Pause Epidose #7: BlueWater athletes in Alaska

Pause Episode #7 (an experimental series of short video snippets) featuring some of our adventures on the Tooth Traverse last year. Thanks for tuning in! ~renan

PAUSE 7 from PAUSE on Vimeo.

Winter in Boulder, Big Climbs and Big Falls with Cedar Wright and Gus the All Terrain Pug

Follow our athlete Cedar Wright and his dog "Gus the All Terrain Pug"  out for a day of winter cragging.  Will Cedar Send, or will he whip HUGE!!!!

Winter in Boulder Colorado, with Cedar Wright and Gus the All Terrain Pug. from BlueWater Ropes on Vimeo.

Cedar Gets Out There!!!

Welcome to an experimental piece shot over a few days camped out at the Diamond on Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. I composed the song with this piece in mind. Big thanks to Joe Mills my climbing partner for this three days in the mountains, who is always psyched for adventure.

  Most of the on climb footage was shot on my Iphone 4s, and the on ground footage and timelapses were shot on a 5d mark iii.

Poetry in Order of Reading

The Mountain, by Emily Dickinson

On Beauty, by Kahil Gibran

Excerpt from Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu

Alone Looking At The Mountain, by Li Po

This Is How Your Mind Is, by Foyan

BlueWater Ropes, S.W.A.T. Training!

BlueWater Ropes got it's start manufacturing caving and climbing ropes, but was well ahead of the curve when 35 years ago it manufactured the first rope intended for Military, and Police and other applications where low visibility is required. Today BlueWater Ropes is the premiere rope for Tactical applications. The Military, Fire Fighters, and S.W.A.T. teams trust their lives to BlueWater ropes , which is something we are very proud of.  

Pra Caramba

Wow was this really almost three years ago...yes it was, but the film is finally free to the public, thanks to iclimb who is giving the film away as an HD download! Pra Caramba marks the birth of my passion for filmmaking and had it's world premiere at the Boulder Adventure Film Festival!

SAM ELIAS ON RED BULL AND VODKA M11

Watch Sam Elias one of the world's best mixed climbers, ninja his way up Red Bull and Vodka an impressive Mixed climb on Vail Pass that ventures out and endless stretch of gymnastic, tiered roof madness! The climb overhangs over fifty feet in a hundred and twenty, and finishes on the Fang, one of the most iconic ice climbs in the world.

Shortly after this was filmed, Sam Elias onsighted Direct King Cobra. Which at M11 is one of the hardest Mixed climbs in the world. Sam Used the 9.2mm Dominator, to keep him light and to reduce rope drag on this epic odyssey of a climb.

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE: Part Two, The Dream Climb

Holy smokes we fixed eight hundred feet of rope and it it got jumared and rained on... hard, and when we pulled the ropes at the end of the adventure... they were still good as new!

After managing to climb the unclimbed north Dragons's Horn, we rested for a few days and then headed up for a new route on the steeper and more impressive South Dragon's Horn. Follow Lucho and I as we establish one of the Best Climbs of Our Lives!



Big Thanks to Tanoshi Lodge for feeding us and housing us during the adventure.

If you find our adventure compelling or entertaining, please donate even just a dollar in the name of our climb to Big City Mountaineers, so that urban teens can get the chance the get out on their first wilderness adventures! GO TO SUMMIT FOR SOMEONE TO DONATE!!!!

Special thanks to The North Face who is matching dollar for dollar the first 4000 we can raise for Big City Mountaineers, and Five Ten, Blue Water Ropes, Clif Bar, Backcountry.com, and Black Diamond for their additional support.

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE, Part One: The Unclimbed Horn

Hello Bluewater lovers!! Man did I put my dominator to the test in Malaysia this October, and I have to say the double dry held up Remarkably well to the endless rainy climbing! Here is the low down!!!

After a whirlwind three day travel sequence Lucho and I found ourselves on Tioman Island staring up at the mythical "Dragon's Horns." It was hard to believe that only one of the huge jungle spires had been climbed...until we started the approach...then it made more sense. But after some epic jungle bushwhacking which culminated with me being attacked by giant hummingbird sized wasps, we somehow managed to find our way to the base, and miraculously summited the unclimbed Dragon's Horn on our first full day on the island. The route "Tanoshi Buttress" was a classic 5.10x adventurefest!!! We topped out at night and endured a shiver bivy until about two a.m. when an an impending lightning storm encouraged us to rappel at night. I hope this short video captures some of the magic of our Experience.

We are raising money in the name of our climb for Big City Mountaineers, an awesome program that gets under resourced teens into the wilderness. Programs like these are close to mine and Lucho's hearts and we'd really appreciate even a couple dollars donated in our names.... find out more at SUMMIT FOR SOMEONE

Special Thanks to the folks at Tanoshi Lodge for making our stay a stylish one.

We brought two cameras up the climb with us, a tm900 and a gh2, and I shot some of the timelapses with my 5dii. Hopefully you like my edit and original music.

The Denali Experiment

As promised here is the complete 15 edit: Free-ride skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and big mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari step out of their elements and make an attempt to climb, ski and snowboard Denali. Sage and Lucas get a helping hand from a huge cast of seasoned and professional climbers and ski mountaineers from the North Face Athlete Team, including Hilaree O’Neill, Conrad Anker, Ingrid Backstrom, Jim Zellers, Emilio Previtali and Giulia Monego, as the two embark on the hardest expedition of their lives.

