Tales Of The True North

Move On Over to Our New Blog Location!

2010-11-24T16:17:00.002-05:00

This is the last post I'll do on Blogger, and it's only to point everyone to the new location for our blog. It's now integrated into our new web site, which just went live a few minutes ago.

If you are a subscriber to the RSS feed for this old version of our blog, please take a minute to update that to the new one.

You'll find the new version of this blog at truenorthclimbing.com/blog
All previous posts have been imported, including all the comments, so all the history is preserved.

New Web Site Coming Soon

2010-11-08T11:42:00.003-05:00

I set up the original web site for True North Climbing over a year ago, just after incorporating the company and long before we started building the joint. It was a simple, minimalist site that I was able to set up and run myself, and it served its purpose for a while. It's time now to replace that with a more complete and professional website that really reflects what our gym is like.

Over the past couple of months I've been working with the folks at PixelThoughtMedia designing a new web site that is more visually appealing, more well-structured, and more complete. We're in the final stages of beta-testing it, and it should be ready to launch within the next week or so. The new site will include more photos of the gym, a deeper menu structure to keep the content in more easily-digested chunks and an FAQ to help those new to climbing figure out how things work. There will be an event calendar integrated into it, making it easier to learn about coming attractions, group events and lessons. And this blog will be folded into the new site as a WordPress blog, so that it will look a feel more like it belongs with the web site.

So stay tuned for the launch of the new site in the coming days. We're excited to share it with you!

BullFrog Power Is Bringing Their Friends To The Gym!

2010-11-04T14:19:00.002-04:00

The November issue of e-Buzz, the newsletter from Bullfrog Power, arrived in my Inbox today, and True North Climbing is in it! Bullfrog is bringing a group of their customers to our gym on November 28th, footing the bill for Introductory Lessons and lunch! We're proud to be a Bullfrog Power customer, and excited that they're helping to share our love of climbing with their community. Look here for full details, and if you know someone who might be interested, note that this is limited to the first 60 people who sign up.

This is just one example of the groups we welcome to the gym. In addition to hosting birthday parties, True North Climbing is a great place for group outings for your team (hockey, soccer, roller derby or whatever your second-favourite sport is!), school group or corporate group. We will provide the instructors (for those 13 or older) or belayers (for younger kids), and make sure everyone has a blast. Call us or talk to someone at the desk for the details.

Date Announced for Reel Rock Film Tour

2010-10-15T12:48:00.004-04:00

Last month we announced that we will be the host for the Toronto stop of the Reel Rock Film Tour this season. Now we're ready to tell you when!

The show will be Saturday evening, November 27th. We will close the gym early that night (at 8pm), and take a half hour or so to switch things over for the screening. The slacklines will come down, and the screen will go up. We'll reopen under separate admission, with showtime at 9:00 pm. The price will be $10 for members of True North Climbing and $12 for others. The 5 films run about 90 minutes in total.

And this may seem strange, but we will require a waiver for all those who attend (for those under 18 the Minor waiver Form must be initialed & signed by a parent). The reason is that we intend to let people watch the films from the top of the top-out bouldering wall and the natural boulder. if you have been to our gym before you should already have a waiver on file.

We are very excited and proud to host this event, and hope you'll all join us for what promises to be a fun evening of cool climbing films. Check out the trailer!

What The Heck Is Going on?

2010-09-30T20:11:00.012-04:00

I thought it was time to put up a post to go over what has been going on the past week. This is gathering up a lot of what we have been putting up a bit at a time on Facebook, while filling in some of the gaps.

Here's the story:

On Friday evening September 24th, one of the sprinkler heads mounted on the surface of our bouldering wall went off, sending a lot of water into the gym. While no one was hurt, a couple of women who were in the immediate vicinity were very surprised (and upset) by what happened.
It took about half an hour for the fire department and the landlord to get the water shut off. By then the entire north half of the gym was thoroughly soaked. The water found its way behind the walls, and intruded several feet into the south half of the gym as well.
Our landlord immediately called in a restoration company on our behalf. Strone Restoration is very experienced in cleaning up after these kinds of incidents, and they got to work very quickly. Within a few hours all the padding from the north half of the gym had been lifted and brought to a vacant unit across the hall, where they set up heavy duty drying equipment. The gym got filled with fans and dehumidifiers to dry the concrete and climbing walls, while the spare unit became a giant dehumidifier, with a trailer outside blowing in warm dry air, and pulling out the damp air.
As the open cell foam dried, each piece was disinfected and deodorized. The carpet-bonded foam (the blue and red top layer) was steam cleaned. The red modular pad covers from the bouldering area were sent out to be cleaned.
As the restoration company released pieces of padding to us after testing them for dryness (using a moisture meter that probed deeply into each piece of foam), we began to reassemble the enormous jigsaw puzzle of foam. We had labeled each piece before it was lifted Friday night, and drawn a map charting where each section belonged. The reassembly was actually pretty easy. Think of a 200-300 piece jigsaw puzzle, only each piece is about 5' x 7' x 4.75". This part was kind of fun (if there can be fun in the middle of a nightmare).
We were pretty close to having the gym reassembled and ready to open when we got the results of the environmental test on Wednesday evening September 29th (see below). That shut things down until we could figure out the next step.
A second environmental test was done Thursday morning September 30th. The results from that test came in on Saturday October 2nd. The bacteria levels had dropped enough that the environmental consultant recommended a second steam cleaning of the blue carpet would get things clean enough for us to reopen the gym.

Some questions you may have:

Q: Why were there sprinkler heads on the climbing wall surface?
A: The National Fire Code requires sprinkler coverage in areas where an overhang blocks 4' or more of the area beneath the main sprinkler system. To satisfy this, our architect's engineers designed 8 sprinkler heads to be installed into the climbing wall surface: 6 in the bouldering area and 2 on the steep face of the lead cave.

Q: Why did the sprinkler go off?
A: We believe a climber made contact with the sprinkler head, causing it to go off. Those sprinkler heads were supposed to be "tamper-proof", but apparently they are not. It now appears that it was a mistake to install this kind of sprinkler head on the wall.

Q: Why did you have to do environmental testing?
A: The water that came out of the sprinkler was dark and smelly. At a recent meeting of tenants of Parc Downsview Park we had learned that the sprinklers are fed from a very old underground water tank, and the water in it is of questionable quality. Based on that information, I decided it was prudent to request an environmental consultant be called in to assess the situation. No one directed us to do this, but it seemed the right thing to do to ensure the safety of our customers and staff. On Monday afternoon September 27th samples were randomly taken from 12 of the pads. On Wednesday evening September 29th we got the results of the test: 5 of them showed the presence of bacterial contamination, 4 of them at high levels. The test was repeated on Thursday morning September 30th, after the padding had been dried and disinfected. The levels had dropped substantially. At this point the environmental consultant recommended a second steam cleaning of the blue mats with disinfectant as all that was necessary to take care of the remaining bacteria.

Q: How do we know this won't happen again?
A: The sprinkler head that went off has been removed; it turns out that it was not in a place with more than 4' of overhang, so in fact it was never required. We have patched the hole in the wall at that location. The other 5 heads on the boulder wall have been replaced with a flush-mounted design. Those 5 and the 2 on the lead cave are now also protected by wire cages to prevent contact. We're not keen on having these obstacles on the wall, but it's the price we have to pay to make sure this never happens again.

Q: How do we know the gym is clean and safe now?
A: We are relying on our environmental consultant, DCS Ltd for their expertise in these matters. We have also consulted with the Toronto Board of Health to ensure we are satisfying them in how we dealt with this situation.

Q: When will the gym reopen?
A: The carpets were steam cleaned on Sunday, and then left to dry for 24 hours. We will replace the padding Monday and get the gym back in order, and will reopen Tuesday afternoon at 2pm as usual.

Q: What will you do to compensate members who were unable to come climb?
A: Prepaid members (including those with 2-week memberships that came as part of our Introductory Lesson Package) will have their membership expiry date extended by the number of days we were closed. Monthly Electronic Funds Transfer members will have their October dues reduced by an amount proportional to the fraction of a month that we were closed.

This past week or so has been extraordinarily difficult for us at the gym. Our pride and joy was disfigured and despoiled. We worked our buns off to get things put back together, only to be stopped by the initial test results. But there has been a bright side as well. Strone Restoration did an excellent job getting things clean and dry. Our insurance company (Front Row Insurance Brokers, and Crawford & Company Insurance Adjusters) have taken good care of us, and clearly have been working for us to help us through this mess. The landlord has been helpful and supportive, most significantly by calling in Strone Restoration immediately after the water was shut off. My staff has stepped up and pitched in to move things ahead. And the warmth of the support from the climbing community has keeping us going. This includes all our customers who have voiced their encouragement, the kid who told his mom he would rather reschedule his birthday party than do something else, and the other gyms (Climber's Rock, Boulderz and Off The Wall) who have offered our members a good deal on climbing while we're shut down. We can't wait to reopen, and we won't forget that support.

Mopping Up

2010-09-25T10:02:00.003-04:00

Just a short post to spread the word that True North Climbing is closed until further notice (hopefully just for a few days) while we clean up after a sprinkler failure Friday evening.

We're using our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/truenorthclimbing as the primary way to get information out about the incident and our progress towards cleaning/drying the flooring so we can get things back to normal.

We apologize to our members and other customers for this disruption, and will get the gym fixed up and open again as quickly as we possibly can, but at the same time we will be careful to do things right.

Thanks to those who helped out last night, and to everyone for their support.

jg

Special Guest Technique Class Coming Soon!

2010-09-21T13:54:00.003-04:00

Every Monday evening we offer a free Technique Lesson, aimed mainly at helping new climbers to build their climbing skills. It's also part of our efforts to build a fun community around the gym. The topics rotate somewhat regularly among the following:

Hold Recognition
Sequencing
Foot work
Heel hooking
Bouldering Safety
Dynamic Movement
Flagging
Crack Climbing
Resting on a Route
Slacklining

Starting on Monday, September 27th, we add a new topic to the mix. Dan Iaboni, owner of The Monkey Vault Parkour Gym, has agreed to join us every couple of months to give an introduction to Parkour. If you're not familiar with Parkour, it's a sort of urban gymnastics that has people doing amazing tricks and movements around and on obstacles that can be found in a city landscape. Dan has established the Monkey Vault to help people train safely indoors before trying anything too crazy outdoors.

Dan was here with some simple equipment last Friday to work out the logistics of the intro session. He has some simple things that even beginners can do to explore movement and get a bit of an idea of how to get started at Parkour. It should be a pretty fun session; don't miss it! Like every Monday Technique Lesson, it's free with membership or admission to the gym.

Recent Changes in the Gym

2010-09-13T19:38:00.002-04:00

I thought it was time for a brief update on a few things we have done recently to respond to requests from customers and otherwise make a few small improvements to the gym:

Large campus rungs: the small and medium rungs now have their big brothers to keep them company. Metolius finally got the large size rungs in stock, and Clint installed them today. These are the ones that regular people can actually hang onto!
Locks for rent: by popular demand, we now rent out locks to use on the day lockers in the change rooms, for $1/day
Chalk bags for rent: also by popular demand, instead of loaning out whatever chalk bags happen to be in the lost & found (without chalk), we now will rent you a chalk bag with a chalk ball in it for your use in the gym, for $2/day
Chalk bags for sale: we got a bunch of Flashed Weave bags (made of hemp), for sale for $17 including HST.
Adjustable dumbbells in the training area: a few weeks ago we added a pair of Bowflex adjustable dumbbells. These are adjustable from 5 pounds each up to 52.5 pounds. The adjustment mechanism is both really cool and a little fragile, so please be careful setting them back gently into their cradle. They have gotten jammed a few times, but Clint has gotten them working again each time.

The addition of chalk bags to our retail inventory is a good opportunity to let everyone know all the things we have for sale at the front desk. We have not done a great job of advertising what we have for sale, because we haven't yet figured out a good way to put it all on display, and other things have taken priority so far. We don't mean to keep all this a secret! In any event, we have the following items for sale:

Edible:

pop, vitamin water, iced tea, Powerade, Simply juices: $2
Odwalla fruit juices/smoothies: $3.50
chocolate bars (Coffee Crisp, Kit Kat, Crunchie, Smarties): $1.50
Clif bars: $2

Inedible:

climbing tape: $3.50
chalk balls: $5
TNCI water bottles: $15
Flashed Weave chalk bags: $17
TNCI T shirts: $20
bandaids: free!

All the above prices include the HST

REEL ROCK Film Tour is Coming To Toronto

2010-09-09T12:06:00.003-04:00

A few times in recent years I have enjoyed attending the REEL ROCK Film Tour when it made a stop in Toronto. Films like King Lines, Progression and some of the Dosage series are classic climbing films that get me going each time I see them.

This season it is our honour to announce that True North Climbing will be hosting the tour. We have not yet chosen a date, but will probably close the gym early one Saturday night and then reopen for the screening under separate admission. We are waiting to see the full fall/winter schedule for competitions and other events of interest to the climbing community before pinning down the date. Let us know if you know of any other upcoming events that we should avoid conflict with!

In the meantime, you can check out the trailer for this year's films:

Summer is Over; Back to School !

2010-08-31T11:58:00.004-04:00

[Today's post is from Shaun Hunter, who heads up our Youth programmes. We are launching our Fall programmes, which begin the week of September 13th. For full details of each of the programmes, download the Youth Programme flyer.]

Well here goes my first blog post…

A lot of you may not know me. You’ve probably seen me at True North Climbing or another gym for a competition. I’m pretty easy to recognize because well most of the time I have a bunch of youth climbers around me. My name is Shaun Hunter and I’ve been coaching and training youth for a couple of years now. The summer is slow for me because most of the youth I train go away on vacation.

Although I was childless this summer I still had a bunch of fun times. My summer was always bright, I had cool temperatures for sending projects, and it never rained on me. I went to many different climbing crags through the summer. All were filled with many people who were very friendly and very enjoyable to climb with. I also got to see a lot of my buddies who I don’t get the chance to see that often. As I reflect on the awesome summer I just had I can only think “Wow, I really did go on many trips to the gym”. This brings me to my reasons why I love the gym,

10. A place to stretch
9. Bathrooms (as a guy this is pretty low on the list)
8. Meeting new people
7. Friendly Staff
6. I don’t have to drive out of Toronto to get there, or drive at all
5. Nice safe landings
4. Good old water fountain
3. New Boulder Problems and Routes
2. The A/C
1. Did I mention the A/C?

(I love count downs)

The gym is just such a great environment to learn, train, and have lots of fun, especially if you’re a youth climber. Youth climbers have so much potential and here at True North Climbing we're very dedicated to fulfilling that potential. I do believe we held the only two Summer Sweat Fest Competitions with youth only Problems. That may not mean so much to parents and adult competitors but for youth climbers it means they have problems where their height won't determine if they send the problem or not; their strength, technique, and climbing ability will. For youth setters it’s awesome to see youth climbers learning and climbing to their full potential on problems set for them. Here at True North Climbing, we have the best youth setter in Canada (my boss) Dustin Curtis, and a very dedicated youth coach (me).

This September we are launching our True North Climbing Youth Programs for children from ages 5+. We have a bunch of recreational programs and competitive programs. Children will learn the fundamentals of climbing working with experienced coaches and being with other kids at their skill level in programs designed to bring out the best in them. This brings me to my reasons why I love coaching and training youth climbers:

10. I can push them around because they're smaller than me
9. Kids just say the darnedest things
8. Kids don’t yell back
7. They agree that climbing is more fun than homework
6. Watching them grow taller than me
5. Realizing that they can love something that isn’t that mainstream or ordinary
4. Eager to learn and absorb everything you teach them
3. Watching them push past and realizing that they are without limits
2. Seeing them grow into strong climbers (mentally and physically)
1. Seeing the look on their face when they accomplish something they never thought they could do

(GO COUNT DOWNS)

So if you're young and you think climbing could be for you come check it out. We want to turn you in to the climber you want to be, whether that’s climbing for the love of the movement or becoming the strongest climber in the world and crushing every one in your path (other than your coach, I'll always be stronger). Most of all I want you guys to have fun because that’s what climbing should be about. So I hope to see you guys at the gym this September and hopefully I’ll be coaching you.

