The Outside Blog Adventure Feed

Rob Machado: The Drifter

Media — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:42:53 -0500

Rob Machado's just come out with his latest project, The Drifter, a film he made with his good buddy, Taylor Steele. They've been working together since they were teenagers, which translates into smooth filmmaking these days. In the movie, Machado travels through Indonesia and Bali to chase exotic waves and hang with the natives. Sometimes he prefers the peace and solitude of a tent, and sometimes he likes to have a whole village surrounding him. Either way, he drifts in his own style. Outside Online caught up with him during his film tour.

--Aileen Torres

Have you always been known as The Drifter?
I made a movie in '97 that was called Drifting.

Well, hey, this is like Part Two.
Yeah. Exactly.

So, you've been touring with the film.
I've been doing it kinda off and on for the last month. I went to Australia, Japan, New York, and then East Coast, West Coast. We just finished the East Coast last week, and we're kinda on our last legs of the West Coast. We just did San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara. We're working our way back down. I'm in a motor home. We're driving to San Luis Obispo. We have a show tonight.

I heard you've been breaking out the guitar.
Yeah. We've been playing music at the shows. My good friend Jon Swift came along. He did a couple songs in the film. We have a few of our friends joining us, musicians, and we just kind of get up and--it's almost like a welcoming for people coming into the theater to walk into music being played. We play a few songs and then show the movie and play some music after the movie for whoever wants to hang out and listen. It's fun. We're mostly playing Jon's songs. We actually put out The Drifter Sessions, which is Jon's music that we recorded just for this project.

How are the crowds?
Every show's been really good. We pretty much sold out, I think, every show. The crowds have been really responsive and stoked the whole night, so it's been really fun.

You've worked with Taylor Steele a lot before.
Yeah. We grew up kind of at the same beach, and he and I started doing video when I was 15, making little movies in high school. It just kind of grew ever since then. We've traveled all over the place and hung out and done all kinds of stuff.

How'd you guys get the idea for The Drifter?
I actually went down to Indonesia 'cause that's where Taylor's living now. I went down there to shoot for one of his other movies, and I stayed at his house and cruised around. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking story. That was where the idea kind of came from. He said, You know, you should come back down and we should get a proper film crew and push ourselves to go surf some of these waves that are a little off the charts, off the radar, and that's what we did. We spent six months and chased waves all over and captured it.

When you were in Indonesia, you stumbled upon a tiny, isolated village.
Yeah, that was in Sumba. That village was amazing. It was like going back in time hundreds of years when you walk in there.

Did those kids really just find you sitting on a hill, playing guitar?
Yeah. It's amazing. You think you've found this nice little spot and think, Oh, cool, there's no one around. And then people just start showing up and checking you out, like, Woah, wait. Who's this guy camping out here in the bluff?

It's funny when you go back to your little tent and they send people to come check on you at night. They were looking out for you.
Yeah. It was crazy.

Have you been back there since?
No, I haven't. I'm kind of itching to go back and take them a copy of the movie and show it to them. Hopefully, this year.

What was the best part of making the film?
There are so many good elements. The surfing--the waves in Indonesia are amazing. The travel aspect--places like that village was incredible. There was so much going on. Every day was like a mini adventure. The people there are really beautiful; really honest, genuine people, and I just need to be surrounded by that energy.

You're going to Hawaii next.
Yeah. I think Taylor's going back to Indo. But I'm going to head to Hawaii for a little while. We're going to show the movie over there this winter, and then take a little break, I think.

You're no longer on the pro-tour. What does a typical year look like for you? Do you go surfing for a few months, then do a film, then a tour?
Well, going off on The Drifter roadmap, that was how it worked. We spent six months filming, spent almost a year editing. Sometimes, I work with different guys on different projects where it's not as hands-on for me. I just go on the trip, and the shoot will be like two or three weeks. That's just more, you kind of walk away from that and wait for the end product to see what happens. Next year, I really don't have anything on my plate to speak of right now, but it'll evolve pretty quickly, I'm sure.

Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Three

Guest Blogger — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:17:55 -0500

Yangshuo Climbing Festival Day 3: Steady Drizzle.

