The truth about women, by Stevie Haston

This blog piece is going to be too good for this blog. It should be in a magazine but of course magazines are failing to do any kind of job. Blogs are just blogs so can't fail, Andrew Bisharat take note. Women on the other hand don't fail, they succeed, they succeed more than men because they don't try as hard as men and still do a great job. Well most of the time anyway. In Yoga most of the teachers are women. In climbing most of the good climbers are men, but how much do the men try compared to the women? Now I am generally a fan of women, but despite what I have just said, I have to tell you that you are under achieving. There is a great deal of chauvinism in climbing which is keeping girls back. So girls don't take any notice.

This is Laurence (Laurence is a girl's name) burning me off on a very importantly sized edge. Despite much training this edge is very hard for this particular male climber to pull on. I am a good climber, Laurence is a good climber, but Laurence is more comfortable on this edge. In my family there are a few females who climb they all have stronger small hold capability. There are in my family two yoga teachers and sundry members who practice yoga and stretching, only two can do perfect box splits, one is a yoga teacher the other me. Who has tried harder at box splits the girl or me? Is it harder to do box splits if you are of the disadvantaged sex? Is it harder to pull on tiny holds if you are of the larger sex?  

In order of appearance are Harmonie, Melody and Stevie warming up. Who will be the best climber, who has the most advantages? At the moment it will be me, but not for long, if these girls keep it up I believe they will out climb me, and I look foreword to it. When Fishuber did the famous route Action Direct-the 'male route' which has testosterone written all over it, he was asked if a woman would ever do it. To his credit he said, they would if they had sufficient height. Years ago a sport climbing champion said that women would never on-sight 7c (yes Jibe that was you), how wrong he was. Today I can now see no reason why girls won't onsight 8c, or more!

And some of the guys out there are thinking what about power and how it affects climbing? Well girls are just as powerful as men if you weigh them, and thats what counts. If a girl wants to carry 5O kgs sacs of grain like me, she won't look like a ballerina. If a girl wants to climb a powerful climb like Action direct she won't even have to be very powerful, just have strong fingers, a strong core, and know how to move. I can't wait for this to happen, it makes me smile just thinking about it.

Grivel Rocker and Haul Pack by Stevie Haston

The Grivel Rocker is a purpose designed day out at the crag, or bouldering cliff back pack. Its great advantage is that is an organizer while being good to carry. The opening is a very robust zip flap which folds out flat allowing you access to a large main area which takes a lot of gear. There are various pockets and sleeves for your gear with a clip in gear rail for your draws, descender and belay device, this facility will hopefully help you stop loosing gear. There is a rope tarp as well, which keeps things a bit cleaner. All in all an interesting bag, it makes me wonder what I did before, and then I realize how much time I lost looking for things, and the tangled mess! I am not a logical person or a tidy one and this rucksac works real well. The only draw back is the single color which makes being individual hard in our big family as every body likes this bag!

Do you get the idea? Gear loops etc, pockets for different stuff, easier access.

This is the Grivel small haul pack and its robust and about right for me to do a bit of equipping or a short route where I only need to haul a small amount. This last spring, I ruined a couple of packs hauling thru abrasion this one should last thru the next trip. Its basically the normal bomb proof little haul bag, it's got some straps which fit in to a zipped pouch for hauling and you take them out for back packing. I tested the bag with loads of weight, seemed to do the job, there you go. 
If you want to check on Grivel gear here. 

Training the progression and progressing the training, by Stevie locomotive Haston

This is my non-climbing wife burning me off on the 6 millimeter edge, 18 secs! She has been training, and very well indeed, but not for long! She has always amazed me, but at the moment, I am going to slow her down. And I am going to slow down too.

This is a one arm 'lefty' weak arm, with + 14 kgs. In April I couldn't do a good one arm!

Middle two, multiple one arm.

 This is not sorted totally, but is coming on good. Its the twist, and an extention up, very useful for me, as I tend to pull and stop, and thus induce failure.

 Trying the same thing with weight on a rail.

Back two fingers, this is not a good idea for most folk!

I want to thank Eva Lopez. I want to thank Jurgen Reiss.

Its funny to think that Action Direct is so far from me because clearly it might be possible. I talked to Wolfgang  in a cafe in Wolfsburg (I think) we talked about power and how elusive it could be. It is a little sad that at the end of my sporting life I am getting results that I would have sold my soul for. Like I said I am going to slow down, train my progression back to zero, and try to make micro improvements. I have very big problems with back pain, and calcification on one finger, plus a tendency for two knuckles to deform and hurt. Working around these problems has been interesting.

