Mike Doyle's Rants&Raves

So yesterday, for the first time in my 20+ years of climbing, I saw a climbing sling break during the stopping of a lead fall. Ok. I didn’t so much ‘see’ the sling break as I did ‘feel’ it because I was the person who was climbing. I have actually broken two biners before climbing due to kicking or twisting them and getting the nose notch caught in the bolt but this was the first I have ever heard of a sling breaking.

I was trying a route called Don’t Call Me Coach, a name I particularly appreciate, at the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona. I have tried the route a few times this winter but not too seriously and since coming back from Costa Rica I thought it would be a good change to build up my callouses and fitness. Yesterday I made my way up into the crux and decided to skip a draw in the middle of the crux. As I was exiting the crux I had my right hand in a mono and all I had to do was reach for a really large hueco hold. I actually didn’t feel tired or nervous but couldn’t figure out what to do with my feet and as I reached up my foot slipped and I was airborne. When I fell my waist was probably 12-15′ above the last clipped bolt but I was 60-65′ in the air so not a big deal. As I was falling I was waiting for a nice soft catch and looking at the wall to brace myself as I swung in. I felt the rope start to grab me and then there was a very quick and violent snap of the rope that actually threw my head forward. I heard my belayer yelling and from the sound of her voice I knew something was wrong and immediately sensed that the issue wasn’t with my belayer but above me. I didn’t know what had happened. I have broken biners in the past so thought maybe that had happened, or I broke the bolt or actually broke some rock and so I looked up expecting something to come down and hit me. What I didn’t expect was to see a lone biner spinning down the rope towards me (reminded of vertical limit somehow). It was then that I looked up and saw that the sling had snapped. Once I realized I was ok I looked around and was only about 10′ off the ground but safe. My head hurt a bit from hitting the rope but other than that I was fine. My belayer was actually worse off. When the sling snapped we both fell down and she really wasn’t expecting it and landed on, or hit, her ankle hard. It was both of us hitting the end of the rope that snapped me forward.

Fortunately we were both ok and it could have been a lot worse. Here’s the thing though: I consider myself quite a cautious climber. I inspect and replace gear quite regularly and am always leery when I see people put blind trust in their equipment, whether it’s slings, draws or even bolts. I had actually inspected these draws fairly recently but what I didn’t notice was some very minor abrasion and I’m assuming a long, long time in the sun.

Here’s two photos of the sling.

 

 

 

Now fortunately Kolin Powick and the Black Diamond QA crew have done a pretty good job over the years testing new and used gear. Kolin was also quick to comment on my facebook post that he thought it was because I was fat. Hey, he’s at home while his wife is out crushing so I expect him to be trolling facebook .  Actually Kolin pointed out that he thought the gear was 5-6 years old which is WAY too long for any webbing to be hanging in the sun. Here’s a link to the BD site and in particular an article about used slings&webbing. Some of the results are pretty scary. Lately a lot has been made about how carabiners wear down but that damage is usually easily detected (as long as you look for it). What surprised me was that I couldn’t actually see much damage and I guess some of the slings the BD crew tested ‘looked’ ok but rated significantly lower than newer gear. One thing I did notice and will incorporate into my inspections is that the biner was discoloured by the sun. The discolouration won’t do anything to the strength of the biner but would be a good indication of the sun damage on the sling. Personally I’ve never liked the spectra slings and I don’t like the trend towards skinny draws. I understand they have their place in the alpine and on long routes but for sport climbing I want burly gear that can take repeated abuse. I’ve heard in the past that spectra doesn’t last as well in the UV and I think that contributed to this breakage but I’m not sure.

I don’t blame anyone for what happened. The gear on the climb wasn’t mine but that doesn’t change the fact that it is my responsibility, and the responsibility of each climber, to inspect and make sure the gear you are climbing on is safe. This isn’t just for fixed gear but belay devices, partners harnesses etc… I was lucky I wasn’t 10′ closer to the ground (I probably wouldn’t skip a draw closer to the ground) and was unscathed. Fixed gear is a convenience but a convenience that must be maintained by each and every climber in the community. Be safe out there people.

