Sitting in Heaven

If you are reading this post, or visiting this blog in general, it is because we all share a common passion…climbing. Therefore I consider it to be my responsibility to inform you, the world, or anyone who will listen when a new product hits the shelves that will make your life easier, and more comfortable.

New Sama and matching chalk bag…very frech!

Recently Petzl released the new, and very much so improved Sama harness. Now my first thought was, “dammit, why change a good thing!” I LOVED the original Sama, and in my mind there was no way to improve on it. I was 100% wrong! I came home from work one day to a package on my doorstep, all adult-like qualities I have immediately switched into 6-year old on Christmas mode. I trotted inside (yes trotted), opened the box and…BAM!  Sitting in the box was a new, bright freaking red Petzl Sama, and a matching red chalk bag! Needless to say, I was at the gym roughly twenty minutes later to test it out. After teaching an hour long lead clinic, followed by a short route session, which included over abundance of pumped forearms, and therefor no shortage of whippers, I was absolutely in love with this harness. Up until this point I have always climbed in the Petzl Hirundos, as this is the best sport harness on the market. It is light, comfortable and damn good looking, a true minimalist harness. That being said, after my test run in the new Sama, I have not put my Hirundos on since.

So what changes have been made to the Sama? For starters it is built with the EndoFrame construction, meaning you have optimal weight distribution throughout the harness, specific stitching on the waistbelt limits hard points and chafing…no hot spots. The DoubleBack Light buckle on the waistbelt ensures quick and easy adjustment, much smoother than the original. Also, it appears that they have beefed up the Dyneema tie in points, this is officially a luxury tank. Also, in regards to sizing, either I have gotten fatter (definite a possibility), or the waist fits a little more snug than the original, make you try one  on before you buy.

As someone who spends roughly 30+ hours a week sitting in a harness, I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable individual  on what makes a good harness. I can say with zero hesitation that this harness is hands down the best harness I have climbed/belayed in on the market. So if you are in the market for a new rig, head down to IME and ask Shingo to size you for the Petzl Sama, or check out the Petzl website.

 

 

Check out this little parting gift!

 

Product review: Outdoor Tech. DJ Slims

As a route setter, I see EVERYTHING that happens in the gym! Nothing gets by me. I have the opportunity to sit in my harness all day, set new routes, and watch the customer climb my creations. If I were a psychologist or sociologist, I would be living the dream! In all seriousness, I have noticed a few things while I sit in my harness, or as I like to call it “the watchtower”, there are tons of climbers in the gym that prefer to rock out to their own choice of music when they climb. I don’t blame them, sometimes I get tired of listening to nine hours of continuous 80’s hair rock too. In fact, I listen to my iPod while on the wall as well, if I had to sit in my harness for eight hours and listen to the crap that comes out of the speakers, I would surely go insane. For the most part I can go through my day with little to no fuss, but the one thing that will make my lucky charms soggy is the inevitable, and heart breaking “dammit”, the result of my headphone cord getting snagged and tearing. If this hasn’t happened to you yet, just wait, you’re next! This single event is the most terrifying and tragic thing that could happen in my line of work (exaggeration?). So naturally, when I was given the opportunity to take the Outdoor Tech. DJ Slims for a test drive I was beyond ecstatic. Finally a wireless solution to what was becoming a very expensive problem. 

Before I continue this review, I would like to state that I know absolutely nothing about electronics, and I surely do not claim to be a acoustic engineer, or a sound technician, but WOW, these things bang! They literally are everything you are looking for in a pair of headphones, whether for your climbing session, work out, or a day of route setting, these wireless beasts are for you.

Lets take a look at the specs:

• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Built in microphone- you never know when you need to call mid route to brag about your impending send!
• Operation time: Talk- 9 hours/Play music: 8 hours-I really put these to the test with six, eight hour days  of mostly continuous listening before I started getting the low battery warning.
• Connects to any Bluetooth enabled device- Phones, most new iPods, tablets
• Mini USB connector included for charging via USB port
• Operating distance: up to 30 feet- I was able to get 50ft out of these with little trouble, though I usually connect to Pandora on my phone and keep it in my pocket.

Now for the specs that make no sense to me:

• Sound pressure level: 115 dB
• Normal input power: 10 mW
• Max input power: 15 mW
• THD (Total Harmonic Distortion): less than .5% (1mW @ 1000Hz)

To summarize, these sound better than the majority of the affordable headphones on the market, and retailing for $69.95 this is definitely the best bang for your buck! The DJ Slims are slim, comfy, WIRELESS, and with all the controls you need sitting on the unit, these are my new favorite headphones. For climbing, running, hiking, boarding, and route setting you can bet I will bring these along!

Red Rocks Cragging in Winter – Jon Vickers

Trip Report: Chasing the Sun

 Red Rocks Cragging in Winter – Jon Vickers

 

Author on Cut Loose (10c mixed).

