Adam Riser has been a climber for 11 years, guided 18 parties to the top of Mt. Rainier, and made expeditions as far north as the Northwest Territories and as far south as Peru's Cordillera Blanca. When not climbing, Adam spreads his time between downhill bike racing and backcountry skiing. He's also pretty good at ping pong.
Sleeping pads get used for more than just sleeping. Especially in the middle of seven straight rain days.
Camping as a kid my sleeping pad options were pretty simple. Do I want a black foam pad or a blue foam pad? These days, there are hundreds of different options to choose from, and they all seem to be designed for some very specific task, so getting the right one can actually make a difference. Here are a few things to consider when making your decision: Read More …
Backcountry.com copywriter Andy Anderson stoked to have a good tape job on the 155-foot-long Lite Not Solid (5.10d)
The difference between a good tape glove for crack climbing and a bad one can be fairly minor … or it can cost you a send. Good tape gloves save your hands and let you get away with a bit of thrutching when things get desperate. Bad tape gloves can be worse than wearing nothing at all. I’ve had tape gloves ball up and keep me from putting my hands in a crack, I’ve had them come off on the fifth pitch of an 18-pitch route, and I’ve even seen a friend who went with the old-school full-wrap method accidentally clip his tape glove (with his hand in it) to a piece of gear. Needless to say, that one took some doing to get out of.
A good tape glove should be thin enough that it doesn’t really change your hand size, it should be durable enough to last 20+ pitches, and it should leave your palm completely clear of any tape. There are several “perfect” tape gloves out there, but this one is my favorite.
Fixing this crushed wheel in the parking lot with wrench, screwdriver, hammer, spoke tool, and two beers.
Downhill races are hard on bikes. I think I’ve seen everything: broken cranks, blown tires, taco’d wheels, and just about anything else that can go wrong. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then check out Matti Lehikoinen’s crash at Leogang. His mechanics had his bike back in working condition in about the time it takes to ride the lift to the top, and it was running smoothly enough to let him qualify for 4th the next day. We mortal riders don’t have a team mechanic or a van full of enough spare parts to build three new bikes, but anyone who races should at least have the parts and tools to get their rig running after a bad off.
Put some thought and effort into your bike trail features
Good bike trails don’t build themselves. They take a lot of planning, time, and effort to create. Too many bikers are satisfied to simply ride existing trails, never thinking of how they got there in the first place. All too often I hear a rider complain about a jump or a berm or a section of trail that kills the flow, but that rider never thinks of picking up a shovel and fixing the problem. If a section of trail needs some love, get out there with tools, and fix it up. If some friends are building a new bike trail, go help them out for a few days. If there isn’t a trail around your home that has the type or riding you like to do, then step up, and build it yourself. Just make sure you do it right. You don’t want to put in weeks of effort only to find that your trail isn’t that good, or worse, creates access issues for everyone. Read More …
Before: A gape-tastic climber breaking the hell out of rule #7
A friend of mine recently started climbing and fell in love with it right away. Now he can’t get enough. Good on ya mate! On about his second day of climbing he turned to another friend and said “alright dude, what do I need to know to keep from looking like a total gaper when I’m climbing?” My friend came up with a list of things not to do. Here are a few of the highlights…
Looking down from the hanging belay at the top of pitch 13 on the Lotus Flower Tower. Only five more to go.
Hanging belays look great in photos, but let’s face it, the novelty disappears pretty quickly. After a half hour of hanging in your harness, your legs go numb, your kidneys throb, and your patience of your partner’s slow, methodical technique begins to wear thin. There are a few things that you can do to reduce the suck, so before you go get on something with pitch after pitch of steepness and no ledges in sight, make sure your bag of tricks is nice and full.
Pick up any freeride DVD out there, and you’ll see the biggest and most technical tricks being executed with a level of fluidity that borders on perfection. The stuff at the absolute limits of a pretty talented freerider looks like absolute child’s play when executed by the world’s best.
It’s pretty tempting to hop on your bike after the end credits, head to the dirt jumps, and throw down something that you just witnessed for the fist time. Later that day, while you’re downing painkillers like it’s your job, you may wonder how the pros go out and stick tricks so easily. The truth is that they practice like mad, bringing each trick through a progression of low- to high-commitment settings until they finally bring it to dirt. If you want to learn something new and stay in one piece, take the trick through the paces. Here’s how: Read More …
Whatever you do, don't use the tooth method.
You head back to camp after a good, long day of gettin’ after it and pull an icy cold beer from the cooler to celebrate. Suddenly, and not without a small measure of panic, you realize you forgot your bottle opener. Before you resort to breaking the neck off your Polygamy Porter with a rock and risk drinking down busted glass with your brew, open your eyes and look for some other alternatives. There are plenty of items in camp that will help you get access to a cold one. Depending on your chosen activity, you may have nearly limitless options.
This is the beginning of all hell breaking loose, but I missed all the gnar.
“I’m ready!” you tell your friend above, and a couple seconds later hear the distant response of “OK, dropping!” You fire off frames as your friend bursts from the lip of the jump, but he lets out an “Oh S#!T” as soon as he’s in the air, and you both know this is going to end badly. You have two choices. You can either lower your camera, and cringe as your buddy takes a massive digger, or you can hold down the shutter release and fire off frames like a machine gunner making his last stand. Either way, strange as it may seem, the first thing your friend will say when you get over to him is, “Tell me you got a picture of that.”
I’ve seen some pretty nasty stuff happen to friends while I was holding a camera, but I rarely got the defining photo because I didn’t want to be that jerk who stood there taking pictures while his friend got broken off. Read More …
Climbers, skiers, backpackers, mountain bikers, and just about everyone else who spends time in the outdoors generally can’t stand it when some Hollywood flick puts our sport up on the big screen or a television show pipes some terrible version of our lifestyle into homes all over the world and makes us look like a bunch of idiots. The only saving grace is that we know sooner or later someone will make a parody of the entertainment piece in question. Here are a few of my favorite variations on the five minutes of revenge. Read More …
Shoes to packs, hit the trails.
Backcountry house-hunting, simplified.
Stay dry out there.
Gaper-Proof Your Biking
By: Adam Riser | July 20th, 2010No Comments »
Gaper? No way. This guy will probably ride you into the ground.
To gape or not to gape, that is the question. For some reason, the things that make a mountain biker look like a gaper aren’t as cut and dry as they are in other outdoor activities. Some things change with time, and some things you can get away with if you ride well enough. Then, there are some things that never change. In the end, it’s a lot more about what you do and how you treat other riders than how you look.
Read More …
Tags: bike helmets, downhill, freeride, mountain biking
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