My Climbing Life, a climbing-light installment

It’s been a funny week. I’ve been alternating between the highs of meeting fantastic folks in the climbing community and outdoor biz since I’ve been actively trying to get out of my shell and build those relationships, and the lows of discouraging or frustrating experiences related to some of those efforts. I prefer to focus on the positive, but if this sounds a wee bit down, it’s just ’cause this week hasn’t been all highs. And, did I mention, the weather report for the weekend — pretty much everywhere except New Mexico — sucks? Sigh. I guess it’s the universe’s way of telling me to wash my freaking dishes and get some rest.

In an example of “saw that coming,” a story with me in it went live today on the American Lawyer blog (edit… the blog post has been removed until the editors can agree on how to address the notable safety issue in the original (and print) content. I’m leaving this up, though, since the print version is still out there).

The blog post is the companion to a print story slated for their current issue (which I believe hit stands today, though my local newsstand / magazine shop closed so I’ll have to wait for it in the mail). I was shocked when they contacted me about doing the story, since (y’all better get used to this, it seems to be my new mantra) I’m just a normal girl, I don’t climb sick hard, and I’m regularly described as “prolific” in my activities (climbing / photography / writing) but without regard to quality. I actually pointed the author toward a bunch of other notable climber / lawyers instead, but they decided to profile me.

I knew not to expect 100% perfection from a print magazine outside of the outdoor industry… given that climbing is a technical activity, with its own jargon, and I talk fast, so I can be a challenging interview subject. When I saw the blog version I thought about just 100% keeping my mouth shut, but since it’s public and will get indexed by search engines with my name in it, I wanted to just correct a few things, especially since the moderator hasn’t yet approved my comment on the post.

The biggies… I’m not running for Kitsap County Auditor. That was in the Spring of 2008, and I wasn’t selected, but one of my favorite people in the whole world, Walt Washington, was. Walt, my sweet — you don’t have competition in the form of me for your next reelection bid.

Second, there’s the blurb about Leavenworth:

“Leavenworth, Washington Bouldering and multipitch walls, and spots where she can tie a rope to her car’s bumper and rappel down. A plus for Lingafelter: no cell-phone reception.”

No cell-phone reception is a big plus in the Icicle, and oh, the bouldering and multipitch… yes, yes, yes. Rappelling off a car bumper… um… nope. In the comment to the blog post that I submitted but haven’t yet seen approved by the moderator, I responded thusly…

There’s absolutely no situation I can imagine that I would tie a rope to a car’s bumper and rappel down anything. I think what I said was that there are areas where the climbing is so close to the road, you can practically belay from your car’s bumper. Those are two very different things.

So…

Don’t go out rapping off car bumpers and say, “Oh, RockClimberGirl said…..” ’cause I didn’t.

Little things… my girl Amy M was who first planted the nugget of climbing, not a law school friend… Amy had the good sense to go to Massage Therapy school, and is now an incredibly talented climber / mom / friend / wife / massage therapist. My heart is broken that she and her family are headed for DC… but my loss is the east coast’s gain, I suppose, and that gives me an excuse to get out and visit and sample West Virginia and the Gunks and some of the other places I’ve always wanted to go.

I also don’t recall saying the quote attributed to me in this bit:

Both climbing and the law have shaped her worldview, albeit in different ways: “You can seriously hurt yourself in one, and really change someone’s life in the other.”

But, even though I didn’t say it, I’ll be happy to claim it as my own. Yes, you can seriously hurt yourself in the practice of law, and you can really change someone’s life through rock climbing.

Those are the big things. There are little things, too, like my practice areas… but this post is getting longer than the original, so I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise, they did a pretty good job and got some things right, so that’s cool. And, it’s fun to see my friend Kari’s photo there, also.

Oh, the discomfort of being a fact-oriented former copyeditor and armchair journalist.

