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URBAN CLIMBER MAGAZINE - STARTING HOLD
An Editorial by UCMAG Editor Andrew Tower
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 Starting Hold #40 - July 2010 - Photo Annual
Istarted shooting pretty much the day I started climbing. That doesn’t mean I’m any sort of real photographer. I had found a new activity/sport/lifestyle that I wanted to share with as many people as possible — not to mention make memories from my early days of gumbyism that shaped me into the climber I am today (a slightly less dangerous gumby). From my first outdoor trip to the terrible problems and routes we set in my college’s even more terrible climbing gym, we tried to capture everything.  STARTING HOLD #38 - MAY 2010
SPRING FEVER - AS TEMPS CHANGE, SO DOES EVERYTHING ELSE // Outside our offices in Boulder, Colorado, there are two dudes tailgating in the parking lot. They’re shirtless, sipping Coronas, and munching chips, salsa, and guac. The computer resting in the trunk space of their SUV is pumping some indefinable music...  STARTING HOLD - #37 > 2010 GEAR GUIDE
ENLIGHTENMENT FOR THE GEAR HEAD // I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with gear over the course of my climbing life. My attitude on the matter has morphed from love, to disdain to, ultimately, a healthy respect. I started, like many, as a naïve little gumby who didn’t know a pecker from a Reverso and thought they both probably had something to do with bedtime activities.  STARTING HOLD - #36 > JANUARY 2009
FAR AND WIDE - CLIMBING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAVEL //It was freezing and dark in the tent when I woke. My threeseason sleeping bag wasn’t holding enough heat in the Australian winter night, which had turned out to be much colder than I’d planned for. I wedged my fingers under my arms and tried not to think about the piss I had to take, concentrating fruitlessly on sleep.  STARTING HOLD - #35 > DECEMBER 2009
WELL, THAT WAS FUN - 2009’S A WRAP. NOW WHAT? // Where the hell did this decade go? Is time accelerating? Intellectually, I know that the distance between years is pretty much consistent, delineated by the Earth’s rotation around the sun, but experientially, each year grows shorter and shorter as I age. I’ve decided it has something to do with relativity — i.e., relative to the amount of time you’re alive, a year is increasingly small.  STARTING HOLD - #34 > NOVEMBER 2009
CINEMA PARADISO - RE-DISCOVERING CLIMBING AND COMMUNITY IN THE DARK // Mid September, I went to the nationwide premier of the Reel Rock Film Tour at the Boulder Theater in Boulder, Colorado. It came as no surprise that the theater was packed — Boulder is, after all, one of the most climber-dense regions in the country. It was so jammed, in fact, I feared for my safety.  STARTING HOLD - #33 > OCTOBER 2009
GIVING THANKS - AREA DEVELOPERS, WE SALUTE YOU // Ah, fall, my favorite time of year. Many poets and writers equate fall with old age, decay, and the inevitable slide towards death (winter). For us climbers, though, it’s more like spring, a time of energy and new life — ‘tis the season, as they say.  STARTING HOLD - #31 > AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009
IT'S A PEOPLE THING - The heart and soul of climbing - It almost goes without saying that the most interesting thing about climbing is climbers. The act of climbing - reach, grab, step, repeat - is about as exciting as watching C-SPAN. Of course, there're those turbocharged moments: the all-points-off dyno, the mondo whipper, the down-to-the move comp tie-breaker - but these are the rare homeruns at an otherwise sleepy ballgame.  STARTING HOLD - #30 > PHOTO ANNUAL 2009
THE ART OF EXPERIENCE: Why photography is important for climbing - Talking about climbing can be damned frustrating — those pesky non-climbers just don’t seem to get it. Our parents call our life’s passion a “hobby” and beg us to wear helmets and stay low to the ground — they’d prefer not to know the details. Strangers, the polite ones, anyway, just nod and smile as we relate our tales of whippers, slopers, and sending temps.  STARTING HOLD - #29 > MAY 2009
Only After You’ve Lost - Climbing, like life, has moments where all the effort in the world won’t grant the send you hoped for, constantly strove for, and believed with all your heart one day would come. There’s sometimes a journey involved in climbing a piece of rock that carries with it a spectrum of feelings, ranging from pure optimism, excitement, and childlike giddiness to bouts of anger, confusion, doubt, and unbearable pain.  STARTING HOLD - #27 > FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009
