Last week I flew down to Salt Lake City to partake in my first ever Outdoor Retailer show. For the uninitiated it’s a massive convention of people with bad posture and oversized forearms, aka rock climbers.

These retailers don’t hold back, I’ve heard design and construction of the larger booths can top $250k. Not to mention the amount of money it costs to rent out floor space at the show! I’d never really witnessed anything to do with rock climbing that involved a lot of money. That’s a new side of the sport for me. I’m used to hanging out with dirtbag climbers who are living on PB & J sandwiches in order to prolong their climbing trip.

Teva even hired someone to walk in their giant hamster wheel during the show:

Teva

The show kicked off to a great start when I was handed the latest issue of Gripped Magazine with a glowing review of Western Gold! They said, “This is a well-crafted film that resets the standard for entertainment and authenticity in bouldering films.“

Prana

The best part of the show is that it brings people together. Who am I kidding? Happy hour is the best part of the show. People are usually at happy hour so they’re important too.

I got to check out Reel Rock 7 at their prescreening party which was pretty phenomenal! They showed films on Sharma (spain), Honnold (bishop & yosemite), and Renan Ozturk, Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker climbing the Meru Shark’s Fin. One of the highlights for me was during the spain segment when Sharma was describing the climbing on his 15c project and that he had to “engage savage bouldering power” to do the moves! The sharma film was exciting and the other two were just plain terrifying. Big Up and Sender Films have been amazing at telling stories and they just keep getting better. Renan, Jimmy and the rest of the Camp4 Collective continue to step up their work at an exponential pace. To be able to tell such a personal story in such gripping detail is truly inspiring. Highly recommend going to the reel rock tour when it hits your city this fall!

I was hanging out with team always-psyched so the 97 degree temps didn’t deter us from going bouldering. We went up to Little Cottonwood Canyon to check out a boulder called Euro Roof.

Jimmy Webb on Euro Roof

Les Warnock on Euro Roof

While Jimmy was the only one to send anything that day, it was fun to get out with friends in a beautiful spot.

Not a bad place to hang out

Back in Squamish now and the weather is great. 70′s and low 80′s, lots of sun, and no rain in the forecast. Tons of rock climbing to do, lots of trails to bike on. Psyched to be here!

The Tantalus Range