In other climbing-light news, last night I went over to Seattle to join in and meet some great new folks and catch up with a few friends at the CascadeClimbers.com annual picnic, organized by my buddy Matt. The picnic is a tradition that started in the 80’s, and predates CascadeClimbers.com, but has been adopted by Matt and the CC crew. Matt asked if I’d do a slideshow, and I reminded him that I don’t climb sick hard, and I’m just a “normal climber” and his response was “normal climbers need apply,” so I ponied up. The other two slideshows were by real climber-slash-photographers… Wayne Wallace and Steph Abell’s slideshows were incredible. I kinda furiously edited pieces of mine at the last minute remembering that — after all, this is the CC crew, so I was worried there may be a handful of hecklers. It went okay, I think, though everybody disbursed pretty quickly after so only a few folks stayed around to clean up and chit chat. Folks were nice, food was good, it seemed that a fun time was had by all.

I arrived home to a name-calling, not-so-nice blog comment from someone who apparently found me via CC … so that didn’t leave the best taste in my mouth. But, that’s where my Teflon superpower comes in handy, and I get a whole lot more love than the opposite from my readers and friends and climbing partners, so whatever. Thanks for defending my honor, Darren… I think you get extra heaven points for stuff like that.

OK, that’s it. I’m off to have a good healthy dinner (nothing like two fantastic dinner invitations in one night… hard to pick just one!) and then hit the gym for a fun night with friends. For my buddies in New Mexico and Salt Lake, have a great weekend climbing while the rest of us sit home and watch weather.com hoping for better news next weekend.

Just kidding. I’m going mountain biking, crappy weather or not.

Filed under: Events, Not Climbing

Adventures in Climbing Cross Training: Mountain Biking

Wowsa. It’s been a long time since I did a “not climbing” post… but I guess now’s as good a time as any. I also need to do an “in the gym” update… but will try to get to that later this week. Maybe this is all a way of managing my sadness that I’m missing a Smith trip this weekend… sigh…

I’ve been told by friends that single people are supposed to have three (or five, depending on who you talk to) fun activities with other people. Since I work several jobs, I cut myself some slack and aim for three fun activities that get me out of the house and office and around other people. One is my volunteering; another is climbing and all of my climbing-related activities; but I haven’t really settled on a third until recently.

Enter… cycling.

I’ve been a cyclist for years, though I did take a big hiatus. I did distance in the late 90s, until I killed my knees with bad technique. Climbing and hiking with weight have definitely helped rehab my knees and make them stronger… so much so that I got back on my bike for a few road rides in the last few months. Climbing Partner is a mountain biker, so awhile back he suggested we take a trail ride on a rest day to mix it up… we rode trails up in Port Townsend and had a blast riding until his chain broke; after his chain broke, we had a blast walking our bikes through PT.

Real mountain biking, though, is something I never — ever — thought I’d do. I’ve always said — if I’m on a trail, I want something with instincts under me (specifically, a well-seasoned trail horse).

One of these days, I’ll learn not to count anything out. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I accidentally took up mountain biking.

Climbing Partner and I took another rest day ride, out at Banner Forest in Port Orchard. We started out on nice, easy dirt trails, then Climbing Partner wanted to take a side trail. It looked easy enough, even on my decade-old Novara hybrid with road slicks… but it turned singletrack fast. Even on my slicks I made it through puddles and got a few little roots under my belt… after a bit, Climbing Partner let me get on his super nice hardtail, and I made it over a few more roots and through some pretty big puddles. Despite walking up a lot of hills; despite the fact that it was pouring down rain and freezing; despite the fact that I was soaked to the skin and literally shivering… I was HOOKED. And filthy. Awesome.

One of my girls, Candace, has a sweet girl-size full suspension bike that I got to borrow for this weekend’s ride out at Newberry Hill. Talk about awesome. I went with Climbing Partner and one of our other climbing partners… both are more serious cyclists than I, and both have more trail experience. I was super nervous about being able to keep up… but it turns out…

Climbing directly translates to mountain biking.

Aside from the physical condition I’m in from climbing and hiking with a pack, the mental game was familiar as soon as I really got going and was motivated enough to try things like back-to-back obstacles, or bigger roots, or steeper hills.

