Every time I need to add a computer to my wireless printer I can’t for the life of me remember how to do it. So this post is more for myself than anything, but hopefully someone else out there will benefit. This article assumes that you have already connected your wireless printer to your home wireless network.
Go to www.canonusa.com and download the IJ network driver / Network tool. Not the setup utility nor the wireless setup assistant.
Connect the computer to the printer via usb cable
Run the setup program you just downloaded
Select Next
Select “Use it as is” and Next
Unplug the usb cable and Next
The utility will run a connection test to ensure you have enough wireless signal strength to print.
Canon definitely loses points for having one of the worst designed driver download pages. Let’s see:
No support for the back button so I have to repick my OS from the dropdown list every time I want to download an additional driver
Annoying popup window
Doesn’t play nice with Chrome. You get no save confirmation and have to press ctrl-J to bring up your downloads then manually confirm.
So I am sure there are technical limitations for this… but why do I need to connect with a wire to use my wireless printer? I have it all setup in my upstairs office and I need to add my downstairs desktop. That means disconnecting and dragging the printer down to it. Ugh.
I noticed from my web traffic logs that a lot of people were coming across my blog while searching for urbanathlon training tips. My existing articles didn’t really touch on how to train for an urbanathlon so I thought I would write something up for everyone out there. I remember back when I was prepping for the race reading the Men’s Health Training Guide and thinking that it seemed pretty ridiculous. After having actually completed a race I would say the training guide is a cut and paste job. Unless you have an extra hour a day to waste on stretching and weight training then save yourself a lot of time and get some advice from me.
First and foremost this is a foot race. If you want to have a killer time then train like you were going to run a half marathon. That means starting twelve to sixteen weeks out if you aren’t already in good form and focus on running three to four times per week and steadily increasing mileage/pace. I would shoot for being able to run ten miles at your goal pace two weeks before race day. Make sure that you stretch before and after running as well as stay hydrated and eat after running! If you are having trouble increasing your pace then mix in some interval training. I won’t get too into this because there are a million guides to half marathon training already out there. If you do nothing but train for the run and handle the obstacles as they come on race day you will do just fine.
The obstacles are easy. Okay, not easy easy, but relatively speaking they comprise a miniscule part of the overall race. Except for the stair climb each obstacle took me no more than a minute. So even if you are a five minute miler those obstacles will only consist of about 2% of your course time. The most important aspect of the obstacles is to have some foresight into how best to handle the obstacle and to maybe have practiced a little bit on your own. You do not need to go out of your way to train really hard at the obstacles.
The tire stutter step and climb over is easy. Concentrate on landing in the front half of the tire, keep your knees high and stay on your toes. If you step right in the middle and you have big feet like me then your heel may hit the rear of the tire and send you flying. The “monster” truck tires are actually quite small. I stepped up with one high foot and “walked” over them. The last tire actually was large, but you can sit on the edge and swing your legs over. I did not witness anyone having trouble handing them. For me it felt like in the middle of a run I increased my pace 20% for thirty seconds. I really don’t think it is even worth “training” for this obstacle.
Next are the monkey bars and certain people may need to train a little for this. The monkey bars at your local playground may not be the best training arena. The urbanathlon bars are farther apart and quite thick in diameter. Really concentrate on keeping your momentum by swinging your legs. It is most efficient to climb by keeping your arms straight and swinging (like a monkey). If it is raining you may want to consider wearing a set of batting or golf gloves to keep your grip. To practice for this I would find a jungle gym and instead of using the narrow hand rails I would instead use the cross supports. Do a dead hang and focus on using your legs/core to reach out to the other cross support. Then match hands, reverse without coming down and repeat. There are only ten or so bars to handle.
The marine hurdles may pose a difficulty, especially for shorter individuals. They are about five feet high and on the beach. The most efficient way to climb is to place your palms on top, jump straight up into a stiff arm position and swing first one leg over, then the other. Gentlemen… be careful as that other leg comes across. Then hop down and continue. To train for this I would find a chainlink fence and practice jumping up into a stiff arm position. If this is hard for you then pullup/tricep exercises would seem appropriate. Also practice throwing a leg over from this stiff arm position.