Posted on February 18th, 2013 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Anyone who follows climbing news has been getting bombarded with news out of the Red River Gorge this fall. It’s not surprising given the calibre of climbers that are out there; Ashima Shirashi, Melissa LaNeve, Chelsea Rude, Adam Ondra, Jon Cardwell, Daniel Woods, Cedric Lachat, Nick Duttle… the list goes on and on. What I am surprised about is the fact that people are actually finally discussing grades. For years it was almost taboo. I wrote a long rant on grades a few years ago and I’m glad to see people are finally at least discussing grades.

Now I actually do think that different people’s opinions should matter more but I also don’t think that when you’re on-sighting a route that you necessarily have the best perspective. That being said, you can’t exactly argue with a guy like Ondra who has onsighted or flashed more hard routes than anyone else.

However the reason for this post is not because of the amazing news coming out of the RRG but to discuss something a little closer to Vegas. This past weekend I was able to achieve one of my goals for the fall and redpoint ‘Golden Direct’ up at Cathedral in Southern Utah. This route was first redpointed by Joe Kinder and given the grade of 14d, a grade that I have never climbed and may never climb. Joe gave it 14d after climbing quite a few 14c routes and having tried ‘Kryptonite’ a 14d route in Colorado. I’m actually not sure how many people have climbed the direct but I have only heard that Ben Spannuth downgraded it to 14c.

As a bit of a background ‘Golden Direct’ adds a 10-12 moves into ‘Golden’ (14b). The intro moves on their own are probably 13b/c up to a decent rest. Golden is 13a to a no-hands rest then 4-5 moves to the same rest. The direct is definitely harder to that rest so then the question is ‘how well can you rest before continuing up Golden?’.

Personally I can rest pretty well and I’ve been working on my fitness for the last month or so. Honestly the upper crux on Golden is still the hardest moves on the route and they felt only slightly harder on the direct. However, if you can’t rest well, if that isn’t your strength, then I can see how the upper boulder problem would seem a lot harder on the direct vs on the regular ‘Golden’. Just like I am not a strong or tall climber. If a route contains a single hard move or a reachy move then I would deem it to be a lot harder than one that suits me of the similar grade.

From the rest where the two routes converge to the top is some of the most fun climbing I have ever done. It also suited me very, very well. Each move I felt I could get into almost perfect body position and barely had to pull hard with my arms. I even think I fit the two poor rests that lead you to the upper boulder problem. Those two poor rests allowed me to shake out my arms and lower my heartrate so by the time I was at the upper boulder problem I didn’t feel too much different between the two routes. I was definitely breathing harder on the direct but the holds still felt ok and I felt like I could still engage my forearms and bear down on the crux holds.

I think ‘Golden’ was 14b, soft in the grade but still in that range. This makes me think that ‘Golden Direct’, while harder might not be worth that exponential jump in grades to a higher grade. I recognize that it suits me perfectly so I don’t expect people to agree with me but hey, that’s my opinion .

So if two people have different opinions whose opinion matters more? Believe it or not I fully agree that my opinion is not as relevant as someone who is a more ‘average’ climber. By ‘average’ I mean average height, average strengths, average fitness for a specific grade. My strengths and weaknesses are very glaring and my height is outside the bell curve. I actually think Joe gave an honest opinion of what the route felt like to him based on his experience and how he was climbing at the time. Do I think the route should be immediately downgraded to what I think it is? No, of course not. I upgraded ‘Dogleg’ in the RRG to 14b and Jens from 8a went in and changed it because he said I was making a mockery of his site. Well, I gave a ‘personal’ grade. Only ‘Dogleg’ and ‘Lucifer’ took me more than 3 days to do. Do I think it should be 14b in the guide book? Heck no. I still have an opinion but I also recognize why my opinion may not line up with other climbers. That being said I still think everyone should state their opinion and be able to back up why they think so.

