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Motivational speaker and guy who cut off his own hand after it became pinned under a boulder, Aron Ralston will be the subject matter for an upcoming film called 127 Hours. The film is not serialized in 65 2-hour segments, but rather a feature-length film about the 127 hours that Ralston spent with his hand pinned in Utah. The creative team behind “Slumdog Millionaire,” which took home 8 Oscars last year will begin shooting “127 Hours” late next year. ByRocky Thompson Andrew Maser of Rivers in Demand shot this POV video of kayaking the Congo River when working with National Geographic. The waves and river are so huge that it looks like they’re trying to paddle across the ocean. In case you couldn’t gather from the video, they shot it with the VIO POV 1.5. ByRocky Thompson
Wyoming is considering a bill that would require backcountry users to carry bear spray. Shouldn’t be long until some tourists in Yellowstone douse themselves in bear spray thinking that it works like mosquito repellant. A friend was hiking in Alaska when her guide told her a polar bear was stalking the group. He had bear spray, but resisted using it since he was afraid it might make the bear charge. It’s this kind of discretion that people like me and other non-guides lack. Plus, I’d likely use the bear spray to try to spice up my backcountry chili. ByRocky Thompson
Climbers obsessed with soloing sometimes talk about the zen-like, ninja focus they experience on the rock. If this Zen-ja focus is broken, they find themselves at the sheer end of an extremely steep learning curve. The Head Route Setter at Boston Rock Gym landed in this predicament when he helicoptered off the second crux on a 5.14b with about 30 feet of climbing. He’s laid up for 4 to 6 months and got out with only major trauma to one foot and ankle. He filed an excellent blog post about what goes into choosing to freesoloing a 5.14b and what he’s learned about from his fall. During my previous highballing exploits I have never thought about the fall; every time I was so zeroed in on what I was doing and so confidant in my abilities that I knew with absolute certainty that I was getting to the top safely. The difference this time was not obvious to me until it was too late. As I pulled on for the second time, my mind seemed to be elsewhere. Instead of having that singular focus that I’m so familiar with, I felt disconnected from my body. ByRocky Thompson
Stoic is a new highend brand that Backcountry.com launched yesterday. They stole their ideas for gear from you, specifically “you” in the Gear Guru community on their site. Stoic is the more focused newcomer, born from its predecessor, Backcountry.com brand gear. Over the past three years, what is now Stoic has been formed and refined with the help of feedback from hundreds of members of Backcountry.com’s Gear Guru community. It’s the honed and tested result of the people that push their gear to the limits and tell us about it. Core gear users helping build gear for other core users, that’s Stoic. Thanks suckers! Check out the Stoic site. Should be interesting to see what the gear community wants to make. I’m envisioning a Backcountry.com version of The Simpsons episode where Homer runs his brother out of business by designing the ultimate car. ByRocky Thompson |
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