You’re probably going to have to buy a house that already has one in it. The SF Chronicle has an article about a woman who buys a 1500lb boulder and the delivery person will only drop it off in the driveway, not the backyard. It would cost around $2500 just to get a crane to your house, which you’ll need to move the rock.

Here’s the article about buying a boulder. Don’t miss the photo of the $500, 1500lb boulder, because then you’ll know you’ll have to spend a lot more to get a boulder that’s big enough to actually climb.

Tags: boulder, backyard

Looks like a company has spent more than $1 million (£1million) to develop a climbing and caving area. It might be the
Gorge choice for Olympic climbing? (2012 Olympics in London.) The article says there are over 300 routes at Cheddar Gorge, so I’m wondering where all the money went.

Tags: climbing, olympics, cheddar gorge

His five year old climbs, so he climbs indoors too: Jude Law’s daughter teaches him ‘rock climbing.’

Tags: jude law, climbing

It’s an inflatable Iceberg with climbing holds, but you need a really big pool.

Tags: climbing, pool, iceberg

If you want to show someone a quick video about what climbing is like, this video on the NY Times web site is great. Philosophy on the Side of a Cliff shows one writer’s experience climbing in the Gunks. You’ll catch glimpses of basic climbing technique, learn what the equipment is, and even hear from a park ranger. Pretty good and it’s only 5 minutes.

BTW — If you missed Celebrity Fit Club, I don’t know why they don’t give the contestants a pair of climbing shoes. Trying to lose weight in tennis shoes doesn’t work on the rock wall!

Tags: Gunks, climbing, learning

Climbing’s been popular and accessible for quite a while, but now one article starts to examine the impact of it. “Yosemite’s new breed of rock rats” gives a quick history of the climbing at Yosemite and the push to for faster, riskier ascents amongst the sponsored climbers. The historical overview is good and they include bits about the impact of climbing on the Valley. But the article has a couple of odd features:

• I can’t seem to find link they mention for Dan Osman’s speed-climb of Lover’s Leap (from ‘Master’s of Stone’, perhaps they found out it was copyrighted); and
• A poll whether rock climbing has become too competitive (maybe it should only have referred to some parts of the climbing community and whether they’re getting too competitive).

Tags: yosemite, climbing, competition

A Canmore newspaper reports about the winners of the 2006 Banff Mountain Photography Competition who happen to be from Canmore.

Tags: banff, photos

An amateur driver wins entry into the Dunlop Drivers Cup driving challenge and says rock climbing helped prepare him for racing. The press release is a little misleading because he’s been racing for years, while the organizers say his skills racing to the mountains to climb impressed them. Just watch out for this guy on the way to his local crag: Topanga Rock Climber ‘Climbs’ Into Dunlop Drivers Cup”.

Tags: rock climbing, racing

Not worth reading the whole article, but I guess that team building exercises are probably used throughout the world to bring in extra revenue at climbing gyms. Here’s an example from India: “Rock climb up the corporate ladder”

Tags: rock climbing, team building