Do you see???

This is basically our motto.

Holds Everywhere! + New So Ill!

Some days routesetting can be a long and tiring job. Stripping, washing, setting, and holds holds holds. Sometimes things can get away from you…

We’re excited to be getting some brand new So Ill holds soon. Look for them on our walls in the next couple of weeks!

Awesome and Creative New Volumes

Found this via reddit. Some new volumes were up in this gym (not sure which one) and they took some pictures.

Looks legit? Except for that spinner.

They move around on the walls, which is weird.

Cause there’re people in ’em!

Best Costumes Ever?

Sweet!

See the rest of it  ::  Climbing Mutant Ninja Turtles – Imgur

Hueco Update! + 2013’s lookin’ buff!

The view from North Mountain at Hueco!

Well, I’m still in Hueco. Namesake of our Hueco boulder. The weather has been pretty good, sometimes sunny, sometimes windy, sometimes overcast, and lately quite cold!

Back in Boulder, Danny, Jonny, Jay Jay, Connor, and sometimes Ian and Jon are still keeping things fresh for everyone at The Spot while I’m gone. In fact, I heard Santa even stopped over on Christmas and set some extra routes!

For those who are interested, here are some pictures of my trip so far:

Sweet hold on South Mountain. Mammoth rubbing???

Trailer lyfe. Not a bad view.

Visiting Japanese climber Yuiko sending her first V5 with the classic Dragonfly. She went on the same day to send her first V7, Ides of March, also in a couple of tries, and to nearly flash Mangum (V9). Not a bad day!

Yuiko’s husband Yuta flashing Mangum (V9) via the lock-off-every-move method.

Chris on a last call attempt to top out the new line The Owl Charmer on East Mountain. 

~

I’ve spent some rest days taking showers, Internet-ting, and generally hanging out with my friends Rocco and Mary at the Hueco Hacienda.

Christmas at The Hacienda

The Hacienda is a sweet old adobe that used to be a religious retreat, meaning it has some amazing wooden front doors and lots of heavy woodwork. Inside it’s fairly well restored and Rocco and Mary are constantly working to make it even awesomer. One of the updates is new headboards for the beds that Rocco built. For the headboards our artist friend Nikias has been woodburning each mountain into an oval, then Rocco stains the outside of the board. Here are a few pictures of the process:

Nikias hard at work.

Woodburning done.

Stain part 1. A nearly finished product.

If you are thinking of coming down to Hueco, there are a few steps you’ll need to take. First of all, you should have a place to stay. You can camp at the Hueco Rock Ranch or at Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site. You can also stay inside at the Rock Ranch and at The Hacienda. For climbing you’ll need to have North Mountain Reservations or tours scheduled. Learn more at these links:

Hueco Rock Ranch – American Alpine Club (camping, house stays, tours, pads)

Wagon Wheel Coopt – Welcome (request commercial tours)

PARK ACCESS – The Hueco Hacienda (tours, rental pads, chalk, tape, brushes, links, phone numbers, and other info)

~

And finally…

Found this on Facebook. The photo looks old, but it’s definitely Baby 2013, clearly he has been in training to be a strong year! Time to crush!

Happy New Years Everyone!

Setting Update + Mini-Comp + 2 Years, and what has changed?

Setting Update

As you know, we had the Highballs & Highlines comp last week. That means this week was the first part of the reset. We got problems up on the Dojo, Full Hueco, Full River, and Full Font. Next week, the Beach!

Mini Comp

Things were a little different than normal because we ran a mock-onsight comp for our Comp Team to get them ready for Regionals this weekend in Fort Collins. We closed off the Dojo and Back Hueco and set 4 sets of 3 boulders of ascending difficulty. Each set had the first problem on the Right Dojo or in the cave, the 2nd problem on the Back Hueco Scoop, and the 3rd problem on the Left Dojo Belly.

