Neel Parikh

Everyone knows that I’m a bit of a backpack whore… I broke through the denial a few months back, and came to the realization that I had far too many packs for any grown adult male. I ended up flipping a few that I wasn’t using on Kijiji, and began searching for a good all-round climbing pack. I was also sick of carrying around a gear bag + a rope bag, so whatever i got had to be able to fit both. My other criteria were: It had to be comfortable, reasonably waterproof or at least water shedding, and have enough room to store (in addition to a 60m rope) shoes, harness, chalk, a sport/trad rack, a water bottle, some snacks, and some other smaller emergency items.

When REI came out with it’s seasonal 20% off coupon, I figured it was time to pull the trigger, and took a gamble on the Mammut Neon Gear 45. Having never seen one in person, let alone tried it on, I was a little skeptical, but after breaking it in on a trip to Lion’s Head, a couple trips to Mt Nemo, and more recently, a week in Squamish, I am completely sold. This is one of the most versatile climbing packs I’ve ever used, and will likely be the only climbing/cragging pack I will ever need in the foreseeable future. (See how I worded that for when I eventually do cave in and buy another pack?)

So what makes this pack stand out in the crowd?

Tonnes of space without having the feeling of being a “big” pack. It swallows everything in my gear list like a black hole, and still has a bit of room to spare! The combo of back-load and top-load zippers makes loading and gaining access to your stuff a breeze. Unlike most top-load packs, you don’t need to empty out everything to grab something from the bottom. Everywhere I go people comment on the convenience of the back-load design. It’s actually quite shocking that it’s not more commonplace in packs.

Everybody loves gear loops. If for some reason, 45L just isn’t enough space, there are plenty of gear loops to clip extra gear on the back. And if you don’t want to store your rope inside the pack, or happen to be carrying an extra rap line, there’s a handy tie-down strap on the top that’ll take good care of your beloved cordage.

Plenty of mesh interior pockets and dividers help keep your gear organized, and there’s even a rope tarp to keep that Kentucky sandstone from infusing itself in everything it touches. There’s one small exterior zipped pocket large enough for carrying a phone, wallet, and couple Clif bars. Unfortunately this pocket is blocked if you’re carrying anything up top, and there’s no other exterior pockets for water bottles or other things you might want quick access to. I suppose that’s what the gear loops are for.

Worthy of separate mention is the removable, zipable, chalk bag pouch. Yep, it seems totally gimmicky, and maybe it is, but if you carry around loose chalk and don’t trust it in a Ziploc, at least you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that if it does spill, it’ll be in a zipped pocket, and not mingling around with the rest of your gear.

Of course, comfort is one of the biggest factors in buying a pack. Although completely subjective, I found that the Neon Gear effortlessly carries weight on long approaches… in fact, didn’t feel like i was carrying a rope at all. The waist strap is a tad thin, but has the added benefit of tucking away to convert into a decent piece of check-in luggage. On that note, the shoulder straps have convenient velcro coupling for carrying like a duffel. The back padding, while comfortable, leaves a bit to be desired in terms of breathability.

In the past, I’ve been pretty biased against Mammut gear… one of the first ropes I owned was a Mammut Flash 10.5. At the time i wasn’t very discriminating in my tastes for gear (my wallet, however, was very discriminating), and later came to the conclusion that the Flash (and basically every other Mammut rope that I have ever used) quite simply sucked. The Neon Gear goes a long way to changing my mind about Mammut products. Its unlikely that I’ll ever buy another Mammut rope, but the pack is definitely a winner.

So I just recieved my #0 Black Diamond C3. I’ve always loved BD gear, but I was a bit iffy on the C3s because the triggers are a tad stiff for my liking and they’re pretty pricey. A 20% off REI coupon made the latter problem go away, and lets face it, you can almost never go wrong with BD gear.

I pretty rarely read manuals, but I happened to pop open the C3 manual while having a bite to eat, and came across the “Bad Placements” section…. the last line of which reads “Avoid placing Camalot C3s”…

Wtf?

Seriously?

Ummmmmm….

A sigh of relief came over me as I flipped to the page to find that the sentence continued to read “in vertical bottoming cracks where it is not possible to align the stem in the direction of the load”

Hah, copy writing fail, BD! better get on that one…

Finger Injuries are as common to climbing as harnesses and rope, and I’ve been unlucky enough to have experienced a few of them of varying severity dating back to when I started climbing more seriously a fews years ago. My strength and technique were becoming respectable, I was feeling great, thinking that I would finally be able to get on some of those inspiring climbs that I had always wanted to try…. and then, BAM, I’m out for the count. It made me think… hmm.. maybe it wasn’t just a matter of being unlucky, but moreso a matter of recognizing the signs of imminent injury, utilizing proper pre and post-session stretching exercises, and treating symptoms before they got worse. Before anyone rants at me, I’ll say that I am by no means qualified to give any advice and that you should seek professional training and/or treatment, blah blah blah. Treat this as some bookmarks, and a bit of personal experience that you might find useful in prevention and treatment of finger injuries.

