conklin. He has worked on projects in Mexico, Morocco, Paris, Italy, Monaco, China, Iraq, Canada and the United States.

    Whether covering a news assignment in Iraq or climbing a mountain for an advertising shoot, Jed pushes the boundary so his pictures succeed. In his first decade as a photographer, he has been down the street and to the other side of the globe, perched precariously on a peak, raced through deserts in Morocco and Utah and found nuances in his own backyard. He's photographed nature and extreme sports, soldiers and sikhs, world citizens and the everyman.

    www.jedconklin.com, blog is located on website.

  • Jordan Manley

    Jordan Manley is commercial and editorial mountain adventure photographer, based in North Vancouver, BC. As a senior photographer for Bike and Powder magazines, he has travelled from the Arctic to Antarctica capturing people who live, work, and play in the mountains. Along with Arcteryx ski athlete Chad Sayers, Jordan produces "A Skier's Journey" - a web-based series that brings viewers colourful dispatches from exotic and off the beaten path ski locations around the globe.

  • Keith Ladzinski

    For Keith Ladzinski, the pursuit of photography has been an insatiable passion since 1995. Documenting an experience from behind the camera that can often only be found through adventurous travel, volatile weather conditions, long hard days, and the friends you rely on in sketchy situations to simply get on location. It's a culmination and a full package, one that has been deeply rewarding and unforgettable. To create images that make an impression, capture a fleeting moment, and bring the viewer on location in still frames.

    Keith Ladzinski is a globally published adventure sports and environmental portrait photographer. Chasing light has kept Keith waiting days on end for the sun to break for a photo, and at other times packing in over 100 pounds of location lighting equipment through knee deep snow to get the envisioned shot.

    An award winning photographer, Keith's photography has been praised by American Photo, PDN, and the International Library of Photography. The British Journal of Photography named Ladzinski to be among the top four adventure photographers in the world. Keith's editorial work has appeared on the front page of the New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, Discover Magazine, Men's Journal, Outside Magazine, Runner's World, ESPN, with photos appearing on over 30 covers.

    Over the last two years Keith has enjoyed teaching workshops as been an instructor at Rich Clarkson's Adventure Photography and Sports Photography Workshops. His environmental portraits have earned him a monthly column in Rock and Ice magazine profiling some of the more colorful personalities in the rock-climbing world.

    Keith's site: www.ladzinski.com

  • Jorge Ackermann

    I was born in Bariloche, a ski town in Northern Patagonia. When I turn six, I started skiing and with skiing began my love for the mountains. I spent my teens climbing and skiing around Refugio Frey where I met the people that inspired me to climb big mountains. Eventually after hearing so many stories about the Fitz Roy and the Cerro Torre I decided to go see for myself what the fuss was all about.

    I headed south, crossing the Estepa with 500 pesos in my pockets and hand-me down climbing gear. Once in El Chalten, I learned the hard way to climb in the Patagonian style; fast, light and always on the lookout for Patagonia´s infamous weather. Every year I go back to El Chalten drawn by the magic of its granite towers. But no matter where I am climbing, being on a big wall with friends, drinking mate and discussing where to go next is what keeps me climbing.

    I spent the last year in BC and got to ski some of the deepest snow I have ever seen. I now live in Squamish where I mostly climb amazing granite and complain about the weather. Maybe the weather in Patagonia was not so bad after all.

    Jorge's blog: http://www.jorgeackermann.blogspot.com

  • Forrest Coots

    Forrest grew up in the mountains and is the product of a life spent in the outdoors. Born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, he and his family moved to Mount Shasta when he was three. With a ski resort fifteen minutes from his home and parents that worked at the resort, it was natural that Forrest took to skiing at an early age. Forrest's early focus in skiing was geared towards ski racing. During high school, Forrest won two high school state championships and was the 1998 USSA J1 Jr. Olympic Champion in the Slalom.

    While on a college spring break road trip, Forrest was introduced to backcountry skiing. This experience opened his eyes and changed the way he would look at the mountains forever. His new outlook on the sport induced a passion for big mountain riding. Recently, Forrest has taken a step back from full time competitive big mountain skiing. Instead he is learning to dance down the mountain effortlessly, exploring the soul of free ride skiing. Like a painter, looking at a white canvas, Forrest looks at the mountains as if they are his personal white canvas. Portraying his viewpoint of what it is to be a pro skier, Forrest believes that it's more about the journey then the overall outcome. "The places and people met along the way make up the story," says Forrest. His search for snow has taken him to all corners of the earth; from the snowcaked deciduous trees of north Island of Japan to the windswept peaks of Patagonia. Forrest is ceaselessly looking for new peaks to ski and climb with an eye for the perfect line down the mountain. While still a hard-charging and committed free skier, Forrest is continually pushing his own limits to achieve his longterm goal of skiing that perfect line. He explores his home slopes of Northern California and Utah. In addition, he annually plumbs the steeps of the Swiss Alps and has gone as far as the Chilean Patagonia in this quest for the perfect line. For him, the journey is more important than the destination—a concept exemplified by his desire to climb before the descent and epitomized by his worldwide wanderings during both winter and summer.

    Forrest still does some competing, representing the "classic" style at many of the freeskiing comps. He ranks high with strong and fast skiing skills, rather than aimless hucking. Last winter, Forrest found himself in the cottonwood canyons of the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. It seemed that his bags were always packed and he was always in TSA airport security check.

    When summer returns to the Northern Hemisphere, Forrest doesn't put the skis away for the season. Instead, he digs in the quiver and swaps the big mountain sticks for his mountaineering skis. He returns to California to work as a US Forest Service Climber Ranger on the Cascade Volcano, Mt. Shasta. Throughout the spring and summer, Forrest climbs and skis, while educating the 6000 climbers that annually attempt Shasta about the "leave no trace" program. On a daily basis, Forrest informs the climbers of the climbing routes and conditions, safety, and search and rescue operations.

    Once the snow melts off the faces of Shasta and the skis and climbing boots have been put away for the season, Forrest is off working as a firefighter on a Forest Service helicopter crew. He flights the blazes that reek havoc on the west during the late summer and early fall. When the fall rains come, Forrest is free to head south on surf missions across the boarder in the wilds of the Baja Peninsula. Soon after, Forrest travels back to Utah as the first snows of winter come. This first snow brings a new winter full of goals and projects. Next season, Forrest will find himself based again in Utah, back shooting photos, filming The constant search for new peaks to climb and ski, melds big mountain skiing and mountaineering into the ultimate way of life, and thus propels Forrest farther into the realm of professional big mountain skiing.

  • Season 2 Episode 5

    Beauty in difficulty, it's what draws us to bouldering, to sports we've made out passions, to wilderness. We seek out things that will push us, make us stronger. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 4 3 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 4

    Ideas, they begin with a spark. They catch, they spread, they consume. From them comes new growth. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 3 2 1

  • Remy Lecluse

    Born/Age: 05/06/1964

    Current Residence: Servoz, Chamonix valley, France

    Rémy is a professional mountain guide, based in Chamonix, France.

    He has a 24 years' guiding experience world-wide.

    He did his first extreme skiing descent on the Aiguille Verte 4121 m (Mt Blanc range) in 1982.

    Since then he achieves more than 500 extreme descents, including 63 first descents in the Alps, High-Atlas, Lyngen Alps (Norway), Himalayas & Andes.

    He is among the very few guides who take clients on extreme slopes (including 12 first descents).

    His aim is to continue exploring & skiing in the Himalayas & Andes.

    Where usually mountaineers climb with two ice axes, crampons & ropes: he is skiing slopes between 50° & 55°.

    Extreme skiing is one of the purest ways of climbing mountains.

    Ethical, innovation, engagement, precision, risk assessment, risk management linked to a meticulous preparation are compulsory to be successful.

    Fabulous way of travel in the mountains, this way of climbing & skiing is strongly ethical: no helicopter for the climb, light alpine technique in the Andes & Himalayas. Fast & light is the guarantee of safety.

    It's also a fantastic path to discover new routes to ski in wild & insulated places in the world, even in the Alps.

    Website: www.remylecluse.com

    Recent Media Coverage: FR3(french TV) last winter, article in Trek & Mountains Feb 2011 issue + different articles about 4 first descents in winter 2011

    Career accomplishments: 5 first descents on 6000m peaks in Himalayas (India & Nepal), 4 first descents in Cordillera de Vilcanota (Peru) & in total 63 first descents world wide.yas

  • Ryan Sullivan

    My name is Ryan Sullivan, I am 20 years old, living in Whistler BC. I have been skiing since I was 5 and competing for the last 7 years. I got into big mountain skiing through an awesome coaching program called Whistler Freeride.

    When i am not skiing or touring the backcountry i love to mountain bike, golf, rip on my sled. In the off season i work as a sub contractor in the best place on earth(Whistler B.C for those of you who didn't know). I compete in the World Freeskiing Tour and other event across Canada. My sponsors are Arc'teryx and Giro. Can't wait to see you on the hill

  • Season 2 Episode 3

    I definitely have itchy feet. I thought my itchy feet would go away as I get older, but it doesn't. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 2 1

  • Season 2 Episode 2

    If you're a mountain biker, Squamish is arguably the place to live. Kevin and Jeremy followed their passions for building trail West. - http://www.theseasontv.com/
    Watch previous episodes: 1

  • Adam Campbell Runs the Courmayer Champex Chamonix Race

    ***This race report was written under intense jet lag, after way too many hours of travel and intense post race fatigue & sleep deprivation!.

    "Remember to smile out there!" This message, posted to my Facebook wall by Peter Watson, was my mantra for almost 10.5 hours last Friday. It was good advice that dramatically changed my perception of a rather uncomfortable experience.

    I was running the Courmayer-Champex-Chamonix (CCC) race at the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc (UTMB) race festival. Starting in Italy, this 98km mountain run, with almost 5,800 cumulative meters of elevation gain and loss, passes through Switzerland and ends in the iconic mountain town of Chamonix France. The route takes the 1,800 runners up cols, down valleys and through towns and villages along the Mont Blanc massive.

    It is not a pristine mountain experience, but rather, it's a spectacle of the sport of mountain ultra running. I happen to like this aspect of the race. For a sport that is often niche and very grassroots and an activity that I spent a vast majority of my time doing alone, almost everything about the race is an over-the top, at times kitschy, experience. A true celebratory event.

    All week long, the town of Chamonix is abuzz with runners nervously and anxiously waiting around, strolling the cobble-stoned streets, their necks kinked up at the peaks and glaciers that loom over the town, eating carb heavy foods, whispering rumours about the weather and course changes, debating who will win, wondering whether they have done enough training and if their bodies and minds are up to the task, comparing gear choices and buying the latest and lightest gear options available at every shop in town. As all the best mountain ultra runners from across 62 countries descend upon Chamonix for that last week in August, it became the hub of world mountain ultra running.

    Once the races kick off on Monday, the town is awash in the cacophony of the crackly voice of the race announcer and overly dramatic canned music blaring over the main square and a nervous energy permeates the crowds. The streets are lined with sponsor laden barricades and big screen TVs, spread across town, play moments of the race on repeat, or show live splits of races underway, as crowds gather around, mesmerised by the self-induced suffering that is happening on the trails and peaks around them.

    I tried to soak in this spirit as much as I could prior to my event. It's what drew me to the race in the first place. I immersed myself in the crowds of amazingly talented runners in town and tried to ask as many questions as I could and learn as much as possible from the incredible athletes that were walking the streets and eating at the cafes and restaurants. The more questions I asked, the more psyched I got. At heart, I'm a huge fan of the sport, so I was geeking out with the best of them.

    When I went to pick up my race package on Thursday and doping control took me aside for some blood tests, it was the final affirmation that this race was unlike any trail race that I'd done before.

    After a week of feeding off of this energy and months of hard work in preparation for the the race, I was more than ready to go. On race morning, as I drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel from France into Courmayer Italy, I was psyched for my first trip to Italy and to get the event underway.

    I got to town early and had enough time to grab a famous Italian espresso pre-race. As I sat in the smokey cafe, sipping my bitter brew and stared around at the peaks in the Aosta Valley I mentally committed to enjoy the experience, no matter what the outcome. I lined up close to the front, but avoided the front row. The spectators lining the streets were 3 or 4 deep and I was engulfed in a sea of geared up runners, all of whom were pressing forward, trying to save a precious meter or two that they wouldn't have to run extra. It made for tight quarters.

    When the gun finally went off, the roar of the crowds coaxed people into a ridiculously fast opening pace. I tried not to get caught up in it and slowly rolled my way to the front of the race over the next mile or so. I had looked up previous results and knew that some former top finishers were in the race, so I sought them out and tucked in around them.

    I have a bit of a reputation for being a fast starter, something which has haunted me in the later stages of some races, so I wanted to be patient. I also enjoyed the fact that I had some company to run with, so I set off into the first hill with the pack. The first climb was steep enough that it was a mix of running and fast hiking and I was pleasantly surprised that the pace with the lead group felt manageable. I had no idea how I would stack up against the field, so this gave me a real boost of confidence. I began to smile at the fact that I was in the lead group and I did not feel over my head.

    As the climb increased, the pack whittled down to about 5 of us. I tried to chat in French with some guys around me, but I was ignored, so I shut up. There was one guy up the trail, but no one around me seemed too anxious about him, so I figured that was his MO and either he was going to crush it, or he would come back to us eventually.

    The group stayed tight through the first climb and as we made our way down the mountain, I was once again pleasantly surprised that I could hang quite comfortably with the lead group. My confidence got another boost. I made sure to take some time and soak in some of the magnificent scenery and enjoy the encouragement from the spectators, because I knew that I wouldn't fully appreciate them later in the race, as my mind, body and legs got more tired.

    The most noteworthy thing that happened over these miles was rounding a corner on a traversing single track trail, when suddenly a helicopter with a film crew popped out of the valley about 20 feet away from me. The dust from the rotors was suffocating, but I had to laugh at how amazing that was.

    As we began to tackle the second major climb of the day, I had my first energy low. This often happens to me 2 hours into runs, so I wasn't surprised. I didn't feel bad when two guys passed me and I had to hike some sections that they were running. I tried to convince myself that they were using up energy that I was saving for later. You have to convince yourself that things will be alright during these low spots, or they can quickly keep heading south. I nursed my way through this section, but this is where the eventual winner gaped me. As we ran up and over the Grand Col Ferret, I was amazed at how many people were up there in horrible weather conditions to cheer us on. I tried to thank them all as I ran past and this really lifted my spirits. Although I'm sure in reality my thanks sounded more like grunts on the windy col.

    I summited in fourth and bombed down the track. I caught the second and third place runners, who had about 90 seconds on me, quite quickly. I was clearly descending better than them, so I asked if I could pass and from that point on, I was in second. I made sure not to press too hard, checking in on my effort and being careful not to blow my quads for later, but before I knew it, I had dropped the other two runners and I was out of Italy and into Switzerland.

    Once again, this got me quite excited. I was now in the same country as my wife, who I knew was following along online in Davos and I had been training hard in Switzerland for the previous 3 weeks, so I convinced myself that I had a home field advantage. In retrospect, this was a silly thought, still, I love the mind games that you can play with yourself over the course of such a long and strenuous effort. You have to find little positive nuggets and hold on to them, because otherwise the immensity of the effort that you are facing can easily overwhelm you. I essentially ran alone from this point of the race to the finishline, so I had to spend a lot of time mining for these nuggets of positive thoughts.

    I nursed myself through the rest of the course. I was apprehensive with the length of the race and difficulty of the course, and basically accepted the fact that I had to run my own race. The frontrunner was slowly putting time into me and all I could hope for was that he would blow up. I clung to this hope all the way to the finishline and used it to talk my way through some low points in the race.

    I kept Peter's mantra in mind and tried to get as much energy as I could from the thousands of spectators, hikers and locals who were out on the course, cheering us on. While the scenery is undeniably stunning, what really makes the race stand out is the people. This is a sentiment that I've heard echoed in every post race interview that I've listened to and this is where Peter's advice was so wise. I tried to thank as many spectators and volunteers as I could along the course and with each thanks, I got some energy from that person. I had a little girl grab my hand as I was running into an aide station and she ran with me which was an incredibly powerful and uplifting feeling.

    This support extended far beyond the trail. At one of the early aide stations, a volunteer dropped a transmitter into my pack to monitor my progress, because I was one of the race leaders. While I didn't appreciate the extra 80 grams at the time, this transistor was tweeting and Faceboking my position along the course and my wife was keeping people posted online. I heard after the race that my mom in Canada, Lauren in Switzerland, my brother Matt in Bangkok and my dad in Nigeria (yes, I have a very international family) were all on Skype and extending the news of how my race was unfolding to their various networks. It was amazing to retrace the digital footprints after the race and to see how my race unfolded online as I ran along the trail. It's a true testament to the value of technology at modern mountain races. As the hours of running ticked by, I felt fairly consistent, but smiling became harder and harder. The Salomon team, who were crewing for me out on the course, were a well oiled machine and contributed immensely to my performance on the day. The ease with which they helped me restock my supplies and their encouragement was a huge boost.

    I really began to suffer about 7 hours into the race and essentially had to hike the 5 km, almost 5,000 foot soul crushing climb out of Martigny (****a detour not on the original route). My quads were beginning to feel a bit shot and my stomach wasn't liking gels so much at that point. Still, the crowds helped me move forward and I was getting feedback that "everyone was looking as bad as me," which was somewhat comforting.

    Once again, I nursed my way through this section, as I struggled with the fact that I was walking so much. Although I lost more time to the race leader, I gained time on those behind me, which offered some comfort, so I settled into making sure that I could hold it together to the finish.

    I kept it very basic, eating as much of a gel as I could every 20-30 minutes, although I was getting a bit sick of its consistency. I kept thanking spectators and convincing myself that it was cool that with each step I took, I was setting a new milestones in my running both in length of time that I'd been running and in the distance that I'd covered.

    Finally, as I made my way into the last check point, the skies began to open up and the rain began to fall as the sun was setting. I didn't really know how far I had to go to the finish line, but I decided to push as hard as I could. I didn't allow myself to walk more than 10 steps, before I forced myself to at least try running. I was feeling depleted and sorry for myself, which was made worse when a spectator told me that two guys were making up time on me behind me. This was a great reminder that spectators, although nice to have out there, aren't always the most reliable when it comes to splits and placings, since I found out later that this was far from true. Still, it lit a little fire under my ass and I began to chase the setting sun. I really wanted to beat my way out of the woods before it got dark, because all I had were two very ineffective headlamps (to save weight).

    I was running in an exhausted state, in an absolute downpour at this point, on increasingly dark trails, as the temperature dropped, with no idea how far I had to go and was being chased by two imaginary demon runners behind me who were trying to steal my hard earned second place. It was all a bit surreal, but I also started to feel quite good again and was rolling along the dusky trail quite smoothly. I knew that with each step I was getting closer and I could see more and more twinkling lights from cabins and houses along the valley, which acted like a runway and I knew that I was almost in town.

    As I felt the trail start to head downhill and I popped out of the forest and onto the town streets, I could hear the announcer calling me forward. I pictured the crowds in town and I ran towards them as fast I could. Once I finally hit the café lined streets, I knew I was home free and basically floated the last 800 meters to the finish, trying to give as many high fives as possible and soak it all in. I caught some familiar faces in the crowds, which really lifted my spirits.

    I crossed the line in 10:29:35 and was so grateful to everyone that was there, standing in the pouring rain and applauding my finish. It was a very special feeling and one that I won't soon forget.

    After the pomp and circumstance, I was whisked away for more doping tests, still on a high. I was still in my soaked race kit, the rain was pouring and it was cold. Once I was done my testing, I suddenly came out of my high and felt like I was hit with a brick. I began to throw up the tea that I was given and I began to shake from the cold. I somehow made it back to the lobby of my hotel and passed out at the reception. Next thing I know, I'm being carried up the stairs and put in a hot shower, where I continued to throw up. I think that my body was in shock from becoming so cold after the race effort.

    I then crawled to a couch and slept for about an hour. I was then woken up by some serious hunger pangs that were cramping my stomach, but at least I felt more stable at this point. I went down to the lobby and the lady at the front desk went out and bought me the best tasting steak frites sandwhich that I have ever eaten. I then proceeded to lie awake all night, my system too wired to sleep, but feeling incredibly satisfied and a bit overwhelmed with what had happened

    Gear I used:

    • Arc'teryx Accelero cap
    • Arc'teryx Motus singlet (custom)
    • Salomon Exo Slab team shorts (2012)
    • Salomon Exo socks (2012)
    • Salomon XT wings Slab 4 shoes(regular)
    • Modified Salomon XT Advanced Skin 5 Slab pack

    Mandatory gear (every athlete must carry this gear & it is checked along the course):

    • - mobile phone with the international roaming option for the three countries-iPhone 4 (too heavy)
    • - personal beaker minimum 15cl (gourds excluded)-cut the top off of a Capri sun drink
    • - water reservoir, 1 litre minimum- 1 litre bladder with no tube (I used a handheld)
    • - two torches in good working order with spare batteries- 1 Petzl e+lite & 1 Black Diamond Ion headlamp
    • - survival blanket - standard one cut this down
    • - whistle- on the e+Lite headlamp
    • - self- adhesive elasticised bandage usable either as a bandage-regular from drugstore
    • - food reserve-30 GUs in vanilla, chocolate, Choc-mint & 5 Roctanes, 2 packs of Clif shot blocks, lots of Coke & water (probably only actually ate 22-25 gels)
    • - jacket with hood-Arc'teryx Squamish
    • - long running trousers or leggings or a combination of leggings and long socks which cover the legs completely- Arc'teryx Incendo 3/4 Salomon Exo Calf guards
    • - warm long sleeved clothing (type "second layer", cotton excluded) of a weight of 180g minimum-- Arc'teryx Phase SL
    • - cap or bandana-Suunto/Salomon Buff
    • - warm hat-Arc'teryx RHO LTW Beanie
    • - warm and waterproof gloves--surgical gloves + Arc'teryx gothic
    • - waterproof over-trousers-Arc'teryx Alpha SL

  • Season 2 Episode 1

    Like returning tides, those same passions, slightly evolved, have led me back. These are our stories. - http://www.theseasontv.com/

  • Adam Campbell Knee Knacker Race Report

    Four of us are standing around, knee deep in the chilly northern Pacific Ocean, trying desperately to offset and numb the pain in our legs. We can barely feel the crushed rocks and shells under our feet. Salt is crusted on our faces and jerseys, we all look a dazed, squinting into the sun that’s bathing the cove, as our bodies struggle to come back into balance.

    We’re mumbling inanely, wrestling with our incoherent and tired thoughts, but happy to no longer be trapped in our internal monologue. We chatter away about our experience over the last 5 or so hours with the only people who can understand. We share future plans and talk loosely about our personal lives.

    “I’m never doing that again…” said Aaron, he looks pale. “I don’t think I enjoy it!”

    “Yeah, whatever,” I answer, knowing fully well that those words are the finish-line mantra of any challenging race. With this race being so hard, you hear it a lot.

    We all join in on the chorus: “I’m not doing it again either!” and we laugh, knowing it’s a lie.

    A year later, 30-miles down the road, and many more miles run and raced, I jog around, trying to wake up and to ward off the morning chill that’s sapping my emaciated frame.

    I catch sight of Aaron, Ollie, Tom, Dirk and many other familiar faces. I also see lots of strangers. We all share the same knowing look “I knew I’d see you here”, accented with a hint of “I can’t believe I’m about to go through that again.”

    Despite the pending discomfort, we’re all also excited. We’ve trained hard, under every possible condition, and we respect that about each other. Although we don’t run together often, we’re surrounded by the small group of people who have endured a similar preparation leading up to that morning, so we understand each other. It’s that commonality that breeds respect. We may run at different speeds, at different times of day and cover varying weekly mileage, but the essence of what we do and what we are about to endure is the same.

    We line up obediently behind the line, like we have hundreds of times over the years, trying to repress nervous thoughts and focus in on the dark, cold trail in front of us. Suddenly, we’re running. Most of us shoot off at too quick a pace, the veterans holding back, knowing that these early miles are just for showboating and not for winning. I take the lead.

    Despite having run more that week than I normally would for a race this challenging I feel rested and strong. I pull away from the field and begin to narrow in on myself. I run through my mental checklists, listen to my breathing, trying to gauge the effort and relaxing every muscle that doesn’t help move me forward. I feel good and I begin to pull away.

    I see a few odd friends on the trail and make some incomprehensible comment. It’s darker than I remember from last year. The trail feels soft and is beautiful in its suffocating lushness.

    I follow the colourful ribbons marking the course, but don’t really pay attention to them. I’m trying to let time pass, there’s a long way still to go. I’m conserving my thoughts and focus for the hard sections to come. I extend my lead. I can no longer hear or see anyone behind me as I glimpse back through the trees.

    I know that Aaron started out more conservatively, but I expected him and Ollie to begin to chase and eventually catch me, that’s how it happened last year. The trail moves up and runs through a dry creek bed. I shorten my stride, trying to get power from my glutes and move my feet as quickly as possible. I have to hike up a few of the bigger rocks, but I’m moving well and my breathing is under control. I trust my fitness and I continue up.

    The trail levels out and weaves it’s way through the trees. The going is easy and I feel like I’m dancing my way along the brown ribbon of dirt. I start to eat and drink, fuelling for later. Distance racing is all about planning now for later.

    I glance at my watch, I’ve been running for 30 minutes. Still no one behind me. I know the trail begins to shoot up soon. I realize I haven’t seen any flagging for a bit, so I look around. I see some up the trail, so I chase it. It doesn’t feel right, but I plow forward. I see more flagging, still, it doesn’t feel right. I don’t remember what colour the previous markers were. These ones are orange. They take me down a path, it’s too narrow and too overgrown, I stubbornly forge forward. That’s what you do in a race. Suddenly, I stop. This isn’t right. “Fuck, where the hell am I?” I ask the trees. “Where the fuck is the trail?” I look around and I can’t see any other runners. I backtrack and begin yelling “Yoohoo…yoohoo”, someone yells back. I look at my watch, 5 or 6 minutes have passed. “Shit!” I get a bit frantic. I hustle back onto the trail and pass someone. “Adam Campbell, what the hell are you doing back here?” he asks as I pass him. “I’m an idiot,” I answer. “What place are we in?” I ask, “12th or 13th” he answers. “Ah shit” I say and I pick up my stride.

    I’m rushing, pressing too hard. I try to slow myself down. I remind myself that I made a mistake, a big one, but there’s lots of racing to go. I’m also a realist and know that you can’t give Aaron and Ollie any breaks. I respect them too much. I have to try, so I hustle patiently. I want to get back to the front. It becomes my single-minded focus. I stop paying attention to my surroundings. I make a few more wrong turns, but am pulled back on track by the wiley veterans that I have begun to pass. They shake their heads. I know what they’re thinking “youth.” I may be faster than them at this stage in our lives, but their experience is what counts and is worth more than its weight in fitness. I chastised myself and try to be more methodical. I remind myself to keep eating and drinking and I try to calm down.

    The trail has opened up and I can see colourful jerseys up ahead. I’m closing on them, but I can’t see Ollie and Aaron. I catch on to the back of a group of three masters runners, including Mark and Peter. They are huge inspirations and wonderful runners. I can only hope to keep going at their level for years to come. However, they are not who I should be running with at this point in the race, so I press on.

    The route is hard to find through all the snow. I’m still a bit frantic and flail to find my footing. Snow bridges collapse under my foot and I posthole several times, I find myself on my back. It doesn’t hurt, so I bounce up and resume my chase. Everyone is struggling on the slippery and unpredictable surface. I’m still frantic.

    I convince myself that these conditions suit my small nimble frame. It’s awkward going, but I believe this argument and it lifts my spirits. Then, I’m on my back again, that one hurt. I spring up and begin to flail downhill on the soft surface. I begin to have fun. It’s wreckless and I go down a few more times, but it’s what I signed up for and I’m enjoying myself for the first time in a while.

    Suddenly, I catch sight of a white singlet up the trail-“Goctha!” I think. I know it’s Ollie. He doe not look like he’s enjoying the snow. He’s feet are splayed and his stride is choppy. Not the same runner who can crush me at a road 10km.

    We leave the snow momentarily, the dirt feels abnormally hard and jarring. It’s nice to extend my stride, but Ollie finds his normal form too, instantly a different runner and pulls away. We run to the aide station and I hear people yelling numbers, I assume they are splits. I work unnecessarily hard to catch the white jersey. It’s all I see.

    I hear that Aaron’s two minutes up the trail. I can deal with that, but I realize that I’ll have to hurt myself to catch him. I think back to last year where I closed over 5 minutes on Aaron in the last 10 or so kilometers as his body failed. I doubt I’ll be so lucky this year. Still, I want to run with him, so I chase. It’s my only hope.

    We run back onto the snow and I’m almost at Ollie and down I go again. The snow has caught my foot. “Fuck that hurt.” I take a few gingerly steps on my wonky ankle. It’s been giving me grief for the past month or so. “No, not the ankle” I think. I walk a bit, then I limp, then gradually put more weight on it, “I’ll be alright,” I tell myself. I get more confidence in the joint and roll back up to full speed. It doesn't hurt, I hope it doesn't come back to bother me later on. It doesn't. Ollie has run away from me. So I press again. I want to catch him while we’re still on the snow.

    Finally, I get my hooks into his jersey and pull myself onto his shoulder. The snow ends and the ground is hard again. “Yes,” I think. It’s a small, buts significant victory. We yo-yo back and forth. He doesn’t look comfortable. I ask if he minds if I pass him, he obliges and steps aside.

    I start to chase Aaron. My quads are screaming at me as I run hard off the mountain. I try to dance across the rocks and roots, but it’s definitely a drunken frat boy dance, more clumsy than graceful. Like a frat boy at a party, I know the dance likely won’t end well, but I enjoy the pace. I’m proud of myself that I’ve finally learned to run on technical downhills. I run too hard.

    After descending 800 or more meters of the mountain, my legs don’t feel great, but my energy is good. We’re approaching halfway. Lots of racing to go.

    Ollie is hanging on, but I know I’ve hurt him. He’s not running with me. I run through the aide station and try to be efficient. I hear various reports about how far ahead Aaron is. It ranges from 90 seconds to 2 minutes. I’m happy to hear this, so I continue the chase.

    We run up the only significant stretch of road back to the trail. I try to press, but remain patient. Ollie is closing on me, but never catches me. Intuitively, I know I’ve beaten him if I can get to the trail first. I do.

    As we move along this third quarter of the race, I realize my legs are tired and I’m no longer dancing. I stumble a bit. I try to eat and drink, but the fluidity of my running is gone. I have to trust my fitness and strength to see me through. I know Aaron is pressing up ahead. I don’t think I can catch him. My only hope now is that he beats himself. I still have that hope, so I chase.

    Every 20 or so minutes I get reports about Aaron up the trail. The time keeps getting bigger. 3.5 minutes, 4, 5, then 7. Aaron’s not coming back unless he’s stopped by a bear, or injury. I don’t want to win that way. I focus on trying to hold myself together. Last year, despite winning, my body failed over the last 2.5 miles. I was crippled by cramping and was reduced to walking. It hurt and was embarrassing. I don’t want to feel that again this year.

    I become methodical, nursing my way along the Baden Powell. Trying to keep myself moving efficiently and fast, while dolling out my effort with a view to the finish. I’m tired and sore. I become rude at aide stations when they aren’t ready for me. “Coke, e-Load” I yell, they don’t get it. I’m fumbling and frantic. “I need the fuel to survive and finish this fucker, don’t they understand that?” I think. I instantly feel guilty for my selfishness. They’re giving up their Saturday morning so that I can indulge in a ridiculous race. I want to apologize, but I can’t stop moving forward.

    Gary Robbins is there, sharing his passion for the sport by cheering us on and sharing the race online. He was standing in the Ocean icing his legs with us a year ago. Now, he stands on the sidelines, his foot in a cast and on crutches. I feel sorry for him. The twinkle in his eye says it all, “I wish I was there.” He’ll be back next year and the years after that. He yells a split to me. It isn’t comforting. I hope he apologizes to the aide station crew for me. He understands.

    “Only 75 or 80 minutes of running to go” I think. I tell myself it’s 85. It’s an age-old trick. Overestimate, so you have a reward when it doesn’t take so long. I’m playing mind-games with myself. I’m not moving as fast as I want to and I’m extremely tired, but my body’s holding together and I actually feel strong and coherent. This is a huge victory. I’m adapting to this style of training and racing.

    I hold it together well and finish in a way that I’m proud of. Aaron kept distancing me and won by an impressive margin. He ran a smart and tough race. I learn later that two-days before he didn’t know if he could race due to a foot problem. He has nothing to prove, but my respect for him increases by another notch. He is a tough bastard and I know it. He overcame his struggles from last year, learned from his experiences and ran a better race than me. He’s also classy and comes to the finishline as I’m crossing, with his son in tow. A good friend and a worthy winner. We chat a bit and wait for Ollie, who faced his own demons and body one more year. He finished third.

    Gary and Lauren are also there and people are congratulating me. I’m initially disappointed that I robbed myself of the chance to go toe to toe with Aaron, but as my emotions calm and I reflect critically on the race, I forget that hiccup.

    Aaron, Ollie and I wade back into the chilly waters and we continue our chorus from last year. “I’m never doing that again…until next year!” and we all laugh.

    The results sheets lie and don’t reflect my actual race. There's a difference between looking at a results sheet and looking at how the race unfolded, they often tell you a very different story. Yes, I'll admit that I wanted to win this year. I felt like I got lucky last year and wanted to prove myself, but that was only one small and difficult goal. In my opinion, my race went better than it did last year when I won. I was slower this year, but so was the course. If I subtract, even conservatively, for my time lost and the slower snow conditions, I ran a relatively faster race. More importantly, my body held together better and I ran almost every section, except the start, faster than I did last year and felt much more comfortable doing it. Plus, I was able to push quite hard for a long time without completely blowing at the end. I also feel like I was mentally stronger throughout the day and my nutrition was better. All of these are huge steps in making me a better ultra runner and they give me a huge confidence boost to my other big races coming up later in the summer.

    I still need to work on being more patient and starting a bit more conservatively. It's a fine balance when you're gunning for the win in a relatively competitive event.

    Thanks to all the volunteers, aide station workers, spectators, trail crew, race sponsors and organizers. I apologize for seeming ungrateful and even possibly rude, as I ran past. I’m not myself when I race and I do appreciate that your time and effort is what allows us to indulge our passion. Races wouldn’t happen without all of you, so thank you.