The stair climb! Oh how I dreaded and feared it. Turns out it didn’t really matter though. By the time I got to the stairs there was a backup and I ended up slowly walking them. The funny part… I was actually rested after the stair climb because it was so slow. I did get a chance to do a couple full to the top runs and my quads were burning on those. At Soldier’s Field in Chicago the steps are really tiny though. So think about stutter steps to get you up. You get a decent rest on the descent. If you have a race where it is one long set of stairs like NYC then I would do a lot more training for this. Otherwise I think that the running prepares you quite well. If you want extra training just do some hill training. Focus on going fast enough that you really feel the burn in your quads.
Taxi cab hurdle is really more like a crawl over the hood of a car hurdle.
The finishing wall. So I saw a lot of people struggling on this. They have these stupid ass ropes hanging off the wall to “help” you up. I tried one of these ropes post race and I think they hurt you more than they help you. The problem is that the ropes don’t go to the very top of the wall. There is a hole cut in that they run through. Even if you do get up the rope it ends before the top of the wall and you are stuck! Also, the wall has absolutely no traction so you cannot press your feet into the wall easily and work your way up. So the trick is to be able to jump up and grab the top ledge, do a pullup and throw a leg over the edge. For some people that may sound like a lot. This is the only obstacle where I could see training being absolutely required. If you cannot do a pullup then getting over that wall is not going to be easy. Practice jumping up and grabbing the edge of an eight foot ledge. Pull up half way and then throw an arm over the backside of the wall. Finally kick a foot up and over the edge. If you have the strength then do the same thing you do with the marine hurdles and go into a straight arm before swinging your legs over.
Feel free to leave training tips in the comment section!
So after some comments in the forums about my installer having problems I have updated Excel Launcher to use a new installation package (NSIS) and also made it easier to set the location of your Excel installation. NSIS did not support associating Excel files with Excel launcher so you will need to manually associate them using the technique shown at the end of this blog post. Please uninstall any existing version of Excel Launcher before installing this one. Download Excel Launcher 1.1
Abandoned MS Installation package and switched to NSIS to stop bug where every time you opened a file a searching screen appeared.
Running Excel Launcher standalone now prompts you to set your Excel installation location every time and not just the first time
I am a multi-monitor fanatic. If I could afford it I would have three 24″ monitors sitting on my office desk. Of course all this real estate requires good window management and fortunately Microsoft has finally improved theirs with Windows 7. Dragging windows up against the borders of a monitor causes them to fill either half or the whole monitor. This is fantastic for having side-by-side windows for work. You can also use the Windows Key + the arrow keys to quickly move windows across your monitors. Bravo!
But of course one of my most used applications does not support opening files in new processes. Excel. Why?!?! Why oh why must files always open in an existing Excel instance? This happens in other apps like Internet Explorer, but I can rip off the tabs and make them into new windows. Only Excel seems to cage me into this single window paradigm. After some googling I found a lot of people in the same boat and some very unsatisfactory workarounds including:
Modifying the shortcuts for all of your Excel files so that they open in a new instance – I don’t always use the same files so this is out.
Disabling DDE – which is no longer possible on Windows 7 and Vista
Dragging your Excel window to be really big and then using the internal Excel Window management – not good for multimonitor
Always launching a new Excel instance and choosing file -> open -> browse (sigh)
Disappointed, I resolved to manually opening new instances of Excel. But during a restless night it occurred to me – Excel does not open as a new process, but an application launcher could open new instances of Excel. What a fun programming project! I would create my own executable that would be associated with Excel file types -> xls, xlsx, csv, etc. That program would launch Excel and tell it to open the file. Bingo bango boingo we are in business.
