Banned From My Own Gym!

I have been banned from my gym for today and most of tomorrow. No, I haven't been behaving badly (no worse than usual at least). I've been convinced by my staff to compete at our SummerSweatFest competition Thursday evening, and that means it wouldn't be fair for me to be around the gym while they're setting for it. So I get a couple of days off, which I actually desperately need right now anyway.

Don't get the wrong idea here; I am not a serious competition climber. I'm a V1/V2 boulderer, and generally finish very close to the bottom of the Men's Recreational division, able to do perhaps a quarter of all the problems in a given comp. The point of my competing tomorrow is really to set an example for those who think they are not good enough to enter a competition. If you can do the white problems and some of the yellow ones in our gym, you'll be able to do enough of the comp problems to keep you busy for a while, and you'll have a lot of fun. These comps are friendly and the other climbers will be very supportive. If you have ever even wondered what a bouldering competition is like, come on out and "compete" Thursday evening. Think of it as a chance to come have fun bouldering with an enthusiastic group of like-minded individuals.

As added incentive, there will be some raffle prizes for the Youth & Recreational divisions, generously donated by some of our sponsors. We'll have about a dozen prizes to give out, so the odds are decent. Those in the Open category will be competing for a cash prize funded by their registration fees.

Full details about the comp are available at http://summersweatfest.com/comps.php.
We encourage you to register in advance and print out your scorecard. If this will be your first visit to our gym, you can save time by bringing a completed waiver form (signed by your parent if you are under 18). Waiver forms are available for download from http://truenorthclimbing.com/content/waivers.

Wrap Up Of Atlanta Trip

[Dustin Curtis, our Purveyor of Destiny - that is, Head Routesetter and Head Instructor - concludes his coverage of his visit to Atlanta, during which he was part of the setting crew for the US Youth Nationals Championship]

Day 3

We began on Qualifiers #2 today. For those of you not familiar with the format and categories, let me explain. Youth categories are as follows:

• D (11 years and under)
• C (12 and 13 years old)
• B (14 and 15 years old)
• A (16 and 17 years old)
• and finally Junior (18 and 19 years old)

These are each split into Male and Female. Each category will climb two qualifying routes, one on each day, that will hopefully separate the number of competitors enough to take only the top 16 to semi-finals. The competitors then will climb a semi-final route on the third day of the comp, which will hopefully separate the field enough to take only the top ten to finals, which happens on the last day of the comp. The problem with Qualifier 2s, or Q2s, is that they have to be tweaked down from a Q2 to the age category above's Q1. Doesn't sound that bad right? The trick with youth climbing, other than them not climbing like adults and being short and having a smaller hand size, is that C category and under don't lead. I don't know if anybody has looked at pictures of the gym (see http://stonesummitclimbing.com/) but nothing on that main wall screams top rope to me. When you lower off the anchors anywhere along that wall, you're easily 25 ft away from the base of the wall, and in some places, more.

So we continue the process of setting, fore running and tweaking to get these routes perfect for the kids. When we all had breakfast this morning there were definite signs of being worked. The rigging, the ascending and fore running, even hauling holds back and forth starts to wear on you.


Day 4

This is last day of setting before the comp. Everything has to be comp ready by the end of today and we'll stay as late as we need to to make that happen. We started with tweaking down the Q2s to Q1s. Yesterday I had set Female C Q2 (5.12d by the way! Damn these kids are strong!) and now I'm tweaking it down to the Female B Q1 which should go at 5.11d. In other words, the harder qualifier for the 12/13 year old girls gets modified to become the easier qualifier for the 14/15 year old girls. This is more efficient than setting completely different routes, both during the initial setting, and during the switchover between qualifying rounds. Again the other difference between those two categories other than their height, is that Female B doesn't top rope. Clipping positions need to be safe, all the draws that aren't being used in the route need to come off and the rope drag needs to minimized. After all is said and done, the route should be safe - safety is always the first priority - it should build (get harder as you get higher,) and it should look PIMP! The idea of it looking "pimp" is that it should look "TV worthy." I've got to say I'm not a fan of colour coding setting but when there's only one route up on the wall, it's all the same colour and style of holds, the starting hold, finishing hold, and placards are all perfectly boxed in the same colour of tape and all the draws are taken off except the ones you clip, the route looks AMAZING. It's the little things that make a comp spectacular, not just amazing routes (those are key). but if everything else looks like it was rushed and put together, it takes away from the true 'pimpness' of those routes.

