Interview > Summit Labs

Name and job?

My name is Morgan Barnes. Making climbing holds.

No no, your real job!

Well I work at the animal shelter on Fridays. It feels nice to help out the animals.

How long as Summit Labs been around?

For about 1 year now.


Why the name?

I was trying to come up with a name while hanging out in my back yard. We have this sign the says "Summit Lab. 6mi." I thought it would be an appropriate name seeing as were at nearly 8,000 ft.

Where are you based?

In the San Luis Valley, in Southern Colorado. Home to Penitente sport crag, the Great Sand Dunes, and some really nice artisan hot springs.

How many people work on making the holds?

So far,.. one. With more interest we would like to hire more people. I have a few people in mind.

You make holds that imitate the outdoors... was this a conscious decision?

Very much so.

We always say that keep the crimping to outside... the holds we reviewed certainly reflect our ethos, what's yours when it comes to shapes and shaping?

I feel that climbing in the gym is directly based on climbing outside. In my eyes you are either training to climb outside or trying to recreate that experience. The shapes I make either recreate the experience or create a fantastic version of it, as in the case of the Granite Slopers

How hard was it to start a climbing company? Did it take long?

It wasn't really hard. I went to art school for sculpture and spent a good deal of time showing in Denver. Making climbing holds combines two things a really enjoy, climbing and sculpting. I took about 6 months before it really started to take shape.


Right now your line up is limited, what's on the cards with regard to new shapes?

I am developing some lines of hybrids. Making holds like dual texture huecos, using real rock casts.





The market is getting flooded with new company's, how do you feel about the competition out there?

I get excited to see the new stuff other companies come out with. It seems like it is definitely beneficial to consumers to have more companies fighting for their business.

Are there any particular hold company's product that you like?

I like how playful So ill is. DRCC's Force Edges are really nice eye candy (they may have even inspired the holds I'm working on ATM). I think it is nice to see companies like Climb It and Dream coming up with even more real rock holds. I'll be excited to see the Dream review when it comes out.

We hear you've been doing a lot of new routing out where you are... how's that going?

Fantastic, we have been developing all kinds of bouldering and putting up new trad lines daily. This area is ripe for development, in regards to trad and bouldering (seemingly endless amounts to those willing to wander). The sport climbing has pretty much seen it's limit here, I don't really think there is too much more to develop. There is however some quality climbing on a line of basalt cliffs. Some 35-45ft trad lines we have been putting up.

Is there a guide yet?

Not yet. You can find some of the boulder problems we have put up on Bouldr.com. I will be adding more problems as I get images for them.

What does the future hold for Summit Labs?

I hope to end up doing more custom orders. I have some ideas for custom orders; ie large features, casting entire boulder problems that could be attached to walls, or casting holds that are site specific for people who want to train specific types of rock. I am also interested in whatever ideas anyone else has.

RISE HOLDS LOGO

BOMBER HOLDS LOGO

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TEST

In this introduction of our newest friends from France, Osm'ose, most will say “Osmo-who?” kinda like I did when I first saw them appear on my facebook page. For those who are curious, the word “osmose” is the obsolete form of “osmosis”, and the rest you can find on the Internet. Since they don’t have an American distributor, there isn’t much buzz in the North American climbing circles around Osm'ose, but they have been making their mark in Europe, making holds and pre-fabricated wooden panels for your home wall or gym.

We received two sets from Osm'ose, our featured set this week: The Manips! We had these holds in the package until the very end, opening it minutes before we set our first route, and we knew that they weren’t going to be friendly. We debated (while still in the package) which holds were foot holds and which ones were not and came to the conclusion that, being as small as they are, we were going to use them all as hand holds. Was that a mistake? We thought so but stuck by our guns and the holds were cut out of the package and onto the wall.

