Ian Dory is Awesome! + Setting Update – New Beach + New Floor Article

Quick Setting Update 

I’m back! So is Jay Jay! On Tuesday Connor, Jake, Ian, Lily, and Jay Jay set, today I joined them, and  now there are some 44 new problems on The Beach. Enjoy!

~

New Floor Article

The Colorado Daily thought it was pretty cool that we invested 180k in the new floor. Read their article here: Boulder’s The Spot climbing gym adds $180K of new flooring – Colorado Daily

~

Ian Dory Time!

We’re so psyched for Ian!  This is his first magazine cover, and it’s Rock and Ice’s Photo Annual! Very cool. He’s also been promoted to The Spot’s Head Coach and he’s already got some new work outs for the kids, and he’s been traveling with PCI and teaching clinics like this one he did at BKB Somersville‘s opening (click the name to check out their website, their new gym is amazing!):

He taught the lucky participants how to deal with little tricks like toe hooking and bicycling.

Yep, like that.

To see more photos of the event check out PCI (Pro Climbers International) on Facebook. Very cool Ian!

~

So that’s all for now. Hope you enjoy the new problems!

Advertisement

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!

~

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!

~

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

~

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

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!

~

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!

~

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!

~

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.

~

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!

Highlines & Highballs Open Final Result – UPDATED

Rob D flashing the Open Final by Keith North

The top 7 Men and 7 Women from the Adult and Junior sessions of the comp were invited to compete in the Open Finals. The problems were on the Beach, Women’s on the left, Men’s on the right.

Men’s

The Men’s Final was a short powerful climb on the right side of the Beach. The start was a balance move off a sloper, followed by a stand-up/jump to a pinch made of two slopers on a small triangle volume. From there climbers moved out right to their choice of a dream pocket and two huge slopers. There was a foot bicycle to help them wrangle the holds until their left hand was in the dream pocket (Final competitor Rob D’Anastasio actually ended up doing a fantastic rose move into the dream pocket!) Next a big move to a wide sloper pinch, a high foot and flag, and another fatty pinch and flat gaston. From there it was a foot switch and high right foot  and then a press into a sloper in the slight roof. Just around the corner above the lip was another volume with a sloper and a slopey ball on it. Competitors could either jump out of the press or reach around slowly and then jump to establish on the volume. Either way they took a massive nearly-horizonal swing, then had one more relatively easy move to a finish bucket.

The bottom moves gave many of the competitors trouble. Michael O’Rourke flashed through them, but after falling high up he fell several times before sticking the volume pinch again. On his last go he stuck it, then climbed through the problem and nearly finished it, falling on the final volume after swinging way out and coming off. It was a fantastic effort and earned him 3rd place. Matty Hong came out, 2nd place qualifier, and flashed the problem, sticking the horizontal swing as the crowd went absolutely crazy. This put a ton of pressure on 1st place qualifier Rob D’Anastasio, who knew he’d have to flash the problem to win. Rob handled the pressure well though, giving a great effort that involved the rose move at the bottom and sticking the top swing when everyone was sure he was off. I think his body literally went above his hand and somehow he managed not to let go. The crowd went crazy again and Rob maintained his first place.

1. Rob D

2. Matty Hong

3. Michael O’Rourke

4. Ben Hoberg (won our last 2 comps, was just under Michael O’Rourke’s highpoint here)

5. Matt Lubar (got to the press but didn’t get to the volume)

6. Remi Arata (got to hold 7 on his 1st try, then struggled)

7. Greig Seitz (struggled with the bottom, got to hold 7 on his 7th try)

Women’s

The Women’s Final was a long technical climb with some powerful moves in the middle and end. All the competitors struggled with the techy bottom section, then made their way through some thin crimps to a sloping pinch, then fell trying to stick a long move to an e-grips comfy crimp ear. Several competitors nearly stuck the move, but all-in-all it was stopper, and final rankings came down to attempts-to-highpoint. Here are the Women’s final results:

1. Nina Williams  9-  1st go  (2nd place qualifier. Nina got back on the stopper move just after finals and got through it by using a heelhook, then climbed to the top.)

2. Isabelle Goodacre  9- 2nd try (4th place qualifier)

3. Megan Mascarenas  9-   3rd try  (Megan was the closest to sticking the move, but as she did not control the hold she got the same score as the others who also grabbed but did not control it. After the raffle she got back on at the start and easily climbed the problem. Megan was the 1st place qualifier, and climbed O7 and down in the regular comp.)

