Right now, and until supplies are gone, Eastern Mountain Sports is having a %50 off sale for most outerwear, apparel and gloves/hats. You probably won’t catch me buying soft shell outerwear at EMS, as they always seem to have a boxy fit, but there are a handful of house-made EMS products that really shine.

Their “Work Glove” is only 20 bucks. The “Endo Glove” is only $17.50. Both of these gloves fit snugly and work really well for hard leads on ice and mixed terrain. The “Work Glove” is super durable to boot.

Polartec Powerstretch hoodies and tights are %50 off too. If you don’t already wear Powerstretch, it’s one of the best baselayers for really cold weather. At first it feels overly warm, but after the fleece packs down a bit, it’s the perfect weight for most ice climbing days. One advantage to wearing Powerstretch, even on warmer days, is that you can wear thinner soft shell pants that breathe and move better than the standard ice climbing robo-gear.

If you’re a dirtbag, or just looking for a deal, hop online or head to the nearest EMS. They’re dumping they’re winter gear in anticipation of an early spring. I guess this warm winter is good for something after all.

In past posts I’ve written about how I use Windows operating systems and Android open source phone software. In an upcoming post I’ll discuss some of the free open source software that I use on an almost daily basis.

I’m a huge fan of open-source software. There are highly functional open source applications that can replace almost any program or software suite you would normally buy.

One of my favorite open-source applications is WordPress. This site and many others run using WordPress as the backbone of their site. It’s a free, easy to use and highly customizable web-based publishing platform.

There are hundreds of free themes for WordPress, and many more paid themes that offer easy to use administrative user interfaces. I’m using a barely modified Twenty Eleven theme for this site right now. Twenty Eleven is the stock theme that comes with WordPress 3.2 and higher. It’s a spacious and simple theme that has automatic width adjustment which is useful for keeping a site’s most important content near the top. For my site, mainly a blog, this is nice.

If you’re looking to set up a website or blog, by all means check out wordpress.org and wordpress.com. It’s the perfect starting place for just about any blog or simple website.

One of my favorite places near the Gunks to take pictures from is Walkill View Farms. This is the farm just outside of New Paltz that has the rows of sunflowers lining the road in the later summer. On a clear day you can see some of the cliffs and lots of sky. It’s nice to get out and take some pictures of the sky occasionally, especially as the warmer weather begins to cause convective lifting making for nice big puffy clouds (and eventually thunderstorms!). I hope everyone has had  the chance to get out and enjoy the spring a bit, despite the wet weather.

So, if your mom is anything like my Mom, remember to thank her today and everyday for being a wonderful, hard-working person and helping you to achieve success in this life. Thank you dad too; he’ll appreciate it;)

I’ve been watching the “Winger for the Weekend” for a few months now. I look forward to every week’s post and have watched many of the older posts. If you want a rollicking gut laugh watch of few of these videos.

Some of my favorites are #64 (I laughed until I cried), #63 (Talking Kitty part 2), and #54 (the yosemitebear double rainbow). You can also find them on the BD website by searching for “winger for the weekend”.

Have fun and don’t forget to share these links.

My partner told me today, while cragging at Farley, that I am almost making her not want to climb anymore. She’s solidified her gear placement skills this season and is now working on trying to climb higher above her gear before placing the next piece. I had cautioned her that you don’t want to string gear so far apart that if one piece of gear fails you hit the deck. Today, as she tied a “Yosemite Finish” on her eight I mentioned to her how a Yosemite finish on your figure eight tie-in knot isn’t great because if the eight rolls you really don’t have an eight anymore. Try it sometime – loosely tie a figure eight on your harness with a Yosemite finish and pull at the bight created by the knot. Once the  eight inverts you no longer have an eight but rather a strange sort of slip knot.

There have been several “lucky” recent events which have affected me either directly or indirectly. All of the events could have turned out worse but could also have been prevented. A local Gunks climber was lowered off the end of his rope by his belayer at City of Rocks. The climber experienced a torn MCL, a severe laceration to the head, a broken nose, and a few cracked ribs among other smaller injuries. There was no knot in the end of the rope. Another friend took a whipper on the first pitch of Three Doves and the piton at the crux caught her. As her second came up he wiggled the pin out with his fingers. Had the pin failed she may have hit the ledges below. Two weeks ago a climber fell 90 feet from the first belay on Middle Earth. He allegedly said “ok” and his belayer took him off belay. The climber then leaned back and fell all the way to the ground. He lived to tell the tale yet experienced a severe femur fracture. And today, as I went to untie my knot after a route at Farley, I realized that I hadn’t finished tying my figure eight. Fortunately I had almost finished and what I had was an in-line eight which holds loads similar to a normal eight but is far less stable when the tail is loose.

Back on the ground after my incident I sat down to belay and you can bet I didn’t dare say a thing to my partner. I was thinking about how lucky I was and how awful I felt. I could have sworn that I checked my knot before I left the ground and I even verbalized that I had a good knot before I left the ground but didn’t turn around for inspection by my partner. As a guide you’re always trying to impress upon your clients that safety is paramount so how could this have happened to me? How had all of these events occurred? What can we do?