We're Growing; Come Join Our team!

2010-08-30T19:54:00.002-04:00

The summer vacation is almost over, and at True North Climbing we are getting back to work at recruiting more staff! While summer is typically the slow time of year for climbing gyms, our business has grown month by month. Our membership keeps going up, we have now taught over 1,000 Introductory lessons (that's a lot of new climbers!), and recently we had our 10,000th visit to the gym, all in less than 5 months. We have also run several sessions of our lead climbing class, and had a bunch of kids come enjoy our summer day camp programme. Stay tuned for news of our Fall Youth programmes, for both Recreational and Competitive sessions.

As the business grows, we need to expand our staff to keep up. We are currently looking for part-time employees in the following roles (click on each link to see the full job description):

Climbing Instructor

Routesetter

The work is mostly evenings and weekends, though there is some weekday daytime work as well, especially for routesetters. If you are interested, drop your resume at the gym, or email us at jobs@truenorthclimbing.com.

Bouldering Competition, or Bouldering "Festival"?

2010-08-10T13:54:00.003-04:00

We have another bouldering event coming up next Thursday, our second SummerSweatFest event of the season. We've been calling these events "competitions", and indeed there is a competitive element to them for some people. Each participant keeps score, and there are awards for the top finishers in each category.

The down side of using the word "competition" is that it seems to keep some people from participating, because they think they aren't good enough. That's nonsense. I'm participating, and I'm really not very good. Really, I'm not. Ask any of my staff! But I "compete" because it's fun, and so see whether I can improve from event to event.

So this time I'm going to call next Thursday's event a "Bouldering Festival" instead. Yes, there will still be a scorecard for each participant to keep track of how they're doing. But think of it like a mini-golf scorecard. You keep score, but you don't have to take it very seriously if you don't want to.

We kept the problems from our last event up on the walls for a few weeks, to give everyone a chance to try them out (they're being taken down this week as we move ahead on our routesetting). Hopefully some of you took the opportunity to try out the problems to see how many you could do. If you were able to get at least a handful of them, it's worth coming out to next Thursday evening's SummerSweatFest Bouldering Festival, for 3 hours of bouldering fun with a great bunch of people. We had 79 competitors - er, participants - at our last SummerSweatFest in July, and hope to grow that number this time around. There will be some raffle prizes again, so no matter how you do at the problems, there's a chance to go home with a prize!

So come join us Thursday August 19th!

Banned From My Own Gym!

2010-07-21T08:18:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-19T11:32:00.002-04:00

[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

2010-07-16T07:12:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-15T08:32:00.002-04:00

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)!

2010-07-09T12:49:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-07-06T07:12:00.002-04:00

[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

2010-07-05T09:09:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-03T12:57:00.003-04:00

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.

We're Hiring (again)!

2010-06-29T11:14:00.004-04:00

We're growing, and a few positions have opened up at the gym. We're looking for Climbing Instructor(s) who can also work the front desk, and Belay Staff to work the ropes for parties and other events. Details here.

Canada Day at Downsview Park

2010-06-29T07:54:00.003-04:00

Every year on Canada Day, Downsview Park pulls out the stops for a big birthday celebration. This year is no different, with lots of fun (and free) activities for all, including a lot of family-focused stuff, including:

free amusement rides
a petting zoo
music all day
performances by our friends & neighbours at the Toronto School of Circus Arts
fireworks at dusk (around 10pm)

More details available here.

We will be open holiday hours on Thursday: 10am - 10pm. We will also be offering one free climb to all new visitors to the gym, so if you have friends who might want to try climbing and are not sure how to get started, this is a great opportunity to try it out with no big commitment!

And after the Canada Day celebration is done, Downsview Park will be starting its summer Movies Under The Stars series, with outdoor movies running every Friday night in July and August. Here's the full programme.

Our G20: 20 Great Reasons to Join Us This Weekend

2010-06-24T06:59:00.002-04:00

Downtown Toronto is expected to be difficult to get around this weekend, with the G20 in town. Here is our own version of the G20: 20 Great reasons to come to True North Climbing:

No traffic disruptions are expected in our part of town
There is plenty of free parking
The air conditioning will keep things comfortable
No politicians are expected to attend
We have replaced the 2" slackline with a clean piece of webbing!
As always, there are lots of great new routes and boulder problems that our team of routesetters have put up this week.
There is still almost a week left in our Summer Membership Special deal (3 month pre-paid membership for $150; $120 for those who qualify for the discount rate: students, seniors, police, fire fighters, paramedics, bouldering-only)
Still no HST on a day pass!
All your friends are coming. Don't have any friends? Come by and make a few new ones!
Coca Cola finally made their delivery; our drink coolers are full of cold refreshing drinks again!
There will be some additional activity on the airstrip next to our building. While no VIPs are expected to fly in or out, the military will be bringing in some CF18 Hornet fighter jets. The landlord has apologized for the noise that they will make. We think that's pretty cool.
And speaking of loud rumblings, if there is another earthquake, don't you want to be standing on a padded floor?
The merchant's market at 40 Carl Hall Rd will be open Saturday and Sunday. Check out the food court at the south end for some good eats.
By Saturday morning the railroad crossing at Carl Hall Rd (just before you turn right to get to our place) will be redone, so most of those bumps should be smoothed out.
After the week you have had, don't you need to work out a little stress?
Our friendly staff (Natalie, Stephen, Clint, Jamie, Jonny, Shaun, DK, Kyle, Mike, Martin, Jackie, Roman, Ryan and Gerald this weekend) will be there!
The chimney.
The slab.
The cracks.
It's climbing; who needs another reason?

Some Little Upgrades

2010-06-16T17:33:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know about a few little things we've done this week to improve things:

We have rearranged the foam in the custom modular padding in the advanced bouldering area (red nylon covers). These pads contain 3 layers of foam: 2 1" layers of closed cell foam and 10" of open cell foam. The design of the padding is to have the open cell sandwiched between the two layers of closed cell, and then after a year or so (when things have gotten pretty soft), bring the bottom layer of closed cell to the top to extend the life some more. When these pads arrived we found them to be stiffer than expected, and so initially put both layers of closed cell at the bottom. After a few months we decided that they had softened up enough to go back to the original plan. Clint and Dustin had fun yesterday opening these big pads up and rearranging the foam. So you'll find that area a little firmer than it was last week.
More T-nuts! Since 25,000 T-nuts obviously isn't enough, we spent some time drilling and screwing today, and have added another hundred or so to the Slight Overhang area of the top-out wall. We'll continue to add more T-nuts each week as we reset this wall, to provide more options for putting up holds.

Neither of these are a big deal, but sometimes the little things count too!

Gonna be a Cool Summer!

2010-06-01T08:19:00.002-04:00

It seems appropriate, with our air conditioning units being installed today, to kick off the summer season with some cool new offers:

3 month Summer Membership Deal:

During the month of June only, you can get a 3-month prepaid membership for only $150. This is $30 off our usual monthly prepaid rate over the 3 month period. The corresponding discount price (for students, seniors, etc) is $120, also a $30 savings. Price does not include GST/HST, and these memberships cannot be frozen.

Weekend Scramble Sessions for Kids:
On Saturdays and Sundays starting at 11am, you can drop off your kids (completed Minor Waiver Form in hand if they have not been here before!) for 2 hours of climbing, ending at 1pm. We'll provide the staff to belay them in groups of 4 or less, as well as a harness and climbing shoes if desired (subject to availability of the small sizes!). Call ahead to book this session to guarantee a place for your children. The cost of each Scramble Session is $30/child plus GST/HST.

Summer Camp Programme:
OK, this one is not new, but we want to remind everyone of our day camp programme running throughout the summer. Monday to Friday from 8:30 - 4:30 (with optional extended drop-off/pick-up hours available), we'll keep your kids busy with climbing, slacklining, sports, arts & crafts and other diversions. Full details available in the Summer Camp flyer.

Changes/Progress at Downsview Park

2010-05-29T13:02:00.004-04:00

There's a lot going on within Downsview Park that I thought was worth a quick mention here:

This weekend is the Wings & Wheels Heritage Show, which makes the park a very busy place! There will be aircraft coming in, and on display at the Air & Space Museum and at The Hangar.
The roadway has been reworked along the west side of 75 Carl Hall Rd (the Downsview Park Sports Centre). The zigzag that used to be near the Roller Derby has been shifted 50-100 m south, so you now keep going south longer before cutting in just in front of Grand Prix Kartways. Unfortunately the old route was closed off before the new roadway was completed, and the large blue sign that guides you to our joint has not yet been repositioned. I have shared my concerns with the landlord, and they will work to make things better, but in the meantime bear with these changes.
New signs will be going up throughout the park within the next few months, to improve navigation from the main entrance.
The railway crossing on Carl Hall Rd will get reworked and improved in a few weeks. The plan is as follows:
- Close the entire crossing starting at 10:00 p.m. on Friday June 25
- All vehicles already on site would exit at the Chesswood and Sheppard intersection; signage and police would be at the intersection to manage traffic
- Anyone entering after 10:00 p.m. Friday June 25 would enter via Chesswood and Sheppard
- Remove the existing track, ties, etc. and replace with new ones overnight
- Pave the new crossing in the morning and complete by 8:00 a.m. Saturday June 26

The Evolution of the Rating Card

2010-05-27T15:53:00.002-04:00

We've been working on our rating cards. You know, those white cards at the base of each climb that tell you:

Which rope to tie into. This is important, because our routes do tend to wander a bit, and it's not always obvious from where the starting holds are. Of course you should be looking at the route all the way up to the belay bar before starting, to see where it finishes.
The name of the route. This is of no real importance, but we try to make them fun
The initials of the routesetter who set the route. Do you have a favourite yet?
Whether the route is intended for Youth. These routes not only space the holds for smaller climbers, but the hold selection is also done with small hands in mind. Large climbers may find these routes uncomfortable!
The rating for the route
The rating for the boulder problem that starts the route. We try to put a boulder problem on each roped route to get a lot more boulder problems into the gym. The boulder problem ends at the second taped "V" (or a box on some of the older routes; we switched to a "V" because they are less likely to get rubbed off by wayward feet).

As we started our refresh of the gym a few weeks ago we started replacing the original laminated rating cards with plastic holders. This protects the card better, and looks better. These are working well, except on the stalactite. We found that putting the rating cards on the bottom of the stalactite was interfering too much with foot placement at the start of each climb. There just isn't any wall below your first foothold on this feature! the rating card holders were getting beat up, and we felt we were covering up too much needed wall space, so today we made a change. the rating cards for the routes on the stalactite are now displayed on the side of the reception desk that faces it. We hope this lets you still find the info you want, without having it get in the way of the actual climb! Let us know what you think.

Nationals

2010-05-27T14:08:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was the annual Canadian National Bouldering Championships, the culmination of a fantastic Tour de Bloc season. Joe Rockheads was the host gym, and they put on a fine (if somewhat hot) show. True North Climbing was well-represented, with 4 of our routesetters competing in the Open category, one of us judging, and some of our members also competing.

I took the judging course Friday night, to learn both how to judge bouldering problems, and what is involved in being the Jury President (aka Head Judge) for a competition. We plan to have a bunch of comps at our gym, and at some point I figure I should be prepared to be the head judge, so this was a start in that direction. (At our inaugural Tour de Bloc comp on march 27th I had the role of "host", which was a lot of fun, and required little training!).

Saturday was the qualifying round for the Open competitors. 15 women and 45 men each did 5 boulder problems in iso format, with 5 minutes to work on each problem and 5 minutes to rest in between. I was the judge on problem #2, which for the women featured a fun dyno opening move, and a nice balancing finish, with both hands high on the wall in a taped box with no handhold.

Sunday morning and early afternoon was the "citizen's comp": Youth, Recretional and Experienced categories in a scramble format, choosing among 50 problems (including the 10 qualifiers from Saturday) to get their best 6 scores. Sunday at 5pm the finals began, with the top 10 men and women (actually 11 men due to a tie for 10th place) again working their way through 5 problems each. It was very hot in the gym, and perhaps in part because of that, the men's problems were very tough on the finalists.

Our Head Instructor/Routesetter Dustin Curtis was 7th after qualifiers, and finished 10th on Sunday, earning him another berth on the Canadian team. Dustin will be heading to Vail, Colorado in June for the World Cup event as part of the Teva Mountain Games. Stephen Tambling just missed the cutoff for finals, finishing 12th in Men's Open. Dustin Kerr and Shaun Hunter rounded out the TNCI team, with DK having a spectacular fall on men's problem #3 on Saturday (extra padding went up right after that!).

Watching the comp as a judge was a very different perspective. I got to see all the climbers, but pretty much only on one problem each, each day. I got a great view up close, but had to keep my mouth shut instead of cheering them on. It was a good learning experience, and it's good to have more people trained to do this, to support the sport as it grows.

The Heat is On (but not for long!)

2010-05-26T16:21:00.002-04:00

Hot enough for you? I just wanted to reassure everyone that our air conditioning has been on order for weeks, and is scheduled to be installed starting next Tuesday. The venting and electrical system were set up to be ready for this, but I delayed purchase of the two large rooftop units until we had some revenue coming in, to help manage expenses during the start-up phase of the gym. I had hoped the start of June would be before any really hot weather, but I was wrong. Hang in there for a few more days, and soon it will be comfortable in here!

Dustin Dishes

2010-05-21T07:40:00.002-04:00

[Today's post is by Head Routesetter/Head Instructor Dustin Curtis]

The rock climbing gym is changing in nature from its once dark dungeon of plywood and resin to the new generation of plastic paradises, with clean, sleek professionally-built walls, well-lit open spaces and beautiful poly urethane shapes. The chefs of these five-star restaurants must also learn to clean up, learn new dishes and out-cook even themselves in order to provide the top dishes expected of these world class facilities.

But Dustin, why is your first blog post about restaurants, especially since you work in a rock climbing gym? Is that what you're thinking? Allow me to continue instead of interrupting me with your punitive thoughts of boredom, desk jockey. Read on harness chuffer, there will be a test.

Rock climbing gyms function on almost the same principles and policies as a restaurant. The two run the same kind of staffing functions and protocols. Don't believe me? Check it: when you walk into a restaurant for the first time, a host or hostess greets you and shows you to your table; when you walk into a rock climbing gym for the first time, a member of the desk staff greets you, gets you to sign a waiver and gives you a belay test or sets you up with a lesson. In a restaurant, a server comes by, (hopefully one that is good looking but if not, after a couple of alcoholic beverages, he/she will be) and they introduce you to the menu and more importantly, the food. In a rock gym you get an instructor who shows you the ins and outs of how to keep yourself safe while you're enjoying the great joy that is rock climbing. In a restaurant, behind the scenes, you have the kitchen. This is where the magic happens. Chefs bring their greatness and creativity to balance with well-rehearsed and practiced recipes that eventually leave the kitchen and get served to you. Chefs bring together a mosaic of ingredients and spices to create their dishes; we as route setters bring together a collection of holds to publish a choreography of movements and body positions that will be loved by many, liked by most and hated by only the very few. You hope.

Chefs have enjoyed illustrious careers that are, for the most part, engaging, schooled and - very importantly - paid, for many years. Route Setters have endured the opposite, as creatures with no education in their craft save for some harsh words by a member once, and the intro lesson of 'this is how to spin a wrench' from the head setter at the time and in return for hours suffered in a harness, retribution is given with free climbing on the holds that you slung up.

