Climbing/Slacklining at the 2008 Shootout

Prezwoodz

Here is where you can ask questions or make plans with other dgrinner climbers to get together and supplement the photography activities during the 2008 SmugMug/Dgrin Shootout in Moab, UT October 8-11, 2008.

Prezwoods and Coldclimb wrote:

"You see a cliff and in the middle of the cliff you think you can see a hole. Maybe an opening to a house from long ago perched high above the valley, unreachable. You run home and grab your rope, harness, helmet, and ascender and head back out the cliff. After anchoring to a tree you carefully tie the end of your rope together and rappel down to the hole. Looking inside you see pots, drawings, and a figure sitting against the wall with only bones left to show his soul. You are the first to see it in possibly hundreds of years and most definitely the first ever to photograph. You take your pictures, document your discovery and ascend the rope back to safety. Now you have to decide who to send your photos to!"

Climbing is a sport which has always seemed exclusive to those who don't normally participate yet climbing is open to everyone wanting to try. We will try and get everyone involved who is able and willing to scale ropes, rocks, and sometimes a mixture of both. Taking photos while climbing takes a certain finesse that is difficult and often dangerous to learn on ones own but with the help of John and I we will get everyone above the action where the world of the climbing butt shot is no more! There will be a lesson on climbing and belaying before anyone is able to get on the rock. This should only take an hour or so but the learning will go on throughout the day. The equipment required for climbing can be rented in Moab and we should be able to get sizes and have them picked up and ready to go. Anyone who wishes to buy their own equipment but is unsure of what to get here is a small list: Harness, helmet, climbing shoes, locking caribiner, belay device (ATC). Its a small list and with sales and returns at outdoor shops shouldn't cost to much if you wish to outfit yourself for a lifetime of fun!

Slacklining and Highlining are essentially the same but can seem as a whole different animal. Slacklining is walking a piece of 1 inch tubular climbing webbing close to the ground. It becomes a highline when you add altitude, as an example the current highest Highline is to the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite and is 1000ft off the deck. We will not be that high. We will setup slacklines which anyone who would like to try walking them low and then we will be setting up atleast one highline that anyone willing can walk. We do set up highlines to be completely redundant with the highest safety measures. When Highlines are being walked the opportunity for great photos is limited only by your imagination. The great part about knowing your way around with a rope is instead of being on a plane of horizontal you have added a vertical element to your photo's. Get below or above the action!

There are ways to prepare ahead for anyone who would like to. We can help direct you to setting up a slackline or most places will have a local climbing gym offering classes on how to belay and / or climb. Almost all gyms also have rentals.

Although I have talked a lot about the climbing and highlining aspect I know that at heart we are all photographers and the idea of learning these new type of techniques is to have an increased advantage at getting your perfect shot. If there are any question please feel free to fire away!

Prezwoodz and Coldclimb

INterested:

Aaron - anwmn1
Andrew - greenpea +1
April - aktse
Chris - the godfather
Clifford Whitmore- CliffW
Cuong Nguyen
David - devbobo
Erik - DoctorIt
Joel - kdog
Leah Peasley
Matthew - mANVIL
Nick - Gluwater
Nikolai - Nikolai
Stephanie - schmoo
Teresa T- ttorres33
Tony - Leaforte
Travis - zweiblumen



There is another thing I forgot to add So here it is:

One of our main focus points will be anchoring and rigging. This is probably the most important aspect of climbing outside of just being willing to head up the wall. We will show you how to setup anchors, the safety points, directionals, and slackline rigging. To be able to go up on one rope and have another rope you use as a directional can be an intricate setup. Hopefully we can give a good idea of how to do that safely and effectively!

Yup were here for any questions! Although we better not have to twist any arms to get anyone to join! :wink

I am really excited about this opportunity and I am hoping that some others are as well.

Haha Okay Andy posted a subtle message about this thread being worthless without Pics....So Heres A picspasm of pictures along the lines of what we will be doing!