Trip 1

The ride, the house and Thomas.

I knew of Red Rocks as the land of multi-pitching. Tall, all-day adventures that required as much logistics and hiking as climbing. So when I traveled down there in January with Thomas Martin, I became frustrated as I struggled to find a sustained, classic, moderate route with perfect rock that was also in the sun. I am sort of picky.

Much thanks to Albertsons for the kitchen, food, camping/parking spot and wifi.

Despite some classic, full day routes like Levitation 29 and Eagle Dance, not much of anything was sunny on the multi-pitch side of the loop.  This, to Thomas’ dismay, forced us to primarily crag. We ended up climbing at the Gallery, Running Man Wall and the Stratocaster area, but found some height on Birdland, a 6 pitch 5.7+ in Pine Creek Canyon. We had sun all day with plenty of time.

 

Our new friend Genie leading the awesome last pitch of Birdland.

Stand Out Routes – Trip 1

Birdland/5.7+/6 pitches/Trad – This is the sunny multi-pitch to do. It has all day sun and is near some other shorter climbs that also bask in the rays.  A short approach, relatively speaking.

Fear and Loathing/5.12a/1 pitch/Sport – Super sequential boulder problems with comfortable clips. It is hard to get better than this. Felt slightly stiff to me.

Friction Face Panty Waist/5.8++/1 pitch/Sport – I have given this 5.8+ an extra +. It may have felt hard because I am by no means a slab connoisseur, but I loved every ass-puckering moment. A must-do!

Running Man/5.11c/1 pitch/Sport(ish) – Steep and sustained flowing climbing on small but friendly edges. My calves needed more shakes than my hands though. Airy, but safe bolting. I took some gear, but didn’t place it.

Trip 2

Matt Shreve on Fear and Loathing (5.12a). See Trip 1 stand out climbs.

Again, I had high hopes for high climbs, but temperatures and shade kept this fair weather fan primarily on the single pitches of the sunny Calico Hills. On day two “wide crack” Danny, my visiting friend Matt and I got froze out and bailed after the first pitch of Unimpeachable Groping. It seemed as if getting on anything tall was going to require some chilly climbing. It seemed we were doomed to single-pitch until some friends of ours told us about The Big Bad Wolf.

 

Danny doing what he does on Resin Rose (5.11d).

The Big Bad Wolf is a 3 pitch masterpiece of varied 5.9- sport pitches. Each pitch is a slightly different angle of patina climbing. Every pitch is awesome and engaging in its own way. Oh yeah! And it’s in the damn sun! Victory!!

Stand Out Routes – Trip 2

The Big Bad Wolf/5.9-/3-4 pitches/Sport – This thing stays in the sun until mid-late afternoon and is a great warm-up for the cragging in the area. The first pitch is just past vertical and goes into the shade earlier than the rest of the climb. The holds get smaller on the engaging, second pitch slab and they become jugs for the steep third pitch. The fourth is two bolts of nothing that could be useful for walking off. The bolting is close and it is possible to rappel the route or walk off. I rapelled the entire route with a 70m. Beware of rope snag!

New Wave Hookers/5.12c/1 pitch/Sport – Bouldering on a rope with some really cool rock on Cannibal Crag. Classic warm-ups to the right get sun in the morning, but this line and some other steep 5.12 routes gets sun into the afternoon.

Panty Line/5.10a/1 pitch/Trad – This is a really fun line for passive gear. It can safely protect with only passive pro. It follows the obvious crack feature on the wall, but climbs more like a patina sport line. The protection is a variety of nuts and/or small hexes to a bolt anchor. The Panty Wall also has a great selection of easy and moderate sport climbing.

Final Notes and Suggestions

If you are looking for decent weather in the depths of winter, Red Rocks is your spot. Just be open to chasing the sun and you can have a blast doing technical crimping and steep, dynamic climbing.

There are some climbs that I didn’t get to check out, but have heard they are good to go in the winter and in the sun all day. Feel free to comment with your own suggestions. I would love to see this thread become a resource for Red Rocks’ winter climbing beta.

Yet another update

This week has been a bit slow, but still very productive. Most of our route setters are also college students, so every year around this time the setting seems to dwindle. Between those pesky colds, and final exams getting into the gym can be a very cruxy task. However, this week  at least 8 new lead routes went up, and handful of top rope routes went up  throughout the gym. In addition to that, the SLAB’s boulder problems came down, and in their place 13 new problems were set. This is pretty awesome for the slab as it normally has 8 to 10 at the most.

So, no, it’s not a ton. However, it should keep ya’ll busy until Monday, as Kyle is coming in this Sunday evening to strip the section of wall to the left of the slab, so that it can be reset for you guys by Monday afternoon! This leads me to the bad news, there will not be a wall stripped the week of December 24th, due to the holidays! BUT, our crew of setters will be back in the gym to strip the 45 and the long roof to the left on Sunday, December 30th, so you can get in here and burn off that holiday gut, and try out the new gear your loved ones better have gotten you for Christmas!

