Blog
Announcing: Pacific Pipe Climbing in West Oakland
Bay Area peeps, we have some VERY exciting news for you. Maybe the most. No, seriously, you should sit down for this one.
Touchstone Climbing 2018 Year in Review
This has been one heck of a year, friends! We started new partnerships while strengthening old ones, threw some incredible events, from our second annual Woman Up Festival and Battle of the Bay Bouldering Comp to our first Pride Parties, and had the honor of working alongside some of the hardest working orgs in the…
Member of the Month, Family Edition: Meet the Hersons
Epics at eight years old. The Nose in a day, without jumars, at 14. And now, the youngest free ascent of The Nose. The Hersons go hard, and they do it with great humor and in great style. Jim and Anne have been part of the Touchstone family since before Mission Cliffs was technically even…
Meet Canaan Vallejos, Our First Running Touchstone Athlete
Each one of our Touchstone Athletes embodies our core values, including a commitment to stewardship, community camaraderie, and pushing their limits—and Canaan Vallejos, former Dogpatch Boulders desk staff and our first ever running athlete, has all of that in spades. We sat down with him in this interview to get to know more about his…
The RV Project Trailer Build: Part 3
The Main Takeaways By Spenser Tang-Smith. This is the third installment in a three-part series from Spenser Tang-Smith, one half of The RV Project’s dynamic duo. Along with his partner Vikki Glinskii, The RV Project is their adventure across America in search of the country’s best climbing and most interesting people. All photos courtesy of RV Proj. If #Vanlife…
The RV Project Trailer Build: Part 2
By Spenser Tang-Smith. This is the second installment in a three-part series from Spenser Tang-Smith, one half of The RV Project’s dynamic duo. Along with his partner Vikki Glinskii, The RV Project is their adventure across America in search of the country’s best climbing and most interesting people. All photos courtesy of RV Proj. If #Vanlife has lost its…
Presenting: The Buttermilks Boulders Info Kiosk
You’ve heard it before: our outdoor spaces are getting loved to death. From erosion and social trails to littering and illegal fires, it’s a simple fact that the more people visit a place, the higher impact our presence will be. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Bishop, the small Eastern Sierra town with world-class…
The RV Project Trailer Build: Part 1
By Spenser Tang-Smith. Today we’re bringing you the first installment in a three-part series from Spenser Tang-Smith, one half of The RV Project‘s dynamic duo. Along with his partner Vikki Glinskii, The RV Project is their adventure across America in search of the country’s best climbing and most interesting people. All photos courtesy of RV Proj. If #Vanlife…
DeSENDber Stocking Stuffers and Holiday Gift Ideas for Climbers
Whether you’re a get-the-Christmas-tree-the-day-after-Thanksgiving type or more of a gift-giving/receiving opportunist, December is a time for all of us to come together and celebrate crispy temps and sending conditions. Nothing says “I want you to send” more than a thoughtful gift from you local climbing gym; and every Touchstone gym has a retail area…
Battle of the Bay 2018 Recap
We knew it was going to be big. We knew it was going to be badass. We knew it was going to be fun…but nothing could prepare us for the sheer awesomeness that was Battle of the Bay 2018. Battle of the Bay is already the largest indoor climbing competition in the U.S. Between the…
Team Touchstone at Color the Crag 2018
This year’s Color the Crag at Horsepens 40 in Steele, Alabama was bigger than ever. Offering an incredible array of climbing clinics, panels, and breakout sessions ranging from how to project outside to positive masculinity (not to mention some truly powerful events like a keynote delivered by James Mills, a performance by Deqn Sue, and a…
Member of the Month, Couples Edition: Lee Corwin and Christopher Rico
By Jason Bove. Hey you! Yes, you. What is it that you need in your life? Do you need more friendly vibes? How about more positive influences? Maybe a trip to the Greek Isles, or a venture out into the deep Burning Man playa fits your personality more. Whatever the case, you can be…