Intro Lesson Package on TeamBuy today

Got a friend who has been thinking of trying our rock climbing? Today is the day for them. True North Climbing is the featured deal on TeamBuy right now. Our Introductory Lesson package (which includes the 1 hour lesson, equipment rental, day pass, plus a 2-week membership with rentals) can be had for just $25 including tax, which is just under half the usual price.

Please help us spread the word about this offer, which lasts only until Sunday.

Suggestions

Thanks to Seth Brown (who suggested it), we now have a Suggestion Box at the front desk. We have received a good pile of suggestions in the few days it's been available, and I wanted to go through some of what we have heard, and tell you what we'll do about it.

The suggestions we have received so far fall into a few categories:

• routesetting
• facility
• policies
• silly comments (mostly from our own staff)
  
• other

I'm not going to exhaustively review every suggestion, and I won't promise to act on every one, but we will read and consider everything that comes in. Here are the ones I've chosen to respond to for starters:

Please do not put pink tape close by orange (hard to recognize holds)
We realize that some of the tape combinations (another is white tape on the light-coloured walls) can be hard to deal with, and we will be more careful about that.

Horizontal routes along bouldering walls
This is definitely coming. We do plan to backfill both the bouldering walls and the bottom part of the roped walls to provide more traverses (eventually very long ones!), but we need more holds before we can do this. The good news is that I have now given Dustin a monthly budget to buy more holds, and over time as our inventory grows, we'll have more available to do this.

The "no shirt" rule sucks.
I'm not sure if this came from a guy who wants to take his shirt off, or a woman who wants to see guys with their shirts off. We adopted the policy of requiring shirts to try to establish a family-friendly atmosphere. I felt that shirtless/sweaty guys would make the place feel more hard-core, and could intimidate many of the customers I want to feel comfortable here. I still feel that way. The place is air conditioned, so temperature should not be a reason to need to take your shirt off. I'll keep listening to feedback, but for now I'm keeping the policy in place.

Play iPods
This is a reasonable request, but one I cannot adopt. As a business I need to obey the law, and that means making sure that artists are properly compensated for music that is played in my place of business. The only way I know to do that is by paying for a music service that takes care of paying the appropriate licensing fees. Perhaps because of my background in the software industry, I am very aware of the issues regarding illegal use of software and music, and I'm being careful to do things the right way.

double back by Christma$
I have no idea what this suggestion means. If the person who submitted it will explain more about what they are requesting, I'll listen.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

SummerSweatFest Heading North (True North)!

Last night was the third SummerSweatFest comp, hosted by Andrew McBurney at Boulderz. It was a great night of bouldering with a good crowd (over 65 climbers), great problems, and a little bit of sweat despite the A/C!

If you're not already familiar with this series of comps, SummerSweatFest consists of 7 bouldering competitions at 5 different gyms over the course of the summer. The comps are friendly and fun, so if you haven't been to one before, don't be intimidated by the word "competition".

Here's how it works:

• There are a bunch of bouldering problems set up on the walls, each labeled with a number. Generally the higher the number, the harder the problem (though that's not always strictly true; your mileage may vary!)
• Each problem is worth a certain number of points if you can get to the finish hold (or top out, depending on the problem) without falling. You get fewer points if you get the problem on a second or subsequent attempt
  
• You try as many problems as you can, and keep track of your score
  
• There are 3 divisions: Open for the best climbers, Youth for those under 20, and Recreational for those who aren't that impressed with themselves. Don't be scared off by the thought of competition. If someone like me can "compete", just about anyone can and should. And this is a great way to try out a comp before the slightly more serious Tour de Bloc rolls around in the fall. [Side note: I have challenged Tim Vince to the "Old Guy Cup" over the course of the season. He is ahead so far, but I gained on him last night just by showing up. Winner buys a 6-pack of beer, so it's pretty serious....]
• There is a great prize available for the 6 champions (the male and female winners of 3 age groups: under 15, 15-35 and over 35). Each champion wins a 9-month free pass to all 5 gyms that are hosting competitions in the series.
  

The next comp on the schedule will be held Thursday evening July 22nd at True North Climbing. We'll be setting 15 problems for adults (Recreational and Open categories), and a different 15 problems specifically for Youth climbers. The intent is to make sure that all the young climbers who come out can reach the holds they need to grab on all their problems!

So we're hoping to see a great crowd join us for this comp. You can sign up here!

Set It and Forget It? Not Here!

[Head Routesetter Dustin Curtis is in Atlanta this week as part of the routesetting team for the US Youth Nationals competition. He shares what's going on leading up to the comp]

So: day 2.

