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This is a list of all the latest news and happenings at all six Touchstone Facilities. This blog also contains general information about Rock Climbing, Cycling and other items that Touchstone members may find interesting. Wednesday, June 3, 2009Lightning Safety for Climbers: Stay Safe Tis the season for some impressive summer storms, and we all know that alongside massive thunder, those summer storms can bring about some extremely impressive, and extremely deadly lightning strikes. As climbers, anytime we climb outdoors in a storm, we are in jeopardy. The good news is there are things we can do to reduce our risk of getting struck. As always, check out the full article for some more in-depth analysis and reasoning, but now for brevity's sake, here are the top 8 tips for avoiding that summer lightning while climbing this year:
Stay Safe this year! (image via allposters.com) Labels: climbing, Climbing Safety, Lightning, Outdoor Rock Climbing Tuesday, May 12, 2009HD Climbing Show Coming to National Geographic Channel? Rumors are stirring, and for the first time it's the kind of rumor we'd actually like to see come true! We just caught wind of a rumor that a climbing show might be coming to the National Geographic channel in HD! Looks like it is a bit more than a rumor as ClimbingNarc.com found out some information that there is indeed a climbing show being finalized, the only problem is, no U.S. network has been chosen to pick it up and air it. Yet. According to Sender Films, they are working on a climbing series that is based on the movie "First Ascent" and they hope to begin airing it sometime this summer. If all goes according to plan, the series will be a six-parter and will follow some of the top climbs and climbers. Here's what they had to say: "We are currently polishing off the first two episodes. The first documents Chris Sharma’s latest 5.15 efforts in Spain and Clark Mountain, created in close collaboration with Big Up Productions. The second follows Renan Ozturk, Cedar Wright and Sean Leary on an epic trip to South America in honor of the great Roberta Nunes. We are going to be cranking all through the summer shooting and editing these and four other shows from Alaska to The Himalayas. First Ascent will be airing on Nat Geo’s international channels later this year."I don't know about you, but I can't wait for a U.S. network to pick this up. It's time Climbing got the popularity it deserved. Labels: climbing, ClimbingNarc, National Geographic, Rock climbing, Television Tuesday, May 5, 2009Bolts Being Removed from Tahoe Landmark If you've ever climbed in or around Lake Tahoe, you're most likely familiar with the huge rock formation that in the past, has been a popular climbing spot. You're likely also familiar that it's been about a year since climbing was officially banned after "a decade of legal battles involving the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, and the Access Fund, a Boulder, Colo.-based advocacy group for rock climbers." To make a long story short, the Washoe Tribe won and climbing was banned. As such, the official removal of the climbing bolts has now begun, and looks to take about a month to complete, weather depending. The debate between the two groups was a long and intense one, and according to reports, all centered around the following: "According to Washoe lore, Cave Rock was a sacred place where tribal elders communed with powerful spirits...The Access Fund maintained the ban was unconstitutional because it gave a religious groupo exclusive control over public property. " Nevertheless, climbing is now banned, so if you were a fan of Tahoe climbing, it's time to set your sights elsewhere. (image via alpinist.com) Labels: Cave Rock, climbing, Climbing Ban, Lake Tahoe Thursday, April 30, 20095 Prime Climbing Destinations We're sneaking up on the season of vacations...schools are about to be letting out for Summer, you might have a few weeks of free time saved up from work, so really the only question that remains is where to go, and when. After reading the article we just found, you might be changing your plans, and re-routing your GPS. That's right, we just found a great report on 5 different locations that are prime spots if you love to climb. Some of them aren't your typical vacation destinations, but if it's the climbing you're after, you can't do much better than these 5 places. Check out the Top 5:
(image via utahhikes.com) Labels: climbing, Locations, Outdoor Rock Climbing, Top 5, Vacation Monday, April 27, 2009Sacramento Pipeworks Gets Great Testimonial Welcome back to the work week. Monday kicks off with Sacramento Pipeworks getting a great testimonial from a community group they recently hosted in their gym. Looks like everyone had a great time and most importantly, a whole lot was learned by all. The group, called SKYLAB, is a community group that strives to better the lives of youth by giving them a safe harbor to figure out exactly who they are. According to the testimonial they sent, SKYLAB "believes that youth are valuable assets with important ideas, and therefore seeks to provide a safe, creative, nurturing space in which children can pursue their own interests as well as work together to ask questions and present creative solutions to community problems." We couldn't agree more and all of us at Touchstone Climbing agree that children are the most valuable assets. At any rate, here's what some of the kids had to say:
Labels: climbing, Community Group, kids, Sacramento Pipeworks, SKYLAB Monday, April 20, 2009Earth Day Clean-Up Day April 25! Short notice on this one, but nevertheless if you're in or around the Sacramento area, this is an event you won't want to miss for a variety of reasons. On Saturday, April 25th, there is a clean-up going on very near the Auburn Quarry. In case you didn't know, climbing is currently banned at the Quarry and event sponsors CRAGS (Climbing Resource Advocates for Greater Sacramento) are trying hard to get that changed. Bottom line, a clean-up is a great way to show some very important goodwill at the same time doing something very good for this planet of ours. Here is some more information, but make sure to leave your schedules open this Saturday, April 25th from 8:00 am til 1:00 pm. Here you go: Earth Day 2009 American River Clean-up We hope to see you there! Labels: American River Clean-Up, Charity, climbing, Earth Day, Sacramento Pipeworks, The Quarry Thursday, April 16, 2009Climbing and Yoga Injury Clinic @ Mission Cliffs Here's a quick heads up about an awesome free member event that is taking place this Sunday, April 19th from 2-4pm at our Mission Cliffs location. If you're in or around the area, we highly suggest dropping in for this clinic, you can learn a lot and I'm pretty sure everyone will benefit from it greatly. So, this Sunday, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm we will be having a Climbing and Yoga Injury Clinic that will help you learn exactly how to avoid common climbing and yoga related injuries. Check out the official info about the event: Focus on Lower Back, Hip and Knee Injuries Bottom line, if you're in the area, stop in and check it out. Injuries are annoying no matter when, where or why you get them, so the more you can learn to avoid them, the better off you'll be. Your body will thank you, and when you're able to spend more days doing the things you love, and less days recovering, you'll thank us. Labels: climbing, Clinic, event, Injury Prevention, mission cliffs, Yoga, Yoga Classes Friday, April 10, 2009Climbing Clip of the Week: Homemade Climbing Wall
Yesterday, we mentioned that if you have a room or garage in your home that isn't getting much use, maybe a good idea would be to spend some bucks and convert it to a homemade, DIY indoor climbing or bouldering wall that can help you practice anytime you're outside of the gym. Today, I just so happened to find a video of a guy that did exactly that and with great results.
Granted you might not have as much space as the guy in this video, it does show what's possible with a few pieces of plywood and some great holds. Watch his wall, watch him climb on it, and get inspired to make something like it for your Own home. Have a great weekend, see you back here bright and early Monday morning! Labels: Bouldering, climbing, Climbing Clip of the Week, DIY Ideas, Home Thursday, April 9, 2009Empty Space In Your House? Build A Bouldering Wall! Do you have empty space in your house, whether it's an unfinished basement, a garage you don't use or a family room that never actually sees your family? How about converting it into a mini-climbing or bouldering wall? What better way to keep up on practicing when you're not inside the climbing gym, whichever Touchstone Climbing location you frequent, than doing some climbing and practicing at home? I just read an article about a family that did exactly that, converted their unused space in their home to a bouldering wall and filled the walls and ceilings with holds and even made their own routes. What better way to stay fit, practice your climbing skills and have FUN while you're not able to be in the gym? According to the article, the Dad of the family, Kevin did all of the work himself: "Kevin, a handy man, installed plywood around three walls (the fourth wall is a mirror) and part of the ceiling, added "holds" or fake rocks made of resin that he found on eBay and Craigslist and threw a few mats on the floor."Head over and check out the article, maybe it will inspire you to whip up your own mini-bouldering wall in your own home. (image via journalnow.com) Labels: Bouldering, climbing, DIY Ideas, Home, Practice Friday, March 6, 2009Climbing Clip of the Week: Ethan Pringle
In honor of the upcoming "Advanced Lead Clinic" taught by the extremely talented Ethan Pringle this Sunday, we decided that this week, our "Climbing Clip of the Week" should be of the man himself.
So, for this weeks Climbing Clip, check out this gem we stumbled across on YouTube. It's Ethan Pringle on the second ascent of a 35 foot Kevin Jorgeson climb in Bishop, CA. It's amazing to see the technique and finesse. At any rate, check it out, then if you're signed up for his Advanced Lead Clinic, we'll see you at Mission Cliffs on Sunday from 7:30 - 9:30pm. Labels: climbing, Climbing Clip of the Week, Climbing Video, Ethan Pringle Thursday, February 19, 2009Great Testimonials From Recent Sacramento Pipeworks Community Group Sacramento Pipeworks recently hosted a community group, Options for Youth, at our gym and we were fortunate enough to hear back from them with a photo and a testimonial.  The students came and had a day of climbing at Pipeworks and the day was such a success that it looks like they signed up for one day a month of climbing excursions. Check out the letter we received from Brad Astin, the Master Teacher at Options for Youth: "I wanted to thank you for having our students come climb at Pipeworks. We had class with the students yesterday and they were very excited about the last climbing trip and pumped to hear that we expanded the dates to one per month for future climbing outings. They are already talking about how they are going to climb harder routes! Going into the first climbing outing many of the students were unsure of themselves and how they would perform on the wall. Now all they are much more confident and looking forward to the next challenge. This confidence is carrying over into the classroom as well. These students are more outspoken and participate more in class discussions than they had before. We have also seen increased teamwork and academic performance from these students as well. They know that climbing and participating in the Outdoor Experience program is a privilege and they are taking the responsibility very seriously. Thank you very much for your involvement with our students and our program. We look forward to a continued relationship with Pipeworks." We were happy to have you and look forward to seeing you again in the future! Labels: climbing, community, Community Group, Groups, Options for Youth, Sacramento Pipeworks Monday, February 16, 2009Measure Your Ape Index @ Diablo Rock Gym Did you know that in climbing, the more Ape you are, the better? That's right, your ape index actually says a lot. If you've never heard of an ape index, don't worry, you're not the first, and you certainly won't be the last. Here's a quick update to let you know that for the entire month of February at Diablo Rock Gym we have an interactive art project going on that helps you measure your ape index. Now, a quick primer: "Ever wondered what your Ape Index is? Well this month at the DRG you can find out what it is and see how you compare to other climbers. The Ape Index is an informal measure of one's armspan relative to height. Among rock climbers it is seen as desirable to have an arm span that exceeds one's height. Your ape index can be calculated by the subtracting your height from your armspan. The greater the number, the higher your ape index. So come on down and measure yours today - While you still can! " So if you're in the area head in and get measured, if you're a member, take a few minutes after your next climb or workout and log your ape index. See how you all stack up. Labels: Ape Index, Artist of the Month, climbing, Diablo Rock Gym, Interactive Project Thursday, February 5, 2009New Members: Bouldering Safety & How To Fall The new year always brings a lot of new faces in the gym and as such, we thought it would be a good time to remind everyone of some basic bouldering safety. The main thing you need to know, right off the bat before you start climbing, is the easiest to learn: How To Fall. That's right, many people get injured by falling, and landing improperly while bouldering.Here are the basics: The article mentions that you should always scout out your landing area before beginning any bouldering problems. Keep this extra little tip in mind: "Except in cases where an obstacle looms immediately behind you (e.g. a wall, person, etc.), there is seldom a reason to remain on your feet. Posting your arm behind you can potentially dislocate or break your elbow, wrist, or shoulder. Also take care when rolling forward, as whacking your head on your knees or the wall will reduce your debonair appearance." Labels: Bouldering, climbing, How To Fall, New Members, Safety Tuesday, February 3, 2009TBS4 At Sacramento Pipeworks In case you missed the comp last Friday in Sacramento, here is a brief recap of all the in's and out's of what occurred at this year's TBS4 held at Sacramento Pipeworks. By all accounts it was a very successful competition and it makes us even more excited for our next event, to be held at Diablo Rock Gym on Friday, February 20th, so start planning now!Here's a bit of what you missed: Held Friday January 23rd from 6-10pm. The 64 climbing problems ranged in difficulty from V0 to V11. 