New Routes at Shelf Road
By Mark Anderson With the winter weather finally arriving in Colorado, I headed south to Shelf Road to wrap up a few projects I had bolted several years ago but (almost) forgotten about. Shelf is a really important crag to me. While I had done the odd First Ascent before I started climbing regularly at…
Video: Born On The 4th Of July, 14b
by Mark Anderson Last fall our good friend Chris Alstrin of Mind Frame Cinema came out to The Bunker in Clear Creek Canyon to shoot video of my route Born On The 4th of July, which I opened in May of 2015. Chris posted the video today on the AAC’s Instagram page. You can check…
The Beta
by Mark Anderson Last week I had to upgrade to a new binder for my training records. The old one was full. This is actually my fourth or fifth binder. My first binder was just an old manila folder. The oldest sheet in my binder is a hangboard log for a workout I did in June…
The Anatomy of A Limit Boulder Problem
Limit Bouldering is one of the best ways for rock climbers to train power. When done properly, Limit Bouldering trains max recruitment, contraction speed, core strength and inter-muscular coordination. If that weren’t enough, Limit Bouldering is also highly sport-specific, so the skills developed will translate directly to the rock. The crux of Limit Bouldering is…
The Lazy H Climbing Barn
by Mark Anderson Piggybacking on last week’s post about designing a home wall, here is a quick virtual tour of the Lazy H Climbing Barn. Note that I didn’t go through any logical process when designing it, I just eye-balled everything, and I paid for my impatience with a wall that was too steep. Six…
Functional Core Training
Last summer I bolted a radically steep roof in Clear Creek Canyon. This climb involves approximately 30 feet of horizontal roof climbing–something I’ve never been very good at. I knew I would need to improve my core strength to have a chance at climbing this monstrous roof, so I put together a set of exercises…
Double Stout Video
A few days after my first free ascent of Double Stout I went out with Mike and Janelle to shoot some video. Here is what we came back with. Thanks again to Darren Mabe for envisioning and equipping the line. Thanks to Janelle for patiently belaying and to Mike for filming. Enjoy!
The Original Campus Board
As soon as Kate and I committed to a trip to Germany, I started looking for information on “The Campus Center”, the birthplace (and namesake) of the Campus Board. Legend has it that Wolfgang Gullich was looking for a new way to train explosive power for a new cutting-edge route he was trying in the…
Germany Part IV: Blitzing the Classics
Editor’s Note: This is Part IV in a way-too-many-part series on Mark’s trip to Germany. If you missed Parts I thru III you can check them out here: Part I: Hitting the Wall Part II: Getting Blasted Part III: Chasing Waterfalls Over the next five days we climbed at nine different Frankenjura crags, split by…
