Today I read an article on UsaToday.com about the importance of “playing” during these difficult and stressful financial times. The author, Janice Lloyd, spends time reviewing Stuart Brown’s new book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul. ( See the article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-23-play-stress_N.htm)

Stuart Brown is a proponent of making sure that everyone, adults especially, take time to “play” and do things that are enjoyable and invigorating for them. Without doing this, it doesn’t just lead to boredom, but rather depression and discontentment.

Getting away from cell phones and computers and enjoying the outdoors is the best way to do this. Of course, leisure activities such as video game playing is still relaxing, but until you take action to get away from all things that can distract you, you won’t truly be refreshed.

I often find that when I get away from all the daily responsibilities and demands of running my company, I come back with a renewed vision and determination for Ascent Adventure Consultants success. Often, it can be easy to think, “There’s no way that I can get away….I will miss opportunities.” However, the opposite is true. If you don’t get away every once in a while, you will miss opportunities because you will get burnt out and discouraged.

This coincides with some of the postings we have done last year: Escaping the Normal Routine of Life

Visit our website today to: Take time to play and enjoy life! We only get one life…so make the most of it! Climb some cliffs, hike some mountains, or whatever else you may enjoy!

This is amazing: 5.14a Trad Route

I would love to know how he mentally trained to climb this. Too bad there isn’t climbing like this in North Carolina!

I have had several people ask me over the past few years what exactly I do when climbing chimneys on multipitch routes, in order to carry a pack up with food, water, approach shoes, etc, since climbing a chimney with a pack is so difficult!

I just wanted to give my quick advice. The leader never carries a pack, but always the second. And instead of carrying it on their back through the chimneys, we simply use a tagline. I prefer to use a piece of webbing, and then just hang the pack from the harness of the second and then it can be pulled up through the chimney. Just a quick piece of advice!

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One of the biggest problems that new trad climbers face is being overburdened with gear on long multipitch climbs. Standing at the base of a climb, it can be so tempting to say, “Well…I might need that cam, and this hex, those 3 sets of nuts, 15 quickdraws…”, well you get the picture. I know that I personally ran into those problems all the time. One of my first long multipitch routes was Solar Slab in Red Rock Canyon NV. (Here’s someone’s trip report: Solar Slab.) I equated many pitches with lots of gear. I carried 2 full sets of cams, 2 full sets of nuts, a full set of hexes, 10 non locking carabiners, 10 locking carabiners, a nut tool, 12 quickdraws, slings in mass quantities, a chalk bag, and filled my pockets with food. Needless to say, I got burnt out and didn’t top out!

Many years later, I have learned from these mistakes and have learned how to streamline the process of choosing the right gear for the right climb. Over the next few weeks, I will post some thoughts and tips on these things.

• Read the route description and topos thoroughly. Often you can read about features such as “Hand Cracks”, “Off-Widths”, “Chimneys”, and “Thin Seams”. You can learn about directions, such as “Traverse”, “Pull the roof”, or “Hanging Belay”. Tips like these can help you learn what gear to bring. If a climb says that it is a hand crack, followed by a 25 foot traverse to the right, before a hanging belay on bolts, chances are you will not need small cams for that pitch…since it is a handcrack. You also most likely won’t need small stoppers, so just bring larger stoppers. You may need to double up on medium to large cams, and leave the smaller ones behind. You will need some slings to extend your pieces for the traverse. And you will need a cordellete or slings for the hanging belay, with 3 non locking carabiners and 2 locking carabiners. Your partner can bring up the gear that you didn’t carry, in case it will be needed for the next pitch. Hopefully you catch my drift. Study the route.

To me personally, Yoga is one of my new found favorite rock climbing training activities. I have noticed significant core strength and balance improvements from it. Here is a great sequence from the Yoga for Rock Climbing Blog. If you aren’t familiar with Yoga, you can look up how to do these poses by going to the Yoga for Rock Climbing Blog and simply highlighting the names of the poses listed below. It will show you a picture. Or just search on Google and you will find numerous sites that list these poses.

Strength-Building Asana Sequence for Climbers:

1) Down Dog

2) Warrior I — press the palms together and take the gaze upwards 5 breaths.

3) Release the arms behind the back, interlace the fingers, lean back, and touch the hands to the back thigh. Lower body remains in Warrior I position here. 5 breaths.

4) Keep the arms and legs as they are, just lean foward and extend the heart out over the front knee. 5 breaths.

5. Keep the legs as they are, release the arms, and then extend the arms forward as if you are reaching out to someone. 5 breaths.

6. Lean into the front leg and slowly stand up right into Warrior III. 10 breaths. Remember to keep this pose active! Extend back through the heel; extend forward through the finger tips. Keep raising that back leg and don’t let anything sag.

