Viewing the page problems... Firefox 3.5+ will have problems, it's not us it's them!! So use I.E or Google Chrome and you can see the full content of the page. We've put in calls to see if the problems can be fixed at Google and Firefox, same for the Mac people out there! NEW COMPANIES Bolo, Bomber Holds, Rise Holds and Uprising holds all added with logos to the site!
NEW REVIEW WAR Uh what is it good for? Well climbing!! Contact Climbings Warheads reviewed: here
COMPETITION We have a set of Project Holds: Shellshocked to give away! Email us with your most embarrassing climbing story, whatever makes us laugh the most will win :) (50 words tops, make the subject line STORY) We look forward to your shame! INTERVIEW SUMMIT LABS We ran a quick interview with Summit Labs: here
CLIMBING SHOE TESTS (CHR's sister site) We've got some new shoes... La Sportiva Scorpion and Mantis and the Five Ten Projects final wrap up: here HOLD OF THE MONTH Element are first up with some new holds: here
OCTOBER WRAP UP Osm'ose Manips are reviewed from here... French holds are in the house: here Revolution Climbings Fossils and Huecos: here Rock Candys Ruffles, crazy blue holds: here Project Holds Shellshocked 2XL's are finally reviewed: here Element Climbings Ions are ionic here: here We sit down and have a chat with David Smith from Beta Clothing: here Full post here!
It's always nice to see something from Contact Climbing, their holds always have a pretty unique feel to them but of late they've been very quiet... they've been away from shaping and they spent the summer outside sending! But Autumn is here and now they're back in the workshop toiling away, molding and getting shapes ready for the winter season.
First up are the Warheads...As you can see that the Warheads are a large set, and when you look at the price being $48 then you're looking at some holds that are jacks of all trades, good for pretty much (notice we say pretty much) any angle... some of them are actually a little trickier to hold than first glance may suggest. Why do we say they're pretty good for all angles? Look at the image above... lets go left to right:
Huge sloper, but there's enough for you to grab onto for when it's on the roof
Massive jug, hang on anywhere
Jug, really incut, super fun to swing about on
Sloper, we put it on the roof and Noodles managed to hang and campus off of it when it was on the Nicros Jug-or-Not, but it was horizontal
Huge sloper, but it has a sneaky incut right at the back which gives you some help when it's on the roof
Big ol' edge, the area you grab is a little sharper than we'd have really liked, but it's doable
See we're not completely mental :) We've had these all over the wall and they perform well, the lines that have been incut around the holds really help with the grip, and even though they don't really need the lines to help the grip on these holds because they're grippy as hell without the lines. That being said they do add an nice aesthetic to the holds
The devil is in the details with these holds, from the well placed pre-placed screw holes to the little nuclear symbol that's around the Contact logo... they're called Warheads so that's a nice touch!
Eve wanted to set with the holds as soon as she saw them, we've been setting some hard stuff and none of it's been very easy... so she wanted the holds, and she wanted to play on the 45 degree wall, so we let her play where she wanted. The one thing she mentioned about what she was going to set was the fact that she was going to put the sloper as the last hold... we didn't worry! Well we didn't worry until we tried to stick the last move... til we actually tried to stick the last move and we got spat off of the wall. Spat off of the wall until Eve told us that the walls upright on the left was in, still we had trouble as the footwork was a little tricky to get right... but we got it done. As we we're comfortable with the holds and we didn't want to use the side wall, we wanted to try to finish the route without it... NOPE! Fail, the sloper is just too hard to hang as the last move... but rotate it slightly so it's angled and it's much easier to hold onto... well it's hard, really hard.
Apart from one of the holds that is a little sharp on the edge and the sloper that is hard to hang onto these holds are good for short bouldering problems on pretty well any angle; we let Eve play with them and she wanted a simple problem on the 45, if you've watched the video then you can see that Eve was pretty sneaky with what she set... that sloper was plain evil as the last move! This set has a little (actually large) something for everyone, big ol jugs, a sloper that's just about doable on the 45 and then the large sloper (number 1) that's go to much room on there that you have so much friction you can stick it easily and then there's number 5 a hold that's a sloper or a huge edge it's having a slight identity crisis.
Ok, we made a complete mess of the walk through, and we're sorry about that... we learnt that our files on the camera get over written :(
Versatility: Quite a lot, spin them around Screw Holes: Yes
NICK - THE NOOB "Hey everybody, The Noob is back with another color commentary ( YAY!!! ;D ). I haven't been climbing nearly as much as I should these past few days but I was lucky enough to drop in when everyone was testing out a set from Contact Climbing and as the name of the set suggests, these holds are the bomb!
So Warheads, what's so good about them? Well for starters there weren't any rough edges I could find to rip your hands open and keep you off the wall for days healing, they're a large set so there's plenty of surface area to grab on to unlike some other holds on the wall right now (you know who you are) and best of all you can use them on any (and I mean any) incline you can dream up! I got a chance to try them out on the 45 and I'll admit they were fun to climb there but they really blew me away (hehe, I made a funny ;p)
When we reset them on the roof, it was the first time I've managed to climb a route on the roof so I was pretty impressed with myself and the holds. It gave me a real incentive to try out some other sets from CC and after briefly looking over their catalog I've got a couple ideas I want to bring up the next time we climb. I'd also like to see if we can set something interesting on the 30 to the 45 and see how they transition from one slope to the next but I'll have to leave that up to the guys for the final approval as well as certain time constraints (so many holds to review, so little time).
So why should you get a set of these for your wall at home? Well, they're comfy, easy to set on any incline and from their design and the six holds included in the set you can make a ton of easy to challenging routes depending on your skill level. Of course that's good news for me and all you other novice climbers out there but the best part is that they aren't an expensive set either (about mid-range based on what I've seen). My advice, get the set! I just hope I get a chance to try more CC holds so I can form a better opinion of the company as a whole.... like getting a set of large and medium Guidelines for example (Noodles I hope you're reading!!!). As far as first impressions go I was blown away ;)
My name is Morgan Barnes. Making climbing holds. No no, your real job!
Well I work at the animal shelter on Fridays. It feels nice to help out the animals.
How long as Summit Labs been around?
For about 1 year now.
Why the name?
I was trying to come up with a name while hanging out in my back yard. We have this sign the says "Summit Lab. 6mi." I thought it would be an appropriate name seeing as were at nearly 8,000 ft.
Where are you based?
In the San Luis Valley, in Southern Colorado. Home to Penitente sport crag, the Great Sand Dunes, and some really nice artisan hot springs.
How many people work on making the holds?
So far,.. one. With more interest we would like to hire more people. I have a few people in mind.
You make holds that imitate the outdoors... was this a conscious decision?
Very much so. We always say that keep the crimping to outside... the holds we reviewed certainly reflect our ethos, what's yours when it comes to shapes and shaping?
I feel that climbing in the gym is directly based on climbing outside. In my eyes you are either training to climb outside or trying to recreate that experience. The shapes I make either recreate the experience or create a fantastic version of it, as in the case of the Granite Slopers
How hard was it to start a climbing company? Did it take long?
It wasn't really hard. I went to art school for sculpture and spent a good deal of time showing in Denver. Making climbing holds combines two things a really enjoy, climbing and sculpting. I took about 6 months before it really started to take shape.
Right now your line up is limited, what's on the cards with regard to new shapes?
I am developing some lines of hybrids. Making holds like dual texture huecos, using real rock casts.
The market is getting flooded with new company's, how do you feel about the competition out there?
I get excited to see the new stuff other companies come out with. It seems like it is definitely beneficial to consumers to have more companies fighting for their business.
Are there any particular hold company's product that you like?
I like how playful So ill is. DRCC's Force Edges are really nice eye candy (they may have even inspired the holds I'm working on ATM). I think it is nice to see companies like Climb It and Dream coming up with even more real rock holds. I'll be excited to see the Dream review when it comes out.
We hear you've been doing a lot of new routing out where you are... how's that going?
Fantastic, we have been developing all kinds of bouldering and putting up new trad lines daily. This area is ripe for development, in regards to trad and bouldering (seemingly endless amounts to those willing to wander). The sport climbing has pretty much seen it's limit here, I don't really think there is too much more to develop. There is however some quality climbing on a line of basalt cliffs. Some 35-45ft trad lines we have been putting up.
Is there a guide yet?
Not yet. You can find some of the boulder problems we have put up on Bouldr.net. I will be adding more problems as I get images for them.
What does the future hold for Summit Labs?
