It’s a bustling time at the Rock Adventure.

We had a long production meeting a few days ago at my house — a semi circle of human, computer (video chat) and cell phone (speaker phone) members — a veritable Rockoholics Anonymous gathering. Except, well, we’re not exactly anonymous. And let’s face it, we’re hardly rockoholics if we’re spending all day of a perfect sunny afternoon, indoors, talking about climbing. Of course, if we climbed 24/7, we’d have no time to make this movie… you get the idea.

Anyways, budget, podcasts, the Volkswagen…everything is on the agenda. We’re starting up the rest of the production in April, and so there’s a lot of work to be done.

I thought it would be a good time to share some of the wonderful Interviews we got in round one, so you can see the continuous evolution of the project. Here you go:

Snippets from Rich Romano, Majka Burhardt, Jim McCarthy, John Gill, Jim Donini, Ajax Greene, Dick Williams, Elaine Matthews, Bob D’Antonio, and Mark Moore.

Send me your thoughts, people!

Ps - Youtube now does HD, so make sure you click and watch in Hype Definition!

It’s a new year, a new day, a new president, a new moon.

I went out to Joshua Tree National Park for the first time since Fall; it had finally warmed up - in fact it was so balmy and warm it felt like an Indian Summer.  My friend/line producer Nick and I walked back to our campsite in the dark with our ropes and gear strung about us after a full day of climbing.  The moon was out and it was full and milky white, beaming down on us.  Everything else was a beautiful blue.  We were tired but happy and full of peace.  We just walked in silence, looking at our moonshadows, not saying a word.  A coyote trotted past us heading the opposite way.  A falling star shot through the sky.

It really is a new year, and it’s going to be a great year.

2008

2008 had been an eventful year for the Rock Adventure.  We’d gone to Salt Lake City for Outdoor Retailer, gone to the Climber’s Museum opening in Yosemite, been in Colorado for the Craggin Classic, made a million phone calls and a million emails, been to New York for the ‘Gunks Reunion; crashed a car, slept on the ground, slept in the van, not slept at all, partied with International climbers, met a ton of new people, been to Yosemite for the 50th Year Reunion of the First Ascent of the Nose; lost some crew, gained some crew; interviewed, in order: John Gill, Majka Burhard, Matt Samet, Alison Osius, Bob D’Antonio, Jim Donini, Katie Brown, Rob Pizem, Bob Culp, Rich Goldstone, Ajax Greene, Burt Angrist, Jim McCarthy, Dick Williams, Elaine Matthews, Al DeMaria, and Rich Romano.  This was just the beginning.

2009

We have a new mac book pro.  We have fresh faces on crew.  We’re on twitter.  We have a garageful of our favorite Duraflame logs for the storytelling sessions by the campfire.  We will be interviewing: Royal Robbins, Tom Frost, Henry Barber, John Bragg, Joe Herbst, Ed Webster, Paul Piana, John Long, Ron Kauk, Michael Kennedy, Doug Robinson, Scott Cosgrove, Sybille Hechtel, Don Lauria, Tom Higgins to name a few.   In a few months, we will be traveling to Yosemite, the Red Rocks, Colorado, Wyoming, New Hampshire to name some.  We want to meet you.  It’s a great beginning…

Since we’ve been on an automobile-smashing trend, it seemed time to introduce these folks.

The Vulgarians, famous for their tough climbs, free-spirits, death defying races, parties, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, are the unofficial keepers of the Shawangunks.

Two copies of the “Vulgarian Digest” featuring Dick Williams, left climbing nude and Elaine Matthews, prominent female Vulgarian, topless on the right.

We interviewed Vulgarian Burt Angrist and Vulgarian and overall climbing legend Jim McCarthy about 2 hours after our car crash.  Jim, Burt, and Anka (Burt’s lovely wife) welcomed us into their home and immediately put us at ease with kindness, cheese and crackers, and Bourbon.

(Yup, proceeded to drink shots of Bourbon with Jim McCarthy as we interviewed him!)

Suffice to say, any lingering worries I had about the smashed up rental car dissipated as I listened to stories of the Vulgarian Grand Prix and stuff like this:

The Vulgarians are often given more publicity for their antics than their climbs, that are equally noteworthy.  The people who made up the Vulgarians throughout the early days of the ‘Gunks scene pushed the limits of climbing and partying, and remain heroes to many a bourbon-drinking, car-crashing, free-spirited climber like myself to this day.

It was an honor to be heckled, the next day, by Jim and Burt as they came across us climbing an ‘easy’ 5.5 Gunks climb called the Horseman.

Get your knees off the rock!

Our first interview of the official production our first day in Golden, Colorado was with none other than the philosophical gentleman, John Gill.  No practice starts or easing into these things, just one hell of a running start with this man:

A complex character, John Gill is tagged as the “Father of Modern Bouldering” — someone who developed what’s now termed “bouldering” almost single handedly starting in the 1950s when the concept of rock climbing, let alone bouldering, was just barely accepted as a pursuit worthy in its own right.

Bouldering: A style of rock climbing which is focused on a short series of very difficult moves (known as a problem) without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs so that a fall will not result in serious injury.

Here are some tidbits. Rich Goldstone and Bob D’Antonio on Gill (and I apologize for the lo quality of youtube):

Suffice to say, Gill has been an enigma to many throughout the years, and his philosophies and practices are only just being examined in relation to their overaching significance in the changing roles of climbing.  Many were influenced and many large trends started, and Gill can be linked to much of the inital concepts for a metaphysical outlook on the kinesthetic act of climbing.  Mr. Gill himself:

It’s no small thing to say that this interview was given about two hours before John recieved the Underhill Award from the American Alpine Club — an award for a lifetime achievement in climbing.  That this award was given to a boulderer was no small gesture; in fact, as both Gill and Jim McCarthy say in their interviews, it was the AAC under the presidency of McCarthy himself that first recognized bouldering as a legitimate pursuit in 1969.  That we were able to be here for this moment and to get Gill’s indelible remarks, was also no small priviledge.

night bouldering at the shawangunks in honor of Mr. Gill