So I sat down and within thirty minutes I had working code. I then thought it would be fun to make an installer instead of a dumb exe since there seemed to be so many people looking for this solution. Why not make it easy for them? I wish I had made it easy on myself. Four hours and many google searches later I finally have my program done and created in an installer package. In case anyone is wondering why it took so long I had to account for the fact that I am installing to the Program Files directory. With that comes access restrictions. Then I had to figure out how to read/write/store stuff to the registry. That required error handling. Auto updating research, tray application research, blah, blah blah.
Okay, enough complaining, this is what you are looking for. Download and install Excel Launcher. When you run it the first time it will prompt you for the location of your Excel application. This should be in program files or program files(x86): \microsoft office\officeXX\Excel.exe. Next associate any files that you want to open in a new Excel instance to Excel Launcher. By default XLS, XLSX and CSV files will be associated with Excel Launcher. To associate other files
Right mouse button on an the file -> Open With -> Choose Default Program -> Browse
Navigate to Excel Launcher.exe which should be in your program files directory
Check the box for “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.”
That’s it. Now whenever you open an Excel file it will use Excel Launcher which will create a new Excel process for you each time and open the file. As of now there is no argument passing so if you use arguments they will be ignored. If there is enough interest I may implement this for people in my copious free time.
Some ideas for improvements:
Prompt user to associate common file types when installing
Instead of storing Excel path in registry store it in an xml file in program files directory. This will allow multiple program types to leverage this functionality.
Allow passing of arguments through to Excel
Support DDE? I never really researched this so don’t even know if this is possible.
So recently I switched up from using a VGA cable to an HDMI cable on my HTPC and was greeted with a black border around the screen. No problem, just adjust the video scaling and be done with it yes? Unfortunately no. There are tons of posts by people looking for the solution to this problem and not all answers are effective. ATI certainly must know of this deficiency and with the number of people hooking laptops, htpc and business computers up to lcd tvs these days you would think it would be a priority to fix it.
However this article is for the people who this does not work for or who do not want to install the ATI Catalyst Control Center. I happen to be both types. For me selecting “Configure” on my monitor just brought me back to the ATI Welcome Screen. Awesome.
Before we begin ensure that your TV is configured correctly. On my Samsung LCD TV I had to change the picture type to “Just Fit.” This caused my HDMI underscan problem to become slightly less worse, but did not fix the issue.
To fix your display:
Write down the resolution and display frequency you are running at
On my machine there were five subfolders in this key. Each of these subfolders contained keys named 0000 and 1111. Only one of these subfolders contained a ton of entries while the rest had only six entries. The subfolder with a ton of entries is the folder you want to be working with.
Backupthe 0000 and 1111 keys. Don’t just backup the whole video folder or subfolder.
Select the 0000 folder and search for your tv’s resolution. In my case it was 1920×1080.
There will be multiple entries found in the format Name ResolutionxFrequency. eg:
DALR6 CRT1920x1080x0x59 - I believe this is your VGA connection
DALR6 DFPI 21920x1080x0x59 - this was hdmi for me
Edit the key that matches your resolution AND frequency – change everything to zeroes
There is a corresponding key in the 0001 folder. Change that one also.
Change your monitor resolution and then change it back to 1920×1080 or whatever you are using
The underscan should be gone
I tried to figure out what these keys control, but failed to decipher what the binary representations were. I even wrote a little program to try and convert the key to hex/string/int/decimal/etc with no success. If anyone could provide feedback on this it would be good karma. Logical sense would say it should be a decimal like .01 or an integer like 1 to represent 1%.
I’ve had this post waiting in the wings for weeks and of course just as I am about to post all this crap ATI releases Catalyst 10.6 which appears to have fixed the problem where the welcome screen doesn’t appear. Ugh.
So recently I ran into a problem where editing php files in VS2008 caused the application to die. Usually within a minute of editing the file any click produced a system beep no matter where I clicked. I looked high and low for a modal dialog that could be causing the problem and came up with nothing. Talk about frustrating. The only way out is to end the task with task manager.
Fortunately Matt on Software ran into the same issue and posted a fix. Turns out the problem has to do with the installation of MS Office 2010 beta/rtm. I’m not exactly sure which and don’t really care as long as I can edit my files again!