    I finished 2nd, in a time of 5:06:48
    My splits were:
    3 1:27:47 1 (1:05:46) 2:33:33 2 (1:13:16) 2 3:46:49 2 (1:19:59) 2 5:06:48

    Here are my splits from last year:
    1:18:37 (1:06:13) 2:24:50 (1:13:14) 2 3:38:04 4 (1:20:09) 1 4:58:13

  • Season 2 Trailer

    Rise up. Become legend. Welcome to The Season 2. A 22-episode web TV series following five athletes through the course of a single season.
    Episide 1 will premiere here on arcteryx.com September 6th. - http://www.theseasontv.com/

  • Robert Pizem To Attempt Unaweep Wall

    Unaweep Wall lies on the west end of Unaweep Canyon just outside Grand Junction, Colorado. It is a granite and metamorphic gneiss over looked and under used rock climbing mecca. Most of the noteworthy and established climbing is at the east end of the canyon on smaller features from sandstone boulders to 600 ft granite walls. Traditional routes are the main attraction, but more and more mixed and sport routes are being established by myself, Jesse and others.

    At 1300ft tall, Unaweep Wall is imposing and impressive. Only broken by a ledge 200-300ft up, its cracks have only been attempted by a few adventurous folks and officially completed by one. This saturday, Jesse Zacher and I will attempt a ground up new line on the wall. Currently there is only 1 existing aide line on Unaweep Wall. We have only scoped the wall with a spotting scope and will hope that our journey brings us to the summit in good fashion. Our goal is to free climb the entire wall without having to resort to any aide climbing moves. Stay tuned for the rest of the story next week. Get outside and have an adventure!

    piz : )

  • Paul Guschlbauer Climbs Podium at the Red Bull X Alps

    27-year old Paul Guschlbauer was the big surprise at this year's Red Bull X-Alps competition – a non-stop adventure race over 864 km for selected athletes. The challenge is to cross the Alps from East to West as quickly as possible travelling only by paraglider or by foot. After 14 days, thousands of people followed the close duel for second place between Arc'teryx athlete Guschlbauer and Romanian Toma Coconea in the live-stream. Since 2003, the X-Alps race takes place every two years and is known as one of the word's toughest paragliding and adventure competitions. This year, the event started in Salzburg/Austria via the turnpoints Dachstein, Großglockner, Tre Cima, Piz Palü, Matterhorn and the Montblanc to Monaco. All in all, the participants had to brave 864 km as the crow flies. The athletes are only allowed to fly or hike. For security reasons they have to rest between 23.00 and 4.00. Carefully selected out of thousands of applicants, 31 top athletes raced the Red Bull XAlps 2011.

    He won in 2009 and he did it again in 2011: Swiss Christian Maurer clinched victory with his nearest followers over 150 km behind. When Maurer reached the finish, all other athletes had just 48 hours left to get to Monaco. The duel for the second place was neck to neck! Toma Coconea was ahead of Guschlbauer. As the Romanian is a very strong runner, he decided to walk. So for the final 80 km, Guschlbauer had to gamble and decided to Monaco, trying to overtake Coconea in the air. The showdown was followed by thousands of people worldwide live online. In the end, a Arc'teryx has built a reputation as an innovator in the outdoor industry, creating products of pioneering design, original construction techniques, and quality materials that enhance personal performance in the outdoors. Arc'teryx's head office is in North Vancouver, BC, with manufacturing and distribution facilities in Burnaby, BC and Coquitlam, BC. A strong southerly wind forced Austrian Guschlbauer to land nine kilometres short of the finish line, coming in third.

    Yet, Paul is more than happy about the result: "Of course, you're ambitious and you're fighting hard. But, it was the first X-Alps for me and to come in third is just mind blowing!" Guschlbauer is a mutlitalented athlete with a background in mountain biking, mountaineering and running. His true passion, however, is paragliding.

    Guschlbauer is studying mechanical engineering and works as test pilot and developer for paragliding brand Skywalk. He's always been eagerly fine-tuning his equipment. For the X-Alps race he got professional support from outdoor equipment specialist Arc'teryx. The brand's repair specialist spontaneously produced an ultra-lightweight, yet spacious backpack for Guschlbauer's paraglider, his emergency parachute and the harness. The pack weighs in at mere 915 g and was developed in the Outdoor Repair Center in Zürich/Switzerland. The team handles all repair cases for Arc'teryx Europe. "In a race like the X-Alps, every gram counts! But comfort is crucial too. It is sensational what Arc'teryx came up with. The other competitors were eyeing it jealously…" Paul Guschlbauer smiles proudly.

  • Julian Zanker Climbs Rätikon Lilith

    The Rätikon is a very special area for me.

    It's always a real pleasure to climb this beautiful, fastidious rock. We climbed a 230 meter long vertical wall named Lilith (7c+) with very small holds. After I broke my wrist I prefer to spend my free time on multi pitch routes.

    It's always a fantastic experience and after a perfect day like this, I feel tired, out of power, but so lucky and alive. The first pitches were beautiful and after the second one it's very steep. I like :-)

    It's always great to climb with my friend Beno. We understand each other very well and we have a lot of fun on the wall, which is really important.

    I was able to climb pitch 6 (7b) and 7 (7c) onsight. I was very surprised because the Rätikon is not a climbing garden. The difficulty is situated highly. You have to push yourself and your partner.

    After 5 hours of climbing we were at the top and enjoyed some bread and cheese...

    Our view was facing to the "Silbergeier" (8b+) which is an amazing wall.

    Since I'm a climber I dream about climbing that route....maybe I will sometime next year.

  • Forrest Coots Powder POV March 16 at Mount Baker

    Forrest Coots Powder POV March 16 at Mount Baker

  • Coots Cam Mt Superior

  • Adam Barker Profile

  • Through Their Beholders Trailer

    Although most of the Northern Hemisphere is enjoying summer conditions, the ski season is starting to get going in the South. Enjoy this trailer for a six part series by Arc'teryx athlete and filmmaker Jacob Slot launching this Fall on arcteryx.com.

  • Julian Zanker Climbs Insonnia In Switzerland

    Insonnia is a beautiful multi-pitch route in Ticino, the Italian part of Switzerland. Mostly trad climbing, the route has 16 ptiches: one is rated 7c, 3 are 7a.

    Three months ago I broke my wrist, so to be climbing multi-pitch routes again makes me happy and motivated. The 5am start begins with a one hour walk to the bottom of the beautiful wall. Morning light touches the summit – perfect conditions.

    The first three pitches are really wet. So be it. The rest of the route awaits. And it is stunning: clean cracks, some bolts, a 40m long handcrack, vertical fantastic rock. Pitch number 10 is perhaps the most aesthetic route I have had the privilege to climb.

    My partner Marcel and I are a solid team. Final pitch, 7b+ crack on a big roof, is the perfect end to a brilliant day. My hand is coming back. I love trad climbing and on my next visit to Ticino, I'd like to spend more time on multi-pitch routes.

    Thanks to Arc'teryx for the support.

  • Tyler Horne around Jackson Hole

    Tyler Horne foot launching speed wings around Jackson Hole.

  • Nina Caprez Fish Eye 8c

    Nina Caprez visits Oliana, Spain, to tame the 8c route, Fish Eye.
    Men's Climbing Gear | Women's Climbing Gear | Nina Caprez' Bio

  • 24 Hours of Gunnison Glory

    Rocking and Rolling was the atmosphere during the 2011 Climb Up: 24 hours of Gunnison Glory (24GG), where more than 4500 climbers and music fans headed in and out of Hartman Rocks Recreation Area throughout the weekend of May 28. The purpose of the event was to celebrate rock climbing for 24 hours straight, by hanging out with friends, listening to music, or climbing the whole time. There were four live bands, a BBQ all evening and night, yoga sessions, travelers from the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, and even a wedding. There were also no injuries during the 24GG.

    Among the celebration of rock climbing and the outdoor world in general, six individuals really dug deep and climbed the full 24 hours. Four different teams of two, two local and two from out of town, brought the necessary elements to survive through this event. Among thems was the overall hard man Rob Pizem, who combined hard climbing, mental toughness and endurance strength to put down 80 routes within this 24 hour time span.

    Chris Stoerhmann, competitor from Virginia, remembers being “frozen at 4 a.m. on a beginner slab in a down jacket and khaki pants, begging for the sun to come up and warm us while everything is so quiet and still, feeling like we were the only ones out there ‘crazy’ enough to climb

    “I tied into the sharp end and started up a 40-foot 5.7 crystalized dyke with two bolts, literally shivering up the entire route not able to feel my hands, feet or mind. I remember saying to myself ‘Just keep moving!’ as I climbed up a stairway of perfect crystals that glittered in the moonlight and as I look back on it now I realize it was probably one of the coolest climbs we did that day.”

  • Nina Caprez Climbs Silbergeier Switzerland

    Nina Caprez Climbs Silbergeier in the Raetikon, Switzerland

    A story by Nina Caprez

    Rock’n Roll!

    Last week it snowed and hailed in the Rätikon, perfect friction for Silbergeier, I thought?!?

    Not really, bundled up like a Michelin Man, it was not so easy to climb my project. I failed at that attempt because of the rain, I was too scared and hesitant due to the wet conditions.

    A few days ago this last Saturday, together with the local legend Günter Habersatter, I was climbing with no hope for an attempt, since the last pitch still looked wet. The plan for the day was to show all the route beta to Günti.

    I climbed without pressure, with a free and open mind, laughing when snowflakes started to fall on to the holds, this was great for my psyche. The first 8b pitch felt like a 7a warm up, on the 7c+ flat traverse, my feet were like glued on to the footholds, on the 8a+ my fingers felt like they were frozen on to rock, on the 7a I even tried on a new pair of climbing shoes, then rock’n roll the last 2 pitches, the 8b+ and the terribel 7c+ were also a perfect send.

    What can I say? No pressure, no expectations….. the climbing was just awesome and it felt so easy.

    For me, this was the perfect climb, my big dream, this will for sure be one of the most beautiful highlights of my little climbing career…

    Check out Nina's blog here: www.ninacaprez.ch

  • Yosemite Trip Report

    On June 8th I rolled into the Valley with plans to do two things. One was an all disabled ascent of El Cap, and two, was a one-day ascent of the Nose. I picked up my partner Jarem in Fresno and we chatted about doing Lurking Fear on the Capitan.

    The first day of free climbing broke one prototype foot, and a little of his confidence, but we pushed on. Two days later and 500 feet up the route, his leg fell off, yes, off…Luck was with us as it got stuck in a sling he had cleaned and swung under him like a big boat anchor. The foot had become so shredded that the carbon fiber on the front was bear and rubbing on the rock, which made it very hard for him to even jug the pitches after I lead them. After a hard heart to heart, he decided he wanted to go down, and we did.

    Upon reaching the ground he informed me he also had to beat it home, some stuff had gone wrong at the home base and he needed to be there and fast, so it was back to Fresno.

    I was bummed, and not sure what to do, but after speaking with my friend James Q Martin who was shooting the fun there, he told me to get my butt back to the Valley. I got back the next afternoon and met up with James and Sarah Watson along with Jessie Huey who had been with us on Lurking Fear. The following days were filled with climbs I had done with two legs and wanted to repeat, and I can’t explain how cool it was to be with this crew sending the routes we did. Serenity Crack, Wheat Thin, and a host of boulder problems made the week perfect. After a rest day, I met up with Hans Florine, he and I had climbed on El Cap before and been the first disabled ascent of the Capitan in a day. This time we wanted to be the first disabled ascent of the Nose in a Day. We took off the next day with Hans leading and me following or jugging depending on the pitch. Hans let me lead the fun stuff including the Pancake Flake and the last pitch to the summit; he is always like that, giving to the end. This was also his 75th trip up the Nose and we finished in 13 hours and change, psyched and still joking after a day where we passed 9 parties on the route. The trip was a great time and a success in the List of climbs I want to do as a disabled climber, I can’t wait to get back and work on the rest.

    Photo 3 & 4 credit: Catherine Carlisle-McMullen

  • Cerro Torre Trip Report

    Sweating hard, I took another step and plunged boot-deep in the soft snow. The rope pulled sharply at my harness.

    “You need to slow down dude, I can’t go as fast as you,” Chris urged. He was right; we were gaining nothing by working this hard on the approach. It was 11:00 am, the sun, a rare-sight in this mountain range, was shining brightly down on us. The snow was isothermal. The mighty east face of Cerro Torre leered above, taunting me. This was the culmination of a season spent biding time, waiting for conditions and weather to attempt our dream project. I was amazed we were finally getting the chance. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach, the feeling of uncertainty.

    Only 24 hours before, my partner Chris Geisler and I had cashed in our chips. Our trip was over. We staggered back into camp and packed our bags, defeated. Our new route attempt across the valley from the Torre ended after two punishing days. It was going to be our consolation prize of the trip, as the Torre, our main objective, was still caked in un-climbable rime ice. I got sick en route. We were both fried. After a freezing open bivy without a stove or bivy gear our decision to retreat was easy.

    We were punched on the walk out of base camp. Chris had to catch the bus out of town that afternoon to make his flight home. Mid-way across the glacier we stopped for a drink at a small glacial stream. Sitting on my pack I stared up at Cerro Torre one last time, my eyes drawn immediately to the upper headwall, a stretch of overhanging stone that sits incased in un-climbable rime ice 98 percent of the year. It had shed quite a bit of its frosty exterior. Our route looked to be coming into climbable shape.

    “What exactly is stopping us from trying what we came all the way here to try?” Chris asked.

    I thought for a long time before answering. “Well, you have to catch a plane to get home to your wife, daughter, and job”.

    Both polite Canadians, we were avoiding saying exactly what we felt. But Chris’ good nature was betrayed by the look in his eyes. We needed, at least, to try.

    Chris dropped his bag on the glacier, we high-fived, and he howled with delight as he ran off to make the 30km round trip to town and back to change his flight.

    I shuttled our packs back to base camp and resurrected our tent. When I finished packing, all that remained was to wait. It was still light out when I retired to my sleeping bag, a futile attempt at sleep. My mind raced. More than any climb I had yet attempted, this one had the biggest build-up, the most bullshit. To understand, one must understand a little bit of the history of Cerro Torre. For the keenest reader, much has been written on the subject. Here is my abridged take on it all.

    “The story of Cerro Torre is the story of a defeat”. Or so said Dougal Haston after his attempt of the SE Ridge in 1968. Certainly, it has become the most controversial peak in the world of alpine climbing.

    In 1959, Italians Cesare Maestri, Cesarino Fava, and Austrian Toni Egger attempted the North Face of Cerro Torre. Fava turned back part way up, at the Col of Conquest. Egger perished at some point during the attempt. Fava found Maestri six days later lying in the snow after a fall, severely frostbitten and near death. Maestri claimed to have been successful, making what was then the greatest ascent in the history of the sport. Despite being one the premier climbers of his generation, Maestri’s claim was heavily scrutinized. It is now globally accepted that Maestri made nothing more than a monumental lie.

    For reasons that can only be attributed to the inner workings of an unhinged mind, Cesare Maestri returned to Cerro Torre, in 1970, with a gasoline-powered air compressor and thousands of meters of fixed rope. Maestri started up the unclimbed south east ridge of the mountain. When he hit un-climbable rime-ice part way up the ridge, he deviated from the natural line. Utilizing his 180-kilogram compressed air drill kit he drilled a 90-meter bolt ladder across the blank, overhanging east face and continued bolting up the blank stone above. When Maestri intersected the ice tower features, he drilled up blank stone beside a WI4 goulotte. On the headwall, Maestri drilled continuous pitches of bolt ladders despite many climbable features, because the pitons had been left at the bergschrund. Between 300 and 400 bolts were placed. The resulting effort is now known as the Compressor Route.

    Maestri didn’t summit. He descended from the highest rock on the headwall, not even allowing his climbing partners to join him at his high point. While rappelling his last pitch, Maestri chopped a long section of the bolt ladder (which was re-drilled with rivets by Jim Bridwell when he and Steve Brewer made the third ascent of Cerro Torre in 1979).

    It’s truly unbelievable. To fully fathom the insanity that Maestri left behind on Cerro Torre, one must experience it first-hand.

    I remember when I was 10 years old, showing my stepfather a photo of Cerro Torre in a climbing magazine and telling him that Patagonia looked ‘cool’. Since then I’ve always wanted to climb the Torre. My partner Will Stanhope and I even briefly discussed attempting the Compressor Route during our first trip to the mountain range. Lacking the skill set for any other route on the mountain however, we soon abandoned any notion of a try, dismissing an ascent of the Compressor as invalid. This year I applied for the John Lauchlan Memorial Grant with partner Chris Geisler. “Our team hopes to climb the Torre by fair means – a new route done without using any of the Maestri bolts up the natural line of the SE ridge” I wrote in my proposal. Never expecting to win with such a wacky objective, we were blown away when they told us we’d won the money.

    Climbing the South East Ridge of Cerro Torre without utilizing any of Maestri’s detritus, what is now labeled the ‘Fair Means’ project, is a difficult thing for the general population to understand. Compounding the problem was the recent hype in the media surrounding the young Austrian David Lama, Red Bull energy drink and the Torre.

    Lama arrived in Patagonia during the 2009-10 climbing season on a Red Bull-sponsored expedition accompanied by a large crew of filmmakers and guides with the intent of freeclimbing the Compressor. Unfortunately, the team chose to add approximately 30 bolts to the route in places not even Maestri deemed necessary, as well as fix ropes along the ridge to the 90 meter bolt traverse. Here they were thwarted by poor weather and conditions and retreated. They abandoned their ropes and haulbags on the mountain, and the team returned to Austria. It would be more than a month before Red Bull paid local Argentine guides to remove the trash, but they failed to remove it all. As a keen observer who happened to be in the range at the time, I was shocked that these heavy-handed tactics were still being deployed in the mountains and wondered when the media was going to catch on to this story. News spread; the climbing world was outraged and Lama was vilified, especially in North America.

    This year Lama returned to Patagonia, admitting their wrongs from the year before. Things would be different this time, they claimed. One detail that managed to leak, however, was Lama’s intent on climbing the Compressor to scope the headwall section, then rappel bolt the line of least resistance.

    I was shocked. I thought this tactic would directly inhibit my planned attempt. I appealed to the power of social media, and blogged about Red Bull’s plan. The response was much greater than anticipated. Loving the controversy, all the magazines wanted to know my opinion. The hype became too much. Recycled garbage. Eventually I was tired of it all, the idea of comparing myself to someone else sickened me. My plan was never to promote my ascent nor defame Lama.

    Still awake, my eyes wide and staring at the yellow fabric of the inside of my tent, waiting for Chris to show up. I had a lot to think about when all I really should have been thinking about was the route.

    F*@k everybody else. Cerro Torre was deeply personal. That’s why I was doing this.

    Finally, I was able to sleep.

    “Yo, Kruk!” It was Chris, back from his epic round trip. He had been on the move now for a long time. Taking a long pull off a bottle of whiskey, he described his odyssey: the ordeal of changing his flights last minute, getting hopelessly lost alone on the Torre Glacier. His eyes were lit up, but his body looked worked.

    “I think we should move now, before the snow softens up,” Chris said.

    I thought about it. It was 3:30 in the morning, a very reasonable time to go alpine climbing. Climbing the initial 300 meters of mixed terrain before the sun reached it would make for easier travel, safer too. But I also thought about how tired Chris must be, especially considering our climbing the previous two days.

    We agreed to sleep for 4 hours. We woke at 9:30, brewed cowboy coffee, and devoured a massive steak Chris had hiked in from town, along with soggy French fries and a wilting salad. We started hiking towards Cerro Torre at 10:00.

    Here we were, postholing on the glacier, playing tug-of-war on the ends of our shortened rope. I apologized. I was anxious. We were finally going to touch Cerro Torre.

    We weaved our way through fresh-looking serac debris at the start of the mixed climbing. I dropped the coils of rope that were around my shoulder and we started simul-climbing up the steep snow and ice, placing infrequent pieces of rock gear in the buttress to my right. I spied the first real pitch of climbing and led towards it. Slinging a horn as my belay, I pulled the rope in to Chris, then handed him the rack. Chris, with steel crampons, would lead this section. I would follow with the heavy pack and aluminum crampons that threatened to fall off my boots with every front-point move.

    Isothermic conditions required creativity to manage, but we quickly reached the Col of Patience, the broad shoulder of snow where the SE ridge proper begins. Here, I switched from boots to rock shoes and led and short-fixed my way up the ridgeline. Chris followed with the jumars, getting more and more frustrated by the tedious nature of jugging less-than-vertical terrain with a large pack.

    Our friends Colin Haley and Zach Smith, who were trying the same project up the SE ridge, rappelled past us, bailing. They told us it was too cold and windy and they only had lightweight sleeping bags each to bivy in.

    We watched our friends rappel out of sight. Chris and I chatted about the possibility of descending. We only had one lightweight sleeping bag between the both of us. After all we had been through to get to this point, we were committed. We were not bailing now. We continued, capable of only a slow pace, the difference split between our tired bodies and our high psyche.

    We bivied just below the 90 meter bolt traverse the first night. I spent a long time chopping a ledge into the ice barely big enough for us to sleep on, repeatedly having to force my hand open finger-by-finger from its death grip on my ice tool. The night was cold but luxurious compared to the horrible bivy we had two nights previous.

    On day two we encountered our first crux. The integral ridgeline above the 90 meter bolt traverse was attempted as early as 1968 and finally climbed in 1999 by Ermanno Salvaterra and Mauro Mabboni. Here I climbed bullet hard granite at the apex of the ridge, the unrelentingly steep south face dropping away immediately to my left. I tacked my way through perfect, scooped edges. Bold 5.11 climbing protected by only a handful of bolts and thin gear. Salvaterra placed a handful of bolts total, skipping hundreds of Maestri bolts in the process.

    Chris’ moral was starting to dive. I was leading granite perfection, hooting with delight at the intricate climbing, while he was sentenced to the jumars, the pack mule. At the ice towers Chris took over the leading and took off up an easy mixed pitch with a renewed vigor. Moderate ice led to the entrance of the 60-meter WI4 chimney, a perfect cleft of vertical blue ice, pinching down to a width barely big enough to fit through. Bobbles of rime ice we being funneled through the chimney feature continuously. Chris battled through, occasionally getting his bell rung by softball-sized chunks of ice, running it out between the only three screws we brought.

    Topping out the chimney, we were finally at the base of the headwall, the overhanging tombstone of decomposing granite capping the mountain. Looking up, insipient edge features linked hanging flakes - a far cry from the high-quality granite we had become accustomed to. Maestri’s bolt ladder went straight up, our line climbed right. Chris led on, gingerly laybacking the hollow flakes and stuffing many dubious cams behind the creaking granite. The pitch devoured gear, so Chris stopped short, fixing the rope for me to jumar. Ice clung to the wide flakes above, forcing Chris left. Now, climbing mostly on aid, Chris swung into a perfect thin-hands splitter. What could have been freeclimbing terrain was mostly aided in our deteriorating state. Chris brought us up to a small two-foot ledge of sloping ice mid-way up the headwall. The only horizontal sanctuary on the headwall, and what would be my resting place for the next eight hours.

    Above, the climbing looked tenuous - definitely the realm of the modern aid technician. Chris was the man for job. He did early repeats of El Cap terrors and established and repeated the most serious of the Squamish big wall aid climbs. He hadn’t done this type of climbing for several years so I was very curious to see how he would do. I breathed easy as I watched him delicately shift his weight between his aiders and methodically work his way from hook placement to hook placement.

    When it became dark Chris continued climbing. I patiently belayed. The hours ticked by and the cold darkness of a Patagonian night surrounded us. The rime ice bobbles whipped around the headwall carried by the venturi effect and pummled me constantly where I sat on the ice. Every couple minutes a softball would connect with my knee or my shoulder, awakening me from my half-sleep with sharp pain. I tied knots in the rope below my belay device, not really trusting myself to give an attentive belay.

    Suddenly I heard a scream from above; Chris was airborn, the rope came tight. The edge he was hooking on had ripped, sending him for a massive whipper through the darkness.

    “Now we’re climbing!” I yelled up at Chris. He pulled up the jumars on the tag line to re-ascend to his high point.

    Our best guess at the line of weakness dead-ended just above here. Chris was on the lead for 8 hours straight, climbing through the night, before he came abruptly to a blank impasse. Chris placed a quarter-inch bolt, the second bolt placed on the pitch, and I lowered him to my stance. We were unsure on what to do. Chris was mentally fried after being strung out on the sharp end for 8 hours of techno-aid. We were painfully close to the top though, our highpoint, approximately 40 meters from the top of the Cerro Torre headwall.

    Our decision was made for us when storm clouds, hidden from us at our vantage point high on the east face, blew in from the west. Instantly, our clothes, ropes, and beards were coated in a white layer of frost. The wind picked up even stronger and whipped around the tower. The full fury of a Patagonian storm was unleashing all around us and we were so exposed on our little perch we felt like we were on the moon. We were going down.

    I led the long way down slowly and methodically in the storm, Chris was thankful for the break. The plentiful bolts quickened the pace. Many hours later we reached our starting point. Basecamp was a ghost town, we were the last tent remaining.

    Early the next morning Chris hiked to town to catch his bus to the airport. I slept in and hiked out that afternoon with a crippling load on my back. I had plenty to contemplate to take my mind off the labour. Unsure of what the outside world’s reaction to our attempt would be, I didn’t care, I was proud of our climb.

    What is the difference between 2 bolts and 2000? We had brought along a small bolt kit and drilled 2 bolts in blank sections of rock un-passable even with the tricks of modern aid. A few bolts placed where absolutely necessary seems pretty reasonable to me.

    Our choice to use Maestri’s bolts for our descent was an easy decision. If one can ascend without bolts, they can certainly descend. If the ultimate goal is respect for the mountain, why leave more trash beside usable anchors? If the South East Ridge had been completed initially in a reasonable style there would be fixed gear for rappel in situ anyways.

    Ultimately, I feel we were successful. We chose to forge our own path up one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet. We accepted the possibility of failure, instead of following Maestri like hundreds have before us. After all, it’s that queasy feeling of uncertainty that keeps me coming back, where’s the fun in a sure thing?

  • Vice President Marketing

    In order to enable our long-term growth vision, we are seeking a Vice President, Marketing to unite our brand/creative and digital marketing departments. North Vancouver, BC, Canada.


    Arc’teryx is a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, high-end technical outdoor clothing and equipment, and we have big plans. In the past year, we have gone from 406 employees, to over 480. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo.

    We’re looking to fill this newly-created position because we need to turbocharge the contribution of the marketing department so we can fulfill our vision of being the global leader in performance softgoods!

    What we're looking for:

    • Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in Marketing, or equivalent experience
    • Experience in an industry-leading company in the sporting, outdoor or consumer industries
    • Experience in leading a team in global brand building
    • Experience in line marketing (market, product, consumer) for a larger, multi-national company
    • Strong business and commercial acumen with proven financial management skills
    • Strong leadership skills, with drive and enthusiasm
    • Strong interpersonal & networking skills
    • Strong influencing & negotiating skills

    What you’ll be doing:

    • Developing and implementing a comprehensive marketing vision
    • Interfacing with Sales and R&D in development of product range plans, identifying consumer needs and key barriers, develop the brand positioning, and go-to-market activation plan
    • Defining and delivering consumer fundamentals/KPI’s to enable top-line growth and profit targets
    • Ensuring that brand strategies and product ranges are sufficient to deliver targets
    • Day-to-day management of the marketing teams
    • Responsible for developing the product and market launch plans covering sell in, sell out, sports, events, digital marketing

    What’s in it for you:

    • You can combine where you work with how you play
    • You get to oversee the brand marketing, web development, CRM (customer relationship management), communications, and creative departments
    • You will get to participate in the Amer Sports Global Marketing team
    • You will be a key driver in our P&L
    • The ability to do all of this in a fun, casual company that supports and encourages work-life balance

    If this opportunity excites you, then please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1106-VPM-web" in the subject line of your email.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Arc’teryx hires on the basis of merit and is committed to Employment Equity.

    Printable version

  • Arcteryx Announces Partnership with British Mountain Guide Association

    As part of their commitment to innovative & timeless product design, Arc’teryx announces a key partnership with the British Mountain Guide Association.

    The BMG partnership expands Arc’teryx’s testing program of high performance mountain gear. It signifies the high professional and technical standard Arc’teryx strives for, with alpine products designed to exceed the needs of the most demanding alpinists. Effective 1 June, joint marketing efforts were launched and all BMG Guides will access a special program of support, along with eight aspirant BMG Guides being fully equipped with the highest spec Arc’teryx products, providing valuable product feedback from their work in the world’s most challenging conditions.

    The partnership was kicked off with a classic day of alpine climbing at the BMG annual meeting in Leysin, Switzerland on 10th June. Said James Bronson of Arc’teryx; “We at Arc’teryx are excited to join with the BMG to support the progression of mountain culture and mountain pursuits. We look forward to working with these elite BMG Guides to equip them with the gear they need to perform at the high level their profession requires.”

    “Whether selecting a mountain guide or your clothing, why settle for less than the very best?” commented Stuart Macdonald, BMG Equipment Officer.

    The BMG are among the world’s most highly qualified mountain guides, with members holding the IFMGA Carnet, the highest qualification in the world for mountain guiding. The IFMGA Carnet is also the only UK qualification valid abroad for taking clients climbing and skiing off-piste and on glacial terrain. Now the BMG Guides can feel 100% confident in their apparel.

    The select BMG members will be wearing the Alpha SV Jacket, Beta Pants and Alpha SV Gloves. The Alpha SV Jacket, designed for extreme conditions, is Arc’teryx’s most durable waterproof shell made with Gore-Tex® Pro Shell fabrics. The Alpha SV Glove, launched last winter, uses seam-taped 3-layer Gore-Tex® Pro Shell fabric, protected by leather in the finger and palm area. It is widely considered as the most advanced glove on the market. The Beta AR Pants (built with Gore-Tex® Pro Shell), with reinforced high-wear areas, are intended for rugged, back country use.

  • Tyler Horne Winter 2010 Wrap Up Video

    A video wrap up of Tyler Horne's Winter season 2010-2011

  • Jonathan Siegrist in South West Utah

    Actual footage of Jonathan's most recent ascents in South West Utah along with interview footage.

  • Adam Campbell in the South Chilcotins

    Follow Adam Campbell on a training run through the South Chilcotins area of British Columbia.

  • Ripping The Flake For Arcteryx

    By Will Stanhope

    Two months ago I ripped off the flake on Parthian Shot, at Burbage South in the Peak District. Tim Emmett, trusted friend and well-known British climber, belayed me, and eventually piggy-backed me down the trail. Thanks to everyone who lent a hand that evening- I really do appreciate it. I had spent a few days on the gritstone previously and was eager to try a real 'hard grit' line. And Parthian didn't disappoint. Incredible movement on a wild prow, very physical and delicate at the same time. The main gear is a string of wires and one small cam in the flake, which is at a little over half height.

    Tim and I fooled around on the line all afternoon, dialling in the nuances and getting a feel for it. I one falled it on toprope. At that point I decided I would try to lead it. My friends Alex Honnold, Matt Segal and Kevin Jorgenson all took multiple wingers onto the flake. While I knew it wasn't 100 percent bomber, I thought it was more or less okay. There's always the unknown factor with headpointing. The element that makes is so exciting and dangerous at the same time.

    I waited until sunset, tied in, climbed to the flake and wasted tonnes of energy getting the gear just right. Perhaps it wasn't 'just right'. I don't know. I hung on the gear, wondering what to do. It was getting dark. Finally, I decided to just punch it to the top. If I was ever going to have a hope in hell of successfully leading the pitch, I needed to know what it felt like to go for it above the flake.

    As I climbed higher I got a deep pit-in-my-stomach feel that something wasn't right. The superstitious feeling came too late, though- I was way above the flake without a hope of downclimbing. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, spitting blood, struggling to breathe. I tried to weight my left foot, but I immediately knew it was broken. It felt like the bones were swimming. I suspect I fell somewhere between 35- 40 feet.

    After Tim gave me a jarring piggy-back to the gravel trail (I had cracked a vertebrae, but thought it was just whiplash). Then the Mountain Rescue people came and carried me to the ambulance. Again, thanks so much to everyone for the help.

    Two and a half months later, my foot is feeling better and I can finally climb again. The time on crutches has given me ample time to reflect on climbing, its inherent risks, and the rewards I get from it. In many ways, having an accident like this can be a blessing in disguise: a sobering reminder that climbing is indeed very dangerous. I learnt tonne from that trip, perhaps more than the sum of all my other ‘successful’ adventures.

    A couple years ago, an old girlfriend told me, “Will, I don’t think you’re bold- you’re just numb to the consequences.” I shrugged off her comment at the time, but now I think about it lots. I strive to be more aware from now on, to strike that delicate balance between boldness and prudence.

    Thanks to Arc’teryx and Five Ten for helping me out with this trip, and for the continued support. Even if the trips sometimes end in broken bones.

  • Elk-Beaver Ultra - Canadian 50 Mile championship

    In 2001, with about 6 months left in my degree, I dropped out of university, packed all my belongings into a duffel bag and a bike box, left my girlfriend behind and flew across the country to pursue my Olympic dream with the National Triathlon Centre in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. I arrived with two of my training partners from Kingston, Ontario on a cold and rainy January night with no place to stay and no real plans about how I was going to make it work. We were met at the airport by Simon Whitfield who had recently won the first Olympic triathlon gold medal and to say I was star struck would be an understatement. He was already a Canadian sports legend and was the main impetus for why I made the move out west. When he offered to let me crash at his place for a few nights, I probably stammered an incomprehensible yes.

    After a restless night of alternating thinking: "what the fuck am I doing here?" and "holy crap I'm sleeping at Simon's place" things became a fair bit more simple when it was time to head out for my first day of training with the big guys. Following a morning swim with the who's who of Canadian and International triathlon at the time and alongside a series of young, super fit, ambitious triathletes who had flocked to the then Mecca of triathlon like me, hoping that there was Olympic magic in the air and water. I quickly, and at times brutally, found out that there wasn’t.

    After the swim, we put on our wet weather gear, laced up our shoes and ran over to Elk & Beaver Lake for my first soggy run on the We(s)t Coast. As we ran along the gravel trail framed with trees on one side and the lake on the other, dodging puddles and shooting shit, I knew that no matter what the outcome of my adventure might be, that I had made the right decision.

    My girlfriend apparently forgave me and soon joined me across the country and quickly surpassed my athletic feats and is now an Olympian and my wife. Simon and many of the athletes in the pool that day are amongst my closest friends and have continued to excel. Over the decade since that first run, I failed to achieve my Olympic dreams, returned to school, completed my degree, and I have run countless laps of the 10 kilometer loop, both alone and with them, and I have enjoyed almost every step of the way.

    Life has interfered in various ways with with my spring running and racing plans, so when I heard that Elk/Beaver Ultras was home to the ACU Canadian 50 mile championship, I knew that it would be a perfect place to race. Although running 8 loops of a mostly flat gravel trail would normally have very little aesthetic appeal to me, this course is somewhere where I feel very comfortable and I knew that this would help me manage the inevitable lows that accompany most endurance events.