165 competitors from Sacramento, Davis and all over the bay area turned in score cards and were treated to pizza and beer. Prizes raffled at the end included t-shirts, climbing chalk, bouldering brushes, magazines, bouldering guides, chalk bags, coffee mugs and Touchstone water bottles. While scores were being tallied, the crowd was entertained by a slackline competition and a ro-sham-bo (rock, paper and scissors) championship.Thanks for everyone who participated, competed and enjoyed. It's always a great time. Labels: climbing, Competition, Sacramento Pipeworks, TBS4, Touchstone Climbing Friday, January 30, 2009Climbing App for your iPhone! If you're the type of climber that likes to keep track of every single detail of your climbs, your work-outs and your daily climb related fitness endeavors, we just found the perfect iPhone application for you. While none of us have actually tested the app, called SprayCaster, it does look like it might offer a few promising features. According to the article I read: "The way the app works is that you can log each route you climb, indicating whether it was done on lead or not as well as if you onsighted/flashed or simply redpointed. Based on the criteria entered for each route, a score is assigned to indicate the overall effort associated with whatever it is that you did...Once you save the climbs, you can go back and view the log for an individual day in your history. The basic premise is that you should be able to easily compare your training days based on the score the app has assigned to each day." Interested? Check it out and report back to us if you like it or hate it. Use something else? We're all ears...sound off and let us know.  Labels: App, climbing, Iphone, iPhone App, Technology Thursday, January 29, 2009Nicros Training's Three Cornerstones of Training I just found something I thought was both interesting and useful for all of you out there interested in learning more about training, training techniques and some of the foundations of good, solid training. Eric Hörst has been recognized as an authority on climbing performance for a long time now, so when has ideas about how to train smarter, harder and more efficiently, I listen. Anyhow, I just found his 3 "cornerstone training principles" that were spot on, so I thought I'd share them with you. Head over and check out what else he has to say, but for now, here are some of his thoughts: "Individualization Labels: climbing, Eric Hörst, fitness, Training Tuesday, January 27, 2009Mission Cliffs Featured in "The View from the Bay" Mission Cliff was just featured on a popular San Francisco television show "The View from the Bay" that airs on the local ABC channel. Looks like they got some great footage, some great interviews and it's nice to see Mission Cliffs getting the recognition it deserves.Those on the show sent over Leigh Glaser to Mission Cliffs and let her do a little bit of climbing and filming. The segment highlighted not only our climbing and fitness programs, but also our kids programs, birthday parties and after-school camps. The video is entertaining, so head over and check it out. Thanks again all of you on "The View from the Bay," it was great to see this. They also had a bit of information I thought I'd relay for any and all of you interested in the after-school climbing we offer: After School Climbing Labels: climbing, mission cliffs, Television, The View from the Bay, Touchstone Climbing Monday, January 26, 2009King Students Climb @ Berkeley Ironworks This past December, Berkeley Ironworks was happy to host a group of four students from King Middle School and it just recently came to our attention that they put up a great testimonial to the outing on the Hayward Unified School District website.The four students that were selected for the day trip were chosen "by making commitments towards positive change as students and citizens of their school and community." They all got the full lay of the land once inside Berkeley Ironworks and all showed some great promise on the climbing walls. At any rate, head over and check out the testimonial on their site. I'm sure we'll be playing host to other events like this in the future, so stay tuned.   Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, Education, Hayward California, Testimonial, Unified school district Thursday, January 8, 2009New Core Class @ GWPC Hey all you Great Western Power Co. fans, this one is aimed DIRECTLY at you. As I've mentioned, we're officially into 2009, and I've decided this is the year we're going to get each and every one of you into the best shape of your lives. Ready to join me? That said, for any and all of you Great Western Power Co. members, potential members, or even just people that have always Wanted to be members, now is the time to join up. We have a new Core Class that is guaranteed to whip you into healthy shape. Don't believe me? Check out this Course intro and a bit about our instructor...trust me, you'll buy it after you read, and see who's teaching: High Energy Core and Flexibility Class About Isabel: Isabel von Rittberg has been climbing since 2001, and has been dancing her whole life. Extremely stimulated by all kinds of movement, she includes stretching and a core strengthening workout into her daily routine. Climbing has become Isabel's main drive and spiritual inspiration. It allows her to work proficiently, be attentive, and feel alive. Isabel has combined her passions for climbing, music, and dance by starting her own dance-climb fusion company, the AscenDance Project. Her group conveys the grace and fluidity of a climber's delicate yet powerful movement. The time is now, stop in, sign up and get to work! The Class starts in February and will be every Thursday from 6-7pm. IF you want a little sample of what you're getting yourself into, there will be a Demo Class this January 22 at 6pm. What have you got to lose?!  Labels: climbing, Core Class, Great Western Power Co., GWPC, Isabel, New Class Monday, January 5, 2009Every Year: Holidays Lead To Fitness Goals I just read an article that absolutely hits the nail on the head this fine Monday Morning. Lets face it, we're officially back into the swing of things now, the Holiday Season is over, the gifts have all been opened, the fudge has all been eaten, and the turkey is just about through making us extremely tired. Just like clockwork, this time of year every single year leads to hundreds of thousands of people all collectively sighing, feeling their Holiday stomachs and saying, "I've got to lose weight." I don't know if it is the culmination of all of the Halloween candy, the Turkey and Stuffing, the Christmas Ham, the cinnamon rolls, or the Christmas cookies, but there is something about January 2-6th that should be named a National "I Should Lose Weight" holiday. That said, this year is most likely no exception, and as such we're here to help. I mentioned it last week and I'll mention it again: If you're looking to get back into shape, stay in shape, or get into a new kind of shape you've never been in, there are few better ways than climbing, and there are few better ways than joining a community of people that are all looking to do the exact same thing. Think of it this way, if you go it alone and skip a workout, who, besides yourself, are you letting down? No one. Now, if you have a group of friends/family/co-workers that all count on you to work out with them each day at the same place, how much more difficult will it be to call in sick for a workout? See my point? Climbing, as you might now, is an amazing, full body workout that can do wonders for not only your body, but your mind as well. If you've never tried it, now is the time, and again, with no initiation fees this January, do you really have any excuses left for why you're NOT here with us? We have a lot of gyms, one is almost certainly in your immediate area, what do you have to lose (except all that holiday weight)? Stop in, check us out, take us for a test drive, I guarantee you'll come back for more. Stop in, talk to us, you'll be glad you did! (image via sunlightsaunas)  Labels: climbing, No Initiation Fee, Touchstone Climbing, Weight loss Friday, December 12, 2008Climbing Clip of the Week: Berkeley Ironworks!
While prowling around the ol' WWW, I just so happened to find something extremely cool and extremely relevant for this weeks Climbing Clip of the Week! That's right, I found a video on YouTube that is none other than our very own Berkeley Ironworks!
The video shows a whole lot of climbing all over the gym, shows some of the routes you can take, and just generally makes me happy seeing ol' Berkeley Ironworks! Check out the awesome climbing at the awesome gym, then head over there yourself if you're in the area! We'd love to have you!  Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, Climbing Clip of the Week, YouTube Thursday, December 11, 2008Cave Built With a Knife Saves Climber Today, on this fine Thursday morning, I wanted to share with you an awesome news story that just goes to show how strong our survival instincts can be, and how MacGyver each one of us can be when our backs are against the wall! I just read an article about a climber that literally saved his own life by digging a snow cave using nothing but a knife and a ball point pen. According to the article: "He was unable to use his climbing axe which was buried under a metre of snow. With the tent buried under the snow, his friend had been unable to find his boots when he crawled out...Mr Hideaki said it took him hours to dig a small snow cave with a knife and ballpoint pen. After he managed to dig the cave he curled up in it. It was only big enough to partially protect both of them. His friend chose to remain outside two to three metres away in his sleeping bag where he could lie outstretched."That decision would prove to be fatal for his climbing partner and guide. As they checked each other every few hours, finally they slept until sunrise at which point his partner did not wake. I can't imagine what he's going through right now, but the sheer fact that he literally saved himself using nothing more than his own pocket knife and a ball point pen shines so much light on the human spirit. This accident took place in a location I am familiar with and have been to, Mt. Cook in New Zealand. We all wish you well Mr. Hideaki, and we applaud your spirit. (Image via Pat Leahy on Flickr)  Labels: Aoraki/Mount Cook, climbing, Climbing News, New Zealand, Survival Friday, December 5, 2008Climbing Clip of the Week: Manaslu Expedition
Just this Monday I mentioned how one of our very own members, Tom McMillan recently returned from an epic climb of Manaslu in Nepal. The pictures really got me excited, really got me jealous and really made me want to see more of not only Nepal, but of Manaslu itself.
My jealousy and excitement leads to this week's Climbing Clip of the Week! Not only do we get to see more of Manaslu, we get to see an entire expedition, from start to finish in 6 full parts. I'm only posting part 1 here, but if you are interested and want to check out the whole saga, feel free! This is also a call to arms, as it were, for all you readers of this fine blog. We want to feature more of YOU on our Climbing Clip of the Week! Let's use it as a forum to show off, to brag, to learn, and to highlight just how awesome Touchstone Climbers are! If you have videos, slideshows, or anything else of you and yours getting out there and climbing, send them in! Send us links, emails, or whatever you need to do to get featured on here!  Labels: climbing, Climbing Clip of the Week, Manaslu, Tom McMillan, touchstone Thursday, December 4, 2008Evolv Shoe Demo's Next Week! There might be some hardcore purists that don't need any fancy shoes or equipment to climb quickly and efficiently, but I my friends, am not one of them. I love climbing shoes, I love the grip it gives, I love the comfort, and I love the confidence. That said, I have some pretty awesome news for you all!This coming week, at each Touchstone Climbing Gym will host a Demo Day for Evolv Sports, makers of some of the finest climbing shoes in the biz. The demo's will go from 6-8PM each night, and each night they'll be at a different gym. This is a chance for anyone to try on shoes from Evolv to see which ones they like, which size they should get, or which style fits best. I'm not sure what all shoes they are bringing, but this is an event you should not miss. Keep in mind one important thing: ANY shoe you want, we can special order it for you, regardless if we carry it on a regular basis or not. At any rate, here is the schedule, don't miss out at your local gym! All Demo's are from 6-8PM Monday, December 8 - Great Western Power Co. Tuesday, December 9 - Sacramento Pipeworks Wednesday, December 10 - Berkeley IronWorks Thursday, December 11 - Diablo Rock Gym Friday, December 12 - Mission Cliffs Update: Evolv Sports decided to give us a great deal to offer our members! How does 15% off ANY Evolv Shoes purchased the night of the demo sound?! Yes, that includes special orders! Don't miss out on this great deal! Labels: climbing, Climbing shoe, Demo, Evolv Sports, Indoor, Shoes Tuesday, November 18, 2008Great Western Power Co. Bouldering Area Closed Wednesday Hey all you Great Western Power Company fans and big time boulderers...is boulderers a word? At any rate, this one is for all of you to serve as a gentle reminder that a very big, very cool event is rapidly approaching and as such, is going to cause a few closures Wednesday. That's right, the FOURTH, yes 4th Touchstone Bouldering Series is coming up this Friday! To prepare for the event the Bouldering Area of GWPC is going to be closed starting Wednesday and continuing until the competition ends. Here's what our good friend Lyn Verinsky, General Manager of Great Western Power Company, has to say about the forthcoming event: "Can you believe it’s the FOURTH season of the Touchstone Bouldering Series?! GW is kicking things off in November with lots of climbing, food, and beverages. We’ll raffle off a few goodies and make sure everyone has a great night with all their climbing buddies." So, prepare yourselves for Friday if you're in the area, and if not, at the very least we're giving you a nice little reminder that the bouldering area will be closed for a few days. Sorry for the inconvenience, but trust us, it's worth it! (Image via UTomJording on Flickr)  Labels: Bouldering, climbing, Closures, Great Western Power Co. TBS4, Rock Climb Friday, November 14, 2008Climbing Clip of the Week
Hello and Happy Friday! We made it, it's the weekend again and man have we earned it. To help you celebrate the end of another work week, I decided this week's Climbing Clip of the Week is somewhere I think each and every one of us wishes we could run away to...right now.
