Journal



The Journal is dedicated to the sports and people that make Black Diamond what it is.

  • Friday, April 1, 2011

    Winger For The Weekend #86


    Skiing in the spring brings out all the Wingers, and such is the case with this Frenchman riding tele switch. This dude is going to love the rocker in next year's AMPerages! (Highly recommended to turn down the volume, unless you like listening to crap hip-hop riddled with pointless F-bombs.)   [READ MORE]

  • Monday, April 4, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Raphael Slawinski makes first ascent of The Peach (WI 5 M8), a multi-pitch, bolt-free mixed line in the Canadian Rockies


    Black Diamond athlete Raph Slawinski has climbed ice all over the Canadian Rockies from fat ice flows to desperate mixed lines, bagging tons of first ascents along the way. Recently he teamed up with Grant Meekins to make the first ascent of an impressive bolt-free mixed line, The Peach (WI 5 M8), and wrote up the report below about the... [READ MORE]

  • Tuesday, April 5, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Adam Ondra onsights Mind Control (8c+), Oliana, Spain


    Black Diamond athlete Adam Ondra went on an unstoppable onsight spree this past February and March in northern Spain, managing a stunning five 8c+ routes onsight. Five! Only Ondra’s fellow BD team member Patxi Usobiaga has managed a 5.14c onsight, and that was just one. We sent ace lensman Bernardo Gimenez to document Ondra’s onsighting... [READ MORE]

  • Monday, April 11, 2011

    Winger For The Weekend #87


    Just like the Winger for the Weekends #83 and #18 , this Winger features some guys with either amazing luck or an a willingness to attempt a trick shot over and over and over again until they finally score. While #83 used footballs and #18 used ping pong balls and keg cups, #87 employs an impressive array of everyday items such as water... [READ MORE]

  • Monday, April 11, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Roy Schott at the Fernie and Revelstoke, British Columbia freeskiing comps


    Black Diamond athlete Roy Schott traveled from his native New Zealand to Canada, hunting for powder during the Southern Hemishere’s summer months and producing on his own a series of webisodes he and his crew are calling Pow Fun. Here is Episode 2. You can watch Episode 1 here . Pow Fun is a freeski webseries following Kiwi freeskiers... [READ MORE]

  • Tuesday, April 12, 2011

    VIDEO: Manufacturing the new, award-winning GridLock belay carabiner


    Check out this video of how we make our new, award-winning GridLock belay carabiner that's literally "hot" off the line for Spring 2011. The GridLock uses a revolutionary, patent-pending carabiner design that solves the belay-loop orientation issue—never deal with a shifting, cross-loaded belay carabiner again. The GridLock's isolation... [READ MORE]

  • Monday, April 18, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Antte Lauhamaa tele skiing in Switzerland


    Black Diamond athlete Antte Lauhamaa is a tele ripper from Finland and put together this quick clip of some sweet skiing he got into at Davos, Switzerland.   [READ MORE]

  • Monday, April 18, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Paul Robinson bouldering in Fontainebleau, France


    Black Diamond athlete Paul Robinson had an exceptionally successful trip to Fontainebleau earlier this year, dispatching numerous testpieces near the highest end of difficulty. Below is an insightful and inspiring video of Robinson in Font, put together by fellow BD athlete Chris Schulte , as well as an intro written by Schulte.  ... [READ MORE]

  • Tuesday, April 19, 2011

    BD teams win 2011 Piolets d'Or


    Congratulations to BD athletes Nico Favresse and Katsutaka “Jumbo” Yokoyama—they, along with their partners, were awarded the 2011 Piolets d’Or on April 16. Nico (along with his brother Olivier, Ben Ditto, Sean Villanueva and Bob Shepton) won for making the first ascents of several seaside big walls in Greenland. Jumbo (along with... [READ MORE]

  • Wednesday, April 20, 2011

    BD athletes featured in National Geographic magazine article about climbing in Yosemite Valley


    BD athletes Tommy Caldwell , Kevin Jorgeson , Cedar Wright and Alex Honnold are all prominently featured in an article about Yosemite climbing in the May 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, including Honnold on the cover doing his free-solo shuffle on Half Dome's Thank God Ledge. Pick up a copy of the issue now to read the article... [READ MORE]

  • Thursday, April 21, 2011

    BD athlete Ptor Spricenieks reports on skiing France's Glacier de L'Homme


    Black Diamond athlete Ptor Spricenieks spends all winter, every winter in La Grave, France, doing one thing: skiing the big faces of the Alps. Below is his report on one of his final days of skiing in the 2010/11 season. With the arrival of springtime in La Grave comes the running of the Derby de La Meije, the legendary freeride race... [READ MORE]

  • Friday, April 22, 2011

    Winger For The Weekend #88


    When a big storm hits, unloading epic levels of snow we ditch work, grab our backcountry ski kit and head for the goods. These Wingers do the same thing, except they get their deep pow fix via "extreme snowshoeing". What the hell is extreme snowshoeing you—rightfully—ask? Basically, as you'll see in this WInger For The Weekend #88, it... [READ MORE]

  • Tuesday, April 26, 2011

    BD athlete Adam Ondra reports on his astounding same-day 9b redpoint and 8c+ onsight at Oliana, Spain


    Black Diamond athlete Adam Ondra made sport-climbing history in northern Spain this spring with a stunning string of ascents, including onsighting five routes grade 5.14c and establishing two new 5.15b’s. While Ondra’s onsight spree may have been head-spinning (only Ondra’s fellow BD team member Patxi Usobiaga had managed a 5.14c... [READ MORE]

  • Wednesday, April 27, 2011

    VIDEO: BD athlete Chris Webb Parsons battling back in Hueco Tanks, Texas


    After Crown of Aragon blew up his shoulder, Black Diamond athlete Chris Webb Parsons endured the long and difficult road of recovery. He knew, though, that he had a score to settle in Hueco Tanks and returned early this year to even things up. Below is the video he put together documenting the roller coaster of injuries and success.... [READ MORE]

  • Thursday, April 28, 2011

    VIDEO: POV footage of a skier surviving an avalanche by using his AvaLung and air bag


    Here's another stunning video of a skier getting caught in an avalanche while heli-skiing. This time the skier had both an AvaLung and air bag, and used both to survive the massive slide. The footage of the snow engulfing him is truly amazing. As always: be safe out there and have fun.   [READ MORE]