So a long time ago I promised some more vids of my friends and I climbing. After a long time procrastinating on it I finally put up a post. Gretchen and I got some great video of Dan Chen, Chris Mireault, Corey Phelan, Dan Corbera, Heather Sargent, Ryan Mateyko, Nalumon Michelle and of course yours truly.
Let’s start out with Ryan on a V6 problem that absolutely crushed me and many others. The video doesn’t show the mantle move which defeated so many, but it does show the high flying jump that Ryan nails. Ryan, ever the showman, really takes his time to up the suspense.
One of my favorite problems and one that several of the gang attempted to take down was a seemingly easy problem in the v5 range, but the finish took a brave soul who could throw caution to the wind and reach up and around the side of the stacked cubes. A miss ignaminously launched climbers through the air and crashing to the pads below. The start has some small crimps that can cause your legs to cut and requires some bearish shoulder strength to stay on. A well placed knee bar can give you some respite before heading up a series of compression moves. Dan’s vid will give you an idea of the climb. I love Ryan’s vid because he must have tried this one a half dozen times and every one ended with “fuuuuuuu-dge?”
Here myself, Chris, Ryan and Dan all get crushed by this long “roof” climb. This was certainly a crowd favorite and I eventually got it post comp – oh if I only I had gotten it day of. Incidentally Chris, Ryan and I all finished next to each other in the Advanced standings and Dan Chen won the division. So here are some props Dan… even though you do blow the very last move on this route! Okay, okay. So you went back and got it your very next try. Next year you will be open material though and I will be stealing your title .
Here is Heather on another fan favorite. That little crimp where she almost kicks off has defeated so many people. They just took the problem down, but I’ve been watching people trying to hit that left hand side pull for weeks. She makes it look pretty easy, but that’s the problem with rock climbing. The better you are the easier it looks. Maybe next competition I will get some videos of thirty people crashing and burning on a route and then show someone crushing with ease.
Nalumon and Heather both took a turn on this crazy V4 that requires your feet to literally stick to the wall. The footing is horrendous and I think you can see it on Nalumon’s face at the 38 second marker. You might have to switch it to high def to really get that “woah!” look.
Corey and I working a fun rails problem. The lower section of this problem is pretty awkward. Trying to keep your feet on the rails either via a toe hook or a heel hook then traps you from making the long reaches needed to hit the positive parts of the rails. The finish was super easy for me thanks to awesomeness beta from Ryan. I don’t think he even climbed this one for the comp, but he figured it out anyways. You toe hook around the arete to avoid a slippery peanut hold and its an easy reach to the finish.
An easy problem with the crux being a long reach to a sloper. Fortunately I nailed it on my first try. I tried this one a few weeks later and it took me five trys to hit. I guess I was more on for the comp than I thought I was.
Here is Gretchen filming from directly below me. My incentive to finish without a fall was to not crush my pregnant wife or my new camera. NuSchool Basic 1 students should also take note of the smear foot switch just after I come around the arete (50 seconds in). See! The stuff I teach is useful!
Well the day finally came and twenty six miles later I finally get to lay claim to the title marathoner. The race was another fantastic event with a vibrant crowd, supportive runners and a well organized event staff. Joel cleaned up in the half marathon and Dan beat his best marathon time by about five minutes. I did not run as fast as I had wanted to, but I did have to overcome a cold and a hamstring I pulled while climbing. I even have the injury on video so check it out now.
The race started out well enough. Weather was just the way I like it – mid thirties, no wind and no rain. Since I pulled my hamstring I had only been on a slow three mile and two mile jog in the last two weeks. I hoped that it wouldn’t be factor with sufficient rest even if it meant cutting all training right before the big race. My goal was to run the marathon in under four hours which would require a 9:10 mile. So the big plan was to run the first half at about a 9:15 pace and then increase to a 9:05 pace for the second half. I found it difficult to not go too fast for the first few miles. Everyone seemed to be pumped up and running quickly. I clocked in my first two miles at an 8:40 pace and knew I had to dial it back. My bad hamstring twanged a couple of times so I made sure to take it easier and ensure my bad leg did not become a liability further on in the race.
