By Mark Anderson This is the second installment in a 4-part series. The first installment can be found here. By the end of the Fall 2015 climbing season, I was consistently 2-hanging the route, and while my hang points were converging, the rate of improvement was glacial. Clearly I needed to reach another plane of…
by Mark Anderson Fall 2016 probably would have won the title “Best Season Ever” even if it ended after the third day (the day I finished off my year-long bout with Shadowboxing). After that send I spent a night celebrating, which for me entails eating a bunch of food I normally wouldn’t, in this case a greasy…
by Mark Anderson This is the first in a multi-part series about how I prepared and trained for my ascent of Shadowboxing in Rifle Colorado. For background on the route and details of my ascent, please read here. The decision to embark on a multi-season redpoint campaign should not be taken lightly. It’s a huge…
by Mark Anderson Last week Mike and I did another podcast with our friend Neely Quinn over at TrainingBeta.com. You can check out the podcast here. The interview runs about an hour and covers a wide variety of topics including: What went into designing the Rock Prodigy Forge, and why we think it’s the most advanced hangboard…
by Mark Anderson On Friday, September 23rd, I reached my lifetime sport climbing goal of climbing a 5.14d. Actually it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a “lifetime goal”, since for the vast majority of my life I never dreamed I’d be capable of climbing a route so hard. That changed last summer. …
[*Editor’s Note: This blog post was updated on October 22, 2018 to correct the proper polarity for the “1-Tin Method”] by Mark Anderson This is Part II in a two-part series. Check out Part I, especially the many warnings and disclaimers, here. While the “standard method” of Iontophoresis was working well for me, I found it…
by Mark Anderson For many performance-oriented climbers, finger skin durability is a limiting factor. Repeatedly reefing on small, sharp holds can do significant damage, resulting in debilitating skin injuries like bloody flappers, splits, blisters, or simply thin skin that oozes sweat. Through trial and error, climbers have devised various methods to maximize skin toughness and…
By Mark Anderson Our friends at Trango generously footed the bill to send Mike and I to the International Rock Climbing Research Association’s (IRCRA) annual conference, held in Telluride, CO earlier this month. Ben and Jason at Fixed Pin Publishing also stepped up big-time to provide attendees with complimentary copies of The Rock Climber’s Training…
by Mark Anderson Last fall our good friend Chris Alstrin of Mind Frame Cinema came out to The Bunker in Clear Creek Canyon to shoot video of my route Born On The 4th of July, which I opened in May of 2015. Chris posted the video today on the AAC’s Instagram page. You can check…
The Southern Colorado Andersons (that’s Mike, Janelle, Lucas and Axel) are finally on our way to Europe! We are flying into Frankfurt, Germany, then heading south to the Alps. We’ll be staying in Ellmau, a quaint ski village in the heart of the Tirol region. We hope to sample Austria’s incredible rock…specifically the limestone and…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 