Once I consciously turned my internal dialog from “this is scary! I can’t do this!” to “This is so much FUN, I can DO this!”… I relaxed, and let my body and the bike flow through the obstacles, over roots, around tight turns, in between trees… I succeeded more than I failed. We did a few easier trails, a few moderate trails, and then a few REALLY hard trails… I was able to stay on the bike through the easier trails and almost all of the sections of moderate terrain. The hard trails bucked me, but they bucked the boys too, so I didn’t feel bad or get frustrated.

So, gosh darn it, looks like I accidentally accumulated another extreme outdoor hobby. I’m thankful that I have access to a few friends with my-size bikes to ride so I don’t have to make a decision about what to buy right away… I’m looking casually at bikes, but have yet to make the hardtail / full suspension decision so I’m not shopping seriously yet. I’m leaning toward a hardtail with a suspension seat post, but Candace’s full suspension was pretty freaking fun.

This blog won’t become mountainbikergirl.com (I promise) but I hope you’ll humor me in a mountain bike-related post every once in awhile. I’ve already met some worthy-of-a-feature folks, and I look forward to sharing this new adventure with you all.

What do you do other than climbing? Please comment, below!

Filed under: Not Climbing

Testing, one, two, three…

Folks – the blog’s going to be in a state of flux for awhile. I happened to check it from a very rare opportunity to sit down at a PC and my template wasn’t displaying the actual blog content. Sigh. I wonder how long folks on PCs using Firefox have been seeing all my widgets but none of my content…

So – for now, it’s a default template until I can make some time to really dig in and fix stuff. So, if you notice some technical difficulties here for a few weeks, please accept my apologies. And, if my blog content — you know — mysteriously vanishes for you PC users… drop me a note since I’m testing on a Mac and rarely fire up the old PC anymore…

On a more fun note, where are YOU going climbing this weekend? The weather looks promising at North Bend or Frenchman’s Coulee / Vantage on Saturday… alas, I have too many commitments to get away. Perhaps, there’s a chance of climbing next weekend…

Filed under: Not Climbing

What’s new in the world…

Gosh, I wish I could do these weekly, but I just don’t have that kind of discipline. Here’s a quick “what’s been going on lately” in the world of climbing and life (so, slightly less climbing related than usual) from my little vantage point…

• Climbing Magazine’s most recent issue features “Eight Confessions from a Climbing Mom,” with extended coverage on their website.
• Emily Harringon wins the 2009 SCS National Championships…
• The Access Fund says climbers should care about the economic stimulus bill… I’m not finding the e-lert on their website, but check your email if you’re on the Access Fund’s mailing list. If the stimulus package is passed, funding will go to the US Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management. The Access Fund wants input on potential projects of importance to the outdoor recreation community. Check your email, and click on the survey link in the email to respond by February 6th
• RedheadWriting has finally gotten respectable. The funniest bad-ass-climber-girl-writer-blogger-extraordinaire I know has relaunched her blog, “a candid view on writing, SEO and social media” at its very own domain name. If you’re not following Erika on Twitter, you are seriously missing out. Her tweets, alone, are worth joining Twitter.
• Rockclimbergirl.com has gotten some link luv lately… John W. Little at TeamNSC recently posted an interview with little ‘ol me, and the GetOutdoors blog called Climbing Partner’s C-RV “a sweeeeeeeet road trip vehicle.“
• Behind the Scenes at Black Diamond, via allclimbing.com
• When is a 5.7 not always a 5.7? When you’re at Joshua Tree, of course!
• Lizzy over at Dream in Vertical has gotten her first grad school acceptance. Congratulations!
• Here’s some good Post-Outdoor-Research-Winter-Show Commentary from Outside San Diego.
• VoodooClimbing is offering wholesale pricing to everyone, on their climbing hold lineup.

I wish I had more time, since there’s so much going on… but this will have to do (my self-set timer for “fun stuff” dinged eight minutes ago). Have a great Tuesday, and pitch in, with a comment, on what’s going on in your climbing life right now!

Filed under: Climbing, Not Climbing, Rock Climbers

Mea culpa.

So, my work and life schedules have conspired against maintaining close contact with the vast majority of my dearly loved friends… if anything, that’s probably going to be even worse for awhile here during a short term employment shift (a great one!) but that is life right now.

