Climbers and Christmas

If you think that Christmas is all the same for all people, you are wrong. In different parts of the world there are different traditions and habits. Moreover, there are parts of the world where there are no Christmas, nor even Xmas! Anyhow, for those, who are interested to know about the special climbers Christmas traditions, we want to present an old Christmas tradition, that survived few centuries and is still practiced in some parts of Lithuania.
Climbers, who practice this tradition, do not expect presents in casual socks or under the Christmas tree. Instead, they modestly hang their chalk bag above the fireplace. Modern version is of this tradition is to hang the chalk bag on the heating element, as it is believed, that Santa Claus always comes near the heating element, because he gets cold while going very fast around the world. While getting warm he puts a spell of luck on the bag, and, if you weren't too naughty during the year, a present.
It is also believed, that Santa Claus is a pretty good climber himself, mostly practicing chimney routes and ice climbing. He rarely uses any safety devices although his style includes large dynos! Nevertheless, we must not forget that he must be the most experienced climber on Earth.

Šilelis club wishes You Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Elephant Girl Returns

Why karate can be more dangerous than climbing? Make a wild guess! As the title may suggest, it is related to elephants. Are there elephants on climbing tracks? Very possibly, no. Are there elephants in karate training area? Not very possibly, but possibly, yes. What happens if an elephant steps on your feet? Ouch...

Help needed

As our climbers are also students, who receive homework, we want to ask you for help. One of us needs to write an essay about the intelligence of mice. The problem is the numbers. Does anybody know, what is the IQ of a mouse? Thank you in advice.

Nachrichten

As you may see, no events have taken place in Šilelis club recently. Imagining that there are some devoted readers who are curious to know why, we will tell the truth.
Which is that life simply goes on!
Nobody has fallen, but as you see from the title of this post, some climbers might have been occupied with studying German. Nobody has climbed 8a, but you may almost be sure that some parties have taken place recently and some climbers are probably still recovering. Some have been playing cards and others have been to a death metal concert. There was also Romualdas Cup Football Tournament. And someone succeeded in counting to infinity twice...

Could it be?

One of our readers, climber Bozena from Poland, has sent us a video claiming that it could be Trisūnas, that she captured with her camera. We indeed do not know if it could be true, as the fact that the little creature was listening to Metallica's "Seek and Destroy" (confirmed by our experts) is very confusing. Moreover, the creature seems to be dead in the end, which leaves us helpless in finding out the truth.
If you know anything about this creature, please do not hesitate to contact us. Any kind of information will be appreciated. We are very eager to find out how Trisūnas looks like and where he is based as this information is important to the climbers in all over the world.

It ain't child's play!

Well we each get our lessons sooner or later. Sooner is probably better (please correct me if I am wrong!). For Silelis it is a lesson, that there is another beast, who can drag you down. So far we do not know who he is, but we are sure, he likes when you are above your last clipped quickdrawer. In fact it might be that he is watching you every time since last clipping and waits until you get in trouble, and mercilessly kicks you down. The only way to avoid him is to plan your moves from one bolt until another and consider if he has a possibility to kick you down. But it is a mere guessing, as it is difficult to deal with something unknown.
We beg our readers to help us finding out who he is (name that evil) and advise us how to deal with him!

What ... if? Trisūnas

Even if the climbing season is more or less finished and you might think you are safe from Trisūnas, remember, he can also catch you inside! Therefore we highly recommend to get acquainted with the most efficient solution how to deal with him:

Unfortunately, it is not yet available in English, we are working day and night to get the text translated to English.

What do you do when the rope gets tangled

First of all, do not get into the panic. Call as many friends as you can, ask them to hold the sides and do the heroic job of untangling! Be careful not to make the situation worse...

End of the season

Sadly, but it seems this was the last time on this rock for year 2007. The wind and cold were too much stressful. We plan to continue climbing in the climbing hall and go to some warmer places around.

Dictionary

In this blog item we will collect all the important words that any climber should know.
We will probably not bother about the alphabetic order.

Trisūnas - muscle shake. In the old Baltic stories, Trisūnas used to catch someone by leg and shake the leg. Muscle shake is also known as Elvis leg or Sewing machine.

Strigūnas - when you get stuck in some place on the rock and you don't know how to proceed.

Forearm erection (rankų erekcija) - also called pumped forearms. Most climbers get forearm erection when instead of using small holds or standing on the feet they use big holds which are too high or too far to the side. It is clearly a typical macho style climbing. Why it also happens for female climbers, it is not known. See more information in this page.

Šūdas - the little hold on the wall that is almost impossible to hold. Really small grab.

Niekas (nothing) - is the hold that is smaller than Šūdas and for unexperienced climbers looks like solid rock.


Koala - when you climb on a corner shaped rock and hug it as a koala:


Šikna - a hold which has a smooth round shape, just like an ass.

Friends

Our friend from Estonia!

Something for winter

We plan to put more pictures that your memories of climbing/bouldering outside could be more persistent and survive the winter.

Why is climbing addictive?

