Wrapping up Thanksgiving: How to Bring Your Leftovers to the Crag

If you’re like me, your mom decided, once again, to make enough stuffing “to have leftovers,” and sent two pounds home with you, along with half the turkey, green bean casserole, and half a can of cranberry sauce. It’s hard enough to get motivated for your fifth night of Thanksgiving turkey, but how can you eat mashed potatoes with gravy and green bean casserole on the pitch three belay ledge? Here is a guide help make leftover turkey and sweet potatoes more palatable and packable for the crag.

TURKEY SMORGASBORD WRAP: All your Thanksgiving leftovers in one convent package

INGREDIENTS:

1 large whole-wheat wrap

2 slices turkey

2 scoops green bean casserole, drained*

2 scoops baked sweet potato, mashed potato, or stuffing

2 slices jellied cranberry sauce

*Be sure to drain off most of the cream of mushroom soup to avoid the wrap leaking into your backpack.

DIRECTIONS:

Place desired amounts of your favorite, or most abundant, of the above leftovers—or others you find in the fridge—into wrap, fold wrap, and enjoy immediately or pack for later enjoyment.

LEFTOVER VEGGIE DELIGHT WRAP: For vegetarians, veggie lovers and those looking to get rid of soggy green bean casserole

INGREDIENTS:

1 large whole-wheat wrap

2 scoops green bean casserole, drained*

2 scoops baked sweet potato

1 large cooked carrot (or the equivalent in cooked pieces)

2 slices jellied cranberry sauce

Optional: fresh lettuce or spinach to add some crunch; two slices sharp cheddar cheese for added protein and flavor

*Be sure to drain off most of the cream of mushroom soup to avoid the wrap leaking into your backpack.

DIRECTIONS:

Place desired amounts of your favorite, or most abundant, of the above leftovers—or others you find in the fridge—into wrap, fold wrap, and enjoy immediately or pack for enjoyment later.

SWEET WRAPS: Pie is a lunch food

APPLE EDITION INGREDIENTS:

1 whole-wheat wrap

1 slice apple pie

2 slices sharp cheddar cheese

Optional: ¼ cup walnuts

PUMKIN EDITION INGREDIENTS:

1 whole-wheat wrap

1 slice pumpkin pie

¼ cup pecans

Optional: Substitute or add sweet potato casserole for/to pumpkin pie

DIRECTIONS:

Place pie and nuts/cheese in wrap, fold, and enjoy now or pack for enjoyment later.

We had plenty of leftovers from my Thanksgiving.

INTERVIEW: Alex Honnold on Alone on the Wall and Climbing While on a Book Tour

Note: CoffeeTape has moved! Check out the new mobile-friendly site at coffeetapeclimb.com for new posts every Monday and ease of climbing withdrawal symptoms whenever you visit. 

Alex Honnold released his first book, Alone on the Wall, on November 9 and has been traveling the country giving book talks since. Before his first presentation and signing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Alex let me ask him a few questions about his book, climbing while on the tour and what he defines as “easy climbing."

How did the idea for Alone on the Wall come about?

It happened because David [Roberts] made it happen. A bunch of people—agents and publishers—had approached me with book ideas, and David had already written a profile with me for Outside Magazine and knew my family. He’s a really good writer and has worked with a bunch of my friends. I’d read a bunch of his books when I was a kid and really liked them. So, David was like: “Would you like to do a book project? This is how long it would take; this is how much work will be involved; this is the whole process.” I was like: “Oh sweet, perfect.” It was pretty painless.

We locked in a deal with Norton and then started working in July [2014] and were done by Christmas. And the publishing process has taken another eleven months.

How did you and David split up the work of writing the book?

Photo by Jimmy Chin and courtesy of Alex's website.

It’s pretty much all David’s writing, except that everything that’s in my voice is taken from something I’ve written before. His sections are mostly taken from his own research and interviews. The book is split half and half between our voices. It’s constant switching back and forth between the voices, but it’s really clear; I talk in italics, and he doesn’t. It was a necessary structural device because he said that if it was all in my voice it would be too understated, so he wanted something to give it proper context.

What is your favorite climb in Alone on the Wall?

