Review > Project > Cubes Large

The New Year has come and gone, and we`ve been eagerly waiting for new shapes to be poured down at the Project Holds HQ in North Carolina. Well we stripped our wall to film the Climb It video and our box of Project holds came in time with plenty of room to spare on our wall.

This pinch set is aptly named Cubes and come in different sizes, from small to the XL variety, which is what we come to expect from Project. All their holds sets are quite large in number and encompass a multitude of different sizes so if you buy a shape and you like it, there are always more sizes to be picked up with the same theme.

Now with a fresh new wall to play on, the holds made their way from the box to the wall :)

For our first set, we couldn`t have imagined putting pinches on the roof but we received a shipment of Motivation volumes and got the bright idea of sticking them up there. The holds are large and wide enough for us to get a good grip on and the angles on the volumes make it so the holds are easier to hold onto. The edges on the holds are flat for the most part, but some are scooped, while others are positive, but one way or another, you`ll be fighting to keep a grip.

The shapes are designed where you'll never find two opposing sides that are positive so your hand will always want to snap off. Although it took us a while to figure out the beta, our problem wasn't really that hard. They were long moves and our backs hurt a bit from twisting in the roof, but the real problem came at the last move. We just couldn't pin ourselves down enough to come and match the last hold.

So with our tail between our legs we set off to make the second problem. We were looking for some redemption so we set a problem mixed between the vertical wall and the roof. In good form, Noodles found a way to to get around some of the roof holds, which was the easy way...or smart way...no, no, easy way :) I, on the other hand, had my mind set on going through the roof. So we sent the problem going one way on our first tries so we did the sequence in reverse. Once again, Noodles found the easy way first. He wasn`t able to skip any of the holds but he found some sketchy beta to get himself onto the last hold.

Last but not least, we went and set a low traverse from the vertical to the 30 degree wall. This made for a really nice warm up route. The holds are large and are easily matched but within the nature of the shape, we`re always gripping down pretty hard on the hold. You can get pumped pretty fast climbing on the Cubes.



SUGGESTED USES:





Vertical=Easy. 30 Degree=Easy. 45 Degree=Moderate. Roof=Sketchy!!!!!! Now even though we put the Cubes onto the volumes on the roof, its really no place for these kinds of holds. The moves were all really sketchy and we were always worried about falling wrong and hurting ourselves.

Now we don`t have a 60 degree wall, but we can imagine that it would be pretty sketchy as well and should be reserved for the strong and fearless. For what we climb (V4) we probably wouldn't go much more than 45 degrees. These holds are very versatile, and unlike the Sequence Power Blocs, where you only have one or two options for grips, the Cubes feel have a variety of different grip options. The scoops and the tapered shapes of the holds make so you`ll find a small narrow pinch on one corner of the hold and a big open hand pinch in the middle. The different angles on the edges changes the dimension of the hold as you rotate it. When we had them on the vertical wall and 30 degree wall, they were far too easy to hold onto and even though we tried to make the sequence as challenging as possible, we still got to the end of the problem in one try. So ideally you`d want to have them on a steeper wall and are probably best suited for a more experienced climber.



OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 5
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 63 / 5 = $12.60 per hold
  
• Color: Blue
  
• Bolt placement: Middle
  
• Sanding: Smooooth
  
• Texture: Lighter than normal Project Holds
  
• Set size: Large
  
• Versatility: Good
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No

There was a problem a while back with some of Projects holds coming out of the shop with their bolt holes being slightly misshapen; this has been totally addressed with holds coming in for us to reship out to some Canadian customers... we checked each hold and the holes are all drilled perfectly... maybe a little tight on some of the holds. The sanding on these holds is amazing, they're so smooth it's silly, all of the holds have seen a belt sander and all of them are flat.

Color wise ours are a good shade of blue, the color throughout the pour is nice and even and there are no patches where the urethane hasn't been mixed properly. As the holds are going to probably be used primarily as pinches texture is an important point, if it's too rough then you're going to loose skin... too smooth and you're not going to be able to hang on the holds on the 45. Thankfully these holds have just the right combination of texture for their shape to make them hard (on the 45) but not overly painful over the period of a long session. The holds aren't hollow backed so they are a little heavy, but not overly so, it'd be nice to see the next iteration of these holds being lighter; there's room for improvement here.

