Setting Update – May 28 & 29

Today we finished setting the Front Hueco. We had a great hold selection including our new Urban Plastix, new So Ill from last week, some of our new Kilter holds, and old standbys including newish Tekniks and E-Grips. We expanded the set around to both the East and West faces of the Hueco so you should find plenty of space to climb on new problems. Enjoy!

It is Climbing Wall Association Conference week, which means climbing industry professionals from across the US are in town attending conference activities and visiting gyms, and so we wore our fancy setting shirts today. Jaime came down and took a picture, and the boys absolutely love having their pictures taken, so this is what happened:

From left, on the ladder: Me, Lily, Jonny, and Ian; In the ladder: Connor, Danny.

Lily isn’t actually upset, she’d just been outside and come in to find us all on the ladder and wasn’t sure what was going on until after the picture was taken. The rest of us, obviously, are having a wonderful time.

Come in and check out the new Front Hueco!

Quick Setting Update

This week we added a bunch of climbs to both sides of the Dojo and Hueco boulders. Next week, the Beach!

The week of Thanksgiving is pre-comp week so there will either be a light set, adding problems without stripping anything, or no set, depending on setters’ schedules. We’ll keep you posted.

Get in here and check out the new problems!

Setting Update for 5/15 and 5/16 + Broken Holds + New Setting Board + Falling Clinic with Timy Fairfield

Hokay, we had sort of a big week for how mellow of a week we thought it’d be.

Setting Update

Tuesday Jonny, Carlo, Jay Jay, Danny, Ian and I stripped the front of the Hueco boulder and added a bunch of new problems. Our good buddy Jordan came in and helped wash so we got a full setting session out of Ian and you can check out his unique take on movement with several problems on the left side (small scoop) of the front Hueco. Here is what the boulder looks like:

The New Front Hueco

Trust Falls with Timy

Wednesday we were going to fill-in the boulder a bit more but we ended up spending most of the day doing a falling clinic with Timy Fairfield. Timy is a long-time fixture in the climbing community–he has had a long career as a competitor, trainer, setter, and consultant. He came in to give us a presentation about falling–how other sports approach it vs how bouldering approaches it, the best techniques for falling as safely as possible, and what steps we should take to help people learn to fall better. If you want to know more about Timy go to his website here - timyfairfield.com: The Spot.

Most of the clinic participants: (top) Adam, Clink, Dan, Timy, Me, Danny, Jonny, Jon Grayson, Carlo, Kellen (bottom) Brett, Jay Jay, Josh, Nesto (Timy’s buisness partner)

Broken Holds

Other exciting happenings this week – we broke a bunch of holds. Yep. Really only 4, but I think I’m going to start sharing pics of the holds we break so people can see what is breaking and how it is breaking. Here’s this week’s broken line-up:

This one is a shame. An older Climb-it hold (from the first Dojo order). Sadly between the two fractures this one is toast.

A broken Climb-it hold. Fractured near the base of the bolt tube – a common breaking point for this hold, we’ve already lost 1 this way.

Another Climb-It victim. Another hollow-back bolt tube failure.

I’m not sure what this hold is. The back totally blew out. I think it is maybe a Rock Candy, as the mix is similar to a few other Rock Candy holds we have, but I’m hesitant to say so for sure since I’m not 100% sure and I think they’re still mad at us for our last hold review on them. It might also be a Vision hold? It definitely glows in the dark, and the breakage was due to it being soft I guess since the fractures almost look like how Jello tears.

New Setting Board

Finally, we got a new setting board!  Our bios are way smaller (turns out other departments wanted part of our wall too) and we’ve got a new system for putting up the problem #s, the new set #s and picture, and soon a “next set” and “problem of the week” will be added too. Here’s Jay Jay showing off what it currently looks like:

 

Quick Reset Update + An Interesting Solution

Reset Update

So in the last week we’ve reset the River, Dojo, Hueco, and today the Beach. Tomorrow is the Font, and it’ll be open around four pm. We’ve set a ton of problems of literally all grades so come on in and finish those comp projects and try out all our new lines as well.

 

An Interesting Solution

A popular problem at the Gladiator Finals was the intermediate on the slab. This problem consisted of two big footholds low down on the wall that you could either perch on or jump off to reach the big yellow HRT volume. From there one had to smear on the wall or jump to a large yellow Ruckus cone hold and then mantle off the volume to finish on top of the slab. A few people mantled on the volume without using the cone at all. I almost set the problem that way, but I added the cone to make the boulder a mid-intermediate instead of a low advanced. In any case, this young woman found an interesting solution to the “how-to-get-to-the-cone” problem:

Ok, so she's got the volume. Now how to get to the cone?

Ok, so maybe try a heel up?

And rock. This does not look super comfortable...

Yes, it did work. Apparently she does yoga. A lot. Nice job on finding an original solution to this boulder problem!

Quick Setting Update for 6/7 and 6/8

If you’ve been in the gym you’ll have noticed the brand new problems covering the front of the Hueco boulder.  The crew was small this week–on Tuesday it was Danny, Carlo, and I with Garrett for two hours in the morning.  It took us quite a while to strip the whole boulder, not to mention the several stuck holds, but after lunch we were very productive and put up one of each grade from 3- to 5+.

