Texture Close-Up + Summer Jam & Beach Reset!

A close-up of the new Motivation texture on our new purple volumes.

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Beach Reset

We reset the Beach yesterday and today. New Motivation Volumes, World Cup trainers, problems of all grades and many different styles…and all above our brand new Futurist floor!  Here are some pictures, but come in and check it out.

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Summer Jam

The Spot Summer Jam Member Appreciation party was today, and it was good to see so many folks show up for bacon cheeseburgers, veggie burgers, Avery beer, new problems, and a sweet raffle. Thanks to The Spot community for coming out and celebrating with us!

Here’s Dan the man with his adorable youngest daughter:

And here’s a picture of Coach Andy bbq’ing in our old hold washing rain pants:

See you at The Spot!

 

Quick Setting Update + New Volumes + Summer Jam + World Cups and Sean McColl’s First Bouldering World Cup Win!

Quick Setting Update + New Volumes!

We stripped the Beach today, first strip over the new floor and so far so good. Danny, Ian, Jonny, Connor, Lily, and I set some of the problems with the upcoming North American World Cups in mind–we want to help train Team USA climbers who live here so they’ll be in shape for Canada and Vail, and we also want to give visiting International World Cup circuit climbers some great problems to climb on when they come visit us in the week leading up to Vail.

Team Austria preparing for Vail at The Spot a couple of years ago

We always enjoy having the WC competitors acclimating at The Spot, and we’re excited to see everyone again this year.

In other exciting news (and to help with comp style setting) we just got a shipment of Motivation Volumes in, some with the new World Cup texture. You’ll notice the stickier purple volumes–those are the World Cup texture. The lighter pink volumes have another Motivation texture on them.

Check out the new volumes and the new problems on The Beach today (more coming tomorrow) and get a feel for some of the types of holds you’ll see on the wall at the Vail World Cup!

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Summer Jam

The Spot’s annual Welcome to Summer Member Appreciation event–Summer Jam–is happening tomorrow!

Members get in free ($10 or a climbing daypass for all others) and we’ll be serving up BBQ and Avery beer and giving away a bunch of stuff in a sweet raffle, including a Black Diamond crashpad donated by our friends at MooseJaw.

We’re also going to be selling our $150/3 months paid in full Summer Membership. The Summer Membership is a limited time offer, so don’t miss it! It’s a great deal and a good back-up plan for warming up before going to your projects outside, climbing while holding down a “real job”, or keeping in shape over summer with Colorado’s increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. We’ve got a roof to keep out sun and rain, and we’ve got AC and we’re not afraid to use it. So come on down, bring your family, friends, and roommates to Summer Jam!

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Sean’s Big Win

With the exception of the Vail event there are usually only a couple of competitors in the World Cups from North America. One of the regulars is Canadian Sean McColl. If you’ve watched any IFSC Lead or Bouldering events in the past few years you’ve probably seen Sean compete. He is a regular on the world podium and runs a well written blog with updates on training and competing. Anyways, Sean is one of the few holding it down from this half of the world, and we are super psyched for him on his first Bouldering World Cup win last weekend in Slovenia.

Sean after flashing the last boulder. When he flashed it he knew he’d won.

He climbed extremely well in finals. Amazing job Sean!

Read his impressions of the event here: My First Bouldering World Cup Victory | Sean McColl

Spot Blog coverage here: IFSC Bouldering World Cup 2013 #4 – Log Dragomer – Finals

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More updates and fresh problems tomorrow. Don’t miss Summer Jam!

Setting Update!!!

New Right Dojo

Another look…

Jonny, Danny, Connor, Ian Dory, Lily, and I set 30-something new problems out the roof and on the Right wall.

Highlights

There are some nice balance/technique testers on different styles of holds–slopey, crimp, pinch, disc–in the 3+, 4-, 4 range on the far right, as well as a fun 2-.

Lily set a long 4+ traverse out from the inside right side of the cave (white with a blue strip) that gets easier as you go and is good for working endurance and body tension on mostly flat holds.

Ian D set a white 4- that climbs straight out the roof on comfortable incut flakes and eases up at the lip.

Jonny set a pink 5 out the roof that has a pogo-double-dyno on it.

There are actually several dynos in the roof, if you are into that sort of thing. Check out my red 4 that starts on the right wall inside of the roof, and check out Connor’s dark green 5- that starts in the middle of the roof and dynos straight out.

Connor also set an awesome 5-, white, on the right arete that climbs up into the large orange myorcean tufa (just right of the climber in the photo above).

Danny set some awesome 4+s and also a really cool tensiony 5 (black, right wall).

I put up a purple juggy spectacular that climbs out the right side of the roof on some huge holds.

Next week we’re resetting the Beach.

Enjoy!

After lunch the boys set off in search of new terrain. They didn’t get far.

Quick Setting Update

Jonny, Danny, Connor, Lily, and I stripped the Right Dojo and set a bunch of problems today. More coming tomorrow. Enjoy!

The Spot – Early May Setting Update + Spring in Review

It’s been a long period of short updates (besides comp coverage) and so here is a little review of what we’ve been up to lately:

fig 1. Connor’s ‘stache.

1) Connor rocked a mustache for a few weeks (fig 1). You might call it a bit of a  social experiment, as he learned some things. Most women liked it. Most men either thought it was awesome or thought it was creepy. Awesome = comfortable with their manhood, creepy = they were threatened by it. Connor looked pretty amazing, obviously, and when he felt like it could deadpan creep out stare like nobody’s business.

