It was a day like any other East Bay summer day…skies gray with fog and cold weather clothing abound. There was something different about this day though. More than just the marine layer in the air was the smell of cookies, pies, cakes…and climbing shoes. BIW’s teen team, The Flash Mob, kicked booty baking goods […]
Summer is a great time for climbing trips. The alpine climbing in the Sierra, bouldering in Squamish, big wall climbing in Yosemite, traditional climbing in the Needles, and sport climbing in the far off regions of Rifle are all in great condition. Fill the car, grab a plane ticket and you’re off to the climbing. […]
Touchstone Climbing is excited to be opening the largest bouldering only gym in Los Angeles this year. LA Boudlders, or the LA.B, will be located in down town LA in the Arts District. Our design team has been working closely with Walltopia to create new and exciting climbing terrain for Southern California climbers. “It took […]
Team bonding is a science, and one that we don’t take lightly here at Touchstone. This Summer Jeremy Yee, the manager of Great Western Power Company in Oakland, lead his staff on a 10.5 miles torture slog, otherwise known as the Tough Mudder Race. The whole team crossed this finish line with arms linked and […]
The Brotherhood of the Traveling Sombero, a team of down hill mountain bikers sponsored by Touchstone Climbing, recently completed their first race at Northstar with solid results. We caught up with them this week to get the scoop on the race. “Northstar, which is infamous for dust and rocks, did not disappoint for the first […]
James Lucas has been climbing in Rifle Colorado, and submitted this trip report to the Touchstone Blog along with some great photos. Rifle Colorado offers some of the best sport climbing in the United States. The two mile canyon hosts hundreds of steep limestone routes. The approach to the crags vary from a short […]
Stacks of stones line the trails in Yosemite. Piles of rock often mark the summits of mountains. These groups of rocks, called cairns, are found all over the world, varying in size from small stone markers to enormous conical rock piles. For climbers, cairns often mark turns in the trail. Cairns are indispensable for finding […]
Every Spring and Fall, Great Western Power Company, our Oakland location, hosts “Girlz Climb On”, a climbing adventure program for young women, administered and organized by GirlVentures. Since they have another session coming up this Fall, we decided to check in with the GirlVentures Team to learn more about this amazing program! Can you describe […]
There was something profoundly terrifying about watching my climbing partner’s left shoe float away from his twisting body and fall a thousand feet onto the boulder field below us. The nut Will Skinner was standing on had just pinged out of the crack and Will was falling backwards in what seemed like slow motion. After […]
The 2014 Touchstone Climbing Series is winding down.. with a triumphant roar! Here is everything you need to know to prepare for the Rope Climbing Finale at Mission Cliffs on October 25th. What it is: TCS2014 is a 9 month comp series that has visited each and every Touchstone Climbing gym. Over 2,000 climbers from […]
