The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

My apologies from neglecting the blog this past week. I was in a car accident earlier this week. I was rear ended on the highway while sitting at a stand still in traffic. The guy behind me must not have been paying attention and plowed into my little Toyota Matrix at about 50+ MPH (he was driving a giant Dodge truck with a humongous brush guard). That is just my guess at how fast he was going, but with the damage it did to my car it had to be at least that fast. My body is still recovering from the accident. My back, neck and right shoulder are still very sore. Hopefully more rest and a couple additonal trips to the Chiropractor will fix me up.  So, this past week has been spent recovering and shopping for a new car since mine will likely be totaled out.

Anyway, I got the idea for this post partly because of the accident. I have been spending so much time resting and shopping for cars online I have gotten lazy and didn’t make my daily salad a couple of times this week. One of those days I decided to stop at Kroger on the way into work and pick up some fruit to eat for lunch. During my visit I remembered Lara Bars were available there, so I picked up a couple of those as well. For $6 I was able to get two Lara Bars and a tropical mix fruit cup, which was very tasty. The Lara Bars provided the boost of calories needed to make it a substantial meal.

I was quite thrilled that I could walk into Kroger and provide myself with delicious RAW foods without breaking the bank. Had I gone to Urban Eatz, as I usually do when I forget to pack my lunch, I would have spent $8 on a large salad that isn’t totally RAW. The only down side to the food purchased at Kroger is that none of it was organic. It’s kind of a shame that Lara Bars are not organic, but if they were they would definitely cost more. I am just going to have to start making more on my own to bring on days I am feeling lazy and don’t want to make a salad.

I will definitely bee keeping this in mind for my trips to Colorado this summer. Rather than eating greasy fast food I can just swing into a Kroger (or just about any other grocery store) and pick up up a pre-packaged fruit cup and a Lara Bar. It will be even better if I could find a Whole Foods, they are more likely have an organic option on the fruit cups.

Case in point, living a RAW food lifestyle (or increasing your RAW food intake) is not quite as hard as some people make it out to be. Granted I will never be eating a 100% RAW diet, it is pretty easy to maintain a high RAW diet without putting tons of effort into preparing elaborate meals that take hours to prepare. Those meals have their place, but I believe it’s important to keep it simple.

As far as my car shopping goes, I think I have pretty much settled on the Subaru Outback. It’s not offical yet, but it is most likely going to be the car I end up getting. Once I make a final purchse thought I will post about it, because my lifestlye as a climber has a huge impact on my purchase. It’s crazy how much life decesions revolve around climbing.

p.s.  Sorry for the crappy picture. It was taken with my iPhone. I did not have my real camera with me at the time.

Climbing, RAW Food by OrganicClimber
Climbing, easy, food, fruit, LaraBars, lifestyle, meal, RAW
5 comments

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My local crag (area where I go to climb) is two and a half hours away from my house in Denton, Texas. To me, this is close. It definitely beats the four-hour drive to Austin to climb. I often make day trips out here to get in a full day of climbing. We will usually leave my house around 7 a.m. (since the gates to the climbing areas don’t even open until 9 a.m.) and arrive around 9:30 a.m. We will climb until it gets dark or we just tire out from pulling hard.

Yesterday my friend John and I headed out to the Wichita Mountains in South West Oklahoma to get some training in for our trip to Colorado. We only got about four climbs in, but it was well worth it. We climbed the classic Dihedral (5.7) then top-roped Crazy Alice (5.8) and Aerosmith, a spicy two pitch 5.8 climb that rewards you with a stellar view from the top of Leaning Tower along Cache Creek. From up here one would never think you were in Oklahoma. After that we hiked back to the base and heeded to an area called Upper Mount Scott. Here we climbed another classic route called Atomic Knee Drop (5.6). The view from the top of this climb overlooks the gorgeous Lake Lawton and behind that are rolling green hills with lines of electricity generating windmills, John said it reminded him of Scotland.

After that climb we were done for the day and headed back to Denton, arriving home around 8:30 p.m. Providing me enough time to do some laundry, take a shower, and Ice down my injured fingers while reading Rock and Ice magazine before heading to bed. Even though I was reluctant to go since I will be out of town again next weekend climbing in Austin I was glad I made the trip. It turned out to be a great day of climbing.

Any climber that hasn’t been to the Wichita Mountains should definitely make a trip. The place is quite magical. Rock and Ice has recently run a feature on the area, mainly highlighting the history of how the area was developed. Another neat thing about the Wichita Mountains is that it is the only National Wildlife Refuge that allows climbing. Pretty cool! But I can’t take it for granted because access could always be revoked. If that ever happens it will be a sad day.