The set is a mixed bag between bolt on and screw on holds. The screw on holds are small, but they all have an incut and have a good grip on them (Except one, the most evil sloper known to mankind). Most of the bolt on holds are crimps with the exception of the deadly three! Of them there is a two finger pocket, that you can barely get two fingers in, a ledge, that you could barely get a fingernail on, and a tiny slope you can barely get any skin on, so to say the least, with Noodles setting the first problem, I was scared.
The holds have been designed with the real rock feel in mind and for the most part they do a very good job of simulating the outside we all love to play in. Most of the holds are textured and the texture helps in sticking those nasty little crimpers. They’re not the smallest crimps out there and they are nice on the hand and skin. Here come the exception to the rule. Remember those holds, the deadly three? Well they, on the other hand are not textured. Other than the little dimples found for thumb catches they are featureless and very hard to stick.


The crimps are incut and we didn’t work too hard to stick the moves but the deadly three needed to switched around. We had the small edge up in the corner thinking that we wedge ourselves in the corner but we were quick to realize that you could only get around it if it was above our heads to get any kind of grip on the hold. Needless to say we had to tweak out the route to be able to get it to go

We moved onto the next problem. Learning from our last problem, we set the smaller bolt holds to the Motivation volumes we received a while back and started a problem on the 45. It went from the overhang to the holds we set on the volumes. Moving across those moves was tougher than we thought. These holds won’t give you an inch, they need to be climbed on with confidence and grace... and you've seen us climb sometimes... confidence we have in bucket loads... grace... not so much :P Without either, you’ll that the mat is your only friend.

Have we over done the symbols? Well not really, this set does have a bit of everything, screw ons, pinches, edges, crimps and slopers... all in 14 holds.

Do we think they'll go on the 45? Yes if your fingers are super strong, this set doesn't lend itself to this type of terrain easily.

The set as a whole is meant for vertical to slightly overhanging terrain. We didn’t have too much trouble powering our way through sequences on the 30 degree wall. Our problems arose when we had to get through a static sequence that required a balance of agility and strength. Core strength is a must. The holds simulate how it feels to climb hard outside: there’s no two ways of gripping the hold, only the right way or you're flying off. Gyms with aretes are going to love the little screw ons as they're really at home on a desperate slapping move; they're big enough that you can get friction on them but not so big that you can hang and chalk :) What this set does lend itself very well to is hard boulder problems, sure there are some semi easy holds in the set but overall you're looking at a set of holds that are going to make you work in pretty much any combination that you put them in


Number of holds: 14
Price per hold: 1.50 Euros per hold (About $2.20 US)
Color: Pink and purple swirls
Bolt placement: Well placed
Sanding: Flat and real smooth
Texture: Grippy, you'll need it
Screw Holes: Yes on every hold!

Its the first time we've ever had our fingers on Osm'ose holds...come to think of it we're probably the only people in Canada to have these holds...and its a surprise that we haven't seen these holds around any gyms in the area. The shapes are nice, the attention to detail is evident in the texture and the fact that they've added a screw hold for the every bolt on holds. Good, well made holds, no complaints. All of the backs are flat, the screw holes are well placed and you can tell that a lot of experience has gone into the overall build quality of the shapes.

The holds only take martini headed bolts so make sure you have a stock of these when you order.

WHAT THEY'RE
It's nearly 1am after a good session and some dinner, I'm tired, my finger tips bruised and for what? If you look at it in climbing terms, probably nothing! But if you look at it in route terms... and the level of setting we've been pulling off (being unprofessional professional setters and all that) we've done a lot. Let me explain!

Osm'ose are a company from France
We wanted to review their holds, we had trouble getting their holds? Why? You'd think that it'd be an easy no brainer, but it's not. It's really not... there was politics involved and shippers and possibly a few vampires, pirates and other marauders along the way. But in the end we prevailed, and we have the holds and we can put our opinion to them, after all, this is what we do over here at CHR.

Never, and I've seen a lot of holds, never have I been so shut down by some holds (last week and the Rock Candy Ruffles aside), never have I, sod that, never have we been shut down by a set of holds... let me phrase this correctly... erm... shut down so well; again let me explain.

