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	The pages of the calendar keep flipping past. Hope everyone had a happy, healthy, hot! 4th of July.  It was warm!       After the 4th, we waltzed right into the Cannon/Franconia Notch area trip.  Good turnout, good group, with Rich’s usual eye for detail reflected in every aspect of it. The result was a good time, with good, reliable weather!  We had climbers all over the area…Cannon, Mount Willard, Sugarloaf, Eaglet, Echo, and Artist’s Bluff, are the ones I recall. Great job Rich, and everyone who brought it together.  Two trips down, and three to go.      Then…was the Pine Ledge celebrate a crag day.  Brian did some pre-clean up bolting down at the South cliff.  This cliff (south) needs more love and attention.  Which would keep it sustained, and less likely to get overgrown.  Maybe a trip/outing there this Fall!?!? At the main cliff, a fallen tree was taken down, that helped!  Good climbing was had, and as always…everything was fun, with good participation and assistance.      Finally, we were able to at last squeeze in the May High Ledge celebrate a crag day…on the 25th of July.  Another crag, like South cliff at Pine Ledge, that needs more attention and climbing love.  It’s an easy approach, that wanders for 15min.  Great bolting.  The cliff does have an element of choss, but it’s nothing crazy, just the occasional hold you want/need to tap before laying into it. The cleanup went well.  Run by Cayla, and the result is much got done.  Even just the group of us trekking in and out helped with the trail closest to the cliff, which tends to get overgrown by ferns.  Put this crag on your ‘to climb’ list!      Next up…Rumney, this weekend. At the end of August, we have the rarely visited (to my knowledge) Lantern Hill celebrate a crag day.  Summer won’t last forever, get out and get some of those sends!!  Let us know where you’re going and the fun you’re having.  Make us jealous! BUT, at the same time…the Fall is primo outdoor time, with long enough days, less humidity, and grippy crags!  It’s always the season!!         If anyone would like to contribute to this monthly newsletter please email your contribution to risouthcounty@gmail.com or bikeskiboy@hotmail.com.  Contribution needs to be 200 words or less to fit in this newsletter format. A photo is helpful as well but not necessary.
	2026 AMC Narragansett Climbing Trip/Event Schedule      This is a synopsis of the upcoming AMC trips/events. Click the link above for details. Trip announcements go out about a month before any trip date! The trips are all focused on multi-pitch trad and ice, except for the Rumney trip, which is sport climbing focused.          Aug 1-2 Rock Climbing Rumney, NH  Aug 29 Lantern Hill celebrate a crag day.   Sep 12 Durfee Hill celebrate a crag day  Sep 19-20 Rock Climbing North Conway, NH   Sep 26 or 27 AMC RI Women's+ Crag Day - Durfee ,    Sep TBD Veteran Leaders Retreat at the Gunks?  Oct 10-12 Rock Climbing, Gunks
	This Month's Climber Bio by Ronnie Schroeder - Adam Ondra, February 5, 1993 - Present       Adam Ondra (born in the Czech Republic in 1993) is one of the most accomplished rock climbers of his generation. A prodigy from early childhood, he began climbing at age three and was onsighting 5.12c by age eight! He progressed rapidly, and by thirteen he had redpointed his first 5.14d!      Ondra’s diversity spans sport, bouldering, big-wall, competition, and recently trad climbing at the highest and most dangerous levels. He is the first (and only) climber to establish a 5.15d sport route, named “Silence” in Norway’s Flatanger Cave (2017), considered the world’s hardest confirmed sport climb. He also completed groundbreaking ascents such as “Change” (the first 5.15, 2012) and “La Dura Dura” (5.15b, 2013).      In competition, Ondra is the only male athlete to win World Championship titles in both sport lead and bouldering in the same year (2014). He earned multiple World Cup victories and represented the Czech Republic in the Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.      Beyond competitions, Ondra has repeated elite big-wall climbs, including an eight day repeat (the second free ascent) of the “Dawn Wall” on El Capitan (2016). (Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s first free ascent took 19 days.)  Learn more here: Adam Ondra - Wikipedia
