Tired of watching too many short boldering films? To remedy that, from the geniuses that made Touching the Void, another 'destined to be on my DVD shelf ASA f'in P' climibng feature docudrama.
More about the film on their high budget webite.
BearCam Media and La Sportiva have produced this nice video guaranteed to get you PSYCHED!
Here's the introduction from La Sportiva:
"La Sportiva athlete Courtney Sanders suffered a frustrating ankle injury in the prime of sending season. Did it deter her from staying fit and focusing on the bigger picture? Not one bit. Check out this video by Courtney and edited by BearCam Media for some inspiring footage and ideas for keeping it together when everything seems to have fallen apart."
It has been a (insert cliche of challenge here).
DRY ICE Tools is a new company, and like all new companies, we've experienced some growing pains. The challenge of running a small company that’s centered around a popular boutique product with specialty parts that are difficult to source can be overwhelming. Add to that the frustration of miscommunication from suppliers, poor quality control in parts of the supply chain over which you have no control, cancelled or simply forgotten orders for parts, the heavy costs of R&D and the financial risks therein… The list goes on. It culminates in an intense desire to succumb to the fear and self-loathing that builds from all those single disappointing events.
But at Furnace Industries we did not give in. We stepped up and accepted the challenge, because—as a wise counselor advised us when we were in the thick of it—this is what success looks like.
So after a long, difficult climb, it is with great excitement that DRY ICE Tools are now available with new redesigned straps made of new material, stronger than any other indoor tool in the world. We went back to the core idea of what DRY ICE was about and reinvented it. To demonstrate our commitment to our customers, every single one of our previous customers will receive the new straps.
And we did not stop there! We are also extremely excited about the upcoming DRY ICE Holds. Designed by expert climbing hold designer with just the right amount of counter-cultural influence, Jason Kehl of So ill Climbing Holds, our line of DRY ICE Holds are specifically designed for use with DRY ICE Tools and will be introduced by the end of 2013.
AND, if you thought it was impossible to get excited about tape (in fact, it is!), we are very pleased to offer DRY ICE Route Marking Tape for route setters to help them set a DRY ICE Route in their gyms. DRY ICE Tape is available now in our Store.
Thanks for being part of the DRY ICE experience! We are a very small company (it's just us 2 guys!) with very big goals. Everyone, with positive (and negative) feedback has helped bring DRY ICE to this new dawn, and we hope you'll join us by welcoming the rising run.
Climb Safe,
Ben Carlson, Co-Founder
George Fisher, Co-Founder
Killers shots, killer passion. Just in time for the 2013 Summer Outdoor Retailer Trade Show.
You're placing an 8cm 'stubby' screw in questionable ice. With each turn you think, "Yeah. Maybe. Uh Huh. Sure." You look at the next few moves and where you next placement might be. Oh... looks like about 15ft. That means at least a 30 footer onto this silly excuse for 'pro'. I know! I clip a screamer to it and all will be right with the world!
Screamers, those unfortunately yet excitingly named pieces of shock limiting gear that we climbers use under the impression the they will actually save us, aren't a new idea. Screamers 'rip' some light duty stitching of folded over webbing that is activated at about 450lbs. The standard "Screamer" can effectively reduce peak loads by 3-4 kN an any climbing or rescue system. Screamer is actually the name that Yates uses for their load limiters, but mostly everyone uses the term for all load limiters:
Petzl makes one:
Mammut makes one:
I'm sure there are others.
But THIS NEW ONE by the Barcelona based E-Climb takes the award for innovation. Now you can REUSE your screamer if you taken a fall on it. You see after a regular screamer is blown, it's useless. It's a 1" wide 2' mess of a sling that is not longer refoldable or resewable. E-Climb designed this confusing looking device called the 'Dissip' that a small sling threads into and provides load limiting slipping friction via the latticework to slow a climber down in a fall. Then all you have to do is rethread the sling and viola, screamer ready to catch the next whip.
