Climbing Vids: Dosage: Vol. 3 & Hard Grit
I've become a fiend for climbing videos lately. I devoured everything Netflix has (not much), and found myself still wanting a fix. So I dropped by the local shop and picked up Dosage: Vol. 3 and Hard Grit.
I'm here to report that they're both awesome.
Dosage does a great job of updating the style of the series while still keeping everything I loved about Vol. 2: beautiful cinematography, badass bouldering, and an incredible soundtrack.
And Hard Grit is just incredible. I'm really impressed with gritstone climbing style and ethics. At first I was put off by what seems to be the usual practice of rehearsing on toprope before an actual ascent on lead. But the reason for this made itself obvious pretty quickly: gritstone just doesn't offer good pro. A typical route may be 50 feet tall, and have it's last protection at 23 feet, so topping out involves a possible groundfall. Put another way: in a typical U.S. guidebook, these climbs would all have R or X ratings.
Your damn right they rehearse them first.
It's a really inspiring look at a climbing culture that embraces the physical and mental aspects of climbing with equal emphasis.