Logo created using ChatGPT	AI Climbing App - Brian     I wrote an AI app for climbing. I named it “Dude.” Or, I should say AI wrote an AI climbing app. You know it was just a matter of time before AI invaded our sport. My app sends out an army of bots scraping the web for key words related to route beta. Every route, comment, and opinion from users' tick list on Mountain Project, 27 Crags, The Crag, UK Climbing, Super Topo, and on and on, are sucked in. I told Claude Code what I wanted, and, like magic of AI, it wrote the code. It did it in minutes what would take me weeks to do.      I was dying to try it out.  I went to Ross Rocks and got on Devil’s Lettuce a popular 5.8 route there. I started the app on my phone, connected via ear buds, and mounted the camera to a chest holster I devised. Now Dude could see what was going on.  “Dude, is this where I start.” “Correct start Bro.” A very authentic climber’s voice responded authoritatively. I knew that to be correct as I’ve done the route 50 or so times before. After my initial moves, Dude was suspiciously quiet, and I wondered if it was working. Then I started purposely using the wrong holds. “Bro this is not the optimum hold.” I switched to the obvious jug I always use. “That’s better Bro.” It was working. “Bro wrong foot more to the right.” “Dude where?” “Bro look for a high step to the right.” “Dude there is a better foot to the left.” “Bro no, not there,” it yelled.      Dude continued spraying out beta pissing me off more than that annoying 12-year-old sprayer in the gym. I guess not all things are transferable to AI. With the delete key Dude was sent to the digital graveyard in the clouds. Or, was it?
	Ken's Training Tips     Stronger forearm/wrist strength, can be yours.  Some exercises I use include: Reverse curls, with a bar, or with a dumbbell(forearm over a bench really targets the forearm).  Try it for strength(don’t let your form fall off) and for endurance.  Different weights, but always the same slow, concentration on form. Also with a dumbbell,,,grab/hold the end, not the middle…a molded dumbbell works well, OR a lighter kettlebell(held straight out) can be quite effective.  Flex the dumbbell/kettlebell up and down from the wrist, keeping the arm stationary. Hammer grip curls!  Hits muscles for climbing not worked by regular curls. Forearms across a bench again…hold a weight you can manage with one hand, and slowly rotate the weight/your hand(from the wrist) side to side…feel it working the forearm flexors and extenders.      The forearms are muscles(kind of like calves) that get used all the time, daily, so if you want progress, be patient, and do exercises multiple times a week.      Two random techniques from ROAP.C on IG.  Managed by Alex Puccio and her husband Robin.  Always good insight to be had!      First, do you utilize your thumb when climbing?  I had to consider this…yes, but maybe not as much/consistently as I could?  The benefits are as follows…Keep your thumb engaged(particularly on steep terrain), don’t let the thumb fall off, and only be left with fingers on the hold/crimp.  The thumb creates an anchor point against the hold.  Also improves lateral movement, by stabilizing the hand, and keeps force directed through the hold.      Second, stop training only 90 degree lock offs.  Rarely is a lock off like hanging from a board, or a rail…hands at the same height, same distance, same arm angle, etc.  Get creative by moving your hands around, extending one arm more than the other, hands at different heights, even angles.  Imagine you were reaching for a distant hold to your right or left.  One arm would be really compact, and the other would be extended.  Let your training for strength reflect that.  The result will be greater functional strength.      Last month I recommended the book “The Impossible Climb - Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the climbing life” by Mark Synnott. Well, I finished reading it before the end of the month, and…still HIGHLY recommend it, IF you are interested in all the supporting characters leading up to Alex’s Free Solo movie, and what role they played on their own in the Yosemite climbing environment, and how they all ‘got to their respective levels’.  Lots more details explored than the movie had time for.      Quote inspiration and motivation:  “Do it in the morning!  Morning habits form more reliably than evening ones.  Later in the day decision fatigue and competing demands erode good intentions.” - Arnold Pump Club I couldn’t agree more, and heavily lean on my AM movement, strength, flexibility work to start my day off right!
	Join the ClimbRI email group    Most communication among RI climbers (including the AMC) is done through a Google Group called ClimbRI. There are currently just over 400 climbers in the group from RI, CT, and MA.