My favorite chapter in the book is called “Fear and Loving.” It’s about my soloing the Original Route on the Rainbow Wall in Vegas [Red Rocks].

What was the most challenging part of writing your first book?

Just typing and [making] the time for all the reading, writing and editing, and that was with David doing all the real work. I would just wait until the situation got dire and then be like f*** I need to edit and crank it out. By the end it was like, Oh wow, this is actually going to be published, and it’s all in my voice. Oh no. So I had to go back and edit some of the first chapters again.

Photo by Jimmy Chin and courtesy of Alex's website.

How much of the book highlights your free solos, and how much is focused on roped climbing?

It’s half and half. A few of the chapters are focused on the Nose speed record, the solo triple—the solo triple isn’t even free soloing; it’s with a rope and some gear—and the Fitz Traverse. So it’s pretty varied. Even the chapters that focus on free soloing also have other trips and expeditions.

Part of the appeal of writing the book was to make sure that all the soloing was placed in the proper context.

How are you fitting climbing in around the book tour?

I’m not. It sucks. I was hangboarding in the hotel stairwell today. I roped it to a pipe.

Normally I travel with a portable pull-up bar that goes into a doorframe, and I hang my hangboard off it, but that requires a standard size doorframe. All hotels have their own thing, and this one didn’t have anything remotely close [to fitting].  So then I found some pipes and did a whole training session hanging off of them. It really makes you feel like a weirdo, being this shirtless dude in the stairwell maxing on small edges while housekeeping walks by. It was pretty ghetto. 

Photo by Jimmy Chin and courtesy of Alex's website.

The age-old question: How does your mentality and fear change when you’re approaching a free solo versus a roped climb?

Most of my scariest climbing experiences have been with a rope on. You’re more willing to push into stuff that you certainly wouldn’t without a rope. You’re like Oh bad rock; I’m sure it’ll get better. So you keep going, and then you’re like It’s getting worse, but I can’t go back down cause I’m f-ed. So you just keep pushing and pretty soon you’re terrified. But without a rope you’d be like this is scary and go back down.

Photo by Jimmy Chin and courtesy of Alex's website.

How much of your soloing is onsight versus rehearsed routes?

It’s probably mostly onsight because it’s mostly easy.

What do you consider easy?

5.10d and under is mostly onsight. 5.11 and up is mostly rehearsed.

Random quote that didn’t fit into the above:

The whole East is a no-man’s land of barren waste. I can’t get past Colorado.

Alex had had enough of smiling by the end of his book signing in Portsmouth.
Left to Right: Me, Alex, Alexis (who is awesome and helped me get this interview) 

Alone on the Wall: Inside Alex's First Book-Talk

Alex remains smiling over 50 autographs in.

"The doors aren't open," the man at the front door started to tell him; he didn’t know with whom he was speaking.

“You should let him in,” I said quietly, smiling at Alex in that weird way ones does with celebrities, as if you're friends with them, though they have no idea who you are.

“Hey,” Alex said to the man and then me, playing off my rookie mistake by acting as if I wasn’t a complete stranger. We had in fact met briefly last summer, but not in any way that would have caused him to remember me. 

It was Alex Honnold’s first visit to New Hampshire. He wasn’t here to solo Predator or run laps on Cathedral. He was just giving a quick Power Point presentation on his first book, “Alone on the Wall,” and signing a few copies before leaving Portsmouth for the rest of his two-and-a-half-week book tour.

“I did a hangboard workout in the stairwell of my hotel this morning,” he told me while he waited for the event's producer, Margaret Talcot. “I hung it from a pipe; it was pretty ghetto.”

Taking off his puffy, Alex candidly explained to Margaret that he’d never given a book talk before and he had no idea what he was doing, as this was the first stop on the tour. He’d made a slideshow overview of "Alone on the Wall," but felt badly that he didn’t have much information outside of the book to present.

“Here’s a cool slideshow, and now you can read the exact same thing,” he said to Margret. He did want to know if the audience would be mostly climbers or not.

“Well they did have to pay for their seat and the book,” Margret explained, adding that there wouldn’t be any “Riff-raff,” her word for dirt-bag climbers. Alex laughed the unintended insult off and left for a pre-signing.