The biggest problem is my wife Laurence, she is starting more classes of Kundalini Yoga and we have less time together to enjoy our climbing and her amazing potential.

Why do you climb? By Stevie ? Haston

Everest mother of all mountains looking groovy, because you can't see all the people!


The British climber George Mallory was asked, 'Why do you climb', and he famously replied 'Because its there'. Information has just reached me thru the celestial internet, that what he actually said was, 'to get away from the Cnuts'. 
Cavers cave 'because its not there'. I climb because, 'theres nothing else'. 

Everest or Chomolungma, with its prayer flag praying in the wind, flapping against the vapid egos of human ants.  

Every year or so I give up climbing and do something else, sometimes its running and sometimes its snowboarding sometimes its caving, and weirdly sometimes its climbing! Thats right I give up climbing, and go climbing!

When I had money, I would disappear into the desert of the Four Corners of America or go running in the Himalayas, today I feel like disappearing into deepest France, the new great cliffs that have blossomed like magic mushrooms. Overhangs are always there........

Climbing is ruled by Idiots, by Stevie Haston

Today was a day for Yoga, but my life interferes, my life at the moment revolves around climbing, and climbing is as usual a total mess.

Killian Fischuber, was robbed of the bouldering title  by the incompetence and mismanagement of the organizers.

Like wise Ramon ‘the champ’ was eliminated from a comp because of a long move.

In some ways these things pale into insignificance when one realizes that most of the best of today are on the bread line.

Manufacturers and the industry are paying less than peanuts for their climbing monkeys.

An industry that increasingly  cares less and less, a public that wants more and more, but supports less and less.

Today we have great climbers, make no mistake, but we reward them with what? Most of them can’t afford the petrol to go to the cliffs.

Right, back to Yoga.

La Grimpe est gouvernée par des Idiots, by Stevie Haston

Aujourd'hui était un jour pour le Yoga, mais ma vie s'immisce, ma vie tourne à l'heure actuelle autour du monde de la grimpe et ce monde est comme d'habitude un désordre total.
Killian Fischuber, a été privé du titre de Champion en Bloc par l'incompétence et la mauvaise gestion des organisateurs.
Comme Ramon  ' le  grand champion ' a été éliminé d'un comp à cause d'un long mouvement.

D'une certaine manière cela s'évapore dans l'insignifiance quand on se rend compte que la plupart des meilleurs grimpeurs d'aujourd'hui doivent pratiquement aller à la soupe populaire.
Les fabricants et l'industrie payent moins que des cacahouètes  leurs singes grimpeurs.
Une industrie qui s'en fiche de plus en plus, un public qui veut de plus en plus, mais supporte de moins en moins.
Aujourd'hui nous avons de fantastiques grimpeurs, ne vous méprenez pas, mais nous les récompensons avec quoi ? La plupart d'entre eux n'ont   même pas les moyens de mettre de l'essence pour aller aux falaises.
Je retourne à ma séance de yoga.

Deep Water Soloing on Malta and more bolts news, by Stevie Haston

Jeff on King of Kings.

Deep water soloing or sea soloing is a big thing in the Maltese summer and summer in Malta is a long affair. Jeff Camilleri one of my friends on the islands is responsible for a huge amount of development and says that there have been a few great additions of late. So just as a reminder there is great stuff over three islands with an un-ending amount of rock.

Jeff trying the wicked crux of Dinosaur balls V9.

The greatest development of good solos is still probably at Har Hassan which is one of the most accessible cliffs from the capitol.

New routes are Silence must be heard 7a, TNT for the brain7c, Return to Innocence7b, at the Inigma sector. 

Jeff will help anyone with a bit of beta and has a contact at 

www.Wallrats.net

Charlie the owner of Wallrats, a  retail shop, has kindly offered to help me out with some bolts. Check him out if you need to buy gear.

Being grateful, by Stevie Haston

I have had a bad week, but I did the "welcome the sun salutation" with the grand kids, and other stuff like caving and pull ups, their joy was my joy. The man above is the Yogi Bhajan, he is dead but he speaks to me thru his work. It is the Yogi's birthday tomorrow and many of my wife's friends around the world will all be celebrating this man's work and life, I will be too and I want my friends and family to celebrate goodness and correctness and peace in their way too. I had many lovely messages this week from people around the world which has helped me with the usual nonsense of most human existence. Have some good vibes back, tomorrow I will wake up before the sun and walk up the mountain, when I get to the summit I will have a look all around and be at peace, and I will be grateful.