Competition Competition Competition

So I realize that it seems like it has been a long time since I have posted something on here and I feel like it has been a long time and because the Carolina Crush Climbing Competition just ended and the 2012 Palmetto Pump is coming up I felt like that would be something to post about.

The Carolina Crush was pretty awesome their were a lot of great people there as well as great climbers.  Personally I feel like I placed myself in beginner when I should have been in intermediate, but it was my first experience rope climbing somewhere outside of stronghold in several years so next year I will be sure that I am in intermediate.  I did win beginner so that felt good got a new chalk bag, beanie, and half moon outfitters t-shirt so that was a lot of fun and as we can all admit there is nothing wrong with being proud of yourself.  Also as you will notice in the picture below I am the only one that has a different Half Moon Outfitters shirt on, if you thought that was the case you would be wrong in fact I actually put the shirt on backwards and wore it that way for the rest of the day before I realized it.  Congratulations to me for being oblivious.

So the 2012 Palmetto Pump is something that I have been looking at doing for about as long as I have been trying to decide on whether or not to go to the Carolina Crush and in the end I decided that it would probably be a good time and the time that I wasn't climbing my fiance and I could go enjoy the rest of Charleston.  It is happening on March 10 starting at 8am and it runs till 2pm so there will be plenty of day left for us to enjoy ourselves.

On another note I am hopefully going to get back out onto some real rock this weekend so hopefully I will have some pictures and fun experiences to share from the trip everyone have a good week and climb on!

Bouldering, Roping, and First Ascents

Yesterday was a very eventful day in my books.  Got a first ascent on a dyno route that I have been looking at for a while, its about 15 feet tall with a 4 foot dyno from a ledge that is only a pad and a half pad for your fingers with no footing for the push off, very pleased with the accomplishment.

In other news there was also a lot of eventful climbing, over at the bridge base of the palmetto trail out in Peak.  Got two of my buddies out there with me, we put up some ropes and climbed on some routes one of them being pretty intense worthy of a trip back out there.

And in case you didn't know the Carolina Crush Competition is happening on Saturday February 18, starting at 9:30 AM registration, the competition will run from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and then the finals will be at 3:30 PM.  If you are a USC student/faculty/staff it is $5, but if you aren't affiliated with USC then you will have to pay a $10 guest entrance fee.  Spectators may spectate for free.  Climbers must be 18 years or older.  Registration opened on January 16.  To make reservations, stop by the Outdoor Recreation Office or you can call their number, 803-576-9397.  The competition fills up fast so if you haven't already registered now would be the time!  Hope to see you there!

Mammut Goblins and Mad Rock Maniacs

Mammut Goblins

So I thought this was probably a review that was a long time coming, especially considering that it was my first pair of climbing shoes.  The Mammut Goblins have been long time friends of mine and are in need of visiting a cobbler and getting a good ole resoling.  The only reason they have not been resoled yet is because I have been waiting on another one of the pairs of my climbing shoes being ready to go and my pair of La Sportivas is almost to that point.  I have had these shoes so long and I have become so comfortable wearing them that  These shoes have been around so long and through so much that the metal buckles the velcro straps go through is rusting and the yellow leather on the outside of the shoe has almost bleached out.  Now I want to put this out, I have TRASHED these shoes as far as climbing shoe use goes.  After I wore a hole through both of these shoes I decided that they would be my rainy day shoes and I did not take care of them.  Part of the reasoning behind lack of care was that I really didn't understand the respect that was required to care for most climbing gear.  A praise I have for these shoes is that the opens up almost to the toe and to add positivity to that it's velcro and that makes them very easy to get off and on.  In comparison to other pairs of shoes I own or have worn these have definitely been the easiest to get off and on and still fit very tightly.  They are curved just enough to give you a little bit extra on those edges and at the same time not so stiff as to prevent you from smearing on a flat wall.  Personally they have been my favorite pair of shoes and considering the abuse they have been through I have got to say that I love them.  In comparison to a lot of the climbing shoes that run for $150 these shoes are right there with them if not better in some areas, if you are looking in the $100 range I would definitely suggest these and tell you gladly that these are worth your money and will be in it for the long haul.

Mad Rock Maniacs

So I have had a pair of Mad Rock Maniacs for a while and I typically use them for climbing when one of my non-climber friends needs to borrow my shoes, but I do have a couple of complaints as well as a couple of compliments about the shoes.  First I will start with the bad and move to the good because everyone wants to end on a good note.  First off I will be forward and tell you I haven't had them that long and I haven't trashed them so I can't give the same intensity of review as I did with the Goblins.  My first problem with the Maniacs is that they are velcro but the velcro is almost pointless it goes under the shoe which worries me that after wearing them for a long period of time and them breaking in really well that eventually the velcro strap will just wear away until it breaks.  Another con to these shoes is that the rubber around the heel on my left shoe is not the same as the one on the right, it is actually smaller and harder to get my foot in, the rubber around the back heel is very thick and because of that it won't stretch so that I can easily slip my foot in.  And to add to this problem is that the hole that you get your foot in is just big enough to get your foot in so overall if you get this shoe a half size smaller, like most people do, then it will be a very snug fit.  On a positive side is the price, they are a very inexpensive shoe just as most things from Mad Rock are, BUT they are still of a high quality with plenty of rubber to wear through before you have to worry about taking them to get resoled.  They are about $70 MSRP, but I got mine for $49 and I have seen them for cheaper than that so in that area they are definitely worth what I paid for them and I would definitely say they would be worth the $70 with a slight adjustment to the shoes as far a getting your foot in.  

