Nutrition for climbing can be a difficult subject. On one side of the spectrum there are climbers who eat a dozen donuts and then crush v13, on the other side there are climbers who gulp air for a light snack for their 5.14d sport sends. Finding the middle ground, of a healthy diet can be […]
Last week, I joined four friends to climb in one of the most magical areas in California. Yellow and orange lichen make the rock explode in color. The formation names: The Sorcerer, the Witch, the Magician and the Warlock, add to the magic of The Needles. Located in the Sequoia National Forest, a series of […]
Summer is just around the corner, and what better way to spend it than learning to rock climb with your friends?! We sat down with Great Western Power Company’s Kids Camp Directors Carole Ryu and Jaclyn Clark to get the details on their plans for rock climbing summer camp in Oakland. “Summer vacations are such a memorable […]
May 17th, 2015- Ethan Pringle flew ninety feet past North America’s hardest route Jumbo Love (5.15b). After completing the second ascent of the Chris Sharma test piece, Pringle took an enormous victory jump at the Third Tier at Clark Mountain, California. The nearly 29 year old Pringle began working the route in 2007 with Chris […]
Recently, Touchstone athlete Joey Kinder headed to Norway for a three week trip. This is his second time to the country. He traveled there last year to climb at the notoriously difficult Flatanger Cave. He spoke a bit with the Touchstone blog about his trip. Why did you want to go there? My buddy Henning […]
Touchstone employee James Lucas recently free climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan in a day. The Touchstone Blog reports on his ascent. At 6:10pm on May 6, James Lucas dry-heaved into some bushes on the top of El Capitan. He had just finished climbing his first route on the iconic monolith, and he had done it in […]
The longer days of spring have arrived. The last few storms are rolling through the Valley and El Capitan is coming into prime shape for climbing. Making an ascent of one of the world’s biggest granite monoliths requires a fair bit of motivation. There are two main ways to climb El Capitan: slow and heavy […]
Every year the kids climbing in the gym mutate a bit more. Since the introduction of the Team Touchstone youth climbing team, the kids seem to be even stronger than normal. “This is my 10th year climbing, which is kind of scary to think about because I used to think that all the guys that […]
The Cal Climbing team recently returned from Nationals at Mesa Rim Climbing & Fitness in San Diego. The student run and supported program groups Cal students for climbing trips, biweekly Berkeley Ironworks and Bridges sessions, and competitions in the Bay Area and in the USA Climbing Collegiate Climbing Series. “We’re a group of climbers of […]
The rain came suddenly to the top of El Capitan. Spring brings sudden weather changes and drenching thunderstorms sweep into Yosemite Valley in a few hours. The intense rain, hail and lightning in the mid to late afternoon can cause serious hazard for climbers. The past week caught me in thunderstorms on the top of […]
