Black Diamond AvaLung II

Via YouTube 5/26/2013 1:24:29 AM

BD athlete Mason Earle has logged countless miles hiking the clifflines of southern Utah looking for undone cracks. The fruits of his labor are a slew of prime first ascents, typically splitter, thin and stout. At Lower Mill Creek outside of Moab, his most recent new route, Real Talk, is one of his best—and one of his boldest. This video is part of our Climbing 2013 digital catalog. Through photos, videos and narrated slideshows, the Climbing 2013 digital catalog highlights first ascents and first free ascents from recent years, as well as the crucial pieces of Black Diamond gear that helped make them a reality. In addition, the digital catalog showcases historical images from past first ascents—chosen by our athletes—that have fueled their own personal FA pursuits. To view the Climbing 2013 digital catalog, click here: catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/

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Via YouTube 5/26/2013 12:55:30 AM

Last summer, Black Diamond athlete Adam Ondra made a highly productive trip to Hanshelleren, a massive granite cave outside the small town of Flatanger, Norway. Adam not only made short work of the cave's established hard routes (including onsighting two routes graded 5.14c/8c+), he made the first ascent of Thor's Hammer (5.15a/9a+) and bolted a futuristic project out the steepest section of the cave. On October 4, Adam managed to link this 55-meter-long beast, establishing Change, the world's first route graded 5.15c/9b+. Along with his recent first ascent of La Dura Dura in Spain, Change stands as one of, if not the hardest route in the world. This is exclusive, never-before seen footage of Adam working and sending Change, which is a teaser from an upcoming film by filmmaker Petr Pavlíček.

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 10:10:18 PM

Black Diamond athletes Daniel Jung and Nico and Olivier Favresse are always on the hunt for first ascents, and their most recent search led them to Norway where they found a stunning, overhanging wall laced with cracks. The trio's FA pursuit involved skin-shredding jams, mega whippers, and daily shenanigans, including scooter jumping and swapping tooth-brushing tips. This is video is part of our Climbing 2013 digital catalog. Through photos, videos and narrated slideshows, the Climbing 2013 digital catalog highlights first ascents and first free ascents from recent years, as well as the crucial pieces of Black Diamond gear that helped make them a reality. In addition, the digital catalog showcases historical images from past first ascents—chosen by our athletes—that have fueled their own personal FA pursuits. To view the Climbing 2013 digital catalog, click here: catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 7:44:06 PM

Living in Nice, France, Black Diamond athlete Kévin Aglaé has no shortage of climbing to choose from—Ceuse, Gorge Du Loup, St. Leger and numerous other world-class crags are within a close drive. So it's no surprise that this 21-year-old crusher, who started climbing when he was 10, has redpointed routes up to 9a, stood atop the podium in the French National Championships and competes on the World Cup circuit. Check out the video profile below as Kevin describes his life as a climber and samples some of the classic routes and futuristic projects of France's old school sport climbing destination, Buoux.

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 7:38:02 PM

Black Diamond athletes Cedar Wright and Kate Rutherford teamed up this past summer for a trip up to the impressive Diamond face on Long's Peak, in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. Situated above 14,000 feet, the Diamond is home to some of the best (and hardest) alpine granite routes in the US, including the striking Ariana (5.12a). Below is a video made by photog John Dickey that captures the splitter climbing, gorgeous alpine scenery and changing weather conditions that encompass a day on the Diamond.