Alex’s book, co-written with mountaineer and author David Roberts, chronicles his seven most important climbs, one in each chapter, beginning with his solo of Moonlight Buttress and culminating in the Fitz Roy Traverse. Alex’s first person narratives are written in italics to set them off from Robert’s additions, which include other climbers’ voices and perspectives on Alex’s feats to qualify them next to the humble first person accounts. Roberts was afraid that Alex “No Big Deal” Honnold would understate his achievements if allowed to write the book alone.

Despite it being his first book-talk and the end of a long day of travel and interviews, Alex kept the audience engaged for over an hour. He encouraged them to ask questions throughout his presentation, and they did, making it run almost until the end of the time allotted for both the talk and Q&A session. He also skillfully balanced more technical explanations of route finding and the difficulties associated with climbs, for example shredded ropes on the Fitz Traverse, with candid stories of himself and Tommy crushing bags of Ruffles into a single Ziploc bag of “salt and fat.”

Alex said he wrote the book in part to break away from the media's stereotype of him only free soloing. He explained that the book progresses in complexity from his first solos as a 19-year-old to much more technical and gear-intensive mountaineering on the Fitz Traverse. Alex wants to be known for his range of experiences, not just the accomplishments that non-climbers immediately jump on as dangerous and fascinating.

So would I recommend the book? Well, to be honest, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. In my own defense: it was released a week ago. I have, however, looked at the glossy pictures in the center, and those are pretty neat. So I won’t deter you from purchasing it. In fact, I’d recommend you give the book a try. Alex says it’s a “quick read,” and it might be interesting to learn more about his climbing adventures outside of his free soloing highlighted on 60 Minutes or Patagonia battles in Reel Rock 10. Plus, who wouldn't want to learn more about a guy who climbs rocks, gives book talks in slightly wrinkled red t-shirts and with uncombed hair, and makes funny faces between smiling for 70 pictures with eager readers? 

NEXT WEEK: Alex was awesome and squeezed in a brief interview with me about the book and climbing in general before his presentation, so I’ll have the full version of that up next Monday.

MANY THANKS to my friend Alexis, the Music Hall's Membership Coordinator, for getting me a free ticket to the event (and for being psyched on 5-hour gym sessions and bouldering in Pawtuckaway in November) and to Alex for letting me hang around and ask him questions at the end of a long, busy day. 

Yoga: Mental and Physical Cross-Training for Climbing

Jeff Jackson, Rock and Ice Magazine Features Editor, office Yogi and 5.14 climber, is a firm believer in the mental and physical health benefits of yoga. This summer, he took a yoga break at 2 p.m. every day he was at the office. He kept his yoga mat and rugs in the hallway and would spend at least 30 minutes moving between poses outside of the conference room before returning to his desk.

Alex Honnold takes a yoga stretch break while surveying Half Dome.
(Photo courtesy of Alex's Facebook)

Now you might be wondering how being the office yogi has anything to do with climbing 5.14, or 5.11 for that matter. Well, have you ever wished that you'd stretched more before trying to high-step? Yoga is a great way to improve flexibility. I wouldn't spend 20 minutes lying on my living room carpet stretching, but taking a break to move between poses and stretching to the soothing sound of an instructor's voice sounds like something I might do once a week. 

But more than flexibility, yoga, especially more physically strenuous Vinyasa practices, where one focuses on breath while flowing continuously between poses, builds strength physically and mentally, allowing one to glide up the rock with flexibility, power and grace. Additionally, the focus on breathing, something many climbers forget while giving their all on a route or problem, can facilitate your climbing, helping you to stay calm and Elvis-leg-free through cruxes, since you're focused on breathing and your movement on the rock instead of fear, and providing your muscles with oxygen to produce the ATP (energy) to power your movements. 

The mental benefits of yoga extend beyond breath control. One must focus on each muscle in the body to correctly hold and flow between poses. For those of us who aren’t highly coordinated, yoga helps us build an awareness of body positioning and how to better control and perform movements, which can translate to smoother and more precise motion on the rock.

Beyond helping your climbing, taking a half hour to focus on your practice can be a meditative experience, leaving you more balanced and refreshed mentally, similarly to how climbing allows one to forget about life’s worries outside of getting oneself up the rock safely. If you’re too busy to get outside or to the gym, try taking a few minutes to refocus with your favorite yoga sequence.