Normally you do this:
a) get holds from packet
b) find bolt
c) move about holds to make pleasing sequence
d) repeat C cos you made a boo boo somewhere
e) climb and enjoy

We mucked up twice with these holds, twice, and I set the first one and then Chris fell into the same trap on the second route. Why? Because these holds are deceptively hard, like hard hard... to clarify, beyond Chris Sharma hard on vertical in some cases. I really am not joking, I'm being serious as hell! These holds lull you into a false sense of security, they make you think that you are Sharma and that "this move will be easy"... and it's not a bad thing in any case
We made mistakes with what we set, I don't say just I because it was a "we" situation. I set something that I thought would go, we'd touched the holds but not pulled down on them at this point and boy was I wrong... seriously wrong. One pained shoulder later, I switched two holds and we were away and flying. Was what I thought going to be an easy route was in no shape or form easy? Nope, not at all, it was hard on the vertical and it was harder on the 30 degree wall... the screw ons in this set are thin, hell some of the bolt ons are thin, they make some of Franklin Climbings shapes look huge!

If these holds are what Europe is putting out then there is no wonder why the Europeans are so strong (and I'm European remember), if people have stuff like this in the gym for the winter months no wonder they win most of the comps. For a home wall this set I'd say... how hard to you want to go.... like how hard do you want to go? If the answer is hard then welcome to Osm'ose. Gyms, oh that's another case! Go and buy them, and give me a plane ticket and I will come and set the most evil route known to man, it's not really that hard to do with these holds, I could do with a week away from work so please send me a request :P (No one need apply unless you weather is described in brochures as "tropical")
If you have a comp and you need something spicy then you have found what you're looking for and when I say spicy I mean you'll feel it on the way out spicy... these holds are tech and hell, make you work for every god damn move and if you get the route you're going to feel like a king... a king on a big bloody horse, after a HUGE battle with a beer in your hand... you will feel proud to finish anything set wth these holds

Did I think the start on the 45 would go? Undercling and a shallow two finger pocket to finger tip death crimp of doom? (Thank god for the Motavation Volume it was on) Hell no! Did I manage to walk away from it? Hell yes! Do my fingers hurt? Yup! Would I climb that route again? Yup, but I'd make the finish HARDER. (That's just me, and it will be done, don't worry, I'm 5 paces away from the wall) These holds range from thin, and when I say thin I mean less than a pad in depth (screw ons and bolt ons) to not so thin.... like maybe a half pad.... maybe. There's some slim pickin's in this set... some very thin pickin's. Not that that's bad, that's fine there are a infinite number of ways that you can set with these holds.... just remember that the largest holds is less than a pad deep and that some of the holds have so thin an area to grab on is tiny, so so tiny... welcome to a land of balance and friction (I spent a lot of time brushing the holds to get the grip I wanted)

Osm'ose were the first French hold company, hell I remember buying holds from a guy who resoled shoes in the back of a truck in Fontainbleau and those holds are hard as hell ten years ago, these holds are hard in the here and now... and they should be looked at, I'm going to try to get the Manip set into a comp as I want to see the chaos that happens...

Am I surprised by Osm'ose holds? yes, they're plain amazing... and thank god they're switching to urethane soon... I hate chipping resin holds!

Just wait until we open up the OTHER SET OF HOLDS... there's more of this company's holds in the cupboard.... and we've not touched them yet!

Its been a while since I've been blown away by a set of holds. The packing was a nice touch and it was like celebrating Christmas early for us when we opened the package and set the first problem. We've seen some pretty amazing holds from our local suppliers, but its a nice treat when you get something different that catches your eye. We're used to seeing big flashy holds, but these shapes are small and discreet. The colour scheme is great, but it won't stand out too much on your wall. The thing is, they're just great holds. The size of the individual holds in the set are small but size of the set itself at 14 holds makes it so you can set over and over again with the same holds. The down side to this is that half the set are screw ons so you can either get a drill or make a work out of it.

I haven't been out of north America to climb yet, but I've noticed that your average climber from Europe is pretty damn strong and that places like Fontainbleu and Gritstone have a spirit of their own and produce distinct climbing style. The inspiration is felt through holds coming from Europe. These holds have a certain something that sets them apart from their North American counterparts.