I also think that part of the reason why I find routes at places like the RRG ‘soft’ is because of where I grew up climbing. Grades in Squamish and Smith Rock are considered hard nowadays but in reality they should be considered the standard. In those two areas it doesn’t help to be short so perhaps my individual perception of what 13a or 14a feels like would be different then someone who is 5’10″ with the same climbing experience as me.

So, if you’re still reading, the point is why do Joe and I have different grades on the same route? The route suited me perfectly. Seriously, every move and rest. I mean no disrespect to Joe and while I could’ve just taken the grade I’m not like that. I’ve been climbing for too damn long to believe that just because a route suits me I should take the higher grade. I can’t tell you how the route felt to him, I can only express how it felt to me. Basically just be honest with what a route felt like to you. Anyone who has climbed for a few years should know that grades are all over the map. Don’t get upset when you get on a route that feels hard for the grade and don’t get excited when you climb a route that is rated hard but felt easy to you.

On another note: I downgraded most of those routes in the RRG years ago and Lucifer hasn’t been downgraded yet (oops, apparently Adam Taylor thinks 14b) HaHa! Maybe everyone should just listen to me when it comes to grades .

Posted on November 5th, 2012 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Rant | 6 Comments »

This past weekend I participated in another Lead World Cup in Atlanta. GA. Earlier this year when I had heard that there would be another lead world cup in North America I was pretty excited and planned out a hard, ambitious training schedule hoping to improve on my results from last year. Unfortunately it was not to be…

The host climbing gym in Atlanta, GA was Stone Summit, a simply massive climbing gym that claims to be the largest climbing gym in the United States and after being there I can’t dispute that claim. It’s HUGE! Honestly, it was almost too big for a World Cup. The routes were so long that it was hard to set them to be exciting for the crowd. This is not a critique of the routesetting crew. They picked some amazing lines and used lots of great features but in order to get the climbers to the top of the wall you were looking at 65+ moves in a route. Quite a  few women timed out in qualifiers and I’m sure there were more that pretty close.

As many of you know I broke my collarbone in early May. I was hoping that it would only be a 6 week recovery time but when the doctor pushed it to three months I was pretty discouraged. It took me a few weeks to feel comfortable pushing it and I started trying to train hard around mid-August. This left me with 6 weeks of training leading up to the World Cup. I tried to stay focused and honestly felt pretty strong going into the competition but I knew my fitness wasn’t there. I contemplated not going, just backing out but I wanted to go see friends and figured I might as well give it a whirl.

As is the new standard in the world cups the qualifiers consist of two routes, both flash format. The first route looked really good and watching the climbers on it I was excited by the number of rests. The bottom looked pretty casual with the first crux at about 25′. Then a few hard moves and another rest before moving left and up to a lip. I got up to the rest before going left and felt pretty good. I made a small mistake clipping a draw from a smaller hold and then rushed a few moves. I tried to move quickly to a hold that I thought was good but it wasn’t and I ended up falling. I was still happy with how high I got and quickly started focusing on the second route. As I was getting some water and stretching Sean came up to me and congratulated me for getting to the top of the route. Apparently they had entered my result incorrectly and for a few hours it showed that I had topped the route. Of course the other competitors saw that and had it reviewed but hey, for a few moments I had topped a route in a world cup. Woohoo!!

The second route looked harder to me. In fact there was a move over the lip that is known weakness of mine. I’m just not that strong of flexible so having to use only one leg and one arm to rock up and over a lip is always hard for me. I went into the bouldering area and practiced the move a bit, trying to get the timing and technique right. This particular move was shutting down a few climbers and I was worried about it. The moves leading up to it didn’t look too bad and I thought I might be able to get a rest there. Sure enough, I got up there and managed a few quick shakes before launching into the move. I pulled hard, it didn’t work so I backed off and tried to figure out a different sequence. It didn’t work and I fell. Not happy but not upset, pretty much exactly where I expected to fall and at least I didn’t make a mistake.