But much like the gyms we work in now, we must also evolve and redefine ourselves in this growing industry. While chefs enjoy having a consistent recipe that, in cooperation with each chef’s creativity and ‘personal touches’ will almost always come out the same, with the exception of some colossal mess ups I’ve seen, Route Setters have no such luxury. Sure we have a repertoire of moves, and some oppositional theory that is the consistent basis of climbing, but that’s about it and for the record, recycling ideas and movements on routes is a quick way to move your route setting career from in the harness (or on the ladder if that’s how you do things). By the way, if that is how you do things than you’re a useless wrench monkey who has decided he’s way too good to be on a harness not trying the moves and never challenges himself to do anything more creative than the eighteen crossovers or six gastons that he/she consistently puts in every one of your no-knowledge, uncreative and incredibly generic routes/boulder problems. You deserve that transfer from Route Setter to a behind-the-desk, I manage the gym and make Coke orders, desk job. Sit down and take notice wrench spinners: we are paid for creativity, not reusing the same boring sequences in order to make the extra cash.

My apologies. I got off on a rant, but from that you can tell exactly how passionate I am about providing an engaging and thought provocative climbing experience. We, the Setters, have a not-so-easy task, and on top of the everyday trials and tribulations of being creative is the simple issue that with creativity and passion come the terrible traits of opinionated and personal attachment. It’s different for a Chef: after the dish is prepared, it gets sent out to a patron who gobbles it down. If they didn’t like it, they whisper it lowly among their table or maybe they keep it to themselves. If it’s not amazing but not terrible, they complain to the serving staff or the manager. In the rare case that it’s just absolutely terrible it gets sent back and made again, probably in the same fashion, except added saliva and maybe dropped on the floor and stepped on. In any case, the Chef rarely finds out, unless it’s so sinfully terrible that it warrants being remade. Granted there are some very picky eaters out there but let’s generalize people.

Route Setting is much different. Instead of cooking for an anonymous patron, most of the time, we’re cooking for our friends, co-workers, acquaintances and most importantly fellow climbers. These are the people we sit in our harnesses for excruciating hours of the day (I hear you chufferton! "I sat in a harness for 2 hours the other day while I belayed my friend on his new super project". I’m sure you did, you goober-handed grease monkey, however, you didn’t (and I know you didn’t) have a bucket strapped to your ass full of urethane shapes and bolts as well as a drill and your wrenches. We haul all that plastic and creative thought, slap it on a wall with some tape and then have to listen to the unwarranted complaints and non-descriptive reasons of personal feelings towards movements or holds.

Route Setters are fragile creatures; yes we’re opinionated but for good reason. We put part of ourselves into each one of our routes and then put it on display for the climbing community to judge, criticize and generally abuse on a regular day basis.

The words you’re looking for people: constructive criticism. Feedback is important to us but not in the manner you’re thinking of. Route Setters are evolving; we are no longer the egotistical climbers, who scrounge a living from the nothing wage and answer any kind of balking at our routes with the answer "I did that move in my street shoes".

I don’t know what it is like for any other route setting crew, but I have worked with some of the best Setters in both the US and Canada and consistently try to challenge my team of Route Setters to create the most creative and interesting routes possible. I have the most talented group of route setters I have ever seen gathered in one gym, consistently putting brilliance and creative movement up on the walls, in one of the most fantastic facilities I’ve ever been in and what pains us the most (especially me because I know how hard we work and how much thought we put into our routes) is the unjustified comments of some cranky alpinist climber, wearing old Asolo’s and sporting ‘the latest’ in euro lyrca, complaining that the route was really awkward when the only move that he or she managed not to be crossed up on was the starting holds and the finishing hold.

The point of this is that at True North, we’re specifically attempting to make our routes thoughtful, enjoyable and creative. We will never recycle movement and we will continually attempt to provide flow and comfort in our routes while challenging the climber to be thoughtful, mindful of position and continuously ‘think outside the box.’ Like Chefs, we’re sharing our passion with you, so eat up and enjoy.

Test:
1. Route Setters throughout history have endured and made money by:
A) Checking underneath their car seats and tearing apart their cars for change, assuming they could afford cars.
B) Selling their bodies on the streets.
C) Finding a sugar momma who thinks they’re the next Chris Sharma
D) Working two fast food jobs while belay-slaving at the gym on their non-setting hours.
E) Becoming the next Chris Sharma.
F) A and D
G) B leading into C

2. The proper method for providing constructive criticism after climbing a route is:
A) “That feels awkward and I don’t like it”
B) “It was good but some of the moves didn’t flow right, I think possibly adding some feet or maybe some minor tweaks on that section (pointing to the section) would make it feel just a little more natural”
C) “Dude, sweet route!”
D) “Brah, that sucks”
E) If you actually picked A, C or D, email me and I’ll get you a shirt that’s bright orange and reads "I NEED TO BE WATCHED!" So that the desk staff know to assign you one watcher because if you actually picked those answers I doubt you know how to put your clothes on right in the morning, let alone belay. In fact, if you chose A, C or D check your pants right now: are they on right?

3. The Route Setters of True North are:
A) Fickle creatures that need only alcohol and Clif bars to survive
B) Egotistical maniacs involved in a childish game of sandbagging to destroy and demoralize the entire climbing community
C) Creative and fragile creatures that need to be both nurtured and compassionately encouraged with swift kicks to their special areas while providing constructive criticism in order to allow them to find their own setting style
D) You only wish it was A and B!
E) Mindless muscle heads that put up holds in unimaginative sequences that force their 9 allotted crossovers or gastons into every route.
F) C without the abuse; although the abuse is very convincing and thoroughly effective, it is against the Human Rights Code of Ontario

4. The only education that Route Setters of the past received was:
A) A quick introduction to forcing movement with Louis Anderson as well as a signed copy of “The Art Of Course Setting”
B) A twelve-step program to rid them of certain addictions while they are trained in the fine art of vertical dancing
C) The head setter performs a ritual dance which then unlocks the ancient knowledge of route setting inside the apprentice route setter and they blossom into the creative genius of the next generation of climbers while the head route setter crawls into the hold room where he/she will forever rest in some kind of reverent pose as inspiration to their former Padawan learner.
D) A quick intro of the necessary ins and outs of route setting, along with continual constructive feedback from the head route setter

5. The Head Route Setter, like the Master Chef, is to:
A) Sit in the corner and drink to their hearts content while heckling and daily abusing their crew
B) Motivate their crew to provide the best quality of product. Motivating methods may include: wedgies, allowances for sexual fraternization, ‘bonuses’ and half-witted compliments and insults where appropriate.
C) Offer constructive feedback and encouragement while forcefully containing egos by continually squashing with reasons of failure and disappointment.
D) Gloat uncontrollably about how he/she has the best crew that cannot be matched by any other establishment and that those establishments should simply fire their existing crews and pay the obscene amounts of money that would be charged for their crews to come in. Just saying.
E) B and C
F) A and D

Please grade yourself:
1. F
2. B
3. F
4. D
5. E

Score:
5 correct answers: You Rock!
4 correct answers: Good Work!
3 correct answers: Don’t worry, there’s a next test.
2 correct answers: Did you pass your belay test?
1 correct answer: You don’t even know what a Route Setter is do you?
0 correct answer: Next bridge you pass, over you go.

Slackers Rejoice!

2010-05-19T15:25:00.005-04:00

[Today's post is a guest post from Ben Iseman, our resident slackline expert]

Slackers rejoice! Finally, there is somewhere you can slack in the rain or when it's snowing (it is only May after all) in a safe and comfortable setting. No more worrying about whether you are slacking in a dog park! True North Climbing is the only place in the GTA where you can walk the line indoors.

Michael Palma, using his extra appendages for balance!
Photo by Chris Gregorowicz

Whether you are new to the sport of slackline or a seasoned pro you'll have 2 very different lines to play around on. First off we have a short 2" line that can be more forgiving to learn on or to try advanced jumping tricks. The second line is a more traditional 1" line that stretches and wobbles as you walk across it. Our ratchet tightening system allows for quick and easy adjustments to the tension of each line giving infinite possibilities and challenges; just ask a staff member!

As daunting as it may seem at first, you will take a couple of steps on your first day. With some hours of effort you will be amazed to actually be walking, recovering your balance and walking some more on something that is only 1" wide. Eventually you can work your way up to surfing back and forth on the line, jumping across it or even attempting the seemingly impossible backflip. Come out and give it a try!

Dustin Kerr playing with some high bounces.

Lost & Found (Part 2)

2010-05-19T14:42:00.002-04:00

I wrote last month about all the stuff that people have been leaving behind in the gym when they're done. Today I have a bit to say about the opposite problem: stuff going missing from the gym. In the past month we have seen 3 pairs of rental climbing shoes disappear. (Actually the net loss is only 2 pairs, as one pair that was missing last month has turned up!)

I tend to be very naive about this kind of thing, and it's hard for me to imagine that anyone is actually deliberately taking rental shoes with them after climbing. I'm sure it's just that people are absent-minded, and accidentally tossing everything into their bag. If that's the case, I hope the missing shoes will find their way back soon. If you find yourself with a pair of bright blue velcro or grey lace-up Evolv rental shoes (with the big size number on the back of the heel) and are too embarrassed to bring them to the front desk, you can discreetly leave them in the change room for us to find.

If this trend continues, we will need to start buying more rental shoes, and will also need to consider taking some form of security when we loan them out. We really don't want to do this, as it will slow down check-in for everyone, and it would also be kind of insulting to suggest to our customers that we don't trust them. Hopefully the missing shoes will find their way home soon!

2010 Climbing Wall Summit

2010-05-17T19:23:00.002-04:00

Just got back from this year's Climbing Wall Association Summit Conference in Boulder, and I thought I would share my impressions.

First, for those who aren't familiar with it, the Climbing Wall Association is the industry trade group representing climbing gym owners & operators. It's a non-profit organization focussed on education, standards (for engineering, inspection and more recently instruction) and looking out for the industry in areas like insurance and regulation.

This is the fourth year running that the CWA has held a conference in Boulder Colorado to bring together gym owners and their staff, equipment manufacturers, and others who make their living in this cool business. At last year's event I was a wannabe gym owner, soaking up as much information as I could to prepare me for the adventure that followed. I learned a lot of important things that affected how True North Climbing took shape. The biggest lessons I listened to were:

If you're going to build a gym, build a big one. Many gym owners regret building a small facility (which they often do to keep the costs manageable), and find it quickly fills up and they have to build another one!
Treat routesetting as a profession, and recognize that having great routes that are changed regularly is the key to a successful business

This year I saw a lot of familiar faces, both from people I had met at last year's conference, and those who got involved in helping me build my gym. I picked up some good bits of advice from a few of the sessions, but on the whole the value in this year's trip was more in the people I met and talked to. I met several people who are where I was a year ago, and it was fun to be able to share some of what I have learned to try to help them, as many others helped me last year.

The highlight of the week was the Battle in the Bubble bouldering competition. After qualifying and semi-final rounds at The Spot, the finals were Saturday night, outdoors at the Boulder reservoir. This comp used an elimination format, in which the initial 10 men and women were reduced over 5 problems to 6, 4, 3 and then 2 for the final problem. Daniel Woods and Alex Puccio were the winners, but it was close, and the action was really thrilling. Here are some other articles with more details of the comp, and some good photos:

ClimbingNarc.com
B3bouldering
Fullerton Images
The Spot blog (lots of details here about the setting & forerunning that I found especially interesting)

There was also a round-table session for Canadian attendees. There was good representation from north of the border this year, and we had a good chat about a few topics we can cooperate on.

The CWA does a good job of serving the climbing gym industry, and we definitely benefit from keeping up on their work. the Summit conference each year is a great opportunity to learn what's going on in the business, and share lessons and best practices with gym owners from all over the world.

Programmes and Lessons Starting Up!

2010-05-01T09:40:00.003-04:00

Now that we have the basic operation of the gym running fairly smoothly, we're ready to offer some children's after-school programmes and Lead Climbing Lessons.

There are 4 levels of children's programmes being offered: 3 levels of Recreational programme, and a Pre-competitive/Competitive programme for youths who are getting serious about their climbing, and are interested in competing. Full details of the programmes are available for download from our web site.

The Lead course is also now available for those who are proficient at top rope climbing and are ready for the next level of challenge. The course is available Monday or Wednesday evenings from 6-9pm on 2 consecutive weeks (2 3-hour sessions), and is normally held in groups of 4 climbers. Climbers are expected to provide their own equipment (harness, shoes, lead rope and belay device). The fee for the class is $150 ($120 for gym members), plus GST/HST. Email us if you want in.

The First Full Month

2010-05-01T06:59:00.004-04:00

April is over, and we can look back at our first full month of business now. It has been a pretty good start. We have had over 1,500 people through the door since we opened, and more than 100 of those have become members: a mix of prepaid monthly, monthly electronic funds transfer (EFT) and prepaid annual. We have given introductory lessons to about 150 people, so we're also off to a good start at introducing climbing to new people and growing the market. We're not quite profitable yet, but we're getting there, and as we add after-school programmes for children (now available; info at the front desk), summer camp, lead classes (now available!), school groups and more birthday parties, we'll get where we need to be.

While the feedback we have heard so far has been overwhelmingly positive, there have been suggestions on how to make the gym better, and we're trying to listen. We have already added lockers, removable shower heads in the change rooms for foot-washing and the training area. We now sell climbing tape (important for those trying the cracks!), and are ready to teach lead climbing. We have heard from a fair number of people who would like us to extend our hours (in both directions), and I expect we will respond to that soon, once we find a way for a few of us to work a little less and sleep a little more.

We have also heard clearly that our route grades need to be more consistent, and we agree. It is taking a little time for our 7 routesetters (who bring experience from at least that many other gyms!) to come together in a consensus of what each grade ought to mean. With the first refresh of our routes this past week (belay bars 1-16, the "Atari Arete" of the main bouldering wall, and some of the lead-only routes have been replaced) we started having all the routesetters forerun each other's routes and problems. This generates more feedback on how to improve them, and gets us closer to a consistent set of grades. You may not necessarily find that our grades exactly match what is at other gyms, but we are trying hard to make things reasonably consistent across what we offer.

I want to thank everyone who has come to climb at our new gym, and especially those who have trusted us with their membership. We are working very hard to make this gym better every day (there is a lot to do!), and we haven't yet got everything we have in mind rolled out.

OK, I gotta get some breakfast and get to the gym soon...

The Crack Has Been Sent!

2010-04-25T16:35:00.005-04:00

On the wall opposite our lead cave is our full-height finger crack. Since we opened 4 weeks ago, some pretty good climbers have had a go at it, cramming their fingers and toes into the crevices, and trying to reach the top without falling. Today, for the first time, someone make it all the way. Mark Button, of Nottingham, UK, has become the first person to send the finger crack (on lead!). As a result has earned the honour of naming the crack. He has chosen to call it "Nathan's". Nathan is a friend of Mark's and the other evening they were sitting in a pub discussing this climb. Nathan said that if Mark sent the climb he should name it after him, and for some reason Mark has decided to take that advice. Hopefully that is worth a pint or two the next time they're back at the pub!

Mark Button, first to send "Nathan's",
our 36' tall finger crack climb.

Lost & Found

2010-04-25T09:54:00.004-04:00

After only 4 weeks of operation, we have accumulated a surprising amount of stuff in our lost & found:

Clothing:

1 pair of sandals
3 pairs of socks
2 pairs of shorts
3 shirts
3 sweatshirts

Other Gear:

5 chalk bags
5 water bottles: one with a wristwatch attached to it, another with "Myles" written on it
7 combination locks
5 keys
1 Richard Scarry book

So it seems like a good time to announce our Lost & Found Policies:

We don't want to let this stuff just accumulate forever, so anything we find is ours to dispose of as we see fit after 30 days. We'll keep a This Month box and a Last Month box, and at the start of each month we'll clear out the Last Month box. Usable clothing will be washed and donated to a worthy cause (in some cases our staff!).
Loose chalk will be removed, since we ask that it not be used in the gym, and shouldn't be here in the first place. We'll use it to refill any refillable chalk balls we find.
Abandoned chalk bags will be kept and loaned out for free to customers who need them.
Locks can be claimed by anyone who can open them. We have started tagging them with where & when they were found, to help their owners identify them.

