Today’s guest post is from Ryan Wanger, a climber who writes at The Reluctant Eater.
Clif. The name is synonymous with climbing (perhaps it’s the logo?). If you’re like me, then you’ve always enjoyed Clif Bars, but rarely buy them because frankly, you’re a cheapskate. Nutritious? Yep. All natural? Absolutely. Tasty? You betcha! In fact, it’s amazing that anyone can successfully sell any product to a bunch of jobless, dirtbag climbers like ourselves, right? We’d rather just eat the dust of last weeks trail mix!
In recent years, Clif has been on a tear to diversify and expand their product line, releasing 9 new food products since 2004. However, since I’m rather oblivious to that sort of thing, and haven’t spent much time in climbing gyms recently (traditional Clif strongholds), I failed to notice…well…ALL of them. A recent sample of Clif Shot Bloks at an ultimate frisbee tournament piqued my curiosity, inspiring a flurry of research (read: tasting).
My first thought? Clif has a line of kids products? Well, they do now, having released a second item, Clif Kid Twisted Fruit, last year.
I eat local, organic, non-processed food almost exclusively, so I’m always a bit skeptical of anything in a package, and generally that means foods with as few ingredients as possible (especially those ingredients that sound like they came from a laboratory: monogluxysodiobenzoate?). However, it’s hard to argue with the ingredients of the Peanut Butter ZBar:
Let’s just call it: a bunch of whole food ingredients pressed together.
What do they taste like? Basically ZBars are smaller, less dense (more bread-like) versions of Clif Bars, with a little drizzle of frosting on top. And tasty! Yes, I’m an adult, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying food aimed at children. Right?
My thoughts on the 6 different flavors, listed in order of preference:
Peanut Butter - My favorite! I don’t like peanut butter cookies, but love any peanut butter & chocolate combo. This tastes more like the latter.
Chocolate Chip - Reminiscent of Quaker Oats Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars. Or even the S’more flavor. That’s a good thing!
Blueberry - Tastes like a dense, chewy blueberry muffin.
Apple Cinnamon - Surprisingly good considering I generally don’t enjoy this flavor.
Chocolate Brownie - Still decent, basically a chocolate-chocolate chip taste. Though somehow less chocolaty than the Chocolate Chip?
Honey Graham - My least favorite, and the “least strong” in terms of flavoring. It also happens to have the least amount of sugar.
Again, I try to eat local, organic food whenever possible and usually make my own goodies from scratch, but I realize that isn’t always possible. Clif has similar beliefs, expressed right there on the packaging: “In raising our family, we always wish to find organic snacks to nourish our kids as they compete in sports, study or just play with friends. We prefer to make them food from scratch, but life gets busy, so it’s not always possible. That’s why we created Clif Kid Organic ZBar - a baked energy bar made with whole oats..”. You get the picture. They do a great job with consistent, healthy, authentic products.
(Photo missing. Next time I’ll remember to take a picture BEFORE eating!)
Although I was a little saddened that the bars are frosted (just a snaking drizzle across the top), they still serve as a huge step up from most food products aimed at children in terms of healthfulness (no high fructose corn syrup!), organicness, and environmental responsible…ness. The real selling point is that they retail for roughly half the cost of a Clif Bar. So grab one for yourself…er, I mean your kid.
Thanks to Ryan for the guest post. If you enjoyed this, please check out his other posts at The Reluctant Eater, where he writes about eating local, organic food, and promoting a healthier relationship with food. Ryan also has a best of The Reluctant Eater collection.
Adam Ondra has made the second ascent of Alex Huber’s 55m long Open Air (9a+) at Schleier Wasserfall, Austria. Huber established the route in 1996 and it took Ondra nine attempts over five days for the recent send. (via UKClimbing.com, Czech Climbing, and Momentum Video)
like a condom for your gear: a prophylactic to prevent that expensive piece from walking away, accidentally or otherwise. Just mix the two ingredients and have about a 30 minute working time to apply to gear. 24 hours later it’s bombproof. literally: there may be some chemical to get it off but there’s no way mechanical friction or impact will do it.
Looks much better than the colored electrical tape I’ve been using for years that keeps falling off.
The Mark comes in four colors, has enough for making 250 marks, and retails for $14.95.
Entering its fifth year, the 2008 Adventure Film Festival starts today and ends November 11 in Boulder, Colorado. Focusing on all types of adventure, the festival bills itself as an international venue for independent films.
“I’ve been exposed to an incredible world of adventure through years of expeditions and work in outdoor media,” said founder Jonny Copp, a photographer, writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Climbing Magazine and Men’s Journal. “We created this film festival because there is powerful medicine within these stories. … (They) have the power to change us and change the world.”