Pretty sweet eh? Two problems. I cannot find any info on the Dissip in action, and from their marketing material the slings can only take 5 falls. Seems like a nice idea though. That's 4 more falls than a regular screamer. Watch out though, you MUST use their sling since a regular dyneema sling will MELT from the heat created from the slipping action. This is prolly the reason I wouldn't use these. I do NOT want to be run out on some grade 6 moster wondering if I rethreaded my Dissip with the correct sling...
But that's not all!
E-Climb has also developed ICE Screws with REplaceable tips called the Klaus.
The steel tips are removable from the super light aluminum screws, and replaceable via threads and glue. Glue?! Yes, glue. I think that sounds 'very interesting' let's say. "Hey bud, I think I may blow it here. Not to worry, the tips of my screws are GLUED ON! Right then, got me?"
Still the idea is intriguing and this review at Climbing Extreme gave it a thumbs up, but he didn't get to the tip replacing part. That's what I want to know about.
This may seem detrimental to my buddies who run ice screw sharpening businesses, and it may well be if the idea takes off. But for now, the replaceable tips idea remains in Europe.
Till then, enjpy some ridiculous chicanery brought to us by our friends at E-Climb:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these DRY ICE reps from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
The historic crippling blizzard of 2013 could not stop the DRY ICE juggernaut! In fact, for once I guess our federal tax dollars are going to the right places because the I-95 corridor from NYC to New Bedford was actually quite casual after a central Connecticut 30+ inch snowpocolypse.
Any who, the fine managers at Carabiner's Indoor Climbing Gym were keen to get DRY ICE into their gym. And what an enormous facility! Easily the tallest gym I've ever been in. Almost 70ft tall. the routes here go on forever. You can get real strong real fast in a place like this, and although the gym was actually closed due to the snow, DRY ICE did not disappoint the small cadre of climbers the managers George and Todd had managed to assemble.
Carabiner's runs an indoor to outdoor program that DRY ICE fit directly into, preparing new indoor climbers for outdoor ice. It's with this kind of energetic, motivated, forward thinking management that indoor climbing will properly proceed.
Members at Carabiner's will be psyched to use DRY ICE on their walls! Cheers to managers Todd Isaksen and George Coto for their brilliance!
I stumbled across a great article recently.
In a nutshell, this all about the roots and the history of Drytooling and ultimately centers on the legitimacy of Mixed Climbing as a pursuit.
At length, there is discussion about the efforts of Jeff Lowe, Will Gadd, Scott Semple, Kevin Mahoney, and others. These guys are pioneers. Living legends of the craft, blazing a trail for others climbers and products like DRY ICE. If they had not been motivated to crush, we'd have nothing to talk about here.
Below lies the core of the article as it relates to DRY ICE:
Eager to prove that these specialized skills had a place in the larger realm of alpine climbing, mixed climbers looked to establish technically difficult lines on big peaks. One such route was the first ascent, in 2002, of
(VI M7- WI 6 X), on Howse Peak, in the Canadian Rockies, put up by Scott Semple, Will Gadd and Kevin Mahoney.
Semple wrote, “Like most M-climbers, [I found] several seasons of clip-ups had steepened my learning curve and restructured my perceptions of winter terrain. ‘Steep ice’ had become an oxymoron, verglas was a welcome tool stabilizer and burning through eight picks a season had made me comfortable with the funky, the thin and the wobbly.”
It had taken Scott Semple took several seasons to become comfortable in that terrain. If DRY ICE Tools had been around then, would it have taken less time?
Musashi from Glen Crawford on Vimeo.
The Furnace industries Team was on hand at the 20th Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival! Festival goers were excited to check out DRY ICE Tools and we were there to deliver, answer questions, and sell our tools directly to our passionate ice brethren.
After 393 miles and 6.5 hours of driving, we were at IME early to setup the Furnace Industries Booth.
Some the questions we got were fully expected, and some were not:
What the heck are these and what are they for? Gym safe indoor ice and mixed climbing training tools.
How strong are they? About 650lbs.
