kendall card 2.0

Marketing is different these days. The more I think about it, it’s story telling really. Tell the right story to the audience, one they want to hear. One they will enjoy hearing.

The video I was working on with Piton Productions for our client Gregory is done. It’s not your typical climbing video - fast cuts, strong hip-hop tunes, etc. But like Joe says in the video, the life he is living right now is “really peaceful, mellow…it’s like this totally different pace than I’m used to” so I think it fits.

Personally, I dig the final edit. But my opinion doesn’t really matter that much. The hope is that in someway you, a climber, backcountry skier, hiker, adventurer will think something like “Hey, that’s cool. Imagine that, Gregory Backpacks making a cool little climbing vid about their boy Joe Kinder.” Or something like that.

Well, you like? you no like? Let me know.

YouTube version if you’re a Tuber.

A couple weeks ago I found myself headed to Hurricane, Utah and from there on to Vegas. The purpose? Filming Gregory climbing athlete Joe Kinder along the way in order to create a video that we could use to brand Joe as a Gregory athlete as well as something that would virally spread throughout the climbing community. Since Gregory is really a peripheral brand in the climbing world, we have to come up with something that is unique. We’re thinking it’ll work.

The final video of our 3 day journey to Vegas isn’t complete, but Derek from Piton Productions threw together this little clip. We used a remote control helicopter to film the car chase segment along with some climbing too.

Today mid-day I ran into my buddy Walt who I had been meaning to climb with for some time and asked him when were going to get out climbing?

“I’ve got my gear in my car,” he replied to which I quickly followed, “And so do I“.

With the mid day temperatures in the upper 60’s in Kamas, there was no better time than the present. We headed up the Mirror Lake Highway and passed “The Recess” which is a spot at mile marker 14. It’s a fantastic little grotto of a climbing area but with the recent snow I figured it would be wet and damp so we drove on.

The area I had in mind to head to was the Jax Cliff. It’s a west facing wall at mile marker 20 which requires a river crossing and a steep scamper up a boulder field.

Neither of us had been there so we were anxious to check out something new.

With the low water we didn’t have to head up stream like the guidebook says but rather hopped boulders across the stream right at mile marker 20 where we parked.

Then up the other side of the stream gully to a flat we saw a cairn. We should have turned there. The book said go down stream 300 yards and then head up hill. We eventually figured it out and after a scramble found the crag.

The rock at Jax Cliff is beautiful and the views were just as good. With the leaves on the aspens mostly gone and the warm autumn sun I knew we had scored.

Although there are some trad offerings here we stuck to clipping bolts for today. We warmed upon Jax Rabbit (5.8 two star) which had some nice holds and fun moves. Next we grabbed New Jax City (5.9 one star) which has a bouldery start to a ledge where the real climbing begins and continues with cruising moves.

Lastly we jumped over to Jax in the Box (5.10b two star) which is all fingers with no real resting spot, particularly at the chains where the slopers got the best of me. After a couple of pumpy attempts we warmed down on Jax Rabbit again and called it a day.

Hiking down the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains and Walt snapped the photo on the header of the site as I left the crag. There’s nothing like having a crag to yourself when the weather is perfect.

Chris Sharma is widely consider one of the best if not the best climber in the world. (If you had a Wiki page as extensive as his you’d have to be one of the best in the world) Focusing on sport climbing and bouldering, Sharma continues to raise the bar for the climbing world. In the trailer below for the film King Lines, he is seen working on his free climb Es Pontas a deep water solo located on an arch off the coast of Mallorca, Spain. It took him nearly 50 tries to send it and is thought to go at 9b/5.15b but that is still speculation.

The world premier of King Lines by Big Up Productions opens on September 5 in Salt Lake City at the Tower Theater (click the link for a map to the Tower). It is also showing in San Diego and Boulder that same night as the world premier. See you at the Tower.

I couldn’t come up with a better title than just Fred Becky. The man is a legend among legends. It never ceases to amaze me what the guy has accomplished in his years on this earth when it comes to climbing rocks and mountains.

I was over at Patagonia.com looking at, stuff, and saw this photo on the front page:

Fred Beckey having the time of his life. Touchstone Wall, Zion National Park, Utah. Photo Credit : Eric Draper

One of Fred’s most popular climbs around these parts is the Little Cottonwood Classic, Becky’s Corner which at 5.7 is a great climb. Another of the countless Becky routes is the West Ridge of Prussik Peak (5.6) in Washington, a climb I’ve wanted to tick for years.

John Middendorf, author and big wall climber once said of Fred:

“Fred Beckey has been climbing since the mid 1930’s, and ever since his participation in the first ascent of Forbidden Peak in 1940, Fred has climbed countless first ascents all over the world. In America, Fred must be one of most prolific climbers in history, with probably over 1000 first ascents in North America alone. He was born in 1921 and climbs well to this day.”

Keep on Fred.