Of course that wasn’t enough to make semi-finals so Fred Charron, a fellow Canadian, and I went out on the town. Actually we just went to a shooting range and shot some guns, haha. Fred had never shot a gun before and I had done it once 10 years ago in Kentucky. It was actually pretty hilarious. We show up at the range and say we are from Canada, the first thing he says is ‘Welcome to a free country’. Now I was going to argue with him and social freedom, international travel etc.. but he had a gun on his hip. The guy doesn’t have time to give us a lesson but since I had held a gun before he said we were good to go! We unloaded a few rounds on targets and determined we weren’t very good shots so we left and went out for dinner and a few beers. Later in the evening we asked some people where to go for a good beer and were lucky enough to wind up at a bar with an awesome blues band playing. We ended up staying there for a few hours and had a great time.

The next day was semis which we caught the end of and then went downtown to the Atlanta Aquarium. Pretty amazing but never, never, no matter what, DON’T go see the dolphin show. It was horrible. It was a really bad musical and the dolphins were only a small part of it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

We went back to watch finals and managed to get a good seat. The finals routes looked amazing. Both routes took lines up some of the steepest terrain in the gym. Unfortunately as I mentioned before the routes were pretty easy (for the best climbers in the world) and it took awhile for the climbers to get into the interesting climbing. Two guys topped out their finals route (Ramon and Jakob) but Ramon won in a countback to semis while Jain Kim won on the women’s side. Results

That evening was probably the highlight of the weekend. We had dinner with the French national team and played a game called ‘personal’. Basically one person would pose a yes/no question to the table and you had to then go around and people would say how many of the people at the table they thought would answer ‘yes’. Then all the people who would answer yes had to raise their hands. Some of the questions were pretty hilarious and most had to do with embarrassing or awkward situations.

All in all I’m glad I went but I’m not happy with how I climbed in the competition.

Posted on October 3rd, 2012 by Mike Doyle
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On July 25th, 12 weeks after breaking my collarbone, I was cleared to start climbing again. Honestly I was pretty surprised. At the six week mark the doctor looked at an x-ray and said that he saw no visible signs of healing but then all of a sudden I was good to go. The scariest part is that the break looked worse to me in the later x-ray than the newer one.

After 12 weeks of not being able to lift my left arm I was a little hesitant to climb on it. Now, granted, I had climbed a few days post surgery but I tried to take it easy and climb with my elbow below my shoulder. Not the easiest thing to do. For the first six weeks of my recovery I didn’t climb at all but I did try to stay active. At the six week mark when the doctor told me I couldn’t climb for another six weeks I decided to just take a break from pushing myself and have fun. I traveled up to Canada to visit family and friends and tried to focus on work.

Getting the go-ahead to start climbing was both a relief and a bit stressful. I am registered for a World Cup in Atlanta at the end of September. This means I only had three months to try and get into shape. I’m not sure I’ll make it but I started trying. The first two weeks I took it pretty easy, only climbing 1-2 days a week which for me is nothing at all. Then as I started getting more comfortable I started to push it a bit more and start hitting the gym for some training sessions.

Last weekend I actually had a day where I felt like I could push it. To my surprise I redpointed a 13c called ‘Super Dickman’ at ‘The Roost’ area of Mt Charleston. I tried this route a few times last year but always second day on and never really enough to get a good sequence. This year I managed to do it fourth try and I’m happy about that because I felt like I was climbing well last year. To be able to do a route quickly that I didn’t do last year was great. Hopefully I can continue to improve leading up to the World Cup and then use the fitness gained training for that competition to have a nice successful fall!

Here’s a few photos of me working “America’s Most Wanted” at the roost. Thanks Ed!

 

 

Posted on September 1st, 2012 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

History
Roof Ball is a fairly new sport but is growing in popularity and expanding rapidly around the globe. While the exact origins of the sport are unknown, the random rules and strange uniforms worn would lead us to believe that sophisticated and interesting individuals came up with this sport.