Dan, Joel and I Ready to Rock
At mile two I saw my fans Gretchen, Brian and Kristyn cheering me on. Kristyn made some killer signs to cheer us on. So awesome of her! Having people along the course keeps your energy up. Then something occurred to me. I was running the full marathon and more than 80% of the runners were going to be gone at the half way point. All their supporters would be gone and I had a feeling it was going to get really quiet. I finished the first half in 1:55 or an 8:50 mile and still felt great. I could not have been more right about the crowd thinning out though. After having to listen to people say “only a few more miles” for all the half marathoners the last three miles the crowd was gone. From here on out it was event staff, police officers and the five or six people I could see around me. It was very peaceful for awhile and at mile 15 I was still going strong at a nine pace. Then a strong headwind came on and the temperature probably dropped ten degrees. Bummer.
Mom, Dad, Aunt Carol and Krystyn's Awesome Sign
At mile 17 I ran into real trouble. Leg cramps and in the worst way. I felt my bad hamstring twinging and then all of a sudden I got three simultaneous muscle cramps. Both quads and my bad hamstring. I turned into Frankenstein and straight legged my way over a nearby fence. Thank goodness it was close or I would have gone over like a tree in a twister. From there on I was plagued by muscle cramps, especially on the uphills. I could only walk uphill or I would turn into Frankenstein again. Fortunately I could still run very slowly. I loaded up on Gatorade at the rest of the water stops, but my time was suffering horribly. After maintaining a sub nine mile for seventeen miles I was having to stop every several hundred yards and stretch/massage my legs. My pace dropped to about a 15 minute mile for the next five miles. Eventually my leg cramps seemed to subside enough that I could run the last three at about an eleven minute mile without having to stop.
Finally the Finish Line!
Overall the race was still a success. If I had to redo things I would have taken it slower in the first half of the race and taken the potassium filled, cramp busting banana that a woman was holding out at mile 14. I thought maybe it was her banana, but I bet if I had taken it she would have let me go. I also have to give a shout out to girl on the trampoline at miles 10 and 23. She was bouncing on this thing with a field hockey stick and vibrantly cheering for at least two hours. Way to be hockey stick girl!
Will I run another marathon? Maybe. The amount of work is ridiculous, but it would be awesome to get back on that horse and run an even better race. I know I can so what’s stopping me!
So I am officially in coast mode. After four months of training (not counting the three months of training for the Urbanathlon) I am finally prepared for the big show. Honestly I wasn’t sure at certain points whether or not I was going to make it. Training for a marathon is hard. Really hard. Way harder than I ever expected. Frankly a half marathon is cake. A walk in the park. I look back at my original marathon training post and think of the crazy goals I set for myself and wonder how I could have thought that was possible. Too much too fast. Eventually those goals would be possible, but I don’t think that four months was realistic at all. I am getting ahead of myself, so let me get you up to speed.
What is so hard? There is this wall at about thirteen miles where I would start to feel tired. By fifteen my quads are burning, my breath is starting to become labored and my form starts to fall apart. Each of these problems reinforces the others until mentally I cannot continue running. For a month each of my long runs hit this wall. I felt defeated. Fifteen is barely over halfway. How was I supposed to go another nine miles?! Fortunately I had an experienced athlete in Dan Corbera to help me out. One cold December morning I drove down to Attleboro for a seventeen mile run with Dan. Previously my longest run had been fifteen and a half. The run started out great and it really helped to have someone to chat with. At the half way point I still felt pretty good. We took a short break at Dans parent’s house and I met his family (who have read my blog!).
The second half started out well, but by that ominous thirteen mile marker the conversation had thinned and it was time to get down to business. True to form at mile fifteen I was really starting to feel it. Fortunately I had Dan to encourage me. Just two more miles, two more miles! I put my head down and trudged on. Keep my breath, keep my form, just – keep – going. Those last two miles were horrendous. I felt terrible. Dan, if you are reading this, the run was actually seventeen and a half miles. That extra half hurt. It made two miles feel interminable! As we coasted into our finish my quads were like jelly. I didn’t even feel like celebrating for finishing. I felt like curling up in a ball and passing out.