Projects production quality has gone up in the last few months and it's a good thing to see.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
The holds came in individual bags per set, there was some packing between the bags but not much. Therefore some scuffing resulted from their travels. The box was almost completely destroyed, so much so we actually checked the contents of the package

RATING:
Noodles:
As Motavation had sent us some volumes and we'd had these holds all over the wall we wanted to try something a little bit more technical than usual.... the holds are easy on the 30 and fun for beginners on anything less than this... they're demanding on the 45... and we knew they were never going to be doable on the roof!!! AHA!, but what about if we bolt them to some nice new volumes on the roof and then see if that works.

Were we being smart or just stupid?

A mixture of both it seems... we wanted something technical we go something that pushed us a little further than we'd have liked. The first route with a few more days worth of work would have gone without too much bother but both Chris and I were starting to feel some serious pain from the Gaston move at the start.... our overall conclusion with the holds on the volumes is "doable" but you're going to end up pinching soooooo hard that it does get painful. If you're wondering what the holds look new and we complained about the lack of chalk it's because I put them in the dishwasher (before my vacation) and I may have used a little too much cleaning agent (or someone actually used the machine for what it was intended to do and didn't notice the holds in the back :P)

These holds remind me of a couple of other sets and if you're geometrically inclined and you order the correct color you can have some fun "square" routes on your wall. The sets I'm talking about are the Sequence Climbing Power Blox and the Teknik Mathematics... if you have those sets then you should get these. We'll look at the medium Cubes at a later date.

I like these holds, there are problems with them but not massive issues. I've been working with Project to help with their production problems and with customers from Canada to make sure that everything is up to par and we're getting there, all we have to do now is address the shipping issues a little.

Chris:
First thing I thought of when I saw these holds were the Sequence Power Blocks or the Teknik Mathematics. But the Cubes are different. I would call them a mix between the Power Blocks and Matters Now from the Sequence line of holds. These geometric shapes from Sequence and Teknik can be pretty hard to climb on and I don`t think you would have seen us putting these holds on the roof, but with this set of Cubes being couple of rungs under the difficulty ladder we thought it would be fun to try them out on the roof. From the start, I thought that the moves were going to be really hard, but I was pretty surprised with the first couple of moves. The holds have a big edge on them and the first move into the roof wasn`t as long as I had expected. I twisted my back from reaching up to grab the first hold, but other than that, I wasn`t sore the next day.

We've done many reviews for Project and I`ve always been undecided on their texture. On the one hand, the texture is rough and my hands will grow callouses when climbing on their holds, but I don`t usually get any burning sensation on my skin. Also the added texture gives more friction, something every climber is after. The texture on the Cubes is smoother but it hasn`t lost any of the grip and the holds still provide good friction. They've also rounded off the corners so they don`t dig into your hands.

PROS:

• Good texture
• Versatile
  

CONS:

• If your hands are small you'll have trouble getting a good pinch on them
• Could have been hollow backed
  

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Interview > Redpoint Nutrition

Name and job?
Jason Hendrickson, founder of Redpoint Nutrition.

How long have Red Point Nutrition been around?
We started R&D on Crank Forearm Fuel in late 2007. We spent over a year working on the formula and we officially launched the company along with Crank in early 2009.

Where are you based?
We hover between Salt Lake City, UT and San Diego, CA.

Care to explain what Crank Forearm Fuel is?
Crank is a performance supplement - the best analogy I can give is that it's like an energy drink for your muscles. Without getting too geeky with the physiology and chemistry, it's safe to say that muscular fatigue is one of the primary limiters of climbing performance. We're often asked "how does it work on just your forearms?" and the answer is, it doesn't, necessarily. However, when climbing your forearms are typically the first thing to fatigue, and it's therefore your forearms where you see the greatest benefit. That said, we have people who use Crank for mountain biking, running, mixed martial arts training, and probably a bunch of other things we don't know about.