I hope to end up doing more custom orders. I have some ideas for custom orders; ie large features, casting entire boulder problems that could be attached to walls, or casting holds that are site specific for people who want to train specific types of rock. I am also interested in whatever ideas anyone else has.
In this introduction of our newest friends from France, Osm'ose, most will say “Osmo-who?” kinda like I did when I first saw them appear on my facebook page. For those who are curious, the word “osmose” is the obsolete form of “osmosis”, and the rest you can find on the Internet. Since they don’t have an American distributor, there isn’t much buzz in the North American climbing circles around Osm'ose, but they have been making their mark in Europe, making holds and pre-fabricated wooden panels for your home wall or gym.
We received two sets from Osm'ose, our featured set this week: The Manips! We had these holds in the package until the very end, opening it minutes before we set our first route, and we knew that they weren’t going to be friendly. We debated (while still in the package) which holds were foot holds and which ones were not and came to the conclusion that, being as small as they are, we were going to use them all as hand holds. Was that a mistake? We thought so but stuck by our guns and the holds were cut out of the package and onto the wall.
The set is a mixed bag between bolt on and screw on holds. The screw on holds are small, but they all have an incut and have a good grip on them (Except one, the most evil sloper known to mankind). Most of the bolt on holds are crimps with the exception of the deadly three! Of them there is a two finger pocket, that you can barely get two fingers in, a ledge, that you could barely get a fingernail on, and a tiny slope you can barely get any skin on, so to say the least, with Noodles setting the first problem, I was scared. The holds have been designed with the real rock feel in mind and for the most part they do a very good job of simulating the outside we all love to play in. Most of the holds are textured and the texture helps in sticking those nasty little crimpers. They’re not the smallest crimps out there and they are nice on the hand and skin. Here come the exception to the rule. Remember those holds, the deadly three? Well they, on the other hand are not textured. Other than the little dimples found for thumb catches they are featureless and very hard to stick.
The crimps are incut and we didn’t work too hard to stick the moves but the deadly three needed to switched around. We had the small edge up in the corner thinking that we wedge ourselves in the corner but we were quick to realize that you could only get around it if it was above our heads to get any kind of grip on the hold. Needless to say we had to tweak out the route to be able to get it to go
We moved onto the next problem. Learning from our last problem, we set the smaller bolt holds to the Motivation volumes we received a while back and started a problem on the 45. It went from the overhang to the holds we set on the volumes. Moving across those moves was tougher than we thought. These holds won’t give you an inch, they need to be climbed on with confidence and grace... and you've seen us climb sometimes... confidence we have in bucket loads... grace... not so much :P Without either, you’ll that the mat is your only friend.
Have we over done the symbols? Well not really, this set does have a bit of everything, screw ons, pinches, edges, crimps and slopers... all in 14 holds.
Do we think they'll go on the 45? Yes if your fingers are super strong, this set doesn't lend itself to this type of terrain easily.
The set as a whole is meant for vertical to slightly overhanging terrain. We didn’t have too much trouble powering our way through sequences on the 30 degree wall. Our problems arose when we had to get through a static sequence that required a balance of agility and strength. Core strength is a must. The holds simulate how it feels to climb hard outside: there’s no two ways of gripping the hold, only the right way or you're flying off. Gyms with aretes are going to love the little screw ons as they're really at home on a desperate slapping move; they're big enough that you can get friction on them but not so big that you can hang and chalk :) What this set does lend itself very well to is hard boulder problems, sure there are some semi easy holds in the set but overall you're looking at a set of holds that are going to make you work in pretty much any combination that you put them in
IF you're a complete sucker for punishment on your home wall then have a look at these holds (although Eve suggested most of them would make amazing footholds rather than hands)... and for a gym they could be what you're looking for but where you put them will determine if your customers will like you and the holds :)
Number of holds: 14 Price per hold: 1.50 Euros per hold (About $2.20 US) Color: Pink and purple swirls Bolt placement: Well placed Sanding: Flat and real smooth Texture: Grippy, you'll need it Screw Holes: Yes on every hold!
Its the first time we've ever had our fingers on Osm'ose holds...come to think of it we're probably the only people in Canada to have these holds...and its a surprise that we haven't seen these holds around any gyms in the area. The shapes are nice, the attention to detail is evident in the texture and the fact that they've added a screw hold for the every bolt on holds. Good, well made holds, no complaints. All of the backs are flat, the screw holes are well placed and you can tell that a lot of experience has gone into the overall build quality of the shapes.
The holds only take martini headed bolts so make sure you have a stock of these when you order.
WHAT THEY'RE It's nearly 1am after a good session and some dinner, I'm tired, my finger tips bruised and for what? If you look at it in climbing terms, probably nothing! But if you look at it in route terms... and the level of setting we've been pulling off (being unprofessional professional setters and all that) we've done a lot. Let me explain!
Osm'ose are a company from France We wanted to review their holds, we had trouble getting their holds? Why? You'd think that it'd be an easy no brainer, but it's not. It's really not... there was politics involved and shippers and possibly a few vampires, pirates and other marauders along the way. But in the end we prevailed, and we have the holds and we can put our opinion to them, after all, this is what we do over here at CHR.
Never, and I've seen a lot of holds, never have I been so shut down by some holds (last week and the Rock Candy Ruffles aside), never have I, sod that, never have we been shut down by a set of holds... let me phrase this correctly... erm... shut down so well; again let me explain.
Normally you do this: a) get holds from packet b) find bolt c) move about holds to make pleasing sequence d) repeat C cos you made a boo boo somewhere e) climb and enjoy
We mucked up twice with these holds, twice, and I set the first one and then Chris fell into the same trap on the second route. Why? Because these holds are deceptively hard, like hard hard... to clarify, beyond Chris Sharma hard on vertical in some cases. I really am not joking, I'm being serious as hell! These holds lull you into a false sense of security, they make you think that you are Sharma and that "this move will be easy"... and it's not a bad thing in any case We made mistakes with what we set, I don't say just I because it was a "we" situation. I set something that I thought would go, we'd touched the holds but not pulled down on them at this point and boy was I wrong... seriously wrong. One pained shoulder later, I switched two holds and we were away and flying. Was what I thought going to be an easy route was in no shape or form easy? Nope, not at all, it was hard on the vertical and it was harder on the 30 degree wall... the screw ons in this set are thin, hell some of the bolt ons are thin, they make some of Franklin Climbings shapes look huge!
If these holds are what Europe is putting out then there is no wonder why the Europeans are so strong (and I'm European remember), if people have stuff like this in the gym for the winter months no wonder they win most of the comps. For a home wall this set I'd say... how hard to you want to go.... like how hard do you want to go? If the answer is hard then welcome to Osm'ose. Gyms, oh that's another case! Go and buy them, and give me a plane ticket and I will come and set the most evil route known to man, it's not really that hard to do with these holds, I could do with a week away from work so please send me a request :P (No one need apply unless you weather is described in brochures as "tropical") If you have a comp and you need something spicy then you have found what you're looking for and when I say spicy I mean you'll feel it on the way out spicy... these holds are tech and hell, make you work for every god damn move and if you get the route you're going to feel like a king... a king on a big bloody horse, after a HUGE battle with a beer in your hand... you will feel proud to finish anything set wth these holds
Did I think the start on the 45 would go? Undercling and a shallow two finger pocket to finger tip death crimp of doom? (Thank god for the Motavation Volume it was on) Hell no! Did I manage to walk away from it? Hell yes! Do my fingers hurt? Yup! Would I climb that route again? Yup, but I'd make the finish HARDER. (That's just me, and it will be done, don't worry, I'm 5 paces away from the wall) These holds range from thin, and when I say thin I mean less than a pad in depth (screw ons and bolt ons) to not so thin.... like maybe a half pad.... maybe. There's some slim pickin's in this set... some very thin pickin's. Not that that's bad, that's fine there are a infinite number of ways that you can set with these holds.... just remember that the largest holds is less than a pad deep and that some of the holds have so thin an area to grab on is tiny, so so tiny... welcome to a land of balance and friction (I spent a lot of time brushing the holds to get the grip I wanted)
Osm'ose were the first French hold company, hell I remember buying holds from a guy who resoled shoes in the back of a truck in Fontainbleau and those holds are hard as hell ten years ago, these holds are hard in the here and now... and they should be looked at, I'm going to try to get the Manip set into a comp as I want to see the chaos that happens...
Am I surprised by Osm'ose holds? yes, they're plain amazing... and thank god they're switching to urethane soon... I hate chipping resin holds!
Just wait until we open up the OTHER SET OF HOLDS... there's more of this company's holds in the cupboard.... and we've not touched them yet!
Its been a while since I've been blown away by a set of holds. The packing was a nice touch and it was like celebrating Christmas early for us when we opened the package and set the first problem. We've seen some pretty amazing holds from our local suppliers, but its a nice treat when you get something different that catches your eye. We're used to seeing big flashy holds, but these shapes are small and discreet. The colour scheme is great, but it won't stand out too much on your wall. The thing is, they're just great holds. The size of the individual holds in the set are small but size of the set itself at 14 holds makes it so you can set over and over again with the same holds. The down side to this is that half the set are screw ons so you can either get a drill or make a work out of it.
I haven't been out of north America to climb yet, but I've noticed that your average climber from Europe is pretty damn strong and that places like Fontainbleu and Gritstone have a spirit of their own and produce distinct climbing style. The inspiration is felt through holds coming from Europe. These holds have a certain something that sets them apart from their North American counterparts.
PROS
Technical as hellgood competition holds
Good mix of screw ons and bolt ons
Pre-drilled screw holes on all bolt ons
CONS
Only take martini head bolts, no dual use bolt holes here
Not great for training on steep home walls, the holds are too small
Rock Candy? More like Rock Crisps! (Chips for our American speaking readers)Yup the holds we're looking at today are called the Ruffles, it brings up images of crisps for us, we played with pulling holds out of empty packets for the walk through video, having the bags as our chalk bags as we climbed... we dreamt of so many things to do and what did we get stuck on? We got stuck on one move on one problem for over a week (going on two now)
Why did we get stuck? Well these holds:have slots where you grab them, one side incut and one side slopey...
We figured that as the incut side is incut we'd set a quick problem on the 45 degree wall, dispatch it quickly and then set some other stuff...How wrong were we? Pretty damn! One move off of one hold is what we're (currently) stuck on... but we're working the problem AND IT WILL GO. They are pretty well incut, deceptive in their manner that's for sure. The dual texture is slick which means that the chance of getting a thumb catch on all of these holds is the best part of impossible, so you're stuck just having the textured part of the hold, which is grippy as hell but sometimes when it gets chalked up gets hard to hold.... a quick brush and you're away again, hitting the mats time after time.
And we kind of enjoy the fact that we're being shut down by a set of holds that look like you can just crank and not worry about having the work the problem.. we were wrong. So we marked the holds and their rotation on the 45 degree wall and then played about some traverse stuff where you have to match the hold. Playing about on the route we found that on most walls the incut area are nice to grab and move across on, there's not too much trouble there... spin the holds 180 and you end up with the slopey side, all we'll say here is thank god for the dimples in the textured area as you're going to be holding on for dear life if you're trying the moves on a slight overhang :)
Next up? Well the walk through video had a good idea in it... put the slots vertically and see if you can use the opposing edges to move across... ooooof. Sometimes you can run the opposing moves as a match (using the slopey side and incut sides) other times you're going to find it really really tricky to pull this move off as the slopey side is just a little too slopey. This means you end up having to turn your body and get both your hands onto the incut side and then go for the next hold... cue a few barn doors as you try this one.
We added the 45 degree logo although, after 3 rounds, we couldn't get ourselves up the problem. An extra foot would have made the all the difference with this problem but we worked out some beta that got us to the last hold, only problem was we were never able to connect all the moves:P On a vertical wall the incut sides are huge and if you want to make the problem more challenging its a matter of spinning the hold around for the slope.
We set a bunch of routes with these holds, but from the video you can see only one... and there's good reason for that it's because even though we moved the holds around we just didn't film it as we were pre-occupied with getting this route done. From low ass dragging traverses' to slopey side pulls these holds have it all, one thing (we didn't try) but think might be a good idea is for the Trad Monkeys out there to look at these holds as we think they could be used for practicing to place gear for when you're outside (just don't weight it) the slots in these holds are just begging to have some cams and nuts wedged into them!!
The holds are pretty technical and something that will give people a lot of fun, so far we've seen little of the Rock Candy hold line but what we have seen so far is impressive for a small company
Versatility: Inbuilt with the design Screw Holes: Yes on all holds
Ok... the two things that stand out about these holds are the colour and the texture. The hold itself is translucent and so it gives the colour of the hold a unique tone. So Ill mold some holds with this translucent urethane but are one of very few companies who do so and Rock Candy is among them. Don't think that translucent means weak, the urethane in these holds is nice and strong, we cranked one of the Ruffles up to 20ft lbs of torque the other night (Most people can turn a wrench to 10ft lbs or maybe 15) and the washer was still in the same place that it started in; it didn't sink as the urethane compressed
The dual texture of the hold is discrete, and they look as though they're regular textured holds. Its until you get your hands on them you realize that they have a little more to offer. Along with the dual texture the shape incorporates thumb catches in ridges that are molded along the hold, but remember the thumb catches are smooth so even though you can get something on them it's not as good of a placement as you're going to expect... same go's for feet, if you're careful you can stand on the slick part of these holds, but if your footwork is clumsy then you're going to struggle.
Sanding wise the backs are smooth, the bolt holes although not centred are square with a nice flat washer and the textured part of the holds are grippy but not so that your finger tips are going to be bleeding at the end of a session. Cleaning wise the chalk will be within the slots on these holds and therefore we pressure washed them down in the garage; the texture and holds came back out like new.
These holds were shaped by Tony Reynaldo and we're not sure whether we should praise him or hunt him down with dogs :) The man is obviously an evil genius and we tip our hat to him and hope he shapes some more of these holds without the dimples and a super smooth exterior for our climbing enjoyment
*Ding ding* Round Three Right this is starting to get on my nerves. I'm so so close to nailing the route it's not even funny now, add to that my old climbing partner Jeff is back in town and he's not climbed for a good long while and he's almost nailed this route on a few occasions. We're now resting more than usual between attempts, the music is getting heavier and heavier and the amount of footage that we've filmed that cannot be used due to language that would make a sailor blush is starting to get a little silly... I'm flying off on the last move and I am really really throwing out some interesting combination's of words, some of which I'm not even sure I've used before... at times it's involving mothers, others it involves mothers and animals. Frustrated? YES!
Nathan and the team at Rock Candy have done a great job on these holds, my setting... well... Chris and I both wanted to set something hard (comp season is coming) and we wanted to push ourselves and have something to work on. We both agree that the difficulty and technical nature of these holds and my setting have made a wonderful wonderful route, sure it's frustrating, sure it's hard and I'm having to work to get that last hold and the final hand up to match it... but is it worth it? Is it really worth hurting fingers and cursed mothers to get that one last move and the first send of this little 5 move route?
FUCK YES!
Well done Rock Candy, I hate and love you in equal parts... I'll love you more once I finish this route :P
(Update: (October 21st) day before posting the review, as the wall is (well mine) in my house I just snuck in and warmed up and then had a few runs up the route... the last move is soooo close now I can taste it, if we get this route I swear I'll video it to prove that it went down (if anyone has these holds and needs a close up image of the route so they can try it drop me a line, we'll post your videos of your attempts (and fails :P))
We managed time after time to get to the last move on the 45 and it always ended with our butts on the ground screaming some profanity. The holds are large enough and they have quite a large incut but if your feet come off the wall it becomes very hard to stick the holds. We had to make sure to keep our feet on the wall and we don't have many large feet on the overhang so it came down to core strength and lots of it! The holds are big enough to hang on the 45 but they are very hard to pull down on. If we put a big foot in the right place, we might have managed to get the last move. It may sound like I'm making a bunch of excuses for not being able to send the problem and to be honest, we were very close to sending and its just a matter of being a little stronger...or a little more committing....or a little of both....my point here is that there not impossible to get up.