PROS

• Technical as hellgood competition holds
• Good mix of screw ons and bolt ons
• Pre-drilled screw holes on all bolt ons

CONS

• Only take martini head bolts, no dual use bolt holes here
• Not great for training on steep home walls, the holds are too small
  

PRICE

14 holds are going to cost you 20.90 Eur (Euros)

DO NOT DELETE ME

Add logo here

Insert images text / video etc here












Versatility: More than you think on first glance
Screw Holes: No
Size chart... need to work on this!!

Review > Osmose > Manip

In this introduction of our newest friends from France, Osm'ose, most will say “Osmo-who?” kinda like I did when I first saw them appear on my facebook page. For those who are curious, the word “osmose” is the obsolete form of “osmosis”, and the rest you can find on the Internet. Since they don’t have an American distributor, there isn’t much buzz in the North American climbing circles around Osm'ose, but they have been making their mark in Europe, making holds and pre-fabricated wooden panels for your home wall or gym.

We received two sets from Osm'ose, our featured set this week: The Manips! We had these holds in the package until the very end, opening it minutes before we set our first route, and we knew that they weren’t going to be friendly. We debated (while still in the package) which holds were foot holds and which ones were not and came to the conclusion that, being as small as they are, we were going to use them all as hand holds. Was that a mistake? We thought so but stuck by our guns and the holds were cut out of the package and onto the wall.

The set is a mixed bag between bolt on and screw on holds. The screw on holds are small, but they all have an incut and have a good grip on them (Except one, the most evil sloper known to mankind). Most of the bolt on holds are crimps with the exception of the deadly three! Of them there is a two finger pocket, that you can barely get two fingers in, a ledge, that you could barely get a fingernail on, and a tiny slope you can barely get any skin on, so to say the least, with Noodles setting the first problem, I was scared.
The holds have been designed with the real rock feel in mind and for the most part they do a very good job of simulating the outside we all love to play in. Most of the holds are textured and the texture helps in sticking those nasty little crimpers. They’re not the smallest crimps out there and they are nice on the hand and skin. Here come the exception to the rule. Remember those holds, the deadly three? Well they, on the other hand are not textured. Other than the little dimples found for thumb catches they are featureless and very hard to stick.


The crimps are incut and we didn’t work too hard to stick the moves but the deadly three needed to switched around. We had the small edge up in the corner thinking that we wedge ourselves in the corner but we were quick to realize that you could only get around it if it was above our heads to get any kind of grip on the hold. Needless to say we had to tweak out the route to be able to get it to go

We moved onto the next problem. Learning from our last problem, we set the smaller bolt holds to the Motivation volumes we received a while back and started a problem on the 45. It went from the overhang to the holds we set on the volumes. Moving across those moves was tougher than we thought. These holds won’t give you an inch, they need to be climbed on with confidence and grace... and you've seen us climb sometimes... confidence we have in bucket loads... grace... not so much :P Without either, you’ll that the mat is your only friend.

Have we over done the symbols? Well not really, this set does have a bit of everything, screw ons, pinches, edges, crimps and slopers... all in 14 holds.

Do we think they'll go on the 45? Yes if your fingers are super strong, this set doesn't lend itself to this type of terrain easily.

The set as a whole is meant for vertical to slightly overhanging terrain. We didn’t have too much trouble powering our way through sequences on the 30 degree wall. Our problems arose when we had to get through a static sequence that required a balance of agility and strength. Core strength is a must. The holds simulate how it feels to climb hard outside: there’s no two ways of gripping the hold, only the right way or you're flying off. Gyms with aretes are going to love the little screw ons as they're really at home on a desperate slapping move; they're big enough that you can get friction on them but not so big that you can hang and chalk :) What this set does lend itself very well to is hard boulder problems, sure there are some semi easy holds in the set but overall you're looking at a set of holds that are going to make you work in pretty much any combination that you put them in


Number of holds: 14
Price per hold: 1.50 Euros per hold (About $2.20 US)
Color: Pink and purple swirls
Bolt placement: Well placed
Sanding: Flat and real smooth
Texture: Grippy, you'll need it
Screw Holes: Yes on every hold!

Its the first time we've ever had our fingers on Osm'ose holds...come to think of it we're probably the only people in Canada to have these holds...and its a surprise that we haven't seen these holds around any gyms in the area. The shapes are nice, the attention to detail is evident in the texture and the fact that they've added a screw hold for the every bolt on holds. Good, well made holds, no complaints. All of the backs are flat, the screw holes are well placed and you can tell that a lot of experience has gone into the overall build quality of the shapes.