The clip is of some AMAZING "Deep Water Soloing" in Thailand. I don't know if it's the color of the water, the beautiful rock cliffs, or the quality of the climbing, but this is rapidly becoming one of my more favorite climbing clips. I want to be in Thailand, now. This is also a call to arms...if you have any climbing videos or clips you want featured, please, please send them in, send us links, send is YouTube videos, whatever. We'd love nothing more than to feature YOU, our faithful climbers, on this very site. At any rate, enjoy the video and we'll see you bright and early Monday morning! Get climbing!  Labels: climbing, Climbing Clip of the Week, Climbing Video, Deep-water soloing, Recreation, Rock climbing, Video clip Thursday, November 13, 2008Full Lung Capacity Benefit a HUGE Success! A few weeks ago, October 23, to be exact, we mentioned an extremely important event that we wanted as many people as possible to know about. The Full Lung Capacity Benefit, for Rowan Jimenez was a chance for all of us to give back to one of our own. The event was November 1st and has come and gone. The news I want to share with all of you is this: It was a MASSIVE success! All of YOU made the Benefit far greater than we could have imagined, and for that, Thank You!We got an email and we thought we had to share it, to help show you just how wild a success the Full Lung Capacity Benefit was. Try this on for size my friends, straight from Chris Bloch: "The Full Lung Capacity Bouldering Benefit was a great success, bringing in over 300 supporters, 178 who climbed in the bouldering competition, and the rest participatied in the acro yoga workshop, or just came to support Rowan and party. We raised $15,600 for Rowan’s transplant fund, and came together as a community to help a friend in need. There was an amazing outpouring of positive energy all night long...I have organized, set routes, or competed in over 200 climbing events in the past 14 or so years, from the ESPN X-Games, to countless local bouldering events here in the Bay Area. This event was by far the most positive, least stressful (really), and most enjoyable event I have been involved with. I was hoping for a good turnout, and was a bit worried with the weather the way it was, but the event far exceeded my expectations. I heard positive things from everyone I talked to, and the energy in the gym was amazing. The whole night was a testament to how many lives Rowan has touched, how our community of climbers can come together to support a friend in need, and how teamwork, hard work, and dedication can make a difference."  I'm proud of everyone! For all of you that couldn't make it, fear not, there is a photo album up with every single photo you missed at this awesome event! Head over, check them out and be proud that we as a climbing community came together for such an awesome cause!  Labels: Benefit, Bouldering, climbing, Full Lung Capacity, Rowan Jimenez Tuesday, November 11, 2008Non-Stop Sweet Climbing Videos...For Free?! I don't know about you, but when I can't be actually climbing, few things make me feel better than watching other people climb. Why there aren't more channels on Digital Cable or Direct TV that are dedicated to rock climbing, be it indoor or outdoor, is beyond me. Personally, I think we should rally together, and get ESPN to release something like ESPN 7 - Climbing. Ahh, one can dream. Until that day, however, I do have some ridiculously good news. How about trying this on for size: Free Climbing Videos. Free AMAZING climbing videos. How amazing? How about the fact that they USED to cost money and the service Used to be a subscription service, but now, they are free. The site, MomentumVM used to charge people just to get in the doors and now, you can sign up, sign in and start watching as many videos as you want, at no charge. That, is awesome. According to them, it was the support of advertisers that made it all possible. For us, it simply means their MASSIVE archives of climbing videos has just been opened for us to frolic in. Sweet. So, if you can't get to the climbing gyms today, at the very least head over and start watching some videos to tide you over. Can't think of many better ways to spend my day!  Labels: climbing, Free, Indoor, Rock Climb, Video clip, Videos Friday, November 7, 2008Climbing Clip of the Week: New Feature
Happy Friday! Hopefully you have a weekend packed full of climbing, fitness, and some outdoor activities all planned out! You made it through the work week and that is an accomplishment in and of it self!
I thought it'd be cool to start a new feature to the blog, every Friday offer up a new climbing video clip showing someone doing something we all love! I'm going to need your help on this, faithful readers, so if you have any videos or photos that you'd love to see featured on this new Friday feature, do not hesitate to send them into us! Maybe yours will be our Climbing Clip of the Week! Why not show off your exploits, brag to your friends, and let the Internets see how awesome you reallly are. To kick things off, check out this clip of Chris Sharma at the 2008 Climbing Nationals. You'll get to see a lot of awesome climbing, and a huge surprise at the end. Check it out, submit your videos in to us, and have a great weekend!  Labels: Chris Sharma, climbing, Indoor climbing, Video clip Tuesday, November 4, 2008Shoe Demos At Our Gyms! Yesterday we talked about the variety of climbing shoes we carry, endorse and love, today, I'm here to tell you that if you're not ready to buy just yet, we have Demo Days THIS week that will allow you to test them out, climb in them, and get the feel for them! That's right, you shouldn't buy before you try, so we're having Shoe Demos at Touchstone Climbing Gyms! Here are the basics and the things You need to know for our demos, starting with the schedule. Schedule Monday- Nov 3 @GWPC Tuesday- Nov 4 @Mission Cliffs Wed- Nov 5 @ Diablo Rock Gym Thursday- Nov 6 @ Berkeley Ironworks Friday- Nov 7 @ Sacramento Pipeworks * Demo Time 6-8 pm * Try out a variety of shoes including the prisms, jet7, 5x, Verde, V Mile, Ana Blanco and the Women’s Gambits * We can special order any model * Members receive 10% off All these awesome discounts just for being a member. Don't you love it?! So again, try before you buy, get into the Demo Days  Labels: climbing, Climbing shoe, Indoor climbing, Recreation, Rock Climb Monday, November 3, 2008Climbing Shoes at Touchstone Climbing! Happy Monday and here's hoping that your Halloween was amazing! Hopefully this post does not find you in complete diabetic shock from all the sugar, costumes and festivities. That said, it's time to get back on track and start climbing our healthy little butts off. I thought I'd start things this week with a brief reminder that we have a TON of awesome climbing shoes on sale at all of our climbing gyms. A few things to keep in mind before I get into some of the different shoes we sell:
Five TenBasically, we have something for everyone, and the time is now to get into this! Get some gear, get started, and let us help you along your way!
 Labels: climbing, Climbing shoe, Clothing, Indoor climbing, Shoe Wednesday, October 29, 2008Crash Pads For Sale! It doesn't matter if you're brand new to the sport of climbing or bouldering, or a seasoned veteran, we all know that when it comes to climbing, falls are a simple, often painful, constant. The bad news is, it will always be a constant, the good news, it doesn't always have to be painful! If you've ever been to a climbing gym, one of the first things you'll likely notice are crash pads. Any slip, tumble or fall can be transformed from a nasty, potentially career or sport-ending fall into something to laugh about, learn from, and advance yourself further into climbing. Bottom line, if you're a serious climber, or serious about becoming a serious climber, you need your own crash pads for your own bouldering needs! I have some great news: Touchstone Climbing offers crash pads, and you can special order any pad you want from all of the companies we deal with if we don't happen to have the one you want in stock. The better news is, in our special ordering we can get different sizes and colors if we don't have the exact one you want. The BEST news is that as a member of Touchstone Climbing, you get 10% off your order! The prices range from about $135 up to $370 for the top-of-the-line. We offer the best of the best when it comes to crash pads, including Voodoo, Moon, Organic, Metoulius and Black Diamond pads! Be smart, invest in some pads so your climbing and bouldering days can continue long into the future.  Labels: Bouldering, climbing, Crash Pads, members, Sale Monday, October 27, 2008Clinic: How To Perform Your BEST in Climbing! Hello, Happy Monday and welcome back to the work week! Here's a heads up for what is sure to be an awesome clinic that you should Not miss. If you are not a climber but want to be, are a climber but want to be better, or are already amazing but just need a tune-up, this FREE clinic is for you. Tomorrow, from 6-7:30pm at the Great Western Power Co., Ethan Schwartz, Ph.D. is going to be putting on a great clinic on how you can perform your best in the climbing world. Here are some details, so listen up, if you please:
Don't be shy, come, enjoy, learn and push yourself to be the best that you know you can be. Click here to check out the official flyer, then, hopefully we'll see you Tuesday night! Labels: Bouldering, climbing, Rock Climb Friday, October 17, 2008American 5.15b!!! Chris Sharma has climbed a route that could be the hardest route in the world.Jumbo Love (5.15b) at Clark Mountain, south of Las Vegas is a 250 ft. pitch of continuous, radically steep climbing. Sharma took numerous 100 foot falls on the route; the involved and difficult climbing doesn’t allow one to stop and clip. It’s purported to have a single jug on the whole route with the rest involving long bouldering sequences and sections of 5.13, and 5.14 climbing. What is it like to climb Jumbo Love? Imagine climbing five times the length of the steepest, longest wall at a Touchstone gym and doing continuous V8 to V11 moves the whole way. Sharma often is reluctant to grade grades. He’s also quite understated. In true form, he has said only that completing the route would create a milestone for climbing. Labels: Chris Sharma, climbing, Las Vegas Tuesday, October 14, 2008Shoe Demo at GWPC This Wednesday, from 6-8PM at GWPC, people are invited to climb in a pair of La Sportiva Arco or Mythos shoes. Here's what La Sportiva says about the Arco, which was new in 2008. This is a beautifully crafted shoe designed for all day comfort and performance with the following features: * Ventilated upper with a perforated, lined synthetic leather arch area for moisture management * Unlined leather upper for performance and sensitivity * 5mm Vibram® XS Grip sticky rubber outsole. The Mythos is such a classic that it defies description. But if you haven't had an opportunity to try them out, here's your chance. You may discover your new favorite climbing shoe.Labels: climbing, event, Great Western Power Co., oakland Monday, October 6, 2008CRAGS Sacramento climbers are hosting two October events to launch CRAGS (“Climbing Resource Advocates for Greater Sacramento”). CRAGS is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization and the area’s first Access Fund affiliate, started by local climbers interested in protecting climbing access while promoting safe, sustainable climbing practices.The first event is on Saturday Oct. 11 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. CRAGS and a local youth climbing team, Summit Party, are co-sponsoring their first Adopt-a-Crag event to clean up the Rocklin Boulders near downtown Rocklin. Climbers will remove garbage, prune trees and restore trails, as well as climb. At the same time, CRAGS organizers will teach low-impact climbing practices to participants. For the second event, CRAGS will bring the hugely popular 2008 Reel Rock Film Tour to Sacramento, helping kick off a membership drive and raise funds for this local non-profit climbing organization. The film is being hosted by Sacramento Pipeworks on Saturday October 25 at 7:00 p.m. and includes a raffle of climbing gear from major climbing product manufacturers. Top climbers, including Chris McNamara, who founded SuperTopo guidebooks and is featured in one of the Reel Rock’s films, is expected to attend in support. The third annual Reel Rock Film Tour includes a climbing feature film, plus short films on climbing and adventure. To join CRAGS, volunteer for the clean-up or for more information please contact CRAGS Executive Director Brian Poulsen at 916-201-2376 bpoulsenjr@gmail.com or CRAGS Board member/Reel Rock Film Tour Organizer Rob Trelford at 415-640-3332. Labels: Access Fund, Chris McNamara, climbing, event, REEL ROCK TOUR, Sacramento Pipeworks Wednesday, October 1, 2008Reel Rock Tour The REEL ROCK tour will be swinging by the bay area for four days in October. Walnut Creek is the first to be visited by the tour on October 1st, the show will be at the Pyramid Brewery. On October 9th the tour will stop by the Victoria Theater in San Francisco and on October 15th & 16th, the tour will stop in Berkeley at the Pyramid Brewery. All shows times are 8pm. The third annual REEL ROCK Film Tour, launching September 10th in Boulder, CO delivers the year's most exciting climbing and adventure films to audiences in over 80 cities around the world. More than just film screenings, REEL ROCK shows are festive events where climbers and outdoors lovers gather to celebrate their shared passion for adventure. Presented by Windstopper and The North Face, REEL ROCK events feature the latest releases from the