Tonight I went to the annual fundraiser for Kitsap Legal Services, an organization that I volunteer with and sit on the Board for, and ran into two dear friends, who I don’t think I’ve seen since they generously opened their home and traditions to me for Christmas.

We chatted for a bit, then my girlfriend brought up my “Us and Them” post.

Now, when strangers tell me I’m not funny, or write in about my unfair and unfunny stereotypes, that’s one thing — not everybody’s going to read everything I write the way it’s intended (usually, in jest) — but I’d gotten the feeling based on a few comments (confirmed by this friend’s candor) that some of the people I *love* felt like I was making fun of them and/or had other negative reactions.

I appreciated her bringing it up, because it gave me a chance to (1) apologize for any hurt feelings; and (2) explain, again, that my post was meant to be funny (not serious), and to make fun of *me* and not her and friends like her who live what some might call more “normal” lives than mine.

In case there are other friends and family out there with hurt feelings… please accept a mea culpa. In that post, I’m poking fun at myself; and contrasting myself and my life to a caricature of “normal.” Am I happy? Yes. Am I living the life I want to live? Yes. Do I think that everyone should abandon their 9 to 5, their benefits, and their comfort? Hell no. Goodness knows, I could use a little comfort and security from time to time!

Please accept my apology for any hurt feelings. And thank you, you kick ass woman you, for bringing it up instead of letting hurt feelings simmer. Good night…

Filed under: Not Climbing

Best question gets a free t-shirt…

OK, folks…

As you know, I like to mix it up here at Rockclimbergirl.com. Usually, you can tell I’m home sick with a cold because the blog gets a facelift. But, a girl can only do so many redesigns, and I’m not feeling like messing with XML or Photoshop at the moment, so I have to find some other way to entertain myself. Not to mention, I’m generally on a climbing trip this week (the week after Christmas) but for a long list of reasons, wasn’t able to get out of town this year (did I mention it’s still snowing?) so am here in front of Blogger.

So, to change it up – here’s an opportunity for you. The commenter who submits the most inspiring blog topic suggestion, as determined by me, by the time the ball drops in Times Square gets a free RockClimberGirl.com t-shirt.

What are your burning questions for me? What would you like to see me wax long-winded about?
<!– ##
You don’t have to leave personally identifiable information in your comment, but if you’re someone I don’t know personally yet, you might want to drop me an email after you’ve commented so that I know how to reach you if you’re the lucky winner…
## –>
Keep it clean, let the creativity commence, and comment below. I’ll announce a winner on January 1st, 2009. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, yadda yadda yadda.

Filed under: Not Climbing, Shameless commercialism, The climbing life

Climbing Movies, aka Stuff to Watch: Dosage V (and, stuff to mute: the Australia Project)

I’m all for climbers making movies. On rest days, there’s very little I’d rather do than pop in a climbing video and feel my hands sweat. I’ve found music full of extra send-o’s by watching climbing movies… and watching people take whippers on gear I wouldn’t trust to clip my summit pack into has been great for convincing my scared, risk-averse little brain that sometimes gear really does hold. So, when I get the chance to spend a snow day with a pile of climbing videos… my standards are appropriately forgiving, my expectations are not fine cinema, and I’m set to put up with some spray in order to get the good stuff out of any particular DVD. My most recent movie binge included Dosage V (two thumbs up) and The Australia Project (a thumb and a half down).

I’ll start with The Australia Project. The good. I’m a fan of Brian Solano, and Australia is a lovely character in this movie, made in 2004. This film definitely didn’t help quell my wanderlust. Ummmm… what else can I say… Emily Harrington is a cutie pie some of the time, when she’s not complaining. And, the boys in the film weren’t … totally abnoxious … at least part of the time. The bad… apparent recent high-school graduate rock jocks tossing wobblers, drinking wine and smashing up one of my all-time favorite vans. The climbing was… meh. The music was pretty good. But the temper tantrums made this look like a completely Un Fun Climbing Trip. Check out Brian’s newer stuff instead. I enjoyed Spray, though am still unsure of whether my interpretation of the movie is correct. If it’s serious, and the climbers (especially Chris Linder) aren’t spraying ironically, then I may knock my recommendation down a notch… but if my interpretation holds, and Spray is a climbing movie making fun of climbing movies (which is what I assume based on the title and the surfboard picture on the cover) then that one comes highly recommended (despite, according to interviews, some of the best girl-climbing on the trip being unrecorded and/or unaired).

