I have been extremely happy with the overwhelmingly positive response I have received after releasing The Tunnels. I had no clue so many people would care for my first episode from the Santa Monica Mountains. The support has been an inspiration and confidence booster that I really needed!
I cannot wait to get back out there and start working on the next episode. I am expecting to start shooting on sites that my friends and I had a part in developing in the last 10 years. I am setting the intention to start to create a narrative of that process and sharing what inspirations we have found in the creeks of the Santa Monica Mountains. If all goes smoothly, shooting will start towards the end of this month and hopefully will have the next episode out sometime in summer!!
The Tunnels Climbing Daily Interview!!!
Kody Shutt piecing together Hug of War V10
Last Saturday was a long day. Kerim and I woke up at dawn and made the 3 hour drive from north Los Angeles up to Black Mountain. We made it up to campsites 4-5 just as some of friends, who spent the night, were waking up. We spent first half the day in and around the camp and then spent the second half the day with My brother and the Sender One crew. Bouldering at Black Mountain is incredible and I want to share the beauty I see in it with everyone. On top of the Santa Monica Mountains project, I am going to start filming and making shorts of Black as well! Expect more to come in the future
My brother, Morgan on Ok Arete circa 2009
The new guide book is so impressively well done and made me reflect on the first time I went up there. When my crew of friends first started going up to Black Mountain about 6 years ago, the only PDFs we could find were from Dr.Topo and we had printed them out and drove up into the mountains. Those days were met with frustrations of getting lost, shut down on climbs that were outside of our capabilities at the times (and absolutely sandbagged) and feeling zapped of all energy after a half day of climbing because of altitude. We persisted over time and continue to frequent the still up and coming bouldering capital (in my opinion) of Southern California. My hats off to the authors(Ian McIntosh and Alan Moore) of the guidebook!