Over a couple of nights last week I polished off the fantastic Ninkasi DIPA and IPA.

The Total Domination IPA is my favorite of the two, it has more of a traditional northwestern IPA taste, which is my style. It being called TD I was not sure if it was going to be a total let down, but Ninkasi came through. At 6.7% ABV and 65 IBU's the TD has a nice floral start with a smooth hoppy finish. The TD combines three taste hops Summit, Amarillo and Crystal with a pair of malts that don't distract from the aromatic hoppiness. I have had this beer with both a spicy coconut curry and a burger and I give this one a 2 on the EGS.

The Tricerahops Double IPA is a more full, robust IPA. Not in terms of hoppiness but more of a stout or heavier bodied DIPA. This seems to be attributable to its three different malts. This beer has an ABV of 8.8% and 100 IBU's. On their website Ninkasi says this beer is earthy, I will totally agree with this and then some. This is a heavier DIPA than I'm accustomed to. I give it a 3 on the EGS. My buddy who favors Belgian beers loved this one and says he will drink it again should he find another.


In my time drinking IPAs I generally categorize them as 1,2, or 3 on the EGS (Eddie Gianelloni Scale). This is in terms of their repurchase-ability. 1 meaning that I go straight in and look to buy at least one on my next trip to the store. 2 meaning that I will forgo it on the next trip unless there are no number 1's and no new IPAs to sample in stock. 3 is left for the IPAs that I have sampled and will leave for someone else to enjoy.


Go Drink an IPA!!!!

From time to time I receive emails for people asking for beta due to it's scarce nature in English. I have decided that I will post some of them here, maybe one will answer your question too. Hope this helps.

Hi Eddie,
How are you doing? Sorry this message is a bit out of the blue but I stumbled across your blogspot (very good by the way!) and thought I'd try to tap you up for a bit of info if you don't mind.
I'm currently in Japan with my fiance, we're based in Ashigakubo in Chichibu and also at Tokorozawa with her parents and were hoping to get some bouldering in while we're here.
Scouring the Net has brought up Mitake & Ogawayama as decent locations but could you recommend any others? Do you know of any in the Chichibu area at all?
We're looking for stuff up to about v5 really (not sure on grades to be honest so that might be an overestimate!)

Any info you could provide would be massively appreciated.

Anyway, hope all is well with you & yours.
Keep on keeping on,

Rich



Hello Rich

First, are you driving or using the trains? If you are driving there are MANY areas with in a couple of hours. If you are using the trains then it will take about three hours and a bit of walking to visit some of those areas. There are several published and non published areas around you in Chichibu. If you are just bouldering, then you can spend several weeks at Mitsumine and have many projects. If you go to any Outdoor shop in Chichibu you can find the Japan 100 series guides books, there are four of them and they are blue. The areas that you are looking at will be in the number 2 guide. Do you have pads? If not let me know, I will see what I can arrange.

Mitake is the most popular bouldering area in Honshu. This is primarily due to it's close proximity to Tokyo. There are several nice, large boulders at Mitake. I am actually writing the first English guide book to this area right now.

Ogawayama is a MUCH better place to climb in my opinion. Several sweet boulders with tons of problems in your grade range. Speaking of grades in Japan. I think the grades in Japan are very stiff. First off the Japanese do not use the V-scale or French bouldering grades. The kyu or Sho Dan scale is used. Check out my Mountain Project page on Japan for more info on this.

My favorite place to boulder in Japan so far is the Mizugaki area. This area has MANY, MANY untapped sectors and hundreds of boulders to be cleaned and climbed. There are tons of highballs to make me salivate every time I see them.

I am not sure if you climb routes but Japan has copious wonderful areas VERY close to you most notably Futago. Again some of the areas are open to the public and some are not. This is mainly because they are still being bolted and cleaned. Let me know and I can tell you more about them if you are interested.

I hope this helps. How long are you here? Where are you from? Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Eddie

I finally made my way to Chichibu to see some of the areas there. Jack took me to the impressive Battleship Area and several other areas that I can not remember the names of now. All of these areas are places that Jack has developed/ing or discovered. These areas have many bolted lines, including a 30 foot roof in a cave boosting two 13+/14- lines that need ascents.

