"Night Sessions" - Night bouldering in Nova Scotia

After 4 months of shooting and two weeks of editing Night Sessions is finished. I've uploaded the film to youtube and entered it into the Mountain Equipment Co-op "Sweet Spots" video contest. If you like what you see, please take the time to cast a vote for me (Click here). It's easy according to the MEC website...

A total of 25 finalists (five (5) from each activity category) will be determined based on the total number of votes each video receives. Voting is open to anyone but each person is only allowed to vote once for a specific video. Users may vote for as many different videos as they choose. Videos submitted by MEC staff are not eligible to receive votes or win prizes.

When you click the "Vote for this video" link on a video detail page, you must enter a valid email address, in order to record your vote. You will be asked to verify your vote by following a unique link contained in an email. Email addresses are required only to verify the authenticity of the vote and to prevent repeat voting on individual videos. Only verified votes will be counted and MEC reserves the right to exclude videos from the group of finalists should we suspect vote tampering. Voting ends on September 9, 2008.

A great deal of work goes into producing a film, even a short one. I would like to thank all the climbers who preformed by doing laps on the problems and for picking up the camera to help out when my energy was running low. The music in Night Sessions is licensed under the Creative Commons license structure. Check out the artist's sites and if you like their stuff please support them.

Invisible Walls by Revolution Void
The Final Rewind by Tryad

Newfoundland bouldering road trip - Dirtbag

Corner Brook
Newfoundland
July 28, 2008
The Asylum














This was our second day climbing at the limestone cave called the Asylum. We went there late the day before. We climbed around a bit until it got dark, then local climber Kenny Tuach took us on a adventure through the cave system a little further down the river valley. We explored around there until about midnight, it was a blast and i highly recommend it as a rest day activity.

The Asylum is a large limestone cave carved out by a small river. Routes there are steep with huge incut features under the vertical roof sections and can get small, slopey and crimpy close to the lip where the wall becomes more vertical. Describing problems is a challenge because of massive amounts of the features you can start on. Routes there could be as much as 50 feel long or more as you climb from one seam system to the next.

There is really no way of telling if the problems we did were first ascents but we feel pretty confident that the problem Ben Smith put up was. During the many tries at this problem several holds broke away so it makes sense that nobody had put a lot of pressure on them before. If there is a down side to this climbing jungle gym it’s that it doesn’t seem to see a lot of climbers other than the couple of locals there and there are a lot of suspicious holds. Kenny and crew need more pads and people to climb with. So while you set at your computer and book your next ferry ride to Newfoundland here is a little clip of Ben Smith on a FA of “Dirtbag”.

Warning there is some material that you might find offensive if you are a animal lover, proceed with caution.

Bouldering Newfoundland - Dirtbag (FA) V8 from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music by Brad Sucks

Pirate spotted on West Coast of Newfoundland

It’s Wednesday, mid way through my road trip with Chris Richardson and Ben Smith. We were bouldering at Gull Pond, just outside Stephenville, most of the day but spent the last hour huddled under one of the many large roofs waiting out the storm.
Setting under the roof it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to climbing films and in the tradition of the good natured ribbing that has been setting the tone for this trip, Ben reminded me of a dirty little secret Chris had been hiding.

Chris had brought his laptop and a selection of DVDs for evening entertainment or in case it rained. The first night we were here I opened up the DVD wallet to see what movies we had to watch. Much to my surprise, Chris has brought a copy of Eastern Tide. As I held it in my hand we talked about making films, it’s challenges, etcetera, etcetera. It took a while but eventually it clicked in that the title on the disk had been written with a sharpy. I was holding in my hand a pirated copy of my film.
Setting under those boulders in Newfoundland Ben reminded me that it’s a rare opportunity for a film maker to come so blatantly face to face with a pirated copy of his film and the perpetrator.
Chris has a good explanation, but I’m not going to let it go that easy. Not when we have four more days left on the trip together.

No video this week but here are a few pictures fromthe trip so far.

Left to Right: Chris on Pasadena Boulders, Ben doing laps for Pull Down Productions, Todd and Chris's dinner on left and Ben Smizzel on the right... Dog food???

Night Sessions - Access Denied

Update on Night Sessions.

I've just about wrapped up shooting for Night Sessions. I'm off to Newfoundland for a week of climbing and filming and when i return i will be locked away in the edit suite. If all goes according to schedule i should have "Night Sessions" loaded up and entered into the MEC Sweet Spots video contest by August 15. It doesn't leave a lot of time for people to review my entry and decide if they want to cast a vote my way but I'm confident Night Sessions will be worth the wait. Check out the site, read the rules for voting and hold on tight Night Sessions is on it's way.