Specifically, Crank is a combination of ingredients that:

1. buffer the accumulation of H+ (the acidic component of lactic acid) which are thought to be responsible for the burn or "pump" you feel when your muscles fatigue;
2. Provide and help the body more efficiently produce energy used for muscular contractions,
   
3. Speed recovery time between intense efforts.

What background do you have in sports nutrition?
I'm a guinea pig. I've been an athlete my whole life, but never a particularly gifted one. Back in the early '90s when I was in high school I started experimenting with supplements to help with my running. I carried that curiosity with me into climbing and found significant benefit in it but had a difficult time learning what were the best supplements for climbing. After injuring a finger in 2003 I was never really able to return to climbing without re-injuring it, so I started pursuing other sports, specifically triathlon, cycling and jiu jitsu. I quickly learned that these sports were incredibly advanced in both the supplements that were available and the knowledge that the athletes had about them. Everyone took supplements and everyone knew what worked and what didn't. There are, surprisingly, a lot of similarities between triathlon/cycling/jiu jitsu and climbing from an athletic performance perspective, specifically, the importance of strength-to-weight ratios and adequate recovery after long, hard training days. If you want the best climbing workout in the world, take up jiu jitsu. It's like climbing if the rock were to fight back.

I took what I felt were the right ingredients for the type of demand rock climbing produces and, along with Dr. Shannon O'Grady, a friend with a PhD in Digestive and Nutritional Physiology and who also happens to be an extraordinary athlete, we started formulating Crank along with an FDA approved laboratory in Utah. Dr. O'Grady did a fantastic job of researching the ingredients in Crank and making sure there was ample and compelling scientific research backing their effectiveness. For those that are interested, we've got links to a plethora of scientific research papers on our site that demonstrate the effectiveness of each individual ingredient in Crank. Everything in Crank has a purpose, and there's nothing in there that doesn't need to be.

The FDA... ah the silent gun ship of the drugs World. Is Crank FDA approved?
No. Nutritional Supplements are not regulated by the FDA, so you won't find *any* that are FDA approved. However, everything in our manufacturing process, which *is* regulated by the FDA, meets their stringent requirements.

We've been using it and it's something you have to use carefully, there's a lot of L-Taurine (1000mg) in there, is that what's making us a little jittery when we wolf down a pint of it?
No, actually, that's from the Green Tea Extract. While low in caffeine, Green Tea Extract does have a mild stimulant effect. It's not like caffeine but if you're not used to it, or you take too much Crank, you'll definitely feel it.

Compared to something like the colored bull products this gave us a buzz but nothing completely mental and there was no "come down" from drinking it. We found that drinking a little every now and then was a good idea and it helped to extended our sessions... was the drink designed to be a saner version of other sports drinks?
Well, not exactly. Most sports drinks are simply geared toward hydration and not specifically improving performance. Energy drinks are great for when you need to stay awake to drive all night or hit the club, but the don't do much for athletic performance. Crank is unique in that it's formulated specifically to improve athletic performance. It works best when you take it approximately 30 minutes before you start climbing. Basically, you want the ingredients in Crank to be available in your muscles by the time you start climbing and produce the first massive lactic acid dump. That said, there's definitely benefit in drinking it while climbing, especially on marathon days at the crag or gym. Taking a serving after a particularly long or hard training session also really helps with recovery if you're going to climb again the next day.

So what's the maximum amount of this stuff you should drink in a day?
The general answer is that you should limit your intake to 2 servings per day. For most folks, taking more would just be a waste of money. That said, I've personally taken far more than 2 servings in a day, but I feel a personal responsibility to test the outer boundaries of good judgement so our customers don't have to.

Actually reading the numbers on the back of the packet is kind of intimidating... why are all the Daily Values so high?
Crank contains large amount of the different B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, B11 and B12) which play an essential role in the production of energy by aiding in the use of proteins, carbs, and fats. One thing to keep in mind is that RDA guidelines are for normal folks, not athletes. The stuff we do to our bodies isn't normal and it's virtually impossible to get everything an athlete's body needs from a balanced diet. Unused Vitamin B just passes through you, and this is what's responsible for the bright yellow color of your urine when you take Crank or any other product that's high in Vitamin B.

The taste, Citrus flavor, isn't that bad... are there any other flavors out there?
We wanted Crank to have a subtle flavor, nothing overpowering and it's actually *really* good mixed with other drinks, like Gatorade or EFS products (a hydration product we carry in our online store). We don't have any other flavors. We also hear it's a good mixer with Vodka, but we wouldn't know...ahem.