A Better View

Saturday night I convinced my fiance to join me for an extremely short session in my up and coming personal climbing room  and she took a full view shot of the room thought that it would be an interesting perspective and give everyone a view.

An Update in Climbing the Midlands

So if you live in the Columbia area of South Carolina and you are looking for places to climb or boulder you have probably gone on the internet to look for a place to go and you've probably found this website, and you've probably thought about checking out some of these spots.  I hate to be the one that tells you this, but Peachtree does not allow climbing, if you've already seen my blog you'll see I did climb there, but that was because I was unaware of the rules without them being clearly stated, but to clear it up DNR does not approve of any kind of climbing within the part.  It is still a wonderful place to go hiking and see some of the incredible diversity that South Carolina has to offer as far as landscape and definitely worth checking out.  As far as the boulders on the other side of the river from the zoo parking lot, they are all on private property and they clearly take it seriously, there are a large number of signs and even video cameras on one individuals property, while yes there are boulders and they are worth at least seeing they are not worth causing problems between the property owners and climbers.  Another note that goes with that is that there are no access points, Laurel Crest Drive is gated and the apartments with the "visitor parking" do not exist, if you are not a resident of the apartments or friends with the residents you are not supposed to be there.  I'm sure a lot of things have changed since the flatliners website was updated so as things go it is a bit more developed out there.

Pump It Don't Hump It

In other news I did find a single route on a boulder and I also sent a route that I have been looking at the last few times I've been out to the boulders by the zoo.  First I'll start with the route I sent today, at about half way up the rock there is a small crimp, and when I say small I mean very small like you can get a little bit less than half of your finger tip on it, but that is okay it is mostly to help you balance when going up to the sloper right on the left of the end of the yellow line.  First you get the fingertips of your right hand on that midway crimp, then you lift your left foot onto a nice little ledge at about knee height.  You then proceed to push and pull yourself up to a balanced point where you can slap your hand on the fairly slick sloper that is on the left of the top of the yellow line.  Once you're balanced you then get your right hand up and get a couple of fingers in a very small pocket like hold, you cant actually get your fingers down in it but its deep enough to pull on, you then move your left hand to one of the small crimps that lie up along the top.  Pull and hug that rock with whatever arm strength you've got till you can get your right foot on that first right hand crimp, once you've got your foot on the crimp/ledge you are (or should be) solid.  No rating for this route yet, I am about 6'2/6'3 so what might be easy for me to reach isn't quite as doable for someone that is of a shorter stature.  As far as a name, if it is unnamed, I think I'm going to go with "Pump it don't hump it."

A warning to this climb, you have a single rock to land on, it is about a foot and a half to two feet wide and about two and a half to three feet long, it is big enough to get someone to spot you on and it is dry, but make sure as always that you have faith in the person spotting you.

Project Route

This is a possible climb that I found while wandering further down the rocks today.  It is an overhanging ledge with about a two and a half or three foot move from the ledge to the sloping ledge and then move along the edges and other slopers on top till you finish out at the top of the yellow line.  When I saw it this morning I was not warmed up enough to stick my fingers on a small ledge and go for it so I decided it would be one to put in the back pocket and save for another day.

Happy Days Times Two

Today I got to behold the greatness of THE BOSS as well as all of my other climbing holds, but most importantly I was at my parents to meet the UPS guy when he arrived to the house with my package.  I was so excited about the arrival of my new hold/feature that I couldn't even wait to meet him halfway, he got about 20 feet away from his truck before I was right there arms held out to accept my glorious package.

Now to praise the people over at Pusher who packaged and made the hold.  The hold was packed with great care, not only was it comfortable packed in the box with plenty of packaging paper it also had foam wrapped around its corners and front, those were taped down, and it was then wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap.  I was very pleased with the care that the people over at Pusher put into the packaging, and also a large thank you to them for the great communication on their part.

The Boss that I got was a second from Pusher, if you like them on facebook then you will see that every so often they will have seconds for sale and the best part about that is that you actually know what you are getting as opposed to buying a bunch of seconds in bulk so this way you can get your favorite holds for a lower cost, for those of us that our penny pinchers out there.  Honestly this is probably the hold I will be training/using for most of my routes, considering that slopers take much more precise placement than most other holds you can expect that this hold will be all over my wall.

A caution to those of you that have literally just gotten the hold, you've just unwrapped it out of the plastic and you are beholding its glory, do not try and lip it to pick it up, as in don't try and grab it with one hand by the hollow backside, the hollow inside is very slick and on top of that there seems to be left over release or something of that manner in the back and it makes it essentially gripless.  I almost made that mistake and came far too close to dropping my brand new baby straight onto the concrete, so I thought it would be fair to warn all of you lucky individuals who have just purchased The Boss.