Overview
Roof Ball is a game to be played with 2 or more people and involves a roof, a ball and a playing area. A game begins by lining up the players that will be used to determine the sequence of play. The first player ‘serves’ the ball and each player must follow in sequence. Once a player mishandles the ball they are out and must wait for the next game to start. The last player standing gets one point and the first player to five points wins the match.

Playing Arena
Roof Ball is played using the following equiptment:

• a roof with a minimum width of 20′, a slope between 30 and 50 degrees
• a playing surface that stretches at a minimum the length of the roof and at least 10′ back from the edge of the roof.
  

  The players surface to be used during a match.

• a ball that meets the following size specifications; the official diameter as 65.41-68.58 mm (2.575-2.700 inches) and must weigh between 56.0 g and 59.4 g (1.975-2.095 ounces). Okay, it was a tennis ball.

Rules of Play
Serving
The first player in line serves the ball by simply throwing the ball onto the roof. From the moment the ball leaves the servers hand the rules of play are in effect. At each subsequent removal of a player the last remaining player to touch the ball will start the service again.

Playing the Ball
Each player must play in sequence. If the ball is a valid ball when it leaves the roof then it is the responsibility of the next player to continue the play. The player must touch the ball with their feet in the air and get the ball back up onto the roof. If the player ever touches the ground with the ball in their hands they are out. The ball must remain valid until the next player touches it. If the ball is invalid then the last player who touched it is out. In the event that the player hits the ball into the air but it does not touch anything, the player can continue to play the ball as long as when they touch it their feet are off the ground.

An Invalid Ball
A ball is invalid if:

• It does not touch the roof before touching the ground
• It leaves the roof off the side of the roof
• It would not land within the player’s surface. NOTE: If a player touches the ball that would be going out the responsibility is now on that player to keep the ball valid.
• A player touches the ground while touching the ball.
  

  A ball hitting the ground is invalid.

Do-Overs
A play may be restarted if the ball becomes invalid but the play is under dispute. A play may be disputed if:

• A player is blocked from reaching the ball by another player.
• A new rule is created on the fly .
• An invalid ball is called but the ruling is overturned.

Dispute Resolution
All resolutions will be resolved by the following. Any player involved in the match, even if they are out of the current game, may voice an opinion in the dispute. If any player rules in favor of the Do-over then it will be restarted and the offending player will remain in the game.

Ball Playing Technique
While the sole objective is to get the ball back onto the roof by any means possible here are a few tried and true techniques:

• The Swat: Just hit the ball and hope it ends up on the roof.
  

  Dennis Gates showing 'the swat'

• The basketball: Cradle the ball with two hands and release with one.
  

  Nick Greenwell showing the basketball.

• The volleyball: Catch the ball with two hands and push/swat it with two as well.
  

  Ed Kwon showing the proper two hand technique.

• The Frogger: Somehow catch the ball at about waist level with both hands. At the same time lift your legs really, really high and use both hands to thrown the ball back onto the roof. Requires amazing skill, probably ninja genes. One of the saddest moments in my life was when I heard that we had lost the Ed Kwon Froggy photo…
• One handed: If feeling confident, casually grab with one hand and fling it back up.
  

  Ryan Deegan showing the one handed catch and throw.

Getting your opponent to run is key. Also if you can get the ball to bounce very near the edge of the roof (or just miss it completely) it is almost impossible to read for the next player.

Recommended Attire
While normal athletic wear is recommended it has been shown that Roof Ball can be played wearing the following:

• Extremely short shorts
  

  Ed Kwon stealing some style tips from Sebastian and rocking the short shorts.

• Suits
  

  Nick showing how to play with style.

• A dress.
  

  Roof Ball can even be played in a Bridesmaid's dress.

• Too tight of a shirt. Note this may result in the shirt ripping, just sayin’.
  

  Wearing a tight shirt is not recommended.

ENJOY!!!

 

Posted on June 26th, 2012 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »