Go to the R&I site for Andy Raether's take on redtagging. Good straightforward arguments. I think the name Girl Talk comes from here rather than a slight against Andy but it's still a lame name and frankly DG ought to let Andy keep the naming rights.
Climbed yesterday at the Spot for the first time in a while. The new area called the Dojo is good but with some major caveats. The first is it's clearly too tall. The upper headwall is just too high up to want to fall. It might be good for comps but otherwise it's dangerous, like leg-breaking dangerous. The cave area is also a problem since you can't work anything from the ground. Most of the climbing surface is 10+ feet off the deck meaning you have to climb up an easier problem to get set for a move, then fall 8 feet and try again. The advantage to CATS is the ramp directly below the wall meaning you can try a long series of steep moves without the hassles of climbing and falling a bunch. Finally the wall texture is subpar. It comes off very easily and gets in the holds leaving a gritty powder. A crimp problem I was trying already had marks from people's fingernails.
Lastly I received some sick pictures from Andy Mann of a new testpiece in Boulder Canyon. This is really big news so stay tuned.
I agree with you on the new wall section at The Spot. Very cool and nice to have more climbing space, but awful high for an indoor gym. Hopefully we won't see too many accidents.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, not sure what time you were there, but someone did hurt their ankle bad yesterday late afternoon while I was there. The weren't climbing on the new Dojo section though.
I happen to think the new wall is great. I don't think it is any higher than the top out of the high part of the font or the hueco boulder.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I find this site to be very (overly?) critical of a lot of topics. Is it really necessary it to put bob h. through the ringer as you have done? (your bo-can guide isn't all that great.) I find constructive criticism and a litle respect gets you a lot further if you want to foster change.
The thing with blogs these days is that you can go off and say all you want, and you don't think of the affect your criticism has on the people who have put their heart and soul into whatever it is you have a problem with.
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteFirst I like seeing people's names in the comments but since you aren't ranting, I'll respond.
My mission in the blog is to provide an independent voice. Bob Horan's guidebook was a for-profit enterprise that was supposed to help people find boulder problems. The book doesn't do that very well. It doesn't help for me to say to readers, well go ahead and spend 50 dollars and see what you think. As far as my boulder canyon guide, I don't pretend to be definitive and it's free to all to comment upon and I will update as and when I can.
I try to be careful that what I write is based primarily upon good reasons or real first-hand or trusted information, as with the new Spot wall or the guidebook. I try not to rant or speculate when I write. Instead I present a perspective that a. does not act as a mouthpiece of commercial interests and b. calls out inconsistency in climbing media or public figures that I think is harmful to the sport. You are welcome to stop reading this blog but I will continue writing it the way I want and the way that many people have complemented me for doing in the past.
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteWhere is this new Boulder Canyon testpiece? Is it a new sport route, or an old trad/aid line that has been freed? Just curious...
DL
Andy has asked me to keep quiet about it but it is a very hard and dangerous headpoint. The photos are incredible.
ReplyDeleteThey just got a shipment of giant pads in, with the sloped edges, at the Spot today, and one's in situ at the Dojo now, making for a softer landing.
ReplyDeleteGood news re:pads. All I know is my aching/aging frame pales at the prospect of 12+ foot diggers at the gym.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, the ground (and even gym floor) **really** start to hurt after 35, I'm with you! With the new pads, I was able to finish a problem I'd been scared of topping out. It's nice that they're there now.
ReplyDeleteSorry anonymous, BH deserves to be put through the ringer on this one, regardless what he poured into that piece of crap he and Falcon call a guidebook. I hope Falcon loses lots of money on that piss-poor INVESTMENT of theirs.
ReplyDeleteI am not anti-guidebook, but he should have showed some respect to the developers, the land managers, the private landowners and HISTORY which collaborating with a few people could have fixed.
Bouldering CO is a full color guide which is nice and it will turn some people onto a few small areas that were off the radar for some folks. Bravo on those 2 points. All the rest is a real shame and it deserves the critical reviews it's gotten.
Carry on!