Climbing

Warning: Adult Language… Eddie Stern interviews comedian and actor Russell Brand about his transformation through yoga. Brand discusses how yoga helps him deal with his sex and substance addiction, and how yoga has changed the tempo of his life. [yt]

If you’re under 25 and keen to climb, join my friends Will Stanhope and Jen Olsen this July over a 5 day vertical extravaganza. Let them help you fall in love with the Rocky Mountians. My

I walked toward the back entrance of Chicago’s Cook County Jail, looking up at a seemingly endless stretch of sky-high chain-link fencing topped with spiraling barbed wire, punctuated by looming guard towers. And I had to admit to myself that yes, I did feel somewhat intimated. And that I couldn’t help wondering whether I’d been naïve to imagine that having a nice college-educated white girl like me teach yoga to a bunch of women locked up inside there was really, in fact, such a bright idea. I met up with Rachael Hudak, my fellow volunteer from the Chicago nonprofit, Yoga for Recovery (YFR), in front of the first checkpoint. Together, we walked up to several uniformed, armed guards manning the back gate. One opened the fencing and let us in. “Oh, you’re here for yoga!” He smiled at us. “Yeah, come on in!” We walked through and found ourselves standing in front of two female guards. As we pulled out our passes and IDs, one of them exclaimed to everyone at once and no one in particular, “I want to take some yoga classes, too!” Her voice sounded playful and half-joking, but also serious. I looked at her and smiled. What I saw in her eyes told me that she really would like to do it. “We’d love to have you sometime,” I replied. Rachael and I moved on to the indoor checkpoint. Showed our IDs and passes again. Placed our coats and car keys in plastic boxes and then onto the conveyor belt for x-ray scanning, just like at an airport. Took turns holding our arms out and getting wanded. Stepped through the metal detector, which seemed to beep every time, no matter what. Shuffled through a set of double doors with a synchronized locking mechanism. And walked down a long, institutional hallway into a huge gym. I spotted a set of black yoga mats neatly laid out in rows at the far end of the room. We walked over to them. Soon, a group of a dozen women dressed in orange jumpsuits came in and was led over to the mat area by a female guard who reminded me of a Chicago street cop. “OK! LISTEN UP!,” the guard boomed. ‘IT’S TIME TO DO YOGA! YOGA IS GREAT FOR INNER PEACE!” We all looked over at her, dutifully paying attention. I was finding the combination of her booming voice and sincere pro-yoga sentiments surprising, charming, and somewhat humorous. “I’M HAPPY THAT YA’LL HAVE A CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING SPIRITUAL!,” she added. And then, after a few personal asides to some of the women (who seemed to like and respect her), she left. So far, none of this was unfolding according to my stereotypes – or fears. But there was no time to think about that. It was time to start class. So I did. And it flowed beautifully. Despite being temporarily distracted by a rather loud group of inmates who came in and assembled at the other end of the gym, our students managed to regroup and maintain focus. It was clear they were serious about this. They wanted to learn some yoga. The end of the class was graced with a sweet, still moment of silence. Then, the women spontaneously broke into applause. There was a quick peppering of comments and questions. “That was great!” “I feel good!” “Will you come back next week?” We assured them that while the teachers rotate, yoga classes will be offered every Thursday. And then the women lined up, got handcuffed, and were escorted out. Soon, the next group of inmates was led in. Rachael taught and I assisted. Once again, the energy was beautiful, and the women clapped at the end of the class. And that was my first experience teaching yoga in Division 4, which holds over 700 women of all security classifications in Chicago’s Cook County Jail. Expect the Unexpected The purpose of telling this story is not to suggest that teaching yoga in settings such as jails is necessarily going to be easy. On the contrary, I’m well aware that my surprisingly smooth experience was facilitated by years of preceding work on the part of the YFR leadership and several dedicated staffers in the jail system. And while I wasn’t involved with YFR when i

All the latest videos can be found here, but here are the top 5 highest rated videos from the past week: Verdon Dreaming: Monique Forestier Climbing Tom et je Ris (5.14a)On The ARk2013 Bouldering World Cup Highlights – KitzbühelMason Earle's FA Of Real Talk (5.13+), Lower Mill CreekThe Journey | Angie Payne In Greenland

Check back throughout the weekend for live coverage from the 2013 Bouldering World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria Men’s Qualifiers – Friday, 4 AM EDT Women’s Qualifiers – Friday, 10 AM EDT Semi-finals – Saturday, 6:30 AM EDT Finals – Saturday, 1:30 PM EDT

Adam Ondra is on a two week bolting trip to Flatanger where he during two weeks hopes to bolt another ten routes out of five are probably in the 9b range. He brought a 150 m static rope and hopes this wil make it possible to bolt from the top using hooks the master the overhang. If I feel in good shape I hope to also make some FAs but the plan is to go back home and train hard and return to Flatanger later this summer. Norway is amazing during the summer and in the cave you can also climb when it rains. I have not been climbing for a week and I am super psyked to rapell down and start projecting new amazing lines.

