Brock Steel: Single Speed Stud

What's going on ya'll? This is Big Bad Brock here. Now I know Rex usually writes these thingies but his long lazy ass don't ride bicycles worth a dang so this post is alll B-rock!

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Now, I been rock'n hard everyday (as usual) but I haven't been climb'n them hard rocks so much. I've been spending most of the summer riding my bicycle and chasing doods through the woods at mock speeds. All in preparation for SINGLE SPEED USA! This year the race was in a beautiful little town in the upper peninsula of Michigan, called Copper Harbor.Surrounded on all sides by Lake Superior these trails are no joke... Super long climbs up never ending single track, and amazing descents of either flowing buffed trails or butthole puckering technical rock gardens. But as you all already know, that ain't no problemo for your boy Brock Steel. Just look at them guns. They don't call me Brock Steel for nothin ya know!

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This event has your fair share of feats of strength mixed with drunken bike challenges. But the the real nitty gritty of the trip is the race itself. There were mid trail aid stations full of whiskey and bacon. Two of my favorite things. All the tough guys rode in their street cloths just like me. Leave the spandex at your momma's house ya rodies!

I was honored to ride with the 8Lumens team. Gettin after it in the U.P. with that wild bunch was awesome. Beers were had, bikes were ridden, and lots of mid trail heckling was thoughtfully delivered.

I also got to lay my taint upon a one of a kind Oddity Cycles custom bike for the whole race. Ain't she a beaut?

Riding her was more exciting and explosive than anything or anyone I've ever ridden. She cornered like a dream and descended like a bat out of hell. Burnsy sure did a number when he put this one together. Yes sir, I rode that bicycle hard and put her away wet and dirty!  

Party Time Single Speed USA

Forever

-Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

 P.S. Here's a bonus pick of me cruisin into the finish line for a solid 26th place finish. I took the liberty of touching up some of the colors and stuff in photoshop but thats pretty much it.

Everyday Rock Star Fame

Along our journey we've met and connected with really great people who can dig what we're doing. Some truly excellent folks have even helped us along with our mission by either donating, buying merch, or by sharing our adventures with others. 

This summer Climbing Magazine has even jumped on the Shred All Fear bandwagon! Whaaat? That's right! Page 20 in the August issue of Climbing Mag features an interview with your favorite interstellar rock stars; Brock & Rexxx! If you haven't already, pick yourself up a copy, take it to your favorite quiet safe place, and swoon over the fame and status of our rock star lives.

We asked our long time friends and media directors, Corbin Brady and Dakota Walz, to step in front of the cameras this time. We couldn't be more excited to have our scruffy faces in print. But what really tickles my white little hiney is that one of Corbin's photos made it in a global publication!

The only reason we asked Dakota to join was cause we felt bad asking Corbin but not him. Oh, and also because he happened to make his way into the September issue of Climbing Mag. You can read about him and our friends from Jeremy Collins Art, and MooreClimbing doing all kinds of sweet slimestone climbs beginning on page 56! 

Who would have guessed that playing around in the dessert with your best friends and making a mess of things could be so rewarding?

Party Time Climbing Mag

Forever

-Rex "BonerJamz" McKenzie

Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

Yose-Stoke

Hey there, this is Rex here. Now I know all you folks don't actually read all the crap I write in these here spaces between the photos and vidyahs. So this time I won't waste all your precious time with too many words. Shred All Fear humbly presents, Yo-Shred-Mite:

Party Time USA 

Forever

-Rex "BonerJamz" McKenzie

Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

P.S. Dear Donkey Dick Dave,

You can consider this video in honor of you. But as per your request... ACDC is just terrible and we would never shred to that crap!

Yosemite National Party

 We've been travel'n and climb'n and rock'n the Earth for a long time now. From it's dirtbag desert parties to it's super human stoke factory of awesome climbers, we've been blown away by how righteous this planet can be. Nothin could have prepared us though for how powerful this freaking piece of rock could be! Like the towering beautiful Golden Godess of Saturn's Savage Rings Sector, El Capitan leans impenetrable with complete dominance of the valley. Yet she stands uncontrollably enticing.   

Brock and I became fatigued just from craning our necks to look up in awe at the thing.  We began to get very dizzy and exhausted. Maybe it was all the beer and Its-It ice cream cookies or maybe it really was just the sheer power of El Cap. What ever it was, we woke up in the meadow a few hours later from a pre-send power-nap. Feeling fresh and feisty Brock, suggested we stand on top of the granite behemoth and do the ceremonial Orangutan O-lectric Slide on it's head. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day, so we finished our post nap beers and hiked up to climb it's easiest free route, The East Buttress. 

