Monday, December 10, 2012

Why I've Stopped Tying in with a Bowline

Here's a link to a story about John Long getting injured at a gym when his bowline came untied and he fell.

http://www.rockandice.com/news/2383-john-long-injured-in-groundfall

John says the knot failed because he didn't finish tying it properly.  I used to tie in with a bowline because they are easier to untie.  I no longer do because a friend of mine was 50 feet up a 5.12 trad lead, noticed his bowline had come untied and wouldn't hold a fall, had to re-tie the knot with one hand while barely hanging on with the other, and then lowered to safety.  I know it's a safe knot when done correctly, but that is two people I know of that are much better, harder, and more experienced climbers than I am that have narrowly escaped disaster because of a bowline coming loose.

I've decided to just stick with a figure eight.  It's never come loose on me, and trying to untie one after a hard fall just gives my arms a better workout.  Nothing wrong with that.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Early AM Trail Runs and the New Store

It's been a long time since I have written anything on this blog.  There are a few reasons for that.

First of all, we finally opened the new store (albeit in a temporary space).  It's been really fun to work  on opening a business over the last year or so.  I have learned a ton, met a lot of great people along the way, and am excited about what the future holds.  With that said, most of my time has been spent at the store and not in the mountains.

Second, because of the lack of free time during the days, my workouts/adventures have been taking place between about 4 and 6am.  The majority of workouts lately have been trail runs, but we've thrown in some dry tooling and rock climbing as we anxiously await colder temperatures.  Unfortunately, I rarely remember to bring a camera on my runs, and the camera on my phone takes horrible pictures (and doesn't have a flash for pictures when it's dark).  Therefore, when I don't have pictures, I don't blog.  It's just so much easier to download a picture than think of something interesting to say.

Anyway, here are a couple links to some of the press that our store has been getting recently.  We're pretty excited about it.

This from the Standard Examiner.  We appreciate the article and the Standard's support.

http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/11/28/gear30-opens-ogden-riverbend-project-area

This from KUTV's morning show.  Brandon, our marketing director, with Ron Bird:

http://www.kutv.com/news/features/guests/stories/vid_882.shtml

For all those in or near the Ogden area, come check us out.  We'd love to see you.  Our address is
1931 Washington Blvd., Ogden, UT 84401.  We will have a big grand opening party in January, once we are in our permanent space, and everybody is invited.  More information about that still to come.

And join us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GearThirty and online at www.gearthirty.com