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 March 13th and 14th

Reset Update

We reset the Dojo…

Several setters came in and stripped late Monday night to make sure we’d have enough holds for Tuesday (since density is up most of our holds are up on the walls right now). Though he’s been extremely busy with school and coaching, Garrett came in and helped us and ended up setting a problem as well. It’s on the far left of the Dojo and actually starts on the river wall and moves right into the Dojo at that sweet new DRCC sloper you can see in the left edge of the above picture. 3 more of those awesome slopers are spread across the left Dojo and are on problems from 4- to 5+.

Tuesday it was me, Jay Jay, Danny, Nic, Jon, and guest setter Gabor. Wednesday it was me, Danny, Jon, Nic, and guest setter Alton Richardson.

I forgot to take a picture so I just trolled his Facebook and came up with this one. Alton Richardson Self Portrait.

Alton just finished up a stint at Urban Climber Magazine and now he runs shoes around the La Sportiva Warehouse and interns with Jon and Jordan at LT11. He grew up in California and used to set out there, so we brought him in to help us give the Dojo a much needed reset. Thanks for your help Alton!

As of Wednesday afternoon there are 45 new problems from 2 spot (yep, there’s one 2 and several 3s and 3+s) to 5+. Several accessible problems climb out the middle and sides of the big roof, the bulge, and the far right side of the dojo, and there are many difficult problems to test yourselves on as well.

Problem Of The Week

Problem of the week goes to Nic Sherman who put up this gem:

Location: Right Dojo

Nic’s problem starts on that e-grips loaf and climbs up through an e-grips sidepull and a Teknik gaston to some cool moves off a custom Revolution sloper, an older So Ill sloper, and another Revolution sloper to the big pink Climb-it feature at the top of the picture.

Enjoy!

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!

Gun Show Setting Has Begun

Tonight we stripped the Dojo and the Beach.  Tomorrow we’re setting ‘em, but the rest of the gym is still open for your climbing pleasure.  Tomorrow night around 9 we’re gonna start dropping walls, but as usual there should be some left to climb on until regular closing time at 11pm.  Fun!  Jon and Johnny are both unavailable for this comp, but luckily Donell is able to help us out.  Get psyched!

So how hard are the open finals gonna be?

This hard!

Updates and Rankings and Chicks

Ok, so last week Jon was in Europe and I was back and we washed a bunch of holds and redid the Dojo.  And I went to Urban Climber to try and help rank boulder problems.  Oh yeah, and Jay Jay got her chickens.  What?  Read on.

Dojo reset day 1. The wall is much more full now.

Me, Jonny, Danny, Garrett, Nic, Carlo and Jay Jay set, as usual, a ton of problems on the Dojo including several lines out the roof, the favored low-back-of-the-cave traverse, and some world-cup style techy problems like Carlo’s white on the far left dojo.  Also Jonny tried to bomb Carlo with an exercise ball but Carlo was hiding out in the cave so he finally got tired of waiting and settled for Danny instead:

Bombs away!

Last night I went into the offices of Urban Climber with my roommate Kevin Cuckovich.  We met up with Jason Kehl and Jamie Emerson and Andrew Tower and attempted to make heads and tails of the user-submitted lists of the best boulder problems in the USA.  We called, facebooked and texted everyone we could think of for more input, then set to the extremely difficult task of sorting through and ranking the top 100 problems from those submitted and those we thought up.  The list is far from perfect and probably incomplete but it’s in progress.  Here is us about 4 hours in.  However it comes out, remember that it’s easy to make a list like this in theory, but in practice it is quite difficult.

So, wait...where is the Spectre again?

Also, Jay Jay has been talking non-stop about the impending arrival of her baby chickens at the post office, and yesterday around 10:30 she got the call and had to rush down there to take them home to their new coop.

Jay Jay's babies

She says she’s not gonna eat them.  We’ll see how it goes.  For now it’s just all about getting them old enough for egg production.

Setting Update for 7/5 and 7/6

Jonny givin' it to his pink problem. Check out the volumes!

The Dojo is all brand new.  Yesterday Nic, Carlo, Garrett, Jon, Danny, and Jay Jay stripped and set several problems, mostly on the left side of the Dojo as Carlo took the opportunity of the blank right wall to put up the 4 triangle volumes and set a white boulder reminiscent of a World Cup competition problem.  Jon also managed to set a top notch simulator, on that wall, the top hold of which you can see in the middle right side of the above photo.