The thing that stood out for me is the texture. The dual texture is well done and you get no grip on the smooth part of the hold but the ridges incorporated into the shape make it so you can use them as thumb catches, which should have aided us in getting up the 45...but it did not :P There is a variety of sizes in the set and for us (we try to set exclusively with the holds that we review) it gives us more options to set with. On another note, we had the smallest holds at the bottom of our problem. It went without a hitch, we figured out what feet to use and away we went. The smaller holds required a lot more body tension to keep your feet on and it Noodles thought it would be a good idea to leave them at the start of the problem. He set the largest hold as the last hold on the problem. It was big, incut, and we should have made it up....but we did not :(
PROS
Slopey or incut your choice
Could be used to practice placing trad gear
CONS
The set isn't all XL sized holds, three are... two are L or Medium
Dual texture isn't as slick as you think, you can stand (on) and thumb catch the ridges if needed
The company once called Pusher was a big player in the early days of climbing holds. If you, like us, spend a lot of time at the local gym you might have spotted a Pusher hold from the “P” that they would brand their holds with. Well out of the ashes that was Pusher, the phoenix rose as Revolution Climbing. Revolution sent us a whole box of holds, some big, others small, and we ended up getting a large selections of sets to play with. When we started off with this review, noodles and I couldn’t decide which set to review first so to make our lives a little easier, we decided to review two sets in one. Noodles let me pick out the sets and he was a little surprised from the selection I made. With the variety of holds on hand, I wanted two sets that would be different and settled on the Huecos L2 and Fossils sets
Good thing Revolution Climbing marks all their holds with a code so you can distinguish which holds go together. Its pretty simple, each set is designated a letter (in our case “H” for the huecos and “F” for the fossils) and the sizes…well..its pretty redundant, L for large, M for medium…but it’s a nice touch and it makes it easier to organize your holds. We got 8 sets all molded in the same color so having the sets marked on the holds made it really easy to find the sets for our review. I chose these two sets for one main reason. Between the two sets, there are a variety of grips. The fossils are the smaller set of the two and they’re mainly crimps but are textured so it seconds as a pinch. The larger Hueco set has three jugs and two pinches.
Revolution has a large range of holds that they’ve divided up in four main categories. The Huecos are found in the “Real Series Holds” and we had the Large 2 series. I’ve never been to Texas but I’ve seen many a climbing video from Hueco and the variety of pockets and crimps are reflected in the Hueco series holds. What makes this a good set is that the shapes are quite different, the only common thread being the inspiration of the place by which they are named, and if it weren’t for the code on the holds you could almost say that these holds come from different sets. The pockets are big enough to for a full hand with room to spare and have a deep scoop where you can easily get grip on, except that they are thin and when we get them on overhanging terrain they are not as easy as they seem. So we raised the bar a little and put them on the roof. Matching on the roof? Fail! The holds are big, but if you try to get the match there isn’t enough room for all you fingers so you actually need to match with three fingers on the hold which proved to be a little too much for our fingers.
The pinches have an interesting shape. They are both drastically different from each other but are both large one hand pinches On the one hand you have a geometric shape with no incut and while the other hold has a weird crescent moon shape that has some features on it so you can get a better squeeze on the pinch. They’re pretty big and most climbers won’t find a problem climbing on them.
SUGGESTED USES FOSSILS
The Fosils are bolt on crimps. They have a slight incut but there’s not much to hold onto. These holds were also in a route at our local gym. Holds of this size are great on routes and for moves that require a lot of balance. You don’t want to be cranking hard on these holds all night and we didn’t want our fingers to hurt too much in the morning so we set some short moves on the vertical wall. My guess is that these holds could make it comfortably to a 30 degree wall but the steeper stuff is reserved for the brave. There are larger sets series but we have the smallest bolt on holds from this series and were limited to our vertical wall. Crimping for the most part is uncomfortable and painful, but the Fossils have a good shape that doesn’t hurt as much as other crimps. They have a texture and sometimes, on other holds, the texture may have sharp edges that dig into your fingers but the crimps from this set are comfortable.
SUGGESTED USES HUECOS
Any angle and even the roof. It might not be the best place for them but with pockets that big we couldn’t resist ourselves. But that’s only half the set. The other pinches are good fro vertical and even shallow overhangs. We could have put them on the 45, but the pockets with the pinches gave us a good variety and we could make a longer problem with the holds that we got. The set is great for anyone…I mean anyone. Novice climbers will have no problems with the jugs while working on their pinch. Want to set hard? No problem here. You can try out an undercling on one of the jugs or better yet, put them on the roof. The jugs are deceiving and harder to hold on to than you’d expect.
Versatility: The Huecos are jugs so there's a bunch of uses, the Fossils are pretty well one use Screw Holes: No not needed
All of the holds have a "R" for Revolution and letter denoting their set and size, this is a godsend when you're digging through a bucket of holds looking for the rest of a set. Thankfully Jeremy has a brain that remembers what holds are where and the number of holds in a set, so we're not so bad, but thank god for the letters on the holds!!
Way back in November of 2008 we ran a review on some of the Shellshocked range from Project Holds; you can find it here... the one size of holds we didn't review was the 2XL's, we did everything else up to and including the Wedge but we had a hole in our line up between the XL's and the 3XL's... now we can fill the gap (other than the really big shapes in the lineup) and you can see what this size of hold is like. Without further ado, meet the Shellshocked 2XL holds:
Now if you click the link and read the last review you'll see that there were a bunch of problems with the holds; the Wedge got stuck on the wall and we had to do some fairly brutal drilling around the t nut to get it off of the wall and we noted that the color despite the holds being poured at the same time was a little inconsistent when it got to the edges of the shapes. This time we had no problems, the holds are a light pink and the color is nice and flat across the holds and as these holds aren't anywhere near as large as the Wedge we've had no problems with t-nuts and lock ups! Where we did have a problem was one entirely of our own doing :D
Setting late at night when you've had a few too many beers for your birthday might seem like a fairly bad idea, and when we went back and looked at what had been set and we started to session the problem that we started to think that we could have set something that was a little out of our range and possibly a little crazy because some of the moves were really hard. Rather than just re-set the route we decided to try it a few times to see if it'd go. Chris mentioned that we'd set something similar a few years ago with this holds that were a little more positive to hang and he believed that it would go.
So round comes Noodles actual birthday on the Sunday where we had a full schedule of work on the site to be completed, we weren't even going to climb but as we needed to film for an upcoming review we grabbed our gear and off we went. The other route didn't even get a look in, we figured out what we had to do to complete the route, it was now a race to see who would actually be the first to stick the move (the one from under the box to the 30 degree wall) and then to figure out the final move which was a match on the most positive hold of the set.
Shallow walls, arete and the tops of bouldering walls is where we'd suggest putting these holds (see Noodles comments for more info on this)
The holds despite of a big area are hard to match, ok we did set harder than usual but that's part of the point of climbing; you want to test yourself... and when we say hard to match it was purely hard because of our route. On a vertical wall on a route these holds should be ok for most people to haul on, as the angle goes up even a little bit they become exponentially harder. Using them on opposing moves make them a whole bunch of fun to climb on, locking the moves, catching another hold and then moving your feet up slowly and gently so you can catch the next hold is an exercise in movement and balance.
Versatility: Lots, depending upon where you set Screw Holes: Yes on one of the holds
NICK Once more the noob puts his two cents in on another set of holds! First of all I'd like to take the time to say OW!!! Being a bit new to the sport my fingers haven't built up to the point where they can take most of my weight on them and as you'll see in the video, the holds are nowhere near as easy to get a hold of as the Shellshocks that are up on the wall. As usual, these new holds sucked chalk like crazy the first few times we tried them out but once they'd been used a bit things started going better. I enjoyed the challenge of this new set a lot more than the Shellshocks but I'm not sure which set I'd pick for a wall of my own. The texture of the new holds was a bit smooth for my liking as I prefer a rougher feel which gives me the impression of more grip but that's just a question of preference and not worth much consideration since the holds had excellent grip after a bit of use. The overall shape of the set was great, not to easy to find a good grip but that made them all the more challenging and I for one think that's a good thing! Not much more to say about them really. I liked them a fair amount and the pain they induced wasn't unbearable so I'll say they are a worthy addition to any wall, gym or home. Oh! Despite what's shown in the video, I did finally manage to get through the first route but I don't know how much longer the holds will stay on the wall so I might not be able to do it in reverse. Fingers crossed, noob out! :D
There's a company that you may have noticed that pops up on our site from time to time; Beta Clothing. We have a long running relationship with them, pretty much from the start of climbingholdreview we've had most of our t-shirts printed by them; they took our logo and reworked it into what you see on the back of our shirts.
Beta has been a Tour De Bloc sponsor for some time and they're producing some products that stand out from the normal run of the mill products that you sometimes see. Let's have a chat and see what's what :)
1: Name and job. David Smith, Owner / Director of Beta Clothing Designs Inc.
2: Beta is a Canadian clothing company, how long have you been operating? Beta was established in 2001, just after I graduated from Industrial Design at OCAD in Toronto, however it really only got serious around 2005. Since then every year Beta has doubled in size and evolved into what it is today.
3: What's the goal of Beta? To deliver quality products, at affordable prices WITHOUT cutting corners.
4: Any stand out products that you're really proud of? The two-tone Tektonic zip hooded sweatshirt from last years fall collection is probably my most favorite as of yet. It was the first product of ours to truly explore original design and move in a direction that we could call our own. It was a very small step, but a huge success and the beginning for what is to come.