The holds only take martini headed bolts so make sure you have a stock of these when you order.

WHAT THEY'RE
It's nearly 1am after a good session and some dinner, I'm tired, my finger tips bruised and for what? If you look at it in climbing terms, probably nothing! But if you look at it in route terms... and the level of setting we've been pulling off (being unprofessional professional setters and all that) we've done a lot. Let me explain!

Osm'ose are a company from France
We wanted to review their holds, we had trouble getting their holds? Why? You'd think that it'd be an easy no brainer, but it's not. It's really not... there was politics involved and shippers and possibly a few vampires, pirates and other marauders along the way. But in the end we prevailed, and we have the holds and we can put our opinion to them, after all, this is what we do over here at CHR.

Never, and I've seen a lot of holds, never have I been so shut down by some holds (last week and the Rock Candy Ruffles aside), never have I, sod that, never have we been shut down by a set of holds... let me phrase this correctly... erm... shut down so well; again let me explain.

Normally you do this:
a) get holds from packet
b) find bolt
c) move about holds to make pleasing sequence
d) repeat C cos you made a boo boo somewhere
e) climb and enjoy

We mucked up twice with these holds, twice, and I set the first one and then Chris fell into the same trap on the second route. Why? Because these holds are deceptively hard, like hard hard... to clarify, beyond Chris Sharma hard on vertical in some cases. I really am not joking, I'm being serious as hell! These holds lull you into a false sense of security, they make you think that you are Sharma and that "this move will be easy"... and it's not a bad thing in any case
We made mistakes with what we set, I don't say just I because it was a "we" situation. I set something that I thought would go, we'd touched the holds but not pulled down on them at this point and boy was I wrong... seriously wrong. One pained shoulder later, I switched two holds and we were away and flying. Was what I thought going to be an easy route was in no shape or form easy? Nope, not at all, it was hard on the vertical and it was harder on the 30 degree wall... the screw ons in this set are thin, hell some of the bolt ons are thin, they make some of Franklin Climbings shapes look huge!

If these holds are what Europe is putting out then there is no wonder why the Europeans are so strong (and I'm European remember), if people have stuff like this in the gym for the winter months no wonder they win most of the comps. For a home wall this set I'd say... how hard to you want to go.... like how hard do you want to go? If the answer is hard then welcome to Osm'ose. Gyms, oh that's another case! Go and buy them, and give me a plane ticket and I will come and set the most evil route known to man, it's not really that hard to do with these holds, I could do with a week away from work so please send me a request :P (No one need apply unless you weather is described in brochures as "tropical")
If you have a comp and you need something spicy then you have found what you're looking for and when I say spicy I mean you'll feel it on the way out spicy... these holds are tech and hell, make you work for every god damn move and if you get the route you're going to feel like a king... a king on a big bloody horse, after a HUGE battle with a beer in your hand... you will feel proud to finish anything set wth these holds

Did I think the start on the 45 would go? Undercling and a shallow two finger pocket to finger tip death crimp of doom? (Thank god for the Motavation Volume it was on) Hell no! Did I manage to walk away from it? Hell yes! Do my fingers hurt? Yup! Would I climb that route again? Yup, but I'd make the finish HARDER. (That's just me, and it will be done, don't worry, I'm 5 paces away from the wall) These holds range from thin, and when I say thin I mean less than a pad in depth (screw ons and bolt ons) to not so thin.... like maybe a half pad.... maybe. There's some slim pickin's in this set... some very thin pickin's. Not that that's bad, that's fine there are a infinite number of ways that you can set with these holds.... just remember that the largest holds is less than a pad deep and that some of the holds have so thin an area to grab on is tiny, so so tiny... welcome to a land of balance and friction (I spent a lot of time brushing the holds to get the grip I wanted)

Osm'ose were the first French hold company, hell I remember buying holds from a guy who resoled shoes in the back of a truck in Fontainbleau and those holds are hard as hell ten years ago, these holds are hard in the here and now... and they should be looked at, I'm going to try to get the Manip set into a comp as I want to see the chaos that happens...