The morning's scheduled outdoor climbing workshops were moved to the Yangshuo Kungfu Training Centre. I biked over around 9:30 a.m. to watch Alex Honnold give a lesson on "knee-bar-ing" -- using one's knees, rather than feet or hands, to stabilize -- for a dozen reverent twentysomethings.

One was Pyry Tuominen Tampere, a twenty-six-year old Finnish climber with a scruffy blond beard. Tampere, who is traveling around the world with his girlfriend, explained why he was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning: "It's not every day you get a lesson from one of the best climbers in the world!"

A few minutes later, Tampere and co. ceded the bouldering wall to a bunch of Chinese dudes with electric drills. The latter were designing new "problems" for the second and final round of the Yangshuo bouldering comp. According to "Xitang" (aka Alex), a local climbing guide who oversaw the wall's construction, wall materials were sourced from as far as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

The remainder of our Sunday morning felt sleepy in a good way. A Seattle-like mist was shrouding downtown shops. I spotted several climber-types huddled over lattes and late breakfasts at Cafe China, a foggy-windowed local haunt. Tom, my new Australian buddy, went for a massage. I slurped noodles at a market.

But by 1:30 p.m., Kungfu HQ was rocking: Chinese guitarists were kicking out the jams; the Kungfu court was mobbed with about three hundred spectators; and climbers were scaling -- and falling off -- the on-stage bouldering wall. ("It's so dangerous!" a young woman from Anhui Province observed. "They don't have ropes!") All climbers wore numbers, suggesting a kind of vertical marathon. Every so often, one would "dyno" -- aka leap acrobatically toward a "hold" -- to raucous applause.

More free beer. More rain pelting the roof. There was a raffle drawing. Passing pedestrians began to peer in through the windows.

Before long it was 4 p.m., and a closing ceremony of sorts was underway. (Read: Alex Honnold, sporting a tattered grey bubble jacket, ceremoniously distributed climbing schwag.) Then the crowd dispersed as quickly as it had formed.

As spectators filed out into the Yangshuo mist, I spotted "Abond," a local climber who won last year's route-climbing competition. The Black Diamond-sponsored 21-year-old was wearing green stretch pants and a yellow T-shirt. He hadn't won this year's bouldering comp, but he was beaming.

"This year's festival was better organized and had a better atmosphere," Abond said. "Everyone's happy."

Well said, man. So ends the second-annual Yangshuo Climbing Festival in Yangshuo, China. If you're itching to see festival results, check the festival site in, uh, a few days? And for notes from my reporting in Southeast Asia, follow me on Twitter.

-- Mike Ives

(Photos courtesy of Tom Eckersley)

Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Two

Guest Blogger — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:21:41 -0500

Fire and rain bracketed my second day at the 2009 Yangshuo Climbing Festival. The former began in the common room of my rustic hotel, a 4-kilometer bike ride from downtown. Someone had stored a pile of scrap two-by-fours too close to the wood stove. When I looked up from my coffee, a mini blaze was threatening to creep up the walls. Fortunately a cook doused the flames with water.

After breakfast, I went biking with Tom, a friendly climber from Australia. Tom and I were looking for a famous local crag called "White Mountain." But we couldn't figure out how to hold our trusty Yangshuo map.

Yangshuo, as it turns out, is a great place to get lost. A two-hour cycle-jaunt whizzed us past livestock, farmland, smiling kids, orchards (those "peaches," on reflection, taste more like apricots) and majestic karst pillars. The landscape here looks like a land version of Vietnam's karst-tastic Ha Long Bay.

Thanks to Tom's Mandarin phrasebook and a friendly local villager, we found White Mountain by mid afternoon. This is where festival organizers have funded construction of a permanent toilet for Yangshuo climbers. Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, says this and other projects are designed to ease land-use tensions between climbers and the Yangshuo community. Spokespeople from two grassroots organizations, the Yangshuo Access Initiative and the Yangshuo Climbing Association, tell me they are working with villagers to develop such ecotourism projects as guiding services, climbing lodges and climber-oriented food stalls.

White Mountain was crawling with climbers from Shenzhen, a large Chinese city near Guangzhou and Hong Kong. A few of them graciously allowed us to climb their top rope. The view from route's end showed karst, farmland and trees stretching out toward the horizon. And storm clouds.