The format is 4 minutes on, 30 sec transition, 4 minutes rest, 30 sec transition, 4 minutes on, etc…  If you finish the problem you get to rest the remainder of that 4 minute climbing period + your 4 minute rest period before climbing again. Tries count, so you want to onsight. If you’d like to check them out, here are the sets:

Set 1

Female Jr/Male Youth A (16-17) – Purple Tape

Prob 1  Right Dojo arete, compression, 4+

Prob 2  Starts on right side of back scoop on two purple e-grips scoops, moves up and left through scoop, finishes by downclimb. 4+

Prob 3  Starts on left side of Left Dojo Belly, big moves up thin crimps, 5-

~

Set 2

Female Youth B (14-15) – Blue tape

Prob 1  Right Dojo by Yosemite Wall 4/-

Prob 2  Back Hueco Scoop, starts on yellow sloper on left side and moves up and right. (This problem was also used for Youth C) 4-

Prob 3  Left Dojo starts on right side, moves left through good holds and straight up. 4

~

Set 3

Female Youth C/Male Youth C (12-13) – Orange Tape (and blue for prob 2)

Prob 1  Starts left side of Dojo Cave, climbs straight out. 4

Prob 2  Shared with FYB Prob 2 – Yellow sloper on left side of Back Hueco Scoop, climbs up and right, blue tape. 4-

Prob 3  Starts on large red rail on left side of Left Dojo, climbs up through pinches. Orange 4+

~

Set 4

Youth D (11 and under) – White Tape

Prob 1  Starts back right Dojo Cave, climbs straight out to lip. 3+

Prob 2  Starts Left side of Back Hueco Scoop, climbs up and right. 4-

Prob 3  Starts left arete of Left Dojo Belly, climbs out face, then back up and left. 4/+

~

2 Years…

At lunch yesterday Jonny, Connor, Jon, and I decided to take a shot like the shot for the Colorado Daily that our friend, photographer Greg Mionske took a few years ago. When I got home I found the old shot and realized they were taken almost exactly two years apart. We are more-or-less the same…Jon looks older and he and I are both wearing updated Sportiva Hoodies from the old ones we were wearing in the original. Connor and Jonny both seem to be wearing the same pants and Jonny perhaps the same jacket as well. Connor’s got a little bit more of a beard. Overall though, as Jon said, “What are we doing with our lives?!”

Setting Update for Aug 14/15 & 21/22 + Yay Dave! + Yay Connor! + GATOR!!!

Setting Update for August 14th & 15th

Sorry I didn’t update last week, but here are pictures of the new Hueco Frontside if you haven’t seen it yet:

The new right front Hueco

The new front Hueco

New left Hueco

We set several problems specifically for the Youth Team Tryouts, including several harder problems set specifically for much smaller folks and 3 sets of dynos on the right front Hueco. Enjoy!

Setting Update for August 21st & 22nd

Here is a picture of this week’s wall, the River:

The only picture I took of the River wall. Sorry. You’ll just have to go in and see it!

~

Yay Dave!

Dave is staying! He will keep setting Tuesdays at the Spot through the fall though intermittently he’ll be returning to Boston to set The Dark Horse Series Comps. We are glad to give you the chance to climb his problems while he is in town.

Hey Dave! “What?” Snap.

~

Yay Connor!

We are also glad to announce that our buddy Connor Griffith will begin setting regularly at The Spot once he returns from his family vacation. Connor has been helping us out at comps and random other times for the past several years.

Connor also climbs on real rock!

~

Gator!!!

Also this week Jon got eaten. He will be missed.

Queue scary jaws-like music

See you next Wednesday at the Welcome Back Bash!

Strange Hold Placement and Alternative Taping – Why and Why Not?

We have many many ongoing jokes in the setting crew, and a few of them revolve around proper hold placement and taping practices. We have had sort of an informal competition going on for a while now. Here are a couple of examples from this week.

Strange Hold Placement

From Jon comes this new standard for a low foothold at The Spot. We’re calling it the Colorado Start Foot after some commonly-used, questionably attached low start feet on certain problems in the <cough> Poudre Canyon and <cough> RMNP.

So low it is pressing the pad down.

It actually works pretty well on the problems it’s on though. And it is on two, Black and Neon Green. The Neon Green tape is on the other side of the hold because Jay Jay couldn’t fit it under this side.

Alternative Taping

On Tuesday of this week, while Jonny (who has been the taping guru) was at his other job, Danny and Jon set this little present for him:

Danny and Jon’s little masterpiece

All the holds on one piece of tape. It actually climbs quite well too. But on Wednesday after Jonny saw it and we all laughed, we took it down. So why did we take it down? Why won’t something like this work in the gym regularly? There are a few reasons.

1) It is a waste of tape. And tape is not cheap.