Am I surprised by Osm'ose holds? yes, they're plain amazing... and thank god they're switching to urethane soon... I hate chipping resin holds!

Just wait until we open up the OTHER SET OF HOLDS... there's more of this company's holds in the cupboard.... and we've not touched them yet!

Its been a while since I've been blown away by a set of holds. The packing was a nice touch and it was like celebrating Christmas early for us when we opened the package and set the first problem. We've seen some pretty amazing holds from our local suppliers, but its a nice treat when you get something different that catches your eye. We're used to seeing big flashy holds, but these shapes are small and discreet. The colour scheme is great, but it won't stand out too much on your wall. The thing is, they're just great holds. The size of the individual holds in the set are small but size of the set itself at 14 holds makes it so you can set over and over again with the same holds. The down side to this is that half the set are screw ons so you can either get a drill or make a work out of it.

I haven't been out of north America to climb yet, but I've noticed that your average climber from Europe is pretty damn strong and that places like Fontainbleu and Gritstone have a spirit of their own and produce distinct climbing style. The inspiration is felt through holds coming from Europe. These holds have a certain something that sets them apart from their North American counterparts.

PROS

• Technical as hellgood competition holds
• Good mix of screw ons and bolt ons
• Pre-drilled screw holes on all bolt ons

CONS

• Only take martini head bolts, no dual use bolt holes here
• Not great for training on steep home walls, the holds are too small
  

PRICE

14 holds are going to cost you 20.90 Eur (Euros)

Interview > Louder Than Eleven > Colorado Glow

Jordan Shipman is someone we talk to now and then for advice on video stuff that we need or want to do, he's also the founder of Louder Than Eleven which is a small video company that makes some pretty fun films. He's just made a new one and as we're rendering files we have time to write some interviews! Enjoy the trailer for Colorado Glow and our little interview with the guy that was the brains behind the film

Colorado Glow Teaser from Jordan Shipman on Vimeo.

Name and job / title
My name is Jordan Shipman and I'm the founder of Louder Than 11

You run Louder than 11, what is it and what's it's aim?
For starters, here is the current official LT11 mission statement:
Louder Than 11's mission is to grow the sport of rock climbing by producing entertainment that captivates audiences and engages them directly through LT11 ensemble blogs and promotes the outdoor industry with creative advertising.

Essentially LT11 makes rock climbing videos. We want them to be very creative, original and especially entertaining. I think that's important. Climbers generally love watching hard climbing but non-climbers don't necessarily get a kick out of it. If we are to grow this sport, we believe climbing needs an image that gets people interested. We think that if we put some nitro in our videos, we'll attract more people.

I know you as a film maker that makes movies about climbing, do you pull down when you're not filming?

I don't climb nearly as much as I did before LT11. I've got a day job that takes up the usual full-time hours and I do LT11 work at night. It doesn't leave a whole lot of time for climbing these days--especially when its close to a deadline. I plan on having more time in the future as LT11 grows and I don't need another job. This is just how it goes when your starting out I suppose.

What's your favorite climbing destination?

I'm not sure. I've spent the most time at the New River Gorge so I'd probably have to say that. But I haven't been as many places as I want to yet so I'm sure its bound to change.

You have a new film called "Colorado Glow" that's about to be released, what was the idea behind it?

Well I tend to have a pretty fantastical imagination and it only gets worse as my skills improve. I had the idea long ago that climbers hands could glow and emit energy or light as the climbed. But the question was how or why? So i had the idea that some climbers could discover a new kind of chalk that glows when pulling certain moves typically cruxes and fast movements so it almost becomes a type of super power that comes from outer space and rides into earth on a meteorite. We wanted to make a bouldering video in Colorado so we took that idea and created the story of Colorado Glow.

Did you film everything that we see?

A lot of it. I definitely had a hand in everything you see. Its too much to do completely on your own in the amount of time we had. Jon Glassberg has a fantastic visual eye and he helped a ton with all the crane work. Donovan Craig is another talented guy and he came along to help out a ton with everything, especially camera work. Nate Draughn pitched in some too. It was a group effort and for LT11 that is what is all about.