We made it back to the Yangshuo Kungfu Training Centre before the rain hit. Kungfu HQ felt more lively than it had during Friday night's opening ceremony. There were perhaps a hundred more people in attendance, a Chinese band was covering Green Day and dozens of climbers were scaling the brand-new bouldering wall behind the stage. ("Crush it!" the crowd roared. "Yeah!") It was the qualifying round of the bouldering competition.

Before I describe the comp, a clarification: Last year's comp was for outdoor route-climbing, not bouldering, as implied by my first post. And Alex Honnold, the world-famous climber from Sacramento, is not participating in this year's indoor event. What gives? Honnold, who says he hasn't touched "plastic" in six months, told me he would've joined the comp, but that festival organizers asked him to set a "problem" for it instead. (Anyway, he added with a laugh, "I suck at bouldering.")

The comp qualifier was, er, a bit anti-climatic. That's because climbers were allowed to quit after completing the four set problems, meaning the quality of bouldering ebbed as the night wore on. But there was live music, and it was fun to watch about 100 men and women climb for a supportive international audience.

Oh, and free cans of Chinese beer were stacked on a folding table.

Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day One

Guest Blogger — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:35:02 -0500

Ni Hao, Outside Readers,

Mike Ives here -- a freelance writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. For the next few days, I'll be filing dispatches from the second-annual Yangshuo Climbing Festival in Yangshuo, China. If my aching fingers will cooperate.

A little background info on Yangshuo: This touristy town in Guangxi Province (which borders Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin) is an overnight bus ride from mega-cities Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The late American climber Todd Skinner set some of the first Yangshuo routes in the early 1990s. Last year's inaugural fest drew more than 350 climbers from 15 countries.

And a word about me: I've been living in Asia since May. Before that, I was a staff reporter at Seven Days, the alt weekly in Burlington, Vermont. I'm not a particularly committed climber -- my favorite part about top-roping at the "Gunks," near New Paltz, New York, is the post-session souvlaki. But I understand words like "beta," "crimp" and "jug," and I know good climbers when I see 'em.

Many are in Yangshuo this weekend. It's easy to see why: Yangshuo's urban core of dumpling shops, touristy boutiques and internet cafes is flanked by postcard-perfect karst cliffs. Fifteen-minute bike rides past farms, mud-brick houses and peach orchards land you at the base of more than 300 primo sport routes. Indeed, says Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, Yangshuo has lately become "ground zero" for climbing in China.

Gellert was in good spirits at the festival's opening ceremony, held Friday night at Yangshuo's decrepit Kungfu Training Centre. So were the hundred-and-fifty-odd climbers from all over China, Europe, Australia and the United States. Alex Honnold, a Black Diamond-sponsored athlete from Sacramento, told me he was impressed by Yangshuo's karst, and the climbing community that scales it.

We were sipping spicy ginger tea at a makeshift bar. "This is a really nice grassroots event," said the skinny, 24-year-old vertical wizard. "Other [climbing] events are a lot more corporate."

Indeed, Yangshuo's Kungfu Training Centre is anything but spiffy. The green-and-yellow flooring looks exhausted, the cement bleachers are filthy and the bathrooms are, well, very Chinese bus station. Not surprisingly, last night's event had the feel of a middle school dance, minus the hormones.

Perhaps the nicest thing at Kungfu HQ was the shiny wooden climbing wall, which Gellert says was built specially for the event and will be donated to the Yangshuo community. That's where Honnold and others will compete against Liu "Abond" Yong Bang, a local climbing guide, in a two-day bouldering competition starting Saturday night.

"We won't be competing," Abond, who won last year's comp, clarifies. "We'll just be having fun."

At Yangshuo, are the two mutually exclusive?

Alpinist Tomaz Humar Confirmed Dead

Outside Online — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:57:17 -0500

Veteran climber Tomaz Humar was found dead today after being stranded for days on Langtang Lirung in the Himalayas, according to the AP. Earlier today, the flight operations manager for Swiss Air Zermatt confirmed Humar's body was retrieved by a three-man rescue team.