This picture is from the Fisher Towers in the Moab area. Great for climbing and the features are incredible for photography! This is called the Cobra.


See the squiggly little peak on the right that looks like a crooked line? Thats a climbing route that we may possibly be able to do.


And heres John on it. This is 300ft up.


Theres plenty inbetween that 300ft route and the ground though and that would be a difficult route we may be able to do on say the last day. But for highlining and slacklnining heres some of Johns pictures from the area.



Plenty of room for photogs and onlookers


Sometimes the best thing to do is just sit for a sec and breath it all in.


Oh and some rope jugging...


If that doesn't salivate...well I just don't know what will!

ian408

just don't tell them about the thousand foot drop and I think we'll be OK

schmoo

No worries, Kelsey and John. If I can make it to Moab fer real, I'm SO IN for the climbing.

gluwater

I call the first shot of Andy Highlining with a cig in one hand and O'Douls in the other!

Prezwoodz

schmooo wrote:

No worries, Kelsey and John. If I can make it to Moab fer real, I'm SO IN for the climbing.

Great to hear Schmoo! I was just going to reply to the other thread and say I hope to see you there!!

Prezwoodz

gluwater wrote:

I call the first shot of Andy Highlining with a cig in one hand and O'Douls in the other!

Thats not entirely an impossiblity. Wouldn't ever count on seeing that beer again on the fall though heh.

(one of Johns pics)
http://www.morffed.com/image.php?action=image&dir=2006&image=slack02.jpg

coldclimb

Prezwoodz wrote:

Thats not entirely an impossiblity. Wouldn't ever count on seeing that beer again on the fall though heh.

(one of Johns pics)
http://www.morffed.com/image.php?action=image&dir=2006&image=slack02.jpg

Hehehe... somewhere I actually have a photo of my buddy Larry walking a highline with an open beer in one hand. I do believe it's stuck on a hard drive I had die on me last year though, so I can't access it until I manage to get that recovered.

So yes, that is possible. I'm stoked, can't wait for this trip to go down!

z_28

Prezwoodz wrote:

Thats not entirely an impossiblity. Wouldn't ever count on seeing that beer again on the fall though heh.

(one of Johns pics)
http://www.morffed.com/image.php?action=image&dir=2006&image=slack02.jpg

Finally great sport for me
Can I sign in too ?
Now I see right place for me - beer in hand and there is cozy bench,
you need good anchoring weight, wouldn't you ?

Prezwoodz

Sure, you can definitely join us!

Hope to see you there!

schmoo

I forgot to formally mention... I'm IN!

Now don't laugh at what a clumsy wimp I am. :hide

Prezwoodz

Yay! Glad to hear your in schmoo! Don't worry you wont feel like a clumbsy wimp - we'll be happy to share our knowledge!

Nikolai

I will give it a try, but I must tell ya - I'm clumzy...

Andy

Prezwoodz

Andy wrote:

hehe I swear its like hes trying to tell me something!

I added some pictures to my first reply of this post. I'll keep some more coming too!


Nikolai Great to hear you'll be joining us!

schmoo

Andy wrote:

Now that I've seen the pics, I think I'm puckering at about f/64.....

(I'm still game, though!)

wxwax

schmooo wrote:

Now that I've seen the pics, I think I'm puckering at about f/64.....

wxwax

Dayum!

Prezwoodz

schmooo wrote:

Now that I've seen the pics, I think I'm puckering at about f/64.....

(I'm still game, though!)

Great! I did put up some pictures which show the scarier side of the area. There are many other things we will be doing which wont be nearly as scary! And we wouldn't ever think of throwing anyone right into those things.

This is about the height we would start at.


Not to scary there huh!

wholenewlight

Kelsey,

I've just spent more than an hour on your smugsite. Amazing. Fantastic photography and your accompanying stories . . . almost spiritual in your relationship to the world around us.

Loved the Eiger, Dolomites, and Malta accounts & shots!