Garrett and Danny ready for our lunch time field trip.

On Wednesday Garrett and Jonny were with us for the whole day and we filled in the front of the boulder as best we could with many awesome and challenging problems.  If you’re climbing 5+, you should definitely check out the white up the center of the boulder.  If you get stuck navigating the two crimps and bubble wraps, ask a setter for the secret beta.  Also good for 4 spot climbers are the green and blue in the small scoop, and for 3 spot climbers there are several nice problems across the whole front of the boulder.  We ate way too much lunch on Wednesday, since we went to Modmarket and got huge salads, then ate cookies I made at home, then for some reason on the way back to the Spot we went to Ripple for frozen yogurt.

Yeah. Yum.

Then we went back to the gym to finish setting and forerun.  So if the problems from Wednesday feel soft, this is probably why.  We all gained 20 lbs at lunch.  Next week?  The Beach!

Gladiator Finals Reset Update

As usual after a big competition, the setters spent the week resetting as quickly as possible so you will have a ton of new stuff to climb on.  Some of us were tired, some of us were sore, and some of us were a little goofy, but we got problems up on the whole River wall, the whole Dojo, the whole Hueco, and the whole Beach.  Tomorrow the Font may see some problems, depending on the outcome of tonight’s Beta session.  No, really, it just depends on everybody’s busy schedule.  Anyways, here are some pictures from the last four days:

On Monday, Carlo dropped a wrench on his face.

On Tuesday, Jon got back from the tradeshow and brought Danny a backpack with his picture on it from their mutual sponsor Revolution. We made him wear it all day.

Then Jon set a very creative start to a boulder in the right dojo.

Danny solved the problem another way, but Jon didn't really fit...

Carlo had to try it out as well...

Then Carlo became a "happy baby chalk bucket" which Jon had to try out. Nic watched with amusement from a hold bucket.

When we got back from lunch we found that somebody made their own very rugged parking spot.

Carlo sporting new Verve 4-way stretch camo Xeno pants while Danny foreruns the Beach.

Danny demonstrating the correct spotting position while Jonny does Carlo's technical blue 5- on the far right beach.

Left River

Right River

Right Dojo

Left Dojo

Hueco Front Scoop

Hueco Front Small Scoop

Hueco Back Scoop

Left Beach

Left Middle Beach

Right Beach

Enjoy!

Highball/Highline Video from Jon Glassberg + Setting Update 12/8 & 12/9 + The Little Banana

Highline/Highball Video

Jon put together this nice short video with highlights from finals and the slackline competition.

Setting Update 12/8 & 12/9

Here are a few photos from yesterday and today’s setting sessions.  With our set of the Beach today we’ve got 4/5ths of the gym reset.  Yay!!!

The Hueco New Frontside

The Hueco New Backside

Carlo set this sloper problem on the Hueco yesterday, and nobody climbed on it but Carlo when we were forerunning. We thought this single handprint this morning was pretty funny.

New Left Beach

New Right Beach

New Middle of the Beach

See that blur in the left side of the picture? That's Carlo falling off the crazy sideways dyno he set on the new white problem. At least he didn't faceplant this time like he did on his first try.

The Little Banana

I stopped at the store on the way home today for a few things, and I found these bananas, which struck me as funny:

The Little Banana

A Foregone Conclusion and a Helpful Elephant + a Quick Setting Update for 11/2

...imagine the grass is pine needles...

So last weekend I was up in the Flatirons, probably 40 minutes from the nearest road, minding my own business and bouldering with some friends, when I happened upon this lying in this totally random off-trail place.  It looked almost exactly like this, except the case was flipped the other way so the camera and silence button and headphone jack weren’t exposed, and neither was the charger input at the bottom of the phone.  Basically, the 1/2 case was situated in such an accidently ideal way that it made the phone more or less watertight.  I probably would have picked it up no matter what was on the case, but the elephant journal.com sticker on the back made me think that the phone probably belonged to someone I knew, or a friend of someone I knew.  I figured I’d put a “found” notice up on elephant journal and the person, who is clearly a fan, would see it and know I’d found their phone.  In case you don’t know, elephant journal is this awesome alternative-news site that is run by local climber Waylon Lewis.  The site focuses on all different aspects of spirituality, yoga, awareness, green living, and other fun stuff.  It’s kind of like Huffington Post, but for spiritually aware, eco-minded folks.  There’s a link to it on our right links bar, cause we like it so much.  If you’ve never seen it, you should really check it out.  Click here: elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality.

Anyways, so I picked the phone up and turned it over, and this is what it looked like:

Probably didn't not fall off a cliff, is all I'm sayin'...