I actually started writing this post about a year and a half ago, after returning from another trip to the Red, where I pretty much sucked, due to what I assume was an A4 pulley injury. It seemed like every time I trained hard for trips, I’d end up with finger injuries and not actaully get to enjoy the trips – I’ve since learned that it was a combination of my training, overuse, and simply not treating the injuries properly and thus never allowing them to heal.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you know me, and not because you randomly googled “finger injuries” … if you did, you’re much more likely to end up finding a fantastic article written by Dave MacLeod on this exact subject. So rather than saying exactly what he said, but in my own, less scientific, less eloquent way, I’ll comment on a few things that have worked for me:

Rest:
Yes, it’s hard to stop doing someting you love, but tendon injuries take a while to heal. In all honesty, it wasn’t until I had an appendectomy and was forced to take 5 weeks off climbing that I actually felt like my finger had come close to a fully recovery. If you’re like me and just can’t stay away from the rock/plastic, at least be sensible about it:

• Cut out the hangboard training for a few weeks, particularly campusing.
• Avoid climbing anything too crimpy.
• Try to look at the brighter side of things. I used it as an opportunity to work on two things that I was particularly weak at: footwork, and slopers. Both have improved drastically as a result.

Tape:
There’s a lot of conflicting thoughts on whether or not taping helps. Some say it does absolutely nothing and is just a placebo with no purpose other than preventing flappers. Personally, I find that it helps significantly, but shouldn’t be over used. I would tape firmly for support to the pulley, but also overlap slightly onto the distal joint to prevent me from overcrimping. The other added benefit was that the tape would provide an extra layer of protection from any sharp rock/holds directly poking into the inflammed area.

I find that there comes a point in your recovery where tape will either do nothing, or end up causing more harm than good – By continuously taping and helping stabilize the finger, you may actually be preventing the tendons from developing this strength and stability themselves. In my case, I just knew when it was time to stop taping.

Anti-inflammatories:
Inflammation is the body’s way of dealing with injury, but when it becomes chronic, it’s likely doing more harm than good. Ice is always the go-to remedy for me – not only does it feel great, but it helps keep swelling down, and promotes blood flow. Oh, and it’s basically free.

I’ve had a limited experience with topical anti-inflammatories like Pennsaid and Voltaren, and the only thing that I can say is that they don’t tend to be particularly effective unless you use them a few times a day – putting Voltaren on an injury once a night isn’t going to help – you need to be hitting it every 4 hours or so.

Prevention:
Tendons aren’t like muscles, they take a long time to build up, and can be injured ridiculously easily, particularly with new climbers whose fingers have not been previously exposed to the kind of force that the sport often entails. When they DO get injured, they can take weeks or months to recover, so your best bet is to cut them some slack and try to keep them healthy. If you’re just starting out, ditch the hangboard. For beginners (and actually for almost anyone), the best training for climbing, is climbing. period. You don’t need finger specific training to pull on some 5.7s in a gym, it’s just an injury waiting to happen. The same goes for campus training – it’s a great tool for training for advanced climbing, but pretty unnecessary until you reach levels where finger strength and campus style movement is holding you back. That being said, if you are hangboarding, campusing, or just climbing hard, warm up! I see way too many “kids” walk into the gym, throw on a harness and start working on their 5.12 project or head straight for the training room. Climbing or training hard on cold fingers and muscles is just a bad idea… do an easy (V0-) 30-50 move traverse, then sit down and stretch out those muscles and fingers. Your body will thank you, and you’ll likely find that your fingers work so much better once they have some blood flow going. Even if I’m not training, I’ll still start my day with a route at least 3 full grades below my redpoint max, and work my way up. If adding 2-3 “easy” routes to your session over-tires you, then I dont think think finger strength should be your primary concern.

Other resources:
Here’s a few helpful pages – if you have any other recommended reading, please feel free to comment and I’ll add them to the list.

