Feats Of Strength 7 Poster Art

My good friend and fellow rock scaler Paul Jung asked me if I would be interested in doing a poster for this years "Feats of Strength " bouldering competition . The event is held at the Cliffs Climbing Gym in Valhalla , New York, and has been going on for the past 6 years.Since the name Valhalla has deep connections to Norse Mythology , we figured it would be fun to have some sort of Viking theme for the poster. The image above is the final poster with all the information one should need if interested in attending the event.

Below is the painting without the text, sponsors, etc..

Feats of Strength

Watercolor and Digital

Saddle Boulder

Summer climbing conditions are not nearly as heinous here in California as they are back in Connecticut, although they are still far from ideal. Despite the sweltering temps I headed up to Donner Summit with my friends, Alex and Kailin. We ended up having a really fun day and I managed to drag myself up one of the area classics , Midnight Train. This is surely one of my favorite problems for the grade! Here is a little video of it:

Midnight Train from dan yagmin on Vimeo.

Stranger in A Strange Land

Went back up to the Hallet Boulder yesterday to give another try on the problem Stranger in a Strange Land.

Here is the vid:

Stranger in a strange land v12 from dan yagmin on Vimeo.

Final Round

Time was running thin for bouldering here in Ct. as temps are rising , and even more importantly due to the fact that I am moving to the bay area tomorrow. Luckily before leaving I was able to get my act together and send a problem I have been trying on and off since last spring, The Buzzer Beater.

The Buzzer Beater from dan yagmin on Vimeo.

Back in the Day

It's always fun to dig through the boxes of old photos from my many cross country j0urnies, in which date back long before I owned a digital camera. I decided to post some as I am getting ready to head out west again very soon, and will hopefully be spending time with some of my best friends depicted in these photos. These photos are from various trips throughout the U.S and the watercolor titled "Cross Country" was one of the first travel related pieces that I had painted. The painting depicts my good friends Josh Adams, Phil Schaal, my dog Ira, and myself all crammed into the cab of my Chevy truck that we traveled in that year. On the back of the truck was a pop up camper,"the Skamper". "The Skamper" hung way out from the bed of the truck on either side blocking mirrors, and sagging the suspension to an all but street legal low.With three climbers and a dog in the cab of the truck, I am sure we smelled like hot garbage , and there were certainly multiple times that we were all at each others throats. Not sure how we never got pulled over???...Good times!!! In many ways this piece was the beginning of my more recent body of work of travel related paintings..

Cross Country
Watercolor, 6"x14",2004

Me in the Redwoods, 1996, on my first trip west
shortly after graduating high school.

The interior of my pop up camper "the Skamper".
I was given the Skamper by Ct. climber J.D Mackie.
Mackie established one of Ct's hardest routes , the Wall of Horrors 5.13
at Ragged Mtn. in 1993.

Steve King on our epic hike after climbing Magnolia Thunderpussy,
Granite Mtn., Arizona,1998

Me climbing at the Gallery,
Red Rocks, Nevada, 1998

Jared Roth on Boone Speed's I Scream in Hell 14c

shortly before he made he second ascent.

Dave Watson on Social Outcast 12a
Rumney, New Hampshire, Ca.1998

A young Phil Schaal at the Happy Boulders,
Bishop, California, ca.2000

Josh's dog Ibex on 9th and Marine
"Get the squirrels"

Josh Adams , aka Swayzee, Swaygina, Swayzleduece
on Get Carter, before his retirement from climbing.
Bishop, Ca., 1999

My Dog Ira
Red Rocks, Nevada, 1998

Climbing in the Druid Stones
Bishop, Ca.
photo: Carolyn Taylor

POWER STRUGGLE 4

Tomorrow we will be hosting the Power Struggle 4, at Prime Climb in Wallingford. This we hope to make an annual event. Although it involves a ton of work , energy, and effort, it is a ton of fun, and we hope to have many more in the future.

I helped organize the event, heckle retailers for free stuff, designed the poster, and am also setting a lot of the problems. It has been a lot of work and I look forward to tomorrows event.

Here is a link if you are interested in viewing a video from last years Power Struggle 3:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=239415116594&oid=239435923426

Hope to see you all there!!!!