Well I know one thing for sure. I’m not going to stop climbing because of these events. However, I am going to try and be more cautious, less cavalier and less complacent. The bottom line here: climbing isn’t safe. We do a lot of things to make it safer but gravity never stops pulling one down and the ground never stops being hard. No matter what you do out there at the cliff climbing will never be as safe as staying at home. So, take those reality checks seriously, learn how to place gear often and effectively, teach yourself some self-rescue and remember to double check the important things like harnesses, belay commands, knots and climbing anchors. Be as safe as possible out there, the climbing life can be long if you’re careful.

We’re just about settled in our new place in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts. I’ve been trying to check out the local crags whenever possible to sample the really fine climbing here. The other day I was out walking just behind my house (there is a trail straight out of the backyard) and I took this picture down by the lake. I’m pretty sure the excessive amount of goldenrod in bloom right now is the source of my snot faucet, but it’s pretty nonetheless.

Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown NY

Ommegang may be the finest Belgian-style beer brewery in the United States. I’ve drunk a lot of this stuff. Particularly the Abbey Ale and the Hennepin. Their beers are bottle conditioned so rack them away for a while in a cool dark place or at the back of your refrigerator if you have that kind of self control. While you can buy these beers in 12 oz. bottles they’re better in the 25 oz. cork top bottle-conditioned bottles. Priced at $7-8/25 oz bottle they’re reasonably priced as well. The Abbey Ale is my favorite U.S. beer of that genre and perhaps my favorite beer. The Hennepin might be the best U.S. example of a saison (a farmhouse ale, which is a bit like a winey hefeweizen). These beers are well worth the money and time, but don’t drink too much. Like many other Belgian beers they’re heavy on the malt, making them warm fuzzy hangover machines.

Dogfish Head, Rehoboth Beach, DE

Look out! I was initially averse to the Dogfish Head beers, but I’ve been won over and they’re another one of my favorites. They make some pretty good IPA’s, which I’m not generally a fan of. However, they drink much more like strong ales, with a little less hoppiness than most IPA’s. You really can’t go wrong with any of their beers. They’re getting to be more popular, and in terms of availability, are a bit the way Sierra Nevada was 10 years ago. The 90 Minute IPA (available in 4 packs) is a great place to start.

Troegs Brewing Company, Mechanicsburg, PA

Another brewery that makes good tasting beer all-around. I guess they must not have much else to do in Pennsyltucky. They aren’t terribly high-gravity but they taste great. The sampler 12-pack is a good place to start. The Hopback Amber Ale is particulary good, and worth getting your hands on. Again this beer can be hard to find outside of the Mid-Atlantic so definitely try it when you get the chance.

Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA

Wow. These guys are hitting homeruns left and right. Again, a sampler is the way to go for starters. Golden Monkey packs a real punch (don’t drink more than a few) with serious sweetness and high gravity, even for a trippel. The Hop Devil and Prima Pils are very fine beers, you really can’t get much better than them in their genre (American IPA and Pilsner respectively). Victory beer is on the pricey side and when I feel like spending a little extra it’s definitely an outstanding choice.

Smuttynose Brewing Company, Portsmouth, NH

Good old reliable Smuttynose. It’s easy to find in supermarkets and beverage centers. It tastes good. Most of their beer is, all things considered, reasonably priced. This is routinely my brewery of choice for regular beer drinking. They have a big bottle (25 oz.) series with many seasonally available beers to try. They’re all good. I have been enjoying the Wheat Wine (big) and the Summer Weizen on hot days (of which there were many this summer). Their beer is eminently drinkable and widely available. Keep up the good work boys.

Have fun with this list, I know I do!

During that time we struck up a friendship with a nice couple from Maine who had also recently relocated to Bend. They were Thor and Sarah (along with their dog Ocean) and they were friendly, funny and perhaps feeling a bit isolated, as we were. Being in a new town with no friends is hard and companionship eases one’s transition when you’re in a new place. We quickly became fast friends with Thor and Sarah, whom we shared a New England bond with. They were both from Maine, and like us, shared a love for the outdoors.

Our stay in Bend lasted for only one year. Thor and Sarah stayed there a few more years but they too have come home to the northeast. They now live in Lincolnville, Maine and run a day and multi-day sailing excursion business called Thorfinn Expeditions along the coast of Maine and beyond. Their custom boat, a Presto 30, has a really shallow draft so it can be sailed into coves and around shoals where most other boats can’t go.

Thorfinn Expeditions offers a number of cool day trips and can do custom trips that involve multiple sports. The small nimble Presto 30 can be used to approach maritime climbing areas and rocky coves for sea kayaking. Thor, the boat’s captain is a really competent sea kayaker and climber  and has extensive experience traveling on both the Atlantic and Pacific maritime coasts.

If you’re interested in sailing along the Maine coast and want a unique experience, or are looking for a different way of approaching the climbing at Acadia give Thor a call or shoot him an email. He’ll show you a good time and make sure you have a safe experience. I’m hoping to make the Thorfinn my approach vessel for a southern Newfoundland rock trip just as soon as I can.