Guillaume Glairon-Mondet has established “Le Pied à Coulisse” in Fontainebleau and proposed the grade of 8C+ or V16. This could be the first problem of its grade in the famous area and one of only an handful around the world. GuiGui wrote a great blog post describing the problem which you can read about here.
Gear Review: Five Ten Team 5.10 Climbing Shoe
The Five Ten Team 5.10 is a very aggressive downturned climbing shoe that performs exceptionally well on steep rock. The shape of these shoes is their most defining feature, placing the foot in an ideal position for pulling in on footholds. Additionally, their mid range stiffness makes them very versatile, capable of both edging and smearing well. In fact, since trying them, the Team 5.10 has become my number one choice for performance on most sport climbs and boulder problems.
To guide our review, we have broken the shoe down into its specific components to give you a full summary of its features.
Posted in Articles, Recent News, Reviews
Video: Fire, Dust and Cracks
Enzo Oddo and friends climbing in Utah. This is part one of a multiple part series.
Posted in Recent News
Video: Stu Smith on Magical Crystals (5.12b)
Another sweet little shot from Stuart Smith and Drew Leiterman, this time on the route Magical Crystals (5.12b).
Posted in Recent News
2016 Alberta Open Bouldering Provincials Final Results
The 2016 Alberta Youth and Open Bouldering Provincials has come to a close this evening at the Calgary Climbing Centre in Calgary, AB. Here are your final results.
Stacey Weldon making it happen. Photo by Ben Haley ©
Posted in Recent News
2016 Alberta Youth and Open Bouldering Provincials + Live Stream
This weekend the 2016 Alberta Youth and Open Bouldering Provincials are taking place in Calgary, AB at the Calgary Climbing Centre. Here are the results of those athletes in the Open category going into finals.
Open Category
Women’s Open
1. Stacey Weldon
2. Thomasina Pidgeon
3. Alyssa Weber
4. Regan Kennedy
5. Julia Goldhoff
6. Becca Frangos
7. Eva Thompson
8. Allison Vest
9. Alison Stewart-Patterson
Men’s Open
1. Jason Holowach
2. Gavin Johnson
3. Jesse Taplin
4. Dan Archambault
5. Sam Tucker
6. Simon Yamamoto
7. MArc Eveleigh
8. Alex Fricker
9. Scott Williams
Looks like a number of BC athletes made their way to Calgary and found themselves in finals! Good luck to everyone tomorrow and be sure to check the livestream for tomorrows event!
Posted in Recent News
Video: Nina Williams and Helen Sinclair Climb Rostrum in Yosemite National Park
Nice video featuring Nina Williams and Helen Sinclair climb the multi-pitch Rostrum in Yosemite National Park, California.
Posted in Recent News
Thomasina Pidgeon featured on Climbing Daily
For those of you who missed it earlier in the week, local climber, Thomasina Pidgeon was featured on Climbing Daily.
Posted in Recent News
2016 Alberta Open Bouldering Provincials: Interview with Sam Tucker
With the 2016 Alberta Youth and Open Bouldering Provincials taking place this weekend at the Calgary Climbing Centre, we thought it best to check in with a rising entity in the the Alberta climbing scene, Samuel Tucker. Sam Tucker is 23 years old and lives in Calgary, AB. He started climbing when he was nine years old and hasn’t looked back since. Now a regular part of the Western Canada competition scene, Sam has decided that this year he is willing to give all his focus to training and becoming a better all around climber. In this interview, we sit down with Sam and talk about his early influences in the Calgary climbing scene and where he sees himself going as a climbing, a coach, and as a person. Here is what he had to say.
Sam Tucker competing at the Calgary Climbing Centre. Photo by Ben Haley ©
Posted in Articles, Interviews, Recent News
First Squamish Boulder Competition Provides Inspiration by Jeremy Blumel
Jeremy Blumel’s take on the competition last weekend via the Squamish Chief.
The first organized climbing competition was held in 1985 in Bardonecchia, Italy. To test the climbers’ abilities, the route setters chipped routes into the limestone walls of the surrounding cliffs. And poof, thus was born the invented tool for measuring who is the best climber of the day by creating a route, right then and there, to be climbed. Things have come a long way since the cold chisels and the soft, limestone walls of Bardonecchia.
As the sun came up in Squamish on Saturday morning, the final organizing was well underway for Ground Up Climbing Centre’s first bouldering competition, SPF 2016. Routesetters, judges, coaches, junior competitors, parents and adult competitors all swarmed in. The event tagline was: “Stay safe from the sun. Come to an indoor bouldering comp,” and they weren’t wrong.
While the day was crystal clear and dry enough for the dedicated to climb dry stone outdoors, many chose instead to travel to Squamish, sample the new gym’s terrain and pit themselves against the fluid birch-sheeted overhangs and creative problems created by the setters. For those who have never watched a climbing competition or, for that matter, never climbed, I thought I’d explain how the day worked and why an indoor climbing competition can be such a powerful tool for motivating the masses.
SPF 2016 was a Sport Climbing BC-sanctioned bouldering event in which the various youth divisions as well as recreational, experienced, open and masters could all compete. Age and ability level divided the categories, with the youth divisions further divided down by age. All competitors started in a scramble format qualifier and had about two hours to climb as many boulder problems as possible, with each problem gaining them a certain amount of points depending on difficulty. The judges then took each climber’s top five highest scoring problems, tallied them and then ranked the contestants.
For the full article, please see the Squamish Chief website.
Posted in Recent News