What are you filming / editing on? (Hardware wise)

We shot on an JVC-HD7 with wide angle lenses and a Cannon HV20 with a 35mm lens adapter + 35mm lenses. We edit and composite everything on the turbo charged iMacs.

What's the hardest part of filming a climbing flick?

Hauling the gear around. Its bloody exhausting. Donovan had to go to the doctor after the shoot 'cause his knee was all tore up from hiking with the extra weight.

How long did C-Glow take to film?

We shot the video in 3 days 'cause thats the longest amount of time i could get off from work at the time. We hiked in at sunrise and hiked out at sunset then shot stuff for visual effects at night. Very little sleep for a few days.

Three days!?! That's mental! Who were the climbers? Were they climbing at their peak all the time because that's got to be hard on the athletes
It was mental! Just stupid! We should have had at least a week. Ha! The climbers are Jon Glassberg, Nate Draughn, Ryan Olson, and Carlo Traversi. All the problems were were ones that the climbers had sent before except with Carlo on Top Notch. That was a complete surprise, most of all to him. It was hard on the athletes, they had to climb the problems entirely a couple times plus repeating moves and certain sections for close ups and different angles. The conditions were not bad but not ideal either. Lots of lost skin, split butt cheeks and sometimes the holds were only good for a couple goes before the moisture ruined them. The athletes were climbing near their peak the entire time for sure but they never ceased to impress. Just flat out strong.

What was the budget of the film (rough).
Its hard to put a number on the budget because we don't really have any money right now! :D But if I had to put a number on it with expenses and all I'd say around 1k.

Are there any sponsors for the film?
We do have sponsors, without them it would not be possible. Our sponsors on this project are Deadpoint Magazine, Friksn Clothing, Project Holds, and Revolution Pads.

How long to edit?
Hmm...well editing plus all the visual effects and compositing...about 300 hours over 7 weeks.

Is it hard during the editing to keep the pace right, not too slow and not too fast?

Its not easy to pace a video because it is easy and almost inevitable to lose perspective when you are working so immensely on something like this. Jon and I would toss cuts and segments back and forth to get feedback and make changes. After a certain point you just have to trust your intuition and go with it.

Do you take any inspiration from people like Big Up / Slackjaw / BS Productions and their movies?

I've always been a fan of Big Up. I love Sender Films. I get inspiration from everywhere and everything I absorb.

So what is your favorite climbing movie and why?

My favorite climbing movie right now is King Lines. I like it because it blends documentary story telling and sports action really well. I think that climbing movie represents an important milestone in rock climbing videos. A friend of mine once said he didn't like King Lines because of all the talking, he just wanted the climbing . . . but he also admitted that when he shows a climbing video to a non climber, King Lines is the one he plays.

So you've not seen Big Ups Progression then? It's pretty well the best film out there right not IMHO! Do you want to compete with the big guys at some point?
I havn't seen Progression yet! I've been too busy on this project to stop and watch anything! I am super psyched to see it ASAP!! I bet its good! I guess I can't avoid competing with them technically because we make rock climbing videos but our goal is to be different not necessarily better. We have a different business model. They sell $30 DVD's and we produce free videos available streaming online and for download.

What else is in the pipeline?

In the immediate future by the end of the year we'll have a short vid produced at Moore's in North Carolina, Jon is editing a short New River Gorge bouldering video, I'm producing a commercial for Friksn and next year we have huge plans, like gigantic mercenary zombie
plans!

Well everyone loves zombies! Anyone you'd like to thank, give a shout out to?
We are zombie nuts :) I would love to thank all our sponsors, Deadpoint, Friksn, Project, Revolution--FlightTakers for hooking us up with some dope tracks--Laura Fryer for some gear support--Donovan Craig for being a true friend and champion, hands down--Jordan Olsen for his infinite generosity-- Jon and Nate for being bad ass--Zoe Wilson, my girlfriend for putting up with me working so hard--and everyone else and especially all the fans. Thanks so much!

