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Member of the Month, Couples Edition: Clinton and Leia Bailey

  By Jason Bove. Tip your glasses and congratulate our next Members of the Month, Clinton and Leia on marriage, travels, and homeownership! You can almost always find them around the gym, but if you miss them, they may be on your next flight out of town in search of their newest adventure. They are […]

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Elise Gets Her Psych Back: Tufas, 8b’s, and Bread in Granada

Elise Buser is a Touchstone athlete, part time Touchstone routesetter, and full time crusher. She has sent V9 and 5.13 outside, podiumed multiple times in ABS Regionals and Divisionals, and participated in Nationals three times. She is currently pursuing a Neuroscience major at UC Davis. When not climbing, she is likely studying redox reactions, drawing geometric cats, or […]

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Meet the Manager: KJ de Jesus of Verdigo Boulders

With the Grand Opening Party right around the corner, we thought it was time to introduce the world to Verdigo Boulders‘ incredible manager, KJ! She is smart, silly, and perma-stoked, and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to run our newest bouldering gym. Read on to get the answers to your most pressing questions about […]

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Fear and Self-Loathing in Las Vegas: Ethan Pringle’s Send of The Nest (V15)

  By Ethan Pringle. 2014: The Quest for the Nest The Nest is tucked deep in First Creek Canyon, in Red Rock, NV, about an hour hike west of HWY 159. Local developers Kenny Barker and Andy Rather, who were searching for FAs in the canyon in the winter of 2013/14, discovered the line and […]

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Ruth Asawa at Dogpatch Boulders

Climbers often insist that, in addition to being a great workout and a fun way to interact with the outdoors, rock climbing is a creative activity. Boulder problems are puzzles to be solved using your body, oftentimes in configurations that are pretty specific to your strengths and dimensions. It’s no wonder then that students from […]

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Gym to Crag Bishop Clean Up

Photos by Paulina Dao. Our favorite climbing places in the world are getting loved to death, and we have to be their active stewards if we want to continue climbing in them. Touchstone is passionate about outdoor access and stewardship, which is why we regularly host Gym to Crag events to talk about best practices […]

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The Tortoise and the Hare: Six Days on The Nose

By Miles Fullman. All photos by Miles Fullman and Eli Spitulnic. I first started climbing with Touchstone during a summer camp in 2010 at Diablo Rock Gym. Loving everything about the sport, I checked out the teen climbing teams at Diablo, Berkeley Ironworks, and Great Western Power Co. I decided to join Ryan Moon’s team […]

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Mission Cliffs Fosters World Peace

By Ting Chin. No seriously, we totally do! And not just with Jordan’s random, prolonged hugs to strangers and Dan’s sporadic calls of encouragement to struggling climbers from the desk. Not just with treating our employees and members with respect and compassion and rising to the daily toil of folding many dozens of towels in […]

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Member of the Month: Joe Simmons

By Jason Bove. It’s a normal weekday at the gym. You look over toward the fish tank to see what’s going on “under the sea.” Instead, what draws your attention is the older gentleman, pen in hand, sipping his Java Monster. Stationed at his usual spot, Joe diligently writes and draws page after page of […]

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Bouldering Gym to Base Camp: LAB Member Kai Zinn Treks Kangchenjunga

  By Kai Zinn. Nepal is an amazing place to visit, whether one goes just to see the country or to climb and trek in the Himalaya. Due to media coverage, many people have been under the impression that much of the country was destroyed by the 2015 earthquake, and tourism has dropped precipitously as […]

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