• Dave Macleod
• Eric Horst (some good diagrams here)
• ClimbingInjuries.com
• Finger Stretches (video)
• Hand Exercises

So it’s that time of year again. Yep, Red River Gorge time! It’s just such fantastic rock that despite the craptastic weather forecast, there’s still no way I’d bail on a trip to the Red. For those if you who haven’t been, the Red is a mecca of steep, juggy, powerful routes. Basically the complete opposite of the technical crimpy routes that I tend to be better at. This time I’m heading down armed with a winter of bouldering experience that should lend itself nicely to the kind of moves I’d need to actually send anything substantial down there. (speaking of which, if you’re looking for something less douchy than 8a.nu, check out Jamie Chong’s new site, www.sendage.com). The goal for the trip is a few hard 11′s, maybe work a 12 or two, but I suppose that’ll all depend on which way the wind blows, how many butterflies fart in Africa, and whether we can fend off the rain long enough to play on some fun routes…. because in the end, pushing grades is great, but taking a road trip, and having a blast on some quality rock with some quality friends is what I’m really stoked about.

Some the others in the group want to get onto BOHICA (Motherlode, 13b), which, to be honest, I think they’ll get totally spanked on (think 100ft sustained steep hauling on 2 pad holds after only training on 25 feet of plastic all winter… no offense to their skill, they’re all crazy strong, but I just think it’s a little ambitious). On a more positive note though, it’ll give them a good feel of what it’s actually like to get on a 5.13 outdoors, and what kind of training and commitment it’ll actually take to be able to send stuff at that grade. I think if I were to pick one climb at that level to strive for, it’d be Predator 5.13b at Rumney. The climb starts after the first pitch of Tropicana (my first 11a onsight with super fun movement), and just looks like a wicked good time! Check back in a year or so, an I may haven take a run at it, lol.

I assume that Predator gets it’s name from the epic prow finish, and BOHICA = “Bend Over, Here It Comes Again”. So that got me thinking about Transworld Depravity. What’s in a name? Google just left me even more confused. I don’t even know how to begin wrapping my head around what it has to do with the climb, but perhaps that’s because it’s been a looong day, and I really shouldn’t be up past midnight reading up on The Problem of Evil and The Free Will Defense. Damn you Wikipedia! I’ll get back to that one in the morning. More to come

I’m sure you know that I was pretty bummed out after my impromptu surgury right before I was supposed to be climbing in sunny Squamish (…at least it was sunny back then… i’ve been lead to believe that it’s a soaked swampland now). Well as it turns out, with a little hard work, I now feel stronger than ever, san-appendix. I hit up Rumney with a fantastic group of people who pushed me to climb things that I wouldn’t normally think were doable, and came back list of sends beyond what I had ever done pre-surgury. I think just knowing how weak i was after having a hole cut thought my abdomenal wall gave me the extra incentive to push myself a little bit further, train that extra bit more, and try a little harder. And I’ve realized, sometimes that’s really all it’s about – trying harder. In fact, I tried hard enough that I finally took some good lead falls.

I used to be really adverse to falling on lead… I just mentally couldn’t do it. I knew that falling was safe, I always had belayers that I trusted, and I had even “practiced” falling in the gym when I first started climbing. So why is it that I’d always just downclimb to a clip and yell “take” every time things got dicey? I’m now convinced that I just wasn’t trying hard enough. It’s been said many many times that if you’re not falling, you’re not trying hard enough, and more generally, if you’re not failing, you’re not setting your goals high enough. The latter applies not only to climbing, but is also a great metaphor for many other aspects of life. People like to live in their comfort zone. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to be comfortable, by definition, it’s a fantastic state to be in. The problem with being comfortable is that it limits your ability to be creative, to be spontaneous, and to push your mind and body beyond their perceived limits.

At the beginning of the year, I read a fantastic quote, which has become a bit of a philosophy that I’ve tried to apply to many aspects of my life. I’m sure i’ve mentioned it here before, but since nobody reads this site anyway, there’s no harm in repetition: Become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Sure, sometimes you’ll go out of your comfort zone and you’ll fail miserably. But it’s all part of a learning process, and every time you push that envelope, you start increasing the “size” of your comfort zone. When you increase that comfort zone, you’ll either accompish some incredible things, or just get bored of life very quickly. Try it some time (being uncomfortable, not getting bored of life).

Back to climbing – this was my first trip to Rumney, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly. There are bolted routes there anywhere from 5.3 to 5.15, so whether you’re just starting out or want to repeat an epic Dave Graham line, there’s something there for everyone. It seems that they have no shame in bolting anything that’ll hold a bolt, so if you ever get the chance, head down to Rumney with a bag full of draws and clip to your heart’s content. I know I’ll be there next spring!