The Battleship crag is very visible from the town below and is very nice limestone. This area in particular has seen several ascents, notably Yuji's send of the most obvious line that I can not remember the name of, but goes at 5.13+. We were on a scouting mission this trip and we climbed a rather unusual line for Japan that moves through slopers below to a long tufa up top, then to a pumpy crux finish that if botched, the leader will take a long, fun fall. But totally safe due to the steepness of the head wall.

Next we traveled down several more roads and visited more areas, but the area that sticks out the most was Osutaka no One. This is named after the deadliest plane crash in history that happened in the area. This is the area with the large cave that I mentioned before. The main wall has about 10 routes with about 5 more on a wall near by. We climbed a very beautiful and dirty 10d, that was the first line Jack bolted here. Very nice and technical line that works its way up the middle of the wall.

I was not able to take many photos, but Jack snapped a few of me climbing. I included them to show some of the rock quality. Enjoy the photos and I will have another post tomorrow.



Go Climb Something.

I made it into another Rock and Snow!!! The write up is about the new area that I helped develop. The route that I am climbing is my 11a. I am about to make the crux move in the photo. Cool stuff.

Thanks Nobu!!

As usual I made my way to Calafata in Tokyo to play with all of the new gear and to have lunch with Jack. Among the many new shoes, harnesses, carabiners, and clothes was the this gel. The new NST Eco Grip gel is awesome!!! I am not into the liquid chalk scene at all, except for DWS. Liquid chalk is all over in Japan. Jack brought me over to the shop's climbing wall and asked me to hold onto a sloper pinch and lift my feet. Of course it was a fixed test and I could not lift my feet for any measure of time. We then lathered our hands in a small amount of Eco Grip Gel and after waiting about 1.5 mins Jack said "Again". This time to my surprise I was able to not only hang from the hold for 10 secs with my strong hand but, I was able to hang for 8 secs with my weak hand. "SOLD!!!!" I said to him in a flash.

This new Eco Gel is alcohol free, non-toxic, and biodegradable. There is no dust and the gel lasts all problem long (this is dependent on how much you choose to lather on). NST is a French company that makes an assortment of outdoor goodies. I think the guys at NST got this one right. I put my stamp of approval all over this one. Off to go climbing.

Ciao!


Go Climb Something!!!!

A simple ,easy, no frills way to stick clip on the fly. This is for clipping a rope into the first draw or as some like to call it, wienie clipping, without using anything extra. Not tape required.

First take two bites of rope. Make sure to leave your self enough tail on the side that you will tie into once the rope is clipped correctly into the draw.
Make an overhand knot with the two bites. Pull the knot tight.
Next find a branch long enough to reach the draw. Cram the stick into the knot in between the two bites.
Locate and grab the "tie in" side of the rope. Hold this side and the stick in the same hand to prevent the bite from pulling through the knot. Making sure to keep your rope on the outside of the draw, put this bite around the draw and slowly pull the bite tight.
If done correctly the rope should easily clip right into the draw no problem. Just make sure your side of the rope is on the outside to prevent back clipping.

Happy clipping!!!

It rained the entire time we were in the south. Kyoto is amazing and very old. Osaka is a larger port city. The remarkable temples are surrounded by 30 story buildings. The bad weather was due to a typhoon that blew in the entire time we were there. When I say this you might imagine gale force winds and waves crashing. No. There was just spitting rain the entire time. Enough to move around in but make you wish it would stop.

We took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto first, then the local line to Osaka. There are more sights to see in Kyoto then are humanly possible to see. Osaka has many sights to see, but we spent the two days we had in the underground tunnel systems around the train station. FYI if you are planning on traveling to these cities, the hotels in the train station are very nice. Some are pricey, but worth the extra money because of location.

We originally planned to go to the Kasagi bouldering area south of Kyoto, but it rained to entire time. I am not sure if I have said this enough. We did go to Crux bouldering gym one night. The owner, Yuki, is very nice and she has a fantastic venue. If you are in the area check it out.

This all said, I was not able to take many good photos. Here are a few from the trip.

Sorry that there is not more to this post but really it rained the whole time.


Go Climb Something in the sun!!!