Anyway… I’m not going to do a detailed Dosage V review since it’s pretty much just universally well-rated… I’ll just chime in that I thoroughly enjoyed the new-ish film from Big Up Productions and Josh Lowell. The music is awesome (I noted song after song I wanted to download and I think I’ll just suck up and buy the soundtrack — I haven’t bought a CD in ages)… the climbing is great and inspiring… and the special feature extra segments are as good quality and fun to watch as the main attraction (and feature more great climbing by Daila Ojeda who is a remarkable climber to watch, and who I refuse to identify by her association with a certain dude you might have heard of). The highlight for me was watching Beth Rodden work Meltdown. She’s one of my favorite climbers, and it was great to get to watch part of her work on such a scenic and noteworthy route.

Enjoy… my wish list still includes The Sharp End by Sender Films, which I’ve also heard pretty universally good things about… what’s your climbing movie wish list, and what are your thoughts on these films?

Filed under: Not Climbing, Stuff to Watch

Climbing Movies, aka Stuff to Watch: Dosage V (and, stuff to mute: the Australia Project)

I’m all for climbers making movies. On rest days, there’s very little I’d rather do than pop in a climbing video and feel my hands sweat. I’ve found music full of extra send-o’s by watching climbing movies… and watching people take whippers on gear I wouldn’t trust to clip my summit pack into has been great for convincing my scared, risk-averse little brain that sometimes gear really does hold. So, when I get the chance to spend a snow day with a pile of climbing videos… my standards are appropriately forgiving, my expectations are not fine cinema, and I’m set to put up with some spray in order to get the good stuff out of any particular DVD. My most recent movie binge included Dosage V (two thumbs up) and The Australia Project (a thumb and a half down).

I’ll start with The Australia Project. The good. I’m a fan of Brian Solano, and Australia is a lovely character in this movie, made in 2004. This film definitely didn’t help quell my wanderlust. Ummmm… what else can I say… Emily Harrington is a cutie pie some of the time, when she’s not complaining. And, the boys in the film weren’t … totally abnoxious … at least part of the time. The bad… apparent recent high-school graduate rock jocks tossing wobblers, drinking wine and smashing up one of my all-time favorite vans. The climbing was… meh. The music was pretty good. But the temper tantrums made this look like a completely Un Fun Climbing Trip. Check out Brian’s newer stuff instead. I enjoyed Spray, though am still unsure of whether my interpretation of the movie is correct. If it’s serious, and the climbers (especially Chris Linder) aren’t spraying ironically, then I may knock my recommendation down a notch… but if my interpretation holds, and Spray is a climbing movie making fun of climbing movies (which is what I assume based on the title and the surfboard picture on the cover) then that one comes highly recommended (despite, according to interviews, some of the best girl-climbing on the trip being unrecorded and/or unaired).

Anyway… I’m not going to do a detailed Dosage V review since it’s pretty much just universally well-rated… I’ll just chime in that I thoroughly enjoyed the new-ish film from Big Up Productions and Josh Lowell. The music is awesome (I noted song after song I wanted to download and I think I’ll just suck up and buy the soundtrack — I haven’t bought a CD in ages)… the climbing is great and inspiring… and the special feature extra segments are as good quality and fun to watch as the main attraction (and feature more great climbing by Daila Ojeda who is a remarkable climber to watch, and who I refuse to identify by her association with a certain dude you might have heard of). The highlight for me was watching Beth Rodden work Meltdown. She’s one of my favorite climbers, and it was great to get to watch part of her work on such a scenic and noteworthy route.

Enjoy… my wish list still includes The Sharp End by Sender Films, which I’ve also heard pretty universally good things about… what’s your climbing movie wish list, and what are your thoughts on these films?

Filed under: Not Climbing, Stuff to Watch

How do you handle the winter blahs?

Usually, I’m the one giving advice, but it dawned on me… a whole lot of smart people, who have been “in it” much longer than I have read this blog. Now it’s your turn to chime in.