But still, it was just the glass.  I figured the phone might still work.  I picked it up and took it home.  The next day I remembered it was in my pack, and I plugged it in to charge.  After a few minutes, it woke itself up and turned on, and seemed to be working perfectly.  There were 4 waiting texts, 24 emails, and a number 17 in the red box on the phone icon.  Clearly it’d been lost for a while-a few days at least.  I thought for a minute about how to figure out whose phone it was without snooping through it too much.  I decided to start with contacts and see if there was anybody I knew in ‘em.  Turns out, there were two people I knew, who happen to be a married couple.  I still didn’t know whose phone it was though, and I thought that saying “Hey, I found someone’s phone who has your number, do you know whose it is?” might be a little weird.  I decided email was the obvious next step, so I clicked the email icon and instantly was brought to gmail, which welcomed the phone’s owner by name.  Bingo.  I went onto Facebook to see if I could find the person.  I did, and I was in the middle of writing her a message, when I stopped short.  My pre-teen Encyclopedia Brown/Harriet The Spy/Nancy Drew reading kicked in.  ”The phone is pretty destroyed.”  I thought.  ”And it was way back in the woods.  I wonder if its owner met foul play?  I wonder if her kidnapper is checking her Facebook inbox.  He’ll see I found it, and it’ll have evidence on it that links him to her disappearance.  Then he’ll come find me!”  I know, it’s ridiculous. It’s how amateur spy novels always start though, right?  I’m a writer, I really can’t help imagination overload sometimes.  So anyways, I decided that I’d call our mutual acquaintance and find out if the owner was still alive.  I got voicemail though, so I had to leave a more…reasonable…message in which I asked if she could put me in touch with the owner.  Then I put the phone down and went back to my work.

A little while later, my subconscious spit an idea into my conscious train of thought–emails are dated, and since the phone was deactivated, the date of it’s last emails would be near to the date the phone was lost.  I opened the email again, and saw the date–September 11th.  Now, this is something impressive.  An iphone was lost, in the woods and rain and even snow, for almost two months, and besides the screen’s destruction, the phone basically worked good as new.  I figured if the owner disappeared almost two months ago we’d have heard about it by now, so it was probably safe to send her a message.  It also occurred to me that the owner might be a Facebook friend of The Spot, and that if she had current Facebook action that’d be a second confirmation that she wasn’t disappeared, so I logged in to the Spot Facebook  and looked her up.  Sure enough, she was there, and had even been to Psychedelia last week.  I sent her a message telling her I had her phone, and that it more or less worked, though it looked like it’d been dropped off a cliff.  She got back to me the next day telling me that, in fact, it HAD been dropped off of a cliff, and she was excited to come pick it up for her contacts and pictures on it.  And that, so far, is that.  I just want to reiterate something here though–I always think of iphones as fragile, but this one was dropped off a cliff, then exposed to the elements for SIX WEEKS before I found it, and when I plugged it in it started up like new.  I am IMPRESSED.  In a related note, the owner is part of a company that makes special gloves specifically for using touch screen smart phones in cold weather.  You can check ‘em out here: Conductive Gloves by Agloves.  Weird.  And speaking of weird…

In a cut scene from the Psychedelia video, here's Jay Jay Fester sneaking up behind Jon while he was talking into the camera.

Ok, so that’s enough of the phone story. though I’ll keep you all posted if there are any more exciting developments.  In Spot news for today, Jon had lunch with us and then got on his plane for Switzerland (and we’re all jealous), and Jonny, Danny, Garrett, and I set a bunch on the front of the Hueco Boulder.  We put up almost 20 problems from 3- to 5+, with the bulk being in the 3 and high 4/low 5 range.  Tomorrow it’s the Beach people.  We hope you got your fill of the finals problems, cause if you didn’t you’re just going to have to wait until next year.  New problems!  More new problems tomorrow!  Joy!!!

Setting Update for 8.31 & 9.1 + Carlo is a freak

This week we reset the front of the Hueco boulder.  It was just Jon, Carlo, Garrett, and I, as Jay Jay is out of town and Jonny has started his new job at the hospital.  Don’t worry, Jonny isn’t gone for good, but he can’t set quite as often cause he’s working nights in the ER and needs to get some sleep.  He did meet us for lunch on Tuesday.  We had Half-Fast, and a weird coincidence:

Usually we all get different cards... Maybe we should have gone to the casinos in Blackhawk instead of going back to work.

I didn’t take a picture of the new Hueco, but rest assured that there’re many fun new problems to climb.  We’re trying a new system in which we pre-assign a grade spread across the wall.  I can’t tell if it’s resulting in any more problems of any certain grade than we had before, but it does seem to get the setters branching out a little.  It’s also good for us in the run-up to comp season to practice hitting certain grades (usually we have a vague idea of how hard it’ll be and it usually falls around there, but with this system we’re trying to stay spot on). On that note, if you’re climbing 4-5- the new Hueco has a lot to offer you.  There are some good 3s as well, and some 5+s, but the 4-5- are really where it’s at!

Hueco Hold Selection set 1

To make it all possible, Jon spent a large part of Tuesday washing holds and washing the beer out of our setting buckets that were used as keg coolers for the Welcome Back Bash.  His efforts resulted in this:

Those buckets are bigger than Carlo!

Which is not why Carlo is a freak.  Wanna know why? Check out his new website:  Carlo Traversi to find out.  Later!