There are many levels and types of yoga.  Some, such as Vinyasa and Ashtanga, are more strenuous, while a beginner Hatha yoga class or video will focus more on simple postures, relaxation and meditation. Try out difference classes or YouTube videos to find the practice that works best for you. Don’t know where to start? I like this short video as a warm-up before gym or strength sessions or when I only have 20 minutes to stretch out. The Petzl RocTrip yoga video (see below) is also great for when you want to feel like you have some climber company figuring out the poses, and the instructor gives helpful tips to modify poses to accommodate common climbing injuries.

I cannot guarantee that practicing yoga will make you into a 5.14 climber, but it can be a healthy addition to your week, whether or not you see the benefits in your climbing right away. But who knows, you might find yourself sending your projects and slowly becoming known as the office yogi.

Running for Climbing: Comments on the Age-Old Debate

Googling "running for climbing training" pulls up a host of articles and Mountain Project forums debating whether running helps or hurts one's climbing. Many of my climbing partners found climbing in college after running cross country in high school, as did I, and still have an appreciation for exploring trails on foot, but how does this affect our climbing? I briefly weighed in on this topic this summer, in a post about "The Dangers of Trail Running," but here is my more complete answer to the question:

How does running affect my climbing?

Flashback to my high school running days when I couldn't have pulled 
myself up an indoor 5.9 if a pint of Ben and Jerry's depended on it. 

First, I should admit that I still enjoy running, though I'm no longer training for specific races. On beautiful fall days when I only have an hour break between classes, a jog through UNH's college woods or the community trails by my house gives me a much-needed study break. However, I don't consider my 30 minutes of cardio "climbing training." It's more meditative, a mental break that's different from that which I find while climbing. Thoughts slip, uninhibited, through my mind while I run, where everything but the next crimp and controlling my fear of falling is blocked out while I'm on a rope. However, I'm not training for a half-marathon or worried about how fast or long I run for. If I don't run for a few days, or weeks, it's okay.

In an article with Trail Runner magazine, Alex Honnold talks about how he too enjoys running as a faster means of exploring the trails around Yosemite and cross-training when he's unable to climb. He doesn't think that running helps his climbing and doesn't bother to get up early to get his miles in when he's focused on ascending routes on El Capitan, but, for him, it's a fun activity for rest or easier climbing days.

I find running helpful in keeping my base cardio level up for multi-pitch days and hauling 20-pound backpacks up approaches. If you're too tired after the approach to give your all into a climb, then walking all the way there isn't worth it. However, I don't use going for a run as an excuse not to train for climbing (I have many other excuses such as homework and elbow tendonitis for that one). I also don't run like I'm training for a marathon, as that will deplete my energy and ability to recover for climbing. 

For me, running between 30 and 40 minutes four to five days a week, if I'm doing no other cardio training, is the perfect balance of getting in a metal break and staying fit for approaches without tiring myself out too much to climb. Granted, I do have a four-year base of running cross country and track in high school, so, for me, running 20 miles a week is relatively easy and energizing. Light cross-training, such as going for a 30-minute jog, has also been shown to improve your recovery on climbing off days, but make sure you take at least one full day off each week to let your muscles recuperate—this is when you're building strength from your workouts. If you don't consider yourself a runner but want to test out training for approaches, then I'd suggest beginning with 9-10 mile weeks and proceeding from there based on how you feel. 

Overall, I don't believe running helps my climbing, especially when the approach is short. However, it does help my overall mental health and is a great activity to get out some of my extra energy and relieve stress when I don't have enough time to hit the gym or climb outside. I can also say with confidence that running isn't what holds me back from climbing harder routes; it's my mental game and lack of arm strength and perfect technique. So, if your life is better with a little running, then there's no reason to stop. Most of us don't climb professionally, so, as lifestyle climbers, we shouldn't spend every second of our day making choices based solely on whether or not something will help us send our project. Climbing is a healthy, enjoyable part of our lives, not the only part. But, on the flip side, if you hate running, there's really no reason, as far as your climbing is concerned, to start.