Please come and claim your stuff if you see it shown or mentioned here!

Getting On Top of Things

2010-04-18T07:56:00.003-04:00

Rock climbing is all about getting on top of things, but this post is about how we are getting caught up on a lot of the aspects of our business.

After 3 weeks we have had over 1,000 visitors to our new gym, and our membership is growing nicely. We have figured out most of our processes (and thank you for bearing with us as we did so; we know we made a few mistakes but we think we have corrected them all!). Here's a short list of what we have caught up on recently, and what will be coming in the near future:

New last week:

New lockers arrived last week. These 60 small lockerettes (6 in a stack) are available for annual rental for $50 plus tax. Note that, like our annual memberships, these will become subject to pro-rated HST starting on May 1st. The 102 larger lockers in the change rooms remain free, and are for day use only.
More ottomans! The colourful foam cubes from Asana have proven very popular. They are comfortable, light, and easy to move where you want them in the gym. Some people have even discovered that they can be used as another falling sport, stacking them up and trying to clamber on top of the stack. We added another 10 of these last week, after getting an electric carving knife to cut foam with!
Training area: we now have two hangboards and a chin-up bar installed, along with the campus board and adjustable system board.
Our brochures have been printed and are now available at the front desk.
Gripped magazine is now available for sale. We should be getting Climbing and Urban Climber in soon as well, and the free Deadpoint Magazine when the next issue is out.
All documents have been scanned in: this is a behind-the-scenes thing, but I think it's pretty cool. The software we use to manage the business (point of sale, customer records and monthly billing) is called Rock Gym Pro, and one feature it offers is the ability to scan in all of our waivers and membership forms. On the rare occasion when we need to go back and look at the form, we can now pull it up onscreen in seconds, instead of rummaging through a box for hours. We caught up on the scanning this week, and now have all of our waiver and membership forms digitally saved. This has already helped us quickly resolve a billing error that we caught this week.

Coming soon:

We bought a couple of removable shower heads for the showers, to help those who want an easier way to wash their feet. These will get installed this week.
Membership cards: we had ordered membership cards with bar codes on the back, so that members and punch card holders can have an express check-in method by scanning their card as they come in. We had a little trouble scanning the bar codes, and spent some time showing the problem to the card supplier. They have agreed to reprint the cards. By the end of April we should be ready to start handing these out.
Tape is coming: we will soon be selling climbing tape to help protect fingers and hands, especially useful for those attempting the crack climbs!
We will be selling Odwalla juices any day now. Odwalla features fresh fruit juice smoothies and a very yummy chocolate protein shake.
Lead climbing course: we thought that we had a little time before people would be asking for lead climbing classes. Our thinking was that experienced climbers already know how to lead, and the people just starting out will take a while before they get to that stage. We were wrong! We have already had a few requests for a lead class, and are working on finishing up the course plan so we can start to offer this, hopefully within the next few weeks.
New routes! It's almost time to start changing over the first section of routes and boulder problems! Look for the Chopping Block list on the front white board as a warning of what routes are slated to be taken down.

Other things we are thinking about:

Many of you have asked us to extend our hours and stay open until 11pm on weekdays. This will probably happen, but first we need to get a few of us working a little less, before we add more hours to the schedule. I think we can do this in the near future, so stay tuned.
Improved route tags: we're looking at ways to make the route tags a little neater, easier to find, and more professional.
Improving the web site: we've been adding information and reorganizing the pages a little to try to help people find what they are looking for. We still need a lot more photos of the gym (it is surprisingly difficult to capture what the place really looks like in still photos), and will try to get a video walk-through posted as well. I would also like to improve the look of the site from the simple, spartan approach we started with. Anyone with experience with Drupal themes might want to drop me a line (Drupal is the content management system we use to create and manage the content on the web site).

Please let us know if there are other things you would like us to consider to make the gym better. If you see a problem, please let us know about it right away, and we will try to make thing right. And if you like the gym, please tell your friends!

Media Coverage of True North Climbing

2010-04-15T10:33:00.002-04:00

We have been fortunate to attract a fair bit of attention from the media lately, as we head towards our Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday (10am - 3pm):

Last weekend we were featured in the Globe and Mail. The half-page article is available online.
Yesterday I recorded an interview with my brother Peter of 680 News. We expect that to be broadcast on 680 Friday morning.
Breakfast Television will bring their Live Eye crew with Jennifer Valentine to the gym tomorrow morning. Excerpts should be available at Jennifer's Breakfast Television blog sometime shortly after that.
Toronto Post Magazine called a week or so ago, and will be sending a photographer over tomorrow. I expect there will be an article in an upcoming issue.
The Mirror will be coming in next week to talk and take photos, which should also lead to an article soon.

The HST is Coming - and Sooner Than We Thought!

2010-04-12T11:51:00.002-04:00

This will be one of the least cool blog posts ever to appear in this space, but the issue is important.

On July 1st, Ontario will combine the federal GST (5%) with the provincial PST (8%) resulting in the new HST (13%). This has a significant impact on our business.

We currently charge the 5% GST on everything we sell, and the 8% PST only on retail sales (food, drinks, T shirts, water bottles, chalk balls, and equipment rentals). When the HST takes effect, we will be required to charge the full 13% on everything.

The HST will drive up prices on a lot of things that consumers buy, including memberships in our gym. The government is offering some other tax credits to soften the blow this year. And the change is supposed to be good for business, as it allows us to deduct the HST we pay on things used for our business, an improvement over the current GST credits. In the long run that will lower the cost of doing business, allowing us to hold the line on price increases or hire more staff.

We chose to post our membership prices exclusive of taxes specifically to deal with the coming HST change. Some may ask why, if this change is good for our business, we don't just absorb the price increase. The answer is that the change comes too late for this business. A climbing gym involves an enormous initial investment, and then has moderate ongoing expenses. I will recover my start-up investment gradually over the next several years, but everything I spent to build the gym was without the benefit of the HST deduction that will be available starting in July.

Now on to the real point of this post. I just discovered that the impact of the HST actually begins well before July 1st. As of May1st, we are required to collect HST on a pro-rated basis for all memberships we sell that run past July 1st. We're working out the details of how to calculate this properly (the amount of HST will change each day from May 1st to July 1st!).

We had planned to have a "Beat the HST" promotion in June, making sure people knew to lock in their memberships before it takes effect. Now we realize that promotion needs to start immediately. Annual prepaid memberships bought on or before April 30th will still have only the GST applied. The 8% difference adds up to $41.60 on a regular annual membership, or almost a month of climbing. So if you are thinking about buying an annual membership, the best time to do so is this month!

Our Grand Opening Celebration

2010-04-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

We'll be celebrating our new gym with a Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday April 17th from 10am - 3pm.

But wait, didn't the gym already open a few weeks ago? Yup. We launched the gym March 27th with our Tour de Bloc bouldering competition, and then threw the doors open with free admission for climbers the next day. That was our welcome to the climbing community. Since then we've had a steadily increasing stream of climbers coming through our doors and enjoying Toronto's newest indoor climbing gym. Climbers have been enjoying the top-out bouldering, scaling the stalactite, sitting atop the natural boulder, playing on the slacklines, and some have even tried to conquer the full-height finger crack (no successful ascents so far though!).

The Grand Opening Celebration on April 17th is our chance to introduce ourselves to the broader community, especially those who live in neighbourhoods near the gym. It's being held a few weeks after we opened for business because we needed that time to get photos of people enjoying the completed facility, put those into our brochures, and get them printed and distributed in time to announce the event.

On April 17th from 10am - 3pm the gym will not be available for climbing. This allows us to welcome visitors to come in and look around without needing to sign a waiver as is usually required. We'll have some demonstration climbing going on in a few roped-off areas, to show everyone how the joint works. We plan some slacklining demonstrations, and a few other things to keep people who drop by interested. We even have a few raffle prizes.

So if you have not yet seen our shiny new gym, please drop by on Saturday the 17th. If you have been wondering what this indoor climbing craze is about, come see for yourself. If you're a climber and have friends or family who don't understand why you do this, bring them along. We're proud of our new joint and want to show it off!

Normal operations will resume at 3pm, after the Grand Opening Celebration.

The First Week

2010-04-05T08:08:00.002-04:00

Our first week operating as a business (instead of being a construction site!) is now behind us. It was a very good week. We started with a bang with the Tour de Bloc comp, followed immediately by a very busy day last Sunday (free admission will do that!). The rest of the week was of course not as busy, but we are starting to steadily build up a membership base. Over the course of the week we got caught up on a lot of things:

Almost all the routes are now up, including route tags, and we've filled in a lot of the boulder problems we intend to have up.
All the waivers (several hundred of them!) that were signed have been entered into our computer system. Thank you desk staff!
We're getting some sleep, and even the odd day off work!

As we worked through the week we figured out and refined a lot of our processes. We'll continue to do this, and try to make things run as smoothly as possible, to make things better for both our customers and our staff. There may still be a few bumps here and there, and we appreciate you bearing with us as we figure everything out. We still don't have our membership cards in use (they seem not to be recognized by our barcode scanner, and we're working with the card supplier to get that fixed), so for the time being members and 10-pass holders will still need to check in at the front desk. And the web site is still a work in progress. Let us know what you expect to find there that you cannot, and we will respond.

The feedback we have had so far has been overwhelmingly positive, which makes us feel pretty great. There have been some suggestions though on things we can improve:

Some of you want rental lockers for storage of ropes and other gear between sessions. We have ordered 60 lockerettes (6 small lockers in each column), which should be in place within a few weeks.
Some of you want us to stay open until 11pm each night. We will probably extend our hours, but first I'd like to see our work schedules settle down a little, and make sure we are really on top of everything within our current hours. The managers are working much longer hours than I want to see, and I'm hoping that gets better over the next few weeks. So please be patient with us, and we'll get to this in a bit.
Some have asked for weights to be added to the training area. We're thinking about this one. I have some concerns about where they would go, how much room we would need to set aside, and how to be sure they can be used safely, and kept out of the hands of young children. I'd like to hear more details about exactly what kinds of weights are needed to help us figure out what to do about this.
A few people have asked us to provide rope buckets. This is not high on my priority list right now. Some think it makes more sense for each climber to provide their own means of carrying their rope around (I use a Mad Rock rope bucket, which I like a lot). I have a slight concern about these cluttering up the gym, and adding to what our staff need to keep an eye on. It's not a big deal either for us to provide them, or for climbers to get their own, but we're focusing on bigger things first.
I heard some concern on the forum about the slacklines being in the way. So far that doesn't seem to be a problem, but we're keeping an eye on it. We have added padding to the posts, and we have the option to take them down, or reconfigure them as a single line running parallel to the north tall wall. If they start being too much in the way at busy times, we'll consider not having them up all the time.

Please keep the feedback coming. I have told the staff that our goal is to delight our customers. That's a big step beyond merely satisfying them, and it's something we take very seriously. If there is something wrong with the gym, please let me or my staff know about it right away. And if you like the gym, please tell your friends. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.

Holiday Hours

2010-04-01T10:15:00.002-04:00

We have a couple changes to our normal hours for the coming holiday weekend:

On Friday, the power will be shut down from 6am-6pm throughout much of Downsview Park for electrical work. As a result, we will be open only from 6pm-10pm that day. We're thinking of it as making up for missing Earth Hour last Saturday when we had our Tour de Bloc comp hitting its climax around that time!
On Monday we will be open all day, from 10am-10pm to give people more time to climb if they are off work for Easter Monday.

A Good Start

2010-03-28T06:33:00.002-04:00

Yesterday's competition was a blast. We had 218 competitors, and the energy in the place was buzzing all day. Thanks to Luigi for staging a great comp, to the setting crew of Jody Miall, Kellan, Dustin, Stephen and Luigi for setting a great slate of problems, and to all our sponsors for providing a great array of prizes, and contributing to a large cash prize pool for the Open category winners. Laura from the Toronto School of Circus Arts (among our very cool neighbours at the Downsview Park Sports Centre) blew everyone away with her half time silk performance. I'd go on, but I need to get some breakfast and get ready for another exciting day: our first day open to the public for all kinds of climbing.

Several people asked yesterday whether they could lead climb today, and the answer is: yes, of course! We will be conducting top rope belay tests and lead tests for all who need them. Please be patient as we are expecting a large crowd, and it may be a challenge to keep up with those at first.

Come join us and check out the new gym. A reminder that all annual and continuing monthly EFT memberships come with your choice of a free TNCI T shirt or water bottle, for a limited time only!

Live Blog of Today's Tour de Bloc Competition

2010-03-27T08:19:00.003-04:00

If the above doesn't update live, you can also follow today's live blog at
http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/Beta__True_North_Tour_de_Bloc

This is It

2010-03-27T05:24:00.003-04:00

Ten months of planning (and years of dreaming before that) have brought us to today, when we open our doors to the public for the first time for our inaugural Tour de Bloc bouldering competition. We have surpassed our goal of 200 competitors (we were a little over 210 last night, with a few more expected to sign up at the door today), making this the largest Tour de Bloc debut turnout (but not the largest turnout ever at one of these comps). Much more important, our team has done a fantastic job and we are ready (though a lot of important stuff happened yesterday!). Come join us this weekend to see what we have built. We're proud of it, and we hope you like it.

This is It!

Free Stuff

2010-03-26T05:36:00.001-04:00

We have two special offers as we kick off life at our new climbing gym:

Climbing will be free on Sunday March 28th. We will be open from 10am - 6pm that day. We're closing earlier than usual to help us recover from an intense week of preparation for our Tour de Bloc competition the previous day, and general craziness as we put all the finishing touches on the gym!
For a limited time only, all new annual and EFT monthly memberships will include your choice of a True North Climbing T shirt or water bottle. This offer will last until our Grand Opening Celebration on April 17th, or while supplies last (whichever comes first). This offer does not apply to monthly prepaid admission.

The Press Release

2010-03-24T13:01:00.002-04:00

[Note: We are planning a Grand Opening Celebration for April 17th, a few weeks after we are up and running. This gives us time to mail out brochures in the community with the exact date of the celebration pinned down. We are of course launching the gym this Saturday, March 27th with our Tour de Bloc bouldering competition, and opening for regular business the next day.]

True North Climbing Rocks Your Week! Toronto, March 23: True North Climbing, the newest addition to the Downsview Park Sports Centre, holds its official grand opening event April 17.

With over 14,000 square feet of climbing terrain, including the largest fully-suspended artificial stalactite in North America and a huge top-out bouldering area, True North Climbing is a state-of-the-art indoor rock climbing facility. Built in what used to be an airplane hangar, the gym features ceilings of up to 36 feet, with abundant natural light coming in from windows in the high space.

Owner John Gross, a former computer animation software developer, fell in love with climbing over six years ago and is excited to realize his dream of turning an obsession into a career.

"The first time I tried climbing, I went to try something new and to have an enjoyable activity with my kids," said Gross. "I knew from day one I was hooked. I walked out of that gym with a new sport at age 45. Since then, I've seen three year olds take to climbing like a duck to water and I know individuals in their 60s and above who are as active climbers as they were three decades ago. From birthday parties or an unusual date night, to team-building exercise or for a social way to get in shape -- it truly is a sport for everyone. Our focus is to provide fun climbs for climbers of all abilities."

Indoor climbing is reaching new heights in Toronto, which now boasts five indoor climbing facilities in the city and more within an hour's drive in the GTA. This is more than any city in Canada. True North Climbing's location just north of Highway 401 makes it especially convenient for those who live in the northern half of the city or the surrounding suburbs.
Gross brought Eldorado Climbing Walls on board to design and build the custom climbing terrain. Eldorado has been building climbing walls for over 15 years, and has installed hundreds of walls across North America.