A day trip like this may sound crazy to some people, but to an obsessed climber it’s just life. I remember reading about another Texas climber that would take weekend trips up to Colorado just to climb for a day! I’ve been tempted to do that many times myself.

I will be posting some of my photography work from the Wichita Mountains here in the near future, so be sure to check back.

Climbing, Trip Reports, Uncategorized by OrganicClimber
oklahoma, rock climbing, trad, training, trip, Wichita Mountains
2 comments

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I have never really fancied myself a runner, but lately I guess I kind of have been. This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke; “Every book is a children’s book if the kid can read.” Lately I have been running (once to twice a week) so I guess that makes me a runner! The purpose of the running is mostly to condition myself for my trip up Longs Peak this Summer.

Cross training of this sort is actually excellent for any climber, even if you aren’t seeking to summit a 14,000 foot peak.  Endurance, not just strength is key for any climber and running helps improve your cardiovascular system, which drastically helps improve your endurance.  I have actually been enjoying running these past few weeks and will likely keep it up after my Longs Peak expedition.

I have also been quite impressed with how well I have been running. Today I run 3.25 miles in 29:54.5.  Not super impressive by any means, but for me I think that is quite good. I’m not sure I have ever posted a time that good.  I believe I used to run a three mile trail run loop in 45 minutes several years ago, granted there were two VERY large and long hills on that trail. One of them was named Heartbreak Hill, the other Cardiac Hill.

I have a strong feeling my ability to perform this well largely has to do with my new found dietary habits.  Sense going vegetarian with a high RAW intake my resting blood pressure is that of “an athlete” based on this chart.  I also noticed something else; I am training with a friend and after we run we will get on the elliptical machines. Currently I am running harder, faster and longer than my friend and when we start on the machines I notice my friends pulse is racing around 175 and mine is a calm, cool 130.  Neither one of us have been running, so my best guess is that my diet is playing a huge factor into the health of my cardiovascular system.

I still have a couple of months to train for our Longs Peak trip. We plan on climbing the North Face Cables Route.  Although the face is covered with snow most of the year we will be making our ascent in August snow free.  John and I are both psyched about the trip and can’t wait. I will definitely be posting pictures and a trip report when I return. Maybe I will even Tweet a photo from the summit!

On a side note I have been craving RAW foods a lot more lately. It just hit me earlier today that this week I have only had three “non-raw” meals this week and the meals I had that were not raw had very few cooked parts to them, i.e. the bread or corn chips. So overall, I would say at least 80-85% of my food intake this week has been RAW foods. I have also been eating a lot of fruit. For some reason I have just been craving it and I have felt great all week!

I will also share with you guys a smoothie recipe I recently discovered. It’s a “Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie”, made from tahini, cacao powder, honey, vanilla, salt and a frozen banana. You can see the video and instructions on Raw Dawg’s blog. I found the recipe after doing a Google search for “RAW Peanut Butter Cup” after actually eating one my cube mate had in her candy jar. I thought surely there is something better that tastes just as good. And trust me, this really does taste like a Peanut Butter Cup! I am still psyched about it and have already drank three of them in the last 24 hours.

Climbing, Cross Training, Health & Fitness, RAW Food by OrganicClimber
Cables Route, Climbing, Cross Training, Longs Peak, North Face, Peanut Butter Cup, Rawdowg Rory, smoothie
1 comment

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Recently I had a couple of requests for a homemade Larabar recipe. After loooking at their Web site I realized these would be a piece of cake to make at home. They even had all the ingredients listed on the site, so I wouldn’t even have to go buy one to figure out what was in them. However, I was walking through the Cupboard the other day and decided to buy one just to try them out. They were exactly what I expected based on the ingredients, which we will cover for the Apple Pie bar.

One thing that surprised me was that the ingredients are not organic. Although they are “RAW” they are still not most healthy option. The version I made it home is 100% Organic and 100% RAW. This is not only healthier than their non-organic counterpart, but they are better for the environment because the ingredients used are not sprayed with pesticides.

Anyway, lets get to it. Here is the list of ingredients and quantities I used:

• 1 cup chopped dates (could possibly need a couple more depending on the size of the dates)

• 2/3 cup of raisins

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped chopped walnuts (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped chopped almonds (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1 coarsely chopped chopped apple (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1/2 TBSP Cinnamon (I am actually going to recommend using more, the cinamon flavor was not quite as strong as the ones I bought in the store, but taste the mixture and adjust to your liking)

Now for the directions:

