Links of the Week (12/16/2019)

(inspired by true, but much less glorious, events in my dog’s life)

This just made me smile.

I’ve always been motivated by goals. Evaluating my past experiences and then setting ambitions for the future is one of my favorite aspects of climbing; it’s helped me push through the grades, from sending my first 5.12, Ejector Seat in 2005, to sending Jumbo Love, my first 5.15b, in 2018. Almost every climber has ambitions, but often we simply don’t know how to move forward or at what pace—and so, perhaps, we plateau. Fortunately, there are five simple ways to track your goals and encourage steady progress.

2020 is just around the corner. You know what that means.

The Top 5 Rules for Effective Goal-Setting

We get it: The idea of having too much tech in the backcountry makes a lot of people cringe. After all, we go out there to get off our phones, wean our eyes off screens and literally unplug. But what if we told you there were a handful of battery-operated items that could actually enhance your time at the crag, on the route, or on the approach? Whether your loved one is a first-timer or a seasoned first-ascensionist, these are the tech gifts your favorite climber will want to make their off-the-grid experience even better.

Too much tech? Pssshhh!

Top 2019 Tech Gifts for Climbing

Imagine reading any of the above sentences to yourself 10 years ago. Each of these scenarios would’ve seemed unbelievable in December of 2009. And yet, as we close out the past decade and head into a new one in 2020, together these examples construe a rather accurate rendering of what the sport of climbing has become.

I started climbing in 2004. 15 years has drastically changed how the sport is seen by the public. Climbing movies now are much more than following Timmy O’Neil around in Utah. (Although my favorite climbing moving may still be Return to Sender) This article gives me hope that Climbing isn’t becoming to tainted by the mainstream.

Sex, Death, and a Decade of Climbing in Review | Evening Sends