award-winning filmmakers at Sender Films and Big Up Productions, plus new thrilling short films, gear giveaways, appearances by top climbers, and fundraising for local and national non-profit organizations. For the first time in 2008, aspiring producers are encouraged to submit their best three-minute films to The REEL ROCK Filmmaking Competition. Entries will be posted online for public voting, and two winner will rake in thousands of dollars worth of prizes, plus see their films on the big screen as part of the REEL ROCK tour. For more information check out: http://www.reelrocktour.com/ Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, mission cliffs, REEL ROCK TOUR Tuesday, September 30, 2008Risk: the Good, the Safe, and the Sober Climbers will say some odd things about the risks associated with their activities. When the topic crops up while you’re stirring goop on the camp stove, here are a few things to keep in mind:1. We often do a bad job of assessing risk. Remember when someone in your high school got hurt in a car wreck and everyone started driving more carefully for about a week? Ever know someone who lives in an urban area with a high crime rate who refuses to go camping because it’s too dangerous? (too many Freddy and Jason movies). No matter how risky an activity is, when it becomes familiar and common place, we relax and our subjective assessment of how risky it is goes down. 2. Anecdotal evidence is notoriously unreliable at giving us an accurate picture of the real rate of occurrence. We only need to hear about a few violent crimes on the news before our estimation of the rate of violence overall begins to go up. This can even occur when the violent crime rate is going down overall. Here are some details about rock climbing and risk from a recent British study: - Rock climbing is safer than hang gliding. Hang gliders face a 1 in 116,000 flights risk of dying, climbers face 1 in 320,000 climbs. - Rock climbing is safer than being pregnant. Maternal death occurs in 1 in 8,200 maternities. (How many people have had a baby but refuse to climb because it’s dangerous?) - Rock climbing is safer than scuba diving (1/200,000 dives) - Canoeing is safer than climbing (1/750,000 outings) One of the common misconceptions about climbers is that they do it for the thrills. But sports psychology studies (and a few conversations with climbers) show that it is not the risk itself that climbers seek but the search for progressively harder challenges. And fortunately, with modern climbing equipment and good safety techniques, it’s a simple matter to increase the difficulty of your climbing challenges without significantly increasing the risks. If you follow a bombproof safety routine, the rope is there to catch you in a fall whether you’re on a 5.6 or a 5.12. Still, there’s risk in every activity, including climbing. The only healthy way to pursue it is with good, safe technique and a sober assessment of the facts. Labels: climbing Wednesday, September 24, 2008Touchstone Members at World Championships Four Touchstone Members on the Zero Gravity Climbing Team competed in the Youth World Championships in Sydney, Australia this past month. Josh Levin and Cicada Jenerik Podiumed. Josh had the best overall showing with a Bronze Medal in Speed and a 7th place in difficulty. Cicada also scored a Bronze in Speed and was absolutely crushing in Semifinals until her foot unexpectedly popped. She ended up 14th. Gabi Masse and Scott Cory were also in first heading into Semis but ended up 21st and 14th. Next years Youth World Championships will be in France. Gabi, Cicada, Scott, Josh and Scot Jenerik (coach) would like to give a huge thanks to everyone at Touchstone who supported the team by buying raffle tickets. Labels: Cicada Jenerik, climbing, comps, kids, Scott Cory, Zero Gravity Tuesday, September 9, 2008Mystery Comp On Friday September 5th, Berkeley Ironworks hosted an informal 'Mystery Comp'. But just what exactly is a mystery comp? Well, there were 49 new boulder problems in the wave, but no grades - hence the mystery. To make things even more interesting, the points were distributed randomly! So the strategy was to find the easiest climb for the points and ask other people how hard things were. Justin Ghan solved the mystery in the men's division and Emily Engie won the women's division. Stay tuned for other random and fun events at Berkeley Ironworks in the future. Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, comps Tuesday, September 2, 2008Yosemite Facelift Coming Soon Yosemite Facelift is a five-day volunteer clean-up of Yosemite National Park. Volunteers meet a the booth in front of the Yosemite Visitor Center each day after 8:00am to sign up and receive cleaning supplies. Trash is brought back before 5:00 pm for weighing and sorting recyclables. Each participant receives a raffle ticket for each day they participate.There will be a raffle at 5:00 pm every day at the booth except for Sunday's raffle, which will be at a thank you reception at the East Auditorium. The reception will include the raffle, free drinks, food and live music with the Jonathan McEuen Band. This event is organized by the Yosemite Climbing Association, a non-profit dedicated to preserving Yosemite's climbing history. You can find more info at: www.yosemiteclimbing.org Labels: climbing, community, event, Yosemite Tuesday, August 26, 2008Give Your Feet More Credit Give Your Feet More Credit! Here’s an exercise that can help you get more from your feet during your next redpoint effort: · Get on a vertical or even slabby wall and start traversing. Try to focus all of your attention on your waist, hips, legs, and feet. · Think of every sequence of moves as “foot, foot, hand, hand” instead of “hand, hand, foot, foot” the way a beginner often does. · Exaggerate the lower body movements and keep as much of your focus there as you traverse back and forth. By overdoing this aspect of your climbing for a few sessions, doing it right when you’re back on routes will come naturally. The patterns and habits will already be there. Tuesday, August 19, 200810 Climbing Faux Pas
Friday, August 15, 2008TRS3 hits Sacramento In its fourth and final stop before the grand finale, Touchstone Roped Series 3 will be at Sacramento Pipeworks on Friday August 22nd from 6 to 10pm. Temperatures are sure to be hot, but the climbing action will be even hotter with well over 100 people expected to compete. You can look forward to food, liquid refreshments, a t-shirt and even an icy treat or two. All ages and abilities are welcome, so come join the fun! Monday, August 11, 2008A Climbing Taxonomy Our non-climbing friends are still confused. So here are the kinds of climbing again:Free climbing does not mean soloing (without ropes). “Free” means not aid. When we free climb, we climb the rock without pulling or stepping on any equipment--pitons (does anyone use pitons anymore?), cams, slings, or whatever, to make forward progress. The rope, harness and gear are there for backup against falls. Aid climbing is the opposite of free climbing. Here the climber puts nuts, cams, or other gear into the rock and then actively uses that gear for forward progress. When climbing was in its early days, this was the only way people could climb long, hard walls like those in Yosemite. Now lots of those aid routes have been freed. Bouldering is short, hard climbing with a bouldering pad and a spotter, but no ropes and no other safety gear. It’s safest when kept below the height you can comfortably jump down from (although lots of bouldering routes push this limit considerably.) Newcomers to climbing often think that because the bouldering walls are short, they must be easier. Quite the contrary, the hardest climbing routes in the world are usually bouldering routes. What they lack in height they make up for in finger destroying, overhung intensity. Solo climbing is climbing by yourself, either with or without gear. Free soloing is climbing by yourself with no gear. Unfortunately, this seems to be what lots of non-climbers think climbing is. Roped-soloing is climbing by yourself with gear placements and a rope and harness for backup. Solo-aid climbing is climbing by yourself, using gear placements for forward progress. Deep water soloing is climbing without a rope, harness, or gear (shoes are ok), over deep water. Falls mean big air, lots of screaming, and plunging into the surf or lake below. Thursday, August 7, 2008Using Your Lower Body for Optimal Climbing Are you using your lower body to assist with your hands and arms as much as possible when you climb? One of the things that’s immediately obvious when you watch someone good climb is how integrated their footwork, leg movements, and hips are into their climbing. Beginners usually look just at their hands and what’s in front of them. Often intermediate climbers look down with a little more care. Expert climbers actually lead with their feet. They will move into a sequence knowing what they are going to do with their hands, so they position their feet before they get into the hard stuff for optimal assistance. Knowing this might give you an edge on your next redpoint effort. When you’re pumping in the crux and that solution hold is just 6 inches out of reach, the mistake you made was actually a couple of moves ago. That is, before you got on the tiny, pumpy holds you’re about to fall off of, you should have set your feet up high and on the footholds that would give you that extra bit of reach when you got there. Maybe you should have put them higher when your hands were on the jug below, or maybe you should have set up for the backstep to give yourself some extra reach. Or maybe a little extra pull with your toe, or a shimmy with your hips would have put you into position to reach through. Your legs and feet are strong. Your forearms will burn out long before them. So efficient climbing shifts as much of the overall work to them during all the moves (even the easy ones) to save your forearms. See our tip “Give Your Feet More Credit!” for an exercise that can help build up your footwork finesse. Monday, August 4, 2008Bear Valley Adventure Sports Festival Make plans for the Bear Valley Adventure Sports Festival that is coming up on August 16-17, 2008. This two-day event celebrates the thrills of human powered recreation through competition, education and community. On the activity menu is rock climbing, bouldering, mountain biking, road cycling, trail running, disc golf and flat water kayaking. It doesn't matter whether you regularly "pull, peddle or paddle", or simply just want to try a new outdoor sport in a safe and supportive environment, the Bear Valley Adventure Sport Festival has something for everybody, including the kids. Festival Highlights: • Bear Valley Boulder Bash – outdoor bouldering contest for all abilities (V0-V6+) with cash prizes. • Ebbetts Pass Century Ride – 101 miles & 12,800 feet of climbing; 1st 100 entries gain automatic access into the 2009 Death Ride. • Grizzly Challenge Mt. Bike Race – 3 divisions with cash prizes. For more information please visit AdventureSportsFestival.com or call (209) 753-6556 ext. 1 – We love to talk about our work! Wednesday, July 23, 2008Zero Gravity Members off to Worlds The Touchstone youth on the Zero Gravity Climbing Team have had an amazing season this year. The team easily swept the top spots at the USA Climbing Northern California Regional Championships in May, which was hosted by Touchstone at the Great Western Power Company in Oakland. Zero Gravity were Regional Champions for the third straight year and the entire team qualified for the Division 1 Championships in Salt Lake City in June. Division 1 is easily the strongest division in the country and though a few kids were dropped there, ZG had multiple podiums and 10 of the team members qualified for Nationals, 9 in difficulty and 7 in speed. At the National Championships the weekend of July 11-13 in Sunnyvale, CA seven of the nine made finals in difficulty. Zero Gravity placed 2nd in the country for Difficulty in the team scoring. Cicada Jenerik (4th) , Joshua Levin (2nd difficulty, National Champion in Speed) and Scott Cory (3rd) were all selected for the US National Team and will be competing in Sydney Australia at the end of August along with their Canadian National Teammate Gabi Masse. Eric Sanchez (4th) and Hannah Le (5th) both missed the team selection by 1 place. Nick Bradley (7th), Sera Busse, Yolan Caballero and Dakota Schwartz also competed. Full results can be found at http://www.scsnationals.org/details/index.htm Zero Gravity will be hosting a raffle at Mission Cliffs starting the first week of August to help the team travel to Sydney, Australia for the Youth World Championships (August 27-31) Please help them out and you may win some great gear from Madrock, PMI, Pranah, and more. Labels: Cicada Jenerik, climbing, comps, kids, Scott Cory, Zero Gravity Tuesday, July 22, 2008Climbing the Times When the New York Times recently remodeled their building in Manhattan, they covered it with panels of slats that make for easy handholds. Any climber would have been able to predict what would happen next. For years, French climber Alain Robert has been climbing buildings in major cities for charity, for fun, for publicity, and for the law-breaking notoriety. On Thursday, June 5th, Robert cruised the 52 story skyscraper in New York. And as usual, he was arrested when he got to the top. One wonders what the charges were. Robert has dozens of building ascents to his credit. No doubt if one was to press the authorities on why one shouldn’t climb tall buildings on a crowded city street, one of the reasons they’d give would be, “We don’t want to encourage people to engage in such risky, high-profile