    The event is low key, with few bells and whistles, but boasts all the essentials to host a well-managed race for the 60 or 70 athletes toeing the line between the various distances. I also knew that it had the potential to be quite fast. My main concerns were that it might be too fast and too flat, lulling me into quick opening laps, which I have been known to do and the monotony of the terrain would take its toll as the kilometers rolled by.

    After a strangely restful sleep the night before the race in my own bed, I drove the familiar route to the lakes as the sun was rising and I mentally prepared for what I expected to be a solitary day of running. Following a few hellos and well wishes to familiar faces, the race got underway. In order to make up the extra 0.47 meters on top of the 8 * 10kilometer loops, we were sent on a short out and back along a side trail and then we began our laps.

    Although there were a few fast starters, I never ran with anyone and just locked into my thoughts. To be honest, the day was incredibly uneventful. I enjoyed retracing the steps that I have made so many times over the years, but I never felt great and I never felt too bad. My right hip bothered me from about 30 kilometers on, but it was manageable. I just focused on running as relaxed a pace as I could, getting in calories (approx 2 gels per loop, 1 salt pill and coke/Gatorade after 40km) and setting short-term goals, either running form related or about the terrain, and allowing myself momentary celebrations for hitting distance milestones along the way to keep myself engaged.

    My thoughts really were as simple as “eat, drink, turnover, relax, stop and pee, oh there’s Mel, great 2/5 of the way done (I am always calculating fractions of distances when I race) etc… “ This is in sharp contrast to all of April when I was locked indoors at my desk, immersed in books, journals, exams and paper writing. I very much enjoyed being in motion with all my focus directed at taking care of my basic needs to keep me moving forward.

    As I predicted, it was inspiring and comforting to watch the rowers putting in their own hard yards on the lake under the rising sun and it was familiar to see all the fisherman along the shores and although I had to dodge quite a few walkers, their dogs, joggers, runners and fellow racers, I had expected it, so it never bothered me. I saw lots of people I knew along the way and running through the start/finish area every lap gave me a bit of pep in my stride, but I would try to catch myself from getting too carried away and the kilometers and the time ticked by.

    Before the race, I thought that sub-6 hours would be doable and I wanted to run as comfortably as possible to hit that mark. I didn’t really think about what that meant split wise, other than the fact that running sub 45-minute laps would do it. As I ran through 40 kilometers I did a quick bit of math and after assessing my body, I told myself that I could try and pick the pace up at 60 kilometers if I was feeling good.

    At 60 kilometers, I wasn’t feeling bad, but I wasn’t feeling great. My hip was still sore and I was a bit tired, so I kept the pace where it was and promised myself that I would reconsider in 5 kilometers. Those kilometers passed too and I was still feeling rather average, so I didn’t change anything and told myself that I would revisit a push at 70 kilometers. As I ran passed the aide station and start/finish area for one last loop I started out fast, but decided against a big surge after a few minutes. A quick look at my watch and I realized that I might actually be able to get under 5:45 if I was willing to dig deep, but I wasn’t, so I kept the pace as comfortable as I could be given where I was in the race.

    Finally, with about 6 kilometers to go, I decided to listen to the advice that Ironman champion and my great friend, Jasper Blake texted me before the race: “Just go fast so you can get the fucking thing over with,” which is wise advice for any race, so I started to pick up the pace. I was able to wind things up and I started to race the clock home. I began chasing people that I could see up the trail, trying to catch and pass them as quickly as possible. Most of them were just out for their morning walks or runs, oblivious to the fact that they were now pawns in my internal race, but they helped me ignore the fatigue, so I kept trying to run them down.

    Finally, as I pushed through the final windy kilometers of the lower Beaver lake trails, I began to run quite hard as I realized I might be able to break 5:44. I willed my legs to move as fast as they could to the finish area seeing 5:43:57-8-9 ticking over on the clock. The timers have me down as finishing in 5:44:00 and although I’m sure a photo finish camera would have me breaking 5:44, I can live with it.

    And just like that, the morning was done. I had completed my first 50-mile race, I won the National championship and I later found out that I set a new Canadian 50 mile trail record, all of which are accomplishments that I am proud of, but the best part of the experience is just how quantifiable it is. All of my friends and training partners know Elk and Beaver lake, so being able to say that I have run 8 laps of it has a strange quirky appeal and I think I am just as proud of that as I am about the outcome of the race.

    Thank you very much to Carlos "the Jackal" and all the volunteers, spectators and people I shared the trail with. It was a wonderful morning and another great experience at Elk Lake.

    Here are my splits from the race

    10.47K 20.47K 30.47K 40.47K 50.47K 60.47K 70.47K 80.47K
    0:44:41 1:27:58 2:11:27 2:54:14 3:36:49 4:19:33 5:02:17 5:44:00

  • Pattern Maker

    We are seeking a detail oriented Pattern Makers with at least 3 years of experience patterning hardgoods such as backpacks and climbing harnesses. North Vancouver, BC, Canada


    Arc’teryx is a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, high-end technical outdoor clothing and equipment, and we have big plans. In the past year, we have gone from 406 employees, to over 480. Our ongoing success stems from an uncompromising passion to continuously challenge, and radically improve, the status quo.

    Working with several internal departments, you will be responsible for the patterning of our high quality products from blocks to sketches.

    What we’re looking for:

    • Relevant post secondary education and a minimum 3 years production pattern making experience
    • Ability to work from pattern blocks or from sketches
    • Knowledge of garment construction
    • Core competence in Microsoft Office
    • Effective oral and written communications skills, good interpersonal skills, and strong attention to detail, including accuracy in data entry
    • Ability to work independently
    • Knowledge of Gerber Accumark and/or outerwear

    What you’ll be doing:

    • Interpret design intent, create prototypes, sample and production patterns, ensuring that methods and documentation are consistent with known factory methods and processes
    • Grade patterns and maintain grade on modified production patterns
    • Working with design to establish standard fit by product category/end use and ensure product size/fit consistency
    • Contributing to the creation and use of block pattern library
    • Maintaining computer pattern libraries, ensuring changes are clearly communicated to Product Developers, Graders and Marker Makers
    • Collaborating with Designers and Product Developers to establish and document product construction standards and illustrated technical specifications for all product
    • Assisting in marker making where required

    What’s in it for you:

    • The opportunity to join a rapidly growing organization
    • You can combine where you work with how you play
    • You get to play a pivotal position in the development of outdoor clothing and gear
    • The ability to work in a fun, casual company that supports and encourages work-life balance We also have plenty of parking, a bike room, nearby transit, an indoor staff bouldering gym, frequent summer BBQs and other events, as well as a great employee discount.

    If this sounds like you, then please apply by forwarding your resume and cover letter in PDF or Word format to hr@arcteryx.com. It is important to quote "1106-PM-Web" in the subject line of your email. Please also indicate if you prefer to work on Apparel or Hardgoods

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Thank you in advance for your interest in Arc'teryx.

    Printable version

  • Dream Lines

    by Nina Caprez

    There are some lines in the world, where the path of a passionate climber has to go through. One of them can be found in my favourite climbing place, in the gorges of Verdon.

    ‘Tom et je ris’ is a pure endurance route (8b+) and simply a must for a passionate climber! I was sharing this little adventure with my good friend Mike Fuselier. You can’t imagine the mission it was to find the line..! After hours of errantry we finally found the belay of the route, but the colonettes were wet from the heavy rain 4 days ago. What a shame! Well, ten days later, everything was dry and we were so excited when we were standing once again on the top of the route . Mike was checking out the moves on the abseil down and sent it right after that.

    I did a proper work out of the route and ten minutes later I did a go. About one hour later with the forerarms completly pumped, I reached the top. Thanks to Mike for the hours of joking and laughing and to Fred Labreveux for the nice pictures.

    Three days after the Verdon trip, my boyfriend Cédric and me were already on the ferry to Corsika to retry ‘Délicatessen’. This was our second journey to the col of Bavella because of the rain during our first stay three weeks ago….

    The first day was really frustrating. Of course, there was no more chalk on the wall and also it was so hard to get used again to climb on this flat and technical wall. The route had even turned harder since Cédric had broken a little hold on the crux on our first trip. After checking out and falling down plenty of times on the crux section, Cédric could finally climb the first 8b with quite some luck!;-) He did the next two pitches, 7c+ and 7c, directly but on the flat 8a pitch in the end, he had to try three times before sending it. I was climbing in top rope and I can tell you that I had no chance to climb all the sections. I was really happy for Cédric but also rather demoralized for the next day…

    But after a good meal and a night full of sleep, the confidance was back and after three trys in the 8b, I found the right balance for this slab and could send this delicated pitch. Arriving at the first belay, I could feel the adrenaline throuhout my body. With this bunch of energy I felt like flying through the next four pitches. Once more on the top, I was recognizing what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to climb such incredible walls!

    Many thanks to Arnaud Petit and Stefanie Bodet. Arnaud was bolting this route a couple of years ago and the two of them were renewing all the bolts right before our first arrival in Corsika. I have to admit that ‘Délicatessen’ is the most beautiful and aesthetic line I`ve climbed so far. Its difficulty is mainly given by the very dedicated style rather than by the physical effort. Your feet and legs are suffering much more than your arms!;-) I absolutely recommend this piece of art to everybody!

    Thanks also to Stefan Schlumpf who once more was sharing a big adventure with us and for his fantastic work.

    Here is the topo, go for it, it’s so fantastic!

  • Ines Papert Repeats Super Cirill

    A story by Ines Papert

    (Tessin, Valle Bavona) redpoint/clean 8a/8a+

    "Super Cirill is one of the most beautiful routes I have ever climbed"

    200m, 7a+, 7a+, 7b+, 7c+/8a, 8a/8a+, 6c+, 6c, 6a+

    Graded 8a/8a+ the 9 pitch route Super Cirill on Parete di Sonlerto is the hardest free climbing multi pitch route in Tessin. Many cracks interrupted by dihedrals and exposed traverses provide for a technically challenging climbing experience.

    Impressions by Ines Papert

    Retrospect

    The double crack, hard as bone and just wide enough to fit my fingers inside, already grinned at me during my fist attempt of this route with Stephan Siegrist many years ago. I was fascinated by this kind of climbing, the rough granite and the clean structures, but disapppointed by so many bolts (the first ascent of the route was in 1985 by Cameroni, Moretti and Ferrari). I gladly took notice of the route beeing renovated during the past few years. Now there are just 6 bolts for intermediate belays in the first 6 pitches. Just there, where trad gear would be unsafe. Just perfect for me to try.

    In May 2010 I checked out the route together with the strong climbing world champion Liv Sanzos from France.

    In 2001 we met as competitors during the ice climbing world cup. Now we are a climbing as a team on a high rock face. Terrific.

    Two weeks we invested all of our energy and will-power in the crux pitch graded 8a/8a+. To no avail. Tropical temperatures around 27 °Celsius, thunderstorms and much humidity in the air just crippled our efforts to send this route. Giving up? Not an option!

    We were fascinated by the valley, the remoteness and the short approach of only 2 minutes. We sort of "had to" sleep until noon, because only at midday the longed for shadow started creeping into the face. Liv and I thus postphoned a free ascent to cooler fall weather. But something else came up - an expedition to Kirgistan.

    Liv's comments on Facebook

    Ines Papert and I have been speaking since a little while to share more climbing and adventures together. Lately, Ines suggested we should climb the "Super Cirill" route in Ticino. The crux pitch is a fingery crack (8a/8a+) on pitch # 6. The other pitches are either cracks or technical face climbing. The other hard pitch (7c+/8a) is a face climbing, quite demanding, technical and not even vertical. But really interesting to climb once you got the right betas. Beside the fact I had never free climb a hard trad pitch, I was immediately stoked. Sharing this route with Ines sounds awesome as she's a true friend and a solid climber. And this was a good opportunity to improve my experience with trad climbing. Unfortunately, we could not make it. We had to deal with the rain, a very hot weather and the rain again...We tried to work the crux pitch despite those conditions but humid fingers sliding into the crack and slippery feet were not that fun. Neither Ines nor I are the type of person who gives up easily. But, we had to leave for this time. We are definitely planning on coming back together this fall."

    News

    This time, having learned my lesson, I went to Tessin a month earlier, in April. Liv was still climbing in the U.S.A., but being a mum and organizing the Basecamp Festival (www.basecamp-festival.de), due to start in a few days, my time management gave no further leeway to this project. Liv wished me the best of luck and I? Was hoping she would still come and join me!

    Meanwhile Charly Fritzer was my escort. This carinthian showbag is not only an extremely motivated and strong climbing partner, but also much fun to hang out with. We made the perfect team.

    After five days Charly finally redpointed the route. His comment: "I'm not going home before you've done this route."

    Over and over he motivated me and gave me new inspiration, which was slowly but surely dwindling away. I just couldn't find the right sequence of moves for my body height. But finally I did find the perfect solution and I knew I was able to send the route.

    Without another rest day we started on 26. April 2011.

    Everything went smoothly, I redpointed all pitches on first try. All except the crux length, where I fell and cursed my stupid-power-saving-tactics... I finished the pitch and cleaned it again. This time I was even more comitted, gave everything and totally focused on the double dyno to the left and my fingers jammed perfectly. Reassured and calmly I placed the 0.3 Cam, climbed on up to the roof, accurately put my feet on the tiny flake and prayed the shoe would stick somehow. He did! My intermediate goal was the hand jam just under the roof, which is becoming increasingly painful with all the sores on the back of my hand. Another placement for a 0.4 Cam, a heel hook and I made this one too. The remaining pitches I hardly remember, exiting the route never felt so easy before. This state of mind, to be totally immersed in the here and now, I experience so intensely only when climbing. To reach the belay and to know, this was the perfect GO is better than any meditation.

    With Charly cheering I come back to reality. The final pitches are not that great. Mossy, slopey and a nice off width.

    I finished the route. My perfect redpoint.

    Thanks a million, Charly!

  • Pali Ropebag Demo

    Arc’teryx athlete Scott Milton demos the Pali Ropebag.

  • In Memory of Joelle Brupbacher - May 2011

    In Memory of Joelle Brupbacher - May 2011

    We are shocked and very sad to hear that Arc`teryx athlete Joelle Brupbacher passed away on the 22nd of May 2011 on the Makalu (Nepal) above camp three. Our deepest sympathies are with her family and friends. Our thoughts are with you. We knew Joelle as an incredibly strong Alpinist who was a friendly, joyful and helpful spirit. We will miss her.

  • Globetrotter in Munich Presents Arc Spring Collection

    Globetrotter, Munich, Germany presents Arc'teryx Spring/Summer 2011 Collection

    Globetrotter has recently updated their exclusive Arc'teryx space to feature hot new items from the Arc'teryx Spring/Summer collection with an emphasis on backpacks. The vibrant new colours for the Spring/Summer 2011 season are now on show.

    Vancouver, B.C. – Outdoor retailer Globetrotter emphasizes its commitment to top quality in its new house in Munich with a 240m2 area exclusively dedicated to Canadian high-tech brand Arc´teryx.

    Arc'teryx Brand Store at Globetrotter, Munich, Germany

    The new Globetrotter store in Munich presents the largest Arc’teryx exclusive space worldwide. Arc’teryx is the only brand to hold an exclusive shop in the latest 6.500m2 Globetrotter store. The retailer also ensures a prominent presentation of the Canadian brand with signage guiding the customer to the 240m2 area on the first floor. Further, a separate Arc’teryx window display already indicates the dominant presence of the brand inside.

    The cooperation between retailer and brand is set for one year. The separate, slightly raised sales area is dominated by a technical, clean store system providing the optimal visual surrounding for Arc’teryx’ high-tech outdoor clothing. Metallic logo signs point out the mono-brand product line and an additional niche showcases single focus products. To create the perfect outdoor flair, Globetrotter installs the modern and scenic imagery by Arc’teryx photographer Brian Goldstone.

    However, the clients will be primarily inspired by the Arc’teryx collection itself: it is the biggest range of the brand presented in shops worldwide. A lot of reasons to visit this unique Arc’teryx space at Globetrotter’s new store in Munich.

  • Squamish Mountain Festival Teaser 2011

    The vision of the Squamish Mountain Festival, SQUMF 2011, is to provide a grass-roots gathering to celebrate the magic of Squamish climbing, bouldering and mountain culture. Festival dates: July 13th - 17th, Website: squamishmountainfest.com

  • Brand New Shop-in-Shop in Covent Garden

    Arc’teryx Shop-in-Shop opens at Snow+Rock Covent Garden

    Arc’teryx opened their first UK shop-in-shop on April 29th 2011 in Snow+Rock, Covent Garden.

    Arc'teryx Shop-in-Shop Rock+Ice Covent Garden

    The new shop-in-shop located on the 2nd floor, features contemporary Arc’teryx styling using aluminium and slate for its interior decor. The space is merchandised with a comprehensive range of Arc’teryx products including Alpine, Trail Running and Hiking clothing along with climbing harnesses, packs and accessories.

    The store launched with a range of products from the Summer 2011 collection, and features popular pieces such as: Men’s and Women’s Beta AR Jackets and Beta AR Pants; the expanded Trail Running range is also a highlight. Fall/Winter ranges will include backcountry skiwear with some exclusive items for the Shop-in-Shop.

    Covent Garden in London, UK is a Mecca for outdoor enthusiasts and the addition of an Arc’teryx shop-in-shop will confirm Snow+Rock as the ultimate place to go for technical outdoor and mountaineering gear.

    Come and visit Arc'teryx at Snow+Rock, Covent Garden. snowandrock.com

  • Fit Model - Casual

    • Attached full length front photo of yourself (no nudes, please)
    • Full name, email, phone and availability
    • Height (feet/inches)
    • Chest/bust circumference
    • Waist circumference
    • Hip circumference

    It is important to quote "1105-Fit-web" in the subject line of your email.

    You can expect an email acknowledging the receipt of your submission within 5 days of your initial correspondence.

    Arc'teryx is an equal opportunity employer.

    Printable version

  • Spring 2011 Harnesses

    Check out our new Spring 2011 harnesses, reduced weight and new shape for more comfort.
    Men's Climbing Gear | Women's Climbing Gear

  • Kik the Vik 2011 Highlights

    Kick The Vik – Eco Freeride Contest 2011 – Swiss dominate contest – First time Freeride World Qualifier

    Maighel Valley, Switzerland – 22nd of March, 2011 – Last weekend 60 riders from seven nations competed at the fourth edition of Kick The Vik to challenge each other and go back to the roots of freeriding, with no technical resources.

    Swiss competitors dominate snowboard and ski category. José Carron (SUI) from Martigny is victorious in snowboard-, Mattias Menzli (SUI) in ski discipline. The women´s was decided by Alba Wunderlin, also from Switzerland in snowboard, and Elisabeth Schmoelzl (GER) in ski.

    Kick The Vik was for the first time a Freeride World Qualifier event. Contestants had to do a two hours hike to Maighels hut to follow their freeride spirit. Kick The Vik is not solely a competition with no technical resources, like helicopters, ski-doos or lifts, but also a three days gathering of riders to spend time with each other, who treasure and protect undisturbed mountain scenery.

    Due to bad weather conditions and insecure, avalanche threatened terrain, the competition had to be postponed to Sunday and Kick The Vik organizers had to create spontaneous, interesting side events. The bad weather day was filled with a team creativity contest, an avalanche security training and a photo workshop with Simon Starkl, an outdoor photographer.

    At the highlight, the freeride contest, the Maighels Valley showed off with it´s beauty. – Best possible snow conditions and bright sunshine. The riders in all categories had to hike 330 meters of altitude up to the start and were meant to chose the best possible line. Judging was based on Freeride World Tour terms of reference: overall impression consisting on chosen line, fluidity and control.

    José Carron (SUI) on his snowboard won with the most creative line, impressive cliff jumps and a fluid riding style. Behind him, on rank two and three, another two Swiss, Remo Maffiew and Roberto Furger. Alba Wunderlin (SUI) from Winterthur is victorious at the women's.

    In the freeride ski category local Mattias Menzli wins with a clean run and two 360-s, ahead of Marco Steinemann and Cornel Russi, all from Switzerland. Elisabeth Schmölzl from Germany wins on the women´s side.

    Results:

    Snowboard men

    • 1. José Carron (SUI)
    • 2. Remo Maffiew (SUI)
    • 3. Roberto Furger (SUI)

    Snowboard women

    • 1. Alba Wunderlin (SUI)
    • 2. Susanne Amacker (SUI)
    • 3. Christine Innerhofer (SUI)

    Ski men

    • 1. Mattias Menzli (SUI)
    • 2. Marco Steinemann (SUI)
    • 3. Cornel Russi (SUI)

    Ski women

    • 1. Elisabeth Schmölzl (GER)
    • 2. Lea Hartl (GER)
    • 3. Hanna Finkel (GER)

    Check out the highlights from this year's event.

  • Paul Guschlbauer

    Age: 27 years

    Current Residence: Schleching, Germany

    Website/Blog: paulguschlbauer.at

    Career accomplishments:

  • 1st place Red Bull Dolomitenmann 2010
  • 1st place Bordairline Lungau 2010
  • 1st place overall Bordairline competition series 2009
  • 1st place Crossalps 2009

    • Athlete Bio:

    Paul Guschlbauer feels most at home with his paraglider tucked into his backpack, ascending the big mountains of the Alps, where endurance is crucial.

    After several years spent cranking gears on the mountain biking scene, Paul found his true passion in flying. But it was never his goal to put endurance sports on the back burner. Now, he is successfully combining both.

    Six years ago, Paul started paragliding like everybody else, but right from the beginning he knew that flying was just one part of the game. To reach his goals, he knew that excellent running skills were integral to making big distances hiking and flying in the Alps.

    In 2009, Paul began to compete in these very special races for the first time. He was immediately rewarded with the top spot in the rankings of the Biotech Bordairline race series - a series which allows the athletes to run or fly for 33 hours.

    After this success, he continued to participate in the 2010 series and impressively pulled off the victory at the Red Bull Dolomitenmann paragliding race and flew big distances at high altitude in the Himalayas.

    All of Paul’s efforts have paid off in 2011 and this year he will be part of the biggest event in the adventure race category, the Red Bull X-Alps.

  • World's Biggest Arc'teryx Store At Globetrotter

    Press Release March 2011

    Vancouver, B.C. – Outdoor retailer Globetrotter emphasizes its commitment to top quality in its new house in Munich with a 240m2 area exclusively dedicated to Canadian high-tech brand Arc'teryx.

    The new Globetrotter store in Munich presents the largest Arc'teryx exclusive space worldwide. Arc'teryx is the only brand to hold an exclusive shop in the latest 6.500m2 Globetrotter store. The retailer also ensures a prominent presentation of the Canadian brand with signage guiding the customer to the 240m2 area on the first floor. Further, a separate Arc'teryx window display already indicates the dominant presence of the brand inside.

    The cooperation between retailer and brand is set for one year. The separate, slightly raised sales area is dominated by a technical, clean store system providing the optimal visual surrounding for Arc’teryx’ hightech outdoor clothing. Metallic logo signs point out the mono-brand product line and an additional niche showcases single focus products. To create the perfect outdoor flair, Globetrotter installs the modern and scenic imagery by Arc’teryx photographer Brian Goldstone.

    However, the clients will be primarily inspired by the Arc’teryx collection itself: it is the biggest range of the brand presented in shops worldwide. A lot of reasons to visit this unique Arc’teryx space at Globetrotter’s new store in Munich.

  • Nina Caprez About a Girl

    Follow Arc'teryx climbing athlete Nina Caprez in this awesome video profile 'About a Girl'

  • The Adamants

    What can go wrong, will go wrong. Far from the dream trip they had envisioned, Arc'teryx athlete Toni Lamprecht and climbing partner Benno Wagner travel from Germany to establish new routes in the remote Adamants Range of British Columbia. The resulting epic has a sobering lesson for all climbers.

  • Jvan Tresch Climbing Chalchschijen Switzerland

    Jvan Tresch and friends attempt the Chalchschijen Big Wall in Switzerland

  • Jvan Tresch - Extreme Conditions on the Chalchschijen

    A story by Jvan Tresch

    When my friend Jürgen Bissig—we call him "Spiri"—first showed me a picture of the Chalchschijen I knew that we needed to climb this amazing wall!

    The Chalchschijen stands at the far end of Maderanertal Kanton Uri, Switzerland, not far from where we live. The wall seems close but the approach is definately hard core! It’s all trackless terrain, where one false step could be fatal. After a seven hour hike in you reach one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced.

    Spiri and I first tried climbing this 700-meter high wall in the summer of 2009. We climbed up to 250 meters and reached the super steep central part of the wall. The wall is quite overhanging, so even in pouring rain (which we experienced a year later), you stay pretty dry in the portaledge! This is as far as we got that year, and retreated with a plan for the next year.

    In the summer of 2010 we again made the trek in to try this beautiful wall. We calculated it would take six days on the wall to reach the summit, This time there were were four of us: Dominik Angehrn, our photographer Zvonimir Pisonic, Spiri and myself. After the long nasty seven hour approach with big fat haul bags to drag in and then the necessary evil of dragging the bags up the lower pitches of the wall, we found ourselves back at the steep section that turned us around the year before.

    Everything was ready for the climb, and we were pumped. But delusion filled the next day. The base of the wall is at quite a high elevation, the start located at 2,700 meters. We woke to thick fog, rain, and a frosty temperature just 2 degres above freezing—shit! This was in the middle of summer! Despite the rain and fog, we climbed the next three pitches in the overhang, which wasn’t too bad, just very cold. The "fun" really started when we cleared the overhang and were forced to climb in the wet—wet rock, wet air, wet clothes, everything was wet. Our only relief was in the middle of the week, when the sun finally showed up, but unfortunately only for a few hours.

    Despite the poor climbing conditions, we managed to enjoy ourselves on the portaledge by playing chess and "shithead" (don’t ask!). Cold and wet the whole time, on the last night things went from worse to ugly. It had snowed 30 centimeters overnight and we woke to avalanches cascading down to our left and right. Above us the snow had really accumulated, and we were in danger of getting caught in icefall.

    It was time to retreat, again. After a long, cold, snowy rappel we finally made it to the bivouac. Except for a snapped tendon on my finger, we were able to safely stagger back to town!

    To be continued in 2011 ... !

  • Miura 50 Demo

    Arc’teryx athlete Scott Milton demos the Miura 50 climbing pack.

  • Jon Walsh Profile

    Arc’teryx athlete Jon Walsh taking advantage of the great conditions this winter has offered. Filmed by Alex Lavigne and Andrew Querner along the Ice Fields Parkway and Lake Louise.

  • Ines Papert Climbs Scottish Ciarngorms

    A story by Ines Papert

    Photo credit: Hans Hornberger www.hans-hornberger.com

    During a week winter climbing in Scotland, Ines Papert and Charly Fritzer have established Triple X, VIII,8 on Ben Nevis and Bavarinthia IX, 9 at Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms.

    After last year's baptism of fire, German alpinist Ines Papert returned to Scotland at the end of January together with Charly Fritzer from Austria where she carried out a string of important repeats, including the first repeat of "To those who wait" IX, 9", first climbed by Boswell and Sim high on Ben Nevis. Despite poor conditions they also managed two first ascents: "Triple X", VIII,8 on Ben Nevis - climbed along with Dave MacLeod, following a weaving line the Scotsman had scoped during his attempts of Echo Wall – and "Bavarinthia" IX, 9 at Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms.

    Just like last year, what struck Papert most wasn't the infamous poor weather but the fact that so much can be done without the use of bolts. "Climbing in Scotland has really helped me change my attitude" she told us, adding "my focus is definitely on as much trad as possible, not only in the Alps but also in the Greater Ranges, and our route on Kyzyl Asker is very much in line with this."

    SCOTTISH WINTER CLIMBING TRIP 2011 by Ines Papert, Scotland 2010

    After my first trip to Scotland in 2010 I was anxious to get to work on the harder routes and maybe even climb a few of them, but the mystic aura, the strict ethic-code and my huge respect for the traditional winter climbing was still there, deeply ingrained in my mind.

    A few weeks before we left for the North I contemplated about all this. At the end of the day it's really all in your head: your mental strength is essential, and I knew that my inner-self was ready for an other awesome trip to Scotland. I no longer had nightmares about ground falls, I just dreamt about climbing more harder routes than last time, when we had been so lucky with the weather and ice-conditions.

    I was highly motivated but a few days before departure my climbing partner suddenly cancelled his trip. Perhaps this was due to the bad weather, the cold temperatures or the strong winds, but the fact of the matter is he decided to spend his winter holidays in summerly Thailand instead. A bit hard to understand and disappointing, but these things happen and so I asked a good old friend of mine, Charly Fritzer from Austria, to join me. Sometimes you just have strike lucky and two days before we left he said yes. And just like last year, young gun and aspiring photographer Hans Hornberger joined us with his camera.

    Our friend Ian Parnell helped us a lot. Again it was he who got us in touch with local climbers and collected information about the routes to climb and the ice conditions. I wanted the local climbing scene to be an important part of our trip and meeting old and new Scottish friends by accident in a lonely car park in the middle of nowhere made us feel like being at home.

    This year we weren't as lucky as last year with the weather. But sometimes you just have to kick yourself in the butt and get outside in the early morning, even when rain and wind make you want to decide differently and a warm BigTree Campervan awaits. But that's part of the game, another mental game. Because up there you cannot just wait for the clouds to clear and the sun to come out. It might take weeks…or even longer...

    On our first day in Scotland we got lost in the fog and rain, we didn't even find Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms. We had heavy rainfall, strong winds and no visibility whatsoever and our mistake was to not take a compass with us. On the next day we went up again with local climbers Pete Macphersun and Greg Boswell, both of whom are highly talented climbers. Pete and I on-sighted “Daddy longlegs” VIII, 9 while Charly und Greg went up “The Ventricle” VII, 8

    The next day greeted us with awesome weather. The sun was shining and after the usual three hour approach-hike Charly and I repeated a fantastic route on Ben Nevis: “To those who wait" IX, 9. 20-year-old Greg Boswell had established the route only a few weeks ago and he invited us to make the second ascent. "To those" is a fantastic, spectacular overhanging crack with more or less good gear placements along the icy crack. We figured out that hexentrics were safest pieces of gear on this route.

    On the top of Ben Nevis we met Dave Macleod by accident and decided to join forces the next day. Fortunately he owns the "magic key" which opens a barrier on the way in. This shortens the approach-hike a lot and the climbing/hiking ratio suddenly becomes much better. Together with Dave we established a new route which finishes up a big chimney first climbed by Ian Parnell and Ian Smallbouth, two good friends and strong climbers. We called our route "Triple X": we were a team of three and the route has three fully stretched pitches.

    My personal highlight of the trip was a new route climbed in the Cairngorms. We were joined by our friends Simon and Neil who opted to climb the nearby “Falling out Corner”. As Neil took a huge whipper right next to me, I lead the crux pitch and tried really hard not to fall onto the little gear I had managed to place on my way up. Right in the roof, half-way up the pitch, my feet slipped and my ice tool popped off. The second tool just kept stuck where it was and with one last power-move I managed to pull myself in position again. Although the gear-placements were bad, the climbing great. After at least an hour on-sighting the first 30m I finally established a belay and Charly seconded this pitch, in his usual fast style. he quickly sped up the second, easier pitch to the top. We called the route "Bavarinthia" IX, 9, because I'm from Bavaria and Charly is from Carinthia.

    There's one more thing that climbing in Scotland really makes you aware of: we, the so-called “alpine climbers”, really need to think hard about drilling and bolting. Bolting routes from top to bottom isn't always necessary, even - like in Scotland - when the rock isn't totally solid. If we want to keep the adventure factor in there, then we must agree on a code of ethics when we establish new routes. It's all about keeping our eyes and mind open and establishing new routes in a traditional way, or at least with a minimum use of bolts. We have to take part in this discussion and raise awareness, first and foremost in the European Alps.

    Without the help and support of the Scottish climbers we would not have climbed this many hard, great routes. Thanks again for your help, friendship and support: Ian Parnell, Simon and Sarah Yearsley, Greg Boswell, Dave Macleod, Pete Macphersun, Michael Tweedley… and more.

    The routes:

    • 26/01/2011 - Cairngorms, Coire an Lochain: Daddy Longlegs VIII, 9 on-sight
    • 27/01/2011 - Ben Nevis: first repeat "To those who wait" IX, 9 Charly Fritzer redpoint (f.a. Greg Boswell & Will Sim 31/12/2010)
    • 28/01/2011 - Ben Nevis: first ascent "Triple X" VIII, 8 on-sight (Ines Papert, Charly Fritzer & Dave Macleod)
    • 29/01/2011 - Cairngorms: "The demon direct" IX, 9 “Happy Tyroleans" IX/10 on-sight
    • 31/01/2011 - Cairngorms: Coire an Lochain: "Savage Slit" V, 6 and first ascent "Bavarinthia" IX, 9 on- sight (Ines Papert & Charly Fritzer 31/01/2011)

  • Rob Pizem - A Year in Review 2010

    By Rob Pizem

    It was another busy year for me and my family. I was fortunate enough to stay safe and healthy for most of it. The year began knowing that my wife was going to be completing her teaching degree and that we would be looking for work where ever we could find it. Jane, who is always ready for an adventure, was excited for a possible move from Denver to anyplace USA.

    By late March, we had each secured jobs teaching high school in Grand Junction, Colorado. The excitement grew as our house went up for sale and we had to plan the move. To make things complicated, I had a trip planned to Squamish to speak at the Squamish Mountain Festival, which Arc'teryx hosts, squamishmountainfestival.com and another trip to California to attempt to establish a new route on a huge granite monolith called Tehipite Dome. After the successful climbing trip opening up a brand new big wall route called the Tehipite Sanction, it was back to Denver to rent a U-Haul truck for the move the following day.

    Grand Junction was hot at the beginning of August and since we didn’t really know too many people, we spent the time getting to know the town and doing some hiking and backpacking trips in the local San Juan Mountains.

    Once school began it was time to start new routing and exploring the nearby Colorado National Monument, Unaweep Canyon, the Grand Mesa, and every other wall that I could find along the way. I spent hours hiking cliff lines until I finally met some local climbers and found some pieces of stone to play on. I was able to establish numerous crack pitches in the area. Some were overhanging off widths, others chimney and off-width multipitch climbs and others that were perfect splitter crack and face test pieces. At one point in time I had fixed lines up on four different walls!

    After biking to my teaching job, I would either get in a bouldering or trail running session in with my wife or be out cleaning and prepping new climbs on the endless cliffs near the house.