In the meantime here is a small clip from a night session last week.
This one is of Zig climbing "Access Denied" at the Heffalump boulder.


Access Denied from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music by: Revolution Void
Track: Biomythos

Night Sessions - Music Needed

One of the most challenging parts of piecing together film clips and videos for the Blog is finding the right music. In recent years, with the advent of Creative Commons licensing, there has been a lot more to choose from. Using music sharing sites like CCMixter and Jamendo has made the task of finding easily licensed music much easier, but with the huge amount of music to choose from it's hard to find time to sift through it all and find the right piece to match the style of the clips.

I've been shooting "Night Sessions" for a couple of months now. Yesterday i finished an assembly of all the material and it is looking pretty good. Over the next two weeks i will be shooting the final material and fine tuning the edits. I've found a great piece of music by an artist "Revolution Void", the track I'm hoping to use is "Invisible Wall" from the album Increase the Dosage.

So, if all is going well, what is the hold up?
I need one more track for the film. Anyone got suggestions?
The Music must be owned by the artist and they must be able to give the rights for it's use.

I'm excited to hear your suggestions.

Todd

Night Sessions Continue

I've had lots of comments from subscribers wondering where the videos have been lately. It's been really hard to keep the video coming while i've been shooting for "Night Sessions" so i though i might throw up a tittle teaser of some of the "quality" footage I've been getting.


Night Sessions - Grizzly from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Night Sessions cause delay

Many of you may be wondering where this weeks video is? Don't dispair after 25 posts i have not given up, i've just been a bit busy shooting some new material.

About a month ago i started shoot a short film about bouldering at night. With deadlines looming i've had to sacrifice time from my blog to get the project finished, but i feel a bit guilty. I really don't want to disappoint my loyal viewers so here is a little taste of what we have been filming. Night Sessions more coming soon...




Night Sessions Project - Top Six from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

White Trash - V8

What is it about putting up a new problem? Why does being the first seem to bring more glory and pleasure than repeating an established route? It's hard to say exactly what the allure of developing is for me. There is something really fun about approaching a section of rock with no prescribed beta, opening up your mind, believing it can be done and executing the movement. We are fortunate here in Nova Scotia, a climber can have that experience every time they go out.

On a hot summer day after shooting the boulderfest event for Eastern Tide, i took a trip to Dover Island with a small group. I was eying up a new line and throwing myself at it repeatedly. After breaking off some loose holds and getting generally thrashed i elicited the advice of Ghislain Losier. It wasn't long before Nick Sagar joined in and the puzzle pieces started falling into place. Before i knew it i had lost my FA. What a drag! I had lost part to the excitement that comes with the First ascent. The up side of it was that i got to film Nick climbing it and was able to watch it over and over again until each move was ingrained in my head.

I took several trips over that summer before i was able to climb White Trash and when i finally sent, it was glorious, almost like no one had done it before. To this day i still retain some degree of "ownership" on the problem. I always encourage everyone to get on it.

Boulderfest is this weekend and I'm recommending White Trash. I know I'm getting on it again. As a side note, i was at the CNS board meeting and it sounds like there is going to be some great prizes given away this year. Rock Rings, a rope and a crash pad along with a pile of other prizes. There is still time to register and the forecast looks good.


White Trash - V8 from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Duncan's Cove - Broken

It had been a long time since i climbed at Duncan's Cove so it was a lot of fun to get back there. This week around 22 people attended the Monday night bouldering series scheduled for Duncan's Cove. The last time i climbed there was when i sent a project i was working on called "Broken". A few years after that Hurricane Juan blew through and shuffled the Robar Boulder around leaving the "Broken" roof on the ground. This past fall another climb ("Jazzberry Ram") was destroyed by the ocean. While the list of climbs that the ocean has taken away continues to grow a few good problems still exist.

Here are some clips i filmed for Eastern Tide. These climbs never made it in the main film but appeared in the extras. First up is "Broken" and then the very popular "Scoop".


Bouldering Nova Scotia - Duncan's Cove from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

A blogger has needs...

and i needs some climbing.

I actually got outside for the Monday night bouldering series. I know, i should have been hoveled up in the office/grotto but it was such a great day outside and i needed to get climbing. All excuses aside I managed to crank together another video from Dover Island Boulderfest. The Wave is another of those heavily traveled problems on the island. Thankfully the Nova Scotia granite is showing no wear (from climbers anyway).

Less than three weeks to Boulderfest. What's on your to do list?


The Wave from Todd Foster on Vimeo.