2/20/07

     Well, another USA Climbing/ABS Nationals has come and gone. As our Southwest airlines flight (that felt more like a five-hour ride on greyhound) taxied to the gate in Baltimore, I observed the passing lumps and patches of ice on the runway and decided to check the weather more carefully when coming to a place like this in early February. It was zero degrees at night, with a slight wind.

     Sometimes I have too many thoughts swirling around in my head to write this. Should I use this blog for good or evil? I don’t know. I was thinking about how funny (but also depressing) it was to watch a really old VHS copy of the 1988 International Invitational at Snowbird, that my friend Tom “Bitter” Helvie popped in his video player, a few weeks ago in Bishop. It was the first major sport-climbing competition held in the US, was broadcasted live on NBC, and announced by a really famous african american announcer that I even recognized — can’t remember his name now. In that comp, the Frenchies came over and showed us Americans what sport-climbing technique really was on the 80-foot, vertical (except a small roof and slab ... and I mean slab, and headwall at the top) wall that was built on the side of the hotel. That was comp climbing’s "15 minutes." I wish that movie were on YouTube. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge, Tom.

     I remember watching Sharma win the bouldering X-Games in San Francisco, under the Bay bridge. It was one of the most awesome things I had ever seen, but ESPN didn’t use a single frame of footage. I remember when all the mag’s would reserve at least a few pages of every issue to comp climbing in the United States and a few to the international scene, and even the regional and local comp results were posted. I remember Sport Climbing Magazine ...