My legs were sore for the next three days, however that day was a big break through. I learned a lot from Dan about proper marathon training. Things I wasn’t doing and should have been. For the first time I was eating “gus” while running. These are essentially sugar packets you can eat for energy on the run. Coupled with gatorade I consume about seven hundred calories on a typical long run. I also learned that I needed to eat immediately after exercise to replenish lost calories or my body would burn muscle and the run would be self defeating. I never feel like eating during or after exercise so this probably explained my complete lack of progress from my previous fifteen mile runs.
Since then I have perfected my long run preparation. I eat two dinners the night before. One around six and then a second one around nine or ten. I make sure I eat enough at the second meal that I cause a food induced coma which guarantees a good night of sleep. For breakfast I eat pancakes and waffles with maple syrup. A lot of ‘em! Finally I gu every five miles and make sure I have gatorade for calories while I run. After the run I enjoy yogurt and a PB&J sandwich for some quick sugar calories coupled with some carbs and proteins.
The real part of marathon running is the mental game. My body is constantly asking my brain to just walk for a little bit. Catch my breath and shake out my legs, but my brain can’t listen. I always ask myself – Do I have my breath? Do my legs hurt? If no then there is no excuse for stopping. Just keep those feet moving one after the other. My last long run training session really required some mental toughness. At thirteen miles I was on an 8:45 pace, but I could feel a big blister forming on my left foot. I kept asking myself whether I should head home and call it a day. This was my last chance though. My last big run before I began a rest period for the marathon. I couldn’t quit. At sixteen miles I was still on pace. I pulled my shoe and took a look. Not good. A big blister the size of about a quarter on the inside sole of my foot. Time to quit? No way, time to go. I slowed down to a ten minute mile for the last four miles, but I ran the whole way. This time I did a little sidewalk dance/fist pump to celebrate. Twenty and a half miles in three hours and one minute, just a hair over a nine minute mile.
I’ve set a realistic marathon target of a 9:10 mile which will pull me in at just under four hours. I am ready to rumble. Let’s go Hyannis!
I had been looking forward to the Boston Rock Gym’s Heart of Steel competition since I missed the inaugural event last year. Climbers were talking about it for weeks afterwards and after experiencing the 2010 event firsthand all I have to say is that BRG rocks! The event was very well organized and they gave out more prizes than you could imagine. A shower of t-shirts, chalk bags, water bottles and more were rained down upon competitors. Thousands of dollars of gear were raffled off to contestants and thousands more were ready to be won by the finalists. Props go to my wife Gretchen who somehow managed to jump up and snag me a chalkbag despite being five months pregnant. I am going to schedule another comp in four months and see how much gear she can get me then.
Over one hundred seventy climbers of all ages and skill levels climbed for five hours to turn in the best six climbs they could find. The feeling of the gym was electric. There wasn’t a moment of peace. As soon as one climber was down another was taking their place. Sporadic bursts of encouragement would well from the crowd as climbers worked their way through a crux or fought fatigue as they approached a difficult finish.
I had so much fun that the entire day flew by. I was at the gym for twelve hours, but somehow it only seemed like a little while. After the climbing portion of the show ended BRG kept the party going with the gear give away, raffle, competitive awards and some words from sponsors The North Face and Life Under Sun. Also in attendance were ASA Photographic, Toyota/Scion of Woburn, Evolv, Vegan Treats (I think, sorry I didn’t sample!) and Shandra Campbell who gave me the most amazing post climb arm massage. Today my legs feel like they were run over by a steamroller, but my arms are fine. I really have to hand it to all these groups who supported the event. Thank you so much for contributing to something that brought so much fun and excitement to hundreds of people.