2) Scuffing. This is what happens when the tape begins to roll off the wall. When people slide their feet down the wall and hit the tape it can start to roll, tear, or pull off entirely. With a long piece of tape like this there is a lot of opportunity for scuffing the tape off, and, as we all know, scuffed tape looks bad. Also if the tape comes off it makes it harder to climb the problems since it’s hard to figure out where they’re supposed to go. On this topic, please pay attention to your footwork!  : )

3) Can interfere with other problems on the wall.

4) Most problems have holds outside the line, and we don’t want to tape spider webs for each problem.

At Psychedelia we set many interesting tape jobs, but for the rest of the year the simple 45 degree right rule seems to keep the gym looking its best.

See you at The Spot!

2012 Men of Routesetting Calendar!

Yep, they did it again. The stats:

~ 12 new setters

~ professional photographers

~ Baskit underwear

~ only $3/calendar, and all proceeds go to The Access Fund!

Click the 2012 MORS Baskit Ad below, get the calendar, support a good cause!

 

Gladiator Finals TODAY!!!

That’s right.  Today!  So what are you doing sitting around in front of the computer? Grab your climbing shoes and get on down to the Spot for the most fun you can have on a snowy day in Boulder. If you missed Thursday’s post, here’s a bit more about the comp and the schedule – Gladiator Finals on Saturday!!! The Setting has begun!. Read on for the top 10 reasons you should come to SBS 7’s Gladiator Finals at The Spot!

10. Snow. It snowed two nights ago. It snowed yesterday. It snowed last night. It’s supposed to snow today. It’s supposed to snow Monday. The high for the next 3 days is something like 29 degrees. It is time for indoor entertainment.

Figure 1. Snow

9. 42 new boulder problems!  Jackie (that’s me), Jonny, Nic, Danny, Carlo, and Jay Jay set 10 problems for each category and two pro finals to boot! We were assisted with setting by Gabor Szekely as well as past Spot head setters (and current BRC setter) Seth Lytton and (current Movement setter) Jamie Emerson.

8. Pro forerunning! In addition to the setters and guest setters, forerunners included Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson! Paul and Daniel are both in town between jet setting around the world to take down and put up the hardest lines on the planet. Along with some friends, Daniel and Paul have recently formed a media company called “Welcome to the Hood“. In case you were wondering, Daniel foreran instead of competing because he had to fly out to Boston where he, alongside our own head setter Carlo, will be competing at the Dark Horse Comp . Paul has a pretty bad fingertip flapper so he’s not competing either. Don’t be dismayed though, when the big boys came to forerun they brought their guns along to make sure that the open problems are high quality and no walk in the park.

The Welcome to the Hood boys looking hood.

7. Free Avery Beer

It's local, it's delicious, and we've got it at the Gladiator Final!

6. Free Mix 1

Where do you think the setters get all the energy to set and forerun for two long days pre-comp? Mix 1!

5. Improved paddage. The Beach Pads got an overhaul for increased flatness. Yes, they are still uneven foam. Yes, it’s best to fall in a relaxed manner. But check out this smoothness!

The Beach landing is looking pretty smooth...

4. We got some new holds! Our buddies over at new hold company Urban Plastix hooked it up with some of their new shapes. The urethane is the same high quality that E-grips and Teknik are made of and the shapes we got are a combination of basic goodness (a variety of wide pinches) and Brooklyn style (red brick crimps and the big brick hold featured in the photo below). We’ll write more on ’em later, but if you want to check them out (and you know you do) get on Advanced 4 in the middle of the River Wall.

A preview of Advanced 4 featuring Urban Plastix

3. Did we mention the weather report?

2. Huge Raffle. For the last comp of the season we’re pulling out all the stops and giving away a TON of gear. Competitors and spectators get 1 raffle ticket for free, and additional tickets are only $2 a pop or 3 for $5. Not a bad deal when you could walk away with new climbing shoes, a new crashpad, a new wardrobe from Vertical Girl, or one of our other high value prizes.

1. IT’S A SPOT COMP! 

Need we say more?

Doors open for the adult comp at 5. Finals start around 8:30. See you there!

Sh*t Climbers Say – From Louder Than 11 and Andrew Tower of Urban Climber Mag

Perhaps you’ve seen a version of this very popular “sh*t [girls, guys, etc…] say” meme.  Now there’s one for climbers, too.  Enjoy!