7. “Airplane” the arms to the side, and then “barrel roll” into Half-Moon Pose. 10 deep Ujjayi breaths. You may even try to take the bottom hand off the ground and extend that arm forward.

8. Very slowly, lower back into Extended Side-Angle Stretch. The landing here should be light and controlled. Hold Side-Angle for 10 breaths. Again, keep this pose super active. Extend forward through the top arm, and cut the back foot sharply into the mat. Imagine a line of energy extending from the back heel all the way throught he tips of the forward fingers.

9. Now here comes the fun part. 5 rounds of Extended Side-Angle Stretch into Half-Moon, and back again, holding each pose for 2 deep breaths. Remember to move between the poses with lightness and control.

10. End up in Half-Moon. “Barrel roll” back into Warrior III. Just 5 breaths this time.

11. Bring the hands to the floor and come into Standing Split. Hold for 10 breaths. Try to take both hands to the ankle so that your leg is doing all the work in holding you up.

11. From Standing Split, either press up directly into a Handstand or kick up into a Handstand. Alternatively, just come straight back into Chaturanga.

12. Vinyasa. Repeat on the other side.

I’d love to hear your comments on this!

Make sure to sign up for the Ascent Adventure Consultants Newsletter to get more updates like this on a regular basis!

Here is a great testimonial from the Mount Washington 09 Trip

Thanks for everything. It was an amazing experience that will surely change my life forever. The trip let me and my dad see and do things that most people will never do. It was amazing. 

Thanks a Ton!

Patrick Begley

Patrick Begley

The Mount Washington Winter Ascent was a huge success this year (Check out the pictures on our website’s photo page, Flickr Page, Videos on our YouTube Page, and more pictures on our Facebook Page). We had 6 people attend the trip, which was the biggest group we have had so far! Upon arriving in North Conway, the group instantly clicked and I could tell that they were going to have an amazing time together. The feeling was correct! The entire trip, they encouraged each other, motivated each other, and helped each other accomplish the goals set before them of climbing and summitting Mount Washington.

We began the approach to Mount Washington at Pinkham Notch  early Friday morning, at 6:00am. Apparently, it was the coldest and windiest day they had all year on the Mountain. -5 Farenheit, with 80 MPH gusts at the summit. It made it about a -40 degree windchill! We broke trail that day…no one else was in front of us. After a few hours of hiking and climbing, we passed tree line, where the wind slammed us and made conditions almost impassable. The group was actively checking in on each other, making sure that everyone was feeling ok and staying warm. We had an emergency and had to go back down, and most likely wouldn’t have made the summit that day anyways due to the forecast calling for worse weather later in the day. When we returned to Pinkham Notch Lodge, we saw the weather report for Saturday was for partly cloudy skies and slightly warmer weather.

Saturday morning we woke up at 4:00am and headed out to Mount Washington. What a beautiful day! According to the weather observatory, it was “an unusually glorious day” on Mount Washington. Here is a picture so you can see what I mean:

One of the most effective means of training stamina is to perform exercises that do the following:

• Increase Capillary Size
• Increase the Body’s Ability to Remove Lactic Acid from Muscles
• Build aerobic endurance
• Keep off excess body weight

Other than being intentional in sport-specific training (more details on that next week), training with running intervals accomplishes ALL of the above objectives.

Running Intervals

1. Choose a running route that will give you some elevation change (hills)
2. In the beginning, start with 30 minute sessions 4 times per week, eventually turning 2 of those sessions into 1.25 hour sessions. The goal is to really push yourself, so if you start in week 1 with 30 minute sessions, by the end of week 3 you should be pushing yourself to 1 hour sessions, and then 1.25 hour sessions by the end of week 4.
3. Start out your run with a 3 minute jog. Then run hard (at 90 percent of your max) for 5 minutes. Then back to a 3 minute jog, then 5 minutes hard, etc. Repeat this pattern for the duration of your run, allowing for a 5 minute jogging cool down at the end.
4. If you do this for a 10 week period, you will notice incredible climbing performance improvement, as well as increased all around health!

You can read more about this and other running ideas at the Running Blog posting on VO2 Max and Intervals.

We have a YouTube Page!

YouTube – ascentadventure’s Channel.

Hey everybody! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!

Ascent Adventure Consultants has some REALLY exciting things planned for 2009. One of them is the plan for the blog. We will be following a weekly schedule, having each day be dedicated to a different topic. What are those topics, you ask? Here they are:

1. Mondays- Trip Reports
2. Tuesdays- Fitness and Training Tips
3. Wednesdays- Business and Corporate Training Advice
4. Thursday- Climbing Techniques and Tools
5. Friday- Environmental Issues and Advice
6. Saturdays- Miscellaneous Items that We Want to Write About!

So make sure to check back to read what interests you!