Author Archives: hrobinsondvm
The China Doll Contradiction: Behind the Scenes of the Film
Last summer I climbed the hardest trad route of my life, China Doll, a 5.14a R in Boulder Canyon, CO. Jon Glassberg, of Louder Than 11, was interested in documenting the process, and wanted to make a climbing film that was different- not just about sending and then being happy. He wanted to reveal raw […]
Intro to Sport Climbing Course: Climbing Magazine and AIM Media
Hey everyone! If you or someone you know wants to learn how to sport climb but there’s no time for the gym, or maybe you’ve been climbing a few times but you want to hone in on your skills, please check out my online course through AIM media and Climbing Magazine. We go through everything […]
Motivation in Climbing
Over the past year I’ve been working with Arno Ilgner of the Warrior’s Way for mental training in climbing. When we first started working together, I had just finished the biggest project of my career, a 5.14 trad climb in Boulder Canyon, CO, called China Doll. I had worked on it over a year and […]
Climbing Trad and Surviving Snort in South Africa
It’s somewhere around midnight, and my headlamp lights up a mess of four ropes at my feet. We’re on the side of a cliff in the middle-of-nowhere South Africa. Far in the distance are scattered lights of small villages, but I’m surrounded by darkness. Nine hundred feet up the wall on a quartzite ledge, I’m […]
Mental Training: In Search of a Free Mind
In a sport like climbing, so dependent on mental fortitude, where is all the information on training the mind? I find it crazy how many resources there are about fingerboarding and campus workouts, but so few on how to deal with fear and the ego? Am I alone with these feelings of negative self-worth in […]
Simply Read: How the Simple Things Can Be the Most Powerful
Over the past 6 weeks I’ve done a lot of soul-searching. It sounds so cliche, and has been written about time and time again. From A Walk in the Woods to Wild, the theme of pursuing new challenges with self-reflection is enough to makes some of us want to vomit in our mouths. But for […]
China Doll Dreams Come True
Launching into the upper crux of my long-term project, my sympathetic nervous system took over. My mouth was cotton and my heart was racing. It was key to get the first finger-lock just right, if not I’d slip out before I had a chance to get pumped. I wiggled my right middle and ring fingers […]
Wake Up Fall
My right index finger is slipping out of its sandy lock- all I have to do to get through the crux is hike my right foot up on a good hold on the arete. I haphazardly pop my right foot up. Miraculously, it’s on the hold! But as I attempt to rock my weight onto […]
Sissy Traverse
About 12 years ago I sat below the wall of The Gallery, one of the most popular cliffs at Red Rock Canyon. I was maxing out at 5.11 and trying to work up the guts to try to lead Yak Crack, 5.11c. But while I was waiting to climb, I watched this small-framed, ripped, twenty-something […]
China Doll Dreams: Dealing with Fear and Failure
I woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. I had just fallen sideways onto the ledge again- this time in my dreams- but my heart was racing and my throat closing. It was just a dream but this was not comforting enough to go back to sleep. Only a few more […]
Heather Weidner 