"When I first visited the True North Climbing facility I instantly found inspiration," said Jason Plumb, lead designer at Eldorado. "The building's architecture and history played a huge role in the look and feel of the climbing wall designs. The ideal size and structural conditions were available to create climbable features that I had been dreaming about for years. I know I speak for the entire Eldorado Wall Company team when I say that we are proud to have built a facility that will give the climbing community of Toronto a unique climbing experience."

The look and feel of the space uses the building's original purpose as inspiration. The hangar was the site of de Havilland's production of Mosquito bombers in the early 1940's. Plumb was inspired by the look of these planes, and used that to drive the design of the shapes of the walls and the colour scheme as well.

The True North Climbing management team also includes Gym Manager Clint Searle and Head Instructor/Routesetter Dustin Curtis, a member of the Canadian national climbing team. "These guys are top-notch, and I was thrilled to be able to hire them to join my team" says Gross. "They are both well-respected in the climbing community, and they bring many years of experience that will help us make True North Climbing an exceptionally safe and fun place to climb."

Fact Summary
What: True North Climbing Inc. Grand Opening
When: Saturday April 17th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Where: 75 Carl Hall Rd, Unit 14 [map]
The entrance to Parc Downsview Park is off Sheppard Ave, onto John Drury Drive (the first set of lights east of Keele St.). Turn left on Carl Hill Road. The sports complex building is on the right and True North Climbing has a separate entrance on the back of the building.
BY TTC: Take the 101 PDP bus from Downsview Station.
Information: www.truenorthclimbing.com or 416-398-ROCK (7625)

Media Contact:
John Gross
john.gross@truenorthclimbing.com
(416) 398-ROCK (7625)

Amy Stewart
amy_stewart@hotmail.com

Treading Lightly

2010-03-24T01:43:00.002-04:00

One of the things that is really important to us as we launch our new business, is to find ways to be environmentally responsible in everything we do. It is in our minds every day, but it can be hard to do, and we aren't perfect.

There are some easy things to start with: all of the paper products we use, whenever possible, are made from 100% recycled content. This includes our copy/printer paper, toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towel, and the paper used by our printers for brochures (in the works!) and signs. We also ask our printers to use only vegetable-based inks. When the Tour de Bloc started working on the posters for the comp, we asked them to do the same. We also buy only ecologically friendly cleaning supplies, and insist that our cleaning service do the same.

During construction, we made the decision to take down all of the existing high bay light fixtures (dating back to World War II?) and replace them with new, efficient ones that use compact fluorescent bulbs.

We will become a business customer of Bullfrog Power, who have a programme for businesses whose power is supplied by the landlord (as ours is).

And speaking of our landlord, Parc Downsview Park also has a commitment to operating responsibly with respect to the environment. One example of that is the waste disposal service they provide for the tenants. Turtle Island Recycling takes care of all the garbage, recyclables and food waste from the entire Downsview Park Sports Centre. While their service does not require us to separate all these materials (apart from cardboard), we decided to do so anyway as part of sending a clear message to our customers that recycling and minimizing waste is important to us.

Another decision we have made is not to sell bottled water. We have a drinking fountain with a bottle filler spout that provides good quality water for free. If you don't have a refillable water bottle, we'll sell you one with our logo for a reasonable price (once). The amount of waste generated by the bottled water industry is staggering, and there is no reason for it. We will not be a part of that.

While we are doing what we can, we're far from perfect. Building a climbing gym means buying thousands of climbing holds made from polyurethane (though we have decided to avoid the use of polyester resin holds, which we believe are less environmentally friendly). It also involves thousands of cubic feet of foam. We have been assured that our foam contains a certain (small) amount of vegetable content (still working to verify that), but the flooring is still a part of the business that represents an impact on the environment that we wish could be smaller.

We'll continue to work to come up with ways to operate more environmentally responsible, and we welcome your suggestions to help us do that.

Ceci n'est pas une mise à jour de construction

2010-03-19T21:40:00.003-04:00

This is not a construction update. The construction is all done. This is just an update on some stuff we've been doing since construction wrapped up, and before we open the gym.

The padded floor is all done, and looks beautiful. The floor was a collaborative effort between Asana Climbing (the modular custom pads in the advanced bouldering area look beautiful) and Kyle Wilson and his gang from Rock Climbing School. Kyle came up with an elegant way to set up the padding around the slackline posts so that when they are taken down (for example, for the Tour de Bloc comp next Saturday) the floor will be seamless with no indication where the posts were. It's much better than the design I had in mind!

With the ropes all up, routes covering most of the walls, and the flooring now in place, the place looks really stunning. We've been too busy this week to take new photos (seriously), but I'll try to take some fresh ones next week. Or you could come out to the comp or come climb after that and see for yourself! I have to say that the photos do not really capture the scale of the place, or the magnificence of what the Eldo gang have built for us.

All of the late crises now seem under control. The leak in the roof is fading to a distant memory; luckily it was in our office area, and not near the climbing walls or the padded floor. Our credit card terminal got installed today (connected to our fax line instead of the DSL line we are still waiting to have installed). And we have an appointment Tuesday afternoon to get the fire alarms wired into the landlord's system, so we can then get occupancy approval and open our doors for business!

A lot of hard work has gone into getting us this far. The routesetters have put in a lot of hours this week, and we'll have a good selection of routes to try out after the comp. They'll be back at work after the comp as well, filling in routes on the areas where the comp problems will be. And Clint and Dustin are both doing a great job of knowing what needs to be done to build and run a great gym, and then getting it all done.

We're all taking a bit of a breather this weekend, to gather our strength for the final push. We are tired! But we are also incredibly excited and very proud of what we have put together - together.

There is still time to register for the comp, and I'll remind everyone that you don't need to be a great boulderer to sign up in the Recreational category and come have fun trying out some of the problems. We look forward to welcoming you to Toronto's newest gym.

Opening Day

2010-03-19T07:20:00.002-04:00

Since last fall, when I arranged to hold a Tour de Bloc competition in the new gym, our main target has been to be ready for that comp. We are still on track for that.

We had hoped to be able to hold a preview this weekend, letting people come climb for a couple days to check out the gym, before closing down again to prepare for the comp. Unfortunately, as is the case with almost every construction project, there are a few things that have not been completed in time to have the preview weekend. The main reason is that our electrical contractor ran a couple weeks late on their work, and that has cascaded into delays in integrating the fire alarms into the landlord's system, and the installation of our DSL connection, which we need to support credit card processing. There are a number of other things we ourselves still need to do, and the week or so before the comp will give us the time to put the finishing touches on what is starting to look like a pretty fine gym (and I do say so myself!). Our inspections, while not yet complete, are proceeding well, and we're taking care of the minor deficiencies that have been noted. I'm confident there are no big obstacles to being ready for the comp.

Last I heard, we already had 150 competitors signed up, with more than a week left to go, so I think we are on target to have the 200 we are looking for. There will be great bouldering problems (as is always the case at a Tour de Bloc event!), some very interesting and unique features to climb on, and a "half time show" to help get us through the wait between finals and results/awards. Note that our slackline posts will be down for this event (yes, they are removable!), in order to allow more room for the large crowd to move around, and to provide a large seating area for finals.

We will launch True North Climbing with a great comp, and then open for "normal" business on Sunday, March 28th. Our hours (which I will post on the web site once we are open) will initially be 10am-10pm on weekends and 2pm-10pm on weekdays.

Pricing

2010-03-18T07:10:00.003-04:00

Several of you have been asking about pricing, and now we're ready to share that information. Our web site now includes a Pricing page which outlines the services we offer, and the cost of each.

Our prices are at or near the top of the range of gyms in our area, but not out of range. We feel we have put together a first class facility with some features that are unmatched by any other gym. It takes a huge up-front investment to build a place like this, and with that comes a long-term commitment. Our lease is for 10 years, with an option for another 5. Our 2 bank loans run for 10 and 20 years. Our pricing is set to produce a good return on that investment. We aim to provide excellent value for the money you spend with us, and as much as possible we have tried to keep our pricing structure simple and free of additional fees and conditions. And all of our staff have the goal of delighting our customers on every visit.

Construction Update #12 (last one!)

2010-03-13T22:24:00.004-05:00

Yes, indeedy, this will be the last Construction Update entry. We are almost done, and from here on it's just a lot of finishing touches before we are ready to open. A lot, though.

The Eldo gang have been cruising, and are just about done, right on time. They have a few lead anchors left to install, a few hours of training for us on care and feeding of the beautiful walls they have built for us, and then they'll pack up their truck and head off to build someone else a gym nearly as nice as ours. :-)

Steve and Mark from Asana are now on site, installing our padded floor. See the photo below for a peek at their work in progress. The custom modular pads in the advanced bouldering area are now in place, and they're working on the 6" blue carpet stuff now. That should all be in place by the middle of next week.

Some of the other construction has taken a little longer than planned to wrap up, but there too we are down to finishing touches like soap dispensers and toilet paper rolls. Yes, after about 3 1/2 months of construction, we now have indoor plumbing! There was much rejoicing.

We are holding our initial staff orientation day on Sunday, and then we'll be routesetting like mad, and doing a million other things to get ready for opening day. We're certainly on track for the competition on the 27th, and we are hoping to have a little preview before then, but can't announce anything until we get past the required inspections and have approval to open our doors for business. Stay tuned!

This will be the final Construction Update, but we'll continue to post updates on our opening plans and everything else that is going on in the gym.

Here are a couple of recent shots of the last bits of work.

The stalactite, before it got painted.

The custom modular pads in place in front of
the advanced bouldering area, and the open cell
foam is going down in the rest of the north side.
The foam gets cut out to make room for the
slackline posts, and we'll have foam inserts/caps
to cover the holes when the posts come down
(for example, to make a nice large spectator
area for the Tour de Bloc comp).

Farewell To the Old Girl

2010-03-11T13:02:00.004-05:00

Toronto Climbing Academy is closing the doors at its original location today, after having opened their spiffy new gym last month. It's a sad day, as many of us spent a lot of time at the old gym. I have been a TCA member for over 6 years, and brought many friends in to climb there, mainly on Wednesday nights after work. It was a good gym, with a great relaxed social atmosphere, and I always felt welcome there.

The new location on Curity Ave (near St Clair & O'Connor) is bright and shiny and new. It's spacious, with glass on 2 sides bringing in a lot of natural light. They have put in a ton of lead lines, and there are some great routes up on the walls. Overall it has a lot of improvements over the old location. While it's sad to say goodbye to the old gym, it's great to see the new location looking so good.

Here's the Facebook event for the closing ceremonies: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=10150114401555402

Getting Ready

2010-03-10T06:24:00.002-05:00

about 5000 climbing holds, 3 ladders, carpet bonded foam, big rolls of open-cell foam, fold-up tables, folding chairs, dishes, cutlery, garbage cans, garbage bags, shop vac (make sure you get a "Ridgid"), track lighting, bolts, wood screws, 4 maillons ("what's a maillon?"), find a fridge on Craigslist, power supply for the thermal printer, replace the cash drawer that was ordered with the wrong interface (serial vs printer-driven), water bottles ready yet?, membership cards, rope & quickdraws, harnesses, rental shoes, quicklinks, meet with window consultant, alarm system connected to phones?, DSL installed, meals for staff during training sessions, belay tags, laminating pouches (what sizes?), reconsider paint colours, review brochure mock-ups, inventory of prizes for the comp, register with additional police departments for police reference checks/vulnerable sector screening, offer packages for new staff, epipen for first aid kit, attend Toronto Sports Summit, plan for trip to Boulder for Climbing Wall Association Summit, plan staff orientation, update policy/procedure manual, microwave, toaster oven (reuse old one from basement?), coffee machine, "what do you mean my house needs a new roof now?", run payroll, arrange for sales of climbing magazines in the gym, couches?, lighting for exterior sign, music service, cleaning service, audio system, build training area, posters, talk to day camp operator about working together, sprinkler system modifications for climbing wall, copies of all first aid certificates, routesetting tape ("but John can't tell the yellow from the green!"), get leaking pipe fixed, membership forms, soap dispensers, benches for change rooms, install locker numbers (need rivet gun?), hangboards, campus rungs, comp boxes, helmets, bent-gate biners, locking biners, ascenders, aiders, daisy chains, gri-gris, slacklines, 800 m of rope, all waivers into Rock Gym Pro, set up all purchase items, write construction update for blog, arrange half-time show for comp, scaffolding behind the walls, about 25,000 T nuts, hand cleaner, get second porta-potty, replace drinking fountain (need one with bottle-filler spout!), make sure we have hand dryers that actually work, shoe cubbies, price list, block spammers from overrunning the online forums, forerun new routes as they go up, I'll have a double-double, assemble quickdraws, design route tags, corner braces, concrete anchors, padding for steel beams & slackline posts, malware cleanup software, drill bits, more 2x6's, paper cutter, propane torch, rope cutter, strip basement cave to sell holds to the gym (sigh), barcode scanner, printer cable, stencils, power bars, U bolts, pick flavors of drinks to sell, buckets for hold storage, buckets for routesetting, ...

True North Strong & Free?

2010-03-06T19:03:00.002-05:00

I just had to get closer to the flame than that stupid fence would allow...

Construction Update #11

2010-03-05T16:48:00.007-05:00

We're in the home stretch now. Eldorado has just over a week left, and the non-climbing construction is just about done as well. Here are the latest updates:

The locker rooms are nearing completion,
with just a few finishing touches remaining.

The reception desk is in place.

The tile is going down; here is a view of the party area.

Dustin had a bunch of boulder problems up
a week and a half ago, but this is the first roped route.

This is the view from under the stalactite,
looking up, taken before all the wood was in place.

This thing is seriously cool,
and larger than I had expected!

So things are still on track, though we keep thinking of a million more things we have to get done before we open. It's an exciting time.

Tour de Bloc is Approaching!

2010-03-04T13:50:00.006-05:00

As we put the finishing touches to our new gym over the next week or two, we are getting very excited about our big launch event: our first Tour de Bloc bouldering competition. If you're not familiar with the Tour de Bloc, check out their website, and you can catch up a bit on our earlier blog post about it.

Our comp, on Saturday March 27th, will be the eighth and final local competition of the season for the Central region (Ontario & Quebec). After that come the Regionals at Centre d'escalade Délire on April 9th & 10th, and the Nationals at Joe Rockhead's on May 22nd & 23rd.

Jody Miall will be the head setter for the comp, as usual, and he will be ably assisted by our own Dustin Curtis. We'll be giving them plenty of time to get ready, so expect some great problems, including a few on our stalactite! Can you climb upside-down?

Because this is the major launch event for our new gym within the climbing community, we are pulling out the stops to make it a great comp. I have decided to add the gym's share of the gate receipts to the cash prize pool, and have also secured a few other contributions. We have the usual comp box provided by the Tour, and have added to it with contributions from other partners. A nearly complete list of those who have donated cash for the prize pool or prizes to be raffled off includes (in alphabetical order):

Asana Climbing (our flooring supplier)
Beta Clothing
Bluewater Ropes
Blurr
BS Productions
Climbing Hold Review
Climb-It Holds
Delire
Detroit Rock Climbing Company
Eldorado Climbing Walls
Evolv Sports
Grand Prix Kartways
HoopDome
IM Boulderer
Metolius Climbing
Mountain Equipment Co-op
Petzl
Project Holds
Revolution
Rock Empire
So Ill
Toronto Roller Derby
Toronto School of Circus Arts
Tour de Bloc
True North Climbing

In all, the cash pool and raffle prizes add up to over $5000 in prizes to be given out at this comp. There are over 70 raffle prizes, ranging from chalk balls and T shirts to ropes, shoes, a hangboard and a crash pad. And there are some great prizes from our local partners in the Downsview Park Sports Centre as well. We also have a half time show planned, to entertain you between the end of finals and the announcement of the winners.