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 7:32:18 PM

There's steep ice and then there is STEEP ice. Tucked away in Wells Grey Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, Helmcken Falls offers the wildest, steepest and most difficult ice climbing in the world (some climbs are nearly as overhanging as they are long). Filmer Wiktor Skupinski was on the scene last year and captured the following video of BD athletes Will Gadd, Raphael Slawinski, Klemen Premrl and Tim Emmett all working on a new route, which Premrl and Emmett eventually made the first and second ascents of back-to-back. To read Klemen's report about the two new routes he established at Helmcken with Emmett, click here: blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/climb//bd-athletes-klemen-premrl-and-tim-emmett-establishispray-on-toppone-of-the-most-epic-and-difficult-mixed-climbs-in-the-world

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 4:22:44 PM

Black Diamond athlete Josh Wharton is always psyched for a mini-mission, and such was the case when he wrangled photographer John Dickey to come along on a link-up of three multi-pitch 5.12as on three separate formations (The Diamond of Longs Peak, Spearhead and Arrowhead) in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. Here's the smash-and-grab video Dickey edited together of the duo's high-mileage day in the high country.

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 4:16:55 PM

Black Diamond athlete and tech rep J.P. Ouelet bagged the first ascent of The Wandering Direct in Canada's iconic Bugaboos this past July and sent us this video. Nice job on the FA, PeeWee! To read his report and see some photos from the climb, go to: ================================================================================== Matt McCormick and I spent 2 weeks in the East Creek basecamp in the Bugaboos. We had our sights on the Northwest face of South Howser Tower. We got rained off a couple pitches up on our first attempt. But managed to climb the route on our second try, but not without a few hurdles... We had stashed the ropes at the base of the route after our first attempt and when we retrieved them, we realized pretty soon that the snafflehounds (some kind of a crazy mountain marmot) had chewed thru our dry bag and completely destroyed our 9.2 Nano lead line and also our brand new tagline. Matt kindly volunteered to go get the spare rope at basecamp... The route went fairly quick as we had already climbed the first pitches. We also had some "excitement" one pitch from the base of the "white headwall" on the Beckey-Chouinard. Not wanting to climb up a chockstone-filled overhanging chimney, I traversed to a house door-sized flake, hoping to traverse it to get to the corner system on the right. What appeared to be a very solid flake turned out to be completely detached from the wall. When I tried to grab it, it shifted... a light push with my foot and the flake flew off the wall. There was no way to traverse right anymore—I had to commit to the overhanging loose chockstone death chimney. I slowly climbed to the chimney and realized there was a seam just right of it. Not big enough for my fingers but big enough for a few small offset micro nuts and a green C3. At least the rope would run outside the chimney and not over the death blocks. Not wanting to get inside, I ended up knee-barring and stemming around. What would have been an easy chimney turned out into a pretty technical 5.11 pitch. Pretty psyched to have climbed that pitch all free, I started to run it out in the easier 5.5 chimney/gully above. 30-35 feet above my last piece, I pulled on a coffee-table flake that shifted and slid down on my knees. I screamed pretty loud since I thought the flake would push me down, but to my surprise I held position in the chimney just long enough to pull slack on the rope and flip it over the flake so it wouldn't be cut. The thing flew off and exploded down on the Northwest Face. Luckily Matt was way left of the explosion. From there we linked to the base of the "white headwall" on the Beckey-Chouinard and fired the rest of the route to the summit of the South Howser. By the time we simul-climbed the last easy pitches the summit was in the clouds and it was starting to rain lightly. In a total whiteout we couldn't find the new bolted rap anchors, so we decided to rap the ice gully on the east face. On our first rap we realized the rope was core-shot (probably from jugging around trying to find the rap stations). We also realized that the ultra skinny 5.5 tagline was not working very well when wet. So after taping the few core-shot spots on the Nano we resumed doing short rappels to make sure it wouldn't get stuck. A few hours later we touched down on the glacier still in a whiteout. We had a hard time finding the way back to basecamp just as it started to rain hard and the sun went down. Pretty tired but super psyched!