Ok, let's address the pee issue. Chris' pee was super colored and smelt after using this product... where as other peoples pee wasn't so bad. We're guessing this is all the B vitamins being flushed and then the "asparagus effect" that's happening here?
The bright yellow color is the B vitamins. Some people's urine will smell a bit after ingesting large amounts of Vitamin B6, which is also found in high concentrations in asparagus. It's nothing harmful. In addition to it being incredibly important for performance and recovery, being well-hydrated will help a great deal with the smell.

You can't get this in Canada right now, any plans to get it in stores up here?
US only for now. Other countries have different laws on product labeling and nutritional supplements. We definitely plan to make it available world-wide in the future. We hear from people on a daily basis from around the world who're dying to try it.

What does the future hold for Redpoint Nutrition?
Our sole focus for the near-term is getting Crank in the hands of as many climbers as we can. We have something to prove - namely, that Crank works. We offer free samples through our website, so hit us up. Long term, we want to be the source for the best performance and nutritional supplements for climbers. There's a lot of crap out there. We know what works and that's all we sell.

We're a small business in every sense of the term. We're self-funded from our own bank accounts. I work a normal day job to finance our operations. Our ultimate goal is to provide something valuable to the climbing community. If we do that then everything else will take care of itself.

You also run Climbingshoereview.com, hows that going?
Yeah, that's a side project I do for fun. I'm a software developer by day and I'm always up to something. I just love the sport of climbing and I miss not being able to climb at the level I once did. Doing things like Climbing Shoe Review, and Redpoint Nutrition, allow me to stay involved the climbing community and hopefully give something back. Lot's of folks only take and never give. The world would be a better place if people did more giving.

We were thinking of running you out of town when we saw that site pop up, but now we've teamed up with you on it :) How is it running a user input site?
Haha, sorry! Yeah, having you guys act as Featured Reviewers is awesome. Your reviews are great and it really helps folks make informed decisions when buying what is arguably the most important piece of climbing equipment. Running the site is fun. Every once-in-a-while I see a blog post that's critical of what I'm trying to do, and that's discouraging, especially when all I'm trying to do is provide something climbers will find valuable. If anyone thinks a site like that makes money they're fooling themselves. Money is not the motivation, I just like tinkering on computers. Building something that folks find useful is rewarding.

Thanks for your time, anyone you want to thank before you go and make up some more climbing fuel?
Man, so many folks have helped us. First and foremost, my wife Cindy who runs the day-to-day operations. Dr. Shannon O'Grady for being an awesome scientist and friend, Boone Speed, Mike Call and Tommy Chandler for helping us in the early days, Steve Maisch for being a product-tester extraordinairre, Timy Fairfield, Brandy Proffit, Pat Goodman, Jessa Goebel, Senya Iaryguine, Zach Lerner and Gabor Szekely for being such awesome evangelists for Crank, all my friends for having my back, and last but not least, all the climbers out there who've given us a chance. All the time, energy, money and stress is worth it when someone emails us and says they can't believe how well Crank works.

Testing > Hangboards Part Two > Delire Redpoint Station

After training on both of Metolius' boards for a couple of months and after countless sessions hanging about Noodles went out and grabbed a Delire Redpoint Station. This is Delires compact home training board, the board is sub $100 and the store that it came from had loads of different color combination's.

Question is... after training on two of the most popular boards on the planet how would Delires board fare? (You can read the first review: here)

WHAT BOARD?
We've covered two boards already, the Metolius Simulator 3D and Project boards. Next up is the Delire Redpoint station.. it's not as compact as the Metolius Project board and it's not as large as the 3D Simulator.. it's right in the middle. For price point it's more expensive than both of the Metolius boards. What's new for us is that there are options for pinch training this time and the texture is a little more aggressive... and there are two pockets right at the bottom that are the slimmest things we've ever seen on a board!

The board came already mounted to a piece of wood, it is attached by two T nuts. All the screws, 6 in all, were in a bag... so technically from the store all you're going to need it 5 minutes and then you should be hanging around.

