As our friends over at Climbing Narc noted, "While the interpersonal relationships of climbers is not normally appropriate for discussion on this blog, Beth and Tommy had built a pretty powerful brand around their being a climbing couple so the fact that they are no longer together seems like “news”. " But more importantly for GoBlog, it seems like the entry of two hot climbing ladies back into the dating pool has got the hormones running of quite a few lonely climbing dorks and it's driving mad traffic to the site. Over 75 people a day looking for information on these divorces. We call that newsworthy, at least in the sad fantasy lives of hundreds of climbers around the world. That's the only thing we can think of when we look at our search logs and scratch our heads at the sheer volume of traffic the words "beth rodden divorce" and "step davis divorce" drive to the site. So naturally we were curious what Google had to say as a gut check, so we pulled the numbers from their the Ad Words Keyword Selector tool. Here's the data they gave:

Phrase	Google Global Monthly Search Volume
steph davis divorce	46
beth rodden divorce	58

Looking through our logs, we'll have to say this is just directional and its underestimating the query volume by a large magnitude, because we see over 50 visitors a day alone searching for information on Beth Rodden's divorce. Less from Steph Davis. It's truly bizarre. Are the guys, and you have to assume it's 99% guys doing these searches, sitting in front of their computers going, "She's so hot, now I have a chance at her. Let me just confirm she's divorced and it's on!" And for that matter, why are they not searching Step Davis as often? Is she not as desirable as Beth when it comes to climbing dork fantasies hierarchy? You could also slice and dice this data and get anonymous demographic data. Like some lonely guy from Yale searched "tommy caldwell and beth rodden divorce" during his lunch hour today and a guy from Seattle searched "beth rodden divorce". Maybe we should put the data together and give it to Beth so she can avoid the towns with high rates of stalkers/searchers. And just to be honest, it's not just the hot climbing lady celebrities that get all this attention. People are always Googling "Chris Sharma girlfriend" to see if he's single. Because, you know, they have a shot if he is...Internet. Truly a weird and scary place.

So says 7x7, the local San Francisco magazine nobody outside of San Francisco has heard of, in their annual The Hot 20 Under 40. The amazing thing about choosing Katie is she admits she's semi-retired, studying to be an apparel designer. Does that mean she's was "hot", still is "hot", or will be "hot" in the future once she goes to work for the North Face? Curious minds want to know. 

Accomplishment is nothing new for Katie Brown. She began sport climbing in Kentucky at the age of 13, and today is heralded as one of the world’s best, achieving in 14 years more than many climbers do during their entire careers. This includes winning the X Games and a climbing World Cup. She’s also completed an onsight (free-climbing without knowledge of the route) of the northwest face of Yosemite’s Half Dome, and, along with climber Lynn Hill, the first female free ascent of the Leaning Tower. Brown moved to Berkeley from San Diego last year, in part because of its proximity to Yosemite. “It’s so vast, so awe-inspiring,” she says. “You could climb there your entire life and never get bored.” And while El Cap was part of the reason for her relocation, she also moved to attend the Fashion Institute, with plans to eventually work in the outdoor industry as an apparel designer. “Being a climber is all I’ve ever known,” Brown explains. “It’s wonderful, and I love it, but it leaves you ungrounded. I want a more rooted lifestyle.” Though it’s hard for mere mortals to imagine an athlete retiring at the top of her game, for Brown there’s no heartache about her decision to make climbing a hobby rather than a profession. “Right now I’m pretty content,” she says. “I’ve climbed where I wanted to climb. 
I’ve done what I wanted to do. Not everyone can say that.”

What's up with Burton? You always hear about them getting bent out of shape when they get criticized. Like threatening to leave Vermont after people called them out for their asinine Love boards. Just confirms the scientific evidence that snowboarders are just dumb as rocks. What's the latest you ask? Some writer/blogger we've never heard of, writing for a site equally unknown to us, found herself on the receiving end of some Burton hate after she had a gall to write a sarcastic blog post about Burton's annual industry party. God forbid somebody tries to be sarcastic in these trying times. Speaking of God, evidently the 2010 Burton Catalog is called the good book and looks like a bible. Jesus.  Literally. Anyway, it all seems rather meaningless and pointless, much like everything we write about here, so of course we had to point it out. Thankfully this chick, Brooke Geery, summarized it all and we included the timeline after the jump. In the mean time, read about all the mean things we've said about Burton and other industry brands below. Feel free to leave us some hate mail. We love it. Especially if you work for Nike. Via South of North.