    Eventually, the weather changed and I had to be indoors training. I began setting routes and boulder problems at the Grand Junction Climbing Center. The owners Randall and Terry were so great about creating a climbing community that it was hard to resist their friendship. So, I began training and route setting seriously and as winter crept in had found a great home away from home at the gym.

    The best news of the year though came right around New Year’s, when Jane and I found out that we were expecting a baby in August 2011! Cheers to the New Year and to new life!

  • Fred Nicole "I Portici" - The Arches

    Walking through the forests of Ticino (southern Switzerland) to my favourite bouldering crags just after Christmas, I was astonished by the number of climbers―it’s crazy to consider the explosive popularity of this area over the last 15 years. Back in the day, it was just a few lost souls in the woods, but it’s become a winter mecca for hundreds of climbers from all over Europe. I’m no misanthrope, but I do like bouldering at my own pace!

    I continued my quest and saw many possibilities, but didn’t find the perfect line until the end of the day a beautifully steep arête leading to a nice, overhanging face with a real top out. I returned next day and rehearsed the moves, and it felt feasible.

    I was very happy to complete this great line on January 3, 2011, sandwiched between several days spent climbing and celebrating New Year’s with Mary, my brother François, Nini and their kids.

    The shape of the climb reminds me of an arch, so I named the climb "I portici" “the arches.” It’s a climb that rewards good technique and offers a subtle mix of difficulty and endurance.

    I portici is also the name of a very good pizzeria in Bellinzona, where I like to eat after bouldering.

  • Gian Luck

    Gian was born in 1982 in Chur, Switzerland. Beeing a son of a Swiss mountain guide, he started at a very early age with skiing and climbing. His first skitour and classic multipitch tour, he did accompanied by his father when he was only 6 years old. By the age of 9 he started snowboarding, which still nowadays is his passion.

    After finishing his school career, he begun the education to become a mountain guide. In 2006 after succesfully finishing the mountain guide education, he turned his hobbies into his profession and is working now as a full time mountain guide in Pontresina for his own companies.

    The most important for him his having fun with his friends, regardless which kind of sports or exercise they perform, climbing, skiing, snowboarding, because without the right circle of friends, it is only half the fun.

    His absolute biggest wish is to keep well and fit, to be able to spend as much time as possible in the mountains and pass his passion down to his friends and clients.

    Check out Gians website at www.govertical.ch

  • Michael Hoffman

    Bio Michael Hoffmann

    Born in 1955 in Anachronist. (He still climbs really well for his age)

    Michael started climbing and mountaineering in 1972, originally as an act of self-searching and emancipation. However, the profound passion lasted and should later become his "way of life" – a path, a rope – to guide his small ship of physical and spiritual being through the rough ocean of the so-called reality.

    Certified as a UIAA Mountain Guide in 1982 and a University Master of Geology in 1985. Michael climbed most of the classical alpine stuff in the Alps, and joined expeditions to Nanga Parbat in 1980 and 1982. He placed around 1000 bolts in his multi-pitch first ascents (but that doesn't mean that those routes are bolt-ladders!). These routes, mainly located in Wilder Kaiser and Wetterstein, offer difficulties up to 8a, and they get more and more attracive for strong young climbers.

    His first contact with teaching people reaches back to the seventies, when Michael worked as ski instructor. In 1986 he founded his climbing school "Red Point School" (www.rotpunktschule.de). The school has always been focused on sport-climbing, running courses and organizing trips to Italy, France, USA and Thailand.

    Realizing a visionary concept in 2010, the school has now changed to become a pool of excellent climbing trainers. These trainers offer services of individual coaching. In 1986, Michael was appointed to the team that instructs the German Alpine Guides and also to the team that trains the differnt types of "Fachübungsleiter" of the German Alpine Club.

    From 1995 until now, Michael has been involved in the coordination of the "Bundeslehrteam Sportkletttern", the german-wide team responsable for developing standards for climbing-trainers and the relevant training courses. He has publised numerous articles in climbing magazins and is the author of the following books: Sportklettern – Technik, Taktik, Sicherung (Panico), Sicher Sichern (Panico), Lawinengefahr, Lehrplan 2b Klettern – Technik, Taktik, Psyche (BLV). He is also the co-author of Lehrplan 6 Wetter und Orientierung (BLV).

    As a late family-founder and husband to Karin Port, and father of Sebastian (born 1994), Alexander (2003) and Antonia (2005), Michael is trying to be a "good" father – whatever that may means? Michael is also trying to manage his professional obligations, and last but not least, trying to figure out, how to achieve being old and wise in a distant future – one where one can still climb "auf hohem Niveau" ("to higher levels") which is the slogan of Rotpunktschule.

  • In Memory of Res Baehler

    1971 - 2011

    Res was a successful mountain guide, alpinist, climber, skier and very spiritual person. Res was member of the Arc'teryx team and leaves a big gap in the alpine world and in our hearts.

    We offer our sympathies to his family and friends. Our thoughts are with you in this time of loss.

    Let Res' spirit of adventure live on through each and every one of you and join us to carry Res` philosophy out into the world; "Let your eyes shine like the eyes of a child."

  • Spring 2011 Endorphin & Running

    Check out our new high-output sports apparel, part of the full Spring 2011 Endorphin & Running collections.
    Men's Endorphin | Women's Endorphin | Men's Running | Women's Running

  • Matt Maddaloni

    Name: Matt Maddaloni

    Passion: Adventure rock climbing.

    Home Base: Squamish, Canada.

    In the climbing world, few people are more creative than this longtime Squamish local. Recently nicknamed “The Matt Scientist,” Maddaloni has invented his own unique piece of climbing hardware called the Anticam which enabled him to free an otherwise unprotect-able death flake. His climbing successes include a 25 day big wall first ascent in Baffin Island, a first ascent big wall in Pakistan that he soloed alone over two weeks, a 10 pitch 5.12 first ascent in the Bugaboos and a new 4500 foot 5.13 free climb on Mt. Combatant in the Waddington Range. In 2007 he completed two record link ups; three 5.12 free routes to the summit of the Chief in a day and then 4 days later he climbed 50 pitches and reached 5 summits in the Bugaboo Range and all without a rope in under 18 hours. "My number one passion is learning and I can't get enough.

    One day I’m designing a new rigging device for film and the next I’m setting up a trapeze net to climb over. Climbing was a fringe sport when I discovered it 18 years ago but I've found that if I'm creative and not afraid to fail there are endless new situations to find myself in. Recently I discovered a 60-foot horizontal roof requiring every move in the book and even some that aren't like an upside down hand jam dyno with my feet over my head. This sport has so many genres and something new is always just around the corner. Have you ever tried bouldering on hooks or attempted a big wall while underground? I’m stoked about the deep water solo routes I’ve put up in Thailand that have no bolts or any other sign that we were ever there, the challenge of designing the Anticam to pinch a death flake so I could climb it safely, the 50 foot free falls over the world’s largest inflatable crash pad or being able to film climbing with a vertical cable cam."

    Check out Matt's blog and his website to see what he's up to next.

    www.mattmaddaloni.com
    www.climblife.blogspot.com

  • Henrik Langeland

    I've been growing up in Sogndal, which is located between the steep mountains and the deep fjords on the west coast of Norway.

    The interest of skiing has given me a lot of great days in my home mountains, but also taken me to new and exiting places. Skiing in the Mt. McKinley range in Alaska, and in the high mountains of Tibet, has definitively been exceptional to experience.

    At the moment I am studying geology in the local college of Sogndal. Living so close to the mountains, gives me time to get out before and after school to ski powder. Skiing from I could walk, its natural that skiing has a big place in my life!

  • 24 Karats

    After a few solid days of effort, Arc'teryx team athlete, Jonathan Siegrist sent a new line at Red River Gorge, naming it "24 Karats", and at the grade of 5.14c, it is one of America's hardest sport climbs.

  • Greg Hill Reaches Two-Million Foot Goal

    For Immediate Release | January 4, 2011


    With just two days left in 2010, Revelstoke-based ski mountaineer Greg Hill has completed his quest to climb and ski 2,000,000 vertical feet (609,600 metres) in a calendar year. Hill’s feat was the skiing equivalent of climbing Mount Everest every five days for an entire year. Or ascending the stairs of Toronto’s CN Tower four times per day, every day, for 365 consecutive days. It’s exhausting to even think about.

    Over the course of his skiing career, Hill has been a vertical-climbing/ ski machine, racking up 1,000,000 vertical feet in 2004/2005 and an additional 990,000 in 2006/2007. "Drawing on my previous experience, I was able to hone my training schedule in order to plan a 2,000,000 vertical foot year."

    Skiing up mountain slopes in the backcountry requires applying adhesive climbing skins to the base of your skis; the skins have a textured ‘nap’ that allows the skier to walk uphill without sliding backwards. Climbing uphill is only part of the effort – for most of his runs, Hill had to ‘break trail’ – which means plowing through fresh powder that is often a foot deep. The resistance of the snow adds greatly to the challenge of carrying momentum up hill.

    Hill’s quest has made him intimately familiar with the supremely rugged Selkirk Mountains in and around his Columbia Valley home, but also took him on a four-month trek to South America in order to log enough vertical to reach his goal, since there isn’t much year-round skiing in North America.

    Getting to the finish line was not easy. With snow late in arriving in Revelstoke after Hill returned from Argentina, Hill had his work cut out for him in order to finish the quest, needing to average almost 8,000 vertical feet (2,500 metres) per day through the month of December, when daylight hours are short.

    "Those final days featured some serious trail breaking, but also really great powder skiing," Hill says. "I carried two high-power Petzl Ultra headlamps which enabled me to push on and do one or two more laps at the very end of the day. My touring buddies and I really enjoyed skiing deep powder with the headlamp; it really adds another dimension to backcountry skiing," Hill says.

    Along the way, he tested several new Arc’teryx products including the award-winning Alpha SV glove, and a super lightweight and breathable Gore-Tex jacket. "Over the past year, I skied in a huge variety of conditions. Thanks to the technical properties of the Arc’teryx clothing I used, weather was never a limiting factor."

    On December 30, Hill broke the two-mill mark in cold, clear, powdery conditions, accompanied by friends and family on the mountain slopes of nearby Glacier National Park. He chugged a mouthful of champagne after his altimeter watch turned over 2,000,000 vertical feet, then descended into a powdery cloud. Next day, Hill’s accomplishments were celebrated with a standing ovation over 500 family and friends at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, and spent Hill spent New Year’s Day with his wife and kids at Halcyon Hot Springs resort.

    Greg’s unique quest has been covered by the Globe & Mail newspaper, as well as Outside and Powder magazine. Hill says, "So often the only stories we hear about backcountry skiing in the mainstream media are negative ones that deal with avalanches, rescues, and deaths. I think that by skiing two million vertical feet – much of it solo – I can show that with the proper knowledge and equipment, people can safely enjoy the mountains in the winter. I’m gratified that people from all over the world have posted comments on my blog and that even non-skiers are inspired by my goal setting and achievement."

    To find out more about Greg's adventures, visit his website greghill.ca

  • Pau Escale

    Pau was born in Spain between the Costa Brava and the Pyrenees, Catalunya in 1979.

    Since childhood his parents took him to the mountains and began climbing on ice when he was 20 years old.

    When he was 22 years, after an industrial accident, he had 2 surgeries on his left knee and the doctors said that he would not be able to continue climbing. That was the first day Pau really started to climb!

    Because of the surgeries Pau currently only ice climbs and mountaineers. He’s always in search of the intense feelings climbing brings. His favorite spot is the frágils ice falls in the Alps.

    In 2010, Pau had the good fortune of being able to climb two Seracs. Since then his motto is: Alpine climb is Serac! And for the next two winters you will be able to find Pau in Fer a Cheval.

  • Craig DeMartino

    Craig grew up on the east coast being somewhat of a independent and free spirit. Never one for team sports, he attended a small university there for design and photography. After graduating, and attending a bachlor party where instead of the usual strip club, they went climbing, the hook was set.

    Climbing clicked and from that point on became a huge focus of his life. Since 1992, he has travelled the States and around the world seeking out fun lines that challenge both mentally and physically.

    In 2002, while climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park, a miscommunication between him and his belayer, sent him on a 100 foot ground fall. The fall resulted in the loss of his right leg, a fused back, broken neck, and a long list of injuries that have resulted in a life of chronic pain. But instead of leaving climbing, he decided to go back to the one thing he loved. In 2003, he began climbing again, and in 2005 became the first amputee to climb El Capitan in Yosemite in under 24 hours.

    He started to compete in 2005 as well and at the Extremity Games, the X-Games for disabled, won double gold medals in bouldering and roped climbing. He has won that event every year he entered and this year hopes to give back by helping to organize the event and teach new disabled climbers how to climb.

    These days, living in Colorado with his wife and two kids, he can be found climbing in the boulders above Fort Collins or doing routes in any of the world class areas around him. Photography is still a focus, pardon the pun, as is working to help other amputees bridge the gap between their old worlds and the new world they find themselves in.

    Check out Craig's blog at www.demartinophoto.blogspot.com

  • Dalton Pehota

    My name is Dalton Pehota and I started skiing when i was 3 years old. I live in Pemberton, BC with my Eric my dad, Parveen my mom and my brother Logan. I ski with my dad and brother a lot, we are always at the lifts first thing after a big dump of snow. I love skiing the powder and go touring with my dad and brother. I also ski race with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, last year I qualified for the K2 National Championship, my goal is to go to the Nationals and place top 10.

    Q & A's

    Full Name: Dalton Pehota

    Age? 14 years old

    Home Mountain? Whistler Blackcomb, Canada

    How long have you been skiing? Since 3 years old

    What are three things you can not live with out? Powder, Money, Parents

    If you were not a pro Skier what would you be? I'm only 14

    What is the coolest thing you’ve done on the snow? Skiing down the dogleg on Blackcomb

    Who is your biggest influence in your life? My Parents

    How do you stay in shape during the off season? Soccer, Running, Surfing, Hunting

    Favorite Food Item? Turkey

    Who are your other sponsors? Rossingnol, Oakley, LEKI, Giro, Whistler Blackcomb

  • Eirik Finseth

    Name: Eirik Finseth

    Born/Age: Oppdal, Norway. 28 years.

    Nationality: Norway

    Current Residence: Oppdal, Norway.

    Website/Blog: totheprovinggrounds.com

    Personal accomplishments/Media coverage (within past two years):

    • Winning "Best Segment" at the Fri Flyt awards for my skiing in Field Productions Side by Side video
    • Realizing my dream about becoming a full time free skier.
    • Skiing in Haines, Alaska and putting the "pedal to the metal"

    Goals/travel plans for 2011:
    "Ski as much as possible and enjoy the mountains. Starting out the season in Switzerland, probably staying in the Alps for a month; then, back home to Norway and filming in the Norwegian mountains and hopefully to North America after that. Once it’s over, I’ll hopefully put together a kick-ass movie segment, haha!"

    Favourite ski/mountain sports blogs/websites/videos: Fri Flyt.no, Fieldproductions.com

    Other sponsors: 4FRNT, (skis) VPG, (retailer), Electric, (goggles/eyewear) Bern (helmets), Oppdal ski resort

    Bio:
    Despite growing up just below the slopes of Oppdal, a Norwegian ski resort, newly-signed Arc’teryx big mountain skier Eirik Finseth’s first experiences were a bit traumatic. "My mother tells me that I was not the bravest child, and I cried every time they tried to teach me to ski. One day, they they drove up a road to the middle of the hill, put on my skis, and left me there to ski down. My mother got some funny looks from the other mothers. The kind of look that says, ‘Someone, please call Child Support services!’"

    Finseth says, "I have grown a lot since then, and can honestly say that I still love skiing. I get the same feeling every autumn when I see the first snow falling. When I’m standing on the top of a line, looking down, I know that’s exactly where I want to be and I can forget about everything else. I feel like a king."

    The 28 year old free skier now spends his time as a full-time mountain sports athlete sponsored by Arc’teryx, (clothing) 4FRNT,(skis) VPG, (retail), Electric, (goggles/eyewear)and Bern (helmets).

    Arc’teryx Director of Brand Marketing Tom Duguid is pleased to welcome Finseth to the roster of over 65 sponsored athletes.

    Finseth is very pleased with his new Arc’teryx sponser/partnership. "There is a saying – it actually rhymes in Norwegian – ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.’ At first, I thought this was a bit over-optimistic, but after I started using Arc`teryx clothes, I could not agree more. Arc’teryx clothing keeps me both warm and dry in a variety of mountain conditions."

    Eirik will be updating his blog throughout the winter, and his travels will take him to the Swiss Alps and hopefully, a return to North America. His trip to Haines, AK, last year resulted in winning "Best Segment" at the Fri Flyt awards for his skiing in the Side by Side video.

    At the end of each season, though, Finseth returns to the comforts of Oppdal. "I basically grew up in the resort. I knew, and still know, all the people that work there."

  • Logan Pehota

    My name is Logan Pehota, I live in Pemberton, BC, with my family, dad Eric, mom Parveen and brother Dalton. My home mountain is Whistler Blackcomb. I have been skiing since I was 3 years old. I ski every chance I can, even in the summer, this year I was on the glacier for the month of July practicing my tricks. I also love skiing the powder and ski touring with my dad and brother. I like getting out there with my friends, they are always pushing me to try new tricks. I ski raced for the last 4 years and have decided to concentrate on my freeskiing this year, and will be able to enter more competitions.

    Q & A's

    Full Name: Logan Pehota

    Year of birth? 1995

    Home Mountain? Whistler Blackcomb, Canada

    How long have you been skiing? Since 3 years old

    What are three things you can not live with out? Powder, surfing, laptop

    If you were not a pro Skier what would you be? Pro surfer

    What is the coolest thing you’ve done on the snow? being the youngest to climb & ski Mt. Currie (central couloir) with my Dad.

    Who is your biggest influence in your life? My Parents

    How do you stay in shape during the off season? Surfing, mountain biking, playing soccer

    Favorite Food Item? Deer backstrap

    Who are your other sponsors? Rossingnol, Oakley, LEKI, Giro, Whistler Blackcomb

  • Harald Philipp

    Born into a family of mountaineers, I didn't really have a chance at being 'normal' at all. It started at the age of eight, when my mom took me up to some of the most impressive summits of the alps. Climbing the dolomites, ski touring gran paradiso and mont blanc got me addicted. Really addicted! A shame we lived in germany and six hours away from the alps, so the only mountainsport I could do at home was mountainbiking.

    Having tried all disciplines from CC-racing to Freeride-Contests and Downhill-Marathons, I ended up creating my own discipline in hiking up mountains and descending them by bike. You can name it bike-mountaineering. I call it big fun! Living in Innsbruck, Tirol since 2005, I've got my playground right at my doorstep. Tons of well explored but never biked mountains are waiting for me. First-descended some of them already, Watzmann, Göll, Hochkönig, Plattkofel, Piz Boe and many others. And the greatest thing is, that there are more projects around here than I could do in my entire life.

    Besides being an athlete, I'm self-employed as a bikeguide, showing my guests the most beautiful trails of the alps and instructing riding skills. Check out my website summitride.com for more information!

  • Paolo Marazzi

    My name is Paolo Marazzi, I’m 21 and I live in Rovellasca, a small village near Como Lake, in Lombardy. I’m currently studying at university in Milan, Italy.

    My parents introduced me to skiing, hiking and climbing when I was a child and I am now totally addicted to being in the mountains with my friends.

    My biggest passion is telemark skiing and I spend almost all my time looking for big dumps of snow to ski in the Alps.

    I’ve been competing in competitions for two years now, and compete in the ski event circuit in Italy. Ex. Skufoneda and Skieda are for sure some of the most important international ski events that I follow every year.

    In May 2010 I travelled to Norway with some friends on a ski trip. The conditions were really bad, but we managed to find some incredible powder and we had an amazing time skiing and partying.

    Last winter I collaborated with a friend to create a freeride guide for the Lombardia region called “Freeride in Lombardia”.

    In my free time I enjoy climbing, especially crag and trad style climbing, and most days I get to ride my longboard too.

  • Res Baehler

    In Memory of Res Baehler, 1971 - 2011

    Res was a successful mountain guide, alpinist, climber, skier and very spiritual person. Res was member of the Arc'teryx team and leaves a big gap in the alpine world and in our hearts.

    We offer our sympathies to his family and friends. Our thoughts are with you in this time of loss.

    Let Res' spirit of adventure live on through each and every one of you and join us to carry Res` philosophy out into the world; "Let your eyes shine like the eyes of a child."

    Res is a typical allrounder and loves the creativity of mountaineering. Be it climbing at El Capitan, freeriding in Mongolia, ice-climbing in the Engadine, canyoning in Arco, first ascents in Madagascar or riding on a horse across the untouched Taiga of Altay Mountains, adventure is what he needs.

    Already at the age of 6 he told his parents on a hike in Tyrol that he wanted to become a mountain guide. When he was 13 he bought his first ski-touring binding to ascend the surrounding mountains all by himself and at the age of 22 he started his mountain guide training that he finished as youngest in 1995 at the age of 24. Together with three other mountain guides he founded GoVertical GmbH in 2007 that is now owner of two mountaineering shops, of the mountaineering school Pontresina, of a rope adventure park and of an indoor climbing centre.

    Sometimes Res also uses the sewing machine to realize his ideas immediately and one of his dreams is to create his own climbing and bouldering collection some day.

    His maxim is: "Let your eyes shine like the eyes of a child"!

  • Greg Hill 2 Mill

    Cue that 80’s glam-rock anthem “The Final Countdown” – Arc’teryx sponsored climber Greg Hill is in the final three weeks of his quest to ski two million vertical feet in a single calendar year. Greg’s quest has taken him to explore every bowl, chute, and glade in his Selkirk/Columbia mountain backyard, and a productive session in Las Lenas and Bariloche, Argentina, as well.

    Along the way, he tested several new Arc’teryx products (including the award-winning Alpha SV glove) and introduced his new Dynafit Stoke signature ski as well – a ‘rider designed’ backcountry ski.

    Greg’s unique quest has resulted in some cool media coverage along the way, including feature stories in Canada’s Globe & Mail newspaper and in the current issue of Outside magazine, too. Lest you think that Greg leisurely relaxes during the off-season, nothing could be farther from the truth. Hel toils away in the mountains of BC in that time-honoured ski bum “alternate” profession - tree planter. He’s planted over a million trees, but that’s a topic for another day.

    ARC: Jeez, 1 million feet seemed exhausting enough. Has anyone even come close to competing with you? Has anyone repeated your feat of skiing a million vertical feet?

    GH: It seems that there are a few people who say that they have done a million in a season but there is no way anyone has done two million feet of uphill skiing.

    ARC: Where did the idea to ski two million feet come from – are you like Bob Dylan, on some kind of “Never Ending Tour? Did you just want to put this so far out of reach that no one would ever try to compete against it?

    GH: I wanted to try and do something that required more from me than anything ever before; something that required immense dedication and commitment. 2 million seemed tangible, the math makes sense, 5480 ft a day every day all year, and voila 2 million. 5480 is fairly easy for me to do so the question became could I average that every day? It seemed like I might be able to do it.

    ARC: OK, so it’s December 21, and you’ve got just ten days to ski almost 100,000 vertical feet; I would guess that you are not attending many Christmas parties?

    GH: I have to average about 8000 vertical feet per day. Life is about balance, friends and family, so while my goal is very important, so is enjoying the holidays. I just won't be drinking much, more enjoying the company.

    ARC: Tell us about your lightweight setup – sounds from your blog like you switched skis recently?

    GH: Right now I am in my Ninja setup, or Ninja powder setup, my signature Dynafit Stoke ski, a wide powder ski in a shorter length 173 and the Dynafit TLT 5's which make walking a breeze and charging fun.

    ARC: How are the short days affecting the productivity of your ski days right now?

    GH: In 8 hours I can have a very productive day but if for whatever reason I was late in getting out, or need that extra hour I have a super-duper headlamp/ highbeam that I can shred with.

    ARC: During your recent trip to Chatter Creek Lodge for an Arc’teryx photo shoot, there were some Canadian Army cadets with Night Vision goggles. Were you able to get a pair to complete the quest?

    GH: I wish I had acted on that but no I have this Petzl headlamp that will be perfect, should I need to push the daylight hours.

    ARC: What’s the biggest day that you did on this quest in 2010?

    GH: 23,000

    ARC: Now, we all love to ski, but there must be enormous mental preparation to get through this - how do you maintain your focus to get up and do it each day?

    GH: I have spent years honing my motivation and learning how to dig deeper when I need to. This is also a personal goal, not something I am doing for anyone else, so I want this and wanting it as much as I do makes it somewhat easier to get up and go. My motivation is not always amazing, but that is part of the challenge, forcing myself to get out there.

    ARC: Looking back on the year, were there periods where you might have punched up the vertical a bit, or did you always think it might get challenging towards the end?

    GH: Perhaps I could have punched it harder in the early part of the year, but pacing is so important with a year long goal that I did not want to over exert myself. I wanted to ensure that I had energy and motivation the whole year long. And I don't mind sprinting now, in a nay race I have ever competed in I have always needed to sprint at the end.

    ARC: What’s been the most functional piece of clothing you’ve used – anything that has exceeded your expectations?

    GH: I have been loving the new Alpha SV glove, the phase for moisture and heat management and the new FL series (an ultra-light Gore-Tex® shell that will be released in 2011). The FL is amazing it allows for full weather protection while being a super light and breathable jacket.

    ARC:Assuming that all goes well and you reach your goal, what will you be doing on New Year’s Day, 2011?

    GH: Our tradition is to go to Halcyon Hot Springs, and I cannot wait to lie back and know that I have pushed myself as I hard as I can for an entire year, and pursued a dream of mine. Hopefully I accomplish this dream, but more importantly I attempted it.

  • R3TURN TO ICE

    R3TURN TO ICE - The second in a three part web series from Sherpas Cinema that delves into the sensory cortex and evokes the emotions brought forth from the restoration of winter.

  • R3TURN TO POWDER

    R3TURN TO POWDER - The third of a three part web series from Sherpas Cinema. Follow Arcteryx athlete Eric Hjorleifson as he hand builds his custom ski for his triumphant return to powder in the big mountains.

  • Pure Imagination

    Arc'teryx athlete Jonathan Siegrist discusses his latest route 'Pure Imagination' at the Red River Gorge, Kentucky. Filmed by Andy Mann

  • Greg Hill - Softshell vs Hardshell

    Arc'teryx ski mountaineering athlete Greg Hill explains when to choose a Softshell or a Hardshell.
    Learn more about the breathable Gamma MX Hoody, and the waterproof-breathable Stingray Jacket.

  • R3TURN TO WINTER

    R3TURN TO WINTER - A three part web series from Sherpas Cinema that delves into the sensory cortex and evokes the emotions brought forth from the restoration of winter.

  • Tribute to Guy Lacelle

    This film commemorates the life of Guy Lacelle, who was regarded as one of the world's leading ice climbers. In 2009, at the age of 54, Lacelle was killed by an avalanche during a climbing competition in Bozeman, Montana. A pioneer in the ice climbing world, Lacelle was the first to show what can be done on vertical ice and established some of the most difficult ice climbs in the world

  • Ines Papert Kyzyl Asker Expedition

    Ines Papert: Just a few hours too late, turned back on Mount Kyzyl Asker (Kyrgyzstan) – only 200 metres below the summit.

    A story by Ines Papert

    Ines Papert, Thomas Senf and Wolfgang Russegger journeyed to the southeastern region of Kyrgyzstan on September 21, 2010; to attempt a first-ascent in alpine-style on the South-East face of Mount Kyzyl Asker, which tops out at 5,842 meters. Due to extremely nasty weather conditions, they made two attempts on the wall, only to be stopped just 200 meters below the summit. But for these climbers, one thing is certain: We’ll be back! Improvisational abilities and spontaneity were well-tested on the first day of the journey. The original plan, to travel from the capital city of Bishek to the Kookshai Too Mountains with a truck, had to be abandoned. The onset of winter came too early this year. Not only the budget, but also the time-schedule would be compromised, and it left them with the only possible alternative: to backtrack 350 kilometers on the street, to Naryn.

    To read the full story by Ines, please visit her website http://ines-papert.de/en/highlights/description/kyzyl

    Photo Credit: Hans Ambühl

  • All.I.Can Teaser

    Sherpas Cinema are taking a completely different approach to ski and environmental documentary filmmaking.
    By taking an honest look at the real mountain individual in the context of their environment, "All.I.Can" aims to find a balance between our passions for the outdoors and an inspiration for sustainable and long-term thinking.

  • Peter Guyan

    Married to Ursina, 2 Childern (Andri 3 and Nina 2) we are living in our new house in Trin Mulin, Graubuenden, Switzerland.

    My profession:
    Mountain Guide, Skiteacher, Irata Level 3, Para-Taxi Tandem Paragliding pilot, Canyoning guide

    My obsession:
    Nature, climbing and skiing!

    Owner of the mountainguide schools Go Vertical, Bergsteigerschule Pontresina and Swiss Avalanche Academy.

    "I love my family very much and seeing my children explore the World.
    I like the differences; skiing and climbing on the same day, paragliding and kayaking.
    I get my strength from nature by working and being out there!"

    Peter was born in 1976, started skiing when he was 3 years old and climbing at age 10 with his brother on a Rock in Haldenstein, Chur, Switzerland.

    His climbing/mountaineering/skiing achievements he's most proud of :

    1997 Mount Mc Kinley Alaska USA with skis to the top
    3 times Patrouille de Glacier: from Zermatt to Verbier in 9h on skis
    Heckmeierroute (Klassik) Eiger Nord Wall Switzerland
    2005 Grenztour Graubünden; 77 Days, 180000 hm and 1000km
    Mount Ama Dablam Nepal
    Nose El Capitan, Yosemite USA

    Peter's favourite place for climbing is the Rätikon, CH. It's part of his home, because he takes care of 240 cows in the summer underneath the walls there and in the Winter his favorite Freeride spot is Klosters, Davos.

    Peter's dream is to one day climb the Lotus Flower Tower with his son who just turned 3 years old.

  • Eric Hjorleifson Interview

    An interview with Eric Hjorleifson

    Arc'teryx big mountain specialist Eric Hjorleifson can't actually recall his first day on skis. Raised in the shadowy spine of the Rocky Mountains which rise dramatically from his Canmore, AB, home, "Hoji"s parents started him skiing just before his second birthday. The early days were spent on the rope tow at Mount Norquay in Banff National Park. Eric and his brother Steve honed their skills in the Nancy Greene and provincial ski racing program and eventually joined the Banff Alpine Racers ski team. "Racing was an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of skiing technique. We used to train in the mornings and free ski with our coaches in the afternoons, our coaches we amazing skiers and enjoyed shred the whole mountain. On powder days they had a game called "Shred or Die" where we had to keep up with the coaches as they shredded all over the mountain and if we fell off the back, we had to wait the rest of the day out in the lodge." Eventually ski racing became too competitive driven and regimented, "There was no time to free ski and we would leave the hill early to go dry land training in the gym, this is when I decided racing wasn't for me".

    "One of our coaches Guy Mowbray realized that many kids who were passionate about skiing were quitting racing, so being the visionary that he was he started the first free skiing program in Canada and perhaps North America". The Rocky Mountain Freeriders (RMF) was built around skiing the entire mountain with a focus on big mountain riding. By the second season of RMF's existence Eric was coaching along side Guy and local professional big mountain skier Kevin Hjertaas.

    Growing up in the Rockies Eric had been exposed to Calgary based production company Real Action Pictures (RAP Entertainment). "I grew up on the RAP ski films, I still have the whole VHS collection, hahah." One of Eric's earliest influences was Banff local ski talent and star of RAP films Andrew Sheppard. Andrew, Kevin and Eric were all invited to join the freeride team of Monod Sports in Banff, this was Eric's first true introduction to Andrew and the start of his career as a professional skier. Kevin and Andrew mentored Eric introducing him to big line skiing in the backcountry. "Kevin would bring me out to ski lines in the backcountry around Lake Louise and Sunshine Village, Andrew would invite me to come sled skiing in Revelstoke." Kevin and Andrew helped Eric gain experience in the mountains, "They taught me not only about skiing lines but also about snow safety and mountain knowledge".

    At the end of the season in 2002 Andrew invited Eric to join him on a ski trip to Argentina with aspiring sports cinema photographer Dustin Lindgren. Dustin brother of Scott Lindgren owner/operator of California based Kayak/action sports film production company Scott Lindgren Productions (SLP).

    Dustin was relatively new to filming and the trip was a learning experience for everyone. "The night we arrived in Las Lenas it was raining slightly, the rain soon turned to snow and it snowed three days straight. It snowed over 3 and half meters in the village, still one of the biggest snow falls I have witnessed to this day". The resort was totally shut down, two lifts were damaged by massive avalanches and the crews hopes to film in the high alpine of the surrounding Andean mountains were put on hold. "At the end of our 5 week trip we finally had a decent day of weather and we made the most of it, Dustin and I started skiing from the village at 6 am directly after leaving the bar from Andrews 30th birthday party. Dustin and I skinned for 6000 ft on alpine trekkers, we took turns caring the 16 mm camera and tripod. By noon we were at the top of the spine lines on Cerro Torresillas above the resort".

    Dustin captured Eric dropping into the spine line below the rock spires of Cerro Torresillas, "the line was the pinnacle of our trip as well as my ski career at that point".

    The next season in 2003 Scott and Dustin invited Andrew and Eric on a film trip to Haines Alaska for Scott's next project Burning Time.

    "Haines was an amazing experience for me and a true introduction to the world of filming big mountain skiing using helicopters"

    "The avalanche conditions in Haines were at the worst I have seen, there were natural avalanches on every aspect, we were triggering massive slides by landing on top of slopes or even from just flying by them in the machine". The unstable conditions in Haines reinforced the importance of mountain awareness to Eric, "Andrew took control of the trip, it was incredible to watch him apply his experience and basically guided our trip". Despite the unstable snow conditions the crew managed to get some solid footage for SLP's film.

    With a demo edit provided by Scott and Dustin, Eric was invited to film with Colorado-based Matchstick Productions (MSP) in the season of 2004/05 for their film Yearbook. MSP also hired Dustin on as a cinema photographer.

    With very little budget to film for the season Dustin planned one of the first media trips to newly established Mica Heli Guides located North of Revelstoke, BC. "It was a gamble, I only had enough budget to pay for the helicopters minimums for less than 5 days" a very short weather window for filming. "We rolled the dice and pulled the trigger, I was the only athlete on the trip so I brought Andrew along to help. The weather co-operated and we managed to fly the first 2 days and burn up all of my budget, conditions were perfect cold clear Rockies spring weather excellent stable powder snow." Dustin's footage from the Mica trip was featured in MSP "Yearbook" and launched Eric's professional skiing career to the next level as a feature athlete in MSP's films.

    For the past five years, Hjorleifson has scored major segments in all of MSP's award-winning movies and has developed an incredibly fast, fluid style that makes moving down massive mountain faces look effortless.

