I once saw the great Mr. Walker send 5.11- and only weight the rope twice. I couldnt believe the brilliance of the man's strength and impeccable style. Watching him style the pink route made me realize how much I suck but atleast we have Mr. Walker to carry the torch of humble power and grace on plastic and light the way for the rest of us losers.

That said, he sounds like a kid who is just learning the sport, who hasn't been there and done/said things they later regret?

I hear that he's so good that he not only uses a figure four on all his climbs, he ties in with a figure 4 knot as well. He doesn't need the added security of a figure 8 knot. Now that's what I call "recogntion" worthy climbing (or in this case, knotting).

hosh.

A Haiku, in tribute:

Gabe climbs in the gym.
The orange route is the hardest.
We are in such awe.

For those among us who are truly old school, a bit of a different lyric:

Climbers climb up,
Walkers walk flat.
Gabe Walker does both,
Well how's about that? (-- Burma Shave)

For the hip-hop crowd:

[record scratching sound.]

I send so ruthless,
Mo money I make,
I climb with such style,
I never say take.

Yo.
[/record scratching sound.]

Sylvester Stallone plays Gabe Walker, a climber, who in the opening scene of the movie loses his confidence after a rescue goes wrong, resulting in the death of his friend's girlfriend. Gabe is then called back to perform a final rescue by his ex-girlfriend and overcomes his inner demons to help the bitter ex-friend with the rescue.

During the rescue, the two climbers are taken prisoner by ruthless thieves, lead by Eric Qualen (John Lithgow), who stole (but subsequently lost) $100 million belonging to the US Treasury. These thieves carried out a daring airplane-to-airplane transfer of the funds; but, during the transfer, a gun battle among them led to the loss of the money and the crash of the planes. The suitcases holding the money had beacon locators. Because the money was lost in mountainous territory, the rescue climbers are taken prisoner and coerced into locating the money.

After the thieves bring along Gabe's friend to find the money after thinking Gabe was dead, Gabe and his ex-girlfriend (whom has joined the party by now, to which the lead thief comments sarcastically in a British accent, "We are getting rather popular, aren't we?") attempt to get to each case before the thieves. The first case, Gabe has already disposed of by throwing the money off the cliff and scattering it everywhere. The second case, he makes a snowman, makes the tracker the mouth, and leaves only one bill in the case which he has written on, "Want to trade?". Next, it shows Gabe and his girlfriend making a fire out of the bills and saying, "Costs a fortune to heat this place." On the next case, Gabe somehow plants the tracker on a rabbit so that the thieves are bumbling around the mountainside going after what they think is the case of money.

The movie features a fictitious device called the bolt-gun. It fires bolts directly into rock, forgoing the rock-drilling and bolt-hammering necessary to establish a bolted rock-climbing route. The bolt-gun is usually cited as one of the film's most serious technical inaccuracies; it ignores material properties of rock that would cause the bolt-gun's impact site to shatter and explode with flaky projectiles. It is unlikely that the bolt could penetrate the rock without creating an opposing force large enough to severely injure or kill the bolt-gun operator.

The movie's most breathtaking scenes were shot in the Cortina d'Ampezzo area of the Dolomites, Italy