Before Dogpatch Boulders was even open, Manager Justin Alarcon had met Nilo Batle. Nilo and his brother lived close to the gym, and when Dogpatch Boulders hosted an open house for people to see how construction was coming along, they were the very first people through the door. Nilo has been a familiar face around the gym ever […]
Picture being run-out on desperate coastal climbing. When you look down, the only thing between you and a dip in the Pacific is a rusty bolt. Swimming back to the belay after a bolt failure sounds quite grim. Luckily, there are people out there to save you from the drink. Recently, Jim Thornburg along with […]
The second day of the Bay Area AF Rock Project Tour started out with a hearty breakfast at Berkeley Ironworks to fuel folks up for the morning of crag clean-up ahead. Shout out to the providers of the grub! Local and amazing coffee was provided by Artis Coffee whose owner, Alex Lowe (nephew of the THAT […]
This behemoth is at Dogpatch Boulders NOW, and is just waiting for you! Want the on-sight? Don’t watch the video till you’ve sent the problem and see if you climbed it like JHo. Stumped? Check out his beta and see if it helps you take this monster down! Big thanks to Five Ten for sponsoring […]
In his monthly installment of Better Know a Member, Sacramento Pipeworks staffer Jason Bove sits down with a member of the climbing community. Finding the time to participate in fun, athletic activities throughout the working week can be very difficult to do! For this month’s featured member, we try to find out how fitness can be squeezed into […]
“He told me there were three very important bases to progress in climbing or just to enjoy it,” Eline Le Menestrel and I sat on a small ledge below Pren Nota, a technical 8a in Siurana. The 16 year old had an impressive resume of climbs including Montserrat’s Sprint Final (8a+) and La Joia de La […]
Last Friday the 2015 season of the Touchstone Climbing Series continued at Diablo Rock Gym in Concord. We had 273 climbers turn in score cards, and many more came out to cheer on their fellow competitors and enjoy the atmosphere of the comp. As is customary at TCS comps, we had pizza for all […]
I’ve been climbing for several years, but it was just recently that I actually learned how to use my core. If someone told me to “core up!” I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. The story of how I learned is slightly embarrassing, but if it’s for the betterment of rock climbing, […]
In the mid-1970s, Kurt Albert painted a red X on the Frankenjura’s fixed pins. Once he was able to climb past the red pins without using them, he would put a red dot at the base of the route. The birth of the Rotpunkt, the red point began nearly forty years ago. Since Albert’s early […]
“The first step is realizing that it’s possible,” Ethan Pringle advised me. While climbing in Siurana, a crimpy limestone area in Catalonia, Spain, I wanted to onsight 7b+ (5.12c). I’d managed to tick off a number of 7a+ (.5.12a) routes and had built a solid base. The past few days, I’d been trying more 7bs […]