After a perfect day of incredibly fun cracks, small roofs, chimneys, off widths, faces, water falls, and vertigo inducing views, we summited a few thousand feet above the valley floor. If ever the rumored wells of infinite stoke existed they might be found somewhere in between this dance floor and Half Dome in the distance.

Blown away by all the shred potential the valley had to offer we quickly made our way back down to scope out our next climb. When we got back to the meadow our new friend, Donkey D*ck Dave, greeted us with champagne and grilled foods. We toasted to the beauty of the valley and to the absence of any park strangers ruining our good times.

The next day our homie Pat suggested we climb the world class Royal Arches with him.Without hesitation B-rock strapped my face melting riff machine to back and we ventured on up this historical peace of rock. In homage to the beauty and quality of the route, I played The Danger Zone by the one and only Kenny Loggins a few times. I flexed the good ol rock cannons once or twice as well... just for good measure. 

The Royal Arches could not have lived up to their hype more. Beautiful waterfalls, gorgeous splitter cracks, and rock climbing's first pendulum swing? Perfecto Respecto Gorgeoso!!

I know what you're thinking right now:

"Ya cool whatever, but where is the new video of you losers playing geetars on top of rocks and stuff??"

Never fear! B-rock-shiz-nasty is editing footage RIGHT NOW! Hold tight and our next video will be up for your eyeballs's viewing pleasure in no time!!

Party Time Yosemite

Forever

-Rex "BonerJamz" McKenzie

Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

¡Roca Salvaje & Nuevos Amigos!

Welp, after one of the roughest weeks in the desert we are back from Me-xee-co!

We crossed the boarder without the guards even asking for our passports or about how we got our mullets so silky and smooth. I guess trying to keep rockstars out of their country was the least of their worries. Without stopping we booked it straight to the deesert. The hand drawn map we used to find Cañon Tajo lead us awry for a few hours until we finally stumbled down the right dirt road.

We were alone in the canyon with nothing and no one for miles and miles in each direction. So, naturally we started partying. Brock stumbled upon a relic from the previous native inhabitants of the land and preceded to perform the honorary Doodly Dance that is the custom of our people.

We were completely struck by all the beauty the Mexican desert had to offer.

The very next day we made our hopeful assault on Gran Trono Blanco. We had heard the approach would be especially heinous but we could never have been prepared for the 8 hours of bush waking through green barbed monsters. Quickly, we learned, in Cañon Tajo everything wants to hurt you. No matter how pretty.

This is just one of the desert devil plants protecting the beautiful white granite. Everything wants to hurt you, they're all very good at it, and they all work together. The flowers do their best to hide the cactus spines. The loose dirt hides in thin passes between the dreaded agave. And the large white granite boulders, which are your only safe haven from the green monsters, give to your body weight and chase you down the gully.

After 4.5 hours of hiking we finally made it to the base of the East wall. With most of the day gone along with nearly all of my energy, we decided to bail on our objective and call it a day.

We would go on to make a second attempt at the Great White Throne, but on it's South face. The approach would prove to be much easier... the climbing did not even pretend to ease up. We made it half way up and decided that the blank white dome would look better if we didn't leave red streaks up and down it's old school 5.10 squeeze chimney...

When we finally made it back to camp we were surprised to find that not only were their people there, but there was a whole group of locals . They turned out to be the Tijuana Alpine Club

They were doing some self proclaimed "glamping". Which we learned means lots of wine, fish, wine, steak, and wine!!! They were all very helpful and did everything they could to make us weird aliens feel at home in their remote stomping grounds.

We also met some Gringo locals in the canyon. They have spent much of their lives traveling Baja and exploring what wild is left in the Americas.  Gregorio "GriGri", Jason, and Nikky showed us some of the canyons most beautiful and exciting secrets, shared a campfire with us, gave us crucial beta, and even let us play with their pet wolf.

Our nuevos amigos explained to us how special this place was to them and how important it has been to the freedom of adventure. Because of the lack of information out on the intrawebs the whole place is still very untamed and undisturbed. Our young eyes have been opened to the importance places like this have in the climbing world. Without the park rangers, the entry fees, paved trails, or even guided tours, places like this are some of the few to remain wild. The few that can facilitate true adventure.

Because of this we have scrapped all our footage we had shot to make a video. The photos and vague stories will stay up as some representation of our trip but do not even begin to scrape the surface of all the gnar we found in Mexico's middle ah nowhere.

