Full Rosebud Massage

A quick video of a new line in Sintra.  Thanks Vegan for filming.

Cleaning, Video, Video Review

Those are the things on the list, cleaning, video, and video review.

Start with the cleaning.
So it’s been hot in Sintra.  I was making very good progress on my project and then the hot weather rolled in.  The climb in question doesn’t require very cold temps but it is slopers, compression on small slopers, so if it is warm it is impossible.  As it stands I have a hard time believing it could be less than… I think it best to not talk about the grade until I send it.
So I’ve been cleaning.  I’ve been going to a cooler area of the mountain, an area which is shadier and breezier, and I’ve been walking around cleaning and trying a few hard projects.  A few days ago I cleaned three new lines!  Each required about 30 minutes of removing branches, topsoil, and vines.  And it’s impressive to think that the rock itself required very little brushing, it was all there.
So, for those who frequent Sintra, there are three new lines near the Sao Pedro sector.  These are: Rosebud Massage (about 7a), Na Greta (about 6a), and The Good Doctor (about 6a+).  I’ll be going back in a few hours to do the sit/traverse start to Rosebud Massage and also to see if someone repeats the lines so I can get their thoughts on the lines and the grades can be talked about.

Second: Video.
On July 26th I returned to Hoya Moros.  The place was way too good to not go back to, despite having to hike with a ton of stuff on our backs.  So we returned.  This time we made it a three day affair and we had a better feel of what climbs we wanted to try.
The trip was awesome!
The weather was a little hotter than on the previous trip and there was less water in the streams, those were the cons.  The pros were that we tried many more lines, some excellent lines.
Obviously I took the camera and tripod again but I have to say that I did not get much good footage.  There was only 1 battery and the way its time was used didn’t give much footage of sends…  I just wasn’t too happy with what footage I got.  So I wasn’t going to make another movie.

However.  After letting the footage sit for nearly a month I realized that I really can’t just let it disappear.  There was some fun moments captured and I at least wanted to share those.  So I put together was little there was and have just finished uploading it to Vimeo.  2 batteries would have been perfect.  To be able to capture different angles, to be able to have had the camera on when the sends happened, and to film the landscape.
But hey, I’m pretty happy with this second video too!

And finally, Video Review.

I went ahead and downloaded the “new” Chuck Fryberger movie: Core.  I have to say that I was one of those who immediately downloaded Chuck’s first video about Rocklands: Specimen and that I was very disappointed.  There is some pretty strong climbing going on but the editing didn’t work for me (especially the enhanced scraping sound of the shoes on the rock…).  That and the fact that he placed Fred Nicole‘s name on the roster like it was candy though there was very little Fred Nicole in the movie itself.  I stuck with it though and got his Pure video and now finally Core.
The short is that I really liked it and recommend it.
The Dosage movies started coming out and they were so much better than any other climbing movie that they became the standard.  This meant that the style which the Lowell team imparted upon their videos also became the standard for climbing videos, unnecessarily.  Other people started coming out with videos (such as Specimen) and I thought that even though the climbing was good the videos were miles from Dosage.
Well, I now think that Core is up there.  It is important in that it shows how climbing videos can have a different feel and still be really good climbing videos.  They can focus on other aspects and, if shot and edited well, still capture the attention of the viewer (I have to say though that some shots still feel off, like that super long slow motion shot of BJ Tilden shaking out… yawn).
I hope this acts to motivate other climbing filmmakers.