Redpoint Station

• 50cm x 28cm
• Price: $82.99 (CDN)
• Varied grip positions
• Included mounting board and hardware
  

If you're looking for a board then here's a handy list of what's out there (It's not a full list):

• Revolution's Grillito: here
• Entre Prise's Hangtime: here
• Cryptochild's Ironpalm: here
• Asana's Talon: here
• Uprisings Revolution Board: here
• Rise Hold's Fingerboard: here
• Holdz Fingerboards: here
• Osm'ose boards: here
• Moon Climbing's Fingerboard: here
• Nicros Hangboards: here
• Bendcrete's Classic: here
• Metolius Boards: here
  

INSTALATION
In our case we have lots of space and as the board came attached to a board all we did was mount our new board onto our existing wall. It took about 5 minutes to get the board on the wall and for us to start training... all we had to do is put in 6 screws through the pre-drilled holes in the mounting board. So far this board is the easiest to set up and get going :) It is heavy so make sure that there are two people to do this.

TRAINING
There wasn't any training material with the board, so we suggest you modify the Metolius regime from: here You can also read some good training tips from Eric Horsts training books or his page: here

What we did this time was we took what we'd used from training on the Metolius boards and then we adapted it to the Delire Redpoint Station. The obvious differences between the three boards (Metolius and Delire) is that both of the Metoilus boards have more pockets and that the texture that you're hanging from is much finer and therefore less harsh on the skin. This time we also added in some pinch hangs as it's something that is missing from the Metolius boards. It took us a couple of sessions to get the numbers right, on the first few times you can see that we'd been a little ambitious in what we wanted to do, we tried to pack in a lot of exercises into a 10 minutes sequence and it was just too much. You'll see that on our second session, which is the one we filmed, that there is a lot of back and forth about the regime...

Eventually we got our sequence down and we ran the board for over two months, there are areas that Noodles likes and areas that Chris likes there's little or no common ground.

Noodles & Training
So after months of training on two boards we've switched it up and grabbed a new board and started a new regime. We've been getting stronger, with people running hang board sessions at least once a week... people were super excited to see the new board and couldn't wait to get it onto the wall. Once up you can start to feel out the board by hanging from it to see how the edges and pockets are going to feel as you exercise on them.

My first thoughts were that the edges could do with a rounder edge upon them as although they're not knife blade sharp, they are sharper than I'd actually like them to be. Edges when you're training are always going to be held with as open a handed position as you can manage, you're not getting your thumb on and crimping down... seeing as the edges range in size from small to quite large I was intrigued to see how they were going to impact my hands. The other thought that came to my mind was the bottom "pockets"... describing them as pockets is actually completely incorrect... super slim edges is closer, we call them "small nasty" because that's what they are... they're bloody small and it would be a feat of pure strength or pure luck if anyone could actually hang on them!!

Once we dialed in what we wanted to do, the board is actually pretty pleasant to use for training. The texture is a little rough on the fingers and some of the edges, as I suspected caused by callouses to get raised a little bit from when I was hanging and pulling on them... so the texture for me is a good and bad thing; it's good because some of the holds on this board are really mental to hold onto and it allows you to actually hang them... and it's bad as when you're holding onto some of the larger shapes you walk away from the session with hands that feel like they've been lightly sanded.

There are a couple of things that I'll point out that I like and dislike against our first review boards:

• Love: the fact that I can train on two different types of pinches
• Hate the slopers, they're waaaay too easy
• Kind of like: the small evil, because I can hang it... not that I really want to
• Love: Ease of mounting
• Meh: On the edges, I wish they were rounder
• Meh: On the pockets, I don't like the shape of them

So there you have it, it's actually better than expected. It's not the smallest board out there and it's not the largest. It's got some shapes that other boards don't have and a texture that for me is slightly too rough. The entire bottom 2 inches of the board for me where the Small Nasty is can be removed, the bottom edge and Small Nasty in my opinion are just too small to be safe to train upon to much

I'd like to say I'm going to go back to the Metoilus Project board to continue my Winter training... but I can't.... The So Ill Iron Palm has to be mounted on the wall tonight!

Chris & Training
So I've come to realize that different boards will better train some grips than others. The Metolius boards are probably the best all round board that I've come across. The problem I have with it is that the edges tend to dig into my fingers and I can feel that they come out with some added strains. I thought this was just the nature of hangboard training but I didn't have this kind of discomfort when training on the Delire board. The curvature of the edge don't put as much strain on my fingers as the Metolius board. Is this a good thing? Will it improve my contact strength? Well...I can't really comment on that and I have no way of really testing out the theory.