5: You sent us a bunch of Cadence shorts telling us that they'll last, they do! How long did they take to design? Each product is a labour of love and takes a long time. I personally research the fabrics, develop the fit and style, develop the colour combinations, and create all of the artwork for each product. Essentially I am responsible for the whole package, overall I try to ensure that every product is truly the best it can be with the resources we have at hand.
6: We get our shirts printed by you, can you talk us through the design process step by step? Everything we do, we do to the best of our ability…whether it is our custom collection or branded clothing for you guys we oversee and manage every step of the process to ensure the highest quality and the best results. For your shirts, we track down the suppliers, develop the artwork with the client (as you know) suggest ink colours and locations, we will go as far as to produce colour mock-ups of what the finished shirt will look like BEFORE anything happens. This way the client is sure they know what they are getting. We essentially take on all of the responsibility and headache that comes with developing and producing branded clothing and allow our clients to relax knowing that they simply place their order with us and can rest assured that the end result will be delivered on time, on budget and with the highest level of quality available. We try to make every project as stress free as possible; we know that our clients have better things to do, so we take on all of the responsibility to ensure that the final product is where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, with no stress and no surprises.
7: You're also a Tour De Bloc sponsor, how did you come to fit with the climbing community? Are you a climber? Are we climbers…ABSOLUTELY, Beta is currently staffed by some of Ontario’s strongest climbers and our team definitely includes some of Canada’s best. We have all been climbing for many years, and have been around the Tour de Bloc since its inception. You could say that Beta was born in climbing and has been raised in the city…We have been a Tour de Bloc sponsor for the last 6 years straight.
On a more personal note, I have been climbing for 10 years, I have climbed all over North America from here in Ontario to the New River Gorge (WV), The Gunk’s (NYC), The Red River Gorge (KY) and Mexico to name just a few. I trained and traveled most frequently with my younger brother Mark. My hardest red point is 5.13b (8a), though I was painfully close (last move of the crux) to my project at Lions Head, Lion King 5.13c/d (can’t claim it yet). I train twice a week in a gym and do cardio training and hot yoga on the side.
My goal is still to redpoint 5.14, which I know I am very capable of doing, though it is quite difficult to maintain that degree of fitness while managing a company as involved as Beta. I have told many of my friends that for now Beta is my 5.14 and when it is where it needs to be, it will be the greatest redpoint of my life. In the meantime I just want to maintain my fitness and enjoy all that is going on right now.
8: Being a clothing company, we know you sponsor a bunch of people (We'll we co-sponsor one of the athletes) who are they? Anyone famous? As mentioned our company team boasts some serious talent, all team members contribute to the growth and development of the company on different levels based on their skill sets. But at the end of the day, Beta would not exist without the quality people that make it work. They are (in no particular order) Dustin Curtis (National Team Member), Bonnie de Bruijn (National Team Member), Daniel Martian (All round amazing climber, one of Ontario’s strongest climbers), Mark Smith (My traveling and training partner and again one of Ontario’s strongest), James Stuart (13 years of climbing), Frank Kocis (5 years of climbing) and myself (10 years of climbing).
9: What's new with the company this year? What’s new with the company this year… everything! We are just starting to roll out our newest products, definitely the best styles we have ever had to the opportunity to produce. We recently launched our new e-store and blog and both are kicking ass. Our clothing will be available in several Toronto stores starting October 1st and we are gearing up for the One of a Kind Show near Christmas. On top of all of that we cleaned up our branding, hired some more staff and most importantly signed on with the Tour de Bloc for another year, this time as a silver sponsor. Overall, we are gearing up for our best year yet and things are going very well…
9a: One of a Kind Show? Never heard of it.. care to explain? The One of a Kind Show is a massive show that occurs twice a year, once in the spring and once for the Christmas season. It is Canada’s largest and most prestigious show where independent designers can showcase their products. The concept is that it specializes in one of a kind, small businesses; designers and artists that are independently trying to build a name for themselves in the marketplace.
It is an amazing show with an attendance of 150,000+ people for the Christmas show and it has always been one of the best ways for us to be able to meet and truly get to know each and every one of our customers. You build real relationships with the people buying your products, each season they come back to see what new products you have and how you have been. It is a very enjoyable way to do business and it allows all of our supporters to come and meet the design team, hear about the products and really learn what goes into making the clothing and building the business. We are very well supported at these events and we love it, people from all over Canada come to see what we have been up to.
If you have never been it is worth the experience, I believe for the x-mas show there are something like 500 different vendors. Again, it is a great experience for both the company and the customers, it allows us to put a face to our names and more importantly it allows us to shake the hands of every customer that comes out to support us. Something that I am very grateful to be able to do.
One of my goals when I started Beta was to always be accessible, I always want people to feel like they know me or someone from the brand. That’s why we love the Tour de Bloc as well, we set up at every event we can get to so that everyone can learn firsthand what we have been up to as a brand, I find it’s a far more personal way to do business with people and by far the best.
10: In five years, where do you want Beta to be? Five years from now I want Beta to really be at the forefront of performance fashion apparel. Few people really understand what it takes to be creative in this industry and the time, energy and money it takes just to run the business, without trying to reinvent anything.
Every year Beta releases products that are far more creative and interesting than a lot of what is on the market. This will continue with each year passing, the only thing I want to see is the level of our creativity grow to such a degree that it truly becomes our reputation. I want people to see our designs and be blown away; I want our brand to be respected for doing things better than most and still keeping things affordable.
11: Where can people get your clothes? Is it just online or are there stores that they can go and see the products first hand? As of October 1st of this year, we will have our products in three boutiques in downtown Toronto. We also frequent a lot of clothing shows and events; we will be attending all local Tour de bloc competitions with our team and a full selection of our newest styles. Lastly, we offer a personal shopper experience where we bring the clothing to you (Greater Toronto Area only) and there is our e-store. Remember that all of our products are guaranteed for life and we have a fantastic exchange and returns program. So if you are psyched to try our products and can only get them from our online store, relax knowing that if you aren’t truly happy with the product you can always send it back and we will makes things better. Full post here!
Element Climbing sent us a box full of their new shapes. They’re a relatively new company and are working hard making their mark on the climbing community. From our experience climbing on their holds in the past, Elements shapes are unique, versatile, finger friendly and from our first impression of these holds we expected no less from this weeks featured set, the Ions:
The Ions are an eight hold, medium to large pinch set. The Element medium and large size have a wide range of sizes and if you compare the size to that of some other companies holds, you could say that the set incorporates three different sizes, small, medium and large. The smallest of them all is two finger pinch with the largest, make that the two largest, are big enough to match. The design of each hold is based upon the same theme: an incut pinch with a bulbous area to grab that helps keep your fingers in the groove of the pinch and prevents your nail from scratching along the wall when executing the more dynamic moves. As similar as they are, the shapes are all different, ranging from size and the angle of the incut and our first thought was to get them up on the 45... but Nick got them first
Nick was given the rare honor of getting the holds brand new, straight from the box without anyone touching them other than us with our usual walk through shenanigans. Nicks a new climber and he's never set before, so we let him play and helped him on his way with a wrench and some bolts. The one thing that we forgot is that Nick, like Seb, is have quite the span on them and they've got way more reach than either Noodles or Chris, so what Nick set was quite a surprise as the last move was pretty damn long :) For someone that's been climbing for 3 or so months he's setting some stuff that's pretty hard, and if he can do the moves and can complete the route then it means that they're pretty beginner friendly
So we went to work setting another problem on the 45. After taking a closer look at the holds we realized that we may have been a little over zealous on our assessment. Our original idea was to get them all up on the overhang, traversing across and finishing up high; but the smaller holds from this set could set off a finger injury and we decided to use the larger holds only. These pinches aren’t for the faint of heart, they’re narrow and you might let out a grunt or two when climbing on overhanging terrain. What saved us was the incut, they have an incut on either side that will allow you to get your thumb around the underside of the hold and you can really clamp down on the hold. Getting the route from start to finish was really hard and quite taxing; but as always we carried on and got the job done. --
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We probably went a little overboard with putting these holds up on the 45, but what’s life without a little adventure. We’ve had other pinches up on the 45 and Chris has spent weeks trying to get up the problem, without any luck. We set a very similar problem this time with the Ions and it took us a couple of tries before we got to the top of the wall. They’re hard, but not impossible. They're pretty interesting to climb on, pretty friendly for people that have trouble with their pinch strength these are a good step to getting some power on shallow angled walls, if you're strong then crank the angle up and bring the pain
Put the holds flat in the horizontal plane means you're going to get some nice semi incut edges that have a round edge, they're not the most comfortable but they work pretty well, the good thing about these holds in this rotation is that you can match most of them much easier than when they're used as they were intended
Versatility: Pinches or edges Screw Holes: No
Beginner friendly pinches
Good price
CONS
Unless you're strong you will be looking at shallow angles for these holds
Just as we finish out Ruffles review Nathan sends me an image of the BIG new Ruffle -----------------------------------
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Ready for Halloween!----------------------------------------------
SUPER SALE FROM CONTACT CLIMBING Tech Wedges, $24 for 7 holdsGuidelines medium, 5 holds instead of 8 for $24. Soon they'll return to $35 Leftovers medium, 5 holds instead of 10 for $24. Soon they'll return to $35Grits medium, 5 holds instead of 10 for $24. Soon they'll return to $35 New holds being molded next week, meet the Handles
That logo is not us giving a Big Up to anyone, that's the film company that makes the films you probably love to watch on your down days!