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Via YouTube 5/25/2013 1:12:36 PM

BD Athlete Alex Honnold wants to be left alone. No, not really, but he did take the unusual approach of climbing alone on fixed lines as he worked to free a route on Yosemite's Leaning Tower, a 1500-foot prow of overhanging granite, that Todd Skinner had originally tried more than a decade ago. This past fall Alex managed to free the lower portion of the route (naming it A Gift From Wyoming and grading it mid-range 5.13), but the 5.14/5.15 business on the headwall waits unredpointed. Here is Part #2 (filmed and edited by John David Dickey) which follows Alex as he makes the first ascent. Part #1, which introduces Alex's motivations for tackling the first ascent challenge, can be watched here: http://youtu.be/x2PwAZinuEQ This video was previewed in the Climbing 2013 digital catalog—28 pages of exclusive photos, videos and stories of first ascent from the past and present. To view Cliimbing 2013 digital catalog, go here: catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/

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Via YouTube 5/23/2013 5:54:19 PM

Black Diamond athlete Nalle Hukkataival decided to leave behind the bureaucracy of bouldering in Hueco Tanks State Historical Park in Texas and crossed the border into Mexico. Destination: Peñoles, a bouldering area seven hours south of the U.S. border with rock striking similar to Hueco's but without the onerous rules and regulations. Nalle quickly realized what he had heard of Peñoles was true: the place was virtually untapped, especially in regards to difficult highballs, and quickly set to work at developing a host of high-end, world-class problems. Videographer Clement Perotti was along for the ride and has edited together a 3-part video series of Nalle and crew's bouldering adventures in Peñoles. Here is Video #3.

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Via YouTube 5/23/2013 2:04:15 PM

BD Athlete Alex Honnold wants to be left alone. No, not really, but he did take the unusual approach of climbing alone on fixed lines as he worked to free a route on Yosemite's Leaning Tower, a 1500-foot prow of overhanging granite, that Todd Skinner had originally tried more than a decade ago. This past fall Alex managed to free the lower portion of the route (naming it A Gift From Wyoming and grading it mid-range 5.13), but the 5.14/5.15 business on the headwall waits unredpointed. Here is Part #1 (filmed and edited by John David Dickey) which introduces Alex's motivations for tackling the first ascent challenge. Part #2 is now available to watch here: http://youtu.be/dGA4iUKhESE This video was previewed in the Climbing 2013 digital catalog—28 pages of exclusive photos, videos and stories of first ascent from the past and present. To view Cliimbing 2013 digital catalog, go here: catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/

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Via YouTube 5/23/2013 7:00:15 AM

Black Diamond athlete Nalle Hukkataival decided to leave behind the bureaucracy of bouldering in Hueco Tanks State Historical Park in Texas and crossed the border into Mexico. Destination: Peñoles, a bouldering area seven hours south of the U.S. border with rock striking similar to Hueco's but without the onerous rules and regulations. Nalle quickly realized what he had heard of Peñoles was true: the place was virtually untapped, especially in regards to difficult highballs, and quickly set to work at developing a host of high-end, world-class problems. Videographer Clement Perotti was along for the ride and has edited together a 3-part video series of Nalle and crew's bouldering adventures in Peñoles. Here is Video #1.

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Via YouTube 5/23/2013 6:40:48 AM