    Audience tastes are moving away from pure action movies, though, with greater interest in compelling stories to go along with stellar visuals. Last winter, Hoji teamed up with athlete Mark Abma for a two week trip out of Golden Alpine Holidays (GAH) Meadow Lodge located in the Esplanade range of the Selkirk Mountain North of Golden, BC. Skiing uphill was as important to the story line as skiing back down. All of the footage shot for Hoji and Abma's segment in The Way I See It was self-propelled―earning turns by skiing. "Ski touring was the first way I accessed the backcountry to ski lines, over my filming career the focus has been on utilizing Helicopters and snowmobile access terrain, they are efficient methods but intimate experience with the mountains that you get from ski touring is lost."

    Ski touring in simplicity is really the best way to access "pillow lines" which have become one of the most popular forms of adventure skiing," he says. Often found in avalanche runouts or steep creek gulches, pillow lines are massively covered 'rock mushrooms' and the idea is to jump from one 'pillow' (massive, snow covered rocks) to the next.

    Hoji says, "Pillow lines require a lot of thought to ski well because you have to try and estimate how fast you need to go, how to safely stomp the landing, where to land on the next pillow, and ski the whole line smoothly. The beauty of ski touring is that on the skin up you see the features in the terrain from a variety of vantage points and angles, you can really study every detail and subtle contour enabling you to piece together very technically difficult lines." Whether viewed through a helmet cam or filmed from below, these drops make for dramatic footage.

    In the future, Hjorleifson sees himself pushing farther into the backcountry.

    This new emphasis on performance-based adventure backcountry skiing makes Hoji a perfect fit for Arc'teryx. "Every piece of clothing I used last year was of the highest quality. For most of the season, I used the Sidewinder SV jacket and Stinger bib pant from the Whiteline series. One thing I really like is that the medium fit was consistent across a variety of products; I wasn't a medium in some items and a large in others. I also really appreciated the warmth and comfort provided by the Atom SV. On the Freshfields trip, it was perfect for wearing around camp after a day of exploring and skiing."

  • Greg Hill - Gamma MX Hoody

    Arc'teryx ski mountaineering athlete Greg Hill talks about his favourite backcountry jacket.
    Learn more about the breathable protection of the Gamma MX Hoody.

  • Eric Hjorleifson

    Born and raised into a family where seasonal employment and a place to live revolved around skiing and snow conditions, Arc'teryx big mountain specialist Eric Hjorleifson can't actually recall his first day on skis. Raised in the shadowy spine of the Rocky Mountains which rise dramatically from his Canmore, AB, home, "Hoji"s early days were spent on the rope tow at Mount Norquay in Banff National Park. Eric and his brother Steve honed their skills for eight years in the Nancy Greene and provincial ski racing program. "We competed as a fairly high level," Eric recalls, "I was technically solid and trying my best, but racing was really hard."

    "There was a whole crew of us in and around Banff who loved to ski but didn't necessarily like racing. Our coach Guy Mowbray started what was maybe the very first free skiing program in North America built around big mountain riding. We had a game called "Shred or Die" where we had to keep up with the coaches all over the mountain and if we fell off the back, we had to wait the rest of the day out in the lodge."

    Hjorleifson's talent soon led to an association with a Canmore-area filmmaker named Dustin Lindgren, who contributed footage to Colorado-based Match Stick Productions. Their first shoots in Las Lenas, Argentina, and Haines, AK, were bedeviled by poor weather. Almost broke and hardly able to afford heli-time, Hoji and Lindgren wound up at Mica Heli Guides, a wild backcountry lodge north of Golden, BC. They got enough useful footage for Hjorleifson to produce a 'highlight reel' that eventually led to an Oakley sponsorship.

    Being sponsored was no guarantee of getting good weather, as Hoji and Lindgren found out when they went to Tulsequah Heli Skiing on Eric's first Oakley trip. "We only had two hours of flying/skiing in 8 days and blew virtually our entire budget." The duo was able to salvage the season with a return trip to Mica Heli, where some jaw-dropping pillow line and spine riding footage scored Eric the opening segment in the following year's MSP movie.

    For the past five years, Hjorleifson has scored major segments in all of MSP's award-winning movies and has developed an incredibly fast, fluid style that makes moving down massive mountain faces look effortless.

    Audience tastes are moving away from pure action movies, though, with greater interest in compelling stories to go along with stellar visuals. Last winter, Hoji teamed up with Salomon-sponsored athlete Mark Abma early last winter. All of the footage shot for Hoji and Abma's segment in The Way I See It was self-propelled―earning turns by skiing out of Meadow Lodge in the Selkirk Mountain Range north of Golden, BC. Skiing uphill was as important to the story line as skiing back down.

    "I've been ski touring since I was 17, and it's really the best way to access "pillow lines" which have become the most popular form of adventure skiing," he says. Often found in avalanche runouts or steep creek gulches, pillow lines are massively covered 'rock mushrooms' and the idea is to jump from one 'pillow' (massive, snow covered rocks) to the next.

    Hoji says, "Pillow lines require a lot of thought to ski well because you have to try and estimate how fast you need to go, how to safely stomp the landing, where to land on the next pillow, and ski the whole line smoothly. The beauty of ski touring is that you can skin up and study micro features in the terrain." Whether viewed through a helmet cam or filmed from below, these drops make for dramatic footage. In the future, Hjorleifson sees himself pushing farther into the backcountry. Last May, he was part of a large crew that camped on the Freshfield Icefield in Banff National Park; skiing deep winter powder and exploring a massive, never skied before range of mountains.

    This new emphasis on performance-based adventure backcountry skiing makes Hoji a perfect fit for Arc'teryx. "Every piece of clothing I used last year was of the highest quality. For most of the season, I used the Sidewinder SV jacket and Stinger bib pant from the Whiteline series. One thing I really like is that the medium fit was consistent across a variety of products; I wasn't a medium in some items and a large in others. I also really appreciated the warmth and comfort provided by the Atom SV. On the Freshfields trip, it was perfect for wearing around camp after a day of exploring and skiing."

  • Jonathan Siegrist Road to Kryptonite

    A Story by Jonathan Siegrist

    For myself, every breakthrough achievement in my life began with a distant goal. Once I've totally committed to it, there immediately exists a void between myself and success. Setting a goal is no doubt the first step, but what comes next is the real test - paving that void with growth and dedication. In the case of rock climbing that growth may come in the form of training a specific strength, engaging your mind, or developing a new skill set. Regardless of the specific type of growth necessary, it's a climbers dedication to the process that will empower them to eventually succeed.

    I've learned to love the process, and I've come to terms with the fact that this pursuit is mostly that; a process. As sweet as victory may be, it's fleeting, few and far between. If you can learn to love the agony of training at your peak, the existence of various and unwavering pressures and the 24/7 job that is absolute commitment.. then the sky's the limit.

    My road to 'Kryptonite' 14d, began in the first few years of my climbing. I was setting long term goals and dreaming about where climbing might take me. During this time I inscribed '9a or bust' on a campus board that I built in my parents garage and decided that if I was ever to climb such an astronomical difficulty, it should be the country's first - Tommy Caldwell's magnificent, 'Kryptonite'. With this lofty goal tucked neatly away in my dreams, I climbed and trained tirelessly for years. Working my way through 5.13 and eventually through the letters of 5.14. After a groundbreaking trip to the Red River Gorge in late October of 2009 followed by an excellent visit to China's sport climbing mecca, Yanghou, just months later, I imagined realizing the long lost goal of climbing 9a. This dream shortly thereafter solidified, and in the first few weeks of 2010, I committed to this goal.

    After a spring of local climbing, and a lengthy early summer road trip, I returned home and began evaluating what my path to Kryptonite would look like. I had yet to climb on the blocky limestone cliffs of Rifle, which I'd heard were very similar to what I would find on Kryptonite. Knowing that this was a very unique style of climbing, I made frequent trips to Rifle over the next month in preparation. I honed my abilities climbing on slippery feet, using awkward kneebars, engaging compression and making use of features instead of holds. I managed to do the classic 5.14a 'Zulu' (3 tries), the ultra pumpy 'Living the Dream' 14a (2 tries), 'Roadside Prophet' 14a (3 tries), the burly 'Bride of Frankenstein' 13d (2 tries) along with the kneebar intensive 'Present Tense' 13d (2 tries) among other climbs. Finally feeling prepared and growingly anxious to get after my real objective, I set out for the Fortress of Solitude (where you'll find Kryptonite) in the first few days of September 2010.

    My first day on the route proved to be very inspirational in that I managed to do every move. Even so, I knew and respected it's difficulty, and thus when I returned home I continued to train my ass off. With a better understanding of the exact strengths this climb would require, I fought hard to develop them. I took excellent care of my body, and planned my climbing ten days in advance. I reviewed my beta for the route endlessly on bike rides, laying in bed or while training. During this time, my vision narrowed and nothing stood between me and my goal.

    I made tangible progress with every visit, and continually returned more and more motivated. On my third day trying the route, I managed to one-hang it. I felt that my success was imminent, but great expectations built unnecessary pressure, and my fourth day I left disappointed with another one-hang.

    At this point I was obviously prepared to do the climb. My dedication had done me well and it was clear that I had everything it took to succeed. Now it was only the self-induced pressure and piercing mental game that stood in my way. As I made the 45 minute approach to the cliff on my next day, my heart was racing. I imagined the route in my head and as every difficult move or uncomfortable rest passed I could feel my anxiety building. I needed to relax.

    I reminded myself that it's only the movement that matters. What stands between me and the chains is only a series of moves, each of which I'm very capable and each of which I've rehearsed. The emotions surrounding a move or a rest or a clip, were all just creations.. only the climbing was real. And with this, I left the ground. I climbed each movement as it came to me, rested as needed and clipped were I could.

    Years ago I dreamt about climbing 'Kryptonite', and although it only took me five days of effort to succeed, to me it was a culmination of countless days of determination and years worth of growth. This accomplishment represents how far I've come in the last three years, much more so than simply a large number. Kryptonite was once an end-all, fantastical goal, and now it's become only a stepping stone.

  • Jon Walsh Climbs A New Route on Mt. MacDonald

    "The North Pillar Direct " 5.11c A0 1000m

    A new route on Mt. MacDonald

    FA: Jeff Relph and Jon Walsh | July 8th, 2010

    Mt. MacDonald’s 1000-meter high alpine big wall is about as close to the road as you’ll find a true grade VI rock-climb in North America. Simply park your car on the side of the Trans Canada Highway, cross the creek on a log conveniently located 50 meters from the parking, and slog uphill for 600 meters with some minor bushwacking and scrambling. Within two hours, you have up to 25 pitches of amazing in-cut quartzite to that will keep you on your toes for many hours of good clean fun. I had been wondering for some time if this was my personal mountain face, as I’ve visited it 6 times in 7 years, without hearing of anyone else making any effort, despite there being no shortage of talk about it. Finally this summer, I heard for the first time of three other attempts made on the first route I did on the face with Colin Moorhead, that we named Prime Rib (2004, 550m 5.11b). One party made it halfway up, but a run-out pitch proved to be too much for them (they forgot their pitons and we had only left the most important ones fixed), and heli-rescues ensued for the other two parties. One of the unique features of MacDonald that it shares with very little other alpine terrain in Canada is that it has cell service. Fortunately, the injuries sustained by the two climbers that took falls were minor, and these did not occur on the one pitch that required the run-out face climbing with piton work.

    In 2005, I went back with Bruce Kay and climbed the "North Pillar" – a prominent pillar of sustained 5.10 and 5.11 cracks, sandwiched between two deep gullies. After 11 pitches, we ventured left onto easier ground on the upper headwall and completed the 19-pitch adventure in a 30-hour car-to-car push calling it 5.11 and A0 because of two hangs.

    On July 8th, 2010, Jeff Relph and I were back at the face for the second time together, with intentions of starting up the North Pillar Route, then continuing up virgin ground for a direct finish. This was the more aesthetic looking line from the ground that I had envisioned climbing with Bruce, but we had taken too much time on the first half of the route, and the line of least resistance to the left made more sense at the time.

    This time, we left the car at 3 a.m., a little earlier than Bruce and I had, and with some prior route knowledge, we made good time climbing the first 11 pitches in 8. I freed the first crux at .11b thanks to having the knifeblades already in place on the crimpy face climbing, but unfortunately, the next crux wasn’t solved before the pump overcame Jeff on lead. As it came nearly 50 meters into the pitch, we didn’t bother to lower and try and re-send the pitch. I found the secret foothold seconding, which allowed me to rest enough to free it, and we both agreed it was 5.11c. However the A0 grade still remains. Something for the next suitors to try and remove.

    Instead of traversing left to easier simul-climbing terrain at the first chance, we continued straight up the pillar staying on or as close to the ridgeline as possible, and many more pitches of 5.10 and 5.11- ensued. Eventually, the angle of the face relented, but there were always moves of 5.9 or harder on every pitch, and sometimes on wet rock due to the melting snow bands left over from a deep winter snowpack. Just before dark we topped out on the summit ridge about 200 meters away from the summit. We didn’t bother to hit it for multiple reasons, but mainly we didn’t feel like 15 minutes of 4th class scrambling in the wrong direction would add anything of value to our day, and with 15 minutes of light left, the time would be better spent finding our way down the West Ridge.

    While transitioning to from climbing mode to descending mode, we soaked in the impressive views from Mt. Columbia to the North Howser Tower, and all the immediate peaks and glaciers that lay before us in Glacier Nation Park, in profile against the glowing sky. Then under a clear but moonless sky, we down-climbed and rappelling the west ridge. Fortunately there was no overnight freeze so the snow was perfectly soft for kicking secure steps for down the 50-degree the couloirs that lead into the Herdman bowl, as we had only one ice-axe between us. Good boot-skiing conditions saved us a time and energy as opposed to pounding down the scree, which I descended in 2005 with Bruce. It got light as we finally found the log to cross the raging Connaught Creek and our car-to-car time was 26 hours.

    All said and done, we figured we’d climbed the face in about 23-25 pitches, with very little simul-climbing, and I thought it was significantly harder than the North Pillar route I had previously climbed with Bruce. It was also of the same good quality, although on the 19th August Bruce and I had found much drier conditions. That being said, I think it was easier overall to climb a bit of wet rock and have more snow to aid the approach and descent. It was definitely a wild and committing route, with a ton of good rock climbing on it. The option is there for future repeats: easier on the left, or more sustained on the right.

    We brought a standard double rack with single micro cams, single #3 and #4 camelots, and one regular set of nuts. We only placed one piton, which we left fixed. I'd recommend future parties to bring the same and leave the pitons behind. Rappelling from high on the face would be sketchy and dangerous as chances of getting ropes stuck, chopped and pulling stacked blocks onto you would not be in your favor. In comparison, both the Seventh Rifle and the Watchtower on the North Howser Tower felt shorter, easier and less committing than the north face of MacDonald.

  • Nina Caprez at Hotel Supramonte

    Hotel Supramonte

    by Nina Caprez

    My first visit to this unbelievable multipitch tour was in April as my partner Cédric Lachat and I drove spontaneously to Sardegna, Italy, to climb this famous route. Hotel Supramonte has been the most difficult route in Italy for many years. The high rated difficult grades (7b+, 7c, 8b, 8a+, 8a+/8b, 7c, 7a, 7b+, 7b+, 7b+, 6b) and ongoing hard pitches makes this route to an absolute test peace.

    On the first day, Cédric tried an on-sight and unfortunately fell in the last 8b pitch. I first had the chance to climb the route top rope to get a feeling of what was to come. On the second day I then checked out all 11 pitches. After a day of rest I planned to give it a go. Unfortunately it started raining on our resting day and it kept pouring down for several days and we had to leave Hotel Supramonte undone.

    I was so stoked about this route that I convinced Cédric trhee weeks later to drive back to Sardegna to give it another try. We planned enough time for this stay. Cedric tried it on the first day and had the fight of his life. Two days before he was still competing at the Boulder World Cup where he came in 4th place. His arms where still pretty pumped and he had to give his eye teeth. I followed him to get used to the route again.

    After two days of rest I gave it another try on lead and I finally made it!

    I had perfect conditions on my attempt (even climbing with glasses as I lost my contact lenses the day before) and it felt so great. I had a small bumbler at the end of the 4th pitch which meant to take down the rope and start at the 4th pitch again. The hardest part was the last 7b+. I was so out of power but that's the way it is with multi pitch routes. The top is way above you.

    This was such an exciting experience for me. Even though, on my first trip to Sardegna I never thought that I would be able to make it. But somehow I managed it to get it done as I really wanted this route to list on my resume and just enjoyed climbing it.

    Hotel Supramonte - a must for every sports climber who likes to have some air under their butt.

    ... Nina

  • Freshfield Icefield - A Skier's Journey

    In the final episode in a series of 3 ski-travel videos, Jordan Manley returns home to Canada, visiting the iconic Canadian Rockies.

  • Tyler Horne

    Tyler grew up on Bainbridge Island Just outside of Seattle, Washington. Both his parents being avid skiers Tyler was on skis at a very early age and spent through high school exploring the backcountry around Alpental Washington. Upon graduation Tyler moved to Bellingham for college. During college he amassed hundreds of days in the heavy bountiful powder of Mt. Baker. Degree in hand, Tyler immediately sought bigger mountains and dryer snow. Jackson Hole proved to be his new stomping grounds. Since 2004 rarely a winter day passes with out finding Tyler either ripping around the resort, hiking to the numerous lift-accessed backcountry or out on his sled exploring the mountains of Wyoming.

    Not only is Tyler a top-level skier, he has dove head first into speed flying world. Armed with his wing and a pair of skis it’s not uncommon to see him charging close out lines all over the Jackson area.

    During the summer months you can find him flying hundreds of people each year as a tandem paragliding pilot for Jackson Hole Paragliding. He also enjoys wakeboarding, camping, and pretty much any other outdoor adventure he comes across. He lives his life by his favorite quote "I pretty much have more fun on a day to day basis than anyone else I know"

  • The Tehipite Sanction

    The Tehipite Sanction
    by Rob Pizem

    Tehipite dome lies in the northern portion of Kings Canyon National Park, about a mile away from the Sierra National Forest boundary. But that is not where this story begins. I had planned on a summer adventure in Alaska where my partners and I would have to trek through the bush, cross icy rivers, navigate unknown glaciers, and finally end up at an enormous unclimbed big wall. We would make base camp and establish an amazing new free route on the virgin stone. Afterwards, we would triumphantly hike out from our now "established" path and happily fly home to our families and friends with memories of overcoming the obstacles that were before us. That is what I had planned. So, as life goes, even our best laid plans don't come to fruition.

    For a long time, I have been of the thought that things always work out and that I would always accomplish something during one of my climbing trips. It wasn't until this past March 2010 that I actually didn't accomplish anything and now my once in a lifetime trip to "Seward's Folly" isn't happening. What was going on? First of all, my always psyched and seemingly always available partner on these adventures Mike Brumbaugh was not taken with the idea. He had been there and didn't like the taste that crossing glaciers left in his mouth. Actually, he had been there multiple times and apparently had done or attempted the climbs that he had wanted to and was satisfied. And since finding a good partner is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, I knew that I wouldn't find someone that I was psyched to have watching my back in Alaska, so that trip was kyboshed.

    I was a bit upset, but never showed it and began researching other possibilities that did not involve icy glaciers. What was ironic was that I didn't even have any experience crossing these death traps, yet I was the one initiating the experience. I guess that I am just too naïve that Freedom of the Hills will get me out of any situation in the mountains.

    Here is a summary of the conversation that I had with Mike and within my head as we filtered out dream trips for new routing adventures: "Greenland, no too expensive and we would need more time, Europe, no not for a big wall crack climbing trip, Yosemite, no, been there done that, what about this supposedly big wall in central California called Tehipite Dome?" As one of us brought up the Dome after hearing about it from someone somewhere, we began to do a little research. It didn't take long to see the wall plastered all over the web on hiking websites and Google searches. It looked big, clean and for the most part rarely visited. "This could be cool", I thought to myself.

    Even though I was still holding out for the Alaska trip, this one seemed cool. So we made efforts to read up on any and all ascents of the wall and found that it was first climbed by Fred Becky in 1963. Apparently, back then the legends of early first ascents of North American big walls had all heard about this monolith and its huge approach and were just waiting for "the right time" to get in there and establish its first rock climb. Walls that are supposed to be as big as El Cap in Yosemite normally attract those who dream big and who don't have failure in their vocabulary. Fred Becky knew that waiting didn't do anything for anybody, so he assembled a team and after a few days of hard work had summited, ground up Tehipite Dome. After reading about his ascent it was clear that this wall was worthy and it made not going to Alaska a little bit easier. Mike and I were going to get in there and do our best to establish our own big wall free climb and we were going to do it in less than ten days.

    As soon as the decision was made to go for it, the next hurdle was timing. I am a high school science teacher and my time was not so flexible during the summer of 2010. My wife and I took two new jobs in another city, we had to pack, find a place to live, sell our house, move, and get settled before the school year began and I had to be in Squamish at the end of July to present during the Squamish Mountain Festival. Mike had to be at a wedding at the end of July. It seemed pretty easy, we would go during June and take care of business and be back early enough to meet our other obligations. That was the plan at least. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

    It turned out that since we needed to bring in about 1500 feet of static line, six sets of cams, along with all our camping stuff and food, that hiking in wasn't an option. We had planned on horse packing our gear into the wall. Otherwise, it would have taken half of our trip just to move gear in and out the thirteen miles to the summit of the wall. Being naive about a trip like this, we had forgotten to figure in organizing the horse packer's schedule. It turned out that he knew the area like the back of his hand and has told us that crossing one of the rivers on the approach in June might be iffy with the fifteen foot of snow that had accumulated in that area over the winter. All of a sudden June was out and July was in. Allen Clyde of Clyde Pack Outfitters changed our whole game plan with that one bit of information.

    This is where things got sticky and complicated. Not only did we have to plan the trip during the "busy month" but we had to let the other two members of the team know what was happening. One member was on vacation during that time and it wasn't a problem, but the other was going in and out of town for work that whole month. At this point in time, I was ready to pull my hair out. I knew that for a project of this size that we really needed two weeks, perfect weather and a lot of luck. Now with all the scheduling and peoples commitments, we were down to only ten days. The ball was now in Allen Clyde's hands and we could only hope that he had an opening in his schedule on the days that we required his expertise.

    After a few days of playing phone tag, I connected with him on the drive to the climbing gym after teaching all day. We were set. I would be flying in from Canada after presenting in Squamish to Fresno, where the rest of the team would pick me up with my truck. Ari was coming from Salt Lake, Mike was coming from Vail, and I was coming from Denver. The forth member of the team had to change plans. Ari was lucky enough to be able to change his plans for work, Mike would be able to just make it to the wedding that he was in (the day after we horse packed out) and I would get home one day before packing the U-haul and heading west with all my belongings and my lovely wife, Jane. All that I had to do before flying to Canada was get my truck to Mike' house and however inconvenient, it seemed doable.

    Since the major details were taken care of, I had to start assigning various duties to everyone. I have learned through experience that if team members don't have duties, things get forgotten and amazing trips end up not being very fun. Responsibilities that each of us had were to plan the food, decide on how much gear and static line that we would bring, what kind of tent or tents, what was our strategy for establishing the climb and so on. I took the lead and passed out duties and things seemed to go smoothly. As the weeks grew closer, the emails were flying back and forth about who had this and I'll buy that. Comments were made about what clothes to bring and how many extra pairs of underwear we should bring. Since I have a history of having accidents on the wall (less dangerous and more stinky), many jokes were made.

    So, I finally was sitting at the airport in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia and even though I was exhausted from a few days at Squamish and from staying up all night at the Western themed party the night before, I began to get excited about the trip to Tehipite. I had phone contact with the boys and all was going as planned and things looked good for our trip. Clyde Pack Outfitter was ready, the weather looked stable and sunny, and we even had managed to get our good friend and photographer, Andrew Burr to come out at the end of our trip to shoot photos of what was sure to be the next big thing in California big wall free climbing. As I stepped out of the airport and felt the 100 plus degree heat of Fresno, I began to second guess myself. The heat and the fact that the wall was south facing began to make me nervous.

    Adrenaline and a cheeseburger gave me the energy to drive us to the outfitters ranch where we had to explode the back of my truck and repack and reassess all that we had brought for the trip. We had a portaledge, 1500 extra feet of Sterling Super Static Ropes, eight sets of cams and nuts, 3 hand drills, 30 bolts and 30 hangers, sleeping bags, ten pairs of climbing shoes, clothes, backpacking food and dried goods. When I saw all the gear that had to get into the saddle bags, I really feared that we would not be able to take all that we needed. Six giant saddle bags and nearly five hundred pounds later, we had whittled down all the gear and taken only the necessities. With only hours between us and our ride into the wall, we easily slept in the canvass tent at Clyde's.

    Remember, this is about how all the best laid plans can unravel before your eyes. Anyway, the next morning we were off. We had assumed that the five or six hours of riding would start off at 7 or 8 am but that wasn't the case. Out in the hills, you get going when you get going. We had to drop off another group of horse packers who were going to another destination and then it was our turn. Now this didn't really take all that long, but with three rock climbers on vacation sitting in a truck and not getting any closer to their final destination, it didn't feel that way. So, when we finally loaded and mounted our horses and began moving down the trail at a snails pace, it was then that I began to worry some more about getting to camp that day. We still had to set up camp, find the wall, and move a load of gear to the top.

    A few hours on a horse will make you forget about everything. Our butts hurt so much that we just wanted off and when Allen told us that we were as far as we'd paid for, we found a flat site near the creek and happily unloaded. It was sad to see him leave and know that we really were going to be here for ten days all on our own and not see another human being. Fortunately, I knew my partners really well and we weren't in for any surprises.

    The next few days were a whirlwind of activity. After dropping our gear, leveling a tent site, hanging our food and packing our packs, we picked up the surveying tape, looked at a topographic map of the area and headed to where we thought the wall was located.

    The forest was burned out from the fire a few years prior and was nearly devoid of life except for a few small plants and flowers. We crossed a few smaller streams, listened to no birds and tried our best to maintain the direction that we wanted to travel. After about 15 minutes of hanging bright orange pieces of surveying tape, we arrived at an opening in the charred out and barely living forest. The Valley Of The Kings River opened up before us and we were taken back.

    The valley was way down below (like over 3000 feet below) and the river which looked like a silver ribbon, charged down the gradient creating massive waterfalls and rapids. It braided back and forth through the wide and flat bottom of the valley. When we gazed to our left, we all knew that we were looking at the top of Tehipite Dome. I stress only the top of the dome because it was huge. It looked like we were just a few minutes' walk away. Once we figured out where we were I continued with taping of our path. We got a bit closer to the wall along the same contour that we had been traveling only to find the terrain get a bit nasty for hiking with heavy loads. It was getting late, so we followed our flagging back to camp with excitement in our heads and the knowledge that this was really a big wall.

    Our first day at the wall did not begin as it could have. We had shuttled our massive load of 6 sets of cams, nearly 1500 feet of static line, lead lines and personal climbing gear to what was "not as close as we had thought". So we overloaded our packs and backs and trudged up and over Manzanita choked hillsides, through mosquito filled stream valleys and down a 1000 foot loose rock and boulder filled gulley only to second guess an obvious path to the wall.

    For some reason this always happens. You see the obvious way and then make a challenge out of it by not choosing that path. You epic for way too long only to finally go the way that you thought was correct from the beginning. In the end you just want to kick yourself for the enormous amount of time and energy that was just wasted. Let's just say that that is what happened.

    My back hurt, I was exhausted and sweating and not feeling like I had any energy. I was dehydrated and most importantly, worried that we would run out of time to establish a new line on this gigantic wall that we finally had stumbled upon.

    The next moments, the team looked to me; I had to determine where we would begin scouting for the new route that was lurking somewhere below. We had finally reached the ledge system that was nearly at the 2000 foot mark of the wall and had no idea where any existing lines were and no idea where to begin. After spending some time looking at the old photos, I decided that the longest portion of the wall lied to the left of center and that we were probably standing just above some dihedrals that were almost the length of the lower wall. I handed everyone a black 70 meter static line and said rap off that tree and see what you find. We would see what the wall looked like below and go from there. It was so simple. Surprisingly, we hit the jackpot only after four tries.

    The second that I saw the line below Ari, I knew we were going to be happy about the rest of the climbing trip. I will describe what I saw from the top to bottom for the next day and a half. I rappelled with a triple set of cams and nuts, and over 1000 feet of rope hanging off my back and harness. I will say that although I was giddy as a school girl that it did suck rappelling with all that weight, choosing the line, building anchors and fixing the ropes for Ari and Mike to depend on.

    At the top, I rapped through a giant tree. Surrounding the tree at the high point of our soon to be route was about 3 feet of debris that I dragged the static lines and cams through. I then had to pass by the very sharp and gigantic yucca that stabbed me every time that I passed by it. Below that the rock turned perfect free of exfoliating layers. It looked like a 5.8 slab with a splitter undulating smooth crack dividing it in two. Seventy or eighty feet below this wonderful ending pitch, the wall went overhanging and turned black. It was clear that water from above drained down these cracks, but the wall was hardly dirty.

    A three and four inch crack climbed up this black dihedral for fifty feet and I smiled at what I imagined this pitch would climb like. Further below, a slab with a flake was waiting to be climbed. As I followed the crack lower and lower, I kept finding a continuous system of thin seams, offwidths, dihedrals and hand cracks. Mike and Ari waited above patiently as the going was slow as I chose where we would be spending our time over the next five or six days. I thought to myself that they would be freaking out right now if they saw what I was finding.

    I built anchor after anchor and did my best not to allow the rope to rub over any sharp spots. Jugging on a fixed line 2000 feet up with a core shot isn't fun. When the wall was dead vertical for hundreds of feet and I saw a corner covered in some small plants, I scoured the options because I feared that our line would have just a few points of aid because the crack appeared so thin. I swung back and forth checking the nearby cracks, planned moves through a nearby roof, located possible pin or bolt placements and finally moved on not positive that a small section of the climb would go free.

    Just below the questionable portion of the route was the most amazing three to four inch crack that I had ever seen so high on a wall. It was nearly two hundred feet long and passed through a series of triple horizontal roofs. Below that pitch I had to do some thinking again. The cracks continued, but were a bit dirty and slightly vegetated. Again, I swung back and forth and after minutes of exploring, decided that the route would be climbable after some cleaning.

    The line was moving from dihedrals and jumping from cracks and still I hadn't needed to trundle anything off the wall. I had rappelled over a thousand feet and still hadn't found any bad or even poor rock. The wall was amazing. I thought to myself this is what the pioneers of El Cap had to feel like when they first ventured up the big stone. One more pitch below and I arrived at a nice ledge and that was where my troubles began. I had been picking the line for hours at this point, the boys were on their way down and had begun cleaning some of the vegetated cracks and I thought that I had just hit a snag in the game. What ended up begin the second pitch of the route was not looking so good for free climbing, I was hammering pins into non-existent seams, hooking flakes that were nothing and doing everything that I could to get to a place where I thought we could connect to my "low point" of free climbing.

    It didn't look good after spending close to thirty minutes messing around and it was then that my bowels took over. I was at the end of my last rope, my last few feet as a matter of fact. The rope ended at a belay stance and in order not to mess the place up I lowered even further off the rope by extending my aiders to the point that I was just below the stance and the belay. Mike was rapping down just above me when I told him what happened. It happened so fast. It came over me like a wave and my innards exploded. Since I was in a bad spot, I slipped. I slipped in a bad way. Not like the "oops I splashed some pasta sauce on my shirt", but more like the "oops, I just shat myself and then fell over and covered myself with my loose stool". As I looked up and Mike was just a few feet above looking down, the odor hit him in the face. He knew that I had a movement, but not that I was also wearing it. What made matters worse was that I didn't have any paper on me. Mike had to come into the "fire" and pass me some paper so I could kind of get cleaned up. I fixed that last rap line and went to the ledges that signaled the beginning of the wall and the route. What a day.

    It was epic, we rapped, cleaned, jugged and hand drilled a few belay bolts and headed back to camp exhausted. We were all pleased about what the route was going to look and climb like. By the end of day two, all the uncertainty was gone through a little bit of luck and cleaning. Pitch two turned into a hair raising 5.12 with three bolts through a blank section and pitch five ended up being climbable in the best part, where I thought the crack was too thin.

    The next few days we spent bolting anchors, jugging and rappelling, hiking and stashing gear and water, and rehearsing moves and the harder pitches. They were brutal. The long hike up and down the thousand foot gulley and the California sunshine nearly wiped me out. It all led to what was almost the first free ascent of the route. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

  • Will Stanhope Adamants Trip 2010

    A story by Will Stanhope

    Andrew has that hell-bent look in his eyes. He scratches his fingers in the back of a grotty finger crack, seeking any sort of jam at all. "I don't know how you did this!" he yells into the wind. I try to smile through chattering teeth, and belay him up to my stance: A few nuts and a undercammed TCU shoved sideways into a strange, beautiful horizontal crystalline crack. Nobody has ever been to this little cave before, and I get an uncomfortable, eerie feel from it. I've butted us up into an impasse. Loose and steep to the right and left, and a roof above us. Now, the weather, threatening all day, has morphed into a full-fledged hail storm. We are a stone's throw from the top of the Turret, and I am scared.

    Andrew Boyd is a legend in Squamish circles. Uncompromising and unsponsored, he consistently establishes the boldest, most beautiful routes in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor. Since I was a kid, his lines have inspired me. Last year, we roped up together for the first time on a free bid on the East Face of Slesse. We made it five pitches up before realizing our light-and-fast tactics were no match for this 3500 beast of a face. More importantly though, I had a found a partner with a no-nonsense, go-get-it-done attitude and a similar risk tolerance to my own. I rapped off Slesse humbled, but happy.

    I've never ridden in a Helicopter to get to go climbing before. From Kinbasket Lake near Golden, I am wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a ball-cap. 10 minutes later I'm on the glacier, struggling to heft 48 Pilsners and two bottles of Scotch to our bivy, a 15 minute walk from the Turret. I am immediately sold on heli-access. This place is unbelievable, and we take a swig of booze to celebrate our arrival. "Jesus! What are you wearing?" asks Mountain Guide Craig McGee.

    "Chill out. This isn't the Karakorum," I reply, jokingly. I will later come to regret saying that.

    As Andrew takes over the lead on pitch two of the Turret, I am again reminded that he is among the best climbers I've ever seen. He navigates overhanging choss, hopscotching corner systems at a steady clip, placing gear at intermittent intervals, never once hesitating or second-guessing himself. Then he hands over the rack, and it's my turn to live up to the bargain.