Prezwoodz

wholenewlight wrote:

Kelsey,

I've just spent more than an hour on your smugsite. Amazing. Fantastic photography and your accompanying stories . . . almost spiritual in your relationship to the world around us.

Loved the Eiger, Dolomites, and Malta accounts & shots!

Wow thanks a lot I am very happy that my photo's and writings can be brought to everyone. Thanks for reading!

Kelsey

coldclimb

Hehehe, man I get excited every time I look at pics of highlining. For those who are interested, I have a gallery here of all my good shots from the Moab Slackfest 2006, last November if I recall correctly: http://morffed.com/climb/Moab06

Also some shots from Boulder, CO in there too.

One favorite is this one. Dylan, on the right, has just successfully walked the long "Dog Hole" line at Gemini bridges in both directions, and is the first person in the world to do so during one rigging of the line. Feelings were pretty strong at the moment and I tried to capture that and failed really, but you can get a small glimpse of the incredible emotions of successfully completing a project that you've put so much into. The shorter line in some of these pictures is off in the distance, where you can see the people gathered.




Highlining is a small part physical and perhaps more than 100 percent mental, somehow. You've got to break the barriers your mind places on you in order to take those first steps. Once you manage that, and you walk all the way across a highline, and after the exhilarating dancing and screaming ritual subsides.... you can do anything.

And of course, as Kelsey says, there's plenty of room for people to come simply to shoot pictures. All of the photos I have of highlining were taken with a Fuji F700 point and shoot, and I'm excited to see what people will do with the higher end equipment that we will have this time!

Here's some more eye candy of Dylan working the line, prior to the photo above. He put a TON of energy and heart into completing the walk, and everybody knew it. There was almost an unspoken feeling that the line was HIS this year, and everybody was rooting for him.












Keep in mind that you folks won't be limited in your angles either. With the techniques we'll show you, you'll be able to rappel and shoot from ropes, or the bottoms of the canyons we play in, and then get back out again too!

Sometime in the next few days I'll write up a tutorial for those of you who may want to walk the highlines, so you'll be able to get your own equipment and rig a slackline in your backyard, and learn to walk before the event goes down. It's amazing fun, for sure!

anwmn1

This sounds very cool and will be looking forward to trying it during the shootout!

Prezwoodz

Great post John and sounds great that you'll be adding a tutorial! thats awesome.

anwmn1 wrote:

This sounds very cool and will be looking forward to trying it during the shootout!

Were glad to have you join us! Hope everyones getting excited as we already are.....and only a year left hehe. Lots of planning and practice room!

ttorres33

Climbing!
I'm in. This looks great!

Teresa

schmoo

ttorres33 wrote:

I just signed up for the climbing. This looks great!

Teresa

Woot! It's going to be a great group!

gluwater

I'm in! I better start getting in shape now.

Prezwoodz

Alright the groups growing! Awesome. I am super excited!

gluwater

I'm pretty excited also. You two have been high up on my favorite dgrin photogs list for a long time. Any advice on how to "train" for something like this?

Prezwoodz

gluwater wrote:

I'm pretty excited also. You two have been high up on my favorite dgrin photogs list for a long time. Any advice on how to "train" for something like this?

Thanks for the awesome compliment! Dgrin is my favorite photo site all the people here are so incredible.

Actually yes there is definitely ways to train! I'll try and get a Climbing training tutorial together about things to train for and I think John is working on a slackline tutorial to tell how to cheaply and effectivley set on up in your own yard. Can't walk a highline all the way across if you can't do it low first.

So hopefully we will get those to you soon!

DoctorIt

I've added a list at the beginning of the thread for all those interested... at the moment, we have 17 dgrinners (+ Kelsey and John) interested in ditching the shooting for some more adventure!

Prezwoodz

So, while John and I work on some helpful things that will be beneficial for this friendly gathering I was wondering what everyone would like to get out of it? What is it that you would like to be able to do? What is it that interests you most?