SICK
Taylor de Lench debuted his climbing video SICK which featured tons of New England’s best climbing sites as well as climbers. It was certainly fun to see local climbers that we know and love conquering some badass problems. I have to give it to Taylor for putting something together that wasn’t just climbs, but also a number of clips that showed the climbers’ passion, fun, and excitement of their day to day climbing expeditions. For me the highlight of the video was definitely Aleksey Shuruyev ice climbing behind an enormous icicle and then topping out by moving up onto the face of it. I don’t even know if I can call it an icicle. This block of frozen ice must have weighed hundreds if not thousands of pounds and was tens of feet long. The videography was intense and the mood of the crowd reflected the danger we sensed. Gretchen had her chin on my shoulder and her nails in my back. I certainly felt apprehensive watching a loved member of the BRG community tackling that problem. It looked like this massive thing would break out from under Aleksey and send him flying off into space. So do yourself a favor and check out Taylor’s work.
The Finals
Let’s get to the real fun stuff though. Finals. I have videos of each of the three men and three women who brought their HEARTS OV ZTEEL! There were actually four men who completed all the most difficult routes. Rob and Vasya tied for first and Michael and Zeb tied for second. This required a spontaneous climb off between Michael and Zeb to determine who would attend the finals. A newly set route was improvised and whoever made it the farthest would move on to the finals. The crowd was cheering like crazy as both of them came to the same super hard move. Check out the vid to see who won. All vids are available in HD so go ahead and change the resolution to 720p for some full resolution glory.
The Heart of Steel has an awesome finals system where prize money is actually taped to the wall along routes. Finalists win whatever they grab and whoever grabs the most cash wins whatever cash was missed. This means the top finisher could win up to twelve hundred bucks.
For the first finals problem the women tore it up. All three of them shredded through the largest “bouldering” problem you’ve seen. It was more like three long boulder problems all crammed onto one overhanging wall. Major props to all of them. Check out these vids.
Women’s First Final Route
Sydney McNair was all business as she conquered the first set of finals problems. Cool as a cucumber she took her time and made every move count. She makes it look easy as she hangs out on one arm scoping whats ahead. That is experience and confidence exhibiting itself on the wall and in the face of some stiff competition.
Sasha DiGiulian looked like she was having fun as a big grin skittered across her face after grabbing her first set of cash money. From then on it was all business though. With a fist pump she exited the course after matching Sydney’s performance.
Francesca Metcalf who finished in second place last year brought back her talent and experience for the finals. A crux move that was done dynamically by Sydney and Sasha she handled statically. The women’s finals were shaping up to be one hell of a competition.
Men’s First Final Route
The men brought their “A” game as well and Michael was a fantastic first competitor. His high flying and dynamic moves really got the crowd going. His precisely timed dynos to the gray protrusion and out to the telephone handle were awesome.
Local favorite Vasya Verotnikov who won last year’s competition looked super strong and pulled off the most ridiculous move to shortcut his way through a set of the problem. I guarantee you that the route setters checked this stuff out, but Vasya’s unbelievable talent combined with his tenacity let him crimp off of a finger nail sized chip. After two failed attempts I was honestly thinking he was wasting time and energy. Gavin seemed to agree as he suggested that there may be a path of less resistance. I think that little bit of doubt may have helped give Vasya the mental, “I’ll show you,” he needed to pull it off. His next attempt he nailed it and of course the crowd was eating it up!
Last up was Rob D’Anastasio and he struggled a bit with this problem. He started out by going for the same insane crimp that Vasya had just used. I think this may have been a tactical mistake. At this point in the game there was little room for mistakes. He had already spent so much energy climbing earlier and I think this affected his performance.
The Dark Crystal
Now the FINAL FINAL. This was something big. Something no one had seen before. I think I should let this video speak for itself.
I jumped on the dark crystal post comp and let me tell you. It ain’t easy. The dynamics of the thing are difficult to figure out. Each crank on the crystal sucks the strength out of your hands. Intuitively you would think that a pull down with your hands combined with a pull back on the upswing would get that baby flying, but this was no swingset. Cranking down to get some momentum worked, but if you pulled back on the upswing your feet would push out and kill the momentum. I can’t really explain it, but it takes a tricky set of body movements to get the thing going. I can only imagine what it was like for our finalists to conquer the dark crystal both physically and mentally with so much on the line.