How do you handle the off-season blahs?

This fall has been very mild, but work and other commitments have conspired against me getting outside as much as I’d like. It’s now December (although if you ask me, it still feels like October) and unlike most years, I don’t have a winter trip planned. Two years ago, it was Joshua Tree… last winter, Red Rock. I was *this close* to buying tickets to Las Vegas for this weekend since there was a chance of meeting up with a climbing partner or two there… but I wasn’t able to make it happen. There’s still a pretty good chance that I’ll get to Las Vegas this winter, but nothing on the calendar yet, which means it’s only a vague daydream and not something to look forward to.

I used to take a month off during the winter, but knock on wood — it just doesn’t seem necessary now that I’m better conditioned. I climb in the gym several times a week… I keep up with my weight training, although my diet and cardio definitely aren’t what they are during bikini season. I turn my attention toward my reading and writing about climbing, and I watch climbing videos and spend time not climbing with my climbing friends, and catching up with my non-climbing friends.

Am I missing anything? What are your tips and tricks for getting through the climbing off-season?

Filed under: Not Climbing, The climbing life

Twitter 101 for us outdoorsy types

follow theclimbergirl at http://twitter.com

So, for some time, my climbing friends have teased me about my twittering… when I pick up my Blackberry, my climbing partner says “tweet tweet!”… One of my Twitter friends, @benwills, who I hadn’t met before in real life, came out for a visit, earning himself the nickname Ben Wills from the Internet during out Tieton trip this summer… I’ve even had friends repeat my Myspace status as a joke when talking about never hearing from me because of work and climbing: it’s “Oh, just follow me on Twitter already.”

But, I’ve found real value in Twitter, from a bunch of different angles. Here’s a quick rundown of what Twitter is, why I make time to Twitter, and why you should too.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free “microblogging” or “social network” service that lets you find and “follow” friends, as well as publish your own micro-updates. Each published twitter message is a “tweet,” limited to 140 characters of text. In addition, you can also reply to other users’ tweets and direct message other users. I won’t go into exhaustive detail — that’s been done before, and better, by wikipedia — but that gives you a quick overview.

How do I use Twitter?
Personally, I use Twitter from my computers through the web interface at http://www.twitter.com; I also use TwitterBerry on my Blackberry when I’m out and about; and, when I don’t feel like using TwitterBerry, I can send tweets, direct messages and replies via SMS text messaging as well. Finally, I have my Twitter feed going to my Facebook status, so that when I update Twitter, my Facebook status gets updated. I think it’s also going to my Plaxo profile, but I can’t remember, and I’m too lazy right now to log in and check.

Why do I use Twitter?
I don’t recall why I first signed up for Twitter… I think I followed a link from a rock climbing blogger’s “follow me on twitter” and then signed up. I do believe it may have been @tmarkiewicz — the blogger (and all around great guy) behind allclimbing.com. I added the “follow me on twitter” link to my blog, and readers started to sign up. Whenever I come across a rock climber on Twitter, I follow them… and every once in a blue moon, I follow or am followed by one of my “real life” friends (shout out to @markhughes and @lesliehughes among others!).

I tweet my new blog posts; I tweet climbing stories; I tweet about my work day; I tweet about the odd little events that make up my life. I tweet about Hana-the-dog, and I tweet about news and other events that might be of interest to my followers. I’ve made “real life” friends on Twitter — like any other friendships, it doesn’t happen overnight, but over time, even just through short messages and reading each others’ blogs, you do get to know each other. This morning, when I sat down to catch up on an email conversation with a friend I met on Twitter and with whom the correspondence jumped over to full fledged email, I was thinking about the ten or so Twitter friends that I wish I could have over for Thanksgiving dinner, since they’ve become so much a part of my daily social life. Twitter is no substitute for real life — but having done this “internet thing” for a lot of years now, it’s the single best tool I’ve used for meeting people I have something in common with (namely, climbing) and building a network around that something. At this point, I have Twitter friends that I could meet up with for a belay in many of the climbing areas around the U.S., and probably could go anywhere and meet up with a friend of a friend. Twitter has also helped me foster relationships with other climbing bloggers, which has been really fun. We’re a relatively small community, and it’s nice to have a way to chat technology and climbing with other people who are also making time to indulge their passions during their free time.