Fontainebleau, Easter 2013. Forget about searching for Easter eggs in the Fontainebleau forest: the Black Diamond team, Black Diamond athletes and numerous boulderers came together over the four days of the Easter 2013 holiday to rid the boulder areas of rubbish and to raise people's awareness about adopting a respectful attitude toward nature and rock.  Each year around 1.2 million climbers visit one of the largest and best known boulder areas in the world: ontainebleau in France. The main season coincides with the Easter holiday and climbers from throughout Europe make the pilgrimage to 'Bleau to enjoy the good climbing conditions and the forest. Like last year, Black Diamond availed of this opportunity to make climbers and boulderers who use nature more aware of the ecological and environmental protection issues in the French boulder mecca. The motto "Respect the Forest" was also used to motivate the climbers to participate in a cleanup action. The team around the BD athletes Nalle Huakkataival, Nico Favresse and Fred Nicole met every morning at the parking areas of the most popular areas in Fontainebleau (Isatis, Cul de Chien, and Valle de la Mee). Talks and flipcharts were used to draw the attention of visitors and climbers to a responsible behaviour, such as: clean climbing shoes thoroughly (sandy climbing shoes polish the rock), use magnesium sparingly and leave no tick marks, stay on the designated trails (risk of erosion), leave behind no rubbish (in particular no toilet paper), light no fires. The boulderers then set off with compostable plastic sacks and collected rubbish. After the boulder and clean-up session the bags of rubbish were disposed of in the Black Diamond bus and all the participants received a small surprise. The clean-up day ended in a relaxed mood with live music from Nico Favresse, fresh beer and animated exchanges of information about the most recent boulder routes. On Easter Monday, the Black Diamond group itself went out and cleaned up the popular "Elephant" climbing area of rubbish.  Over the four days, a total of more than 250 kg of rubbish was collected. This rubbish was then handed over to the regional forestry office to be disposed of. The local forestry officers were full of praise for the clean-up operation and thanked all the participating climbers on behalf of the forest. Black Diamond also warmly thanked all the hard-working boulderers! Through this cleanup operation Black Diamond wants to ensure that it will still be possible to visit this unique climbing area in the future as well.

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Via YouTube 5/22/2013 5:19:23 PM

In November BD athlete Brittany Griffith, along with fellow BD team members Yuji Huriyama, Cedar Wright and Mike Dobie attended China's first-ever trad climbing festival in Laojunshan National Park. Along with the quartet of BD athletes, a host of Black Diamond employees also attended, including CEO Peter Metcalf. The event was established by Black Diamond and The North Face, and was a huge success—due in no small part to the herculean efforts of Jack Lin and Kai Zao of Himalaya Gears (the BD distributor in China), as well as the dozens of volunteers. To read the email and see the photos Brittany sent us shortly after her return to the States, click here: blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/climb/all/bd-athlete-brittany-griffith-reports-on-attending-the-firstever-trad-climbing-festival-in-china

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Via YouTube 5/22/2013 4:53:55 PM

Black Diamond athlete Adam Ondra traveled to Kentucky's Red River Gorge in late October and 10 days later he had blazed through the area's hardest routes, including onsighting two of the Red's hardest, Pure Imagination and The Golden Ticket, in the same day. Both routes were originally rated 5.14d, but Ondra, after onsighting them within an hour of each other, suggested they be downrated to 5.14c. (Yes, the ease of onsighting in the Red is a much discussed topic, but nevertheless onsighting two 5.14c's in the same day is a stunning achievement.) Ben Spannuth was on the scene for Ondra's onsight of The Golden Ticket and got the camera rolling in time to capture the action. Here is the uncut footage. Amazing to see the conviction Ondra has through every sequence—no stalling, no apprehension about sequences, no anxiety, no slip ups. Aspiring onsight climbers take note: this is how you do it. Boom. Boom. Boom. Clip the chains.

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Via YouTube 5/21/2013 6:45:09 AM

Black Diamond athlete Will Cardamone lives in a yurt tucked back in the mountains of Colorado. It's an idyllic location and the perfect launch point for endless backcountry missions. Will has shot and edited together a series of video shorts that beautifully detail both his life in the mountains and some incredible skiing. Here is Episode #1.

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Via YouTube 5/21/2013 3:23:24 AM

Black Diamond athlete Paul Robinson continues his global bouldering tour with a stop in Austria's famed Zillertal, home to countless classic boulder problems. This video shows Robinson taking down a small sampling of the quality climbing found in the area, including a speedy ascent of the Incubator (8B) and a proud repeat of Anam Cara (8B+).

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Via YouTube 5/16/2013 10:45:56 AM

In Episode 1 of BD Crash Pads, we make a visit to Bozeman-based BD athlete Conrad Anker to take a peek inside his basement gear room, which in addition to storing his climbing gear, is home to a treasure trove of expedition relics and stories.