Climbing movies come around, we've been waiting for this one that's for sure. When it's raining we climb and then chuck on a movie our playlist is: Dosage V, Stick It, One Summer and a few others. One of them needs to get bumped for this: Big Up Productions are just putting out high quality climbing films, from locations to climbers to just the quality of the filming these guys are GOOD. Rather than drag my ass across town I just went and downloaded this from their site, as $23ish (CDN) for just clicking a few buttons I'm pretty happy with the way I can get this (although I'll end up buying the DVD anyway)
Some climbing films are hit and miss, this is just plain hit. From Caldwell burning off the kids (as he puts it) to Sharma on Jumbo Love and then everything that's pushing the sport to the next level (seriously 2500+ moved for endurence training?) this film is filmed well, has a great sound track and enough movments of "aww come on that's impossible" to keep you inspired throughout the coming winter months. Don't believe me? Here's the trailer:
We don't rate films, we rate holds... but if we did rate films this would be five star, beating out Dosage V by a country mile.
You can download the film here if you have a pay pal account, or order it through the site, it's well worth a look if you like some crazy climbing
Jordan Shipman is someone we talk to now and then for advice on video stuff that we need or want to do, he's also the founder of Louder Than Eleven which is a small video company that makes some pretty fun films. He's just made a new one and as we're rendering files we have time to write some interviews! Enjoy the trailer for Colorado Glow and our little interview with the guy that was the brains behind the film
Name and job / title My name is Jordan Shipman and I'm the founder of Louder Than 11
You run Louder than 11, what is it and what's it's aim? For starters, here is the current official LT11 mission statement: Louder Than 11's mission is to grow the sport of rock climbing by producing entertainment that captivates audiences and engages them directly through LT11 ensemble blogs and promotes the outdoor industry with creative advertising.
Essentially LT11 makes rock climbing videos. We want them to be very creative, original and especially entertaining. I think that's important. Climbers generally love watching hard climbing but non-climbers don't necessarily get a kick out of it. If we are to grow this sport, we believe climbing needs an image that gets people interested. We think that if we put some nitro in our videos, we'll attract more people.
I know you as a film maker that makes movies about climbing, do you pull down when you're not filming?
I don't climb nearly as much as I did before LT11. I've got a day job that takes up the usual full-time hours and I do LT11 work at night. It doesn't leave a whole lot of time for climbing these days--especially when its close to a deadline. I plan on having more time in the future as LT11 grows and I don't need another job. This is just how it goes when your starting out I suppose.
What's your favorite climbing destination?
I'm not sure. I've spent the most time at the New River Gorge so I'd probably have to say that. But I haven't been as many places as I want to yet so I'm sure its bound to change.
You have a new film called "Colorado Glow" that's about to be released, what was the idea behind it?
Well I tend to have a pretty fantastical imagination and it only gets worse as my skills improve. I had the idea long ago that climbers hands could glow and emit energy or light as the climbed. But the question was how or why? So i had the idea that some climbers could discover a new kind of chalk that glows when pulling certain moves typically cruxes and fast movements so it almost becomes a type of super power that comes from outer space and rides into earth on a meteorite. We wanted to make a bouldering video in Colorado so we took that idea and created the story of Colorado Glow.
Did you film everything that we see?
A lot of it. I definitely had a hand in everything you see. Its too much to do completely on your own in the amount of time we had. Jon Glassberg has a fantastic visual eye and he helped a ton with all the crane work. Donovan Craig is another talented guy and he came along to help out a ton with everything, especially camera work. Nate Draughn pitched in some too. It was a group effort and for LT11 that is what is all about.
What are you filming / editing on? (Hardware wise)
We shot on an JVC-HD7 with wide angle lenses and a Cannon HV20 with a 35mm lens adapter + 35mm lenses. We edit and composite everything on the turbo charged iMacs.
What's the hardest part of filming a climbing flick?
Hauling the gear around. Its bloody exhausting. Donovan had to go to the doctor after the shoot 'cause his knee was all tore up from hiking with the extra weight.
How long did C-Glow take to film?
We shot the video in 3 days 'cause thats the longest amount of time i could get off from work at the time. We hiked in at sunrise and hiked out at sunset then shot stuff for visual effects at night. Very little sleep for a few days.
Three days!?! That's mental! Who were the climbers? Were they climbing at their peak all the time because that's got to be hard on the athletes It was mental! Just stupid! We should have had at least a week. Ha! The climbers are Jon Glassberg, Nate Draughn, Ryan Olson, and Carlo Traversi. All the problems were were ones that the climbers had sent before except with Carlo on Top Notch. That was a complete surprise, most of all to him. It was hard on the athletes, they had to climb the problems entirely a couple times plus repeating moves and certain sections for close ups and different angles. The conditions were not bad but not ideal either. Lots of lost skin, split butt cheeks and sometimes the holds were only good for a couple goes before the moisture ruined them. The athletes were climbing near their peak the entire time for sure but they never ceased to impress. Just flat out strong.
What was the budget of the film (rough). Its hard to put a number on the budget because we don't really have any money right now! :D But if I had to put a number on it with expenses and all I'd say around 1k.
Are there any sponsors for the film? We do have sponsors, without them it would not be possible. Our sponsors on this project are Deadpoint Magazine, Friksn Clothing, Project Holds, and Revolution Pads.
How long to edit? Hmm...well editing plus all the visual effects and compositing...about 300 hours over 7 weeks.
Is it hard during the editing to keep the pace right, not too slow and not too fast?
Its not easy to pace a video because it is easy and almost inevitable to lose perspective when you are working so immensely on something like this. Jon and I would toss cuts and segments back and forth to get feedback and make changes. After a certain point you just have to trust your intuition and go with it.
Do you take any inspiration from people like Big Up / Slackjaw / BS Productions and their movies?
I've always been a fan of Big Up. I love Sender Films. I get inspiration from everywhere and everything I absorb.
So what is your favorite climbing movie and why?
My favorite climbing movie right now is King Lines. I like it because it blends documentary story telling and sports action really well. I think that climbing movie represents an important milestone in rock climbing videos. A friend of mine once said he didn't like King Lines because of all the talking, he just wanted the climbing . . . but he also admitted that when he shows a climbing video to a non climber, King Lines is the one he plays.
So you've not seen Big Ups Progression then? It's pretty well the best film out there right not IMHO! Do you want to compete with the big guys at some point? I havn't seen Progression yet! I've been too busy on this project to stop and watch anything! I am super psyched to see it ASAP!! I bet its good! I guess I can't avoid competing with them technically because we make rock climbing videos but our goal is to be different not necessarily better. We have a different business model. They sell $30 DVD's and we produce free videos available streaming online and for download.
What else is in the pipeline?
In the immediate future by the end of the year we'll have a short vid produced at Moore's in North Carolina, Jon is editing a short New River Gorge bouldering video, I'm producing a commercial for Friksn and next year we have huge plans, like gigantic mercenary zombie plans!
Well everyone loves zombies! Anyone you'd like to thank, give a shout out to? We are zombie nuts :) I would love to thank all our sponsors, Deadpoint, Friksn, Project, Revolution--FlightTakers for hooking us up with some dope tracks--Laura Fryer for some gear support--Donovan Craig for being a true friend and champion, hands down--Jordan Olsen for his infinite generosity-- Jon and Nate for being bad ass--Zoe Wilson, my girlfriend for putting up with me working so hard--and everyone else and especially all the fans. Thanks so much!
