Last week, on March 3rd, Touchstone owner Mark Melvin and long time Yosemite wall veteran Chris McNamara saw a chance to climb the Nose on El Capitan. With a forecast of 70 degree temps, the pair nabbed a "winter" ascent of one of the largest granite formations in America. Chris wrote about their ascent.

I'll share a secret just with you guys: you can find summer-like conditions on El Cap even in the middle of winter… as long as you are in the sun.

Read more...

This past Saturday, March 2nd, Touchstone held the a great CrossFit event at Great Western Power Company. A number of local CrossFitters headed to the competition. Instructor Maximus Lewin wrote about the event.

The First Annual Touchstone CrossFit Invitational is in the bag and it was awesome! Thanks to all of the athletes, volunteers and staff who came out to make this a fun, intense event. Thanks to all of the folks who participated, especially those for whom this was the first experience with CF competition.

Read more...

The cold weather, perfect conditions and slightly longer days means bouldering season has struck again. There's a ton of new problems to try and with the addition of Touchstone's latest gym, Climbing ground up, having to onsight sections of high boulder problems, provides one of the best challenges in places like Dogpatch, Yosemite and Bishop. Check out these videos of Berkeley climber Ingar Shu climbing high and well off the ground.

Read more...

We at Touchstone have some exciting news to share with you. With Dogpatch Boulders just days away from opening, we have signed a lease for what will be our ninth gym. This time, we are coming to Southern California.  That's right, Touchstone is finally building a gym in Los Angeles.

This week we signed a lease on a building in the Arts District, which will be our first gym in Southern California. Many former Touchstone gym members who have since moved have been pushing us to make this step. The new gym will be in the heart of a community that is a perfect fit for Touchstone. Closely modeled after Dogpatch Boulders, we expect this gym to be fantastic.



Partnering once again with Walltopia will allow us to pursue multiple projects at the same time while bringing our members what we believe are the most exciting walls in the industry.  The same design team that brought you features such as the Wave Wall, the Barrel, and the Grand Arch at Dogpatch Boulders will unleash their creative energy on this new gym. We could not be more excited to have a chance to build on everything we learned from Dogpatch Boulders, and we can't wait to become a part of the L.A. climbing community.

We hope to open the L.A.B by the end of 2013 and we'll keep you informed of our progress over the coming months. While our first venture in L.A. will be a bouldering only gym, we are also looking at a taller building near downtown with hopes that we will soon have news of a roped gym as well. You've been asking for it for years and we are excited to finally have good news.  
TOUCHSTONE IS COMING TO L.A.! 

Like our Facebook Page to stay connected!  

This past weekend, September 23 and 24th, ABS Nationals were held in Colorado Springs. Ethan Pringle, Eric Sanchez and a number of Zero Gravity members headed to one of the biggest bouldering competitions in America. 

"This was by far the deepest field of amazing climbers at an ABS Open Nationals," said Zero Gravity coach Scot Jenerik. "When you have someone like Ethan Pringle not make the top 20 you know it's tough."

Read more...

We are pleased to announce our partnership with Walltopia for the expansion of Mission Cliffs. Why? Because they're rad. If you've checked out Dogpatch Boulders you know what we're talking about. The angles are killer. The look is clean. And gosh darn-it people like them.


After being so impressed with the our experience designing and building Dogpatch Boulders with Walltopia, we're excited to see what they can do with 30 more feet of vertical space. The expansion will add over 5,000 sq ft of new climbing terrain to Mission Cliffs, making it the biggest indoor climbing facility in the Bay Area.

We pored over the feedback from our fall survey, and therefore decided to included an adjustable crack, arêtes, dihedrals, and much more in the design. We're especially excited to design a steep, cresting wave wall similar to the feature at Dogpatch Boulders... but 50ft ft high! Check out some of the initial visualizations.



In the coming weeks we will be finalizing our designs and beginning construction! We'll be sure to keep you up to speed on the process. Thank you for your continued patience and support!