experimenting with a blog

I decided to do some experimenting with writing a blog about climbing,I was hoping to get some feedback and possibly some links to some good climbing blogs I could look into.

Feel free to check out my first blog and kick me some feedback.

leifyguy.blogspot.com/

The bolt in the foreground in pic #1 is clipped wrong.

Yer gonna die.

That photo of the baby roaming around free at the base of the crag (american fork?) kinda freaked me out. Wasatch limestone is choss dude.

related to the above poster, what crags do you like with little ones? Although I think you can protect little one with some thought about the crags and what the kids do. We bring snacks and sometimes the ipad with a tv show downloaded.

I have taken them up to hard rock a couple of times and that worked really well they loved pulling on the fixed line to get up that little steep part of the hike in.

I wish that MP had some more information about the crags and suitability for little ones, but understandbly I am in minority I guess. I have a 2 and 4 year old and have been to parts of american fork with the little ones but mostly just go inside since I don't really want to hike out and find that the belay is too close to a cliff for little ones.

zoso wrote:The bolt in the foreground in pic #1 is clipped wrong. Yer gonna die.

That draw was hung with a stick clip and impossibly hard to place with the right orientation, also the "yer gonna die" doesn't apply since my rope clearly isn't clipped into that draw since it's on a completely different route haha

Hey daniel,

I don't have kids but I sure as hell wouldn't take them to hard rock crag at american fork. Division wall is pretty loose too, have seen golfball-baseball sized stuff come off there.

Climbing area to take the kids to? The gym. or dogwood/the slips.

(Edited to add: the link above is not the one for the crag page, it's a short 10 second video that's worth watching before parking your kids at AF)

DanielRich wrote:related to the above poster, what crags do you like with little ones? Although I think you can protect little one with some thought about the crags and what the kids do. We bring snacks and sometimes the ipad with a tv show downloaded. I have taken them up to hard rock a couple of times and that worked really well they loved pulling on the fixed line to get up that little steep part of the hike in. I wish that MP had some more information about the crags and suitability for little ones, but understandbly I am in minority I guess. I have a 2 and 4 year old and have been to parts of american fork with the little ones but mostly just go inside since I don't really want to hike out and find that the belay is too close to a cliff for little ones.

it depends on what grades you're wanting to climb, the picture where my daughter is crawling at the base was setup to look worse than it really was, we actually had a bigger group up there that day and all took turns holding her and keeping her on other ends of the crag away from the rock fall, however, I would not recommend that particular crag for little ones. Division, the membrane, tank canyon, and little mill are all a little more "kid friendly"

Eric Chabot wrote:Hey daniel, I don't have kids but I sure as hell wouldn't take them to hard rock crag at american fork. Division wall is pretty loose too, have seen golfball-baseball sized stuff come off there. Climbing area to take the kids to? The gym. or dogwood/the slips.

I disagree, you just need to make sure the little ones are out of the way of the rock fall

I didn't read any of it but a lot of your photos are stunning.

Chris treggE wrote:I didn't read any of it but a lot of your photos are stunning.

^^ Perfect reply.

I've kept a climbing blog for a couple of years. What I've found is that mostly, no one cares. You're not doing anything original, you're not the sponsored athlete with unwavering adoration, you're just a guy/gal sharing whatever it is you share.

So, if you enjoy it, keep at it. If you're looking for props, respect, sponsors, etc., I hope you have thick skin.

I will say that, every now and then, a blog post blows up (relative to your typical site traffic) and it feels pretty darn good. But when most of them don't, I don't care. I write and share for the outlet. It's a good place for me to dump my thoughts.

Enjoy the process.

SeanFoster wrote: ^^ Perfect reply. I've kept a climbing blog for a couple of years. What I've found is that mostly, no one cares. You're not doing anything original, you're not the sponsored athlete with unwavering adoration, you're just a guy/gal sharing whatever it is you share. So, if you enjoy it, keep at it. If you're looking for props, respect, sponsors, etc., I hope you have thick skin. I will say that, every now and then, a blog post blows up (relative to your typical site traffic) and it feels pretty darn good. But when most of them don't, I don't care. I write and share for the outlet. It's a good place for me to dump my thoughts. Enjoy the process.

that's exactly what I was thinking, the idea behind the blog was more to share the story and get it out of my system so that I quit telling all my buddies about it haha

Technical tip: your photos are loading at a large size (350+ kb). I would process these for use on the web; try and keep them smaller than 100 kb, and they will load a lot faster with no discernible impact on quality.

As I was trying to scroll through the site and read some of your stories, the photos were holding things up and it was frustrating. You will lose interest right off that bat, due to something like that.

Jason Kim wrote:Technical tip: your photos are loading at a large size (350+ kb). I would process these for use on the web; try and keep them smaller than 100 kb, and they will load a lot faster with no discernible impact on quality. As I was trying to scroll through the site and read some of your stories, the photos were holding things up and it was frustrating. You will lose interest right off that bat, due to something like that.

Good feedback! thanks for the tip.

Absolutely love the pic on your blog of the river traverse with the kid in the car seat. I like to see people take their kids out in the hills with them.

Sweet blog man! I love all the pictures on it, really makes me want to go out and climb! Where is that super steep wall? the "Heel hooks everwhere" one? Looks amazing! Nice job man, keep up the work!