So there it is, that is all the update I am willing to give! Now get in here and get it while it’s hot!

Manic Monday’s video kickback…. and new problems new stuff!!

First thing first! We have been working hard in the bouldering area this week to bring you guys 18 new boulder problems!   We tore down section 4 and 6 (long wall to the left of the 45) and have filled it back in with super fun and gymnastic problems. Let us know what you think!

Now for the business,you are all in for a treat guys! I recently stumbled upon a post on a route setting forum (yes I am that big of a nerd!!), this is a CLASSIC! This video takes place in my home gym back in Colorado Springs, CO during the ESPN2 Etreme Games. This video is interesting on a couple different levels, for one it shows footage of “old school”  bad asses, who awesomely enough are still killing it such as Steve Hong, George Squib, Bobbie Bensman, Alison Osius and many others. These are all people I have had the pleasure to meet and/or climb with in my seemingly worthless in comparison climbing career, and they are awesome people! Secondly, for you route setters following this blog (does anyone actually read this?), These videos have a very rare phenomena, there is footage of the legendary climber/competition route setter Tony Yaniro. My climbing/ route setting guidance has mostly come from a short line of Yaniro lineage. One of my oldest friends, and former youth coach, Kevin Branford for lack of a better word “studied” under Tony for a very long time as he gained very impressive, if not equally amazing competition route setting credentials. As I began to evolve as a young climber Kevin in a sense, took me under his wing. He passed down Yaniro’s wisdom of movement, technique and route setting experience. As I slowly began to climb the ranks of competition route setting I met another outrageously talented and experienced route setter, who over the years has shared a wealth of route setting knowledge with me. I am talking of course about Molly Beard, who has made several trips to Momentum in the past to put up some super fun and insightful routes and boulder problems. I could be wrong but I believe that Molly also is a huge part of that Yaniro lineage and is now doing her part to create the route setters of tomorrow by working with USA Climbing to instruct route setting clinics, as well as chief-ing numerous national climbing competitions.

 

I know this is more than any of you want to read, honestly it is significantly more than I wanted to write. But I think it is important for you as customers, route setters, coaches, competitors, or anyone out there who has anything to with climbing as we know it today, to understand where our sport came from. It is truly unique that the majority of our sports development has taken place over the last thirty or so years, this allows us to have, and appreciate video footage such as this to watch our sport evolve and grow into something amazing. And if anything else, this will hopefully show you how far the indoor climbing industry has grown over the last couple decades. We have gone from 20ft walls with cement holds, and very few well trained route setters, to gyms like Momentum that are 50+ft, littered with brightly colored holds in amazing sequence and on top of that we have dozens of highly trained route setters who’s sole purpose is to teach you what they know about climbing through the routes they set! Enjoy!

 

 

Keepin’ it Fresh

With Thanksgiving knocking on your door with all those tasty, and grossly fattening snacks we thought we would give you the power to fight back! Our setters have been very busy this week giving you the ammo to comeback from your lard-filled food coma! As of this week, here is the new stuff:

Routes:

5.6- top rope

5.10a-top rope

5.10a- top rope

5.10b-top rope/ lead

5.11a- lead

5.12d- lead

Bouldering:

V0

V1

V1

V3

V3

V6

V4

V5

V5

V7

So there it is! Get in here and crush some new stuff, or wait until the day after Thanksgiving (we are closed on turkey day) and drop those left-over cookies off for the staff!! 🙂

In the mean time, here is a video put together by staff member Jon Vickers from the last youth bouldering competition at Momentum!

Boulders, problems, blocs…

If you are concerned about those holiday pounds hanging over your head we have the remedy. On Monday morning our team of route setters put up 25 NEW boulder problems!!! Section 1 and 2 came down Sunday night and by 3:00pm Monday the wall was completely filled in and waiting to be sent! The problems range from V0 to V11, so get in here and start that winter training!!

Catching Up on Volume!

So, over the last few weeks we have been trying to play catch up following the bouldering competition. We have had a ton of routes come down, and sadly, not a ton going back on the walls. But, fear not! This week we have set roughly 2 top ropes and 4 lead routes from 5.10a to 5.13b! To make things even more exciting our faithful and… diligent route stripper Travis, has stripped at least another 8 routes today. So keep an eye out for EVEN MORE new top ropes and lead routes being set over the course of the week.  We have noticed that the walls are looking bare and it is our goal to fix that in the very near future. So please, leave a comment with any requests, and maybe next time you come in you will see a route that is just for you!

But until then, check out some of these videos to get ya psyched!!

The Insiders

http://vimeo.com/50731257