Although I was still injured during this expedition, it was an honor to get a chance to tell the story and live vicariously through the footy during my recovery. With eight characters and lots of possible story-lines it was one the most challenging pieces I have worked on to date!

We are lucky to be able to share it this way, it's true 'experiment' for in terms of how how many people will have the attention span to watch the whole thing online :) Hopefully it does well, so we can keep it coming! Thanks for watching, ~renan






a CAMP 4 COLLECTIVE production
Director : Jimmy Chin
Cinematographers : Jimmy Chin, Matt Irving, Adam Clark
Editor: Renan Ozturk
Motion Graphics: Barry Thompson, Eric Bucy, Mary Blumen
Additional Media: Teton Gravity Research, Absinthe Films, Colby Coombs, Renan Ozturk
Color: Anson Fogel

ARI Equipper of the Year.

Bluewater believes in the importance of keeping our crags safe, and is a proud sponsor of Climbing Magazine's Industry supported organization ARI the Anchor Replacement initiative. This year gave out an Equipper of the Year award which included prizes such as a bluewater rope.

MINI DAWGZ_THE MOVIE_TENSLEEP_2011

I had the pleasure of spending a week in Ten Sleep Wyoming with young up and coming climber Stefan Lavender. He brought his two mini-dogs Wentworth, and Nemo, and I brought along my pug Gus. I also brought along the new GH2 camera and the Noktor ƒ0.95 Lens to test them out. Still love the 5d, but I like the GH2 a lot too. As usual, the music is mine... if you like this song, available here http://cedarwright.blogspot.com/

The Tooth Traverse

This piece is comprised of some of the attempts Zack Smith , Freddie Wilkinson and myself have put into the 'Tooth Traverse' of the Ruth Gorge, AK.

There has been a log going on surrounding our adventures: The 1st attempt was heavily embarked upon only days after the memorial for the deaths of our close friends vimeo.com/​5065432, the 2nd attempt ended with helping with body recoveries of other climbers in the gorge and the just before our proposed launch day this past spring I almost died in a skiing accident.

Beyond the allure of enchaining one of the most iconic [& untrodden] skylines in NA the Tooth Traverse has come to represent so much more than that to us. With my healing going well and the inspiration (and angst) greater than ever we are planning another attempt in the NEAR future.

I see the eventual story breaching some pretty heavy topics involved in alpine climbing: sponsored vs. non-sponsored expeditions, dealing with death and the effect tackling dangerous objectives has on friends/family.

At any rate here is a little window into our work in progress. ~reo

Our Anthem

BlueWater traces its roots to a family-owned business that began manufacturing ropes and cordage in 1903. Our modern history began in 1969 when we manufactured the first American-made kernmantle caving rope.

Cuba Chapter 4_The Life of Leo

A story about one of the dedicated Cuban cranksters of vinales. This was my most favorite piece fo the series. I shot this piece and climbed the entire trip on a 9.4 hylite which one of the best ropes I've ever used. When I showed this piece to the guys at BlueWater they were moved to the point of sending Leo and his friend some cords to fuel their passion. This just goes to show how supportive bluewater is to the climbing community! Thanks for tuning in, ~reo

Cuba Chapter_4_The Life of Leo from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Cuba Chapter 3_The Competition

Another installment of the Cuba series. Thanks for following! ~reo

Cuba Chapter 3_The Competition from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

music recorded on location

Cuba Chapter2_Enter Vinales

Psyched to share the next chapter of the Cuba installments...this is first glimpse of the climbing! As always, thanks for checking it! ~reo

Cuba Chapter 2_Enter Vinales from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Music Recorded On Location

THE CUBA ADVENTURE BEGINS

Hey All,

So psyched be able to share some stories here on the bluewater blog. I'll be releasing a series on a recent adventure to Cuba that will be 5 parts by the end. This was a down to earth soul trip...just good old sport climbing and cultural exploration! Enjoy and thanks for checking them out!

Cheers,

Renan (new member of the bluewater climbing team!)

CUBA CHAPTER .5_getting there from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

A little precursor to a new adventure in Cuba-->A few weeks off the grid climbing and checking out the culture with no phone or internet.

1 5d, 1 pair of climbing shoes and a pair of flip flops...here we go!

MUSIC: http://www.diagramcollective.com/

CUBA CHAPTER 1_Havana City Bustle from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

music recorded on location

NEPAL 2011_KHUMBU CLIMBING SCHOOL_NAMASTE

Namaste translates as the "inner light in me salutes the inner light in you", or "Hi."

This is a two hour speed edit that captures the vibe of the Khumbu Climbing School, that I put together to show the students on their graduating night.

If this piques your curiosity, please check out Their Mission Statement

Moonlight Dreams

A couple of months ago I had the extreme pleasure of repeating Moonlight as a free climb. Moonlight buttress is probably the single best sandstone bigwall freeclimb in the world and to manage to scrap up it first try no falls was one of the highlights of my year, and sharing it with my bride to be made it even more special.

Rocky Mountain Highline

About a month ago, Andy Lewis, or "Sketchy Andy" called me up and said he had a "sick" highline set up up above Estes. Andy Lewis is one of the best slackliners in the world and had recently walked the longest Highline ever... so I figured it might be fun to go up for a couple hours and test out my new 5d mark ii camera. I headed up with my good friend Timmy O'Neil and had a great time scaring the crap out of myself on the line and getting a few shots as well!!