New Right Dojo

Today Jay Jay and Garrett were gone and Jonny and I were here and we added a bunch of problems to the whole Dojo so now there should be plenty for you to climb including the full range of 4 spots (and assorted other problems) going out the middle of the big roof.  The blue 4- is the easiest of the bunch, and really might be 3+, so if you’ve never tried climbing out the dojo but always wanted to now might be the time.

Enjoy!

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!

The Gun Show setting has begun! (and schedule)

The setting process for SBS Season VI Comp #1 (aka The Gun Show!) has begun!  Tonight we and several wonderful volunteers stripped and cleaned up the beach and the dojo.

We got everything done so fast that we had time to get the new volumes set up and we’re ready to come in tomorrow and start setting the comp problems on those two walls.  They are closed to climbing until the comp on Saturday (if you are competing, otherwise you have to wait til Sunday for new problem awesomeness).

If you are planning to climb in the Spot tomorrow, the Font, Hueco, River, and Yosemite will be open until at least 9pm.  After 9 we’re going to start stripping the gym systematically, so you should be able to climb til closing time-ish with little problem.  Friday we will be closed all day to set the remaining comp problems, so take a rest day and don’t forget to pre-register for the Gun Show! (link at top right)

The Gun Show is an ABS Sanctioned comp, so there’ll be 50 problems (Youth, Recreational, Intermediate, Advanced, and Open) + the usual pro finals, not to mention the huge raffle, free food and beer, and general frivolity you’ve come to know and love at Spot comps.  $30 competitors ($25 if you are a USA Climbing member) and $10 for all spectators after 4pm (includes free food/beer).  See you there!!!

Setting Update for 8.18 and 8.19

Most of us set 3 days this week, since we were on the Dojo and we did such a good job on the left Dojo on Tuesday that we felt the only thing to do was set the Right Dojo next.  We stripped it Wednesday morning and set a bunch of problems from 3 spot to 5 spot.

The Right Dojo on Wednesday Afternoon.

Despite having some of the biggest jugs in the world to set the roof with…

Biggest Jugs in The World!!! Most from our post-Battle order with finals hold sponsor Climb It

…the balance of the set was a little more toward the 4 and 5 end of the spectrum.  Actually, it was almost all 4′s and 5′s, though you should remember that a Right Dojo 4 spot is often juggier than a 3 on the river wall.  Anyways, today the boys and special guest setter Mark Heal from Brooklyn Boulders (a sweet gym in, you guessed it, Brooklyn) added a bunch more new problems and tried to even things out a little.  Brooklyn Boulders has a setting blog as well, though theirs is a little bit different than ours.

Guest Setter Mark Heal from Brooklyn Boulders

Oh yeah, and to continue the taping revolution, on Wednesday I tried out the fang technique.

The Fangs Taping Method

Or at least I think that’s what I’ll call it.  Other suggestions???

Setting Update for 6/15 and 6/16

Remember this hold?

Notice the proliferation of t-nuts on this baby. They're all sunk straight into the polyurethane, and are perfectly straight!

Check out the right river granite to see what Jon did with it–pretty cool.  On that note, it’s been a month since The Battle in the Bubble, so the strip and reset process is back to normal.  Last week we stripped and reset the left river granite, and this week we did the right river granite and left dojo.  Most of you will be glad to know that we took those big volumes off the bottom of the right river and added a few of ‘em back on, but higher up.  We’ve actually got quite a bit going on now in the volume department, between the Detroit Rock Climbing Company’s mini bolt-on volume (above), the two mini Motivation Volumes (also bolt-on) that Jonny brought back from his week of setting the World Cup in Vail (more on his role there to come soon), and several of our bigger gray triangles that require a slightly more involved mounting process.

We've got these Motivation Volumes, but ours are colored!

On the left side of the Dojo you will also see a brand new urethane PUSHER Molecule hold–one of the very first hollow-back Molecules in existence!  It’s a slightly larger pour than our old blue molecule, and it’s so big it’s almost its own volume.  Did we mention the hollow-back?

New Pusher Molecules!