This is looking to be a great comp. Registration is now open at https://www.tourdebloc.com/TDB7/registration1.php. Don't think you need to be an amazing climber to participate, as the recreational category is there for those who just love to climb. We invite you to join us as we launch our new gym.

Construction Update #10

2010-02-26T08:34:00.005-05:00

I'm off site this week (attending a few Olympic events in Vancouver, including yesterday's impressive gold medal victory by our women's hockey team), so this week's construction update is courtesy of our first guest blogger: Skylar Pais, crew chief of the Eldorado Climbing Walls gang.

The last shape was hung on the stalactite today. That feature just took this gym to another level. We also climbed on the boulder for the first time tonight. Great shape, great setting, and really new holds. I lost some skin!

Construction Update #9

2010-02-20T12:04:00.007-05:00

We're nearly done with the north half of the gym. The bouldering terrain has its two coats of paint, and will get its "speckle coat" soon. We're also done putting T nuts in there. The north tall wall with the chimney is partly painted, and partly T-nutted. Here are a few recent shots:

On the south side, the steel is almost all up, and most of the wood is in places as well. The south bouldering wall went up in just two days: the steel on Thursday, and the wood on Friday!

The change rooms are almost ready for their finishing touches. Light fixtures are up and the wiring & switches will soon be completed. The tile (both the ceramic tile in the shower area and the vinyl composite tile in the rest of the change rooms) should go down in the next few days, after which the lockers & plumbing fixtures should go in quickly.

Next week I will be in Vancouver, catching a few Olympic events. I'm going to miss the start of the stalactite, as the Eldo crew puts up the large steel columns that form its backbone, and then build the shell in two pieces on the ground before hoisting them up and welding them in place. And the freestanding boulder should arrive while I'm gone as well.

As usual, there are additional recent photos in our Picasa Construction album.

The Boulder Is On Its Way!

2010-02-17T22:24:00.002-05:00

Holy crag this looks good! Check out the finished custom boulder that Eldorado has built for us in their shop. It's now on its way to its new home in our gym, and we have just the spot for it. I really can't wait to climb on this baby...

Interview up on ontarioclimbing.com

2010-02-17T16:50:00.002-05:00

Check out the interview up today on ontarioclimbing.com.

Construction Update #8

2010-02-12T19:45:00.006-05:00

More great progress this week. The Eldorado crew is rocking along! This week we saw the arch completed between the lead room and the front area where the stalactite will soon start to grow. The texture was applied to the walls on the north side, and drilling out of the T-nut holes has begun. I installed the first T-nut and then attached the first hold on the wall! And the hand crack was carved by Chris Pope, who showed us his artistry. Let's just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Chris Pope of the Eldorado crew carved this hand crack for us,
facing the entrance doors. It's intended as a 5.9 (maybe 5.9+?) climb.
First ascent was expected this weekend (as part of quality assurance
by the Eldorado construction crew, of course)

Panoramic view of the north bouldering terrain
after texturing, from a scissor lift above it.

Panoramic view of the north tall wall, with chimney, after texturing.

More photos are available as usual in our Picasa Construction album.

Updated Panorama Views

2010-02-07T11:46:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Mark Banas returned to the gym, and shot another set of panorama images. You can view them here. And to see what the space looked like before we started, compare that to the "before" panorama.

Apart from how cool these are, what strikes me is how much progress was made in the week since Mark shot these:

the drywall now covers the non-climbing areas
the windows have opened up on the north side, over the bouldering terrain, so there is natural light in there once again
the steel in the south side is now pretty much all covered in wood

Enjoy! Thanks, Mark!

Construction Update #7

2010-02-06T14:51:00.009-05:00

OK, time for a few more photos and an update on how the work is progressing.

New windows are making their way in around the high monitors.

The finger crack begins to take shape
on the roped wall opposite the lead cave.

Things are rolling along pretty well. The Eldorado crew continues to push ahead, covering just about all the steel already in place with wood and getting much of it ready for texturing. They were also starting to sculpt the cracks: a 16' high hand crack facing the entrance area, and a full-height (36') finger crack in the wall shown above. The bouldering wall is ready for texturing (the top surface is done, and the sides will get sprayed soon). The steel shapes for the lead wall have been welded together, and with the base plates now attached to the slab floor, more steel will soon be going up in the lead cave.

The non-climbing construction is also advancing well, and moving ahead towards wrapping up at the end of this month. The change rooms are really taking shape, and other work such as electrical and sprinkler systems are going in.

While the construction professionals keep all that going, the climbing professionals have been busy as well! We had a few more shipments come in this week, bringing lots of gri-gris, locking carabiners, various routesetting rigging gear (ascender, pulleys, daisy chains and etriers!), as well as about another 20 boxes of climbing holds! Next week looks like a few more hold shipments and our rope. We're having a good time checking out all the goodies, and Dustin has our holds organized and ready for setting. Can't wait until we have the first few sections of wall textured, painted and T-nutted, so the holds can start to go up!

The other thing that is starting to occupy more of our time is interviewing. We have a steady stream of candidates coming in to talk about the part time positions we have posted.

There are additional photos to peruse in our Picasa Construction album beyond the couple included in this post.

Oh, and one more thing I almost forgot! Here is the last of the renderings sent up by Jason Plumb, our wall designer at Eldorado in Boulder. This is a view from around where the reception desk will be. The stalactite will hang from the ceiling 36' up, and stop about 2 1/2 feet above the padded floor. We can't wait to see that get built!

As usual, click on the image to see it in full resolution. I've uploaded all 4 hires renderings to the Renderings album on our Picasa page.

The New TCA is Looking Good!

2010-02-06T14:31:00.002-05:00

I stopped by Toronto Climbing Academy's new location earlier today. They had a good crowd out for their grand opening, and the place is looking really nice. I did a few climbs (good routes), and saw a lot of the usual TCA community there.

I was especially pleased to see they have a large seamless padding system around their huge top-out boulder, and that just about all their walls have lead anchors installed. These are two things in common with our new gym, so obviously I agree with both those decisions!

Congrats to Chris, Sacha and Ana on the beautiful new facility. I'm looking forward to working with them to keep growing the climbing community in Toronto.

Not Quite Ready for Visitors!

2010-02-06T14:09:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to remind everyone that for the time being, the gym is still an active construction site, full of busy workers and hazards. We wear hard hats and safety shoes at all times while in the space, and we have a few extra hard hats for the occasional visitor who has a reason to come by.

In addition, things are getting busy. The Eldorado crew is pushing hard to make sure the climbing terrain is done on time (and they are on track). The general contractor has a variety of trades working on the electrical, plumbing, sprinklers, drywall and other aspects of the facility. And the landlord has a crew completing the replacement of the clerestory windows. It's a hectic place! The True North Climbing staff are also fully occupied now, taking inventory of all the shipments that are arriving (holds, gri-gris, harnesses, rope, etc.), and interviewing candidates for the part-time positions that are currently open. Pretty soon we'll also have some construction work of our own, putting together the training area and the hold room.

So for reasons of safety and keeping our work on track, we are not really able to handle visitors
without advanced planning. Accordingly we must ask that people not drop by unannounced. We know that some of you are nearly as excited as we are about the new gym, and we are eager to share what we are up to. But please wait another few weeks until the construction wraps up, when we will be in a state where it's safe to show you around, and will have the bandwidth to do so. Thanks for your understanding & patience!

Construction Update #6

2010-02-01T19:58:00.008-05:00

Here's a quick update and a few more recent photos. Things continue to move ahead well.

The lockers have arrived.
There will be 52 lockers (half height)
in each of the men's and women's change rooms.

The Eldorado crew surprised me with this nice bonus:
a solid ladder behind the walls, to provide safe and comfortable access
to the two tiers of scaffolding behind the walls.

This isn't a terribly exciting photo,
but what it represents is pretty exciting.
The letter Ls painted on the floor mark where lead lines
will be placed on the climbing terrain.
Eldorado is installing metal plates
to which bolt hangers will be mounted,
spaced a few feet apart along the metal structure
above each of these points.
Dustin was pretty stoked to be able to specify
where we want each of our lead lines,
and our gym will have a lot more leadable terrain
than most gyms
(just about every wall, except for the slab section).

These photos are from late last week. We saw really dramatic changes in one day today:

lots of drywall got installed around the change room areas
lots more wood sheeting got nailed up on the climbing structure in the south half of the gym. Seeing the wood covering the steel makes the forms stand out more clearly, and suddenly makes it feel more like a climbing wall!
the window replacement reached the north half of the gym for the first time, so there was natural light pouring in above the bouldering terrain for the first time in weeks!

There is still plenty of work left to do. the non-climbing construction (change rooms, reception area, plus the general work on electrical, lighting, heating and plumbing) will continue for the rest of February. By then the north half of the climbing terrain will be complete, and the south half will need just another couple of weeks to finish up.

Unpacking!

2010-01-29T16:30:00.012-05:00

While construction continues (and stay tuned for another little construction update, maybe over the weekend), we have started to receive all the gear we will need to operate the gym. First were the rental climbing shoes from Evolv:

99 pairs of Evolv rental shoes!

A few days later came our first shipment of holds, from 4 hold companies (Teknik, So Ill, e-grips and Franklin):

We have 5 more hold shipments still to come, from Atomik, Climb-It, Detroit Rock Climbing Company (DRCC), Friction and Project. And we're also expecting shipments from Bluewater (ropes & slings), Petzl (gri-gris, locking biners, helmets and some other stuff), Rock Empire (harnesses, bent-gate biners). It's fun seeing all this stuff coming in, and sorting through it.

More photos on our Picasa page, in the Unpacking! folder.

TCA #2: Grand Opening February 6th

2010-01-28T08:31:00.002-05:00

As you may know, we're not the only new gym opening soon in Toronto. Our friends at Toronto Climbing Academy have been working very hard to get their second gym ready. Right now they're getting ready to lay down the floor padding and next week they will be setting routes like crazy, to be ready for their Grand Opening on Saturday February 6th.

I had a look at their new facility a month or so ago, and it was looking pretty cool. It's a modern, bright space (huge windows on 2 sides bringing in lots of natural light), with spacious change rooms, and some pretty nice terrain, including a huge top-out boulder in the middle.

The second TCA is located at 11 Curity Ave, near St Clair Ave East and O'Connor Drive, not far from the DVP and Don Mills Rd, and a short bus ride from Woodbine subway station. Check them out on opening day. Who can turn down a free day of climbing?

The boulder from Boulder

2010-01-24T09:59:00.005-05:00

A quick update on one of the cool features we're putting in the gym: a freestanding boulder. Here are a few shots of the early construction of it, which is happening at Eldorado's facility in Boulder, Colorado:

The boulder starts as a stack of 8 1-foot thick pieces of foam, glued together. It's been carved into its rough base shape. Next cement texture will be applied over the foam base, and that will be hand-carved to form all the holds. We decided not to install T-nuts for modular holds on this (although Eldorado is quite capable of doing that), because we want this to just sit in the middle of the gym and look like a real rock, about 8 feet high and 8 feet in diameter. It's intended as an easy boulder for kids and beginners, and a warm-up for more advanced climbers.

Construction Update #5

2010-01-22T15:59:00.008-05:00

Another good week, and I'm feeling like things are really under control. I figure it's the eye of the hurricane, and more crazy stress lies ahead. In any event, I am enjoying the feeling of being on track, and thinking we know what we're doing.

Here are a few shots of what has gone on this week:

Framing for the storage room near reception.
This is where the dishwasher, water heaters and storage will go.

The sheeting nearly complete on the north tall wall, opposite the
bouldering terrain. Much of the lath work is done,
including a nice flake on the left edge of the chimney,
and some of the texturing is done on some seams.

Steel has gone up fast in the south bay this week.
Here is the left half of the arch.
Look at the sunlight coming in from behind,
where the window replacement is finally underway!

And here is a funny story. I arranged phone service this week, and asked for a phone number ending in ROCK (7625). There were 4 to choose from, and 633-ROCK had the nicest "ring" to it, so I chose that. On Tuesday I discovered that's exactly the same 7 digits as Climber's Rock has (they are in area code 905). We decided that's a little too much of a weird coincidence, and some customers might actually call the wrong gym by mistake and get mixed up, so I called back and changed it. Our number will now be (416) 398-ROCK, and it should be hooked up, um, this morning. Well, maybe Monday.

Things are rocking now.

Another Rendering: The Lead Cave

2010-01-19T22:38:00.005-05:00

Here is another rendering from our designer Jason at Eldorado Climbing Walls. This is the lead cave, which will be in the south-east corner of the gym. As usual, a click on the image will bring up the high-res version that you can pan across. Don't worry about the bent ropes; they were outside in the cold and got a little stiff!

This is the one part of the gym where most of the high windows will be covered with climbing terrain, so we've chosen light colours for this neighbourhood (light blue and white). As with the earlier renderings of the bouldering terrain, this gives you a general idea, but understates the angles on the walls. That cave will be seriously steep; here are some details from Jason:

Longest overhang = 23 feet
Longest straight line route = 45 feet (meandering routes can push +50 linear feet)
Average angle in the cave is ~45 degrees

The total height up to the high ceiling is 36 feet. The cave is designed as a compound curve. The shallowest line is to the west and it gets deeper as you transition east. The focus was on progression.

We're putting our hold room in the space behind the wall on the right part of the image (where the base of the wall comes back out enough to allow top-roping). There will be a huge area behind the wall, and Dustin is looking forward to setting up shop back there.

I'm expecting one more rendering to complete the series. We've seen the main bouldering structure and the roped wall from the north half of the gym, and the lead cave above which is in the east half of the south side. The last rendering will provide a peek at the area in front of the reception desk, with the stalactite (yes, I said stalactite) hanging in front of the arch.

Construction progress has been very good of late, and we remain on track to open sometime in the second half of March.

Youth Comp at Boulderz: January 30th!

2010-01-18T17:45:00.003-05:00

There's another great youth competition coming, this time at Boulderz, on January 30th. This is a sanctioned youth bouldering competition. Most of the info is on the poster for the event (as usual you can click on it to see it big, in case some of the print is too small):

or check in at the Boulderz web site. I expect this comp to fill up, so if you are under 20 and like to climb, what are you waiting for?

Construction Update #4

2010-01-15T15:01:00.008-05:00

Progress has been very good in the past two weeks, since I last posted an update. The main bouldering wall is now completely sheeted with wood, and texturing has begun. We got on top of the structure for the first time yesterday, which was really fun. The shapes of this wall look really good, and the photos and renderings don't quite do it justice. Here are a few more shots though:

Left end of the bouldering wall, with one of the hatch doors in place.
The lath is on covering the seams between panels,
and where the grip rail will be built at the top edge.

Dustin is rather fond of the wall...

More steel has gone up on the first of the roped walls as well, opposite this bouldering terrain:

The chimney is at the right of this shot, though it's a little hard to see the shape.

The non-climbing construction is also moving ahead nicely. Lots of important but perhaps not very exciting ducting work has been done. Here's the latest view of the change room area:

Several additional photos have also been posted to the Construction folder of our Picasa page.

It's Time to Grow Our Team

2010-01-14T13:17:00.002-05:00

Construction is moving along well (I'll try to post more photos before the end of the week), and it's time to start building up our team to be ready to open in March. We've posted job descriptions to the main web site, under the Jobs link. We're looking for routesetters, climbing instructors, desk/floor staff, and belayers for kids parties. If you are interested in one of these positions, please apply by email to info@truenorthclimbing.com. And please help spread the word, if you know someone who might be a good addition to our team.

First Week With the Staff!

2010-01-08T17:57:00.006-05:00

This week started the new year with a punch as our first 2 full time staff members started working at True North Climbing. Dustin, Clint and I spent all day Monday brainstorming about all the things we need to get done before opening day. By the end of the day my dining room wall was covered with big sheets of paper filled with writing. Then we started reviewing each topic (Equipment, Retail Sales, Policies and Procedures, Pricing and Marketing so far, with several others left to cover), making decisions, assigning homework tasks, and gradually working our way through the long list of stuff we need to figure out. It was a great start. I think we're working really well together, and these guys have already started to make important contributions.