1. Place the dates in a food processor and pulse using the S blade until a paste is formed
2. Add the rest of the ingredients minus the cinnamon and then process until all ingredients are well mixed *
3. Add the cinnamon and process again. This is where you will adjust the amount of cinnamon to your liking. (the nice thing about making RAW foods is your mixture will taste the same after dehydrating or freezing)
4. Using cookie cutters (or any other thing lying around the kitchen you can use as a mold) spread the mixture into your mold using a spatula.
5. Once you have your mixture in the mold place it on a Teflex lined dehydrator tray, then remove the mold. For my mold, I used the lid to a large canning jar. This allowed me to place it face down on the dehydrator sheet and then remove the outer edge, leaving the lid on top of the “pattie”. I then twisted and pulled that off and then repeated the process until I had five patties total.
6. Now dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 24 hours. After 12 hours flip them over on the tray and remove the sheet, leaving them to dry on just the mesh for the remaining 12 hours.
7. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can refrigerate or freeze them overnight, although I tried this with one pattie and did not have much luck (may not have been thick enough). I saw a few other blogs online that used the overnight refrigeration method. Although I am pretty sure you would have to serve them immediately.

And there you have it, homemmade Laurabars. I know for sure the dehydrated bars will pack well for road trips, backpacking, and climbing trips. The thicknes of my refridgerated version may not have been thick enough to solidify well. You may also try baking them at a really low temperature, just remember to keep it under 115 degrees if you want to keep it RAW.

If Apple Pie is not your thing then just visit the Larabar Web site and find your favorite bar, all the ingredients are listed right there. Then just do some guess work at how much of each ingredient to put into your homemade version. Remember, you can always change it up the next time you make it. It is also better to start out with less of a particular ingredient since you can always add more.

Hope you enjoy these tasty RAW treats!

*NOTE: After actually eating one of these this morning I am going to suggest not blending in the chopped nuts and apples into the food processor. Rather, after creating the date paste dump all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir thoroughly.  I found the final product to “mushy”. I think having the nuts and apple chunks mixed in with the date paste will help make them a more solid consistency. Just make sure your apple and nut pieces are not too large. This mistake could have also been why my refrigerated bar did not solidify properly.

Climbing, RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
Climbing, dehydrated, homemeade, Lara bar, Larabar, Laura Bar, RAW, Vita-MIx
4 comments

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For the past eight months or so I have been suffering from a finger injury, which has turned into multiple finger injuries. Any athlete can attest to how difficult it is to give up something they love to do in order to heal. I have known a small few that can instantly take a break to allow healing, but most people I know, especially climbers want to push through the pain and continue doing what they love.

My injury started off pretty simple. The base of my ring finger on my right hand felt “tweaked” but I still continued to climb on it and just cut back on difficulty a bit, but I would always see a harder climb that I wanted to try and would almost always fall into the temptation and climb it, and every time I did I regretted it and could feel my finger become agitated. Soon I learned to focus more on using my good fingers and not place a lot of pressure on the injured finger, and as a result other fingers began to feel “tweaked” as well.

At some point the base of the ring finger on my left hand felt the same was my right, but only not as severe in pain. Despite this I did not listen to my body and kept climbing. Recently I completed my 30 climb Birthday Challenge and after that weekend the entirety of both hands has felt odd – sort of sore and weak. It was then I started realizing I’m going to have to take this injury thing more seriously.

So these past few days I have been doing more research about my injury and have been more aggressive with giving it rest, ice baths and stretching it a lot. I have heard about the ice baths before, but was not very aggressive with it. I am know doing them 30 minutes a night every night before bed, this is really hard though as it takes an hour to get both hands done. However, I enjoyed sitting outside last night reading a book while my hands soaked – it was a beautiful day.

The original doctor I went to specialized in sports injuries and chiropractic treatment. His assessment after ruling out a break and ligament injuries was that I had a “rolled” tendon sheath. It made sense seeing as how I had a small knot at the base of the finger. I also have had full range of motion in the fingers as well. I went with what he said and was fairly discipline about stretching it as he suggested at first, but that quickly tapered off.

I am now not positive about his assessment. I still feel a small knot on the right hand, but not on the left. Another possibility is that I could be a partial tear of my A2 pulley, which is a very common injury amongst climbers. The other injuries are close to other PIP joints and are also likely small tears. I sense that focusing on not using the more severely injured fingers has resulted in smaller injuries on other fingers.

So, with all that being said I plan on being a lot more aggressive with my healing. I am taking about two weeks off of climbing and giving the hands their much needed ice baths. After these two weeks I will begin to climb again, but at several grades bellow my ability. I will not allow myself to jump on anything harder than a juggy 5.8 climb. I will also be asking my climbing partner to hold me accountable to this – he will know not to let me jump on anything harder regardless of what I think the route looks like from the ground. Another part of the healing process will involve taping my fingers, which is talked about in Training for Climbing.