Although we did not summit Trono Blanco our hearts are filled with new friendships, bellies with genuine tequila, our skin with cactus spines, and our stoke is set to overload!!

PARTIDO TIEMPO MEXICO PARA SIEMPRE

-Rex "BonerJamz" McKenzie

Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

P.S. For all the Americans afraid of getting your heads cut off:

The Mexican side of the boarder line is much friendlier than the Norte.

Major League Butt Kick'n is Back in Town!

Shred All Fear is back in full force and jammin harder than ever in Zion National Park. After doing some bicep bursting free climbing on the Organ we hiked up to Angels Landing, ran passed all the scared tourists, and signed autographs for those who recognized us or were stoked off our dance moves. The summit view was comparable to the Old Volcano Towers Ridge in Saturn's outer rim. Which if you haven't climbed out there, is freaking stellar.

 Also a chipmunk took a great liking to Brock and his mullet. Maybe he could smell Brock's inner animal... or maybe it was just his feet. Either way they became best friends.

Party Time USA...

For now..

-Rex 'BonerJamz' McKenzie

Brock 'Freedom Ain't Free' Steel

P.S. You jerks, Mr. Bryan Schillig is the only one whose had the decency to donate to our gas fund! What a stand up, handsome, powerful, hairy hairy man.

TOUR STARTS NOW

Ropes coiled... Rack in the car... Geetars tuned... Biceps pumped and flexed...

TOUR     STARTS     NOW!!

It's time to get off the damn couch and shake off the snow. We're headed back to the desert! We've summoned all the stoke we could possibly gather and are prepared to ride it all the way to Wild Wild Meeheco! 

Some of our homies back on Saturn have set up a base camp here in Kansas City called Moosejaw. Being the uncontrollably  handsome doods and doodettes they are, they threw us an INSANE tour kick-off party! We got hooked up with all kinds of rad goodies and supplies. The most essential of course being the chips and salsa!! (duh)

The President of the Kansas City Climbing Club came out to show us a few cords and learn us a little about how to color coordinate like a friggin champion!

Big ups to our hometown planet homies Paul and Ryan and everyone else at Moosebutt for kicking our trip off right and reminding us why we do what we do: 

At the end of the day life is a joke and if you're not laughing... then you just don't get it. 

So friends, lovers, and party peoples from aaall planets please follow us on our journey as we set sail for our biggest adventure yet. From the American Southwest to the remote Great White Throne and back up to the world famous Great Stone. We are racked and ready for all of the above and even a few surprises along the way.

Hide your projects, Shred All Fear is saddled up and set to crush!

-Rex "BonerJamz" Mckenzie

Brock "Freedom Ain't Free" Steel

P.S. Didya notice we got a donate button up there now?

ZION!!!

Where have the last 3 days gone???

Oh that's right, they went to raging hard in one of the most beautifully gnar places in the spaces:  ZION!!! For all ya'll foolie fools who don't know, Zion National Park is home to some of the sandiest-sandbagged-sick-nasty-sandstone this side of Saturn. With all of the rad routes to climb here (not to mention the lack of wifi) we lost track of time and forgot to keep the old b-log updated...Woops!!

Here's a quick recap:

We met up with our good friends Dick Dower, Dakota Walz, Jeremy Collins, and Corbin Brady. 

We climbed some sick routes in preparation for our main objective, Moonlight Buttress:

We climbed three pitches of world class rock in the pitch black of night. Then, deciding that it was time to go back to camp and drink some beer, we fixed 400 ft off rope and repelled to the ground. After a hardy night of party we woke up the next morning and jugged back up to our high point. 

After juggling back to our high point we hauled our geetars up in the haul bag behind us. Along with all our climbing gear that is a loooot of metal. Heavy metal. Can ya dig it?

After another 200ft of stellar aid climbing we ran into a problem. There were 2 parties above us also trying to reach the summit before sunset. Upon reaching the main roof in the center of the route our buzz was completely killed by the slow parties above. If we were to ever make it back to camp in time to party we would have to bail! So, being the rational doods we are, we pulled ropes and rapelled off the route.

Then we met all the nature. And got in touch with our spirit aminals. 

After 3 days of getting down and dirty in Zion it started to get too cold for the Brock-inator and his snot started to freeze on his stache.

As if all these sexy photos were not enough for ya we're currently working on the manliest, hairiest, rockenest music video we've shot yet. Stay posted for the release in the next day or so!!

Party Time USA

Forever

Rex "BonerJamz" Mckenzie