I lowered into a herd of goats and sheep. A few minutes before I flaked my rope in a corral below Conde Dracula, a steep 8a limestone sport climb in Otinar, Spain. My partner, Blake wanted to climb the route as well. The land surrounding the cliff remains pasture for many animals. Their bells rang […]
Rock climbing brings a huge array of challenges. One of the biggest is getting to the crag. This past weekend, Mary-kate Meyerhoffer and I took on the daunting challenge of finding one of the most popular limestone cliffs in Spain. We managed to get lost but we did discover a few lessons while looking for […]
On January 15th, Kevin Jorgenson and Tommy Caldwell made climbing history when they completed the Dawn Wall on El Capitan, free climbing the world’s hardest big wall over a nineteen day effort. A colossal amount of effort went into the ascent. “The Dawn Wall was 94% work and 6% climbing,” said Kevin Jorgenson. During the […]
Published on Red Tricycle Getting hooked on sports at a young age can have immediate and lifelong benefits, like boosting self-confidence, building a healthy body, fostering friendships and learning how to lose with dignity. (Or at least without throwing things.) If your kiddo hasn’t shown much interest in balls, bathing suits or being part of […]
This winter, Shawn Benjamin brought 10 students to Berkeley Ironworks to try out climbing for the first time. Ms. Benjamin is the Principle at Leadership Public Schools in Richmond, a tuition-free public charter high school dedicated to preparing 100% of their graduating students for success in college and leadership in their communities. “99% of our students […]
We are proud to be supporting Team Touchstone, a comprehensive and competitive youth climbing team. Interesting in our youth climbing program? We sat down with head coaches Zach Wright and Scott Cory to find out more. Zach Wright, a 22-year-old philosophy undergraduate student at UC Berkeley and Bay Area native, and Scott Cory, a 24-year-old […]
On Saturday January 16th, Diablo Rock Gym will be holding another Ultimate Fitness Experience Event. The three-hour event provides members and non-members an opportunity to check out the other classes at the gym. “We have people that come in and take yoga, aikido, or TRX,” said Diablo Rock Gym Manager Hans Florine. The UFE provides […]
ABS Season 16 Divisionals went down this weekend at Basecamp in Reno, Nevada. Youth climbers from all over Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, the Western half of both Dakotas came together to compete for a chance to move onto Nationals. Two youth climbers from The East Beta’s, Great Western Power Company’s Teen […]
Two men are making history on El Capitan. For over two weeks, the 36 year old Estes Park resident, Tommy Caldwell and the 30 year old Santa Rosa local, Kevin Jorgenson have battled up El Capitan’s Dawn Wall in the hopes of making the first free ascent of the world’s hardest big wall free climb. […]
We’re happy to announce that starting February 1st Touchstone Climbing will be launching our own competitive youth climbing team in Northern California. Touchstone Climbing has always supported the next generation of climbers in our gyms. Each of our nine locations has one or more youth teams, and while our focus has primarily been on making […]