GOBLOG HALL OF FAME POSTS THAT PISSED PEOPLE OFF

• Nike Snowboard Boots: Coming Soon To A Dick's Near You
• REI: The Wal-Mart of the Outdoors?
• Slope Side Style '07: The North Face Gestapo Collection
• Jake Burton Tires Of Being A Scapegoat: Lashes Out And Confirms Co. Strategy Driven By Children
• Nike Snowboard Boots Still Look Like Clown Boots
• Burton and Playboy Peddle Smutboards
• Burton Snowboards Does Playboy
• Slope Side Style '07: Why Are People Laughing At Me?
• Open Letter To Chrome: I Still Love You, But Stop Whoring Your Brand, Using 7-Year Olds To Name Shoes

Hey, guess what, Sharma won the Salewa Rock Award this month. We know what you're thinking, how could you have missed it? Well, probably because you never heard of it, which is funny, because it's evidently the Oscars of rock climbing. News travels slowly over the Atlantic, the award was given out Sep 4th. Better late than never:

Last night's IVth Arco Rock Legends proved to be spectacular. The Salewa Rock Award and the La Sportiva Competition Award were handed out in front of a packed crowd which went wild as the Jury's verdict for the climbing Oscars were announced; for the rock category the 17 international specialised magazines had chosen Chris Sharma, alias the King, while the competition category went to none other than Kilian Fischhuber.

The choice was by no means easy, above all because the other nominations included some of the best sport climbers in the world: Dani Andrada, Markus Bock, Adam Ondra and Maja Vidmar were in the running for the Rock Award, while Johanna Ernst and Anna Stöhr were gunning for the Comp prize.

Packed crowd which went wild. Wow. We need to attend this crazy function next year. Via RockMaster.

Woah, talk about the power of the keyboard. Those of you following eBomb's trashing of the brand positioning of Eddie Bauer's First Ascent gear might be interested in Eddie Bauer's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing today. And for those of you that question eBomb's ability to bring companies crashing down with his acerbic posts, question no longer. North Face, here comes eBomb. Also, for those of you wondering if we would actually get paid for the Eddie Bauer ad campaign on our site, you have your answer. Karma's a bitch as the cliche goes. Hopefully Viesturs and company got paid up front:

Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, sending its shares down 28.9 percent.  The filing, made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, is the second bankruptcy for the company, which was started as a sport shop in 1920 in Seattle by its namesake.  According to the court filing, the outdoor apparel retailer is planning to sell nearly all its assets to Rainier Holdings LLC. Its board has also received a limited guarantee from two affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors LLC on some of the buyer's payment obligations.  The company blamed its debt load, citing concern it might not be able to comply with conditions attached to its $225 million senior term loan facility..

For the Eddie Bauer lovers out there, do not dispair. If you follow this industry at all, you know that these brands never disappear. They get picked up for a song (North Face was bought for what, $20M in bankruptcy?), folded into larger companies, and pimped out like the Gosselin children. In this case, aptly named Rainier Holdings of Seattle has bought them. Nice. Clear the debt, wait for the economy to bounce back, flip it for 5x.

Ripped from today's headlines, a true Darwin award winner:

A would-be thief learned the hard way over the weekend that some businesses aren't exactly as they appear.

Two men working an overnight shift at Black Diamond Equipment, 2084 E. 3900 South, were surprised to find another man walking through their business about 3 a.m. Saturday, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson.

Hutson said the man produced an ice pick and told the employees, "Give me your precious metals and the money."

It took a moment, but the employees quickly realized the man had walked into Black Diamond expecting to find real diamonds and other expensive gems.

When the employees explained that their store, which sells rock-climbing and recreation gear, did not have any of those items, the man then demanded "anything of value," Hutson said.

The man took several computers, hooks used by climbers and other random items that he apparently thought might have value. The Polynesian man was between 20 and 30 years old and about 6 feet 3 inches tall, with a shaved head and a heavily tattooed right arm, Hutson said. He was last seen wearing khaki pants and a red shirt.

Should have asked for a couple of Bibler tents. They're worth their weight in gold, almost. Via Deseret News.