For the love of it - This issue of Urban Climber isn’t about the latest and the greatest. In its pages you won’t find much of today’s Breaking News or tomorrow’s Wunderkind. In the place of spray, you’ll find The Love... the essence of what we do.  STARTING HOLD - #26 > DECEMBER 2008/JANUARY 2009
Finding Forever - If deep down you think of yourself as a climber, that means at one point, somewhere, you got the notion that scaling rocks could fill a void in your life or otherwise offer satisfaction unsurpassed by any other activity. And, know it or not, that notion set the stage for the rest of your life.  STARTING HOLD - #25 > OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2008
Illustration by Joe Iurato - We’re all sick of the summer. Tired of it. Just want it to be over. Dank, frictionless, sweltering rock sucks. Feel like we’ve been starving over here. This past summer was like a diet of rice and water. We’re ready for hearty portions of Atlantic salmon and full glasses of Pinot Noir; big ole’ hunks of rich cheeses and dark, meaty brews; homemade pumpkin pies, apple cider donuts and cinnamon spiced cappuccinos.  STARTING HOLD - #24 > August/September 2008
Yep. For some strange reason, while Mr. Winston “Burning Spear” Rodney was singing Foggy Road, I began thinking about how much story lies behind each story we write. Climbers are really interesting characters. Sure, we get all fired up when we read about JC Hunter, mother of four, sending solid double-digit problems; or Alain Robert, the “French Spiderman”, soloing a 1,000-foot NYC Skyscraper; or Chris Sierzant, climber/entrepreneur, just killin’ it in the South.  STARTING HOLD - #23 > JUNE/JULY 2008
“Meet me in Canche Aux Merciers. I have a beautiful traverse for you to try.” This is how our day started. Jo Montchaussé was on the phone, eager to show us one of his favorite traverses. Our logic was such: Fontainebleau is his home. He’s probably touched every single nook of every single boulder. In fact, he opened many of Bleau’s most classic climbs.  STARTING HOLD - #22 > APRIL/MAY 2008
by Joe Iurato - On the side of a river, factories and smokestacks reach up to a dead sky of soot and ash — a unique sight that can be witnessed from any plane coming in for a landing at Newark International Airport. The world gets strange around 20,000 feet. Crystalline blue skies suddenly turn as muddy as the marshes below. Down further, the air is thicker than water. Grass dare not grow where the highway thrives.  STARTING HOLD - #20 > FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
It’s cold out there, isn’t it? 20 degrees or so. Even colder, maybe. Not too much sunshine, and there’s a fresh dusting of snow in the street. Might take a little oomph to motivate and go rock climbing today. Thinking about it, first there’s the layering: thermals, heavy socks, pants, shirt, fleece, down fatty, boots, and the skull cap. Ahh, might as well throw in some gloves for good measure and make it official. Then there’s the actual opening of the front door, which completely murders what was once a cozy little heat bubble of an apartment.  STARTING HOLD - #21 > FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
I remember sitting on my mother’s couch on a rainy afternoon back in 94, watching the 25-year anniversary of the Woodstock festival on TV. While hundreds of thousands gathered in Saugerties for “2 More Days of Peace and Music”, I blissfully perched in front of the tube with my younger brother.  STARTING HOLD - #19 > OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
My friends call me “No Tips”. Not because I stiff restaurant help or know something that you don’t, and won’t share. Nah, it’s much worse than that. It’s because my damn fingertips bleed so much it warrants a nickname.  STARTING HOLD - #18 > AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2007
It looks like you've been swallowed by soil and regurgitated back to life. Damn, what a mess. You're gonna hurt someone with that stank. You could also probably charge rent for those welts on your back. No, no, no...stop crying! You'll send it, but probably not right now. I mean come on, look at that nasty crimp anyway. It hasn't seen a good brushing in, well, ever. Right now you need to work with the heat - not against it. Here, have a sip of water, sit down, take a good look at the state of your nemesis, and listen up. We need to get that thing shiny and pristine for Autumn. |
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