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Via YouTube 5/13/2013 3:27:57 PM

Black Diamond athlete Nalle Hukkataival decided to leave behind the bureaucracy of bouldering in Hueco Tanks State Historical Park in Texas and crossed the border into Mexico. Destination: Peñoles, a bouldering area seven hours south of the U.S. border with rock striking similar to Hueco's but without the onerous rules and regulations. Nalle quickly realized what he had heard of Peñoles was true: the place was virtually untapped, especially in regards to difficult highballs, and quickly set to work at developing a host of high-end, world-class problems. Videographer Clement Perotti was along for the ride and has edited together a 3-part video series of Nalle and crew's bouldering adventures in Peñoles. Here is Video #2. To view video #1, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj4y0JG-wo0

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Via YouTube 5/11/2013 9:37:10 PM

Here at Black Diamond, our athletes' all-consuming drive to spend as much time in the mountains, at the crags and on the trails as possible tends to make for some interesting living situations. Modded-out cargo vans, backwoods shacks, parents' basements and musty expedition tents-the idiosyncratic places they reside when they're not doing what they do are a defining testament to the Black Diamond team's passion for climbing and skiing. Whether it's just a place to store gear, a comfy base to rest up for the next adventure or a traveling home on wheels, this ongoing series will give you an inside look at the places BD climbers and skiers call home. This month we caught up with BD skier Zack Giffin, who had his super-unique tiny house on wheels parked in the Alta Ski Area parking lot in the midst of a massive mid-winter storm. In between pow laps, Zack was kind enough to give us the tour of his custom-built rolling ski cabin. To check out Episode 1 featuring Conrad Anker, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2tdhnPNdR8

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Via YouTube 5/7/2013 8:34:21 PM

Yes, the ATC-Guide is an advanced belay/rappel device, but with the basic information in the video below you'll learn how to easily utilize the ATC-Guide's superior belay and rappel capabilities, such as how to belay or lower one or two seconding climbers in guide mode with ease and control. Get more info on Black Diamond Equipment's ATC Guide at: blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/climb/belay-rappel/atc-guide

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Via YouTube 4/21/2013 11:40:45 AM

Bold, authentic and inspirational images have been a cornerstone of Black Diamond culture since day one. The pictures that fill our catalogs, website, ads and posters aren't just a portal for visual storytelling, they are the essence of what Black Diamond is all about. In this ongoing series, we'll take a look at some of Black Diamond's most powerful and inspiring images, both old and new, and get the stories behind the shots from the photographers and athletes who made them happen. For this feature's first installment, we caught up with photographer Jay Beyer and Black Diamond athlete Zack Giffin to get the story behind Jay's incredible photo of Zack hucking over a massive ice cave in Glacier Bay, Alaska last spring—a photo that made the cover of our 2012 Ski Digital Catalog. Accompanying their story is a great POV video Zack put together that gives a glimpse into his perspective of the drop. Read the interview with Jay and Zack here: http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/culture/all/behind-the-shot-2012-ski-digital-catalog-cover

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Via YouTube 4/21/2013 10:59:04 AM

Black Diamond athlete Will Cardamone lives in a yurt tucked back in the mountains of Colorado. It's an idyllic location and the perfect launch point for endless backcountry missions. Will has shot and edited together a series of video shorts that beautifully detail both his life in the mountains and some incredible skiing. Here is Episode #2, which covers the challenges of a dry winter in Colorado and the resulting excitement when the snow finally does come. Episdoe #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoVostM__wc

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Via YouTube 4/16/2013 12:33:59 PM

Black Diamond athlete Sarah Seeger met up with videographer Bernardo Gimenez and took him on a tour of her life and climbs in the area. The result is one of Bernardo's finer video profiles for us, one that does a magnificent job of capturing Sarah's spirit and the inspiration she draws from the demanding climbing of the Frankenjura.

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Via YouTube 4/4/2013 8:55:27 PM

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