And when is a person addicted? Or maybe you think there are many more addictive sports, such as football or sailing? Maybe climbing for us is so intrinsic (as for descendants from monkeys) and therefore we feel very well when we climb instead of sitting in front of a PC (which is indeed not so intrinsic for the monkeys!).
We would like to ask our dear visitors to comment on this topic as it is a very interesting and poorly researched area. You can comment as anonymous or use your chosen name, it does not matter. What matters is what you think!

Good News Everyone!

Silelis has acquired its first asset, a chalk bag! Thanks for those who were patient to borrow a bag for us before. As our bag is completely new and very nice (because it is new) you may want to borrow it from us, so just come over!
Although the list of future acquisitions is very long, we do not loose the hope. Little by little...

Another news is that commenting settings were changed and it should be possible to comment without having an account on blogger. Sorry, that it was not done before!

The last but not least is the news about respect! As you might have seen the rules of the club are always changing a little bit (no good things remain good for ever), therefore the issue about respect is now resolved, respect, Ieva!

I think in future it will be enough to be a member of the club to get respect!

Climbing shoes

Today one of our member has acquired a couple of brand new left feet climbing shoes. I hear now the screams of astonishment, as no one has ever tried this technique on the rock, to climb with both left shoes. We in fact are not aware if both Paulius feet are left. Nevertheless, we are all impressed by this ingenious and brave decision. Maybe this will be the new trend in climbing and everybody will thank for Silelis club for a dramatic turn in the development of this sport.

What is the best to do if you fall?

You might find a lot of advices, what to do if you fall when climbing. The traditional include:

1. Concentrate to land on your feet
2. If you are belayed, at the moment of falling, push yourself away from the rock and prepare the feet to stop you, when you come back to the rock.

Nevertheless, the traditional methods do not guarantee you will not be injured.
There is indeed one untraditional technique, mentioned by Douglas Adams, which we apply to our what-if advice:

If you notice, you are falling, try to miss the ground.
If you miss the ground, you will definitely remain all sound.

If you doubt, check out how it feels otherwise, see section "Fall from a height" in this article

Future events

We think it is very important to gather sometimes and do something cool together.
Such events might include

1. Snow-shoe race (eventually in January or February)
Maybe top of Schlern could be a suitable place for the race?
2. A bouldering camp in Citta dei Sassi (we must climb Matterhorn!)
3. A trip to Mori bouldering place
4. Iglu building/sleeping in it.

Please comment and add any other ideas for events!

A to-do list before starting to climb

In our climbing practices, unnecessary danger is a mistake and we encourage reducing the risk of accidents. It is all about having fun when climbing.

Therefore we will be keeping a to-do list which might help not only beginners, but also experienced climbers. Everyone can be forgetful.

1. Double check your double knot.
The most efficient would be to have a tradition to show the knot to your belayer.

2. Double check if the rope is correctly set in the belay device

3. Check that there is a knot in the free end of the rope.

4. Single check if you have the magnesia bag

5. Single check if you have climbing shoes on you.

6. Single check if the thing in front of you is nothing else than rock or artificial climbing wall. Use your hands for it. If the hand goes through the rock, it might mean you are in a dream. You will probably not be able to use the holds. In this case it is suggested to fly up the rock.

tbc...

How do you climb if a snake falls on you?

Many times we considered a special case: what to do, when a snake falls on you when climbing?

One option is to get into a stable position and take it off yourself with a free hand. This would be the natural solution, because the snake gives additional weight. However, a true climber knows, that after taking the slippery snake into the hand you will get into trouble: magnesia on the wet hands will make it impossible to hold any rock! Therefore, unless the snake is very fat and heavy, continue climbing with the snake on you!

Members and membership

1. Guoda
2. Marius
3. Paulius
4. Ieva
5. Arunas

If you want to declare or withdraw your membership, write us.

Maybe, you wonder what is the benefit of being a member?
There are several:
1. RESPECT
2. You will learn to climb with the beer in hand
3. You will have a company to drink a lot of beer
4. You will go to wonderful climbing places full of easy tracks
(to be cont.)

Recommendations for unexperienced climbers, how to look serious on the rock

Recommendations for unexperienced climbers, how to look serious on the rock:

1. When you do not know how to proceed or have no energy to do that, powder the arms for a while. Everybody will think you are preparing to continue soon.

2. Never fear to try difficult tracks (you of course might know you will fail, it is even better to be sure of it), as courage gives an impression of being a good climber, or at least that you might become one.

3. Learn some tricky warm-up exercises for some invisible and non-existent muscles.
From our experience, the best is to use karate exercises, not only stretching, but also fighting moves and positions.

4. Keep on "administrating" different sites and cite them when speaking with others (it is especially cool to cite this site)

The Rules

1. People not drinking alcohol are not invited.
If any member decides to have a temporary non-drinking period, they will be understood, but less respected.

2. Climb only very easy tracks, if possible with the beer in hand.
Warship experienced climbers who never advanced to 6a.

3. Cloth moderately, no wall-bitching is advised in general.

4. Actively participate in club's activities. This also includes participating in the online discussions!

Šilelis comes back to life

There have been so many requests for updates and new information, that we decided to revive the page. We have also changed the link, the present is easier to remember.