    After plowing through the lower dihedrals, we arrive at a halfway ledge delineating the lower-angled rock from the steeper upper half. The rock here is excellent: laser cut corners, arêtes and face edges. I peer up into the corner above me. It looks too thin for fingers so I slam a couple pins and boulder out left, gambling that the next corner over is a bit wider. It is.

    "Tag me my waterproof!" yells Andrew. I open the bag and delicately fish around for his jacket with wooden fingers. Andrew has found a way to escape the crystal cave by venturing down and left. His movements, characteristically smooth and calculated, have turned aggressive and punchy. We are now in a whiteout.

    I can't hear much when Andrew finishes the pitch: Just vague murmurs in the wind. I need to lower out about 30 feet or face a hideous horizontal pendulum. I'm really cold now, and not thinking very fast. I take the cam out of the crack and lower off a couple sideways nuts in the strange crystal rock. If they rip I'll go for a terrible whip. Now, out of the cave, I'm in the storm completely. I clean the pitch and meet Andrew at the belay. I'm a jabbering mess and gear hangs from my harness in disarray. Andrew's eyes are gleaming.

    From here the angle lessens off. I throw on a fleece and burrow into a chimney for warmth. "We can stay here until it calms down!" Andrew yells at me from a foot away. I'm nodding, or shaking—I can't tell which. The storm looks to be holding off. 20 minutes later we are on top of the Turret. We trace the edge of the south face for a rappel line but come up empty handed. It looks like our only option is to rap the north-west face and hike down 1000 feet of snow in rockshoes. We're unbothered, though. The storm has relaxed for a bit, just long enough for us to escape.

    Back on the glacier at dusk, Andrew punches up the snowcone at the base to retrieve our boots. I take off my climbing shoes and sit down on a rock. Clouds are rolling in. We hike trudge back to camp as the rain starts to spit again.

    In camp we brew up some tea, mixing in some Grant's whiskey. "How long do you think we could've stayed up there waiting out the weather?" we ask each other, between sips. As always, there are no answers, only more questions.

    The storm doesn't relent for four days. Finally, our heli-pilot Don braves the conditions and flies in to get us. Toni and Benno, our German friends, stay in the cirque to continue attempting a different route on the Turret.

    Three days later, my girlfriend Hazel and I visit Benno in the Golden Hospital. He has rappelled off the end of his rope, taking a 50 meter plunge to the glacier. Miraculously, he has only broken his leg. I leave the hospital reminded, yet again, that this climbing game is a delicate business.

    Summary:

    • FFA of the South Face of the Turret
    • Via Turret's Syndrome
    • 5.11+ Grade V 600 meters
    • Free for leader Andrew Boyd


    Will Stanhope, August 2010.

    Big thanks to Arc'teryx for making this trip happen. And to Peder Ourom for hooking me up with photos and beta over coffee at Starbucks in Squamish.

  • Guy Lacelle Pure Spirit Award

    Arc'teryx, Petzl and La Sportiva are honoured to sponsor an award recognizing the difference our friend Guy Lacelle made in the world.

    The Guy Lacelle Pure Spirit Award will be given each year to a Canadian who climbs with the same kind of joy, humipty and integrity that Guy carried with him on all of his many, many ascents.

    This year's first recipient of the award couldn't be a more perfect fit. Over the last decade, Eamonn Walsh of Canmore has been climbing at the top of the world game, pushing visionary routes at home in the Rockies, in Alaska and the Yukon, and in the Himalaya. In true-Guy spirit, he's done so quietly, with endless passion and commitment, and with greatest respect for the mountains.

    "To me," Eamonn explains, "Guy Lacelle embodied the essence of climbing. He was honest, bold without fanfare and loved what he was doing. His actions spoke for themselves. I have tried to follow a similar path in my love of the mountains, and so I am touched that those closest to Guy feel that I am following in the spirit of one of Canada’s most accomplished mountain men, ever!"

    Winners of the Guy Lacelle Pure Spirit Award will receive significant contributions of gear from each of the sponsors.

  • Amy Golumbia - Trials at Trans Rockies

    A race report by Amy Golumbia

    "It was still the beginning of the racing season when my sponsor, Arcteryx, contacted me with an offer for an entry to the Trans Rockies Run. I didn’t even hesitate in responding with an enthusiastic “Of course!”. I had big shoes to fill after Adam Campbell’s incredible performance there last year so after sending the affirmative email, I had a brief moment of panic."

    Read Amy's two-part report of her Trans Rockies Race
    Part One: Trials at Trans Rockies
    Part Two: Hallucinations from the Trails

  • Kashmir - A Skier's Journey

    The first in a series of 3 ski-travel episodes, skiers Chad Sayers and Tobin Seagel travel halfway around the world to Kashmir to ski the high altitude Gulmarg gondola, only to find the snow pack is a ticking time bomb.

  • La Grave - A Skier's Journey

    The second in a series of 3 ski-travel episodes from Jordan Manley, skiers Chad Sayers and Tobin Seagel continue their worldly winter journey arriving in La Grave, France.

  • Canadians Fire New Line on Emperor Face

    On June 20, Canadian Arc'teryx athletes Jason Kruk and Jon Walsh climbed a new line up the storied Emperor Face on Mt. Robson (3959m), the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.

    To read the full story, check out the article on Alpinist.com. Article written by Meghan Ward.

  • The Alpha Project

    Revolutionizing technical gloves with the introduction of several new technologies and construction techniques.

  • Adam Campbell Interview

    Adam's Favourite Arc'teryx

    Racing: Visio Short, Ether Comp Crew SS, Accelero Cap

    Training: Preceda Short, or Visio Short, Velox Crew, Squamish Hoody, or Celeris Vest - I use an Aerios 7 pack for very long runs.

    Cold weather: Reva Tight (I have no issues with spandex), or Gamma LT Pant, Visio Comp Jacket (it got a lot of use last winter), Ether Crew LS, Rho LTW Beanie, Gothic Glove

    Class/Coffee Shop: Bandit Shirt SS, Fugitive Hoody, Atom LT Hoody, Spotter Pant, Embroidered Bird Cap, Mistral 16 commuter bag.

    Adam Campbell is a runner based in Vancouver, British Columbia. A former member of the Canadian National Triathlon and Duathlon teams, in 2006 Adam decided to shed the extra gear and rely solely on his running shoes to get around. He also decided to put down the stopwatch and set intervals and hit the trails.

    Looking at your bio on our website, it says that you grew up "chasing waves and soccer balls in West Africa and Spain." Not exactly a typical upbringing—tell us about that.


    Yes, my upbringing was unconventional to say the least. Both of my parents are Canadian, but my dad has a serious case of wanderlust, so can I call him a corporate hippy? Starting at the VERY beginning, I was conceived in Iran, just as the revolution and uprisings were beginning around 1978, my grandfather was a diplomat and arranged to have my mom evacuated just before things turned very ugly. My dad escaped later on.

    From there, my dad accepted a job in Lagos Nigeria with an international telecommunications company in 1979. I was nine months old at the time. My dad just retired this year, but still has roots there and is doing some cultural preservation work with various NGOs. His streak there is quite amazing, because most "Westerners" get burnt out quite quickly in the country. It is considered a "hardship post" and work terms rarely extend beyond 4 or 5 years. I went through a lot of cycles of friends while there.

    I lived in Lagos, for 16 years, being raised through 3 or 4 coup d'états and various military dictatorships. It is an incredible multicultural city, a chaotic metropolis spread out over a series of islands and lagoons, right on the Atlantic Ocean. It has beautiful sandy beaches, with very dangerous rip tides.

    It is a strange thought now that I would go through military checkpoints on the way to school, but it is what I knew, so I didn't think much of it at the time. It has been "cursed" with natural resources, like oil, so there are some incredibly wealthy people, alongside disturbing poverty. It gets a really bad rap in the news, with a lot of focus on ethnic tension, especially between Muslim and Christians in the North, but I never experienced much of that. Most people seemed too busy surviving to revolt.

    It is an incredibly corrupt country, you can get away with an awful lot as a kid and I learned how to bribe my way out of trouble at a young age. Funny enough, despite the hardships, Nigerians have an amazing ability to take their fate in life with a shrug and a smile. A World Happiness Survey in the early 2000s ranked Nigerians as the happiest people in the world, a strange thought to most outsiders, but a testament to human durability.

    It is also very culturally rich, with amazing music and authors coming out of the country. It is an intense mix of western and traditional practices, with people just as happy going to Church on Sunday and making offerings to a village deity.

    I consider myself very fortunate to have experienced that and it definitely exposed and callused me to a lot of international experiences. I am hardly shocked when I travel, in fact I am amazed when things go according to plan. It also seems to have given me an iron stomach. I think I was exposed to a lot of tropical diseases growing up!

    As for Spain and Europe, my dad and grandfather decided to buy a place in Spain, so that they could meet "half way", there are almost direct flights between Nigeria and North America. So they settled on Southern Spain, in Andalucia, so we did a lot of traveling to Europe and Morocco.

    The school system really deteriorates in high school in Nigeria and my parents wanted me to get a taste of Canadian life, so I went to boarding school in Ontario and then onto Queen's University. It was a strange mix. I loved being in Canada, exposed to all the advantages of North America, but I definitely felt some "third world kid" syndrome, having missed out on a lot of pop culture and not really having a home.

    So yeah, I had a unique childhood.

    I see that you got into duathlon and triathlon. When and why did you lose the bike?


    Ha, I haven't really lost the bike, I still love it, although it is now more of a mode of transport than a recreation tool. Cycling is such a social sport, a great way for a group of friends to beat up on each other and I love the feeling of covering lots of miles. I especially like riding up and over mountains. I think that it is a great compliment to mountain and trail running, but more importantly, it's fun.

    Traveling with a bike however, is not fun! Lugging it around Europe, or South America, constantly trying to find venues to "train" and figuring out how to be pro in the sport was a tough slog. I can't complain about the opportunity to travel the world and compete, but it was more like business than travel at the time.

    I started triathlons in University and made the junior national team quite quickly. There is nothing cooler than getting to represent your country, so I was instantly hooked. I dropped out of school and moved out to Victoria to live and train with Canada's best.

    I raced multi-sports competitively until about 2005. I had been living and training with some of the world's best triathletes and although I was a decent national level athlete, winning a national duathlon title and making some international teams, the best were a whole other level. I had lived with them, eaten the same food, done their training, raced against them, asked a thousand questions, but I saw that they were just faster than me. My goal was to try and make the Olympic team, but I realized that I just wasn't quite good enough. That's one of the beauties and harsh realities of sport. You always hope for the breakthrough or miracle performance, but you have a lot of barometers of what it takes and I just didn't see a real future as a professional in the sport.

    I was offered a job as the national team manager, so I still got to follow and help my friends on the circuit and I kept training with them. My wife was on the road to Beijing, so I was able to support her on her Olympic journey. So I got to lug around other peoples bikes. Strange concept!

    On the Arc’teryx website and in your blog you describe some truly grueling training and races, yet you were able to take time to run the Vancouver Marathon last year, where you cruised to an admirable second place finish. What's your sense of the road racing scene here in Canada – Jerome Drayton's 2:10 time is 31 years old, and we haven't sent a marathoner to the past two Olympics!

    Follow Adam on Twitter or read more about his adventures on his Blog.
    Thanks for the compliment. I love reading about peoples experiences and perceptions of race, so I am glad that you can get a sense of the suffering through my writing, because that is what racing is all about. Racing hard is rarely easy and if it feels easy, then you probably aren't going hard enough.

    The road running question is hard to answer and there are pages and pages of ongoing internet chatter on the topic. You are correct, Jerome Drayton's mark was set in 1975 I believe, so more like 35 years old. It is interesting that participation in running races has been on a dramatic rise in North America over that time, but the winning times by Canadians have not changed as much.

    To be fair, Drayton was one of the best runners of his era and a 2:10 marathon is still impressive, even though it is a ways off the pointy end of big city marathons these days. There are actually quite a few up and coming runners, who have a legitimate shot at the time, so I predict that it will fall by 2012.

    As to my theory, well part of it is systemic. There is a very limited development program for distance runners in Canada. Sport Canada has chosen to focus on medal potential sports and distance running is incredibly competitive on the world scene, so it is hard to get the funding. There are almost no high quality track races for stance runners in Canada and 5k-10k times are direct predictors of marathon time. You have to be plain fast at all the distance events to compete at the world stage. So we end up weeding out a lot of runners early.

    Another problem is a lack of role models. With so few people competing at the highest levels and achieving success, it is hard to really inspire young runners to take up the sport and keep with it at a high level through their formative years. We have had success at middle distance (800m-1500m), and it seems like a lot of young runners are attracted to these distances.

    With the level getting faster and faster, sub 2:06 marathons being the norm at top races, the gap isn't getting any closer. Without having runners being successfully on the international stage, it may seem like an insurmountable gap. Whereas in many of the African countries, runners are revered, so they have an enormous pool of talent to draw champions from. They have a culture of endurance running that we haven't replicated, you see that all the time in sport (and most professions), where you have to breed a culture of excellence in the sport, setting the bar and expectations high and success comes from that.

    There has been a North American resurgence in distance running, driven largely by the internet, where people have started focusing on running more miles harder and as I said, there is some new talent coming along. That is one of the beauties of distance running, the answer to faster running is remarkably simple: run more, run faster… it takes years of hard training/running to be able to compete, but if you have enough people doing those for long enough, the results will come.

    Trail running is experiencing a big surge. Which events are seen as the elite comps of the trail running world?


    It's actually a hard question, because there are so many forms of racing, each with their own specialists. There are ultras, mountain races, jungle races, desert races, altitude races, stage races, short races, long races, uphill races, up and down races, x-country races etc…they are all a form of trail racing. I would be hard pressed to give you a clear definition of the sport. Some "trail" races have a lot of road running in them.

    As to which events are seen as elite? There are a myriad of races claiming world championship status, so to give a definitive answer to that is hard. It can be a bit cyclical, depending on the quality of field. That is one of the beauties of trail races, is that it is all about racing those who show up on the day. It is not so much about times and PRs, course records are essentially meaningless, because they can vary wildly from year to year due to trail conditions. However they do give bragging rights!

    Some of the more notable races include the World mountain Running Championship (it moves around), Sierre Zinal, Western States 100, Ultra Trail Mont Blanc, all the major ski resorts will have a mountain race, so being the "King or Queen of the mountain" or having the "Fastest Known Time" for a trail is always fun. Any race with a title associated to it, or a big prize purse is worth winning, just because it will attract a good field.

    The mountain running scene is much more developed in Europe with some of the races attracting several thousand athletes and spectators, whereas 500 plus is a big race here. This is due to the fact that a lot of North American races take place in parks, which restrict participation, it is also a matter of access. There is such a significant infrastructure to access the mountains in the Alps, so people can race up a mountain and eat at a little village and have a party on the summit and then take a train or tram down.

    Races that are incredibly hard, in challenging climates, like the Everest Marathon, Marathon des Sables would also have some prestige amongst a subset of trail runners.

    Any interest in, say, Marathon des Sable? Do you know Canadian ultra-marathoner Ray Zahab?

    I'm not sure about the Marathon des Sables (MDS). I raced the Trans Rockies run last year, my first taste of stage race running and it is a tough challenge. I like to pick races that motivate me. Sometimes it is because of the venue of the event, other times it is the level of competition. I'm a believer that if I am going to race, then I want to show up as prepared as possible for the event. There are so many variables and unknowns with a race like MDS, that I am sure you would have to experience the environment and event to get a sense of what it involves in order to do well there. You would have to "pay your dues" once or twice.

    At the moment I am more motivated to try and crack into the ultra scene. Single day events with the highest level of competition, as Simon Whitfield said, "I want to win the races that everyone else wants to win." It has a nice ring to it!

    No, I don't know Ray, but have followed him quite a lot recently. He is an interesting character, who is making a living out of adventure "runs". A lot of purist runners might scoff at his performances, because they are more about logistics and survival than running. He is not a fast runner and I am sure that he would admit that, but I am definitely intrigued by his style of expedition running. He has been able to market himself very well, which allows him to fund his adventures. I applaud anyone that can make a career for themselves as a runner, or within their passion, no matter what form it takes.

    He has also done an admirable job with his charity I2P, taking youth on his expeditions and motivating people to make healthy living a part of their lives and to follow their passions. I hope that I get a chance to meet him at some point, or perhaps join him on an expedition. I would leave the logistics up to him though!

    Going to law school is obviously very demanding, how did you decide on law as a career? How can you maintain world class fitness while cramming for exams and writing term papers?

    "I just love running, it is as simple as that. When you are passionate about something, you just make time for it."
    Law was actually an easy choice. I was noticing a lack of lawyers in the world, so I decided to rectify the problem! (kidding)

    I have almost no aptitude for anything technical & I love to read, it may be on par with running as far as passions go. I also wanted a degree that could travel. Law is one of those fields of study that is incredibly malleable, you can really make it fit your interests. I would actually encourage anyone who doesn't know what they want to and who has a passion for learning to consider the field. It has really changed the way that I understand the world and having a better grasp of national and regional policy is incredibly useful, no matter what you end up doing.

    How do I balance school and running? As you said, I cram for exams! So nothing all term and then 2-3 weeks of hell!!!! Nah, I just love running, it is as simple as that. When you are passionate about something, you just make time for it. My training may not always be ideal, occasionally sleep deprived, sneaking out between classes and just always having run gear on me so that I can take advantage of whatever pocket of time I can squeeze out.

    I have sat through a lot of classes sweaty and hungry and done a lot of running while brain dead, but it's all worth it.

    I am also lucky in that my wife and most of my friends are all athletic, so if I want to hang out with them, I have to train with them! So one of the secrets is to surround yourself with fit people, they shame you into fitness.

    Though you're in law school, you seem like a pretty altruistic guy, with an interest in First Nations and environmental law. Can trail running events be a force for good in our world?


    I never said I wanted to represent the good guys (ha!), but thanks for assuming that.

    Anything can be altruistic, it all depends on your intentions with it. I am incredibly inspired by some of the adventures and performances of other trail runners, so although they may have been racing, or running for themselves, their acts touched me, so is that altruism? I do believe that sport can inspire, so yes, it can be a source of good.

    It's also a simple way to keep fit, have fun and reconnect with fitness. I have discovered a lot of interesting pockets, even in my own backyard that I likely never would have found without running. I have also met a lot of great friends and quirky characters through the sport, so it has definitely impacted my life for the better. If it touched everyone, or even a few others the same way, then yes, it can be a force for good.

    Have you been lucky to stay injury free throughout your career?


    Yes, I have been quite lucky in this regard. I tend to be fine structurally, but my immune system can get worn down.

    A few reasons why I think I have avoided serious injury (so far), is that I don't race too often and I avoid running on hard surfaces as much as possible. I find that the athleticism of trail running, with the changing terrain and lateral motions is also a lot easier on the body, since you are constantly using slightly different muscles.

    I also make sure to cut back on training as soon as I notice something wrong with my stride. I have been doing sport for quite a while, so have a fairly good perception of how things are going. I do put in fairly big miles and you have to push the envelope in order to be competitive, but there is a balancing, because if you push too far, then you break down and can't perform. I love running and racing, so know that it is sometimes important to take a step back to avoid long term injuries.

    Trail running obviously requires a bit of a different skill set than pure track or marathon racing. How does the mental side of trail running differ? Obviously you need to concentrate on trail hazards and other objective hazards – how does that play out in a race where you are actually racing against other people and have to strategize in order to win?


    Marathoning for most is all about tapping into a rhythm and rolling with it. At the highest levels, there is more strategy to it than that, but for most of us, it is all about energy management.

    Trail running is much more about strength. You have to be strong, a lot of fast road runners have a hard time correlating their road speed to the their trails because they lack strength and power on the trails. The uphills are steeper than what they are used to and the downhills beat up their quads.

    You also have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are when you are racing. Are you a good uphill runner, downhill runner, technical runner etc…and you want to maximize these portions of the race and minimize the damage with the portions you may not be so good at. Most races have good websites, with course profiles and descriptions, so you want to remember this beta when you are racing and work the parts of the race that you can.

    But racing across disciplines tends to be similar in that most races come down to the last quarter of the event and you have to expect it to hurt. I find that too many people go into races wanting to feel good and then struggle when they don't. I believe that you have to be confident that you can suffer and survive. Especially with long races, you are bound to go through mental ups and downs, so it is all about managing these highs and lows. Some of it is just being used to the lows and expecting them, which comes with experience. They can also be managed through nutrition. A great line that I was told is "if you feel good…eat…if you feel bad…eat…" When you nail your nutrition, your emotions are much more even keeled. It's always easy when you are having a good day, but you have to mentally prepare for the worst case scenario.

    Arc'teryx has its roots in outdoor and mountain sports, and now offer the "Endorphin" collection of trail running and "fast-forward" clothing. Which running-appropriate pieces do you recommend, from base layers to foul weather jackets?


    Yeah, I am so proud to represent and work with a company that has such a strong reputation in the mountain world. There are a lot of similarities between alpinism and running, with the focus on minimalist approach, light gear and suffering. Like mountaineering, the effort is important and you don't want to have to think about your gear, trusting that you can count on it 100% at all times.

    I am a huge fan of every piece of product that I have been sent to try and I really feel like the designers listen to any input that I have. You can tell that they are active themselves, it always reflects back in the design concepts, with practical touches.

    Adam's Favourite Arc'teryx

    Racing: Visio Short, Ether Comp Crew SS, Accelero Cap

    Training: Preceda Short, or Visio Short, Velox Crew, Squamish Hoody, or Celeris Vest - I use an Aerios 7 pack for very long runs.

    Cold weather: Reva Tight (I have no issues with spandex), or Gamma LT Pant, Visio Comp Jacket (it got a lot of use last winter), Ether Crew LS, Rho LTW Beanie, Gothic Glove

    Class/Coffee Shop: Bandit Shirt SS, Fugitive Hoody, Atom LT Hoody, Spotter Pant, Embroidered Bird Cap, Mistral 16 commuter bag.

  • Jonathan Siegrist Get Out and Get er Done

    An essay by Jonathan Siegrist

    Rock Climbing is a powerful and exciting vehicle for travel. Sooner or later practically every climber will be drawn away from their home, to a far away land in search of adventure and fresh stone to play on. Great rock lures us climbers all across the globe and into unique landscapes and remote areas that we would likely never have the chance to experience otherwise. Indeed, this very aspect of climbing is much of why I love the pursuit so much.. however, traveling also requires the release of some (and often many) everyday comforts. Climates vary significantly, sleeping arrangements are never perfect, your favorite foods are rarely available and time is always of the essence. Now that I'm traveling more and more, I've taken notice to a few simple things that seem to help me find success when I'm away from home:

    SLEEP. I'm typically a morning person, but when I'm on the road or overseas and I'm focused on climbing well, I sleep as much as possible. Changing time zones, eating new foods and being exposed to new [everything] is hard on your immune system- sleeping helps give it a break. Plus your typical 8 hours at home might only provide similar rest to 11 hours freezing cold in a leaking tent somewhere. During a two week stay in the incredible Yangshou, China when I managed to dispatch 'French Gangster' 14b/c and 'China Climb' 14b both in three tries, I was sleeping 10-12 hours a night, and thankfully never got [very] sick.

    FOOD. It's easy to eat crap when you're traveling, but proper fuel is crucial to athletic performance. During a 7-week road trip in late spring 2010, I did my fair share of gas station grocery shopping, and I always regretted it (except beer). I opted to buy big when I found a good grocery store and in turn cook for myself. I saved tons of money, and always knew what I was eating. I credit my delicious breakfasts for killer days like when I finished 'Problem Child' 14c and fired 'Motley Crux' 14a second try.. I ate Huevos Rancheros that morning!

    CLOTHING. A few extra layers don't weigh much of anything, and can easily change an otherwise miserably day into perfect sending temps. During a two week stay at Smith Rock the weather sometimes changed from balmy to frigid within an hour. My Atom LT Hoodie and Delta LT Zip never left my pack- they make a perfect belay / climbing combo if the temps decline. When I had one remaining effort and dwindling daylight on the classic 'To Bolt or Not to Be' 14a, the temps miraculously dropped- thankfully I was prepared with proper clothing, and managed to send.

    COMMUNITY. Nothing comforts like good friends, and the more people you meet the more comfortable you'll become. Rock climbing is practiced world wide, and common ground is easily found between those passionate about rocks, even when a language barrier exists. When I traveled alone through Asia this past winter, I literally needed to meet people in order to get out climbing. This produced some lasting friendships, and quickly exposed me to a number of awesome local climbing communities.

    FOCUS. Time is always ticking when you're on the road or overseas. Putting down hard routes quickly takes determination, and sometimes it might require focused effort for the length of your stay. Take a day or two to get used to the style, but if ticking a burly pitch is your goal, get after it as soon as possible. Rehearse the movement in your head, or make a personal beta map if necessary so that visually you're climbing the route dozens of times a day. Save the prolonged celebration (read: lazy post-send days) for back at home- any success will create momentum, which is a powerful ally when trying to crank through numerous projects in a short time frame. This is precisely what helped me succeed at the Red River Gorge last fall.

    PSYCH. Most importantly: Amongst all of these pressing issues, don't forget to be psyched! If you're not having fun then it's all bullshit anyways. In the same way that traveling offers exceptional learning (and climbing) experiences, it also requires a certain degree of discomfort- deal with it, stay psyched and get some climbing done.

    See you at the crag.

    -Arcteryx Athlete Jonathan Siegrist

  • Adam Campbell Wins Knee Knacker Trail Race

    A Race Report from Adam Campbell

    Like most newcomers to Vancouver, I have always been amazed how the North Shore mountains rise out of the Pacific and form an imposing, yet spectacular wall behind Vancouver's downtown core of glass buildings. The (in)famous trails that scar the slopes of the peaks have gained an international reputation and have redefined what is possible on mountain bikes, with steep, gnarly trails and the mountains have become the playground of many an outdoor athlete across the seasons.

    Looking out across the Vancouver skyline and being able to trace a route across Cypress, Grouse and Seymour mountains has a natural draw and an interesting aesthetic about it. I fully understand the initial attraction and why people would want to tackle the challenging journey. Luckily, others share my passion for covering ground on foot and the annual Knee Knacker trail race, a West Coast running institution, runs across the route from west to east.

    My description won't do the race justice, so this is taken from the race website:

    The Knee Knacker(ing) course essentially follows the Baden Powell trail which traverses Vancouver's North Shore Mountains from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. Both ends of the trail are close to or at Sea Level and the high point on the course is 4,000 feet at the peak of Black Mountain. The race as a whole has some 16,000 feet of vertical climb and descent. The Baden Powell trail is a scenic and very technical trail through a Pacific Northwest rain forest. Most of the trail is within the forest, although there are some absolutely spectacular vistas at a number of points along the trail. The course is 30 miles long and the field is limited to about 200 starters.

    Because of its proximity to the city, beautiful setting, challenging course and natural appeal, the race has become very popular, with demand exceeding capacity. Participants register via lottery several months in advance and a draw determines the participant list for the upcoming year. Previous winners and a few long term participants have guaranteed entries, so I actually registered for the lottery several months ago and was lucky enough to get in on my first go (not sure why I win race lotteries, with the prize being guaranteed suffering, but never any with millions of dollars for prizes).

    I have been running sections of the course quite frequently, making my way over the Lions Gate bridge after work and on weekends and my last two races were on sections of the trail (Summer Solstice marathon and the Iron Knee) and although I love the setting, the style of running on the course is definitely not my strength. I like smooth flowing courses with long ascents and descents, where you can get into a nice rhythm more suited to my road running background, whereas most of the Baden Powell is a rooty, rocky, twisty, up-and down trail, with significant erosion, more like a nightmarish staircase than pristine trail.

    Most off-road 50 km races have course records within the 3:30-4 hour range, but Knee Knackers' record was set last year at 4:39, by my Trans Rockies partner Aaron Heidt, so it is anything but a fast course. With Aaron returning as the clear favourite and a few other Knee Knacker veterans toeing the line, I knew that it would take a significant effort to do well and honestly, I did not expect to win the race. I actually reconsidered racing it a week before, knowing just how difficult a challenge it would be.

    On race day, after the usual pre-race banter and jitters at the early morning start, I resolved to try to run with the leaders for as long as possible. As expected, when the race finally got underway, former national team marathoner Ollie Utting, who beat me quite handily at a few shorter races at the start of the season and Aaron took off at a solid pace and I followed along. We hit the first section of trail and right away, the course starts to head up, climbing 4,000 feet into Cypress Park along a soft bark mulch forest floor, with a few stream crossings. Although very early into the race, this sort of running is my bread and butter, so I pushed the pace a bit and quickly found myself alone up front. I was a bit surprised that Aaron let me go and I assumed that Ollie was smartly keying off of Aaron, who knows how to run this course faster than anyone. I was a bit worried that I was gambling too early, but I trusted my fitness to be able to handle a hard early pace and I wanted to get the others out of their comfort zone, but they weren't biting. As the course continued to climb, my lead grew and I tried not to second guess my strategy.

    Finally, after about 25 min of running alone up front, I heard Aaron and Ollie rolling up to me and I was more than happy to have some company. We stuck close together through these early sections, not giving each other an inch and throwing around a bit of light banter under our strained breath. The pace felt quite high and I was already starting to sweat a lot, as the day started to heat up. We made our way to the half way point in the opening section, 2,000 feet up, which is an open area of large rocks and boulders separated by sections of very steep switchback trail. Most of the scree slopes have a more or less easy way built across them, but it is sometimes difficult to find and often no faster than just clambering over the rocks. Some scree slopes are made of very large boulders so that climbing this section is quite technical. As the course describes explains it: "You may be looking for hand holds to help you (although it is not rock climbing per se)." There isn't much running through this section, but I also couldn't see any other runners behind us, so I knew that the race would come down to the three of us, if we didn't kill each other in the process.

    As we kept climbing up the rocks and roots, I started to feel worse and worse, with a light headache and tired legs, I tried to stick with Aaron and Ollie, but was yo-yoing off the back as the pace stayed quick. I focused on trying to get some food into me, but I was starting to worry that I would have a long day ahead of me. When we finally hit Eagle Bluffs, a ridge with a great view of the city and over the Ocean, I took the time to take it in on a rare sunny and warm day and it was spectacular, but it didn't do much for my energy levels. When we finally ran through the last section of climbing along Black Mountain peak and hit the alpine meadows and lakes, I was surprised at how dry it was. A week of warm and dry conditions had changed the area from a muddy, snowy mess two weeks ago to a very enjoyable alpine run.

    Aaron kept pushing the pace, with Ollie hot on his heels and I kept yo-yoing off the back. Finally, after about an hour of running, I came unhinged from the pace and had to let them go. I knew that there was a lot of running to go, so I tried not to dwell on the fact that the race win was likely bounding away from me down the trail. With no one behind me, I resolved myself to a long lonely run across the mountains. I would catch the odd glimpse of Aaron's blue jersey up the trail, but every time I would see it, it was a bit farther along through the woods.

    As I ran past the first major aide station, about 1:18 into the run, I looked back again and couldn't see anyone behind me, so I prepared my legs for the long slog down the mountain. My stomach wasn't feeling great, but I still felt like I was moving at a decent clip, so I assumed the rough patch would pass. I tried to focus on getting off and down Cypress as quickly as possible and to try and consolidate my position as well as I could.

    The next hour and a bit of the run were quite uneventful, I ran the long 7.5 mile (11-12 kms) down the mountain to Cleveland dam, trying to imagine myself in a race, but with no else in sight, I had to wrestle with my motivation. With a few fun technical sections and some other open downhill stretches, with sharp corners thrown in for good measure, I lost track of time as the miles ticked away.

    When I got to the Clevland dam, the half-way point in the run, it was nice to hear people cheering and it was a great pick me up. I was also looking forward to the aide station and the sugary supplies and cooling drinks that come with it, however, when I got there I was shocked to find out that they didn't have any gels. I was not able to attend the pre-race meeting the night before, so I missed this little detail. I loaded up on coke, gummy gels and electrolyte drink, but was a bit worried that I would be running low on calories for the rest of the run. I was also told that I was 7 minutes behind Aaron and Ollie at this point. This was actually a bit of relief and I put the thought of catching them out of my mind completely, thinking that they were long gone. I resolved to keep focusing on myself and trying to get in under 5 hours.

    I noticed that the day had really warmed up at this point, but my legs felt okay and as I climbed my way up from the dam and back onto the trail along Nancy Green Way. From the dam, the course climbs another 1,000 or so feet up along road and then back onto the trail, Although I didn't feel super peppy, I felt like I was moving at a respectable clip and was looking forward to running home.

    When we cut back onto the Baden Powell trail, it was really strange to be passing bus loads of tourists and locals getting ready to head up the Grouse Grind. It made me feel a bit silly as I coughed up innumerable "on your left" and "trail" yelps as I ran up the trail, pushing my way past the hikers. Once I broke away from the hoards, I really enjoyed the idea that I was out for a long weekend run and had to keep reminding myself that I was in a race to keep my effort up.

    Somewhere along the Grouse section of the trail, as we made our way down to Mountain Highway, I was surprised to see a white singlet up the trail and suddenly realized that it was Ollie. I ran up to him and after making sure that he was okay, I made my way down the trail away from him, thinking it was pretty cool that I was in second. It was a remarkably uneventful pass. He is a fantastic runner and having finished second at the Knee Knacker the previous two years, I correctly assumed that he really wanted the win and pushed a bit beyond his limit to try and take on Aaron for the win. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him for pushing so hard, it takes a lot of guts to go for it like that and Aaron later told me that Ollie had him on the rivet for a lot of the day.

    Once again, with no thoughts that I might be able to catch Aaron, I kept heading along the trail, wondering how much longer the race would go on for as my legs became heavier and heavier. Endurance racing is all about managing expectations and emotions, which can swing wildly with poor pacing and nutrition, you really get whittled down to your basic needs, so I just focused in on getting in as much food and drink as possible and willing my legs to keep ticking away at the trail underfoot. I constantly set little goals along the route, either counting my steps, focusing on technique, giving myself little treats, like water at set intervals, to distract myself the tedious nature of the event.

    As I ran through the last major aide station, at 22 miles, I ran in begging someone for gels. Luckily, I was handed 2 vanilla gels and felt like I was given a huge lifeline. Much to his dismay, I later found out that it was Aaron's wife who gave me the gels, although to be fair to her, I wasn't looking like much of a threat to anyone at that point. As I ran out of the aide station and onto the last section along Seymour, I still felt like crap, but it was good to know that I only had about 75 min or so of running to go and I was convinced that I would likely survive.

    Somewhere along the trail, through the Seymour grind section, the final cruel uphill slog , which is described as a pleasant forest section in the race description, but which felt anything but that at the time, a group of mountain bikers told me that the leader was only a couple of minutes ahead. I assumed they were wrong, but still used that keep my feet moving along the trail. Once I got up and over the grind and was rolling back downhill, I caught a glimpse of Aaron's blue jersey. I ran up to him quite quickly and after a brief "good work buddy", ran past him as it dawned on me that I was leading the race.