Women vs. The Dark Crystal
Sydney McNair started as cool and strong as she did in the first finals run, but as she worked her way up to the big money she struggled with the dark crystal. After a near fall going for a sloper she managed to tenously grasp it with a few fingers before settling her weight. As the big jug that promised so much needed relief as well as cash approached she ran out of juice.
Sasha DiGiulian started out with another big smile on her face as she grabbed some “easy” money. The dark crystal posed no problem as she scrambled up on top of it and made good use of the positive surface to rest her arms. The last move out to some money looked to stump her briefly, but after flying off the rings she stuck to the wall and claimed her cash.
Francesca Metcalf absolutely destroyed. I would have run out of film if it wasn’t for her stellar climbing. She cruised through the final problem in under four minutes. As it was I only had ninety seconds left at the end of the comp. She placed second according to Gavin’s blog post, but as far as I can tell they both had the same amount of money at the end. I’m not sure how they came up with that, but if you are reading Francesca I think it was a tie! Thanks to an update from the one and only Francesca herself I found out that she did have the same amount of money as Sasha and it was a tie. For future reference let it be known that I am always right =).
Men vs. The Dark Crystal
Michael Bautista did a great job figuring out the Dark Crystal. His technique seemed to be the best and involved a cool scramble across three faces while it spun around.
Vasya Verotnikov powered through the Dark Crystal on his first try. His last move up to the cash was sick. He went from a terrible two handed sloper to a tiny crimp at the very top of the wall. There is practically no foot purchase so he had to rely on a powerful burst coupled with absolute body control to nail that crimper.
Rob D’Anastasio started out strong and worked his way up to the big money, but after snagging the fifty exhaustion appeared to set in. He definitely gets props for going for the big money and the big glory first. He didn’t complete some of the side routes, but it doesn’t matter to me. He made a great showing and hit the hard stuff.
All of the finalists provided an inspirational performance that will elevate this sport. Again I have to thank BRG and all the sponsors for putting on an amazing event and for all the great climbers who were there to spot, encourage and crush. I will have a follow up post with some more videos of my climbs and my friend’s climbs so check back soon!
A hair over three years ago I was introduced to rock climbing by a colleague at SolidWorks and I took to it like a duck to water. Climbing rocks requires a singular focus that shutters out the rest of the world and places you mentally in the now. Combine this mental lock with the double dose of endorphins from pure physical exertion and defying the laws of gravity and it is like a stress bug bomb. I love going to the gym, especially when I have had a bad day, to forget about everything that is going on in my life and focus on the now.
After a year of climbing I found that I wasn’t getting any better. The hard stuff still seemed impossible. I would watch these men and women floating up the wall and just think that they were ungodly strong. Some sort of rare genetic mutation that made their fingers super tacky. That all changed when I decided I needed some lessons. I took the NuSchool Basic 1 and Basic 2 classes. Within six months I went from struggling on 5.10′s to working on 5.11′s. Within a year I was working 5.12′s and had my sights set on ascending a 5.13. The classes changed my world of climbing and I became an evangelist of the lessons they taught. I see so many strong climbers in the gym that just need someone to focus their energy to make them the best they can be.
So I was pleasantly surprised when NuSchool head instructor Dan Alroy asked if I would be interested in teaching. I jumped on board and after shadowing classes for a couple months I started teaching in November. Fortunately the class format closely follows the writing tutoring format I trained for in college and so it felt very natural for me. The goal is to steer students to making their own discoveries. If you tell them they forget, but if you guide them on a self discovering journey then they learn and they appreciate the road they have traveled. From there true knowledge will have set root and will grow long after they have left their teacher behind.
Rock climbing has been a big part of my life for a few years now and this new venture has cemented climbing as a fixture in my life. So without further ado rock climbing now gets its own category on my blog and I hope to keep you updated with all the cool ways climbing touches my life.
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