Move On Over to Our New Blog Location!

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

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!

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

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?

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

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!

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

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

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:

• On YouTube
• On Vimeo
  

Summer is Over; Back to School !

[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!

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"?

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!

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

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

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

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

Wrap Up Of Atlanta Trip

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

Day 3

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

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

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

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


Day 4

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

Intro Lesson Package on TeamBuy today

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

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

Suggestions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for all the suggestions!

SummerSweatFest Heading North (True North)!

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

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

Here's how it works:

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

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

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

Set It and Forget It? Not Here!

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

So: day 2.

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

Update from Atlanta

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

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

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

Important Notice to Members

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vouchers will be available for the following gyms:

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

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

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

We're Hiring (again)!

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

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

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:

1. No traffic disruptions are expected in our part of town
2. There is plenty of free parking
3. The air conditioning will keep things comfortable
4. No politicians are expected to attend
5. We have replaced the 2" slackline with a clean piece of webbing!
6. As always, there are lots of great new routes and boulder problems that our team of routesetters have put up this week.
7. 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)
8. Still no HST on a day pass!
9. All your friends are coming. Don't have any friends? Come by and make a few new ones!
   
10. Coca Cola finally made their delivery; our drink coolers are full of cold refreshing drinks again!
11. 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.
12. And speaking of loud rumblings, if there is another earthquake, don't you want to be standing on a padded floor?
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. After the week you have had, don't you need to work out a little stress?
16. Our friendly staff (Natalie, Stephen, Clint, Jamie, Jonny, Shaun, DK, Kyle, Mike, Martin, Jackie, Roman, Ryan and Gerald this weekend) will be there!
17. The chimney.
18. The slab.
19. The cracks.
    
20. It's climbing; who needs another reason?
    

Some Little Upgrades

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!

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

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

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

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!)

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

[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!

[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)

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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!