Activism Through Adventure - Sharkwater by Rob Stewart
Best Surfing Film - Sliding Liberia by Britton Caillouette & Nicholai Lidow
Intrepid Travel Award - A Map For Saturday by Brook Silva-Braga
Best Whitewater Film - Source by Young Gun Productions
Make Your Own Legends Award - Klunkerz by Billy Savage
Unfortunately, I’m out of town this weekend and will not be able to provide a review. If anyone attends, please leave a comment and let us know how the festival went.
Recently I had a brief Twitter discussion with @WasatchGirl who is currently on an extended climbing trip. She was in Boone and wondering if there was any printed guidebook available. From my last visit I didn’t think there was any, but I did remember a few resources online that I had bookmarked.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any of the sites I thought I had saved, so I did a bit of searching and discovered a site I hadn’t seen before called BooneBoulders.com.
When I lived in the Washington DC area, one of the (few) benefits was being able to get cheap flights on Southwest to New Hampshire. This allowed us to take trips for ice climbing in the White Mountains.
I attended the Mt. Washington Valley Ice Festival numerous times and had a blast. The ice climbing there was fantastic, with opportunities for superb multi-pitch routes, mixed climbs, and even top-roping.
When I moved to southwest Virginia to be closer to the New River Gorge, the one thing I missed was the availability of ice climbing in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire. It has now been years since I’ve climbed ice.
Now that I’m in Colorado I’m anxiously awaiting the upcoming ice season, though I think I’ll need to upgrade most of my gear (I hope my wife is not reading this!)
If you’re looking forward to ice climbing this year, there are several resources to update you on the winter climbing conditions. Mountain Project has conditions reports that can be tailored to areas you choose. NEice.com provides conditions via a user forum for most of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Eastern Canada. For both US and international climbing area conditions, the American Alpine Institute blog provides a weekly post on updated conditions. For Colorado specific conditions, you can check iceclimbingcolorado.com’s current condition reports. Finally, Chauvin Guides provides a detailed look at conditions in New Hampshire with pictures and descriptions.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on John Muir, his first ascent of Cathedral Peak in 1869, and the recent exhibit in the Yosemite Museum called “Granite Frontiers: A Century of Yosemite Climbing.”
Muir was Yosemite’s first climbing bum — a rara avis then, but a species that is not at all endangered today. Witness the queue to get a tent site in the park’s Camp Four, where bedraggled climbers with duct tape holding their down jackets together mass early every morning hours before the ranger station opens. And those are the orderly ones, not the so-called dirtbags who sleep illegally in the bushes, ignoring the regulations and spending months at a time in the park pursuing their passion. It’s not uncommon, moreover, to find climbers lined up to scale popular routes such as Cathedral Peak, although most use a rope to protect themselves from falling off the summit — unlike Muir, who trusted all to his hands and feet and steady nerves.
For those if you in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S., there’s an upcoming event you won’t want to miss.
Chris Sharma is coming to the New River Gorge on Saturday, October 25th, 2008. He’ll be there for a slide show and the Dead Point Magazine Launch.
From the New River Mountain Guides:
Come down for the weekend and climb and have the opportunity to meet him in person and watch his amazing slideshow.
Chris’s life has allowed him countless experiences during his travels from one edge of the globe to the other and you can experience them with him as he recounts these moments LIVE! Moments such as sending Necessary Evil (14c) at 14 years old, his groundbreaking ascent of the Mandala, solidifying the first ascent of a 5.15 with Realization, the first ascent of Dreamcatcher and the monumental send Pontas Arch!
This is the first slideshow tour Chris has ever given in the dirty South, and it’s exclusively available only to Evolv and Sterling Rope dealers. Chris is going to be showcasing his Sharma Signature Series, his personal line of climbing shoes he developed with Evolv Footwear.
Show starts @ 8:00pm with the Dead Point Magazine party with a hip-hop
performance with Odub and a live DJ after the show.
More info on the Chris Sharma slide show can be found here.
The Nose, which celebrates its 50 anniversary this year, is one of the world’s most famous rock climbs and was first ascended over a five week period by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore. The first free ascent was carried out by none other than Lynn Hill in 1993 in what is hailed as one of the most significant free climbing achievements ever. The route had to wait a further 12 years for its first repeat, at the hands of the extremely talented American Tommy Caldwell.
The prusik hitch may be pretty basic for many readers, but there are certain essential knots that every climber should know.
The American Alpine Institute has posted a great video illustrating the prusik knot.
Alpinists keep a variety of technical tools in their back-pockets. One of the most important tools is the prusik hitch. The prusik hitch is most commonly used for crevasse rescue systems on a glacier, for rock rescue systems, and for climbing fixed lines.
In addition to their stated uses, I would add that my two most common uses have been to back up a rappel and to ascend a rope after a sketchy (and usually ill-advised) rappel.
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