Why should YOU use Twitter?
I have a few answers for that particular question. If you’re a climber, you might have a similar experience I have, and enjoy meeting other climbers around the world, and chatting climbing. It’s not a big commitment to log on to Twitter every few days if you follow and are followed by only a handful of folks.

If you’re a blogger, you definitely should be on Twitter. I get a sizable amount of web traffic to this blog from my Twitter profile. I get traffic spikes, for sure, when I tweet an announcement of my new blog posts. Aside from traffic, there are a lot of bloggers on Twitter (I’m always surprised when a Twitter profile doesn’t link to a blog) so it’s a good way to learn about blog tools and strategies.

If you’re In The Biz (as in, in the outdoor or climbing industry) you definitely should be on Twitter. I follow @REI_CoOp (welcome to Twitter, REI!), @ibexwool and @ibexgirl, @thenorthface and @hardware (Mountain Hardware’s Twitter account — doesn’t appear active, but I keep hoping). I routinely look for other outdoor industry favorites, in the hopes that they’ll get on the band wagon. The companies I follow on Twitter earn my brand loyalty.

A perfect example of outdoor industry Twittering done right is Ibex. The main Twitter stream is under the account name @ibexwool, and @ibexgirl tweets also. I own a variety of wool baselayers, among them one Ibex top. I stumbled on Ibex on Twitter, and followed. Since then, I’ve gotten to know Keith and Jessica through their tweets; I’ve heard about their sales, their travels, Jessica’s trip to a NKOTB concert (rock on sister — banana clips 4 ever!), their puppy raising, and other tidbits interesting on both a professional and personal level. Because I “know” Keith and Jessica, I want them to be successful, so my brand loyalty to Ibex has gotten much stronger.

140 characters? Seriously?
For those of you who read this blog, you know I’m never exactly short winded. But you can communicate a lot, and have a big impact, in a surprisingly small number of characters.

The outdoor industry isn’t mega. The climbing industry and the climbing community, especially, is a tiny little neighborhood in an already small town. Twittering like a neighbor would chat over the backyard fence is valuable for companies and consumers alike. I am unbelievably thankful for the friends and connection I’ve made on Twitter (you know who you are, my dears) and I look forward to fostering more Twitter friendships and taking more of those connections offline into climbing trips and the “real world.”

I just refreshed my “Twitter” home page, where I can see tweets from my friends. A snapshot… I have a series of updates from @wsdot about traffic conditions; a few witty/funny observations from friends; a tweet from my girl @redheadwriting that she’s on the way to the climbing gym to meet @dylanhettinger… bear with this convoluted explanation… @benwills and @dylanhettinger are friends, and were replying back and forth about something, so I followed @dylanhettinger. When @redheadwriting relocated to Denver recently, I “tweetroduced” her to @benwills (who was temporarily in D-town) and @dylanhettingeer. I adore watching the bonds in my little Twitter family grow closer as we all introduce each other around and get to know each other better. Another Twitter friend just pointed me to a song he thinks I’d like. I’ve been tweeting ideas back and forth with another Twitterer who’s an injured climber, about the benefits of injury time (painted nails? time for your finger tendons to heal? an opportunity to shave the callouses off your big toes).

Aside from brand loyalty… aside from blog traffic… I appreciate my extended network of Twitterfolk. When I need a pick me up, one (or more) of my followers is always happy to pitch in. When I need advice, they’re there. When I need tech tips, they’re there. When I need a laugh, they’re sure as heck there. Again — Twitter is no substitute for real human interaction, but out of all of the ways I’ve “gotten connected” with people online, Twitter is by far the way I’ve made the closest friends out of people who started out total strangers.

Now, it’s your turn.
Who do you follow on Twitter? Who are your favorite climbing or outdoor industry Twitter-ites? If you are a Twitter-ite, what value do you get from Twittering? Leave a comment, below, and don’t forget to follow me!

Filed under: Friends, Not Climbing, The climbing life, Twitter