While we were thinking hard, the Eldorado crew continued to make good progress. By the end of the week, the wood was starting to go up on the main bouldering wall.

Ontario Access Coalition Meeting: January 23rd

2010-01-05T06:56:00.003-05:00

The Ontario Access Coalition (OAC) is a volunteer, not-for-profit group that works with the climbing community, landowners, conservation authorities and property managers to keep climbing and bouldering areas open in an environmentally responsible manner.

This year's General Meeting will be held Saturday January 23rd from 5-6pm at Climber's Rock. Following the meeting (from 7:30-9pm) there will be a screening of Chris Altran's new film The Continuum Project, which features footage from Lion's Head. Admission is $8 for OAC members and $15 for others.

Update: The Annual general meeting has been rescheduled; the meeting from 5-6pm will now be an informational meeting, and a great opportunity to learn about what the OAC has been doing to preserve climbing in Ontario.

True North Climbing is proud to be a supporter of the OAC, and one of several sponsors of this event.

Sustainability: Why We Won't Be Selling Bottled Water

2010-01-01T08:03:00.006-05:00

This is the first in a series of blog postings exploring how True North Climbing will be trying to operate as a sustainable company, minimizing our impact on the planet.

I have decided not to sell bottled water in the gym. I believe there is next to no need for water as a commercial product when we have a good supply of clean drinking water in this city, and the waste produced by the production, delivery and disposal of the plastic bottles is shameful. For a more detailed view of the consequences of the bottled water industry, take a look at this infographic prepared by Online Education.

We're installing a drinking fountain that will provide clean drinking water for free. Most people already have a reusable water bottle, and for those who need one, we plan to sell them for a reasonable price.

Construction Update #3

2009-12-31T10:55:00.004-05:00

Not quite as busy this week, with Eldorado off for a holiday break. But here's a stitched-together view of the frame for the north bouldering wall.

Some electrical work has been done, and the ventilation ducts continue to snake their way around the ceiling. The other work of note is the steel frame going up to support the floor of the men's locker room.

Next week: Eldorado's back and their crew should grow to 10 workers. Work continues on the locker room structure, HVAC and electrical/lighting. And our staff arrive to start their new jobs, so we will be very busy planning the operations side of the business.

Rendering #2: The North Tall Wall

2009-12-23T17:19:00.004-05:00

Here's another image of what the finished walls will look like, to get you through the holiday season. This wall is opposite the bouldering wall, and rises to the low ceiling, about 25' high. It's slabby at the right end, and has a chimney tucked in behind the truss at centre. As usual you can click on the image to see it in more detail.

The True North Climbing Team

2009-12-17T07:37:00.002-05:00

The initial recruiting effort is now complete, and we are excited to announce our senior staff for the gym.

Our Gym Manager will be Clint Searle. Clint brings years of experience as a climbing gym manager, along with a great attitude and maturity gained from also working in the "real world".

Our Head Instructor/Head Routesetter will be Dustin Curtis. Dustin is a member of the Canadian National Climbing Team, and very familiar to those who enjoy watching the finals at Tour de Bloc comps. He brings a wealth of experience from working in various capacities at 4 climbing gyms over the past 10 years, and an unmatched passion and energy for our industry.

You can read a little more about our senior staff here.

Together Clint and Dustin will provide the knowledge, experience and spirit needed to make True North Climbing an excellent and professionally-run facility. They will both start their new jobs in the new year. I am thrilled to have them both on the team!

John Gross
Owner, True North Climbing Inc.

Wondering What Our New Gym Will Look Like Inside?

2009-12-15T16:21:00.008-05:00

OK, the renderings are now starting to come in from our wall designer Jason at Eldorado, so we can start sharing peeks at what things are going to look like. We have been ready to start sharing this info since the landlord granted approval for us to build what we have in mind (in particular the "special feature"). I wanted to wait until we had some good quality renderings though, rather then posting screen grabs from Google Sketchup. I expect to post these gradually as they come in over the next few days, exposing the gym one section at a time.

Up first: the North Bouldering area. This is all top-out bouldering terrain, running about 70 feet along the north wall of the space, turning at the north-east corner, and running down the east wall about 40 feet. At the far left end of this terrain the top deck is about 5 feet off the ground. It rises to about 9 feet where the kid who looks like a cub scout is standing, and then to 12 feet a little farther along. The wall rises above the deck in the advanced area, reaching 14 feet where the kid is hanging by one arm above the spotter. There will be a grip rail all along the top edge, to try to help avoid having the top-outs be the crux of the problem. There will be two down-climbs for this area, one at the far left end, and one at the far right end (near the woman with the ponytail). You can click on the image below to see a larger version.

This section represents most, but not all of the bouldering in the gym. There will be another section near the reception desk that will be 11 feet high (not top-out), running about 30 feet in length. And there will be a small free-standing boulder intended as easy bouldering for kids and beginners (and warm-ups for more advanced climbers).

Enjoy the view. More to come in the days ahead!

Construction Update #2

2009-12-11T08:58:00.004-05:00

It has been a good week. The Eldorado crew is now on site, and they have gotten down to work quickly, organizing their equipment, coordinating with our general contractor, and starting to assemble the many steel "shapes" that will be assembled together to create the climbing terrain. I've posted a few new photos to the Picasa Building album. The initial crew of 3 from Boulder is being supplemented by local workers that they have already hired, so the crew should be twice that size by Monday! And all of the Eldorado guys (as well as at least some of the local crew) are climbers; they joined the gang I climb with Wednesday night at Toronto Climbing Academy.

On the general contracting side, the plumbing rough-ins are complete and concrete has been poured to restore the floor. HVAC work continues after a few bumps along the way. It is tricky figuring out how to place ventilation ducts and lighting between the climbing walls in a way that preserves safe clearance and also results in effective lighting, heating and cooling in the space.

Supporting the Ontario Access Coalition

2009-12-08T08:06:00.002-05:00

There is an excellent interview with Adam Reeve of the Ontario Access Coalition now posted at the Ontario Climbing site: http://www.ontarioclimbing.com/News/News.html. It's a very clear explanation of what the OAC does, and why it's important for climbers to support their work. Give it a read, and think about joining the OAC. You can do so (and learn more about their work) at http://www.ontarioaccesscoalition.com/. You can also sign up at one of the Tour de Bloc comps, where the OAC is running membership drives, with prizes given out and raffled off to new members and current members who make a small donation. True North Climbing is a pround supporter of the Ontario Access Coalition.

Youth Comp at Climber's Rock

2009-12-06T09:17:00.005-05:00

Yesterday's Elevation Under-20 Youth comp at Climber's Rock was a blast. I spent the morning as a volunteer belayer, wanting to help out and also learn about how these comps work. I had only been at bouldering comps before, so it was great to learn about both how a roped comp works, and to see the kids climb. I had a lot of fun, and am looking forward to having these running in our gym next year.

There were 7 routes to climb in a flash format (which means each competitor only got one chance to climb each route). The score was based on the top 3 climbs, with points awarded for progress from hold to hold on each climb. There were 50 climbers, ranging from the Under-11 (and some were well under 11!) to the 18/19 year olds.

I was belaying on climb D, right in the middle of the range of difficulty. As the comp got started, our climb saw some of the stronger climbers, for whom that climb was a warm-up. Later on we got the kids moving over after doing some of the easier climbs, and at the end we had some of the younger kids giving it a try. The older kids were leading, while the younger ones were on top rope, so they kept me pretty busy switching back & forth between the ropes & belay devices between climbers! It was intense! I felt a little pressure when belaying the lead climbers, because I wanted to make sure I fed slack quickly at every clip so as not to impede the progress of a climber and cause a technical to be called (and a few of them went up really quickly!). I think I did OK. There were lots of falls of course, which is different from my usual lead climbing sessions; two of them were pretty exciting, but no one got hurt at all.

I was very impressed by the calibre of the climbers, and by the spirit of the group. The parents were all well-behaved as well! There were large showings from Climber's Rock and Boulderz (snazzy shirts, Andrew!), and climbers from several other gyms, including at least one who came from Quebec for the comp. James and Maria Richardson did a great job hosting the event, Aaron Eden did a fine job as Head Routesetter, and Tim Vince and Jeff Whattam ran a tight ship as head judges.

We will definitely be joining the party by hosting youth comps once our gym is up and running. Seeing the excitement and talent of all those kids, from the tiny ones to the nearly grown-ups, was really inspiring and fun.

Construction Update #1

2009-12-03T15:53:00.004-05:00

Work is underway at last! Here is what is going on so far:

The slab floor has been cut for the plumbing. Guys are digging and pipes are being installed:
The HVAC work is in progress, with ducts going up:
The stairway to the upstairs offices has been rotated into its new position. This had to happen to get it out of the way of the entrance doors, which have now been installed. As of today, for the first time we have an enclosed space with doors that can be locked!
The landlord has started replacing the clerestory windows. The first step in this process is removing the old windows and replacing them with gorgeous plywood sheeting. This does a good job of (temporarily) blocking the natural light. Even better, we have no lighting in the space right now, since the old lights have been taken down and our nice new ones have not yet been installed. We have work lighting to get us through this dark period.
Eldorado's first truck arrived today and got unloaded. Here we see lots of bags of cement (for the wall texture), and the frames for the wall access doors (to get in behind the wall in a few places) on top. The initial Eldorado crew arrives on Monday to start putting stuff together!

Happy 15th Anniversary, Guelph Grotto!

2009-11-25T06:30:00.002-05:00

The Guelph Grotto is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and we at True North Climbing just want to say congratulations! I've climbed at the Grotto a few times, including a Tour de Bloc event. It's a really good gym, with good bouldering, good routes, and a friendly vibe. If you're not busy this Saturday, check out their anniversary events!

Happy Anniversary!

Let's Get This Party Started!

2009-11-23T15:42:00.002-05:00

After a lengthy and rigorous process to ensure that what we plan to build meets the appropriate building and safety codes, and satisfies each of 3 structural engineers (representing Eldorado Climbing Walls, our architect and our landlord), we now have approval to proceed with construction! We're now mobilizing both Eldorado's crew to build the climbing terrain, and the general contractor's trades to build all the other parts of the facility (change rooms, reception area, electrical, lighting, HVAC and plumbing support). So after almost 7 months of planning, designing, negotiating and badgering, we have reached the real start of the project. While things have slipped a bunch from the schedule we had in mind, I am optimistic that we can still find ways to make up the time and open the gym in early March as intended.

We'll see about getting some pictures of what we have planned posted in the coming days. Stay tuned; we have some very cool and unique stuff in store for you!

Safety: The Flooring

2009-11-21T09:01:00.005-05:00

As a gravity-defying sport, indoor climbing brings some inherent risk along with it. It's our responsibility to minimize that risk, and there are many ways we are doing that. Today I'm going to talk about one of the important parts of that strategy: the flooring.

I've been thinking about what to do about floor padding since I started researching this project early this year. The padding makes up a surprisingly large part of the overall investment in the gym, and I wanted to make sure I got it right. For the areas under and around the roped climbs, the answer was pretty obvious. The nearly-ubiquitous carpet bonded foam on top of softer foam, with a total depth of about 6 inches, seems like the right approach. It provides a surface solid enough to walk on (and from an employee point of view, to set up ladders for routesetting), but soft enough to cushion a low fall from a bouldering traverse or a landing from descent on a rope.

The more difficult question is what to do in the bouldering areas. Many gyms put the carpet bonded foam throughout their facility, and then arrange portable bouldering mats in the bouldering areas. Boulderers are then responsible for positioning these drag mats appropriately under the areas where they expect they may fall. So there's an issue when they fail to do that. As I looked into this more, I came to believe that there are other injury issues tied to the use of portable drag mats. Landing on an edge, or between pads, can lead to twisted ankles, knee injuries, and arm/shoulder injuries if a climber loses their balance and tips over onto their hands when falling. Some drag mats are better than others (e.g. those with beveled edges), but the more I thought about this and discussed it with others in the climbing business, the more I wanted to find a seamless padding solution for my gym. I saw some of these in the gyms I visited during my reconnaissance tour in northern California in June.

I've spent the past 4 months (!) in discussions with 5 vendors of floor padding to explore my options. In the process I have learned more than I expected about foam density and compression measurements. I have finally settled on a seamless custom padding solution from Asana climbing. You can read about their custom padding system for gyms at their web site. I've talked to some of their customers, and am convinced that they'll put together a great system that will provide excellent protection, be custom-fitted to the shapes of my walls, install easily, and be reasonable to maintain. Oh, it should look great too!

Most of the gym, including some of the low bouldering walls (up to 9 feet high) will have the standard 6 inches of the carpet bonded foam system. The advanced bouldering area, with climbing terrain reaching 14 feet high, will have the custom padding system with 12 inches of padding. This will include an inch of closed-cell foam on top of softer open-cell foam. The denser top layer provides a stable walking surface, and distributes the force of a fall across a larger area, while the softer foam underneath provides the cushioning. I believe 12" is more than we really need for safety. I've gone thicker in part because some climbers may be a little unnerved by the lack of the drag mats under them (even if they know rationally that those mats contribute to injury). I expect the obvious depth of these pads to provide emotional comfort, as well as physical comfort!

There are a couple areas of the gym with mid-height bouldering (around 11 feet high) where the 12 inch system isn't needed but I wanted a little more than the 6 inch carpet bonded foam, so we'll add an extra two inches of open cell foam under the carpet to provide a bit more protection there. This will make more sense soon, when we start posting pictures of what the climbing terrain will look like!

There is a lot more than floor padding to keeping people as safe as possible in the gym. We'll have more to say as time goes on about the other things we're doing in other areas, including:

the design of the climbing terrain
the structural engineering analysis to ensure the structures are sound
the training of both our staff and customers to make sure everyone is well-informed about the potential risks and how to manage them

We take safety very seriously, and we want to make sure everyone understands what we're doing about it.

Making New Friends

2009-11-20T06:28:00.002-05:00

I received a nice invitation last night, to attend the championship of the Toronto Roller Derby on Saturday evening. TORD is one of my coolest neighbours in the Downsview Park Sports Centre. I attended one of their bouts (yes, bouts!) earlier this season with my son, and we had a great time. The women have cute (and not entirely family-friendly) nicknames, but the action is serious and rough.

This will be the start of what I hope is a great partnership between Toronto Roller Derby and True North Climbing, as we help promote and support each other's business. If you haven't yet had an opportunity to come check out the Downsview Park Sports Centre, this is a good reason to do so. The event is expected to sell out, so get your tickets now! Now I just need to decide whether I'm cheering for the Gore-Gore Rollergirls or the underdog Smoke City Betties!

A Few New Photos

2009-11-15T16:34:00.006-05:00

The start of our construction in the gym is still pending the landlord's approval; structural engineers are working hard to show that what we will be building will be safe and sound. Hopefully that won't take much longer, and the crews can get to work shortly.

In the meantime, I've posted a few shots of the freshly-painted space, to show how a coat of white paint brightens the joint up. Check out the most recent 4 images in The Building folder in our Picasa web albums. Here's one of them to give you an idea:

It's also time to launch a new tradition: True North Climbing Around the World. A little while ago I raffled off a True North Climbing T shirt to encourage more people to register for our online forums. The winner was Max Nanao, who happens to live in Grenoble France. He now has his shirt, and what do you suppose he decided to do with it? He went climbing!:

There are now more than 50 True North Climbing T shirts in circulation. Those of you who have one are encouraged to take it with you on your travels. Get a shot of you wearing it and send it in, and we'll add you to the gallery.

And of course, those of you who don't yet have a shirt can still get one for 20 bucks including taxes. Send me an email and we'll figure out the best way to get it to you. Hey, this is our only source of revenue right now!

True North Climbing to Host Pan Am Games Events in 2015!