The only suggestion of change that I have to this wonderful classic hold is that it needs a screw hole on the bottom of the bold it has two on the top, but if you flip it over then it wants to pull away from the wall purely because it is just such a big hold.  I will probably drill a screw hole in the bottom, but because of how new and amazing it is I just cant bring myself to do it yet.

Thankfully before The Boss arrived I had a chance to get a good look at all of my other holds that had arrived the day before.  I am very pleased with my choice in climbing holds and very pleased with the quality of all of my new holds.

When I bought these holds a lot of what I was thinking was "How close to real rock will these holds be?"  So that is exactly what I bought my holds thinking.  The holds with the most texture were by far the Project Landslides (they are the black ones in the middle.)  The set of holds that I was the most pleased with was the set of XS Halos by Climbing Holds, they look a little . . . playful?? with the circles on them, but the granite texturing on them is great, the price incredible, and there are 10 of them.    They are the top row of green holds and the last green one on the right side.  Some of them would work much better as feet on overhangs but others would work well on a 90 degree wall as a really intense sloping pinch/crimp.  Overall my favorite set of climbing holds was . . . . . . . . the Ergo set by Etch.  They are the very bottom two large green holds and the three large green holds starting on the left.  They are all very positive jugs and they are at an incredible price of $29!  Currently I have them on my steepest overhang, which hangs at about 30 degrees and if placed correctly I think they could even have a comfy place on the roof once it is completed.

Overall, the last two days have been Happy Days, I will be reviewing some climbing shoes, holds, chalk bags, and the occasional pad before too long be sure to keep an eye out all of the climbing holds were bought from the Climbing Holds website so check them out they are nice people. 

Happy Days

So today something absolutely AMAZING happened, my large order of climbing holds arrived to my parents house, sadly I left there to head home 30 minutes before it arrived.  I did get home just in time to get the email from UPS saying that it had just been dropped at the front door.  So as of tomorrow you will be seeing my shining face with my brand new shiny holds in hand.

As it has been a good day I am also in the mood to post some of the local routes that I am sure everyone knows about, but they have also decided that it isn't worth the trip.  If you've guessed it that would be the Riverbanks Zoo Boulders I had the chance to hangout down there for a little while today and do two of my favorite routes there and I definitely suggest checking them out.

If you decide to go out to these boulders there are about 10 to 13 routes in that immediate area, I have heard that there are more but I have not had the chance to go and check them out yet so hopefully that is something that I will have more time to do.  With the exception of these two routes this is mostly a set of boulders for beginners, but if you are ever itchy to just go outside and get away from the gym its a good place to go.  You park your car in the back right side of the zoo parking lot follow one of the many trails towards the river and continue on the trails to your right, hop over some rocks across a small branch of the river and you're there.

I will tell you a warning about these two climbs, the landing is horrible if you can, take a friend with you.  Also there is very little foot placement so just smearing your way up them isn't really going to happen.

The blue route is the easier of the two, you pull between the corner sloper on the right and the triangle pinch that runs to the top of the right, step up with your left foot on the small chip that sticks out about a half inch at knee height, after that you swing up with your right hand and grab the top of the triangle pinch where the climb ends, match your hands on that then pull up till you can get your left foot onto the very beginning of the triangle pinch and your up!

The yellow route is definitely harder probably only by one grade but it is harder, I've named this one Iron Man.  You start with your right hand in the triangle pinch, but when leaned against like in this route it is a nice jug, put your right foot up on the 3 inch long smear that sticks out the most at knee height, it is below the triangle jug/pinch.  Once you are in that position you are ready to swing your left side up to the sloping crimp on the top, there is really no crimp but it has enough feature to it to get a grip on it.  You then work your way up along the jug/pinch while pushing off the sloper till you can get your feet under you and top out.

For today's review I will be reviewing my Revolution bouldering pad, it is the 2011 Mission 1.  

Revolution doesn't have it on their official website, but they have it on their blog here, but I thought I would give a review of it as a consumer here after a number of months with fairly regular use of the pad.  I really have nothing to complain about with the exception of the shoulder straps, they are velcroed in at the top right below that metal ring, the velcro is inside a sleeve type pocket and it really causes no problems unless I have absolutely loaded my pad full of all kinds of equipment, because I will sometimes use my pad as if it was my giant backpack and really I can't complain about that too much considering I only have problems with the velcro when I load it down.  The pad has held up incredibly well, the foam is still stiff and the corners really haven't "tweeked" even though the Revolution blog is the one that was talking about that happening.  The material that it is made of is extremely durable and there are no holes in it or stray threads.  Also where I live and have been for some reason the dirt is dry on top and wet below, but my pad hasn't held onto any of the mud that I have gotten all over it.  I was lucky enough to get my pad on sale for a little over $180, but the going price was about $259 last time I saw, but compared to the rest of what is on the market I would say that it was definitely worth what I paid for it and I have gotten more than my moneys worth.

On a last note, there will be work being done in an effort to make boulders easier to access and climb in our upstate check it out here!