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2&3) We got a new setting closet. We moved from behind the River (fig 2) to the room that makes up the front half of the hold washing room. There are some things we will miss about the old room though (fig 3).

fig 2. The Old Closet

fig 3. awwww

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fig 4. Ian cleanin’

4) Ian Dory and I built some shelves in the new closet.

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fig 5. Progress?

5) Jay Jay started collecting tape for “the world’s biggest tape ball”. She’s convinced she’ll easily beat the current world record. We told her she can but she has to keep the tape ball somewhere else, and it can’t interfere with work.

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fig. 6

6) Danny put up the lunch rope and got carried away.

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fig 7.

7) The best block ever? Yeah, I did this.

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fig 8. New Floor under the Beach

8. We got our new flooring in under The Beach! More new floor, in the whole gym, coming mid-July!

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fig 9.

9. Jonny went all yacht club for the day in his Adidas Routesetter shirt, his fancy Verve pants, and his USAC Setter Sweatshirt.

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fig 10.

10. The septuplet tape job on the new Dojo.

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fig 11.

11) And finally, last week we reset the LEFT DOJO! Tons of new problems on the left bulge and the right side of the mid-Dojo overhanging arete. We’ve set more 2s and 3s than ever before on the left Dojo, so if you’ve never climbed on the Dojo might be a good time to try it. We’ve also got a bunch of everything else, so everyone should find something to send and project.

Enjoy!

Quick Setting Update

Today we reset the Left Dojo. Tomorrow we will be adding to it. The crew today was me, Jonny, Connor, and Danny. Tomorrow we will have Ian Dory as well. Enjoy!

Quick Setting Update + Setter Board

Sorry for the short update, but for all who are interested (or just tired of the constant snow/wet cycle Colorado has been in) this week we set the Left River and Right River. An inventory graph of current problems up in the whole gym is posted next to the setting closet. In addition, there are graphs posted for each wall, a few notes on setting, and some bad bolts and bad t-nuts that you can examine if you want to better understand why we don’t hand out wrenches.

Enjoy the new problems, and if you’re looking for used holds don’t miss The Spot garage sale on Friday!

 

Quick Setting Update + Loop Holds on the BHCL

Quick Setting Update

We were going to reset just Front Hueco this week but we had enough setters to take down the whole boulder and get a pretty good fill up on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Lily and Ian Powell came in early Thursday morning to add even more problems! We’ve had a mix of feedback on the new/old grade scale and have been adding “bridge” problems at the upper and lower ends of all the spot grades SO, for example, you may find some 4 spots easier or more difficult than others because they are part of the bridge to 4- or 4+. We’ve tried to do this through the grade scale this week on the Hueco and last week on the Font, so hopefully this will help folks find problems to work on to take the step up to the next grade.

Enjoy!

Loop Holds on the Big Hold Company List

Just heard of this company via Facebook. They’re pouring polyurethane and have a small pro team that includes Brazilian crusher Felipe Camargo.

I have mixed feelings on their offerings, but variety is the spice of life, right? Also they seem to offer rubber bolt-hole plugs (to prevent the cheater’s thumb catch) which is cool.

Check out the Loop site here: LOOP WEAR & HOLDS. They are located in Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. We’ve also added them to The Big Hold Company List (links and a dropdown for different regions in the top menu).

Quick Setting Update + Floor In + Red Point Review Updated

Red Point Review Updated

The Red Point Climbing Holds review from last week has been updated a little–they took steps on the breaking mini-jug issue and are reshaping for more durability. Click here to read the Red Point Review.

Quick Setting Update

This week we set on the Font boulder. Danny, Jonny, Connor, Jay Jay, Chris Schulte, me, Ian Powell, Ian Dory, and Lily all put up a bunch of problems of all grades. Go in and check ‘em out!

Aly Dorey testing out the new floor under The Beach!

Floor In

The new floor is in under the Beach! It’s pretty awesome. If you have any questions about the new floor please don’t hesitate to ask the Front Desk. The rest of the gym floor will be resurfaced this summer.

Ian Poster + Setting Update + Art Show + New Floor! + SCS Nationals

Adidas sent us this sweet poster of Spot Setter and Coach Ian Dory getting 2nd at ABS Nationals. We are so proud of Ian, and so psyched to have him on the side of the building!

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Quick Setting Update

It was the oldest set, and also we’re getting a new floor under it (see below), so we reset The Beach this week! Setters were me, Danny, Connor, Jay Jay, Jonny, Ian Dory, Chris Schulte, Lily, and Ian Powell. We saved some of the new Teknik and E-Grips to put on this wall, and we also had a bunch of the last set of new holds freshly washed for the new Beach set.

We set 56 new problems from 1 spot to 5+. Over 1/3 of the new set are 3 spot or easier, and over half of the new problems are 4- or easier, so everyone of every ability should find plenty to warm up on and project.

Next week we will reset The Font!

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Art Show

This is happening today, so come down and see the cool art that Spot climbers and staff have created. Painting, photography, drawing, wood cutting, jewelry, and more will be on display. Come on down and check it out!

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New Floor!

Ok, so as you know we’re installing our first bit of new floor in this weekend! The red Beach floor will be replaced with a new floor from Futurist climbing. Here’s a photo of some of it:

To see a full album of our new foam coming off the truck (and who wouldn’t?!) click here: Spot New Floor Part 1

The Beach will be closed Saturday and Sunday for the installation, but the rest of The Spot will be open, and Spot members will also be able to climb free at The BRC during the Beach closure this weekend.

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SCS Nationals

USA Climbing Sport Climbing Series National Championships is taking place this weekend in Boulder. LT11 will be live broadcasting here: LT11.tv  Don’t miss it!