    Having raced shoulder to shoulder with Aaron for a week last summer and seeing him take a rock to his face, as we ran down a mountain pass before he dusted himself off and stormed back down the trail for a stage win at the Trans Rockies, I knew just how tough he is, so I pushed the pace a bit, not wanting him to follow me. However he was pretty gassed at that point and was fighting his own battle towards the finish line.

    As I ran through the last aide station, where a few people called me Aaron, I was told that it was mostly downhill to the finish, and I could cruise home for the win. About 5 steps back onto the trail, both my legs seized with horrible cramps and I almost fell over. I laughed a bit, through clenched teeth, at how ridiculous it was that I had just taken over the lead of the race and now I was probably going to have to crawl my way to the finish. I tried to take a few walking steps and I changed my gait and luckily the legs eased off a bit. I started frantically sucking on my bottle, trying to get fluids back into me as I made my way very gingerly down the trail in a strange waddle/run.

    The last section of trail is torturously long and although you can see the finish area, the trail mercilessly snakes its way up and down along a series of valleys with short, but painful climbs. I could feel my legs on the verge of cramping with every step and I swore incessantly at myself, mostly out loud, which shocked a few hikers and people out for a nice morning run as I awkwardly made my way by them. I literally cursed my way down the last bit of trail, hoping that my legs would hold out long enough to see me across the finish line.

    Finally, as I dropped off the trail onto the last section of road, I let out a little roar, mostly of pain, but with a bit of satisfaction too, as I crossed the line in spectacular Deep Cove.

    I stumbled around the finish area in a serious daze for quite a long time after the race, as my legs went through various stages of cramping. My feet would lock up, then my quads would give out on me. I was stumbling and hobbling around like a drunken soccer fan before finally collapsing into the Ocean after a few others crossed the finish line. I lay in the water with Aaron and Gary Robbins, enjoying the warm sunny afternoon, exhausted and depleted from the effort.

    It was a strange race, mostly in that after the first hour of running, I barely thought about any other competitors. I felt tired, sore and awkward all day and not like I was in a race at any point really. It was a total race of attrition and I had one of the slowest winning time in quite a while, the hot conditions taking their toll on a lot of runners. I won by a little over a minute, with Jacek Doniec running a much smarter race and closing fast, overtaking Aaron close to the finish.

    Aaron, Ollie and myself paid a hard price for our early quick pace, but that's the nature of racing sometimes. There was nothing glamorous or effortless about how I won the race, it was winning ugly in every sense of the word.

    You can also find this report on Adam's Blog

  • Chad Sayers Crash

    “I knew right away my trip was over.” In the mountains, things don't always go as planned. Arc'teryx athlete Chad Sayer jumps into a big Alaskan line that unfortunately ends his season. Video courtesy Eric Crosland (Rocky Mountain Sherpas).

  • Courage - An Essay by Crystal Wright

    by Crystal Wright


    Two years ago I was scrambling unroped up an easy 4th class pitch in the Tetons. I was just starting to look for a belay spot when a large boulder ripped out while I was surmounting it and sent me cartwheeling backwards over rock very fast. I was tumbling off the mountain, gaining speed into the fall line.

    It would have been over if not for my climbing partner Brian. He tackled me and we slid together for another 10 feet stopping just before a 60 foot cliff.

    It happened so fast. I was just lucky to be alive with just a few scrapes and bruises.

    It was very hard for me to get back into the mountains to climb again afterward. Over the last couple years I have gained back the courage by confronting my fears about falling and have found the more time I spend in the mountains and on rock , my confidence has slowly come back to me.

    I am still very nervous climbing but found the more time I spend in the vertical rock realm, the more my fear subsides.

    Competing in Big Mountain Ski events also takes physical courage for me. I'm scared of getting hurt. The competition makes me push limits harder than when I am just out skiing with my friends. This involves bigger cliff drops, skiing above exposure, and skiing with nervous energy, which a lot of times restricts oxygen to my muscles, making it very difficult to ski relaxed and confident.

    But competition brings other stressors too.

    I am being judged on my ability as a skier and I am always fearful of not impressing the judges.

    When skiing with my friends I can decide not to take a certain line, but in competition, this freedom is restricted. The conditions are out of my control. Mother nature decides the type of snow conditions that she wants and we all have to ski them.

    Finally the fear of failure and defeat is always present.

    This has been a tough year. I competed in my first ever Freeride World Tour competition, which involves visual inspection only and untouched venues with good or bad snow conditions. Chamonix was my first competition on the tour and my first big mountain competition out of North America. I was very excited, but also very nervous.

    I had a few days to scope the venue with binoculars. I found a few lines that looked like a ton of fun! The only problem was that the venue was south facing and it was a little uncertain to what the snow would feel like. I found a very aesthetic line that was strait fall line.

    The day of the competition came and all my reasons for being nervous about competition arose. As I watched the first couple of guys ski, I watched the entire face that I wanted to ski slide down to the hard ice layer. I also watched some of the best guy skiers crashing on the air that I wanted to do.

    Did I have the courage to ski my line? Was I good enough to ski that line? I knew I had to ski something and that was what I was so passionate about, so I stuck to my line. Nervously standing in the start gate looking down at the 50 degree slope with huge cliffs and the mountains of Chamonix in the distance I could feel the oxygen leave my muscles.

    I fell back to self-talk, "I can do this!," I repeated to myself. "I can ski!"

    Adrenalin took over once I left the starting gate. I felt focused.

    I came onto the steep face and felt the hard pack ice layer underneath me. My second turn down the face a large piece of slab broke and almost knocked me down the entire face. I was able to hold on and entered into my first air, I found my takeoff and went for it. I landed with a thud as I hit the avy debri that had set up in the sun, I accelerated and then hit the soft snow and somersaulted over and then was back up skiing toward my bottom feature.

    Once again above my next feature the snow sluffed and knocked me off my feet on my landing. As I skied into the finish I was disappointed with my run. Being the rookie on the tour I really wanted to prove myself.

    My disappointment has subsided with time. I feel proud that I stuck to my original line despite my misgivings. It wasn't pretty, but I skied the line.

    I call on courage everyday in the mountains as a skier, climber, rafter, mountain biker. Climbing and skiing are the two sports that I feel challenge my abilities the most and also frighten me the most.

  • Thomasina Pidgeon

    Residing in Squamish, B.C., Thomasina Pidgeon has been pushing the limits of female bouldering around the globe. Since 2001, she has been following her endless passion for climbing that has brought her to places like Australia, Europe, UK, and all over the USA and Canada.

    Thomasina is drawn to the intricacies of climbing as it is simultaneously complex and extremely basic. The physical and mental demands it presents plus the places, people -- and community that she is entwined in -- keeps Thomasina motivated and allows her to explore and push her physical and mental boundaries.

    She also strives to maintain a healthy balance between parenting and climbing; these dual passions have presented both rewards and challenges that constantly remind Thomasina of what climbing means to her. With a determined drive for personal improvement and growth, Thomasina intends to travel to Europe and to the United States to continue pushing her limits on all types of rock. More importantly, she wants to grow her awareness of the precious life around her and to have fun, by living it to the full potential that we all have.

    • One of few females in the world to have climbed multiple V12's
    • First Canadian woman to boulder V10, V11 and V12
    • To date Thomasina has climbed over 12 V11's and over 35 v10's
    • Recognized as Canada's strongest female boulder for the last 9 years
    • 1st place in various indoor and outdoor climbing competitions on the national and international level
    • In one day Thomasina has completed 1 V11 and 1 V10, both new problems for her
    • Over 35 first female ascents (FFA) of problems V9 and above in Canada and abroad
    • Competent on routes as well, Thomasina has climbed sport routes in the 5.13's and difficult trad routes

    Check out Thomasina's climbing blog here.

  • Crystal Wright and Friends ski the Teton's Southwest Couloir of Mt. Moran

    A Spring journey into Leigh Canyon in Grand Teton National Park to ski and ride the Southwest Couloir on Mt. Moran. The long approach was rewarded with approximately 4,800 feet of skiing from the top of the couloir to the valley floor. Mostly corn conditions existed with mixed snow and pockets of powder in the couloir itself.
    Skiers & Riders: Ben Ford, Crystal Wright, Patrick Nelson & Don Watkins

  • The Season

    The Season follows five athletes through the course of a single season in the Pacific Northwest.
    Watch previous episodes: 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  • Jordan Manley Avi Awareness

    Jordan Manley follows veteran avalanche professionals in British Columbia

  • David Sanabria

    I spent my childhood surrounded by mountains in the valley of Aran, a small valley in the north of the Pyrenees. Skiing in the winter and walking in the summer. My father was a mountain guide and always took my brothers and me. At age 8 with my family we moved to Barcelona, where I took to rock climbing.

    At 17 I returned to live in the mountains to this day. After passing through a snowboard phase for a while, I got my first fat skis and since then every day is the best ski day of my life. Being a freerider is not easy in Spain, but it’s not something that worries me. Thanks to my sponsors as a black diamond, Arcteryx and Adidas eyewear I can make many of my goals happen, such as being the first Spaniard to participate in the qualifier series of FWT, winning every national freeride competition, conducting numerous first descents in the Pyrenees and alpine skiing in the Andes, North America and Africa.

    Climbing from Yosemite to Fitz Roy...I opened a new way of climbing in Bolivia and Argentina. I worked as a patrol triggering avalanches for 10 years and whitewater guide extreme descents by kayak in different places on the planet. Currently I work as a guide, freeride and industrial rescue team. I spend the winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the south.

  • Dominik Betschart

    born: 22.05.1990 in Schwyz, Switzerland

    I started snowboarding at the age of 12, only because I wanted to be as cool as my sister. Out of this grew the biggest passion of my life and I would go snowboarding every free minute. As I grew up at the base of two ski resorts, I spent nearly every free day on the mountain. At an early age, I started to really enjoy good powder days more and more and today this is what motivates me the most. Even though I started competing at contests (mostly at big air events), riding good powder lines and doing photoshoots is what I enjoy most these days. Nature offers me the biggest playground where I have most fun.

    Check out Dominiks blog at: dominikbetschart.blogspot.com

  • A Portrait of Fred Nicole

    Swiss climber Fred Nicole has been bouldering at the leading edge of pure difficulty for over 25 years.

  • Greg Hill 500000

    Greg Hill's goal... climb and ski 2 million ft in 2010. Climb as many different peaks, ski as many different lines as possible, travel north, travel to south america live and ski down there. Here is his first 500,000 ft landmark

  • The BigLePowSki World Tour

    The Fourth and final event of The BigLePowSki Tour went down this past weekend in the freeride hotspot of St. Anton, Austria. And even though the warm weather and mild rain made the snow a bit mushy at times, the epic terrain and endless enthusiasm here in the Arlberg made the last event of 2010 a full-on success.

    The Dude has been busy this season: Lots of powder skiing and partying at The BigLePowSki events in La Grave (France), Brighton (Utah, USA), Davos (Switzerland) and finally in St. Anton (Austria). Every weekend event was packed full of good lines, good people and good times- just like the Dude wanted it!

    Saturday’s booked-out workshops were all superb: Freeriding with local tele-heros Jacob Slot and Conny Zamernik, ski-touring into the endless backcountry of the Arlberg with Tom the local guide, an avalanche rescue training with the boys from Pieps, and just cruising around on BD skis in the warm springtime sunshine.

    The Funky Chicken Bar and Pub was the site for Saturday nights fiesta. After a great meal of , you guess it- Roasted Chicken- the nightlife began with The Battle of The Pix, a slide-show contest with 5 European ski-photographers. The crowd was awed by the images of deep snow, big mountains and the ever-elusive search for adventures on skis. And in the end it was Baschi Bender from Germany who won and went home with the first prize, followed by Guilluame LeGillou of La Grave and Tony Brey from Garmisch.

    The night rocked on to the hard guitar sounds of Chris Lee and Co. and the highlight was definitely the evening’s raffle. The Dude put up his Limited Edition Skis, a pair of 188 Megawatts with the BigLePowSki graphics! The profits of over €750 (over $1000) went to the Billy Poole Memorial Fund.

    The BigLePowSki 2010 Tour was sponsored by Black Diamond, Arc’Teryx, FreerideMaps, Diamir Fritschi bindings, Pieps and Nokia. And The Dude would like to personally thank everyone who helped, particated and supported all of these classic events this year.

    Thanks a lot for the great season, and we look forward to more powder sessions with The Dude in 2011!

    www.thebiglepowski.com

  • CMH Heli-Skiing What Inspires You To Ski Tour Contest Winner

    Arc'teryx and CMH Heli-Skiing would like to announce that the "What Inspires You To Ski Tour" video contest has come to a close and would like to congratulate the winner, Tim Oliphant.

    Tim won $4500 of Arc'teryx equipment and set off for 7 days of Heli-Assisted Ski Touring at the Adamant Lodge (valued at $7000 CDN) with CMH and Arc'teryx Athlete Greg Hill.

    Read Tim's third installment of his Heli Ski Adventure with CMH Heli-Skiing.

    Arc'teryx and CMH Heli-Skiing would also like to thank all those who participated the contest. Check out Tim's winning video below.

  • An Expedition to Patagonia

    A story by Jason Kruk

    I tossed and turned, my mind racing, a knot twisting itself tighter in my stomach. I was shifting back and forth trying to get comfortable on the hard granite boulder, disturbing the rest of Hayden, the body shivering beside me in our specially made, two person bivy sack.

    My sleep was being disturbed by one singular fear - the fear of failure. We were bivied below the Supercanaleta route (WI4- 5.10 M5, 1600m) on the mighty Cerro Fitz Roy. A little less than a week prior, Hayden and I spent a stressful twelve hours rappelling and reversing the route through the night just a few pitches shy of the end of the technical climbing and the summit ridge. Still fresh in my memory was my experience on this very mountain two seasons prior: Will Stanhope and I spent a frigid, sleepless night bivied on the North Pillar. I spent the long night sick, throwing up beside Will. At dawn we bailed.

    My expedition to Patagonia this year wasn’t exactly going to plan. I had already put time into this range, establishing one new route and two first free ascents during the 2008 season with Will. This year I was hoping to build on that success and establish another long rock freeclimb. I brought along the two best team mates I could think of for the job - the talented Americans Jon Gleason and Matt Segal. I was confident, given a decent weather window, we could achieve our goal. The problem was it had been snowing continually for the past month and a half we were here and the mountains were coated in snow and rime ice. Wearing rock shoes up there was certainly out of the question. Matt went home and Jon wanted nothing to do with the ice and mixed routes that were now in condition.

    Luckily, 19-year-old Hayden Kennedy from Carbondale, Colorado was keen to salvage the end of this poor season with me. We chose the biggest route we thought was possible in current conditions, the Supercanaleta on the famous Fitz. Hayden is an extremely motivated and talented climber, having redpointed 5.14+ sport climbs as well as hard freeclimbs in Yosemite. Although a relatively new ice climber, he was a natural, climbing technical mixed terrain efficiently and simulclimbing confidently on our first attempt. Despite the large amount of rime ice coating the rock and making for tricky conditions, we climbed very quickly to near the end of the route. This is where things started to fall apart. Lost in the rime, I tried to do battle with a particularly gnarly mushroom of overhanging snow on the ridgetop. With no way to get through and no options presenting themselves to us, we reversed the pitch, searching desperately for the line amongst the rime ice. We spent about 6 hours climbing up and down, left and right, trying every conceivable variation to no avail. With no food or water left, we had no choice but to bail.

    Now we were back, Hayden extended his plane ticket to give the route one last try. The alarm was set to go off at 2:00am, only minutes away, and I hadn’t slept at all. I was scared, but not of the climbing. I was scared of failing. Again. What if we still couldn’t force a way through the rime? Rarely do I let myself get worked up about a climb, but I couldn’t help feeling cursed by this mountain. A beautiful and iconic peak in the world of alpinism, a mountain I had dreamt of climbing since I was ten years old. I hadn’t realized before now how haunted by failure I’d let myself become. More, ‘what ifs’ raced through my mind. This go around we decided to leave behind our second rope, intent on summiting and rappelling down the shorter Franco-Argentine route on the other side of the mountain. Climbing a big mountain route with only one rope would be super committing, and rappelling back down the Supercanaleta if we failed again would be a total nightmare.

    The alarm rang. We wriggled out of our bivy sack, stiff from the cold. We brewed up mostly in silence and I nervously packed my bag. Everything was coming up and over the mountain with us as we would be hiking out the opposite valley - hopefully.

    The first 1000 meters of the route climbs the couloir proper up to grade AI3. The ice seemed never ending as Hayden and I soloed one behind the other with our headlamps illuminating our own little world alone on Fitz Roy. Climbing this section in daylight would surely be harder, you kick and swing with a little more gusto when you can actually see the sobering amount of exposure between your legs.

    We arrived at start of the 22 pitches of mixed climbing before dawn and wasted no time tying in and racking up. I led up the first pitch, a steep corner, by headlamp as it slowly became light around us. Now fully aware how deep into Fitz Roy we were, nervous excitement quickened my pace. Before long I was drytooling across the vertical righthand wall to connect with a thin smear of ice that led to the top of the pitch.

    Above this pitch we started simulclimbing. I took the lead and swung into the waterfall pitch at high speed. The ice soon became less steep and I started running in a rythmic swing-kick. Instantly, I was breathing hard. Hypoxic and gasping for breath, I came upon Frank, the body of a dead climber frozen into the ice. I slowed my pace slightly, having been confronted face-to-face with the outcome of a mistake in this situation. The route traverses right, up amazing ice runnels and mixed grooves, and here Hayden took over the lead. Still simulclimbing, slower now on thinner technical climbing. I worked to get perfect tool-sticks and torqued my crampons into the cracks hard, trying to be absolutely bomber following behind Hayden without a belay. The upper pitches along the ridge were still rimed-up, but crack systems appeared that we hadn’t seen before, easing the difficulty significantly.

    Before long we were at our previous highpoint. Looking up, we spotted the line instantly. Warming temperatures had melted the overhanging snow and the way through was clear. Hayden grunted up the ‘5.10 off-width pitch’ in crampons, using his tools to excavate through the remaining rime near the top. The last two pitches were amazing granite mixed climbing and soon we were on the summit ridge. My excitement thinking we had it ‘in the bag’ was cut short by the realization that the fun part was now over, and we still had to get down. The summit of Fitz Roy is an intimidating place to be with only one rope.

    On top, Hayden and I hugged and screamed into the wind. We had just sent the route in 11 hours ‘schrund to summit! We lingered for a couple minutes and then started to descend. We had very little margin for error on this notoriously tricky descent, but with key beta from our friends Neil and Joel, we nailed every one of the 30-plus rappels. Five or six hours later I rapped over the bergschrund just as it was getting dark. Touching down on the glacier I dug my headamp out of my pack and waited for Hayden. We were elated to climb up and over the mountain in the light of day. Our stove and bivy gear unused.

    Back in town the next day, sipping a Qulimes alone in quiet reflection, I felt relieved. We put so much pressure on ourselves in this sport. In failure, it is easy to fall apart - or worse. For longevity, one must approach the mountains with a sense of detachment. I am reminded of advice from a good friend and mentor, Squamish guide Colin Moorhead: You gotta care, but not care... Of course, at the time he was giving us advice on women, but I think it applies well to the alpine game.

    For more photos and accounts of other routes we did during the season, visit jasonkruk.net/blog

  • 2 Million Vertical Feet

    A short video by Greg Hill.

    World renowned ski mountaineer Greg Hill is going to search as high and as far as he can to find his personal limits. Ten years in the making; this will be his ultimate test. In 2010 he will attempt to climb and ski over 2 million feet, somewhat like climbing from the sea to the top of Everest 70+ times, or once every 5 days.

    This will not be someone lapping a ski hill, but someone out exploring, searching out new descents and mountains he has not climbed. Exploring the ranges of Canada, USA and South America. Climbing and skiing off the highest and most beautiful mountains. Throughout this mission he will film and document each adventure, bringing viewers to these summits and snow slopes, and into his psyche as he digs deeper than ever before.

    Greg has trained for over ten years for this, always dreaming of his true potential. During those years he set himself apart by climbing and skiing efficiently and passionately. He was the first person to ski tour 50 000 feet in 24 hours, a world record at the time. Not content with mediocrity Greg pushed himself in the backcountry, pioneering many first descents and long epic ski traverses. His passion for powder saw him climb & ski a million feet the 2004-05 winter season, earning him a place as one of National Geographics™ top Adventurers in 2006. He continued his vertical obsession with 80 ten thousand foot days in 06-07, skiing 990 000 in 5.5 months. All this because he was the youngest in a family of 6 and needed to make a bit of noise to be noticed.

    This is about adventure that never stops, challenges that never end, and the endless potential of the mountains. 2 million feet of human powered vertical, 100+ mountains and many many great moments.

    Mountain Moments:
    Update: April 7 2010; 23 summits, 575 000 ft in 76 days of ski mountaineering

    To find out more about Greg's adventures, visit his blog The Meanderings of Greg Hill and his website.

  • Mark Welgos skiing in Kirkwood - California

    Mark Welgos skis and competes at Kirkwood, California

  • Deep Thoughts With Chad Sayers

    Deep Thoughts with Freeskier Chad Sayers

  • Crackoholic Trailer

    Trailer for the climbingmovie Crackoholic

  • Bard Oymar

    Bard was born in 1988 and grew up far from the mountains in Stavanger, Norway but soon discovered telemark skiing in the mountains of Røldal. He started to sneak away from school to go skiing as often as he could, and his riding skills grew along with the number of days spent on the mountain.

    He has spent the past winters in the alps and competing in Norwegian freeride comps. Nowadays he is combining skiing with studying for a bachelors degree in philosophy, but he still sneaks away to go skiing. The summer is spent riding his downhill bike and in the autumn he is a full time student. He likes old literature, 90s hip-hop and gets inspired by snowboard movies. Bard is happy with life and in the future he wants to continue skiing, travelling and doing other fun things.

  • On The Road With Mikael Af Ekenstam

    A story by Mikael af Ekenstam

    I recently teamed up with fellow Arc’teryx athlete Tomas Bergemalm and friends Lars, Björn, Fia, Johanna and Per Åge to explore the mountains on and near the Lofoten islands in Northern Norway. The newly built highway Lofast, connecting Lofoten with the mainland, has opened up new possibilities in spectacular mountains. So we set out from the town of Narvik with open minds and a loosely-knit plan: skiing roadside mountains and sleeping in small traditional villages along the road.

    First stop at Strandtinden: an almost 1.100-meter high eye-catcher rising directly out of the sea, with the highway clinging to its side. Locals normally ascend it from the west on skinny touring skis, but after skinning to the top we had a blast in one of the two obvious bowls on the steep east side, ending up by the car. The following night was spent at Sandtorgholmen, an old trading post dating back to the 16th century, trying its best to survive on tourism now that trade and transport has turned from sea to road.

    More high-quality skiing filled the following days, with us eventually ending up on the actual Lofoten islands. The line of islands has been dubbed “a Chamonix on the sea”, with a dense cover of sharp peaks rising straight out of the water. In the coming years this unique beauty will be the battlefield for conflicting national interests: fishery and tourism versus the oil industry, which demands that this region’s oil and gas deposits be opened to exploitation.

    We happened to visit Lofoten the same weekend as one of Norway’s increasingly popular backcountry skiing festivals. These festivals draw crowds by the hundreds, meaning that terrain that is untracked through most of the season looks like a popular off-piste run after one of these get-togethers. On this occasion we had no problem sharing the last run of the trip with other enthusiasts, down a steep couloir on the mountain Geitgaljartind.

    Photos by Lars Thulin

  • Jon Walsh

    Jon has been putting up new climbs in Canada and abroad, for the better part of the last decade.  An insatiable appetite for exploring steep mountains, with either skis, rock shoes or crampons on, has helped him accumulate dozens of first ascents and wild adventures in many corners of the globe.  He always pursues alpine style, light and fast free climbing, the steeper and more technical the better.  Besides "big game" hunting in hills, he enjoys margaritas, fine scotch, living in the moment, living close to the edge, and laughing with his friends who know him as Jonny Red - often abbreviated to JR.  When not in the alpine, Jon finds that training outdoors on skis, mountain-bikes, rock climbs, frozen waterfalls or anything fun is obligatory, as many days a week as possible, and even bad conditions can be surprisingly enjoyable, i.e. "It doesn't have to be fun to be fun."  Attitude is everything.

    Jon has lived in several B.C. mountains towns since 1992, but has called Golden home since 1999.  His three favorite ranges are at his doorstep: the Rockies, the Purcells, and the Selkirks, and he makes a living mainly as a finish carpenter and part time photographer.  "There's so much to do here locally in the mountains, that there's really no need to get on airplane.  However, foreign travel has taught me so much about the potential that exists in my "backyard", and enabled me to see lines and conceive ideas that might have otherwise been missed."

    In the past twelve years, Jon has travelled extensively in pursuit of alpinism including five trips to Chamonix, three to Alaska, three to Patagonia, two to the Himalayas, and one to Baffin Island.  Some of his most memorable and highly recommended alpine climbs include: The north face of Mt. Alberta (Rockies); Dirty Love on Mt. Wilson (Rockies); The Wild Thing on Mt. Chephren (Rockies) The East Face of Mt. Asgard (Baffin Island); Sendero Norte (Bugaboos); and Cerro Fitz Roy by either the Cassarotto Pillar or the Canadian Route (Patagonia).  Favorite rock climbing ares include: Ceuse, France; Rodellar, Spain; Taghia Gorge, Morocco; Yosemite Valley, California; and The Bugaboos which remain the favorite "backyard" zone to session in. He looks forward to many more trips and expeditions in the near future.

    Check out Jon's blog at www.alpinestyle.ca.

  • Roger Strong The Shadow Reflection

    A story by Roger Strong

    After recently becoming a father, I've found that my time management for work, trying stay fit, and balance the challenges of parenthood demands a lot more planning and patience than anything else I've experienced in my life. A couple months after my wife Merridy gave birth to Maya (she's now almost 8 months) I found myself in pathetic physical shape. Merridy was overly motivated to crack the whip and get back at it, but keeping up with the J.O.B. and learning to be a parent forced us to hit the gym. We don't have the time to take extended dirt-bag climbing trips so thankfully, one of the local gyms, Stone Gardens, has an outdoor dry-tool area with 8 routes to train on.

    My biggest obsession in life is winter climbing in any form, especially when the desired objective has big question marks all over it. I love getting the artful image of a route to play tricks with my psyche, taunting my infatuation of getting hammered, forecasting weather, putting together the right rack, and questioning if can it be done in a push, etc. Admittedly, I don't always like being guaranteed that success is waiting at the top of every peak or route. If we knew the answer every time we went into the mountains, wouldn't that take a bit of the magic, focus and level of commitment out of it?

    The place that I always go back to relive this random magic is the beloved Canadian Rockies…it's easily the world's foremost arena for every facet of winter climbing at any level. Whether it's pure ice, mixed, alpine, sport or trad climbing, the Rockies are a magical place you can choose as mellow as you want it, or bite off more than you can chew. For some reason, each trip I wind up following the latter.

    Half the time I can blame (and thank) my dear friend Rob Owens for inspiring many of these adventures. Rob, a Canmore, Alberta local, understated and easily one of Canada's top all-rounder's, is the penultimate partner on any big mountain or cragging mission. Rob's deep appreciation of the mountains is only upstaged by his easy demeanor, fierce drive for getting the job done, devotion to wife, family and friends, and great taste in music.

    When figuring out if we were able make time for a big route together this season and what we should shoot for, he kept mentioning the possibility of repeating Jon Walsh and Caroline George's route The Shadow on the N. Face of Mt. Patterson on the Icefields Parkway. This route put such a huge grin on my face 5 years ago when they had the vision and tenacity to put it up over 2 days of hard work. My stomach churned a bit when he sent me an image that Jon had taken a week prior when attempting the very steep Riptide, just right of the Shadow. Jon and his partner had wisely turned around at the famed 350m avalanche prone slope that guards the approach to the headwall displaying both routes. Rob, who's also an IFMGA guide and meticulous about conditions felt the snow had settled and would yield a safe approach in its current state.

    4:30 a.m. alarm, Tim Hortons 24hr service to help start the 2 hr drive, we are at the trail head skinning by headlamp in a very calm, partly cloudy, cold morning. Rob was correct in the approach conditions and made for pleasant skinning…this slope can be a show stopper, we were relieved to have it bonded well. Whether we send this rig or not, it's going to be a really nice ski off this throne. After stashing the skis, we donned the alpine armor and soloed the first 400 meters of 55/60 degree well consolidated snow to the base of the business. It's quite light out by this time and looming above us are both objectives. Our goal is to link up both routes in a day if the Shadow allows us a relatively steady passage. It's hard not to start with Riptide since there is beautiful ice linking all of it's 5 long pitches. Originally graded at WI7, it looks a tad easier standing next to the looming Shadow to its left.

    Rob and I are both lead hogs and have to Ro, Sham, Bo for the 1st pitch…deep down inside, I wouldn't mind if he would have won the draw… this route is making me squirm. I convince myself that once I get going, get in the rhythm of swing, kick/kick, clean snow, scratch around rock, look for protection, sink a good pick, I'll be right at home in the moment…but right now, I'm thinking about Merridy and Maya, and making sure that all my choices on this route are the right ones. The beauty of climbing with Rob, is I could look at him and know he gets it and feels the same way…he's got my back.

    It's so hard to rate pitches in mountains when the ice is really thin and you have to spend more time looking for gear, where the route goes, belay, etc. The 1st technical pitch took a little over an hour, the next 3 took successively longer each rope length.

    Bringing up Rob was a relief, because the start of the next pitch looked hard and runout…he didn't hesitate and methodically worked the crux leaving the belay, sans gear for about 10 meters. After his first piece, I was able to relax and take in the exposure and enjoy the incredible views that the Parkway always presents. This pitch took a bit longer than the last, and the next few pitches looked steeper and more sustained. I'm thoroughly enjoying following this pitch. Rob had to clean a lot of overhanging snow to get to any decent holds, ice and protection, I thanked him for all the work as it made it pleasant for me to second. Pretty solid M7 with decent gear right when he needed it. I'm looking up at the next pitch, deeply psyched but knowing it's going to take a lot of work. It's an open corner that lended to incredible movement and reasonable protection. A tricky traverse for a couple moves halfway up the pitch allowed us to move out from under a couple of large, concerning snow mushrooms. The corner just kept on going. Two more pitches of even more sustained dry-tooling through roofs, delicate snow mushrooms, and REALLY thin ice took every bit of energy to pull off without aiding. What was most compelling about each pitch is that we couldn't have aided through any of the hard moves since the rock didn't allow any protection in those sections. Each of these pitches took over an hour and a half on lead and finally gained us the top of the route as dark was approaching. At this rate, we're going to have to ‘settle' for the 2nd ascent and not the link up with Riptide…fine by me, I'm thoroughly worked and looking forward to the long ski out! The link up awaits!

  • Patrik Aufdenblatten

    Patrik Aufdenblatten was born in Zermatt, a little town in Switzerland surrounded by mountains. During his childhood he was already fascinated by mountaineering and skiing. At the age of eight Patrik climbed a 4100m high mountain, six years later he ascented the Matterhorn via the Hörnli ridge for the first time.

    During his education, Patrik spent a lot of time with sport and ice climbing. He succeeded to climb a few 8b+ and ice falls grated WI6+. By and by Patrik got into mixed and crack climbing as well as big walls.

    In 2007 the 19 year old could freeclimb 'Freerider' at El Cap, Yosemite. With this achievement he was the youngest ever to do a free ascent at the El Cap.

    Because of extensive training in mixed areas, Patrik managed to climb many M11 and was one of the strongest in the ice climbing world cups.

    In 2009 he finished the commercial school and started the formation as a ski instructor. Therefore, he had enough time to travel. In Gritstone, Patrik climbed a lot of easy lines. After this he visited Indian Creek where he could climb many classic routes such as Air Sweden(R5.13) Less than zero (5.13-) and others.

  • Will Stanhope Climbing in the Canadian Bugaboos


    A story by Will Stanhope

    In late July of 2009, Matt Segal, Jason Kruk and I headed into the Bugaboos, a patch of exceptional granite towers in the interior of BC. Our aim was to go in there with an open mind, and free whatever routes looked the best. Invariably, new routing often leads to attempting lines that others have also attempted. Building on previous attempts of our friends, we managed to free two lines. Alpine free climbing, to me, is less about individual success and more about collaboration- stepping on the shoulders of those who came first.

    We started off our trip by hiking over to the west faces of the Howsers, home to the wildest walls in the Bugs. Beyond these walls lies the East Creek Basin, a giant expanse of wilderness without a road to be seen, just mountains and forest as far as the eye can see. We aimed to make the first free ascent of the central Howser, the last unfreed Howser tower. Friends Colin Moorhead and Chris Brazeau had first tried to free the mountain a couple years ago via a route called Chocolate Fudge Brownie, established by Sean Isaac and Brian Webster.

    On our second attempt we found ourselves at a seemingly blank slab, 4 pitches up, with a line of unclimbed splitters taunting us approximately 10 metres to our right. Time and again, Matt and I tried to traverse across the slab, only to body slam the belay after a jarring pendulum. Jason sent the slab at 5.12+ on his second try in a very proud effort. Excited to be still in the game, I onsighted virgin 5.12- splitters on the headwall, hopscotching between finger pods, in a weird sort of rhythmic haze of movement. When the splitter tapered into knife-blade territory, a series of shadowy crimpers led back into the original corner of Chocolate Fudge Brownie. From there, Jason grunted up a wet-offwidth. We topped out the Central Howser at dusk, punched up the final snow-cone in rock shoes, and admired the view: mountains rimming the horizon, ignited orange by a stunning sunset.

    Next up was the east face of Snowpatch to attempt a route put up by Jon Walsh and Chris Brazeau. Walsh and Brazeau are my alpine climbing heroes, equally at home on ice and rock. Their "free, in a push" philosophy is the gold standard to which I aspire to. From the rockies to Patagonia, those guys throw down like few others. Brazeau and I had attempted to free their route, Sendero Norte, last year but came up short on the crux pitch. This year I endeavored to finish off the project.

    After adding British trad master Hazel Findlay to the team, we started up Sendero Norte under clear skies. This time I sent the crux 5.12+ on my second try, barely managing this tenuous pitch. Sweeping stem corners, burly face climbing and intricate corner-hopping pitches complete this classic line. At the top of Snowpatch spire, surrounded by a lifetime’s supply of projects, and three great friends, I couldn’t help but feel extremely lucky to be part of the process.