So I’m learning how to shoot video with my 7D. Here’s the first snippet of footage that I’ve shot: Daren working “Up Yonder” at Red River Gorge a few weeks ago. Sorry, no tripod, and a tad overexposed. I haven’t had a chance to run it through any filters or anything like that yet. Enjoy! (clicky for Vimeo link)

Today we mourn the loss of a dear old friend, the old Toronto Climbing Academy. Its a sad day indeed. We’ll all shed a tear as we head there tonight for one last send-fest. Tomorrow we’ll all shed some more tears, along with fresh skin, from the gritty, sandpaper-like walls of the new location (complete with dozens of leadable routes!). We’re pretty lucky to have so many fantastic climbing gyms in the GTA, and i’ve been fortunate enough to meet some great people along the way.

On a related note, if you’re in Toronto the weekend of the 26th to 28th, check out the Banff Mountain Film Festival. It’s guaranteed to impress, inspire, and leave you wondering why you’re sitting on your computer reading some obscure blog, while others are out there living their dreams.

Back from Red River Gorge, which, although tonnes of fun, was a bit of a bust personally. We only got 3 days of basically “warmup” climbing in before the rain took over, and by the 2nd day, my right ring finger was a swollen red throbbing mess. A few days of ice, a few bottles of advil later, and the decision was made that there’ll be no more climbing for me for a while, at least nothing steep or crimpy. That does however lead to a pleasant part of RRG – I got to get on some easy trad pitches including my first lead on gear. While it was easy enough to solo, building up confidence in gear is a pretty gradual progression. I dropped about 4 grades from my sport redpointing max for my first lead, and threw on my trusty helmet. I guess these things come with practice, but there’s something unnerving about looking down at your harness to find the piece of gear you want to place, then noticing how far you’ve run out on nothing more than a red C3. A million things went through my head “i suck at hand jams”, “i wonder if i’m going to blow this foot placement”, “do i need a purple C4 or a green?”, “when is the Arrested Development moving coming out?” … oh Tobias, i <3 you. There's a whole new world of opportunity open now, and I'm excited to get on as many trad routes as I can. It's like learning how to climb all over again!

Rocktoberfest itself was a blast as usual, and I can't say enough good things about it. This year's Reel Rock Tour screening was BigUp’s Progression, which has set new standards for ANY climbing movie. Incredible cinematography, awesome soundtrack, and, of course, phenomenal climbing sequences from Sharma, Caldwell, Usobiaga, and the wonderchild Ondra. If you haven’t seen this, why are you sitting around reading this… go watch Progression!

. . . and what kind of people would we be if we bailed early from RRG due to bad weather without an impromptu detour to Chicago for some of Gino’s East’s famous deep dish pizza. terrible people, terrible people. that’s right. i said it.

So I’m back from Denmark and London and catching up on some work (yes I do work from time to time) and relaxing a little before hitting up Red River Gorge in Kentucky for Rocktoberfest! I’ve been itching to head back to the Red since last Rocktoberfest ’08, which was so much fun it should be illegal. Unfortunately last month my left ring finger decided I needed a break from climbing, as evidenced by a tendon and/or ligament that won’t let me crimp anymore. I took about 3 weeks off climbing, and then yesterday, thinking that everything was better, I did a single open handed pull-up on my hangboard. Much to my dismay, it appears that I still have some healing to do. It’s a good thing there’s so may jug hauls at the Red to keep me occupied. I suppose I should still take a bottle of Advil, just in case!


I also splurged a bit at a fantastic little store in Waterloo called Adventure Guide. The result was a set of BD Cams, Nuts, Hexes, and a new Bluewater 9.7mm rope. Hopefully I’ll make some good use of them on some easy trad climbs down in the Red.

Jordan Harbour is a hidden gem near St. Catherines; not so much for the climbing, which is quite honestly put, very mediocre, but more for the sheer cool factor of climbing the ruins of a bridge built in the 1800s. The route descriptions we read before heading out gave a whole new meaning to the word “sandbagged”. There are a few interesting looking routes in the remains of the first and second arches, but the bricks seem to have disintegrated into a sandy mess, rendering all amount of chalk and brute force jug pulling completely useless. Beyond the arches lie a series of stone towers that rise out of a murky field of gigantic grass like tombstones. Giant bolted tombstones. These, thankfully, were much more pleasant to climb, primarily because the holds didn’t disintegrate on contact. Only one of the towers is really accessible by foot, as the other bolted tower sits in a swap that is probably only accessible by boat. All said and done, apart from a couple of bored teenagers throwing firecrackers off the bridge and smoking their grandmothers cigarettes, it was a fun afternoon of climbing and a pretty neat expedition in general.