• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, August 8, 2011

There are intriguing stories out there this morning about two international brands that heretofore I've been only vaguely aware of -- one struggling, the other growing; one high-end, the other decidedly low.

In "A Handful of Maybachs Isn't Enough," the Wall Street Journal's Vanessa Fuhrmans reports that there evidently aren't enough nouveau-riche hip-hop moguls around to purchase Mercedes' super-luxury limo. It's a solution to a problem that only a couple of hundred or so folks seem to have every year: What do we do with that spare $375,250 (and upwards).

Over at the New York Times, meanwhile, Stephanie Clifford writes about Pret a Manger, a British fast-food joint where customer service reigns supreme -- even in an outlet in Manhattan. In search of its secret sauce, she talks to a Stanford business professor who applauds its "holistic" approach to motivating employees and travels to London for a chat with the CEO of the chain, whose goal is to serve customers within 60 seconds.

But what really caught my eye this morning were a couple more stories about the growing popularity of as basic a sporting activity as fleeing stampeding wooly mammoths: Bouldering. As I learned in a piece Louise Story wrote in the New York Times last week, it may be coming to an Olympics near you (it's on the short list for 2020).

Bouldering is the sport of climbing difficult rock formations that are generally no higher than 18 feet. Basic equipment consists of shoes, something to keep your fingers dry and a mattress, or "crash pad," you place underneath the area you are ascending. In the likely event that you find yourself rapidly descending, they can be lifesavers. The more popular types of climbing -- sport and traditional -- rely on ropes. Crash pads range from $150 to $350 on bouldering.com.

The Outdoor Industry Association tells Story that 4.7 million to 6.9 million people already participate in some sort of climbing in the United States. And indoors, the Climbing Wall Association reports "600 climbing-specific gyms and thousands of climbing walls within larger facilities and camps."

"Eastern Mountain Sports says its sales of crash pads for bouldering have grown about 15% in the last year," Story writes. "And sales of rock climbing shoes have grown 70% over five years while sales of ropes and other gear used only for traditional climbing grew 40% in that time."

The Internet was made for a sport like bouldering. People post videos of their triumphs and compare notes on challenging venues such as the Norwegian coastline, where Story's dateline originates, the Gunks in New York, Fontainebleau in France and South Africa's "rock farms," which happens to be the subject of a story by Reuters' Anton Ferreira this morning.

"When I bought the farm, I thought 'what can I do with all these rocks?' says Thys Kruger, owner of De Pakhuys outside Clanwilliam, South Africa. "Now I'm farming the rocks."

Kruger's place is one of a half dozen farms offering no-frills accommodation for climbers in the area, and it's popular particularly when summer comes to the northern hemisphere. Sweaty fingers don't fare so well in crevices and other grip holds, it seems.

"Climbers start conquering a boulder at ground level, searching for cracks and ledges that will provide finger- and footholds," Ferreira explains. "A typical boulder 'problem' takes little more than a minute or two to complete." But the gymnastic moves involved in solving it can be grueling.

"Sometimes, I wake up sore and I think, God, all I did was two moves today, but I'm ruined," Beth Rodden, a 31-year-old professional climber tells Story.

Kruger expects more than 500 climbers this year, up from 34 in 2004. "Some of the top guys in the world climb here," he says.

One of the top female climbers in the world is an 18 year old who recently graduated from high school in Alexandria, Va., Tom Jackman blogs at the Washington Post site this morning. Sasha DiGiulian won rock climbing's world championship event in Italy last month, was in Austria last week for the "Adidas Rockstars Event," then in Salt Lake City over the weekend for a promotional event. Now she's presumably back in Austria. No wonder she's deferring entrance to Columbia for a year.

If you've got the itch, you should know that "most rock climbing competitions are held on artificial walls so that none of the competitors have the advantage of having seen or climbed the routes before," as Jackman reports. But it's really not about the gold medals, is it?

"Climbing is something I see myself doing for the rest of my life," DiGiulian says. "I certainly don't see myself competing all my life; however, the beauty of climbing is that it doesn't have to be competitive -- you can climb as just a hobby or to stay fit."