Why don't you sell a tethering device with them? Because we didn't want to have to charge more, and we wanted to leave the choice of tethering device to the climber. We are however working on an economical tether produced by Furnace Industries.
Did you rip off the Nomic? No.
Do you need all jugs in order to use them? Absolutely not! In fact, smaller holds work extremely well! So long as they have some positivity.
What happens when you twist the strap? Nothing. It's made to be able to twist and it's wicked strong.
How much are they? $99.95
Smart Idea! Where can I get mine? RIGHT HERE on our site.
After a long day of meeting with future drytoolers, it was time to cut loose, and Mon Voyage Neon was ready to deliver. He also gave a master class on how to run a raffle. All business, no chit chat. Mr. Petzl got it duuuuun.
DRY ICE Tools by Furnace Industries. Official Sponsor of the 2013 MWV Ice Fest!
One of the most special moments for DRY ICE President Ben Carlson was watching Rick Wilcox and John Bragg talk about the first ascent of Repentance in 1973. Rick pulled out all the gear they used on that ascent in preparation for a repeat 40 years later! Wooden axes, a hammer, pitons, old old school screws, a Whillans harness, the top of the line boots of the day (basicaly glorified hiking boots), 40 year old lowe foot fangs, and, the ROPE they used on the ascent (I hope they don't use that rope...)
Day 2 at Ice Fest. The team was on hand, ready to make contact!
After the morning session, it was time to get out on the ice. Here, the DRY ICE mobile sits below the 25 sec approach to the Thresher Slabs at the north end of Cathedral Ledge.
Sales were made. Awareness was built. Climbers were educated. DRY ICE is HERE!
After an amazing couple days in the North Conway area, DRY ICE made a demo pit stop at the enormous and recently opened Evolution Climbing and Fitness in Concord NH. Thank you Hillary for having us!
Thanks again to the MWV Ice Fest team, Mike Wejchert (FarNorthClimbing.com), Anne Skidmore (Anne Skidmore Photography), Ashley Link, and to IME for all the support and exposure!
Drytoolers:
Meet the reason we decided to create DRY ICE. The father of modern mixed climbing: Jeff Lowe. Without him, mixed climbing would even be a 'thing'.
From Jeff Lowe's Site:
Jeff Lowe's
Metanoia
uses Switzerland's Eiger as the hub of a remarkable life story. For nine harrowing days in the winter of 1991, Jeff Lowe pieced together a nearly impossible route up the very center of the Eiger's North Face. This is the story behind that climb – an act of imagination – that has become legendary. Jon Krakauer photographed Jeff's ascent for Men's Journal. 20 years later the NY Times best selling author narrates the greater, more compelling story behind that climb and what lies beneath Jeff's high adventure lifestyle. Original film footage from the archives captures visionary firsts, key instructional lessons and exciting new retakes on old stories. Amazing new helicopter footage brings the film alive!
Furnace Industries will be at the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest!! Come and be a part of the Northeast unveiling of DRY ICE Tools! We will be there early at International Mountain Equipment, the Shop for Real Outdoor Folks, showcasing our DRY ICE Tools along with other leading gear companies.
Can't wait? Pick up a pair at our Store!
See you there!
DRY ICE was in Boulder Colorado at the Boulder Rock Club this week shooting promo videos with Louder Than 11.
We were there to shoot three short promo vids showcasing the tools, and the climbers who use them.
The uber creative team at LT11 shot these vids because we believe that they are able to capture more than just some joker using the tools. These will be more of a character documentary, with pre interview, climbing, and post interview centered around the experience with the tools. Jordan Shipman of LT11 headed up the interviewing and we are very excited for the results!
DRY ICE Tools are now AVAILABLE! Now we are free to train for ice and mixed climbing in a safe and effective manner ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. NO sharp points. NO slicing up the expensive pads. NO damage to the climbing wall!
Get your own pair in our STORE! Only $99! (Are you kidding me?! That's cheaper than a pair of climbing shoes!)
The wait is almost over, DRY ICE TOOLS are almost here!