Hopefully this will speed up the recovery. Eight months is a long time to have any injury. I have climbed through slightly sprained ankles several times with a brace and still healed fairly quickly. But this has been a thorn in my side. I also think the biggest lesson to learn here is to listen to your body. The whole time it was screaming at my not to jump on that 5.10 or 5.11a. I failed to listen, and I paid the price. My body finally shut down to the point I have to take it more seriously. So in the future I will be more mindful of what my body is trying to tell me.

Here are some helpful links I found through the help of many fellow Twitter climber

• Ice Baths (best site I have found with a good explanation of the ice bath method)

• Climbing Injuries

• Training for Climbing (partial portion of the book online, the finger injury section just happens to be a part of it)

Climbing by OrganicClimber
Climbing, finger, healing, ice bath, Injuries, injury, recovery
1 comment

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As a rock climber I spend long days outdoors hiking around and exerting large amounts of energy scaling up rock faces. This requires a lot of energy, so when I am out climbing I want to eat a diet that will allow me to perform my best. I believe this is best accomplished through a RAW food diet. The days I am at the crag at least 2/3 of the days food intake comes from RAW foods.

Most of my RAW food intake is through fruits. Typically I will carry with me: 3-4 bananas, 2-3 apples and an orange.  The reasoning for the high fruit intake is that fruit (as well as vegetables) is easily and quickly digestible, thus providing me more energy for climbing. The fruit provides energy in the form of glucose, which the body turns into energy by using oxygen.  Fruits also contain lots of water, and we all know drinking lots of water is essential to the human body and even more important for an athlete during performance days.

Protein is also essential for energy, as well as muscle recovery. On crag (climbing) days I consumer most of my protein through nuts and seeds, or the occasional smoothie with hemp seed protein added in that I blended up the day before.  Nuts and seeds are high in protein and an essential part of a RAW food diet. Just don’t overdo it, as they are high in fat.  I will usually pack a home made trail mix with me consisting of cashews, almonds and raisins. Sometimes I even throw in pumpkin or sunflower seeds as well.  My Buckwheat Treats also contain a lot of seeds and are high in protein and I usually have these with me as well.

A new snack I have recently started bringing with me on climbing trips are Chocolate Chia Seed Crackers. Chia seeds are magical little seeds that are extremely nutritious and have tons of health benefits. One of their major advantages is that they slow down the breakdown of glucose, thus making the release of energy last longer when eaten with fruit.  I often sprinkle chia seeds in my fruit salads for this reason. These tiny little seeds also pack tons of protein.

One of the major advantages in my opinion of the high RAW diet on climbing trips is that it affords me more time to climb. There is never a long stop down for lunch because I am always eating throughout the day between climbs. I do however occasionally have to wait on climbing partners but can usually find others to climb with while they stuff their face with foods that will begin slowing them down later in the day.

In the past I would feast on gummy bears, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or turkey sandwiches and all sorts of other random junk. Sometimes I would even forgo eating altogether.  But now that I am smart about what I eat I find I not only perform better while climbing, but I enjoy it more too.

Here is what a typical daily meal looks like for me when on weekend climbing trips.

Breakfast – A smoothie I prepared the evening before, sprouted grain cereal (not truly RAW, but still very healthy) toped with agave nectar, bananas, raisins and hemp seed milk or almond milk. Since the smoothies won’t keep very long I have started to dehydrate them into a giant fruit rollup. I will have this for breakfast on the second day. Unfortunately they don’t taste that well dehydrated because of the hemp seed and veggie powder mixture I put in them.
Lunch – Don’t really have “lunch” but I snack on lots of things throughout the day, nuts, seeds, fruits, etc.
Dinner – This becomes tricky. I usually pack a mixed green salad with fruits, but often end up going into town to eat with the crew. Most of the people I climb with rarely stay in camp to eat so I often compromise this meal. This is not ideal for me, but I am a very social individual and refuse to compromise friendship over food.

So next time you are out climbing, backpacking, biking, swimming or running try eating for energy. Eat lots of fruits and veggies that are easy to digest. I promise, you will enjoy a real boost of energy.  When I first started eating RAW foods I almost immediately noticed an increase in energy, not just when climbing, but in every day life. I no longer went into a food comma after lunch at work, thus making me more productive. But in terms of my climbing, my ability almost immediately went up. I jumped from bouldering V1 to V3 and went from climbing 5.9 to getting my first 5.10b onsight.

The benefits of eating RAW foods are tremendous!

Here are some recommended Web sites to find out more about RAW food. These will eventually be added to a resource section of this site once I finish up the new design.
Living and Raw Foods
Give it to me Raw
Kristen’s Raw
Raw Fu
Gone Raw

Climbing, RAW Food by OrganicClimber
chia seeds, Climbing, diet, energy, fruit, RAW Food
5 comments

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