Sometimes you have holds that have been on the wall for a long time... sometimes you get holds and you can tell are going to be a staple on the wall the first time you climb on them. The pinches we received from Climb It, shaped by Louie Anderson, are some of those holds that are going to stick around for a long time... with that said, we give you the Pinches from Climb It; Now why do we think that these holds are going to be on the wall more often than not? Because we've had them for months and when we take them down they seem to magically return to different bolt holes. We've used them on one of our 50+ move endurance routes, you boulder problems on the 45 and one thing that is plain to see and feel is that these holds are going to make you very very strong... without killing your fingers.
All of the shapes, 9 sets of four holds and the massive power pinches (something we got wrong in our video... sorry Zach), are all similar in that they're pinches of varying widths and angles... but each one is different in a subtle way most of the time. The Power Pinches stand out and monsters that in some cases make you think you`re going to need a set of hulk hands to be able to get onto them... especially when the terrain gets steep.
Overall as you can see we all had an interesting time with these holds, they're fun to see if you can stick something that looks fairly improbable, but with a little time and some patience something that seems like it's not going to go will, but it will take a lot of effort to get the send.
All of the holds have either sloper or flat angles with a nice ergonomic round edge to them, the texture is good and when you`re done playing with traverse put these holds onto a steep wall and see how long you can hang on. One thing these holds have taught us is that body position and hitting the holds in the correct area is key to getting up that problem you've just set, get it wrong (as you can see from the video) and the games pretty much over!
Some of the holds feel like they're left hand or right hand bias which means they could almost be used for some system training, they're close... but not quite perfect for this application (do people not make system holds anymore?)
If you're looking to train your pinch strength then these are a good option to look at, there's a lot of choice to be had here, so gyms can set full on routes and the home climber can spice up their wall quite easily. The only complaint (if you could even call it that) is that one of the power pinches is SO WIDE it's hard to hang as a pinch if you have small hands
One final point is that when in the horizontal rotation these holds make for some really nice / easy slopers and edges... so when you get bored or tired you can make your climb easier :)
Versatility: Pinches / Edges or slopers.. your choice Screw Holes: Yes on the larger holds
Q: What are these holds like that's on the market?
A: Well not a lot really, they are like the Teknik Svelt Pinches in that they're nice smooth shapes that are pinches. To be honest there aren't a lot of shapes like this that I can think off of the top of my head; that's not a bad thing
Q: So you have a lot of Climb It's line... what's your favorite?
A: Right now, these... ok... these and those Top Out Slopers that they have (especially now there are the "easier" sets in that line up) in their line up. These holds are tied at the top with the slopers for easily the shapes I like the most from Climb It. It's a personal opinion, I like and climb on a lot of Climb It's shapes and I like all of the shapes we've seen to date (apart from the Sliders that I brought a few years back); but for training the pinches do a bloody good job
Overall, I'd say if you're looking for some pinches... have a look at these, especially if you're training that grip set and you want something simple and rounder than most pinches on the market. They're not going to be everyone's cup of tea... so thankfully a wrench turn and then you're good with some nice slopers. There are other pinches that I'd also look at like some of the Sequence stuff, definitely the Teknik Svelt's and some of the E-Grips Bubble Wrap line.. but if you want to set a full on pinch route at a gym then Climb It sure do have more holds in their line up
Most of the holds are hollow backed so you save on shipping
Very finger friendly shapes
Lots of shapes to choose from
CONS
If you want diversity in a hold, you won't find it here. This is as close to a pure pinch as you're going to get.
People with smaller hands might have trouble with the wide grip position on some of the holds
(Minor) The Power Pinches are probably too large for most peoples home wall, which is a shame as they're super fun holds
PRICE
Medium A & B are four holds at $31
Small A & B are four holds at $21
Power Pinch 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 are single holds at $45 each
Holds that are cast from real rock, it's not a new thing... but it's something we've seen more and more of late. It seems that people are trying to replicate "real rock" for indoor use; it's not a bad thing, sometimes these forays into the realistic holds is a good thing... sometimes not so much.
With that being said let's look at something that works pretty well, the Granite Slopers and the Large Granite Sloper: Five holds that are going to test your grip strength... and when we say test we mean test your grip strength... really test your grip strength because these puppies are hard to hold onto. Now these holds have been molded from real rock (much like the Climb It: Silverado Cobbles), those were from river rocks... these, ooof these, well these are from granite rocks. Now I'm from the UK and I've seen slopers on the grit stone, and I've spent my time in Font where it's all slopers pretty much but these holds are unlike anything you're going to see in a gym anytime soon.... they're mental, big smooth holds; some with slight dimples and a smooth texture that is so skin friendly it's not even funny, but I'll say it again they're going to make you work to hold on to them, even when they're covered with chalk!
So the concept isn't new, and Summit being a new(ish) company; one that believes that the best place to climb is indoors and that's something we agree with. Another thing we also agree with is that big smooth shapes are the best for climbing on, they save your hands and your skin will thank you at the end of a session... and these holds are in the right vein for that; smoooooth smoothy smooth texture of doom :)
What's funny about the Summit site and their holds are their ratings of the holds, they made us laugh! The Granite slopers are rated "G" and the Large Granite Sloper is rated "PG", now most people will get this as it's a film rating, "G" is General Audiences and "PG" is Parental Guidance Suggested.... but these are used as "Flapper Ratings" ie: the chance of you getting a nice big chuck of skin ripped off of your hand whilst climbing... these holds are probably rated incorrectly! These holds aren't "G" or "PG" these holds are lower than that... these are "U" for suitable for ages 4 and over, there's no chance you'll get a flapper on these holds... ever. IF you do, then you're doing something very very wrong.
Setting with these holds is an interesting process of trying what works, somethings do work really well, other things don't. It depends upon your strengths and weakness', we've been playing with lots of low traverses of late so that's what we did with them. Then we set something a little spicier to see how far you could go with some undercling matches on the shapes... the final route (that's in the video) turned out to be waaaaaaay harder than we expected. The granite slopers are good for setting hard routes on the 45, real hard!, but what we did on the new wall extension was bordering on stupid. Who'd set a no hands start on the Large Granite sloper into a no foot campus on the Granite slopers? Well that'd be us then, we wanted to use the new wall and we figured that we'd christen it with some fun (the wall is actually built for hang board training).. and boy did we get the first couple of moves wrong, we did manage to do it (in the end) but we had our ass' handed to us... really badly!
From vertical to the 45, we set problems all over the wall although these holds are best suited for vertical to slightly overhanging terrain. With the smooth texture we were able to work a sequence over and over again without any loss of skin.
We set some pretty hard moves and the smaller holds from the Granite Slopers line can be used as pinches and they are great holds to work out that pinch strength. We had a pretty long session working on problems and then resetting and trying something new. The session ended with a campus problem on the 45. We started on the large Granite Sloper and we needed to move it around a bit before we found a good placement so we could hang off the hold. Other than a tough start, the rest of the problem went down without a hitch. Our session ended and we still had lots of energy to spare but when we woke up in the morning, our hands felt the strain. It was a little hard to stay away from using the holds as pinches and we ended up using this grip through out our session which led to our agony the next day. In the end the pain was worth it, the shapes are great to climb on with the added bonus of improving grip strength.
Versatility: Tricky Screw Holes: No
PROS
Molded from real rock gives that authentic feel of climbing outside
Good for training pinch/slope strength
Texture and shape make it skin and tendon friendly
Uncarved Blocks showed up at our doorstep, hailing from the land down under. (Do we hear a song here?) Being established in 1996, Uncarved block has been in the game for many years this is the first time that we’ve experienced their holds on the CHR wall but its not the first time we’ve seen them in Montreal. We’ve climbed on them before at one of our local gyms. They have a website that is easy to navigate and if you want to order some holds you can find the PDF file of their catalogue halfway down the home page.
So the guys down at Uncarved Block are pretty zen. They’ve put a little ying yang on each one of their holds. Don’t try to use it as a thumb catch, the material is slick and your thumb will slip right off :P
We received one of the largest sets of holds, the 30 degree set. The set includes 30 holds of all shapes and sizes. It’s too bad they haven’t put anything in they’re pictures of the holds because you can’t tell the size of the holds. With this set we got everything from big two hand slope to little edges. Uncarved block holds are designed so you can climb all day without ripping up your skin and they’ve done a good job on that.
With a set as large as this one, we had a tough decision to make. Ok, so there made for a 30 degree wall, but lets face it, we like to climb hard and are sure that we can get them on the 45 but we decided to make our first problem nice and friendly by setting an endurance route.
Usually you buy a set of holds and they all have a common theme, pinches, jugs, but with this set you get a little of everything. “Uncarved block” translates to simplicity and is a symbol of pure potential in Chinese and the holds reflect it. The shapes are simple but the larger shapes have many grips potentials depending on how you set it.