stunts.” Almost on cue, another man, Renaldo Clarke, climbed the New York Times building shortly after Robert. Clearly it was all Robert’s fault that Clarke needed to follow suit. Clarke, unlike Robert, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. The building managers at the New York Times must be rethinking the design of their building’s exterior panels now. Friday, July 18, 2008Hans Florine & Yuji Hirayama Recapture Speed Record In yet another daring sprint up the formidable El Capitan, Touchstone member/investor Hans Florine teamed up with Yuji Harayama to reclaim the speed record they set together in 2002 that the Huber brothers beat by 3 minutes in June of 2007. You can read all about their 2 hour, 43 minute and 33 second ascent in the Chronicle and see some photos of the amazing duo. If my calculations are correct, this is the 10th time Hans has set the speed record for climbing the Nose! More information on this story can also be found at speedclimb.com. Congratulations Hans - you've made the Touchstone community proud! Labels: climbing, El Capitan, Hans Florine, members, New Record, The Nose Wednesday, July 9, 2008Perfecto Perfecto the Movie on tour in San Francisco in the Mission District Don't miss Perfecto the Movie at the Victoria Theatre this coming Thursday night, July 10th at 8pm. Hosted by Mike Call, Boone Speed, and Touchstone's Ethan Pringle. This movie is about Mallorca and deep water soloing. Buy your tickets NOW at Mission Cliffs and save $. Tickets at the door $12 and $10 in advanced. Labels: climbing, Climbing Movie, Ethan Pringle, event, mission cliffs Tuesday, July 8, 2008Access Fund Meeting, July 11th The Access Fund is starting a chapter in the Bay Area and the first ever meeting will be on July 11th at Berkeley Ironworks a 7:30pm. Come by to participate and help shape the direction of the this new chapter. It is free of course, and you could help save a climbing area you love! Labels: Access Fund, climbing, community, event Tuesday, July 1, 2008Pooped? One of the most important things you can do to get better and prevent a variety of problems is learn to climb with good form and under control you are tired and getting desperate.We’ve all seen it: as you get more tired, and pumped from the route, you tend to slap in desperation, throw yourself at holds, and be sloppy. There’s a pile of exercise physiology data that shows that dexterity, precision, and focus degenerate when athletes get tired at the end of hard sessions of work. You may feel like it’s a good thing to really throw yourself at it and give it all you’ve got to finish, but this kind of climbing won’t really help in the long run. It’s much more likely that you'll hurt yourself through wildly flailing. If you’re outside there are very real dangers that you need to plan for—you need to be able to clip bolts after run-outs, you need to avoid hazards on route, you may have a long, hard day ahead of you, you may face wind, rain or darkness up higher, and so on. One of the most remarkable things about the very best climbers is that you can’t really tell how hard the route is until they just melt off of it. That’s because they climb calmly, and under full control right up to the very end. You can actually train to climb better when you’re in this trashed state. Make mental note to work on this during your workouts. When you get to the end of a session and you can see the desperate flailing setting in and your dexterity starts getting worse, slow down and get control of it. Find the rests, strategize, and focus your attention on your failing body. Take more time to set up for cruxes where it’s easy, and try to get through them quickly and precisely. Try maneuvers that you know will work. Stick to the rudiments of technique with straight arms, using good footwork, and advance planning. All of this is much harder because as your body got tired, your mind did too. The goal is to train good technique so much that it becomes second nature and slips into the unconscious background. Monday, June 30, 2008UCLIMB visits Donner Summit Donner Summit, Calif. – UClimb, an organization designed to bring people closer to the outdoors by teaching rock climbing in comfortable small-group settings, will host a two-day rock climbing event in Donner Summit, Calif. on Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20.Sponsored by Mountain Gear and Marmot, the UClimb event will include professional climbing instruction from Alpine Skills International guides. Instructors will take small groups of amateur climbers to get hands-on experience while learning climbing techniques, how to use climbing gear, voice commands, knot tying, belaying and etiquette. “UClimb is dedicated to not only getting new rock climbers involved in the sport, but also getting people enthusiastic about outdoor activity,” said Phil Bridgers, UClimb event coordinator. “UClimb events are beginning to be known as the places to go to learn the sport in a fun and comfortable environment. Because of this, more people are venturing to the outdoors and enjoying their natural surroundings.”  Registration for the weekend event begins at $159 for youth ages 10-17 and $199 for adults. Registration includes professional climbing instruction, camping for Friday and Saturday nights, a barbeque on Saturday and a pancake breakfast on Sunday. Registration is available at www.uclimb.org. UClimb will also offer packages with basic climbing gear needed for the weekend including shoes, harness, belay device, helmet, locking carabineer and a chalk bag. Gear packages are $289 for youth ages 10-17 and $329 for adults. Individuals can also register for event festivities without the climbing instruction for $49. Children under 10 are not eligible for the professional climbing instruction but can attend for festivities at no cost. For more information and to register, call 800.829.2009 or visit www.uclimb.org. Labels: climbing Wednesday, June 25, 2008Robotic Beings Rule the World
Ok...not quite yet. But as seen in the video below, they are learning to Rock Climbing.
Labels: climbing Thursday, June 19, 2008Grade School It’s very easy for a climber to get sucked into the grade game. Climbers expect steady improvement through the grades as the months and years go by. At the very least they expect to be able to climb at the same grade difficulty for every workout. And once they can do some 5.10s, they expect to be able to do all of the 5.10s. That’s not the way the human body works. Even when you are getting better over the long haul, it’s normal for your grade level to fluctuate. And even strong climbers won’t climb at the same high level all the time. In sports training they have embraced these variables and they incorporate it into training: Plan for slumps and rest cycles. How can you keep the right frame of mind when training and climbing? A lot of people will mentally rehearse routes or moves before they climb. That can help set a good mental tone. Gravitate towards positive, optimistic, encouraging climbing partners. Avoid negative, grade-driven, aggressive, or unpleasant people who can easily throw off your performance. It helps to work out when the gym is less crowded. If someone nearby is distracting you, that’ll take the edge off your performance. Try moves that are difficult for you, but don’t do them because you or someone around you is pushing too hard. Do them because you know they will be a useful part of your training and learning experience. Having good partners who know when to shut up is important too. Nothing’s worse than trying to focus and do hard moves while some back seat climber who’s belaying you can’t stand to let you work it out. Labels: climbing, tips, touchstone Wednesday, June 18, 2008Climbers Coalition Meeting in Sacramento Following on the heels of last months very successful exploratory meeting, a second gathering of Northern California climbers will get together at Sacramento Pipeworks on Friday June 27th at 7pm to discuss the formation of a regional climber’s coalition. Though this group will be an independent entity, the Access Fund’s grassroots coordinator Charlie Boas has been working to develop the group’s status as a non-profit 501c organization and will be utilizing Access Fund resources to aid in all their efforts. The group aims to address access issues as well as crag clean-ups, along with other concerns facing climbers in Northern California. Pizza will be served while talk will center on naming the group and developing a mission statement. The first meeting had a total of 30 people. With a goal established of matching that number, Pipeworks members as well as non-members are welcome. An open bouldering session (free for non-member participants) will follow the meeting. Please contact Charlie Boas with questions. Labels: Access Fund, climbing, community, Sacramento Pipeworks Tuesday, June 17, 2008TRS 2008 gets 2 Thumbs Up The Touchstone Rope Series visited Diablo Rock Gym last Friday with just under one hundred competitors joining in the fun. Not all 18 routes were sent but the tricky beta of the night goes to the 11.D with a finger crack that thwarted most. Climbing movies and guitar hero entertained spectators and those who turned in their scorecards early. The usual pizza and beer ended the night well and according to most people the night received two thumbs up. Labels: climbing, comps, concord, Diablo Rock Gym, Touchstone Roped Series Thursday, June 12, 2008TRS3 Charges into the East Bay Friday may be the 13th but yours won't be unlucky if you come by the Diablo Rock Gym for a fun filled night of friendly competition. There is no need to cower at home in fear of black cats or broken mirrors when you think of all the great things you'll be missing. When you combine great climbing, free pizza, beer, & T-shirts any superstitious thought should be a fleeting memory. There will be 18 stellar new routes ready to be sent. This will be the second of five rope climbing competitions in the third season of the TRS. To learn more click here. Registration opens at 5:30pm. Climbing starts at 6:00pm and ends at 10:00pm. This is a FREE event for members and $10 for non-members. Labels: climbing, comps, concord, Diablo Rock Gym, Touchstone Roped Series Wednesday, June 11, 2008Ape Index Ever wondered what your Ape Index is? Well this month at Berkeley Ironworks you can find out what it is and see how you compare to other climbers.The Ape Index is an informal measure of one's armspan relative to height. Among rock climbers it is seen as desirable to have an arm span that exceeds one's height. Your ape index can be calculated by the subtracting your height from your armspan. The greater the number, the higher your ape index. So come on down and measure yours today - While you still can! Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing Monday, June 9, 2008New GRIGRI Technique The GRIGRI has been mistakenly called an "Auto Belay Device", which it is not, and those who have used this mind set as a crutch have either suffered the consequences or put their climbing partner at risk. Petzl, the company that manufactures this, and many other stellar climbing products, recently released a new technique to help those newbies and veterans get up and down the wall a little safer. Petzl is distributing this technique in a three fold attack to rid the community of its unsafe habits through:1. Posters displaying technical notes and colorful diagrams at your local gym. 2. An online video which can be viewed here. 3. A technical notice in the box of new GRIGRI's Egos aside please ask a staff member any questions you may have regarding belaying or any safety issue for that matter, it could save your friends life! Thursday, June 5, 2008Hang Man Have you seen the big, brightly colored hang boards hanging in the gear shop at the gym? The coolest thing about Stone Age hang boards is that the sweeping, organic shapes and wild colors make them a work of art, but a work of art that will give you killer strength. Pick up the Manta, the Vario, or the Hammer (check them out at the Stone Age Climbing website) screw it to the wall above a door or in the garage—make sure you get the screws solidly into the wall studs, and tell your landlord that it’s just a sculpture (fill the holes with a bit of plaster when you leave). Then when you can’t get into the gym, when you’re laying around watching TV, or just hanging out, get cranking. Lots of drills can be worked out on the various sized holds to improve your sloper and pocket strength, target your back muscles, and improve your contact strength. You can also get to work on your abs with leg raises at the same time. It’ll create a great opportunity for creative and stupid party tricks the next time you have friends over and the spray starts to fly. Labels: climbing Tuesday, May 27, 2008Rock Climbing Summer Camps Tired of your little monkey climbing all over the house? Then sign them up for a week of rock climbing. Summer camps are help at Berkeley Ironworks, San Francisco's Mission Cliffs, Oakland's Great Western Power Company, Concord's Diablo Rock Gym, or Sacramento's Pipeworks. Camps usually run M-F from 9am to noon beginning in June and running through August. Check with your local gym for times and specific details. Campers will learn how to climb and belay in a supportive, fun, and safe environment. They will also try their hand at rappelling, ascending, slack-lining and playing many climbing games. Rock climbing emphasizes life skills such as confidence-building, self-esteem and goal-setting and is a great way to get kids to be active. Safety and having fun are our top priorities. Sign your kids up today! Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, concord, Diablo Rock Gym, Great Western Power Co., kids, mission cliffs, oakland, Sacramento Pipeworks Friday, May 23, 2008Clinics at GWPC If you've been wondering how you can up the ante on your climbing power, technique and skillz, look no farther than Siriji's climbing clinics. Offered on various Saturdays in May, there is a clinic for climbers of all abilities. Take your pick of Bouldering 101, Intro to Climbing for Women or Intermediate Technique and find yourself flying up your project with alacrity. Advanced registration required. Stop by the front desk to register, ask questions or just say "hi".Labels: climbing, Great Western Power Co., oakland Thursday, May 22, 2008TRS 2008 & SCS Wrap-Up Even though (or because?) there were the fewest competitors in the history of the TRS, Friday night's kickoff was a blast. Competitors came from all the gyms, except Sacramento, and every gym had a winner in at least one category. Great Western climbers represented, with Tony Calvert taking first in Men's Advanced and Erin Goodling crushing the Women's Beginner field. For full results, check the competitions page on the Touchstone website and more photos are in the gallery.The fun just kept going with the SCS Regional Competition on Saturday, where the best of Northern California junior competition climbers showed off their stuff. Touchstone members led in almost every category with familiar names like Scott Cory, Cicada Jenerik, Gabie Masse and Sera Busse in the first place slot for each of their categories. See photos of the competition on flickr as well as results here. For those of you who missed the competition, come check out all the new routes at GWPC! Labels: Cicada Jenerik, climbing, comps, Great Western Power Co., oakland, Scott Cory, Touchstone Roped Series Friday, May 16, 2008TRS 2008 Kickoff Don't you remember how fun the TRS2 was last year? Well, expect an even better time as the TRS3 kicks off at the Great Western Power Company TODAY at 6PM. Series T-shirts make a comeback, so don't miss out on getting one of the coveted "I Climbed" tees. Of course there's beer, soda and pizza as well as 18 NEW routes for climbers of all abilities. Come to climb, socialize and do stupid human tricks. Registration starts at 5:30PM and all climbing ceases at 10PM sharp. FREE to members, 10 well spent dollars for non-members. See you there! Labels: climbing, comps, Touchstone Roped Series Wednesday, May 14, 2008Dead Lucky  TITLE: Lincoln Hall: Dead Lucky SPEAKER: Lincoln Hall, Mountain Climber; Author, Dead Lucky DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 TIME: 6 p.m., Check-In | 6:30 p.m., Program | 7:30 p.m. wine and hors d'oeuvres reception PLACE: 595 Market, 2nd Floor, Outside Montgomery BART Station PRICE: $12 members, $20 non-members, $7 students (w/ valid ID) Reservations (415) 597-6705 or register at www.commonwealthclub.org Dead Lucky is the amazing story of Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall’s rescue near the summit of Mount Everest, where he had been left for dead by the other members of his expedition. Lincoln Hall likes to say that on the evening of May 25, 2006, he died on Everest. And Hall, in fact, was pronounced dead, after collapsing from altitude sickness. Early the next morning, however, an American guide, climbing with two clients and a Sherpa, was startled to find Hall, sitting cross-legged on the summit ridge just staring at them. As featured in the Emmy-nominated Dateline NBC documentary “Miracle on Mount Everest,” Dead Lucky is Lincoln Hall’s account of this miraculous night atop Everest and the days and nights that led up to and followed this fascinating expedition. Hall’s story is inspiring on many levels. Thursday, May 1, 2008Fundraiser for Laila! Saturday, May 10th! As some of you may know, in mid-April, Laila (Berkeley Ironworks staffer Tommy Halvorson's dog) fell from the top of Main Rock at Mickey’s Beach. Apparently she is made of rubber, escaping the 50-60 foot fall with only a broken leg. However, repairing her leg came with a very large price tag-around $8,000. Luckily, Laila is a part of the Touchstone community and on Saturday, May 10 from 6-10pm, BIW is putting on a Bouldering Comp to raise money for the vet bills! That’s right, Bouldering for Laila! There will be free beer and hot dogs, prizes for the winner of each division, a raffle with some amazing prizes for climbers and non-climbers alike, music, climbing, all the things you have come to love from Touchstone Climbing comps. all the proceeds/donations go to helping this little girl get back to playing frisbee. We hope to see you there!!! Labels: climbing, community, comps, staff Tuesday, April 29, 2008Worth 1,000 words
“It’s too sweet now. I can’t ride it.”
– Member, after putting top-end alloy wheels on his road bike. “The crux is being hungry all the time.” – Member trying to slim down for a redpoint attempt. “I think I finally found a sport I might be good at.” – 4th grader climbing at Sacramento Pipeworks. “Seats are for sissies.” -- Touchstone Bike Club member, asked how he managed to ride the last 30 miles of the high-altitude, 123-mile Sierra Century standing up after his seat post broke. Labels: climbing, fitness, members, Touchstone Bike Club Friday, April 25, 2008Bouldering at the Leap On the trail on the way up to Lover’s Leap from the parking area, just outside the campground, there are a couple of killer granite boulders that are worth the trip alone. There are a few dozen boulder problems of easy to moderate grades, the air is clean, the setting is beautiful, and the car is close. SuperTopo publishers have a guidebook to the boulders in Lovers Leap Select by Mission Cliff’s own Chris McNamara. Lover’s Leap is about 2 hours from Sacramento and about 3-4 hours from San Francisco off of highway 50 on the way to South Lake Tahoe. That’s close enough for a day trip, and you’ll be so glad you did it once you get your hands on that cool, grippy granite and smell the pine trees. Labels: Chris McNamara, climbing, hot spots, Lover's Leap, Tahoe Wednesday, April 23, 2008Mechanical advantage This post is all about finger health. Yes, finger health. Because in our world, the finger may be the most important part of the body. Crimping, especially with your thumb on top of your other fingers, puts enormous stress on your joints and can lead to tendon injuries. The reason? Crimping puts your hand at a mechanical disadvantage because the joints are compressed or extended to their very limits. Conversely, open-hand positions like on slopers create the same muscle development as crimping, with the fingers in a less vulnerable position. Overall, the best thing to do whenever you feel even one bit of finger pain is to S.I.E. What’s S.I.E.? Stop Ice Evaluate What’s actually happening in there when your fingers crimp? Take a look under the hood. Here are anatomical sketches of “flexor tendon pulleys and sheaths” at http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl1.jpg, http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl2.jpg, and http://www.wheelessonline.com/image2/phl3.jpg Now, in this age of specialization we wondered: are there orthopedists who specialize only in finger health? According to a Wikipedia entry, yes. Of orthopedic surgeons applying for certification with the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery between 1999 to 2003, the percentage specializing in “Hands and upper extremity” was 8.7% (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopedics). Thursday, April 17, 2008Project Bandaloop Premieres 'Interiors' Project Bandaloop, widely recognized as one of the leading aerial and vertical dance companies in the country, has announced its 2008 home season. The company, under Artistic Director Amelia Rudolph, will present the California premiere of “Interiors,” at San Francisco’s Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center, Thursday, April 17 through Sunday, April 20. In conjunction with the performances, on Saturday, April 19, Project Bandaloop presents “The Dance of the Vertical,” a slide show and talk with world-famous climbers Steve Schneider and Hans Florine at 6:45 pm, prior to the 8 pm curtain. In addition, the 2 pm Sunday matinee will be geared toward younger audiences and families. Following the performance, there will be an interactive “Show and Tell” with Project Bandaloop performers, led by founder Amelia Rudolph. On April 17, there will be an Opening Night Gala as a benefit for the company with a reception after the performance. The $75 ticket will include the performance and a post-show reception with premium wines, a buffet of hors d’oeuvres and a chance to meet and talk with artistic director Amelia Rudolph and the talented performers of Project Bandaloop! Project Bandaloop’s performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 17-19 at 8pm and Sunday, April 20 at 2pm and 7pm at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center. Tickets are $25 per person; children 12 and under are $15 and are available through the Fort Mason Foundation Box Office, 415-345-7575 or online at www.fortmason.org/boxoffice. For more information on Project Bandaloop, visit the website at www.projectbandaloop.org. Labels: climbing, event, Hans Florine Wednesday, April 16, 2008TRS Wants YOU!!! It is once again time to get out your rope, tie in and climb. Touchstone Climbing is pleased to bring back the Touchstone Roped Series for its third year. This will be a series of five Roped Climbing comps that will be held on Friday evenings, one at all five of the Touchstone locations. All events will include a red point roped comp as well as refreshments, games and prizes. Points will be awarded for each comp with overall winners being announced after the final comp. The first event will be held Touchstone's newest gym, the Great Western Power Co. in Oakland on May 16th. There will be a comp each month for the following five months, with the finale coming in September at Mission Cliffs in San Francisco.May 16th G.W.P.C June 13th Diablo Rock Gym July 11th Berkeley Ironworks August 22nd Sacramento Pipeworks September 26th Mission Cliffs All comps will be from 6pm to 10pm and FREE FOR MEMBERS! Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, comps, concord, Diablo Rock Gym, Great Western Power Co., mission cliffs, oakland, Sacramento Pipeworks, Touchstone Roped Series Friday, April 11, 2008Does Chiropractic Work? A wide range of claims has been made about the therapeutic effects of chiropractic. Having the vertebrae in your back and neck manipulated, popped, and adjusted, it is argued, can cure childhood asthma, digestive problems, colic in babies, ear infections, and so on.There appears to be no substantial clinical evidence to support these medical claims. In fact, there is significant risk of spinal injury associated with the vigorous neck manipulations. There is some evidence, however, that suggests that chiropractic is roughly as effective as other conventional therapies such as massage for alleviating persistent back pain. In a meta-analysis of 26 other studies, chiropractic was found to be more effective than sham therapies. Evidence was found that massage, but not chiropractic or acupuncture, may reduce costs of care. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12779300?dopt=Citation Wednesday, April 9, 2008Does Acupuncture Work? Acupuncture is often recommended on the grounds that it is an ancient Chinese art that readjusts energy meridians in the body. Millions of people are using it, and millions are being spent on it every year. But real medical effects cannot be ascertained by word of mouth, centuries of tradition, or by popularity. What’s needed is substantial, objective evidence from carefully constructed, double-blind clinical trials.The preliminary indications from a recent study from the NIH are positive. In a study of several hundred patients with arthritic knees at the University of Maryland, it was found that the acupuncture study group had less pain and better knee function after 6 months. Most clinicians do not take the energy meridian claims seriously, but they have postulated that the effects that have been measured may be connected to the release of endorphins and hormones stimulated by the puncture of the skin by acupuncture needles. Experts warn, however, that patients should not adopt unproven alternative therapies and forego better treatments, and patients should inform their doctors about any alternative therapies they are pursuing to better insure their safety if they receive additional treatments. Tuesday, April 8, 2008Top Ten Suggestions for Living in Your Car
