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.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
T shirts Are In
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?).
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?).
Friday, September 25, 2009
Work Underway: Environmental Remediation
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.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tour de Bloc coming to True North Climbing!
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!
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!
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