So I have mentioned this before and you will be sick of it within a few weeks/months. But my 40th birthday project to go “round the world in 40 climbs” is near to starting. I fly out to South America for the first leg on Boxing day.
As part of the trip I have also been trying to get support from a few sponsors by the way of a fairly elaborate and detailed proposal. I will explain what the proposal says for this first leg in a bit. But I am really pleased to announce that Five Ten UK have support the trip by providing rock and approach shoes.
What is really great about this is ever since 1995 I have had a brand of rock shoes I have used. I was first introduced to them when climbing on the Slate with a very young and talented Leo Houlding. The shoe was the Anasazi Pink, since then I have pretty much always had a pair of the current Anasazi usually the Whites for performance climbing and a comfy pair of velcro for work purposes.
There support means I have a great selection of shoes that would make Imelda Marcos jealous. I have a pair of Stonelands, which i reviewed for UKC and they are the bomb when it comes to a comfy pair of shoes you can wear all day with minimal drop in performance.
I also have a pair of the new Anasazi Pinks, a kind of returning to my earliest days with 5.10 brand, these are a great all round shoe, and are great at both edging and smearing. They also make a more multi pitch performance shoe. For me in North Wales they were the work horse behind me climbing many E5’s and a few E6’s on sight on the Slate. The joke used to be that a new pair took a grade off the route!
Finally I also have a pair of Dragon’s, these are the highly aggressive shoes that will be great on single pitch routes and highly technical bouldering. As such I think I have all bases covered when it comes to rock climbing shoes.
Whats more important for me is that I can honestly say that Five Ten shoes so good I have been buying them with my own money for nearly twenty years. So for me it is a dream come true to have the support of such a fantastic brand. I just hope I can return the investment they have made in me.
The first leg is teaching rocking climbing in South America as well as some travelling. The plan so far is to make short videos on the following:
- Climbing Around Coyhaique
- Climbing in Esquel (Same destination as the Petzl Rock Trip 2010)
- Climbing in Bariloche (Including the amazing Frey)
- Possibly climbing in Cochamo (The Yosemite of South America)
- Attempt at Vulcan Llulliallaco (Telling the gruesome story of one of the first mountains ever climbed)
- A visit to Potosi (The story of Altitude Sickness)
- A visit to Machu Pichu (Sun worship and mountains)
- Attempt at Mount Chimborazo (Various stories from the first ascent to weighing the earth)
Some of these videos won’t make that much sense in isolation, however as the series progresses you’ll see that effectively I am trying to tell the history of rock climbing and mountaineering by following in the footsteps of the greatest climbers and mountaineers. Loosely based on exploring the climbs that I included in my book Hanging By A Thread: The Science, Technology, History and Culture of Rock Climbing and Mountaineering.
If you’d like to support the project or would like to find out more before you commit, then get in contact and I’ll send you the full proposal. In the mean time thanks some much to Five Ten for sharing the vision I have for this project.