By Justin Alarcon. It is with a mixture of melancholy and great pride we announce that our dedicated routesetter, former Head Routesetter and Head of Construction, and dear friend Craig McClenahan is retiring after 25 years of working with Touchstone. Craig has been climbing for over 40 years. He got his start in the […]
Header photo by Andrea Laue. One of the many, many things that make Woman Up such an incredible event is its all-female routesetting crew. This year, we’re flying our setters in from Singapore to San Francisco so we can create something truly unique. These ladies are the best of the best, and we wanted to […]
Welcome to our latest installment of Better Know a Setter, featuring the incredible routesetters of Touchstone Climbing. Today we introduce you to Holland Pettingill, an OG out of the OC. With over a decade of climbing experience, she brings the fun to LA Area Touchstone gyms with her thoughtful, powerful problems that would be right at […]
Routesetter Kat Gentry is back in action this summer, setting boulder problems and routes at Touchstone Climbing Gyms around the Bay Area. Kat grew up at the gym, first as a competitive youth climber and then as a routesetter. We caught up with Kat to talk about how her routesetting style has changed, her climbing projects, […]
Front Desk Staff, Climbing Instructor, Youth Team Coach, Gym Manager, Route Setter, Assistant Route Setter, Head Route Setter…what do all these illustrious titles have in common? One man: Art Balaoro! Most recently, Art has taken on the challenge of Route Setting Foreman at The Studio. So what are his plans for our spunky little gym? […]
We’re happy to announce that after years of pondering, preparation and planning, we’re ready to go tapeless at Great Western Power Company in Oakland. Why are we going tapeless? Here are the three biggies: Going tapeless saves time. Our talented full time routesetting team spends about 1/3 of their time dealing with tape. They take tape […]
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 […]
Our route setters are at Sacramento Pipeworks day in and day out setting new routes and boulder problems so there is always something new to climb. Check out this video to meet the crew and see what it takes to be a Touchstone setter.
You know that feeling you get when you walk into the gym and BAM! It’s chalk full of brand new routes and boulder problems for you climb, crush and curse? We owe it all to our route setting crew. Route setters are, by nature, a different breed. The job is 3/4 manual labor, 1/8 creativity, […]
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 […]