The board has pretty much all the same features as the Metolius . It lacks the pockets to isolate two or three finger hangs but I find that this is just a minor detail that can be easily worked around. If you want to isolate the fingers then you can just hang or do your chin ups using just the fingers you want to train. The big difference between the boards is the width. The Metolius board is wider and has the edges going all the way out to the extremities of the board. The Delire boards edges and pockets are smaller than those found on the Simulator and Project boards and has pinches designed into the board which makes it suitable for a more experienced climber.

We had this big debate over the curvature of the board. Metolius has a similar design that is quite obvious when you see images of the board. No w when I say "curvature of the board", I'm talking about the curve of teh board, not the radius of the edge of the hold. The curve on the Delire board is more pronounced. I think that the flatter curve on the Metolius board put more strain on your joints and tendons than the Delire board and may increase the risk of injury. Once again, I have no way of proving this point other than my first hand experience (I haven't injured myself training yet, but my fingers are less strained when training with the Delire board). The stain may also be caused by the deeper pockets in the Metolius board.

So far, each board has its ups and downs, but I personally prefer training on the Delire Redpoint board. We'll see what the So Ill Iron Palm has in store for us :)

OVERALL BUILD
This board for us is either a love or hate affair. We know people that have it at home and they swear by it; which is fair enough. We're split on the board at climbingholdreview, some of us like it some of us don't. The board is well laid out, it's not as wide as some boards on the market so if you're broad shouldered it's going to be a little too thin for you.The texture is like sandpaper, nothing super super grippy, but enough that you're going to notice it on the smaller edges... you're going to come off and you'll feel your skin burning.... even though we've used the board a lot the texture still gets to your hands. The board is very well made, everything is symmetrical and if you take the board off of its mounting board you can see that the back is nice and flat. As the board is resin it is heavy, it's not the easiest to hoist up and to mount so make sure you have two people around when you do this.

It's a well rounded board, but you should look at the radii of the edges before committing any money to buying the board, they're not the nicest out there and they could be better... try before you buy people

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Delires holds and boards are made of resin

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Noodles grabbed this from La Cordee, the board had been well packed as it has come from Quebec City to Montreal. There were a lot of boards from Delire there and they all looked in fine condition

OVERALL
The board is well situated price wise, it's heavy so a one person mounting job is out of the question. If we tally the votes so far on the boards, just between Chris and Noodles and we look at the three boards (Metolius Simulator 3D & Project and the Delire board) Chris prefers the Delire and Noodles prefers the Project Board... so it's 1-1

The board is overall well designed, it has most things people are going to want to train and above some boards it has the ability to add pinch training to your regime.

PROS

• The board has two pinch options, which is nice
  
• Easily mountable
  

CONS

• Very heavy
• Slightly sharp edges
• Some parts of the board should be just removed
  

Interview > Ice Holdz

Do you ice climb? Do you have an indoor wall? Well it looks like you can get your training on with these holds. We were interested so we asked a few questions :)

Name and job?
Jules (Jay) Marchesseault – Site operations manager for a clean energy wind farm. Received a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA. Began the IceHoldz company under the name of Off-Belay, LLC in 2007.

Terri Parham – Currently tending to a two year old son and works on the IceHoldz business part time. Received a BS in Civil Engineering. Partnered with Jay in 2006 in hopes of turning the ingenious idea of IceHoldz into a reality.How long have IceHoldz been around?
The concept began in 2005 with product launch and e-tail in November 2007.

Where are you based?
Off-Belay, LLC is based in Campbell, California – 20 miles NE of Santa Cruz and 12 miles S of San Jose.

How many people work on making the holds?
Indirectly there are a number of folks who do a first step process of making the outer shell for the IceHoldz. Once that process is complete, just Jay and I do the finishing touches including cutting and pouring of the glacier blue backing.

