Great events, incredible swag, unsurpassed organization, and hundreds upon hundreds of psyched climbers from all over the place made this past weekend?s Ninth New River Rendezvous a total blast from start to finish.
During the two main event days, climbers went out climbing on their own, participated in an outdoor climbing competition, or attended event clinics. Clif Bar donated hundreds of Clif products for clinic participants, enabling everyone to grab some to take along on their way out to the crags ? really cool. The clinic topics ranged from improving a variety of sport climbing or trad climbing skills to wilderness first aid, among others.
Kevin and I taught prAna/Petzl ? sponsored Fall-Safe clinics on both Friday and Saturday. These clinics aimed to help climbers with some previous lead climbing/belaying experience to overcome the fear of falling by learning how to fall safely, as well as how to catch a lead fall safely while sport climbing. We started each day with a thorough talk about the safety inherent in climbing equipment, as well as sharing some basic pointers about belaying and falling, followed by a lead-falling/lead-belaying demonstration.
After that, it was on to having the participants start falling and belaying each other. We backed them up with a loose top-rope to inspire confidence, while still keeping the feeling of lead-falling real. They started out with small falls under or just at the bolt, and gradually progressed so that everyone was able to take much bigger falls from above the bolt confidently and safely ? and able to belay these bigger falls confidently and safely as well.
Our clinic participants proved to be avid learners who were excited to work toward mastering their fears and challenging themselves. Seeing people?s confidence in the equipment, themselves, and each other grow throughout the day was awesome. I?ve honestly never had so much fun watching so many whippers taken, or seen so many smiles and laughter from falling climbers and their belayers. As one of the clinic participants put it, ?It?s sort of a different approach, climbing up and just knowing that you?re going to purposely fall off.? By the end of each day, we saw safer belaying skills and more confident leaders. Hopefully everyone who participated will now be able to enjoy their future climbing experiences with much less risk of injury or being overcome by joy-robbing fear.
Every night after climbing, competing, or clinics, climbers congregated back at the event venue. Vendor booths offered freebies galore, including yoga classes and massages from prAna (for which the list filled up to the max in about five minutes) and poster signings by prAna Ambassadors Chris Sharma and Paul Robinson, among many others. Climbers could also sate their thirst either at the beer tent or at prAna?s no-booze bar, which offered bubble tea and other fruity nonalcoholic beverages. Crowd-pleasing events kept spirits high and interest engaged, from the sumo crash pad contest to the dyno comp, as well as the mysterious Crouching Clowny, Hidden Monster, which left people shaking their heads and wondering exactly what they?d just seen take place (guess you?ll have to wait until next year to find out if you missed it this time).
Kevin and I showed up not knowing quite what to expect, having never attended the event before, but we left already stoked to be a part of next year?s New River Rendezvous.
~Alli Rainey, prAna Ambassador
Be sure to check out all the pictures at http://ow.ly/51XIs and Tag yourself and your friends!
Breath, life, vitality of the spirit.
Source: http://www.prana.com/blog/2011/05/25/new-river-rendezvous-number-9-video/
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