After a quick visit to Rifle, Colorado to see friends, get some climbing out of the system, and bolt a super bad-ass new line, Colette and I both prepped up for another departure.  It was great returning to the USA and we have now been here for 2 weeks.  The jet-lag is gone, I am still going through a bit of reverse-culture-shock, and noticing lots of little things about our country when compared to the Europe.  I love both completely equal and really get a kick out of being able to compare both EU and US.  Mainly, Europe being so old, traditional and deeply rooted in history compared to the U.S., which is the contrary…  so young, driven, hungry, fast, and equipped to a T.  The only way you can realize these things is to physically compare them and this is through the experience of going there and returning.  I love traveling for this aspect and I have been getting a lot of it lately. Vian on Tombraider 8b Returning to the USA was a headf**k for sure… I mean we just left utter comfort, the best climbing in the world, and something I call “heaven”.  It seemed like the only way to keep things interesting was to bolt a new route and (this summer) check out some new areas.  I had a permit to bolt a line just left of Bad Girls Club so why not?  For what is left in Rifle to bolt anything is REALLY slim pickins’ and I would say it’s now at a point of being TAPPED.  Done, done, and done.  I think this route will be awesome however.  There are two sections of really sh*t rock, but a lot of really good stone with hard bouldery sections and no knee-bars so that’s cool.  It was a lot of fun revisiting Rifle for a few days and we did the Spanish-balls-out style of 4 days on which included bolting two of those days with climbing.  Yeah man.. Andrada style!!!  I did a new 8b+ that Steve Hong put up, which is a REALLY nice route that goes to the top of the Wicked Cave.  The Wicked Cave is where most of the new development is taking place.  After that I bolted a bit more and completed the newest big-bad route we are calling  the “Fat Camp” project and then sent Tombraider an 8b I had never done.  To me this is my form of training.  HA!  When people ask me about training or how to get stronger… I will NOW suggest bolting and climbing together in one day for consecutive days.  YEAH!!!! Brooklyn aka Pumpkin Escobar Jen Venon and her chicks! Time will tell how hard Fat Camp will be but I surely hope in the 9a+ range… fingers crossed.  I want that next level and I need it for my well being. Bolting Fat Camp After our Few days in Rifle (which was straight off of the plane) we headed to Nashville, TN for some Family events like Graduations.  I then got on a plane and headed to my home state of New Hampshire for some sponsor obligations, a meeting with my folks at Eastern Mountain Sports, climbing at Rumney and Cathedral Ledge, and a slideshow and ALL WERE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! This is 100% real. I got to the line in the Nashville airport for some coffee and this dude had a RUTHLESS plumbers crack. I honestly don’t know if the dude was drunk, a freak, or what, but I was the only one who copped a photo. About 8 people behind me insisted that I message the the photo right on the spot so I did. It was all pre-coffee and pretty bonkers. Some people huh???!!!! It feels so good visiting the place that has made you who you are and how it has sculpted your climbing.  Rumney was a pretty nostalgic experience even with all the changes and the amount of people.  The weekends are pretty much nuts and the parking lots are now bigger and always full.  There are new trails to the walls and the crowd is young, psyched climbers.  I like it.  It’s cool to see, but to be honest it’s so different from when Dave Graham, Luke Parady, Tim Kemple and I used to climb there that it’s hard to see it as the same place.  We have now moved on in our climbing lives but, there is still a very

For various reasons I’ve had some free time on my hands the past couple of months, so when Jon Glassberg mentioned to me that he was going to central Washington at the end of April to check out the bouldering at places like Leavenworth, Index and Gold Bar, I jokingly mentioned that I should go with him.  One thing led to another and at the end of April there I was, checking out the bouldering in places like Leavenworth, Index and Gold Bar. Leavenworth felt like a bit of a mini-Yosemite with coarse granite boulders lining the two river canyons leading out of town.  Over on the other side of Steven’s Pass, Index and Gold Bar had a totally different feel due to the differing climate and the finer grained granite.  Access issues have put the main boulders in Gold Bar a healthy 2.5+ mile hike from the parking lot so we never checked those out, but by all accounts they are pretty amazing. Coming shortly after my first visit to Joe’s Valley, the climbing in these Washington areas could not have bee

prAna Ambassador Steph Davis talks the basics of ropes from Indian Creek. Enjoy… [vm] Learn more about Steph at http://www.prana.com/life/ambassadors

so the Internet is abuzz with information, knowledge, new training methods, etc - countless websites/blogs/etc to hit for more ideas. One of the latest ones has been a La Sportiva-sponsored video of Sean McColl's training methods while on the World Cup circuit. See below. Of course, there's new ideas in there and the general concept of the video and it's generating awareness of specific training actions that other climbers do is fantastic. Getting a glimpse into other high level participants activities and methods is only a good thing, even if at the very least it gets you thinking about ways to improve yourself. I'd be willing to bet that you'll have seen people out there trying various methods they've seen in videos or on the 'net. I've done it myself! The positive aspect of these is I find that they are great stimulants, sometimes (or often) giving motivation to keep progressing, staying open to new ideas. It even stimulates the mind to keep making small steps in progress. But