Humar, who has some 1,500 ascents to his name and has been the recipient of several mountaineering awards, apparently used a satellite phone to call a friend to say that he was injured on Tuesday. Though fellow climbers searched for Humar during the last several days, heavy snow and bad weather hampered efforts. He was found in a different location than expected.

"He was lower than expected, at 5,600 meters not 6,300 meters," Gerald Bin of Swiss Air Zermatt told the AP.

Humar leaves behind a wife and two children.

Read more about Humar's initial call and stranding and more about his career in the stories below.

Cold Call: Tomaz Humar, Outside Magazine, February 2008

Climbing Lessons from the School of Tomaz Humar, Outside Magazine, June 2006

Tomaz Humar Photo Gallery, Outside Magazine, June 2006

--Joe Spring

Alpinist Tomaz Humar Stranded on Langtang Lirung

The News Team — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:21:25 -0500

Slovenian Tomaz Humar, one of the most accomplished and audacious high-altitude solo climbers in the world, has been stranded since Monday on Langtang Lirung, a 23,710-foot peak in the Langtang Himal of Nepal. Humar, who has some 1,500 ascents to his name and been the recipient of several mountaineering awards, apparently used a satellite phone to call a friend to say that he was injured. There is some confusion as to how injured Humar is—he likely has a broken leg and ribs, but may have back injuries as well—and where, exactly, on the mountain he is, although he is believed to be stuck at an altitude of about 20,670 feet somewhere on the southern face of the peak. Humar has not been heard from since Tuesday, when he placed a call to basecamp and sounded "very weak."

Rescue attempts are underway, but have been progressing slowly due to bad weather. On Tuesday, a helicopter dropped off four Nepalese climbing Sherpas at basecamp, who were able to look for him above Camp 1 on Wednesday before being forced back to basecamp due to a snowstorm. And earlier today, three rescue climbers from Switzerland, along with some of Humar’s relatives, have reportedly arrived to aid in the search, but haven’t been able to ascend the peak due to bad weather.

This is not the first time that the 40-year-old Humar, who is married and has two children, has needed to be rescued. In 2005, a Pakistani military helicopter plucked Humar from Nanga Parbat. You can read more about the controversy surrounding that rescue, and his subsequent solo ascent of the 26,040-foot east summit of Annapurna here. Peter Maas wrote a feature story about Humar for us in 2002, which you can read here. You can also check out our online gallery of images that accompanied Maas's story, and a highlight tour of some photos from his memoir, No Impossible Ways.

More details about the current rescue can be found here, and we’ll update you as soon as we have more info. —Sam Moulton

Book Smackdown: The Best Adventure Biography Ever

Outside Online — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:11:35 -0500

In our November issue we ranked the 10 best adventure biographies of all time. We were inspired to write the list after reading an incredibly solid bio of Jacques Cousteau by Brad Matsen. We're pretty sure our list is definitive. Still, if you disagree, let us know. However slim, there's always a chance we'll revisit our rankings.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. What is the best adventure biography of all time?

--Joe Spring

Fabrizio Zangrilli on Latok II and Guiding K2

The News Team — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:20:31 -0500

Mountaineer Fabrizio Zangrilli recently stopped by Outside's office in Santa Fe to talk about his experience guiding 10 clients up K2 this past fall. Few alpinists have a resume to match. Zangrilli has been climbing for 22 years, has led more than 20 expeditions in the Karakorum and Himalaya, has led world class rescues, and has spent at least one year of his life on K2. He broke down the anatomy of the mountain and the special challenges of leading a large group. We covered Zangrilli's new venture before the climb and we were glad to hear—though he didn't reach the summit due to deep snow at the top—that his entire team remained safe. You can get an idea of the climb in this K2 gallery.

The 37-year-old Boulder, Colorado climber did not return home immediately after the expedition. Instead he volunteered to participate in an incredibly difficult rescue mission on Latok II in Pakistan. A Spaniard fell and broke his leg while attempting to summit the peak in August, and authorities called upon Zangrilli, who was already acclimatized and had a very unique set of skills, to help with the rescue. The team struggled against bad weather and a shortage of supplies. (Some resupply efforts were less than ideal as goods were dropped into a swamp from a helicopter traveling at high speed, leaving broken crates, wet sleeping bags, etc.) Though Zangrilli and his crew made a valiant attempt at rescue, poor weather forced the team to turn around 300 meters from the victim. Extreme conditions would have jeopardized the team's safety had it continued. A sad ending, but a necessary decision in what was an undeniably bold and courageous effort.