You make holds to simu-ice climb, how long did it take to get to this product? What’s the inside made of?
The evolution of IceHoldz was in essence, a two year project. Prototype after prototype proved that more manipulation was necessary to get a product that ‘felt’ like ice. The glacier blue backing is the key to success as it serves two necessities, 1) it acts as a shock absorber allowing your pick to set. When you have good pick placement, you’ll know it by the sound and the feel of the hit (just like ice) and 2) it allows your pick to penetrate only the 1/4- inch shell since the backing is non-penetrable. As with real water ice, you don’t need much penetration for secure placement. The glacier blue backing is proprietary so you’ll have to use your imagination as to what it’s made of!

Any particularly spectacular failures when you started making the holds?
No spectacular failures but we did have some problems with tool bounce - this was before we started making the IceHoldz three dimensional and filling them with the glacier blue backing.

How hard was it to start a climbing company? Did it take long?
I don’t know if it was ‘hard’ to start the company but it is definitely very time consuming. Organization and patience are key. You ask ‘Did it take long?’ and my answer is that we are still building it after two years.

Right now your lineup is limited, what's on the cards with regard to new shapes?
Currently there are four series with four models in each for a total of 16 IceHoldz. We’ve got a sweet dry-tooling piece coming out and we hope to release it in January 2010. With it will be two mid-size and possibly two smaller sized pieces with an abundance of dry-tooling features. Unlike some of the resin dry-tooling holds that you may have seen, our dry-tooling holds won’t split or break when introduced to the sharp end of an ice axe. Our pieces are designed to withstand 600 lbs + of pulling strength.




The market is getting flooded with new companies, but you're the only one that's making holds you can hit into... are you going to make dry tooling holds as well?
See above. We are also working with two well known rock climbing hold manufactures to offer a more complete mixed climbing wall package.

There's some talk that's had people confused about your holds, they have to be "refurbished", care to explain what this is and how it works? How many times can you hit a hold before it's recharged?
Let me first talk a bit about the longevity of IceHoldz. Most customers ask ‘How long are these going to last?’ or ‘How many times can you swing an ice axe into these before they become unusable?’. Our answer to them is that we have tested an early hold from the North American series that has been hit well in excess of 400 times and it’s still usable. Our athletes have found that once IceHoldz become this worn, it offers even more dry-tooling features. Of course, each customer will have a different idea for what they feel is unusable. With that said, we prefer to use the term re-furbished rather than ‘re-charged’ since the shells can actually be sent back to Off-Belay, LLC where we use an in shop process that closes the holes. Customers who send their shells back for refurbishment will receive a discount toward the purchase of a new replacement shell. In fact, we have been selling IceHoldz for two years now and not a single customer has asked for a replacement shell.

You seem to have a fairly diverse group of people that are buying your holds... like really quite diverse, who are buying your stuff?
We are selling IceHoldz to individuals with home gyms, commercial gyms, universities, YMCA’s, mountain guides, US Navy Seals, Canadian Armed Forces, other gear manufacturers and retail stores. Our IceHoldz have shipped to countries in Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and North America. Doors are beginning to open up for us in New Zealand and Australia. We are beginning to tap into the Asian and South American markets.

Do you see IceHoldz turning up more in gyms?
Many people climb indoors but never touch rock, or it takes them a while. With the advent of indoor ice climbing walls I can see the interest in people wanting to climb dry tool routes more often especially as winter sets in. We do see IceHoldz in more gyms. Now that the word is spreading that we’ve got a pretty cool product, orders have picked up. Some are using it to train before setting out for the winter climbs and others are using it as a teaching aide before taking their clients out for the weekend.

How environmentally friendly are the holds?
They do seem from an outsider’s perspective to be big hunks of rubber! They are actually made of a composite plastic material which can be recycled in two ways – one of which I mentioned earlier where we re-furbish the shell and re-sell it. We are currently looking into using recycled plastics for future generation products.

We assume that you climb indoors... are there any particular hold company's product that you like?
We like products by Nicros and El Dorado Climbing Walls who also sells Franklin Climbing holds.

What does the future hold for IceHoldz?
We’ve gained a huge amount of experience and success in co-sponsoring indoor ice climbing/dry-tooling competitions. We expect to see these comps increase in popularity. We are currently working with the UIAA (Union International Alpine Association) in Switzerland to promote and assist in the first North American series of indoor ice climbing/dry-tooling sanctioned events.

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