Climbing all day can be difficult.  Climbing for 24 hours is really hard.  In the last few days of September, Touchstone members Caitlin Davies and Lauren Reising headed to 24 Hours of Horshoe Hell in Arkansas.  The premise for 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell is leading a route clean for points, and doing that in succession for 24 hours straight.  

For Caitlin, a climber of two years, the 24HHH was a good opportunity to expand her climbing skills.  "I wanted to do 24HHH because I'm kind of a pansy leader, honestly... lol. An event that focuses so much on mental control really targeted my weak spot... so I wanted to face it and kind of embrace that fear, I guess? I'll tell you what, by the end of the 24 hours I didn't even care when I was above a bolt. It was a satisfying feeling."

Caitlin on left and Lauren on right

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Heading to sport crags where many of the draws are fixed or out to Yosemite where there are many old anchors means knowing a bit about the dangers of insitu gear, especially of worn fixed biners.

On September 22, Mario Luginbühl and a friend went climbing at Magletsch, in the St.Gallen canton, Switzerland. Luginbühl was trying to work out a sequence and took a controlled fall. This proved fatal as the fixed quickdraw had been worn sharp through extensive use and cut the rope. Luginbühl fell 85 feet to his death. A similar instance happened a few years ago in the Red River Gorge when a climber cut their rope on the second bolt of a popular climb.

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Last month, Diablo Rock Gym turned 10 years old. To celebrate the gym's anniversary, this Saturday, October 20th, DRG is hosting three different exciting events- an Ultimate Fitness Experience, a BBQ, and the Reel Rock Tour.

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Yosemite season is in full swing. The fall temps are here. The conditions are getting perfect for the bouldering on some of the world's best granite boulders. Kyle O'Meara, a Washington transplant who has been crushing California climbing, made this cool video of a couple of Yosemite classics that he climbed this spring.

Get amped for Yosemite climbing this fall!

Prenatal yoga is a supportive way to practice yoga postures (asana) as well as breath work (pranayama) and relaxation safely while pregnant. This yoga is done at a slower pace to ensure safety and stability of your body and to build strength, all while creating more space for your baby to grow and preparing you for the birth process. Postures will be practiced in both a flowing style (Vinyasa) and individually.

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The Touchstone setting crew rallied down to Fresno this week to reset the entire gym.  A group of 8 setters descended on MetalMark to establish some amazing new problems and routes.  "We put up about 35 boulder problems yesterday ranging from V0-V7. They all turned out really good, I think we all get psyched to set on terrain that we don't know like the backs of our hands," said setter Jeremy Ho. 

Jeremy talked a little about the local setters Travis and Cole. "The guys down here have been doing a killer job, the boulder problems of theirs that we climbed were excellent."  The Touchstone crew got feedback via Facebook about the types of climbs that MetalMark members were looking for- shorter, more powerful boulder problems.  

The Touchstone setters do an amazing job of keeping all the gyms fresh with new routes.  Stop by your nearest gym and check out the newest routes and boulder problems. Add a comment