2009-11-07T06:25:00.002-05:00

As part of Toronto's winning bid for the 2015 Pan-Am Games, True North Climbing is excited to have been chosen as the host of the following climbing events:

Men's Bouldering
Women's Bouldering
Men's Speed Climbing
Women's Speed Climbing
Women's Synchronized Dynos

These events will take place over 10 days of competition in late July 2015. Construction will take place in 2014 to raise the roof of the building to enable the climbing structures to meet the Pan Am standard of 30m of climbing height. Our youth climbing programme will be tailored to help develop young athletes and prepare them for these games. Climbers from across Canada are expected to train at True North Climbing during the year leading up to the events.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper remarked: "While the CSIS will not allow me to comment on specifics, I have seen the plans for True North Climbing's new facility, and they are truly impressive".

[Hey, I can dream, can't I?]

Certification

2009-11-02T08:59:00.006-05:00

This past weekend I completed my certification as a Climbing Gym Instructor (Level 1) by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). I wrote earlier about my thoughts on establishing high standards at the new gym, and this is a key part of that. I want to share my experience going through the certification, and some of what I learned from it.

I headed into this because I want to be able to teach introductory top rope lessons at the gym, and if I'm going to ask my instructors to pursue certification, I should set an example by doing so myself. But I did not really have a full understanding of what it took to go through this course, and what I was putting myself through.

I started in August by getting my first aid training done (needed for other reasons as well), and learning to lead climb. Although I had been climbing since 2004, I had put off learning to lead climb because I didn't feel I was ready, based on my technical proficiency (top roping 5.9s and some 5.10- climbs in the gym). That was a mistake, because learning to lead climb has helped improve my climbing, and being able to do 5.9s well was enough to get started on lead. I wish I had done it earlier.

Part of the assessment for the CGI level 1 certification is based on demonstrating your climbing ability, both on lead (at the 5.9 level) and top rope (at 5.10a, and while speaking during the climb, to demonstrate to a group of students how easy a 5.10a, and how you approach each move). I was intimidated by this requirement, and focused a lot of my preparation in the weeks before the course on being ready for those climbs. Since the course was hosted by Rock Oasis, I started spending time there, climbing once or twice a week in the past month (in addition to my weekly sessions at TCA), to get used to the walls and routes there, and acclimatize myself to climbing where I was going to be assessed. Initially I found the ratings significantly tougher at Oasis than at TCA (where I am a member and have done most of my climbing over the past 5 years). Now I just feel it's different, with a lot more smearing required to compensate for "missing" footholds. The style of setting is going to vary from gym to gym (and from setter to setter), and it helped a lot to get some good experience with how Rock Oasis sets their routes. By the time my assessment came around Saturday evening, I was comfortable climbing on those routes, and did better than I had expected. I had one fall on the top rope route, but got good scores overall, and was really happy with how it went. That was by far the most stressful part of the course for me (and for several of the other candidates as well).

The bulk of the scores for the certification comes from assessment of each candidate's instruction, based on 3 lessons that are presented in a team teaching format. Two of the sessions are introductory Top Rope lessons, one using a belay tube, one with a gri-gri, and the team members shuffle roles so each gets a chance to present two of the topics of the course. The topics cover putting on the harness, tying in with a figure 8 follow-through knot, safety checks and communication, setting up the belay device and the belaying hand sequences for taking in slack while the climber ascends and then lowering the climber safely. The other instruction session covered a range of basic movement techniques, with each candidate presenting one topic from a selection including weight transfers, balance and footwork techniques.

As part of the pre-requisites for the course, I had observed a total of 10 intro lessons at two of the local gyms, so I was very familiar with how these are typically presented. What I learned over the weekend is that there is a pretty big difference between the local standard and the ACMG standard (more on this below), and there is a big difference between observing an experienced instructor and understanding the material, and being able to teach it yourself to a group of 4-6 students. While I passed this part of the course, and did very well at some sections of it, I also struggled a bit in places, and learned that I will need to practice and improve before I can consider myself to be an excellent instructor. Most of the other candidates at the course have been doing this for some time, so I was playing catchup, giving my first real top rope lesson on Saturday during the first assessment!

Another section of the course was on rigging for routesetting. I learned how to rig a top rope for self-belay using an ascender, and the importance of setting up a backup system so that in case of emergency a self-belayed routesetter can be lowered by someone on the ground. This stuff was brand new to me and intimidating at first, but despite all the gear involved (jumar, two gri-gris, daisy chain, étrier/aider, mutiple carabiners, locking and not, two ropes, extra knots, ...) it all made sense together and it was really fun to learn how to do it and then try it out. This may come in handy when I need to change light bulbs up high!

I mentioned earlier that there are differences between the ACMG standards and local standards. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some examples include:

which belay devices are used for both top rope and lead climbing
the hand sequences used to belay, for both kinds of climbing
the extent to which a perfect figure-8 follow through knot must be tied, including dressing of the knot
whether or not to teach new climbers to tie the initial figure 8 knot in the climber's rope

Some of these differences made it more challenging to prepare for the course and satisfy the ACMG standard. I'll be having discussions with my Head Instructor (once hired) to figure out the policies that are appropriate for my business. There are some trade-offs between climber freedom, ensuring safety as well as we can, teaching new climbers without overloading them at the start, and operating the business efficiently (how long should an introductory lesson last?). That said, I appreciated learning and understanding the ACMG standards for each of these things, and the reasons behind them.

The weekend was a very intense and exhausting experience. I spent about 30 hours at Rock Oasis from Friday evening through Sunday evening, and got little sleep in between sessions. It was very stressful preparing for the course, and going through the assessments, sometime on topics I had just learned myself. And at the end I was feeling quite a strange mix of emotions, including the thrill of passing a very challenging course (including passing each of the sections within it), and some disappointment that I did not perform as well as I had expected on the last instructional part, and that I will need more practice to get where I want to be.

Perhaps the best part of the course is the people I met in the process. This starts with the instructors (2 full instructors and two Level 3 candidates who assisted) led by Cort McElroy who is an amazing instructor, and who provided valuable support helping me prepare in the weeks leading up to this weekend. The staff at Rock Oasis and TCA were also great, welcoming me as I observed them teaching during several intro classes. I'm very grateful to Karen McGilvray (owner of Rock Oasis) and Chris Mack (proprietor of Toronto Climbing Academy) for their support in letting me get in my observation hours. And perhaps most important of all was the opportunity to meet and work with my eight fellow candidates, from Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. They were a great bunch of people, and I learned from each of them as well, and I hope those contacts stay alive as my new gym gets going.

Looking back on the course, I accomplished my personal goals of getting certified and preparing to be able to teach intro classes (though I will continue to work on those skills to improve them further). I learned a lot of other things I hadn't thought about as well:

Now that I understand the details of what it takes to get through the certification process I am better prepared to hire instructors, and make sure they are really ready to head into certification
I have much better insight into developing many of my gym's policies and procedures, covering instruction, belay tests, waivers and routesetting

This course was one of the toughest challenges I have gone through in my life. If I had really understood what it entailed, I may well have waited longer before doing it, but I'm glad I did, and I feel great about completing it. I recommend it for anyone serious about raising the standard of their instruction abilities.

Easy Contest; Win a T Shirt

2009-10-25T12:28:00.003-04:00

True North Climbing wants more climbers to join our online forums and contribute to the discussions there You are dying to get your hands on one of our spiffy new T shirts. Here's a win-win proposition: sign up to our forums before the end of Hallowe'en, and you'll be eligible to win a T shirt. We'll draw one name at random from among those registered on or before October 31st (excluding those who already have a shirt by other means).
You can read the fine print if you want to, but you won't find anything interesting here.

T shirts Are In

2009-10-20T07:46:00.008-04:00

OK, now we are a real company. We have T shirts with the True North Climbing logos on them. Here are the mock-up images, produced for us by Beta Clothing:

The shirts are for promotional purposes (watch for a small gang wearing them at the Tour de Bloc comp on November 14th at Climber's Rock), as a thank-you to some folks who have helped us out a lot so far and for retail sale. If you're interested in buying a shirt, they're going for $20 including tax. These are high-quality shirts from American Apparel, with 2-colour silk-screening on front and back. The guys at Beta Clothing were a pleasure to work with. I figured if they were good enough to design and produce the uniforms for the Canadian National Climbing Team, they're a good choice for our shirts.

Right now I can only accept cash, but I'm using the shirts as the excuse to get set up to accept credit cards & debit cards, and will also look into PayPal. Send an email to info@truenorthclimbing.com if you want one and we'll figure out how to get one to you (shipping? how does that work?).

Work Underway: Environmental Remediation

2009-09-25T09:56:00.011-04:00

Before we can start building the climbing walls, there are a few things that need to be done in the space, including:

erecting the demising walls and entrance/exit doors. I'm leasing a part of what is currently a much larger open space.
rearranging electrical, ventilation/heating and lighting elements
bringing proper plumbing service to the space
painting the entire space, especially the wooden ceiling decking
removing all asbestos materials

This last item is being done first. There are two sources of asbestos: insulation on the steam pipes, and some transite wall panels that were once exterior cladding before the south bay was added on to the building. I had the option of merely containing these materials, which would have been legal and safe, but given the construction to follow (with some risk of disturbing the asbestos), and a general preference to just make sure the facility is completely clear of all toxic materials, I've decided to go ahead with removal of it all. This is being done in partnership with Downsview Park, my landlord, who are also interested in doing the right thing on this issue. They have been more than fair in sharing the cost of this work, which (like many parts of this project) has turned out to be more expensive than first thought.

The removal is under way this week, and I find it very interesting. The removal workers have attached many glove bags to the steam pipes, which will be used to remove the asbestos insulation from around the pipe without any asbestos particles leaking out into the room. I find the sight of so many blue gloves dangling from the ceiling both a little creepy and very comical.

Tour de Bloc coming to True North Climbing!

2009-09-22T08:24:00.003-04:00

The Tour de Bloc will be making a stop at True North Climbing this coming season! This is the only national competition series in Canada, and has grown from 8 regional comps in Ontario and Quebec in 2003 to this season's 21 events in 7 provinces.

The new Season Se7en schedule (and no, that's not a typo!) is hot off the press, and has us scheduled on March 27th as the last of the Local comps for the Central (Ontario/Quebec) region. That will be followed by the Regionals at Centre d'escalade Délire in Quebec City on April 10th, and the 2010 MEC Canadian Bouldering Championships at Joe Rockhead's here in Toronto.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Tour de Bloc, these are fantastic events, both to participate in and to watch. Entry is open to anyone, regardless of level of experience. I have "competed" in 5 previous Tour de Bloc comps, in the Recreational category. Each time I show up, complete as many problems as I can, have a lot of fun, and don't care that I rank near the bottom of the pile!

These comps start with open climbing, during which climbers have a few hours to complete as many problems as they can. There are typically 60 bouldering problems spread throughout the gym, in roughly increasing difficulty, with more points awarded for the harder problems. Your final score is the sum of your best 8 problems.

The better climbers compete in the Experienced or Open categories, and the top few finishers in the Open category advance to the finals. The finalists are sequestered in an isolation area while the 4 final problems are set on the walls. Then they are brought out, one at a time, and given 5 minutes to work on each problem. The competitors are streamed through the final problems one after the other, with a 5 minute rest between problems, so that at times there will be 4 climbers at once to watch. Chief Routesetter Jody Miall and his team seem to always find the sweet spot in setting problems just hard enough to separate the top competitors: hard enough they can't all flash them all, but just possible for some of them to succeed. It is always an amazing show. You can get a taste of it from this video clip from the 2009 Men's finals.

Check out the Tour de Bloc site for more information and the complete schedule. I am very pleased and honoured to work with Tour Director Luigi Montilla to bring this first-class event to our facility to help kick things off soon after we open!

Have a Look Around

2009-09-14T21:28:00.004-04:00

Mark Banas met me at the gym on Sunday, to shoot some images of the big empty space. Today he sent me the result of his work: a set of 3 Flash panorama images that give a good sense of the space we have to work with. You can enjoy them by starting here. You can watch the room spin around you or navigate on your own using the controls at the bottom of the window. Look up to see the high space of the clerestory windows. Look down! And if you explore a bit with the mouse, you'll find links to 2 more viewpoints that each have their own panorama. Oh, and no, not all of that space will be ours! The landlord will be building a wall to divide the space. See the blue doors in the far corner? The dividing wall will go up just in front of them. Or when looking at the hangar doors with the windows on the right-hand exterior (south) wall, 4 of those 6 parts of the hangar doors are in our space. If you look closely at Panorama #2, you can see the chalk line I drew on the floor to mark the boundary.

I've been working on fixing up the main web site over the past few weeks, and today got a cleaned up version deployed (using Drupal, for those who care what Content Management System I've been exploring). Over time I will look at integrating the surrounding pages (this blog, the photo gallery currently on Picasa, maybe the forums) into the main site, and I'll get these panoramas set up there as well. But I didn't want to wait to share these cool views of the great space that True North Climbing will soon be growing into.

Site Visit and Open House

2009-09-14T04:40:00.002-04:00

Last week was very busy and exciting, with the site visit from Eldorado, and the first open house in the new space.

Jason Plumb (the Climbing Wall Designer) and Jason Thomas (the Production Manager) came up from Eldorado Climbing Walls in Boulder, Colorado, and spent the last half of the week with me in the space, taking measurements, and working in the space to start the detailed design of the climbing structures. I rented a 32' scissor lift and we went up into the high spaces of the building to explore. It will be a real thrill to be able to climb up there in a few months!

Jason and Jason were clearly excited about the building, especially its character and history, and the challenges and opportunities presented by its varying roof lines. They had seen drawings and photographs, but getting to spend a few days living in the space made it real, and helped them come up with some amazing ideas. Jason is an amazing designer, and the other Jason knows the construction process and logistics inside out. They worked well together as a team, and it was an absolute blast working with them.

We had some meetings with the architects, landlord and engineers while they were here, figuring out details of demising walls, assessing the load-bearing structures for some of the inspiring ideas that Jason Plumb came up with, and sorting out the routing for the ventilation ducts. And on Friday I got up on the roof to explore. I've added a few photos to the Picasa album with some of the views from up there.

The highlight of the visit was the Open House on Thursday evening. The initial intent was simply to give a few friends & family a chance to see the space, before construction begins. But with Jason & Jason here, it was also an opportunity for people to learn a bit about Eldorado's work, see some of their previous designs, and get a peek at what we're planning for True North Climbing.

More than 20 people showed up for the event, which was quite a few more than I had guessed would bother coming to see an empty building. We started with pizza (provided by Eldorado!), and I gave informal tours of the space. I had drawn the floor plan for the reception area, locker rooms, the edge of the climbing area, and the far demising wall, in chalk on the ground, to help people visualize how the space would be arranged. Lionel Michaluk, my banker from TD Canada Trust, was kind enough to lend us a projector (in addition to being kind enough to lend me the money I needed to build the gym!). We had some technical difficulties getting Jason's laptop (indeed, any laptop) to properly connect, but finally we had some pictures on the loading bay door, and Jason began his presentation. He showed us some pictures of other projects Eldorado has done, and some 3D models in Google Sketchup of the climbing structures. Jason is passionate about what he does, and his energy took over, as he talked about the forms, and how they fit into and adapt to the various spaces they were given to work with. And he managed to tie many of the points he was making back to what we are thinking for the walls in the new gym. Jason is very excited about the building we have to work with, and after listening to me tell him what my goals are for the gym, and the kinds of things I want included, he has come up with some great ideas for spectacular terrain. He showed a little sneak preview of some of this, including the big archway that will sit at the middle of the southern half of the gym, and the immense pillar that we are going to try to suspend in the south-east area, near the lead walls.

I think Jason got people pretty excited about what we're about to build, and really helped to communicate the vision we're turning into reality over the next several months. As the design gets refined in the coming days, I will try to post a few screen shots of what the climbing walls will look like!