Review > Revolution > Huecos L2 & Fossils S1

The company once called Pusher was a big player in the early days of climbing holds. If you, like us, spend a lot of time at the local gym you might have spotted a Pusher hold from the “P” that they would brand their holds with. Well out of the ashes that was Pusher, the phoenix rose as Revolution Climbing. Revolution sent us a whole box of holds, some big, others small, and we ended up getting a large selections of sets to play with. When we started off with this review, noodles and I couldn’t decide which set to review first so to make our lives a little easier, we decided to review two sets in one. Noodles let me pick out the sets and he was a little surprised from the selection I made. With the variety of holds on hand, I wanted two sets that would be different and settled on the Huecos L2 and Fossils sets







Good thing Revolution Climbing marks all their holds with a code so you can distinguish which holds go together. Its pretty simple, each set is designated a letter (in our case “H” for the huecos and “F” for the fossils) and the sizes…well..its pretty redundant, L for large, M for medium…but it’s a nice touch and it makes it easier to organize your holds. We got 8 sets all molded in the same color so having the sets marked on the holds made it really easy to find the sets for our review.
I chose these two sets for one main reason. Between the two sets, there are a variety of grips. The fossils are the smaller set of the two and they’re mainly crimps but are textured so it seconds as a pinch. The larger Hueco set has three jugs and two pinches.

Revolution has a large range of holds that they’ve divided up in four main categories. The Huecos are found in the “Real Series Holds” and we had the Large 2 series. I’ve never been to Texas but I’ve seen many a climbing video from Hueco and the variety of pockets and crimps are reflected in the Hueco series holds. What makes this a good set is that the shapes are quite different, the only common thread being the inspiration of the place by which they are named, and if it weren’t for the code on the holds you could almost say that these holds come from different sets. The pockets are big enough to for a full hand with room to spare and have a deep scoop where you can easily get grip on, except that they are thin and when we get them on overhanging terrain they are not as easy as they seem. So we raised the bar a little and put them on the roof. Matching on the roof? Fail! The holds are big, but if you try to get the match there isn’t enough room for all you fingers so you actually need to match with three fingers on the hold which proved to be a little too much for our fingers.

The pinches have an interesting shape. They are both drastically different from each other but are both large one hand pinches On the one hand you have a geometric shape with no incut and while the other hold has a weird crescent moon shape that has some features on it so you can get a better squeeze on the pinch. They’re pretty big and most climbers won’t find a problem climbing on them.


SUGGESTED USES FOSSILS



The Fosils are bolt on crimps. They have a slight incut but there’s not much to hold onto. These holds were also in a route at our local gym. Holds of this size are great on routes and for moves that require a lot of balance. You don’t want to be cranking hard on these holds all night and we didn’t want our fingers to hurt too much in the morning so we set some short moves on the vertical wall. My guess is that these holds could make it comfortably to a 30 degree wall but the steeper stuff is reserved for the brave. There are larger sets series but we have the smallest bolt on holds from this series and were limited to our vertical wall. Crimping for the most part is uncomfortable and painful, but the Fossils have a good shape that doesn’t hurt as much as other crimps. They have a texture and sometimes, on other holds, the texture may have sharp edges that dig into your fingers but the crimps from this set are comfortable.

SUGGESTED USES HUECOS



Any angle and even the roof. It might not be the best place for them but with pockets that big we couldn’t resist ourselves. But that’s only half the set. The other pinches are good fro vertical and even shallow overhangs. We could have put them on the 45, but the pockets with the pinches gave us a good variety and we could make a longer problem with the holds that we got. The set is great for anyone…I mean anyone. Novice climbers will have no problems with the jugs while working on their pinch. Want to set hard? No problem here. You can try out an undercling on one of the jugs or better yet, put them on the roof. The jugs are deceiving and harder to hold on to than you’d expect.


Versatility: The Huecos are jugs so there's a bunch of uses, the Fossils are pretty well one use
Screw Holes: No not needed

All of the holds have a "R" for Revolution and letter denoting their set and size, this is a godsend when you're digging through a bucket of holds looking for the rest of a set. Thankfully Jeremy has a brain that remembers what holds are where and the number of holds in a set, so we're not so bad, but thank god for the letters on the holds!!