Nice and friendly is a bit of an understatement when we’re talking about Uncarved Blocks holds. They’re pretty basic shapes and its obvious where the good part of the hold is situated but they’ve designed their holds so you’ll need to work to get through a sequence. Our group was divided between those who could and those who couldn’t. This showed us that the holds are better geared towards stronger climbers but since they have a nice smooth texture, they’re great for training and getting stronger with long sessions on the boulder wall.
So we ventured to the 45. There is one hold that is a deep two finger pocket and at one point, Noodles strained a finger on it. Some of the holds worked great on the 45 and we wanted to see the full potential of the holds. When it come to easy sequences, the 30 degree set didn’t pose to much of a problem but as soon as we set some tricky moves, we found ourselves cranking down hard on the holds and led to Noodles tweaking his finger.
The holds are shaped for a 30 degree wall, and that's pretty much where they perform the best. We of course put them into areas where they shouldn't be used as that's what we like to do; the 45 degree wall is pretty much the limit for these holds, they're more than doable but hard as hell most of the time.. they'll give you a good work out on this angle that's for sure! On the 30 or a vertical wall you're pretty well set and shouldn't have any real troubles, straight out of the box with the variety of holds in this pack means you're off and setting bouldering routes or longer lead / top rope routes pretty easily... you just want to sit down and to feel the holds and see what you want to set. We had time to sit and look at them on the website so we knew (well Noodles did) right away!!
The holds are going to be harder for beginner climbers as weighting some of these holds in the correct manor is the key between getting a route and falling off, we found at the start being too full on with these holds would lead to a one way trip to the floor :) But once you get your mind around the shapes you're in for some fun
The DRCC, love em or hate em they're churning out some very interesting shapes. What arrived in the post was a surprise; a big old box... goody we think, as there's DRCC tape on the box we know where it's from. Now came the next surprise, we opened this box and we found these:
The Double Barrel
The Trip Hole
Now there is a reason that there are arrows and the word slick on these images, and it is a simple one! These holds are dual texture, which if you click the images is plain enough for everyone to see but what they've done is they've made some of the areas that you'd want to grab from time to time slick. Do you see the word "SLICK"? Good, because it's a word we're going to use a lot in this review!
Both holds do a lot of things very very well; they're nice to look at, hollow backed so that they're light, rubber backed to stop the dreaded spinner and look like Dennis the Menace's jumper (google Dennis, it's an old comic book character) The holds have a lot of variety to them as well, there are different sized areas for your grabbing enjoyment from incuts to slopes to pretty bomber jugs and it's all fun and games, oh you'll enjoy climbing with these... until... yes people there is an until...
until...
you grab the slick part of the middle of the hold because someone has spun the hold when you went to the bathroom. The route you were merrily walking now became nigh on impossible as the beta completely changed. Herein lies the beauty of these holds, if you're a route setter (or just plain evil) you can up, or lessen, the grade of your route with a deft spin of your wrench but maybe a number grade depending upon what you've set. Trust us, we had an entire evening where we just spun the two holds by a little to see what the difference was and in 50% of the cases, generally the 180 spin scenario, the moves we were merrily nailing turned into a different proposition altogether.
Is this a bad thing? Nope, not in our mind, it's a good thing. Setting a route is a wonderful process full of trial and error, there's lots of tweaking involved and it's generally time consuming. We had a good route set, but we didn't want to strip the entire thing... so we played spin the hold and managed to have a whole afternoon of fun with essentially what was a 6 move route, the crux of which ended up being these two holds.
One thing that can be said is that unless your wall is pretty big these holds could be a little to large for you to play with, they do take up a bunch of space that could be used in different ways. We're lucky in that regard as we can put what we want where we want it and not worry too much, some smaller slightly more home wall friendly versions of these holds like the DRCC's Single Pockets but in dual texture would be nice to see and would compliment their every growing range of slick evilness.
SUGGESTED USES
Ah the meat of the review is coming. What would we suggest to do with these holds? Now that is an interesting question and one that's been brought up a few times over the weeks as we set with the holds and climbed around.
The smaller of the two holds, the Double Barrel is one of those holds were you can hold onto it no matter which way it's been rotated, the outside is slick and the inside radius of the holes (two of them as its a DOUBLE barrel) is textured and varies from slightly incut to slopey... it's the angle you're on that's going to determine how you hold it :)
It's almost the same with the Trip Hole, except it has areas that are much deeper and therefore can be used on steeper terrain. The use of dual texture on this hold is nice, some areas of the middle of the hold are slick... so the climber would expect to be able to grab around the middle are in for a rude awakening :P Noodles prefers the hold to be orientated vertically and Chris / Seb etc prefer the holds to be horizontal, it's a question of taste and what you'd like to do with the hold, god knows we all spent some time on the floor after thinking "I can use this bit of the hold if I'm gentle" and then have been on the floor.
Versatility: You need to be creative with these holds
Screw Holes: No
Quality it seems to be a key benchmark of the DRCC's holds and this was demonstrated through a couple of things that happened with these holds. Chris noticed a small color defect... well defect is a little strong a term to use! In one of the pockets (where it can hardly be seen) some of the red had mixed with the black color and made a swirly pattern. This "blemish" is about 1cm across; so I mentioned to Vince that there was a slight error and he immediately offered to switch the hold and pay for shipping! Now this isn't a cheap hold to send around and it was pointless to even consider sending packages back and forth just for an area of a hold that can barely be seen. Now we figured that as we're a review site that that was how the DRCC worked, they don't want any negative feedback so they'd go above and beyond to please us!
W.r.o.n.g
We speak to a lot of climbers all over the World and this has been the general feedback on the DRCC. If (and it's a big IF) there was something wrong with a hold they change it, no questions asked, no mucking about... they just do what they're supposed to do and they switch it out. That people is great customer service!
Right... onto the holds, the above fact aside, lets talk about the holds. The dual texture is what we've come to expect from the DRCC... brutal, don't even think about trying to stick it; there's no point you'll just end up on the floor. The holds other texture is smooth but grippy and blends well with the flowing nature of these holds... once chalked it does give away the places you want to grab the hold in but people have still been caught out and have tried to grab the slick part of the hold much to our amusement.
The colors are nice, the segregation of the red and black stripes is well defined and these holds, even though they're pretty big, will stand out on your wall; the backs are flat and we've had no problems with the bolt hole placement. Spinning? Well that's something you'd expect especially on the Trip Hole, but the rubber back sucks the hold to the wall and we've had no issues with that... kind of surprising because of the size of this hold you can put a lot of force on one end of the shape! Needless to say, we suggest the rubber backing on these shapes
Drool over holds
Visualize a cool sequence
Bolt holds onto wall
Try the problems, without getting off of the ground
Change the holds around
See #4... and so on until I set something I can climb
With only two holds to play with (and the Trip Hole is HUGE!) I found it hard to get the most out of the holds. The Double Barrel has plenty of matching options that I couldn't really tap into. I found that some of the moves ended up being too easy, same goes for the Trip Hole. There are plenty of options on this hold and the smallest "pocket" is really what is is, a small pocket. It's just deep enough to get a few fingers in and move moves ended up being easier with the use of that little pocket. Vince at the DRCC is a visionary, the way they mold the dual texture is amazing. That pocket on the Trip Hole only has texture on the one side.. if you try to get your thumb under the hold it'll slide right off the smooth part; so any time I wanted to make things interesting I would put the smooth side up making the pocket useless.
So I guess I could sum it all up with this. The Double Barrel and Trip Hole are really cool designs. If you're looking to set hard sequences and want to train hard then these holds are for you. As for me, I'm going to go practice setting and hopefully get my ass off of the ground.
And for some close up action of the Swine Flu----------------------------
Dream Climbing holds is a new company that's popped up on our radar! Expect reviews on some of these guys holds pretty soon... here's a quick look at their line up:There are loads of holds, click their banner to rock on over to their page
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We don't normally put clothes onto this page, but these t shirts from a new company made us laugh.. enjoy:
New Threadz and Screw Onz from Holdz--------------------------
New comfy goodness from Three Ball Climbing:
ThorLoki
------------------------------------------- Uncarved Block are offering 20% off of everything until the end of September!! EVERYTHING! Let's look at the new stuff:1kg screw ons... $15Scalapinos $44.50 (that's without the discount!) ----------------------- Odin, from Three Ball, released today :)-------------------------------
Want to train? Well Jason Kehl made a nice new board called the Iron Palm. (Click the image for larger view)
INTERVIEW SUMMIT LABS
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