To hear a summary of Fabrizio's summer in his own words, check out fabriziozangrilli.blogspot.com.

--Aileen Torres

Photo by Fabrizio Zangrilli

Aron Ralston's Story to Become Film

The News Team — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:05:03 -0500

Variety announced last week that director Danny Boyle's next movie will be '127 Hours,' the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston. During a climb in Utah in 2003, Ralston was pinned by a boulder for nearly five days and eventually amputated his own arm to get free. We've mentioned Ralston quite a few times in our pages, but for more about this ultimate survival story, check out "Between a Rock and the Hardest Place" by Mark Jenkins (Outside, August 2003).

-- Lisa Lombardi

The Good Route: Outdoor Clothier's Sustainable Wave

The Good Route — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

By Mary Catherine O'Connor

When Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard called him two years ago, wanting to talk gear, Ernest Capbert knew that he and his cohorts at the outdoor clothing startup Finisterre were doing something right. The company is the dreamchild of Tom Kay, a British surfer who wanted to create a sustainable clothing line for the action sports industry. Like Patagonia, Finisterre places a major emphasis on how and where it sources materials, creating products with a cradle-to-cradle lifecycle in mind, while fostering a sustainable supply chain. The company is also incorporating biomimicry into its designs while going to great efforts to secure its own source for wool (hint: it takes the do-it-yourself trend to new heights).

The Good Route recently had a confab with Capbert, Finisterre's director of marketing, about the company's clothing line and its focus on sustainability.

Herewith, some outtakes.

The Good Route: How do you go about designing Finisterre clothing and selecting materials?

Capbert: It's always been about sustainable design. We are not using [waterproof] membranes because the process of combining two polymers is really energy-intensive and most fabrics with polymer laminates can't be recycled. Another issue is just how long the products are going to last. The membranes degrade over time. A jacket might last three to four years [before losing waterproofness]--that's not long-lasting enough for us.

The Good Route: Finisterre has been recognized for its efforts in using biomimicry--using otter fur as a template. Where is that showing up in your products?

Capbert: A lot of what nature does is awe-inspiring. So we try to use it in the way we make clothing. After lots of research with academics at Bath University, we have been able to manufacture the Napa lining. It mimics the structure of otter fur. The lining has multiple layers that work to keep heat close to the body while wicking away moisture and its used in the latest versions of our Humboldt and Storm Tracker jackets.

The Good Route: And you're starting up a new effort to source the wool used in your base layers?

Capbert: We source our Merino wool in Tasmania, from a group that gives accreditations for ethical Merino sheep farms. But we found out that the group is not just the accreditation organization but also an exporting company. There sheep in Tasmania that are exported when they get old. We are against live export. Plus, interest in Merino is spiking and because of this, companies [farms] are going to try to fill demand and things will fall through the cracks.

There are free trade groups, ISO certifications, etc. Standards are good, but not good enough. This whole thing showed that if you want to go anything you have to do it yourself. We don't have enough visibility into the supply chain. So we started the Natural Advantage program. Merino sheep are not robust enough for the climate in England and Scotland, but about 30 years ago a new breed of sheep was started that is a combination of Shetland and Saxon Merino. The goal was to create sheep with soft, fine wool like Merino but in an animal that could stand the climate here. But soon after this new breed, call Bowmount, was made, the the US wool market fell out and the project was given up. The Bowmont flocks that had been bred were sold and many were slaughtered or crossbred with Shetlands. So we are working with a breeder here and are looking for and breeding more Bowmount. We have 35 so far and we need 95 to start getting enough wool to manufacture with it.

--Mary Catherine O'Connor is a freelance writer, covering the environment, sustainability and outdoor recreation. The Good Route, her new blog for Outside Online, is focused on the places where the active life and sustainability merge.