Labels: climbing Friday, April 4, 2008Beth Rodden Refuses to Meltdown Rodden climbing Meltdown for Dosage Volume 5 - Coming Soon!Photo courtesy of bigupblog.com After months of work, Beth Rodden, northern California climbing phenom, has climbed Meltdown (14c), in Yosemite, the hardest crack ever climbed by a woman. The route follows a very thin finger crack for 45 feet then it switches to a discontinuous seam for the rest of the 70 foot, slightly overhanging route. Beth red pointed the route on placed, natural protection. In order to sprint up the route and place the gear as efficiently as possible, she carefully organized 8 tiny pieces of gear taped instead of clipped to her harness. Dedication got her through big fall potential, serious commitment, and piles of snow that needed shoveling at the base. You can read an interview with Beth about this climb at climbing.com. Wednesday, March 26, 2008Chalk is a Beautiful Thing In a gym, chalk is a beautiful thing. So live it up – instead of using one of those little fingertip-dipping sport chalk bags, go for a big-mouthed bouldering chalk bag tied to your waist. That way your bag can hold a full pound of chalk and you’ll have a bag that lets you sink your arm in up to the elbow.Obscure chalk factoids: - Marble and limestone are both forms of calcium carbonate. - Calcium permanganate is a kind of rocket fuel. - Many people eat chalk as a diet supplement; but if you eat too much of it and you’ll get gas (does it poof a white cloud?) When American climbers first started using chalk decades ago, old-school traditionalists thought they were cheating. Lots of heated arguments broke out about the ethics of chalked vs. no-chalked ascents. They were also justifiably worried about the impact of using chalk on cliffs where it forms big ugly white marks. On steep walls outside that are protected from rain and run-off, years worth of chalk builds up until it actually makes climbing harder—you have to search for the hold under the dusty mounds. The Access Fund and lots of concerned local climber groups all over the country have staged cliff clean up days where they scrubbed the chalk stains down and picked up garbage. Consider donating some time or money to their efforts, or at least be judicious with your use of the stuff in areas where it’s not readily going away on its own. Labels: Access Fund, climbing Tuesday, March 25, 2008Bogus Hollywood Climbing There are a bunch of movies that climbers need to see for a good laugh.Clint Eastwood’s Eiger Sanction has some pretty entertaining climbing with some excellent 70s clothes. In one sequence, when he’s climbing in the desert, Eastwood is leading in one scene, then miraculously in the next scene on the same climb he’s on a top rope! Who’s above him is anyone’s guess. Then – poof - in another cut there seems to be no rope at all – he’s soloing. Star Trek geeks will recall Captain Kirk soloing El Capitan in The Final Frontier. When Kirk falls, Spock catches him with a pair of jet boots. (Hey! Where are my jetboots!?!?) And the ultimate bit of movie climbing is in Sylvester Stallone’s Cliff Hanger. Bogus climbing highlights include a bolt gun that fires bolts with hangers into the rock instantly. (Hey! Where’s my boltgun!?!?)  Stallone solos almost everything in the movie, even when he’s allegedly going on an official search and rescue mission. How will he get anyone down if he’s soloing with no gear?Stallone also makes a great show of dynoing with a great heave and a loud grunt for every single move on the routes, even when the terrain is vertical and he’s making short moves from jug to jug. This macho melodrama is a must see. Labels: climbing, Climbing Movie, El Capitan Friday, March 14, 2008GWPC: Cylinder Gets a Facelift All new routes grace the walls of Great Western's lead cylinder. After waiting since opening for a holds order to be delivered, the course setters stormed Oakland and put up 13 new routes. Here's a shot of the setters in action! Labels: climbing, Great Western Power Co., oakland Friday, March 7, 2008Hip Holds Are Finger Friendly The very first climbing holds were rocks glued to cement walls using auto body resin. Training on the holds was tough, the chunks of rock tend to be clunky and sharp, and the glue holding the rocks blew at about every third use of the hold. The first commercial walls were built in France in the 1970s and gradually climbers gravitated toward making cast holds out of ceramic and fired clay. Early on though, the hip thing was to make either single-digit pockets or ridges the diameter of a bread knife. Completing a route made up of these early holds could be pretty miserable. In the 1980s, the climbing hold company Entreprise starting marketing prefabricated panels that could be fit together to create walls. Huge outdoor Entreprise walls, with their natural-looking features and cool insets, have played host to international climbing comps for three decades. But their walls limit options for adding holds, and climbers favored walls allowing for complete route changes using a growing variety of cast holds. On home walls, climbers extended training sessions by creating smooth, tendon-friendly wooden insets using jig saws, routers, and sand paper. Today, companies like Voodoo, Climb It, Stone Age, and Nicros offer holds of all sizes shapes and colors, with perfect texture for maximum grip and minimum skin damage. For examples check out http://www.stoneageclimbing.com/ Labels: climbing Wednesday, February 27, 2008One Last Comp at Class 5 Class 5 will be hosting the next TBS3 comp on Friday, February 29th. Prepare for amazing bouldering, a DJ, food, drink, twister and a limbo contest! Friday Februray 29th, 6-10pm Free for Members This will be the last comp at this location for Class 5. On February 12, our landlord for Class 5 notified us that we have 60 days to vacate the premises. This is devastating news to all of us at Touchstone Climbing. We have been committed to providing San Rafael and all of Marin County with a high quality rock climbing facility. While we have been actively looking and will continue to look for a replacement facility in Marin, we have not at this time found a suitable building for our unique needs. We are sad to announce that we will be closing Class 5 on March 31st, 2008. So come on down and enjoying at climbing at Class 5, have some fun and pull down hard! Labels: class 5, climbing, comps, event Monday, February 18, 2008TBS3 Rocked the House at MC Mission Cliffs hosted the largest comp of the series with over 250 competitors participating at the TBS3 comp on Friday, February 8th. Incredible bouldering problems were set in the bouldering area, in addition to a number of problems that were set downstairs on the main floor. Be sure to check out the results page at http://touchstoneclimbing.com/comps.html.Highlights of the evening included guest DJ’s Tony and Keith, bouldering the party room table, and the consumption of over 60 XL Pizzas! Whoa! Big thanks to everyone for your continued support for this growing series. Let’s continue to break new records! Two more comps to go, we will see you at Class 5 on Friday, February 29th from 6-10pm. Check out our photos Touchstone Gallery. More to come…. Labels: climbing, comps, mission cliffs Tuesday, February 5, 2008Dyno-ManiacsIf we’re really honest, dyno-ing is pretty useless as climbing skills go. On routes, making an all out dive at a hold is bad style—almost as bad as using your knees. But climbers have found a few rare spots where the route just isn’t going to go unless you crouch down and just blast off. Boulderers have found more opportunities. And, inevitably, when a bouldering session gets going in full force in the gym, someone usually starts trying big dynos. Usually it’s teen age boys or girls trying to impress each other. Still, there’s some good clean fun to the had here. A little segment of the bouldering population has elevated dynos to Olympic levels. Some of them have actually been training and working hard just to get better at dynos, and maybe not even at the expense of their other more important climbing skills. So check out this amazing video of Sergii Topishko (Ukraine) tying the world record of 2 meters, 70 centimeters (almost 9 feet!) at a dyno comp in 2007. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. BLAST OFF! Labels: climbing Monday, February 4, 2008Bouldering in Vacaville Seriously. Situated about 30 miles west of Sacramento, and about 60 miles east of the Bay Area on I-80, there’s an outcropping of boulders scattered across a ridge just north of the freeway near the Nut Tree Exit. “But the bouldering’s crap, right?” No, actually it’s not. It’s not a world class area, and there aren’t thousands of problems. But it’ll definitely keep you busy for an afternoon or two. The boulders are high on some hills that overlook the whole central valley. On a clear day you’ll be able to see Mt. Diablo in Walnut Creek, and the snow on the Sierras to the east. And, despite the boulders’ being in the middle of some of Vacaville’s outlying neighborhoods, the setting is surprisingly pastoral and pleasant. The city of Vacaville has designated the whole area an open space park. There are cattle grazing there in the spring, summer, and fall. And the hills are peppered with beautiful, classic California oaks that look too archetypal to be real. You’ll think you’re in a California Plein Air painting. Macro beta: - Coming from the Bay Area on I-80, get off on the Nut Tree Parkway exit in Vacaville and take the first left at Allison Dr. - OR, coming from Sacramento, take the East Monte Vista Drive exit, go left on Monte Vista, and then go right when you hit Allison Drive. Micro beta: - Follow Allison Drive until it reaches Browns Valley Parkway, go left. - Go on Browns Valley Parkway, then turn left on Wrentham Drive (You’ll be able to see boulders up on the hill to the left behind the subdivision). - Then turn left on Woodcrest. About a block up on the right, you’ll see a gap between the houses and a steep gravel path cutting diagonally up the hillside into the Open Space Park. - Park on the right (be considerate of the neighbors), grab your stuff and head up the trail. About a quarter mile or so up the trail, when it crests are starts to head back down hill, they’ll be a cattle gate on the right and an obvious path winding north up the hill towards the crest and scattered boulders. Hop the fence at the gate, being careful not to damage it—it’s there to keep the cattle in, not keep people out. And follow the trail up the hill. The boulders are scatter along this trail and across the next few hills to the north and west. Bring a spotter—some of the landings tilt down and away and you’ll roll all the way down to Fairfield without a catch. The rock’s a bit chossy in spots, but it’s been cleaned up by climbers and you’ll find some steep and slabby terrain ranging from V0 up. Poke around and enjoy yourself. Labels: climbing Monday, January 28, 2008No Superglue If you’ve bouldered with some of the hardcore, you’ve seen Superglue used to reattach one of those flaps of skin that frequently get torn free with all the high stresses and abrasion of intense bouldering. The committed boulderers thinking goes something like this: “If you tear a finger pad open, you’ll be out of commission for a week or more, and you might lose out on all the time and effort you put into going on a much anticipated climbing trip. It really sucks to be in great shape, ready to go in every other regard, but a bit of torn skin shuts you down completely. A liberal dose of Superglue in and all around the flapper to reattach it (yes, it sounds awful—but you wouldn’t rather not climb, would you?) will get you back in action at almost 100%.” The urban myth is that medics in Vietnam used the stuff for serious battlefield injuries to help get the wounded back to substantial hospital attention. Even a recent New York Times article acknowledged the practice, “Nowadays, professional athletes often close small cuts with Super Glue or similar products to get back in the game in a hurry. The glues are also used by veterinarians, and many people keep a tube around the house to help them out of a medical pinch. It is believed that the glues — made from the chemical cyanoacrylate — not only stop bleeding quickly, but also lead to less scarring.” The problem is that regular Superglue like you get in the drug store isn’t good for you. It has some side effects, especially if you get it into a deep wound. It can irritate and kill cells. And it probably doesn’t reduce scarring. But the FDA has approved a very similar substance for these sorts of applications. It’s anti-bacterial and it’s safer. It’s called Dermabond, and you’ll be able to get it at the drug store. Put some in the pocket of your bouldering chalk bag and you’ll be able to salvage an otherwise ruined climbing trip. Wednesday, January 23, 2008SPRAY Premier SPRAY Premier @ Victoria TheatreSPRAY, the fourth feature film from BS Productions, captures the true spirit of climbing. Join us for the West Coast PREMIER of SPRAY at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco on February 1, 7:00pm. Filmmaker Brian Solano followed Joe Kinder and Chris Lindner on their most recent journey documenting every moment in crystal clear High Definition video. The team set out to explore the treasures of California's northern coastline. They ventured through the delicate beaches of Arcata, the stunning limestone of the Trinity Aretes, the historical shores of Mickey's Beach, and the alpine stone of Donner Summit. The film features numerous first ascents, including Chris Lindner's oceanside route Window of Opportunity. When: Friday, February 1 @ 7:00pm Where: The Victoria Theatre in San Francisco Cost: $12 Tickets: VictoriaTheatre.org Click Here for more details about SPRAY (www.SprayMovie.com) Thursday, January 17, 2008Oakland TBS3: Fun as Always The fourth stop on the TBS3 didn't disappoint. Outstanding boulder problems, a good turnout and plenty of beer, soda and pizza made for an excellent night out. Many of the participants commented on the superiority of the course setting and the mellow vibe before thanking staff for putting on such a great party. With 150 competitors, there was lots of excitement and energy. Natasha Barnes handily won the Women's Advanced category and Gregor Peirce, yet again topped the Men's Advanced. You can see pictures of the comp in the Touchstone Gallery and your score for the series HERE as well as your score from the GWPC comp HERE. Thanks again for the incredible work by the course setters and to Metolius for providing some awesome raffle prizes. See you next month at Class 5 and Mission Cliffs! Photo: Natasha Barnes exhibiting her fingers of steel. Labels: climbing, comps, Great Western Power Co., oakland Wednesday, January 16, 2008Munchkin Climbing There is something strangely arbitrary about climbing and the routes that