I hope all the climbers had their hepatitis shots before they took the plunge into this river in Bilbao, Spain. Chris Sharma was on hand for the competition, and he commented on the prAna blog regarding its setup.

Looking back on the years when climbing was in the X Games but just couldn’t translate to the mainstream audience because if its slow subtle nature, this new form of competition will surely blow the minds of any non climber and I believe will be a key element in climbing becoming a more mainstream sport.

You know what else would help? Not putting terrible dance music in the background of every climbing video.

via Climbing Narc

Photo from Neal Gorman's blog.

Someone loan Neal Gorman their car. This guy finished second place in the Wasatch 100 last month, giving him a total time of 74:54:16 over four 100-mile races. This is considered the ‘Grand Slam of Ultrarunning‘ by the handful of people who run more than 100 miles in a single stretch. Well done, Neal. Maybe your publicist could set up some kind of ‘Grand Slam’ promotion and you could be like Subway restaurant’s Jared except for Denny’s. In fact, I heard Jared’s running the NYC marathon. Maybe you could beat him up as a publicity stunt?

Good news for women, women who ski jump, and humans who care about equality. The International Olympic Committee said yesterday that it will likely allow women ski jumpers to compete in the Sochi Winter Games in 2014. Wait…is there a men’s synchronized swimming? There better be.

The National Park Service is operating at a government pace in deciding whether or not to allocate a higher percentage of climbing permits to guide services in Denali National Park. Currently 25% of the 1,500 annual climbing permits are given to guides for their clients, with the balance going to any wackjob with a dream and a pair of hiking boots.

The guide services say that demand is increasing for their wares, and they should have more access to grow their businesses. So far no one’s arguing, but a commenting period has been opened for anyone who wants to speak up. While I’ve never been to Denali (or even Alaska), if handing more permits out to guides would cost normal wackjobs an opportunity to climb, I’d be against it. Hey, rich guys can always skip the line and hire a guide. If the Denali guides want more business, they can always ask climbers to get their own permits or charge more as the resources become more scarce.

The very excellent blog YoBeat pointed me towards another decent snowboarding film. Get in the Van 2 is a follow-up to Get in the Van, and it promises to answer all the questions that Get in the Van left you with. I hope these guys one day have enough money to make ‘Get in the Chopper!’ though I suspect they’d run into a lot of licensing issues with that name since it was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s catchphrase for so many years in the 90s.

A Fish and Game Warden in California received at tip on four people illegally hunting in Yosemite beginning an epic, 6-day tracking effort that ended with the group of hunters walking out of the woods uncharged. A very detailed set of tips led the warden to make one easy arrest, and based on the accuracy of that tip, he assumed the other tip about the hunters deeper in Yosemite was also true. Several days later he spotted them, but the group also saw the ranger stalking them so they hid the deer carcasses they’d shot with bows and arrows. The group was caught sneaking out of the park but couldn’t be charged for lack of evidence. More rangers conducted a survey of area where the poachers hunted, and dogs found the carcasses days later. The group was finally charged and fined upwards of $60,000 plus hunting bans, probation, and possible jail time.

A National Geographic crew shooting film of birds in the Falkland Islands in the deep (deep) south had their campsite dismantled by birds. The Johnny Rook birds seem like they would be a lot of fun to have as pets. Or rather, they’d be fun to give as pets to people you dislike. This is another one of those things we could be gambling on.

via Huffington Post

Folks in Montana will be getting a color version of the plates Utah skiers have had for ages. The Montana ski license plates cost only $20 each year, and the money raised goes to help buy things for the volunteers at the National Ski Patrol. Granted, 80s movies made the Ski Patrol look like jerks, but sometimes we need a jerk to drag us off the hill with a blown out knee. Montana, unlike Utah, gave the snowboarders equal space on the license plates with a shot of a female rider wearing a ski race helmet and strangely snug riding gear.

This entire video is in slow motion. The helmet cam shot won ‘best image’ at the IF3 in Montreal, and the clip is part of a longer segment in the new Poor Boyz movie Revolver. A pretty impressive clip. At least he didn’t have to worry about running into any trees.

Thanks Jason