4. Margo Hayes  9-  4th try (5th place qualifier)

5. Tiffany Hensley  9-  5th try (3rd place qualifier)

6. Laurel Todd  9-  6th try (6th place qualifier. Laurel fell on the opening moves 5 times and it looked like she wouldn’t get through them, but then she magically managed and climbed quite a ways further.)

7. Tika Anderson 3- (7th place qualifier. Tika got pretty stuck on the tricky opening moves, where everyone fell at least once and many several times. She nearly stuck the crimp but her foot kept slipping at the last second.)

Full preliminary results will be up soon at http://www.thespotgym.com. No pictures yet, will post some when we get ’em. Thanks for coming out, and nice job everyone!

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!

AC is WORKING! + Setting Update for Tuesday 6/21 & Washing Pics

Let’s see…oh yeah…THE AIR CONDITIONING IS WORKING!!!!!

Josh got it all fixed up and with regular maintenance (i.e. vacuuming all the cotton out of the filters) it has been cooling the gym down like never before.  Seriously.  It made a huge difference today when it was hot out, and if you have been suffering from this heat wave it’s definitely a place to find a little relief.

Setting Update

Today we began resetting the Beach.  We stripped, cleaned tape, washed holds, and the large crew (Me, Jon, Jonny, Jay Jay, Danny, Garrett, Nic, Carlo and guest setter Connor Griffith) put up a bunch of problems including Garrett’s extra-super-amazingly-long-route-traverse-thingy.  It is orange with a white stripe and blue chico and it starts on the left side of the beach and ends on the top of the far right.  If you’re into traverses you’ll want to climb this one, especially because we probably won’t ever set a problem this long again.

I don’t have any pictures of the wall yet but we’re adding to it tomorrow as well so I’ll try and take some.  Instead, here are some nice pictures of Danny and Jay-Jay’s hold washing uniforms from the last two weeks.  I should tell you that the hold washing room is sort of like a cold wet sauna with erratically shooting jets of water.  I’m glad nobody took a picture of me when it was my turn…

You can't really tell, but that's Jay Jay in there.

Killer boots Danny!

 

 

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

Food Drive wrap-up, the Beach pads get a face-lift, Highline setting starts, and Carlo & Jon are back!

Food Drive Wrap-Up

So first of all, the Food Drive was brief, but went pretty well for our first effort.  Here’s the take:

Our Thanksgiving Food Drive collected a bunch of cans for Community Food Share. Thanks to everyone who donated!

The Beach Pads Get A Facelift

Josh, Brett, and a bunch of volunteers spent their Wednesday re-stuffing and shuffling the Beach’s Asana comp flooring to make a more uniform surface.  Remember that landing on this surface is different than standard blue padding or crash pads, and if you’d like to know more about it please ask at the desk.

Pads stacked to be re-placed.

Brett Merlin and Brent Apgar considering the pad puzzle.

Highline Setting Starts & Carlo and Jon are back!

Today was the first day of setting for SBS Season VI Comp 3 – the Highball/Highline Comp.  Last night after they finished improving the padding we stripped the Beach and the Dojo.  When we strip the walls, part of the time is always spent removing stuck holds.  We are only able to access the back of the Beach, part of the River, a very small section of the Hueco, and most of the Dojo, and when a hold is stuck in one of those places it’s often preferable to unbolt the hold using a long arm and wrench on one side of the wall and a pair of vice grips on the other.  Last night, to welcome Carlo home, we let him be the vice grip guy on a hold stuck high on the roof section of the Dojo.  As is obvious if you consider the height of the Dojo cave and the depth of the workout space above the Dojo, there isn’t much room to fit a setter in to get at the t-nuts.  You have to crawl on your belly to reach some of the topmost t-nuts.  Dusty is an understatement.  This is what Carlo looked like after two long plane flights, a 15 hour layover in Boston, major jet lag, a few beers, an hour and a half of stripping, and 10 minutes with the vice grips.  Was that shirt clean?  Oops.  Doesn’t Carlo look glad to be back?

The dust on his shirt kinda looks like a weird alien print, or something you'd see on the cover of a Tool album.

When we took down the tufa, this is what the wall looked like.

Garrett forerunning an early iteration of a problem for the Highball/Highline on Saturday. Jon's shadow watches him.