everyone takes to be monumentally hard.It’s not that a V15 isn’t a hard boulder problem, for instance. You can scarcely see the holds, much less lock one off at your knee and do a footless dyno to a crimp that’s a 1/16” wide on a 45 degree overhang on them. It’s just that a big part of what makes climbing routes as hard as they are is that we are all built the way we are built, and we all built within pretty much the same small range of abilities. Imagine if humans had evolved to only be 3 feet tall and weigh 80 lbs. Then what would we think was a hard route? We’d certainly be able to comfortably crank on stuff that we just you for a crumby foothold now. But your wingspan now is a good bit longer than 3 feet. So for tiny humans, little holds would be jugs, but there would be a lot more reach problems. Conversely, what if we had all developed to be 12 feet tall? We’d have a huge wingspan, of course. And the top of the bouldering wall that you’re currently struggling to get to in a Touchstone gym would be at eye level. (Picture Shaquille O’Neill skipping the first several moves of the 5.14 you can’t get started on.) You’d weigh double or even triple what you weigh now. So you’d be able to reach much farther between holds. But the only holds that would support you would have to be just huge. You’re finger would be the size of polish sausages, so they’d be no stuffing them into tiny finger pockets. Even if you could, you’d be hanging that enormous, gangly body off of it, so you’d blow tendons for sure. Let’s hope that if we had turned out really big or really small, we still would have found suitable cliffs to get our fix. Labels: climbing Monday, January 14, 2008Yoga Retreat Let Sacramento Pipeworks yoga instructor Robert Hallworth and adventure company Sadhanadventures guide you on a weekend of calming but intensive yoga practice in Bishop Ca. on January 25, 26 and 27th. All outdoors, days will begin at sunrise with hot tea and meditation followed by an intensive full yoga practice. A filling vegetarian breakfast caps off the morning. Afternoons are filled with independent activities, ranging from rock climbing to hiking, book reading to art gallery browsing. Evenings will bring a restorative and gentle asana practice as a gourmet vegetarian campground meal is prepared for you. Cost for this retreat is just $150.00 which does not include transportation, but assistance in arranging carpools is provided. Space is limited, so make your reservations early. For more information or to reserve a spot, go to: sadhanadventures.com Labels: climbing, fitness, Sacramento Pipeworks, Yoga Tuesday, January 8, 2008TBS Stops in Oakland In January, the TBS3 makes its first stop ever to the new Great Western Power Company. Come by for a fun community event that will include great bouldering, pizza, beverages and a chance to win some cool raffle prizes from Metolius. PLUS, everyone competing in their FIRST comp of the series will receive the best boars hair brush available; perfect for cleaning holds on your latest sick project. Registration will begin at 5:30pm and the comp starts at 6pm sharp. Please note: In order to make the boulder problems the best ever, the bouldering area at GWPC will be closed starting TODAY, Tuesday the 8th until the comp starts on Friday the 11th at 6PM. Labels: climbing, comps, Great Western Power Co., oakland Thursday, December 27, 2007TBS Hits Sac The third of seven stops for Touchstones Bouldering Series 3 was a big hit for boulderers of all abilities. Boasting over 60 problems ranging from V-0 to V-11, TBS 3 was held at Sacramento Pipeworks on Friday December 14th, with more than 125 people in attendance. Andres, who doubles as Pipeworks head route setter by day, played DJ - keeping energy high and the crowd in the groove. Pictures can be seen in the online gallery.Results are posted on our competitions page: http://touchstoneclimbing.com/comps.html Sideshows included a brilliant slack line competition that produced eye-popping tricks, as well as a donut eating contest that made the crowd roar! See you all at Great Western Power Company on January 11th as TBS3 will continue into the new year. Labels: climbing, comps, Sacramento Pipeworks Monday, December 24, 2007Spare Change
Giving to the American Safe Climbing Association
Members at Class 5 have donated over $210 this year in spare change to replace old and dangerous bolts and anchors. Dropping spare change into the plastic bucket near the register really adds up!  The American Safe Climbing Association works to return classic climbing routes to their original danger level by replacing deteriorating old fixed anchors, usually bolts, with modern camouflaged gear.They have replaced over 4000 old bolts to date in Yosemite and many other areas throughout the U.S., mostly in the western states. Class 5’s donations will replace from 20 – 40 bolts and anchors. That little bit of extra change will help make climbing a little bit safer. Thanks Class 5 members who have been so generous since every little bit helps. Labels: class 5, climbing, community, Yosemite Monday, December 17, 2007Newbie Initiation Are you climbing with someone who’s not as accomplished at it as you are, or a complete beginner? There are several things you can do to make it a much better experience for them.There’s a powerful temptation to be a backseat climber and give them running instructions on every move. Encouragement is one thing, but this kind of unnecessary bossing can be really aggravating and distracting. They’ve got eyes and can see the holds. And learning to climb is more of a physical, kinesthetic experience than a cognitive one where you learn by consciously following directions. New climbers have got to acquire a sense of feel about needing to get that foot up to get stable, or moving onto straight arms. And they’ve already got so much going on that your instructions just confuse things more. To help you initiative newbies in a kinder, gentler way, here is a handy chart: Another newbie mistake is to succumb to the pressure to get too wrapped up in the grades. There’s nothing wrong with doing 5.6s. Recall that you started there too. And even a highly accomplished 5.12 climber can learn something from them. One person’s struggle with a 5.8 crux can be just as hard, subjectively, and just as rewarding when they get it, as the hot shot’s battle with a 5.12d crux. If you’re climbing with beginners, and you want them to love the activity and find it rewarding like you do, then you can do a lot with your attitude, your comments, and your approach to make it clear that ultimately the grades aren’t what’s most important about climbing. Most people rapidly move through the grades in their first 6 months or year and then the progress slows when they get to 5.10s. That’s normal, and beginners shouldn’t have false expectations about moving right on into 11s, 12s, and 13s that way. The phenomenal climbers in the magazines are the exceptions. Most of us take a year or two to become solid in 10s, and then take 10 years or more to get into 12s. Examples of helpful encouragement: Yes! You can get it! Good job! Nice work! Thursday, December 13, 2007Conan's Wheel of Pain Remember when Conan (Arnold) was trudging around that wheel of pain, getting bigger and bigger muscles, just thinking about the day he’d get his vengeance on Thulsa Doom for killing his mom?Everybody’s got to spend their time on the wheel. You won’t get better at climbing unless you spend some serious hours trudging away up and down those routes. Just remember Conan’s 3 Noble Truths to keep you going: “To crush you enemies, see them run before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.” Monday, December 10, 2007The Nose: Really Really FastCHALK TALK about the Huber's Speed Record Ascentof THE NOSE, in 2:45:45. QnA on ways to improve. LIVE WEBINAR December 18th 6pm PST Hans Florine was able to hang out with the Hubers over a beer in June 2006 while they were working on the record. He also chatted with the Hubers, again over a beer, in SF after they got the record this past October 2007. In this webinar, Hans will talk about the way the Hubers tackled the route and go pitch by pitch how his attempts at the record went after talking to them. (Hans got a good go of 5:26 in November.)  Hans is joined by NIAD experts to go over the Huber's ascent and discuss strategies for improvement. Hans will also be inviting some Climbing Manufacturer experts to join in on the session.Hans will take between 20 to 40 minutes to go over just how the Huber's climbed the route, how Yuji and Hans climbed the route (previous record of 2:48), how Hans just last month climbed it with Mark Melvin, and will discuss tools strategies and more. Then we'll open it up for a panel of experts to suggest things and YOUR input or questions. Maybe you have insight on a strategy on how better to go through the King Swing or you know of a tool we are not using that would help us move more effectively/faster through the route. Just listen or contribute. Recording from the webinar will be available afterwards. Join Hans for this live Webinar on December 18th at 6pm, sign up now here: http://hansflorine.com/shop/webinar1.html Labels: climbing, event, Hans Florine, Mark Melvin, The Nose Friday, December 7, 2007Climbing & You Tube
The winter season is upon us and you may find yourself stuck inside more than you want. If you have already had a good climbing session that day but you're too tired to continue check out YouTube to get your fix of free climbing videos. There are thousands of videos to watch, some funny, some weird, and many about climbing. Search the site using keywords like climbing, bouldering, bishop, Sharma, and even Touchstone Climbing.
In honor of the Touchstone Bouldering Series that is currently taking place, here is a video from The Bouldering Bonanza at Touchstone Concord that was held July 29th, 2005. You can thank Casey Brunt for the cinematography being he made the film. Labels: Chris Sharma, climbing, concord, Diablo Rock Gym Thursday, December 6, 2007Fall Ninja Any dude can fall off a wall, right? Yeah, but there are better and worse ways to do it.Even in the gym with 12 inches of gymnastics foam under you, an extra bouldering pad, and an attentive spotter, it’s not uncommon for a falling boulderer to hit wrong and break a wrist or an ankle. To avoid disaster and being laid up on crutches or in a cast for 6 weeks, everyone needs to take some time to get better at falling well. When you come off the wall up high, you’re going to have a lot of kinetic energy by the time you hit the ground. All that force needs to go somewhere. What you want is for it to get dispersed as much as possible and for all of your joints and limbs to take the least direct shock of it that you can manage. One thing you can do is let your body fully collapse like an accordion when your feet hit the pad. Fold up your knees, your hips, and your back and make them loose as you hit the floor. This will help spread the impact over your whole body and keep a single part like your lower leg from absorbing more than it has to. The fall you’re expecting rarely hurts you. Think about that move on your redpoint project where you are trying to smear off a tiny smeary foothold – you know you may not make it and transition from climbing to falling the moment you slip. It’s when something unexpected happens that people get hurt. A foothold spins, and suddenly you’re sprawled on the floor with the wind knocked out of you, and your spotter apologizing. One way to save your wrists and ankles, which are really vulnerable in these surprise falls, is to learn to hit the mat or pad (or cold hard ground) and roll in one continuous motion like the martial arts experts do. If you reach straight out and try to arrest your fall with your hand, your arm is going to take a tremendous dynamic load. If you can hit, bend the arm, shift your weight away and over the arm and go into a roll onto your shoulder, you can divert all this bone breaking energy into movement and spread it around. Get friends with martial arts or gymnastics training to coach you a bit. Go on, be a falling ninja. Wednesday, November 28, 2007TBS3 Photos Now Up Photos of TBS3 competition held at Touchstone San Jose on November 16th can now be viewed in the Touchstone Gallery. Touchstone San Jose blew up the South Bay’s bouldering scene with a hair under 200 competitors, and well over 50 spectators! Fat Tire flowed from the tap while With DJ’s Tony and Keith rocked the house with their set of funky and tech house, jungle, drum-&-bass, hip-hop, and some good old rock’n roll to keep the community climbing strong. Results can be viewed on Touchstone’s competition page. To all those who came out to compete, spectate, and support the best indoor bouldering in the South Bay to make it Touchstone San Jose’s biggest competition yet, thank you! See you all in Pipeworks on December 14th! Labels: climbing, comps, san jose Friday, November 23, 2007Oakland Prepares to Open We are very close to being able to open our newest gym, the Great Western Power Company, in Oakland. After a couple of delays, we are ready to submit applications to the city of Oakland for our final permits. If all goes well, we could be open as soon as early next week. As soon as we know the exact time we can open our doors, we will post it on the front page of the site. We are very excited to show off our newest gym. We believe that the Great Western Power Company will provide some of the best climbing terrain found indoors. If you have not already done so, you can see pictures of the construction in the online photo gallery. Labels: climbing, Great Western Power Co., oakland Powered by: |
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