David D’Angelo stitched together a five minute film of his weekend trip to Singapore and back. Three flights there and three back for a couple days; it’s a good thing one of his flights didn’t get delayed on the way there or he would have missed his return. You’re also supposed to turn your camera off during takeoff and landing, pal. Either way, looks like he saw lots of airports and went to a big mall in Singapore.

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.

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.

va The Adventure Blog

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.

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.

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.

From the press release:

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.

Two heavily armed militants in Kashmir were killed by a bear. They made the mistake of holing up in the animal’s den to cook come pudding. There were four in the group and two managed to escape, one of them badly wounded. Wildlife is often a footnote casualty of war. It kind of makes sense; it’s tough to get people to listen about the gorillas in the Congo when humans are tearing each other to pieces in the same place. In Kashmir, wildlife has actually surged during fighting. When the insurgency broke out, people had to hand in their weapons, which put a halt to poaching. Since then there have been many reports of bears and leopards mauling humans in different parts of the Kashmir valley.

You know your climbing video’s in trouble if the trailers most dynamic scene involves drinking coffee. The Continuum Project from Alstrin Films might have some beautiful shots, but from the trailer it doesn’t look nearly as well edited or exciting as the recent film Progression from Big Up Productions.

Seth Morrison Collection. Seth in his Raichle Flexons 1991.

Backcountry.com Athlete Seth Morrison talks to ESPN on his obsession with the old Raichle Flexon ski boots and his current relationship with Full Tilt boots. Morrison’s been riding broken down and patched together Raichles since he started skiing, and he says he’d have to give up riding at a high level if he ever lost the boots in a house fire or abstract, boot-theft situation. The compulsive collecting of the old Raichle Flexon boots is something I’ve seen. We found a pair of mint condition Flexons at my old ski shop, and the shop owner insisted we sell them above full price even though they were over 15 years old. Way to take advantage of the market.

via Seth Morrison Twitter

The Dutch bank DSB didn’t come through on the $300,000 they agreed to pay the U.S. Olympic speed skating team. Likely because they realized that they’re a Dutch bank sponsoring a U.S. team. It’s these kinds of decisions they’ll look back on when trying to figure out how they went out of business. Comedy Central’s Colbert Report picked up the slack. While they’re not sponsoring the U.S. Speed Skating Team directly, they’re mobilizing Colbert Nation fans to kick down the money to support the Olympic troops and get Colbert’s name on speed skaters’ thighs. Either way, at this Vancouver Olympics, The Colbert Report will be the official sponsor of the U.S. Speed Skating Team.