    Photo 1: Our line on the Central Howser: Chocolate Fudge Brownie with North Van/ Miami Variation 5.12+ V (Jason Kruk photo)
    Photo 2: Jason Kruk on the crux of Sendero Norte, East Face of Snowpatch Spire 5.12+ V (Will Stanhope photo)
    Photo 3: Jason Kruk engaging a horrible squeeze chimney on pitch 2 of the Central Howser tower (Will Stanhope photo)
    Photo 4: Atop Snowpatch Spire after freeing Sendero Norte (Jason Kruk photo)

  • The Old Man and the Sea


    A story by Toni Lamprecht.

    Around August/September 2009 Toni Lamprecht, Uli Strunz and Benno Wagner spent several weeks in the Gorge du Verdon with the target to establish a first ascent on one of the amazing limestone-walls in this area in the south of France. The result is "Le Vieux et la mer", with 7 pitches up to the 8th french grade. One of the nicest and most beautifull first ascents of Toni, the "old" German pioneer, who had this project in his mind for several years, but who finally caught the "big fish" this past summer:

    "If you ever climb a route in the Sektotr Ula in the Gorge du Verdon there's no way not to look at the beautifull, blank looking piller to the right. And so did I, and got soon involved in finding a climbable line in the sea of grey rock. I rapelled several times into the overhanging maze of unclimbable looking stone, until I finally found the only freeclimable line: a serpent- like-creeping-way up on little, tiny edges and pockets. A present, which waited for the one to pick it the first. That was in summer 2008, and I swore to myself to come back one year later.

    And so it happened that exactly a year after seeing the crucial way, we started to boulder in the hard pitches to find the solution. We, a team of different climbers: Uli Strunz, the dreadlook-wapponed skiny mover, Benno Wagner, the Young Gun and myself, Toni, the "old Fox". A good mixtureof different skills from jumar-power, drinking and partying skills (not to forget the fanatic climbing-abilities) that promissed success – and so it happened that a few weeks later we redpointed the last missing pitch of our new route "Le Vieux et le mer" (6b, 7a+, 8ab, 8a, 6a, 7a, 7c+, 7a), the nicest fish I've ever caught out of the grey-blue looking sea of rock… ."

    The Route was filmed, so stay tuned for upcoming trailers!

  • Toni Lamprecht Climbing Gorge du Verdon

    Toni Lamprecht Climbing Gorge du Verdon

  • Silvia Vidal Baffin Island Trip

    Silvia Vidal Baffin Island Trip

  • A Day in the Life of an Arc'teryx Pack

    A day in the life of an Arc'teryx Aerios Daypack.

  • Greg Hill 2 Million Reasons

    Greg Hill's goal... climb and ski 2 million ft in 2010. Climb as many different peaks, ski as many different lines as possible, travel north, travel to south america live and ski down there. Here is the first part of the epic.

  • Coldsmoke 2010 Wrapup Video

    A video wrapup of the 2010 Coldsmoke Powder Fest. See you next time...

  • Arc'teryx Athletes on the Freeskiing World Tour

    Arc'teryx sponsored freeskier Mark Welgos has spent the winter filming and competing on the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour. Earlier this month, the Aspen, CO-based skier took third place at an FWT comp held in Kirkwood, CA. Aaron Schmidt, a new Arc'teryx team member out of Fernie, BC, placed second.

    Welgos, Schmidt, and Crystal Wright, another Arc’teryx sponsored athlete, are in Snowbird, UT, competing at the Subaru Freeskiing World Championships this weekend.

    Here is some helmet camera filmed footage Mark shot backcountry skiing near Kirkwood, and at the FWT competition.

  • Arc'teryx Altra Wins Backpacker Editors' Choice Award

    Backpacker Magazine recently awarded the Altra pack their Editors Choice award. Here's a video summary from contributing editor John Harlin with the pack in Switzerland.

    If you don't see the movie playing above, please make sure you have the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player

    Click Here to view a PDF of Backpacker Magazine's Editor's Choice Award winning review of the Altra. (3.64 Mb)

    Click here to view the full line of Altra backpacks.

  • Baffin Trip Frustrations and Polar Bears


    A story by Silvia Vidal
    Photos by Olivier Favresse, Nicolas Favresse, Sean Villanueva and Stephane Hanssens.

    Usually I write about a climbing. This time I'm writing about the reasons that brought me to climb a not planned route and with some other climbing partners as first expected, on Mount Asgard (Baffin Island, Canada).

    I was planning a summer expedition to Baffin Island with a friend of mine (Luis Gomez, Madrid-Spain). We started to prepare things early in the season trying to have things under control. But it didn't happen like that and the previous part of the trip was an epic and a nightmare.

    The original plan was to try to put up a new route on the main face from the South Tower of Mount Asgard. But our expedition was totally frustrated before leaving our country and at the end Luis decided to cancel his flights and not go to Baffin. The reason was that we had no option to climb something that motivated us.

    Instead of this, finally I climbed the "Belgarian" route, a free climbing variation from the "Bavarian" route on Asgard South Tower, being a five member team. Because when things turned down something else appeared.

    What happened to us was that we needed to send in advance a cargo with all the climbing equipment and the food we would need to spend a couple of months in the island. We wanted to use the outfitters services (they use snow mobiles) to bring the things just before the glacier from Asgard. But for that we needed to send it in spring before the ice melts, because they drive above the iced rivers. Mount Asgard is really far from the main village, about 50 Km. plus hiking up the glacier to the base of the wall. That means a lot of carryings if we need to do them by ourselves.

    Finally, after being in contact with a Belgian climbing team (Sean Villanueva, Nicolas Favresse, Olivier Favresse and Stephane Hanssens) we decided to share the sending with them, because it seemed that things could be easier.

    After some problems with the food, Canadian border has strong restrictions for the imported food; we were able to send the cargo. It was blocked there for a long time, more than a month and a half, and finally our cargo company (DHL) wasn't able to send it to Baffin. So, after many phone calls, mails and tension, the cargo came back to Belgium in June. We couldn't believe it!

    During all this process, the National Park Director called at home to advise us that this year there was more polar bear activity in the area as usual, and for this reason they forbid us to leave any kind of food and fuel in the area, except if we were sending polar bear containers! There are no polar bear containers in Europe...

    As Luis was working it was my turn to take the car and go to Brussels (2.700Km-1680 miles go and return) to take the cargo and bring it back to Spain.

    Luis and I were desperately looking for a solution; it meant we were looking for a new goal. But there were not too many options and there were no closer walls that motivated us.

    The day before our departure, Luis came to Barcelona and we spent some hours talking and finally he decided not go to Baffin. After months of preparations, phone calls, the food, the cargo, the National Park, the polar bears... the doubts... all our motivation was frustrated. We had no more energy to fight for... nothing. There was no climbing goal.

    It was really sad to recognize it and we had no too much option because being just two people in the team was not enough to carry all the Km that are from the end of the fiord to the base of the wall. More than 50 Km. that we needed to do many times (going and returning, up and down). No option, for us, not enough holiday time.

    Luis canceled his flight and I had a horrible night trying to decide what to do, if to cancel it as well or leave alone, anyway. I decided to go anyway, knowing that there were not too many options for me because I was going alone. And knowing that maybe I won't climb. I went anyway because to climb in remote areas that have something intense apart from the climbing; the landscape, the nature, the wilderness, the loneliness... But it was a hard decision, because climbing has been always the main goal, the reason. I left with all the gear, just in case...

    I took the plane and I paid hundreds of euros for the extra weight. I decided to bring the whole gear in case I would like to solo something in a Big Wall style.

    In Ottawa I met the Belgians and we shared the first part of our trip together. They were heading to Asgard but no concrete plans, and during the march they stopped in different areas to climb some nice walls in a day.

    I was approaching Mount Tirokwa (its one day walking). At the second day of carryings I decided I wasn't motivated enough to climb it. The first time I saw the wall I didn't have de desire to climb it. And the first sight is always important for me. So, I knew I wouldn't climb it. And then I had no other options. That was hard as well, because one thing is to imagine a situation and another is to live it.

    I rested for some days at Tirokwa's base camp, and during this time we (the Belgians and me) were sharing same camp, because they decided to climb there as well.

    Then they proposed me to share a big wall ascent in Asgard with them. They were already 4 and for me their proposal was a surprise. I didn't expect it. We carried about 500 Km to get to Asgard and to come back. Being five people that was possible.

    We were five in a wall and we slept in 2 double portaledges and a hammock. Every day we decided who was going to sleep there, that was an adventure. The night I slept there I twisted and I fell down, hanging on the jumars inside the sleeping bag. That was a new experience as well.

  • Seb Mayer

    Born: Aix-en-Provence, France
    Nationality: FRENCH
    Current Residence: Verbier, Switzerland

    Personal accomplishments:

      Telemark results:
    • 1st place, Derby de la Meije in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2nd in 2007, 2008, 2010
    • 1st place, Derby du Monterosa in 2004, 2005
    • 1st place, Derby de Verbier in 2006
      Alpine results:
    • 1st place, 24h Freeride de Gstaad in 2009
    • 1st place, Derby de Verbier in 2007,2009 and 2010
    • 1st place, Derby de Chavanette in 2010


    Athlete Bio:

    I was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1977, started skiing at the age of 2. I started ski racing when I was pretty young and was on the FIS circuit for few years.
    I live in Pelvoux, a small ski resort located in a national park near La Grave, France. It’s a beautiful spot for freeride skiing and ski mountaineering; actually, it’s a great place to be at any time of the year.
    Today I work as a self-employed ski, snowboard and telemark instructor in Verbier, Switzerland.
    I have participated in some great competitions like the Derby de la Meije, a long-distance downhill ski race. I have won the telemark division four times.
    During the summer, I split my time between teaching sailing and traveling around the world. I have done a lot of trekking in the mountains of south and Central America, and obviously in our beautiful Alps.
    My favorite riding and ski touring spots in the Alps are: La Grave, Verbier, Chamonix, and Monterosa.
    Sponsors: Arc'teryx, Rabbit on the Roof (hand made skis), Crispi (boots), Giro (helmets), Mundaka (optics), Magic Potion

  • Will Gadd Ice Climbing In Marble Canyon

    Arc'teryx athlete Will Gadd climbs a thin ice pillar in beautiful Marble Canyon, British Columbia.

  • Green River Trip 2009


    A story by Rob Pizem

    Most of the time when you are preparing for a climbing trip, you are pouring over guide books, looking at photos and talking to everyone that you know about what climbs you should try when you get there. The green river trip that I just returned from was just the opposite. There were no recorded ascents (just rumors), there were no developed areas (just miles of cliff line), and you needed a boat or 4x4 to access everything.

    I was on the road during my fall break from teaching with a couple friends to begin a real adventure, which (as usual) Andrew Burr concocted a while back. We were going to canoe down the green river just north of Canyonlands National Park to try to climb the Green River Towers and anything else that looked good.

    The first three days were hot and we used the canoes to access a cliff line over the river called the Willow quadrangle. We found two old uranium adits, a bunch of old relic mining equipment, some petrified wood, ripple marks and of course a few gem crack climbs. Andy took photos while we had the pleasure of climbing, cleaning and bolting these new lines. It was great fun using the spotting scope to identify a possible crack climb and then to paddle over, scramble up the talus over the green river to check it out and hopefully get lucky.

    Closer to camp, also during those first three days, we headed up to a buttress of stone past yet another old uranium mine that we called the Riverbend Buttress. It yielded four new crack climbs each of which were first climbed by all four of us. The Riverbend Buttress requires plenty of big cams; like 2 number sixes up to 4 number fives and 4 number four cams along with all the smaller cam sizes. I will have to say that my Arcteryx clothing and harness really held up well while I was grinding it out on desert offwidth crack climbing.

    After we took care of the plumb lines at Riverbend we decided it was time to load up the canoes and head on down stream to the green river towers. We each knew that we could have stayed and developed new cracks for the rest of the trip but the towers were the real objective. None of us were very skilled at canoeing but after a few minutes of going the wrong direction on the river, we managed to keep the boats pointed downstream and quickly had the towers within view.

    They rose from the opposite side of the river into 6 unique and different summits. We had hoped to climb each of them and dreamed of perfect splitters heading to each oddly shaped peak. Once we paddled closer, we found a sand bar to set up camp on and gaze at the new terrain. All that was left was to paddle across the 200 feet of water and hike up the hillside and talus. Since we arrived in the evening, we were able to watch the sunset on the towers and to our surprise we saw a set of anchors and even a bolt glistening in the waning daylight. Someone else had climbed these beautiful towers. That was fine with us; we could leave the drill at camp!

    That next morning we filled our packs with all the gear we could and headed up to the towers. Only after chopping a trail through the bushes and trees for a half hour did we get to begin our approach. As we neared the towers, we easily saw that the cracks that looked small and thin from camp turn into offwidth test pieces. We were in for some work up the wide stuff. Nearly every summit was to be obtained only after muscling our way up wide cracks. The end of the trip certainly proved that as my elbow and knees were scabbed and bloody from the past two days on the towers.

    Each of the 4 summits that we ascended was hard fought and rewarding. The first tower was a long 200 foot pitch that required a couple of 4, 5, and 6 inch pieces. The next required some hard wear and nailing to get through an aid section on pitch two. After getting some proper protection in the crack, (a few pins) we freed the pitch and climbed crumbly last pitch to the summit high over the river. We could watch the other river users paddle and motor down stream in the early fall heat of the desert.

    The last two towers were freed with a lot more offwidth techniques and a never give up attitude. All the while a wind storm came through the valley and destroyed Andy’s tent poles and sent out tent blowing to the rivers edge. That nights wind provided us with a lot of sand on the menu. The final tower had a rack of 2 six inch cams, 4 five inch cams, 4 four inch cams and 2 three inch cams and 2 one inch cams. A monster pitch took us to the saddle of the tower, which was then followed by a second pitch crescent moon shaped chimney with an arête exit to the summit on hollow face holds. As the wind blew and the ground dropped out below us and the sun set, the satisfaction of good friends, good climbing and adventure set in before we had to paddle downstream to the take out. Thanks to my sponsors for making this trip happen: Arcteryx, Scarpa, Camp-USA and Sterling Ropes.

  • Will Gadd The Endless Ascent

    Arc'teryx Athlete Will Gadd climbs vertical ice for 24 hours at the Ouray Ice Festival to raise money and awareness for the dZi Foundation. Get a behind the scenes look at his physical preparation and the grueling 24 hour event.

  • Eric Hjorleifson Joins the Arc'teryx Roster

    ARC'TERYX Signs Big Mountain Freeskier Eric Hjorleifson
    "Bow Valley Crew" Member and MSP Film Stalwart Joins Sayers,Hill and others on Arc'teryx Team
    For Immediate Release - January 27, 2010

    ARC'TERYX EQUIPMENT INC. is proud to announce that Eric Hjorleifson has been signed to its snowsport athletes roster.

    Born and bred in Canmore, AB, Hjorleifson (pronounced Hyor-leaf-son), 27, is a member of the infamous "Bow Valley Crew" of freeskiers who cut their teeth ripping big Rocky Mountain lines in and around Lake Louise. His specialty is skiing steep, challenging, rock-studded faces and couloirs in a high-speed, racer-derived style with the odd air thrown in for good measure.

    Tom Duguid, ARC'TERYX Director of Brand Management, welcomed Eric to its athlete team. "Eric is one of the most dynamic and visually exciting big mountain skiers out there right now. His understanding of how technically-designed equipment and clothing can increase performance in the big mountain arena is aligned with our mission to build the best gear possible."

    Eric's first assignment "field testing" ARC'TERYX gear just wound up at Golden Alpine Holidays, where the film crew from Matchstick Productions (MSP) documented Hjorleifson and fellow pro Mark Abma dropping powdery pillow lines near GAH's newly-refurbished Vista Lodge. Hjorleifson has appeared in MSP's Push, Claim, The Hit List and Seven Sunny Days.

    "Hoji"'s Alberta roots can be seen in his 4FRNT signature ski that features a top sheet inspired by Lethbridge Pil, the legendary low-cost brew favoured by ski bums throughout the West.

  • Season Trailer HD

    The Season. Five lives. A world of possibility. - http://www.theseasontv.com/

  • Only Summit Is Summit

    By: Joëlle Brupbacher
    In Memory of Gerd McDonald

    One more time, I took the way to Pakistan with my friends Jorge and Martin. After some trekking days over the Baltoro glacier we arrived in K2 basecamp. The weather was not so hot like other years and there were only a few expeditions at the mountain; so it was great. I’m here again trying to climb this incredible and huge mountain, for sure so special, such a contrast in the mountain world. When I’m looking at K2, I see a mountain so high, so wild but at the same time so simple, so perfect like it’s surreal. I know to climb a mountain like this will be hard, difficult and I’ll have to suffer a lot. But knowing all this, I feel in calm beeing here and in this time, I don’t want to stay in another place. After the big tragedy last year, it was even more a special feeling to be here again. I need to say good-bye to close friends who died here one year ago.

    For the first acclimatisation we chose the Spanish-Cesen route. We slept one night on an incredible small balcony, between camp I and camp II. The night was bad, very windy and cold. In the morning, we decided to go down in the middle of a strong storm. After this conditons on the mountain, the basecamp is looking like a five star hotel. The sleeping tent is so big, you have place to turn around in the night, the best cook is preparing the best food for you and going to the toilet is so easy without the necessity of keeeping the rope...

    After some discussions about the small tent places in the Spanish-Cesen route, we decided to change to the Abruzzi way. Because there were not a lot of other teams (or because they didn’t want to work) we prepared all the way at the mountain. Jorge, Martin and me fixed ropes from ABC to camp III in four hard days. There were a lot of snow, icy rocks and the weather was for this season very cold and windy. Mostly the nights in camp II were unconfortable; it was dangerous to go out of the tent, go to the toilet, to scoop snow away of the tent. I remember other years in this camp, when I could enjoy this place, sitting outside, cooking in open space. We spend one night in camp III and in this acclimatisation time, Jorge took his chance and went in a solo ascent to the summit. But for him the time at K2 was not finish yet, he came up again to help me and Martin.

    Back in hotel basecamp we could rest and took power for the next ascent. After some days the weahter window appeard and we could climb up again. In two long days we reached camp III once more. The weather reports announced a short, less wind window; we were ready.

    But the good-weather window didn’t arrive and I must wait three nights in camp II. One day later, I met Jorge, Martin and some other climbers in camp III. At the 25. of July at one in the night we started for the summit. As we expected, there were a lot of snow, we fought all the dark night. Also a group of eight strong climbers was not enough power against the power of the mountain. Around 7900m we decided to turn back. The snow was to deep, the conditions to dangerous. After the first disappointment, we were happy and contented that nothing happened and everybody was safe back in basecamp. I didn’t want to make a second attempt, the conditions in the beginning of august becomes always very bad and the mountain so dangerous with a lot of rockfalls. The work at home was waiting for us and we would spend some days in different mountain villages to give medical help to the people there. Like the years before, it’s always a great work with a lot of gratitude and satisfaction.

    I’m dreaming of a home like a place where I feel calm and enjoy my life. In K2 I find both... For sure it was not my last time on K2. But just now, it was definetly my best time at this incredible mountain.

  • Mathieu Audibert

    My passion for climbing first started with Mountaineering. At the age of 18 years old I went to south America. Lots of courage and inexperienced luck brought us to the summit of Aconcagua 6959m.since then, climbing is a passion.

    I enjoy all form of free climbing . What I like the most about climbing is the beauty and the diversity of the environnement, the different climbing formation either ice or rock and the people with whom I share these experiences. The last few years I had the chance to climb all year round with my life partner Audrey Gariepy. Sharing the rope with her is probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Doing trips or expeditions with a good partner gives me wings and energy to be as polyvalent as possible...

    Favourites Routes:
    Stairway to heaven WI5, M8, 100M
    The Replicant WI6
    Suffer machine WI6
    La pomme d Or WI6
    Petit victor M10 (Quebec)
    Goldline M10 (Ouray Colorado)

    First Ascents:
    Paradis perdu WI 5, 170m Canadian Rockies .Guy Lacelle, Audrey Gariepy, Mathieu Audibert
    The doors of perceptions, 600m M7, Canadian Rockies Patrick Delaney, Mathieu Audibert
    La Mante et l Ours, WI5+350M Norway, Audrey Gariepy, Mathieu Audibert
    Thermalphobia, WI5+ 280M. Norway, Audrey Gariepy, Mathieu Audibert, Guy Lacelle

    I've been full time climber for 8 years. I work as a foremen for Celtic Reforestation in British-Colombia. This seasonal job gives me the opportunity to climb eight months per year. I spend most of my time between the Canadian Rockies, Quebec, US and Europe.

  • Jon Walsh on Baffin Island

    By: Jon Walsh

    Chris Brazeau and I spent four weeks this summer in Auyittuq National Park, Baffin Island, climbing the granite walls and ridges of the Weasel Valley. We left home with some inspiring photos, vague beta, and a lot of excitement. In the small fishing village of Pangnirtung, we met our our Belgian friends Nicolas Favresse, Sean Villeneauva, Olivier Favresse, and Steffan Husson, as well as Silvia Vidal of Catalonia, and together, we hired a boat to take us to the trail head at the end of the Fiord. The main goal of our trip was to climb Mt. Asgard , Baffins most famous and arguably most beautiful peak, which requires a 42 kilometer approach up the Valley on descent but rugged trails for the first 32 km, and moraines and glaciers for the final 10. This would involve ferrying many loads of gear and food, as well as climbing whatever other peaks inspired us along the way. As the Weasel Valley is stacked with amazing mountains, the objectives were plentiful and the views always mind blowing.

    To sum up our 28 days in the park, 7 were spent climbing, 11 schlepping loads, and 10 were spent resting. We did all our routes in light and clean style, always trying to find challenging, aesthetic lines. Our two most significant climbing achievements were:

    -Asgard's South Tower, south face, 5.12- 600m; We thought we were on an entirely new route until we found a bolt at the route's crux, on the second last pitch. It's hard to say for sure but we probably climbed 50% new terrain / 50% the "Italian Route" on the South face. The route went in 9 amazing 60 meter pitches of mainly 5.10, with save the second last pitch, which was 5.12-. It was probably the first free ascent of the South Tower and took about 16 hours round trip from a camp on the side of the Cariboo Glacier.

    -Asgard's North Tower, east face, 5.11+ C1,800m; Hard to say whether the first half had been climbed or not, but we climbed about ten nice pitches up to 5.11- to the headwall. We then followed an obvious crack system to the right of Line of Credit that provided the highlight of the trip. Eight 60-meter pitches, six of which were 5.11 and often involved run out, delicate face climbing that linked the cracks, on some of the best quality stone we've ever touched! Some wet rock forced us right near the top, and only one body length didn't go free due to some wetness. Probably 5.12- free. Wet 5.11 moves constantly made us did deep but we on-sighted the rest of the headwall. The Favresse brothers repeated the first two thirds of our headwall route, but drier conditions permitted a more direct finish. Our camp to camp time was 22.5 hours, with the approach being at least two hours.

    Other climbs we did included:

    -"The Scott Route" 5.11-, on Asgard's North Tower. Very classic! Great positions on the SW buttress. Asgard is one of those peaks you can just keep climbing on!

    -"Stories in Stone" 5.12 - A0, 600 meters, Mount Walle. This sustained 16 pitch route with bolted belays is up there as one of the best routes either of us has ever climbed. Unfortunately, we couldn't remove the A0 part of the grade but the hardest climbing is 5.12-. A physical route with some chimney and offwidth climbing up an amazing red pillar. This one required the most effort and was our longest camp to camp time at 25 hours.

    -Mt. Thor, South Ridge 5.8.; A true classic to a wild summit.

    -Mt Menhir, South Ridge. 5.10, 600m; We did a few pitches of 5.10 variation to Salvaterra's route, before some weather forced us back to the line of least resistance. If it weren't for the three hour slog up a couloir to the base, this route would be popular. The rock is perfect, and the route similar in character to the NE ridge of Bugaboo Spire.

    -Mt. Tirokwa West face; This was actually just an attempt on a new route. We climbed about 400 meters out of 700 to the left of Chocolate Boomerang, before run-out face climbing shut us down. This could be a great route but a couple of bolts seemed necessary to pass an obvious white rock scar. The holds and climbing seemed to be all there, but natural protection looked impossible for about 40 meters of 5.11 climbing. With under a day to get down, pack camp and hike out 15 km to catch our ferry to back Pangnirtung, we rappelled and called it a trip.

    All said and done, we had a great time, great weather, and the entire expedition unfolded smoothly. We climbed more than we anticipated we would, and the adventure was everything and more, than we could have hoped it would be.

    A huge thank you to our Arcteryx, Moutain Equipment Coop, Scarpa, and Sequel Naturels for the support.

  • Jason Kruk

    I was born in North Vancouver, BC - I lucked out - a place where one could go mountain biking, ski powder snow, and shop for raw denim along the cobbled streets of gastown all in the same day. Not exactly a hotbed for alpinism, however, but luck again would point me in the direction I currently find myself.

    I was 9 years old and my parents dropped me one summer at the local climbing gym, the climbing was okay - but what really drew me was the rack of climbing magazines beside the front counter. Inside I found photos of big mountains, desert towers, and perfect egg-shaped granite boulders. I was hooked, I knew one day I was going to climb all those things. I was 9 years old though, so for now I was trapped in that gym working on the yellow-taped route.

    My life changed the summer I graduated, moved permanently up the highway to Squamish, and climbed endless granite everyday. I scraped just enough money together every month to cover my share of the rent and ate a lot of cabbage and potatoes.

    I'm 22 now and have come a long way since; the mountains have taught me a lot. Some of my most special experiences include long and difficult ascents in Argentine Patagonia, first free ascents in the Bugaboos, bigwall freeclimbing in Yosemite, the FA of a 5000' mixed face in the Waddington Range, climbing all 14 pitches of my favourite route the Grand Wall in 1:13:33, and winter ice and mixed ascents in the Canadian Rockies... I also sent that yellow-taped route.

    As an all around climber, I've never been particularly talented at any one discipline. My biggest strength - probably belief in the existence of luck. I seem to do my best when the chips are down and we just need to try really hard to succeed. I live to crank the amplitude to high.

    I am an ACMG assistant alpine guide, working towards full IFMGA certification. In addition to rock and alpine guiding, I am a rigger for the arts and entertainment industry in Vancouver. As a lifelong skier, powder snow, steep ski descents, and endurance traverses do constant battle with climbing over my psyche.

    See what I have been up to recently: jasonkruk.net/blog

  • Julian Zanker

    Julian was born in Stuttgart, Germany and has been climbing for 5 years. At age 1 he moved to Switzerland and, from a very early age, he realized that he loved spending time in the mountains. He was only 4 years old when he accomplished his first 3000 foot ascent.

    In 2005 he started climbing and knew immediately that it was his sport. Every minute of free time he had was spent looking for somebody who would take him to the crags. He thinks it will always be his passion…Climbing is his life. At the moment he's focused on sport - and alpineclimbing. He prefers the challenge of climbing on-sight and enjoys each day that he finds the time to spend on the rock.

    Julian has travelled all over Europe to climb but his favourite multipitch routes are in Rätikon (CH), bigwall climbing in Ticino (CH), sportclimbing in France, Italy, Greece and Spain. Julian always wants to push his climbing level as much as possible. He climbed many 8a's onsight and redpoint 8b+. In winter he stays at home and you can find him iceclimbing and telemarking.

    In 2009 he finished his education as a carpenter and previously worked as a ski instructor. For the last year or so, Julian has worked in a mountaineering shop in the Engadin, working only in the peak seasons so that he is able to make time to time to travel and climb in the down time.

    Published articles:

    • Engadiner newspaper
    • Ewo newspaper
    • Graubünden magazin
    • Klettern Magazin after a speed ice climbing competition in 2008 in Pontresina


    In future he plans to accomplish more alpine routes to add to his roster below.

    • 2006: first 7b onsight
    • 2006: first 7c+ "Wiskey Train" redpoint in the engiadin
    • 2007: some 7b+ and 7c onsight
    • 2008: first 8a+ in the engiadin and in sasso remeno in italy and siurana punyatera 7c+/ 8a, 8b lavur Nair and schneehexeninsel 7c onsight, Aisha 7c onsight, some routes in Lecco 7c onsight
    • 2008: September; badile cassin, Beautiful; just long!
    • 2009: Iceclimbing Thron, Avers.
    • 2009: First ascent 8b+/8c in Lagalb
      • 2009: Kalymnos in august; some 7c and 8a onsight
    • 2009: Rätikon; Schatila 7c onsight


    Check out Julian's blog at www.julianzanker.blogspot.com

  • Nina Caprez

    My passion for climbing started as soon as I stepped into my first real climbing shoes, I knew that this is my sport.

    I grew up in the middle of the Swiss mountains in a valley called Prattigau. After finishing high school, finding no solid direction in normal life I decided to leave the "routine" and chose to continue my life as a climber. My desire to practice this sport with all his facets was so strong, that I was able to overcome all the obstacles that I came across to peruse my lifestyle.

    Besides rockclimbing and mountaineering I also spent time competing. During this time, I learned a lot how I have to train and what I have to do, to become a stronger climber. This made me become an even stronger rock-climber, quickly making it possible for me to red-point my first 8b route.

    After a while, I lost the motivation for competitions and I started to concentrate more and more on what was for me pure rockclimbing. I travelled all around the world and climbed on all kinds of rocks. From big wall climbing in Patagonia and Kirgistan to boulder trips in Argentina, from deep water soloing in Thailand to sport climbing all around Europe and America. All these experiences and all these different styles of rock climbing gave so much practice, that it made me the well rounded climber I am now.

    Through all these experiences as a rock climber, I found my big challenge: I want to climb the hardest multi pitch routes in the world. To be able to climb a hard multi pitch route in one day, that is my goal and what I am searching for.

    Routes like 'Ultime démence', 5 pitches 8a+ or 'la Ramirole', 5 pitches 8b, are the most beautiful sucesses in my climbing life.

    I love my 'non-system' life. To be able to decide myself how I will earn my money, where I will live, when I will get up in the morning. To do what I need to do to survive. And most importantly: to enjoy every single day, with the least amount of seriousness as possible and to climb to my very best!

  • Guy Lacelle Killed in Avalanche

    Management and staff at Arc'teryx Equipment Inc. are deeply saddened by the death of Guy Lacelle at the Bozeman Ice Festival yesterday. Sources say Lacelle was swept off a climb by an avalanche that occurred around 9:30 a.m. He leaves behind his beloved wife Marge and his constant companion, his dog Jade.

    A two-time winner of the Ouray Ice Festival climbing competition, Lacelle's accomplishments earned him the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture's prestigious Summit of Excellence Award.

    John Irvine, newly-named Director of International Sales, says, "Guy was a great, great person. He epitomized dignity and integrity. His Zen climbing style was peaceful, relaxed, and smooth; and he was always happy and positive. His passion for adventure and drive to see and explore new places and cultures made Guy a real pioneer, and his charming personality made him a pleasure to work with. Guy's real magic was his passion for sharing the sport. He was a regular at the festivals; teaching clinics and passing on his wisdom."

    Irvine said, "I am deeply saddened by this loss, yet I will take comfort that I had his friendship, we at Arc'teryx had the opportunity to work with such a rare and wonderful person."

  • Arc'teryx Waterproof-Breathable Materials

    Arc'teryx VP of Design Tom Fayle explains why we use GORE-TEX in the construction of our waterproof shells.

  • Roger Strong Ice Screw Clinic

    Arc'teryx Ambassador Athlete Roger Strong gives the beta on placing a bomber ice screw.

  • Jonathan Siegrist Climbing Lucifer 5.14c

    Arc'teryx athlete Jonathan Siegrist crushes Lucifer 5.14c in the Red River Gorge. Exclusive redpoint footage and interviews with Jonathan.

  • Adam Campbell Trans Rockies Race Report

    On the Seventh Day They Rested


    Click here to read the full story

    "There is an advantage in wisdom won from pain." Aeschylus, 5th C. B.C.

    The loneliness of the long distance runner is a long, overdrawn analogy. I say this because many of my most memorable running experiences include other people. I proposed to my fiancée on a run, I have heard of expected pregnancies, I have shared experiences and views…these runs and shared moments are rehashed over pints and coffees. The truth is, if I want to hang with most of my friends, we usually do it over a ride or run.

    However the Trans Rockies Run was a new experience in many ways. It is a 6-day, 113-mile stage race through the Colorado Rockies and you run it with a teammate. The race brought together some of the top trail and mountain runners from North America for a fully supported, fantastically run event in beautiful scenery. It also includes many recreational athletes looking to enjoy common experiences and to test their bodies in stunning surroundings.

    The production behind the event is world class. The over 300 participants all stayed together in a moving tent city. The point-to-point races would leave the "village" every morning to tackle the single-track and mountain roads between Buena Vista & Beaver Creek, through the heart of the White River and San Isabel National Forests, with nearly 25,000 feet of elevation gain, reaching altitudes of over 12,500 ft.

    While the athletes were out tackling the trails, the event team cleared camp and rebuilt the village from the night before at the finishing location. With gear bags, tents, showers and food waiting, the racers could spend the rest of the afternoon and evening trading stories, healing wounds and recovering in preparation for the next day's run.

    There is something a little strange about camping with 300 other athletes. Other than the lack of personal space and connection with nature, the cacophony of tent zippers as well hydrated athletes tried to PCPO "pee clear, pee often" became almost comical at nights. It just adds to the unique nature of the event.

    With the team aspect of the event, choosing a teammate whose temperament and skill set is similar to yours is critical. As the race unfolded and fatigue levels mounted, it was interested to watch some teams begin to implode. With minor issues quickly escalating into fully blown trail tantrums. Teammates who started the week laughing and being seemingly joined at the hip would move further and further apart, trying to put as much space as possible between themselves in the meal tent every night. This whole racing together concept is quite novel to almost all of us runners.

    My partner, Aaron Heidt of Vernon and I really lucked out. We only really knew each other by reputation prior to the race. We agreed to race together following the Vancouver marathon in May and kept in weekly email correspondence over the next 3 months. We kept each other accountable by sending our weekly mileage and training volumes to each other. I think we both developed a bit of a silent competition, trying to one up each other in weekly totals. We became virtual training partners, but we were still a bit blind as to how our running styles and personalities would mesh.

    As August 23rd approached, I moved down to Colorado to begin acclimating and Aaron moved up to Silverstar Mountain. We both knew that we were fit and ready to roll. When we finally met up in Buena Vista Colorado, I knew almost instantly that we would be fine personality wise. We share very similar running goals, both wanting to explore our personal limits and seemed to share similar life views and outside interests as well.

    To read the FULL REPORT and to view a selection of images from the event, download the PDF here

  • 2009 Canadian Pumari Chhish East Expedition

    In the summer of