The way things run here is so different. I set for Canadian Youth Nationals earlier this year and it's so far from equal. I've never seen a route fore-run so many time. I took a whole day to set one qualifier route, Female B category by the way, (that's 14-15 years old) After a setter finishes a routes, he/she is expected to fore-run it once, make all tweaks necessary (which usually ends up being at least 10-12 spins or swap-outs) then you get a partner to climb it, then make the tweaks that they've suggested, then you climb it again, make the tweaks, then the head setter climbs it, suggests tweak, you make the tweaks, and then you climb it again to make sure, finally, you're done, except if it's a semi-final or final, then you have to mark it and string it, which involves marking the hold with its orientation and then stripping it, putting it on a string of holds in numerical value to how high it is on the wall and marking the bolt hole with an ear plug with a numerical value equivalent to that hold. There's so much attention paid to the fore-running and checking of quality of routes. It's such a different feel to setting here. Attention to aesthetics, whether a hold is right-handed or left-handed, what the route looks like, how it climbs overall, NO CRUXES at all, no height dependents. I'm so amped, I'm learning so much. The route setters are so critical about what they want, and are unbending in their determination of providing a sequence that is unique, inventive, creative and enjoyable. You can never fore-run enough.

Update from Atlanta

Here's a guest post from Dustin Curtis. Our Head Routesetter/Instructor is in Atlanta this week, as part of the setting team for the US Youth nationals competition. The comp will be held at Stone Summit, which opened in June and is now the largest climbing gym in the US.

So after, a 6 hour wait at the border, my car torn apart and searched, a missed flight, a newly purchased flight, and 18 1/2 hrs of traveling and one extraordinary public transportation ride through down town, I arrived in Atlanta last night: tired, annoyed and ready to spin wrenches for USA Climbing. I'm slotted here as an intern for Youth Nationals. The setting crew is gathered from all over the country, and one foreigner (me) and we have four grueling days to put together a full Youth Nationals for something like 350 competitors. At least that's what I heard.

The gym is crazy, and tall and intimidating and awesome and metric...yea I don't know how that happened. But today we got up all of the semifinals, the speed routes, (they're called RE-OUTS here by the way, 'cuz RE-OO-TES grow...crazy Americans...) and tomorrow we begin finals and then hopefully we'll be doing qualifiers. It's so cool to be in such a creative, encouraging environment with innovative and imaginative individuals. It's truly a growing experience and I've never been involved in a comp this big before.

Important Notice to Members

There will be some disruption in the gym on July 14th & 15th, and I wanted to let our customers know what will be going on, and what we're doing to help them avoid the disruption.

We will be holding a routesetting clinic as a professional development activity for our staff routesetters. Chris Danielson, one of the top setters in the world, will be spending a few days with us, sharing his wisdom and working hands-on with our setters, helping them hone their craft, to help make our routes and boulder problems even better. And Chris himself will put up a few routes & problems while he's here.

Before anyone asks, the clinic is full. We're limiting it to 8 participants to make sure Chris has plenty of time to spend with each person, and those 8 spots are taken.

In order to prepare for the clinic, which will run all day July 15th & 16th, we'll need to strip some of the walls on Wednesday July 14th. Much of the top-out bouldering wall will be stripped, as well as the main lead cave and the east wall next to it (the 4 ropes on belay bars 70-75). These areas won't be filled back in completely until the clinic is done Friday evening, meaning that most of our toughest boulder problems and much of our best lead climbing terrain will be out of action Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

We understand that might be an issue for some of our members. For those who climb at a beginner or intermediate level (including lead climbing), there will still be tons of routes & problems available. But for those advanced climbers who feel this makes a visit on those nights less than worthwhile, we have decided to do something to compensate you.

We have made arrangements with a few of the other climbing gyms in the area to provide day passes. We will have a limited number of vouchers available at the reception desk on the following terms:

• each voucher is valid only on one specific day (either Wednesday July 14th or Thursday July 15th)
• one voucher is available to prepaid annual, prepaid monthly or monthly EFT members only
• the supply of vouchers is limited (there are not enough for all our members), and they are available on a first-come first-served basis
• at most one voucher per member, and they are not transferable (your name will be written on the voucher)

Vouchers will be available for the following gyms:

• Boulderz
  
• Climber's Rock (Burlington)
• Toronto Climbing Academy

We want our members to know that we value their commitment and contribution to our gym, and we want to make up for the disruption of taking these walls out of commission for a couple of days. For those of you who don't manage to grab one of the vouchers and still feel put out by this, we will be happy to extend your membership by 2 days (for prepaid members) or credit your account for 2/31 of your monthly dues (EFT members).

Thanks for your understanding as we invest in our staff to help them do their jobs even better.