Review > Planet Holds > Screw on Foothold 2

There are handholds and then there are footholds... and then there are footholds that can be used at handholds :) The footholds we're looking at this week are from the UK, Planet Holds dropped us a package of their new polyurethane screw on feet... this is what they look like:
Upon receiving these holds Noodles pointed out that they could easily be used for hands and upon looking at them closer they are pretty incut and despite being small they're not as small as some holds we've reviewed like Tekniks Aphids, DRCC ESC/DSC, or say the E-Grips 2-Tex Pure Crimps. We have to point out when we say small we're talking about how deep they are for your fingers not the overall size of the holds which in truth is just larger (in most cases) than the head of a number 10 sized deck screw... no when we see something that is about half a pad deep and is a foothold we laugh and then use them for hands... but would they work as hand holds??

There's something to be of note here and that this review is not going to mention us using these holds as footholds so we'll get this bit out of the way right now :) These holds when you use them for your feet are bomber, even when on the steepest angle and you're hanging by your fingertips you can just dink your foot onto one of these holds and get enough purchase to make the move. If you use them on a vertical wall they're just plain massive, we tried a route (that we didn't film) with a bunch of different shoes from stiff (5.10 Rock Wrench & Sportiva Scorpions) to super soft (5.10 Projects & Boreal Falcons) and found the holds texture and positive nature of the holds to make them just easy to use... the holds have a pretty gritty texture to them so they do gather shoe rubber if you really screw your feet down onto them. We know that we shouldn't be using these guys for hands we should be using them for feet but when we see something of this kind of size we just have to try you know :)

Right.. back to what we wanted to see with these holds... Can we use them as handholds?
Yup you can... and it's an interesting ride that's for sure!!
Like children with too many toys we grabbed the drill and went to work

Maaan those routes are hard, pulling from the floor is brutal until you get the right feet and then you're just in a World of balance and pain. One thing you're probably not going to notice is that in most of the routes we filmed we are actually using the holds for hands and feet, that's how big and how positive these holds are as feet (although in the real world they're not actually that big) and even though you're on finger tips and trying some stupid stupidly tricky matches your feet are something you're just not worrying about... they just stick, no matter what shoes you're wearing on whatever angle (although when you're on a roof you do need to be super exact with your toes) you feet just seem to stick to the texture and give you a nice positive piece of reassurance that you've got your foot on something

SUGGESTED USES:






AS FOOTHOLDS: If you look at the above table of angles that relates to when you use them as footholds not when you use them as handholds.

What you should do (in no particular order):

• Put them around aretes they're great like that
• Use them as footholds
• Not pretend that they're Skittles
• Play about with them as they're pretty big for footholds

These are a good set of all around foot holds... they're bigger than you'd expect so chuck them on the wall for some beginner routes to inspire their footwork. Grip-wise these guys seem to have it in spades, even when you're being sloppy with your feet you seem to be able to not worry about what or how you've placed your foot... they just seem to stick!!






AS HANDHOLDS: If you're going to play with the small stuff for hands then 45 degrees is probably way further than you should go, 30 degrees should give you enough of a challenge. We're in no way saying that you should do what we did with the holds it was just a test to see if you can hold onto them... you can, but it's not wise and unless you're training for some braille like hell routes you shouldn't really do this (Wait til you see the Holdz route with those holds.. these things are so big compared to those)

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 22
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Screw on
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 19.50 GBP / 22 = $1.38 per hold (roughly at the current conversion rate)
  
• Color: Pink
  
• Bolt placement: None
  
• Sanding: Great
  
• Hollow backed: No
  
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
  
• Texture: Very grippy
  
• Set size: Extra Small
  
• Versatility: Depends
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: Yes
  
• Shaper: TBC
  
• Weight: TBC

These guys come with a QA stamp and a date of birth stamp on the back of them, so you can tell (and they can be tracked) if there are any issues with them. All of the holds are well formed and you can tell that they've all been across the sander, the holds texture is very grippy and you have to be careful when you're using them as hands as you might loose some skin but that being said even when they're chalked up the texture does come through. No matter what shoes you wear these holds grip so well you almost feel like you're cheating... they're almost Grit-like but there aren't any Grit footholds like these :)

Given that these holds are super small and that their small size could mean that these holds could be weak. We've put them on and off of the wall a bunch of times, used different torque settings on the drill and just hammered them without any trouble at all. The only problem that we can see is the fact that they are held onto the wall by a single screw means that if the holds aren't screwed on super tight they can spin and in a couple of cases they did spin a little on us, it would be better if the holds had double screw holes rather than just a single

Our holds came in a nice shade of purple which is slightly more like violet more than anything else, it's a color you don't see too often that's for sure.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Good

RATING:
Noodles:
Screw ons footholds as handholds... hahahaha. Brilliant idea... the holds can be used for hands, they're actually be pretty big and given their grit like grip they are nice if a little bit tweaky on the old digits. Mind you they're a little tweaky because we set a bunch of routes (Mark, Chris and I) that were just plain hard because we wanted to play hard and we wanted to push the holds to a point where we could go "Yes! You can use them as handholds... upto this angle X"

What is the angle?

45 degrees, but only if you're using a bunch of the holds to make wide pinches / crimps. The holds by themselves (as all of them, except one take single screws) when on a 45 aren't going to good to hold onto at all as they're small as hell, but if you cluster them then they're hard, bitey and do-able.
If you play on a lesser angle then the single holds can be used, just don't try to match on them because this is bloody hard when you're trying to move one of the two finger tips you have on the hold to put on another fingertip whilst at the same time trying to not breathe too much in case you fall off the wall :D

Bottom line? As footholds they're great, as handholds they're painful... BUT THEY"RE MEANT TO BE FOOTHOLDS, so it's not really surprising as we're using them for something that they're not really meant to do. But if you add them to volumes, or around the corner on aretes or use them sensibly in shallow angles you can pull on them and they do a pretty good job... be-careful if you're setting sequences with these guys as feet as people will cheat your moves... and good luck to them if they try! As footholds if you're just looking for something to put onto the wall or onto a route then these guys will fit your need, if you're looking to work upon your footwork then you probably want something a little more technical than these...

Mark:
Purple little nubs. They have a super high texture that could be a bit much for the finger tips if you rip off. They're a bit large for foot holds as in they stick out too much and lots of climbers could screw the climbing sequences by using them as handholds. I don't know what would happen if you shoe peeled off one of these but I'm sure you'd lose a lot of rubber. They make for great screw on hand holds! Gnarly but different.

They're light weight! Seem mix seems strong despite their small nature and the screws work well with them. Thank god they're bigger than those other screw ons that we're reviewing soon :)

Chris:
Screw on footholds for handholds....scary thought. Noodles might think it brilliant but my fingers will always say no. Anywho enough with the excuses, the holds are big and can be strategically placed as handholds. I thought it was surprising that each hold came with only one screw hole but the holds are so small that they don't require anything more. OK...back to using them as hand holds. Good idea or bad idea the holds are big enough to get some skin on and with some thought the holds can be placed so you can climb on as hand holds.

It was a surprise for me that we could get thought the sequence. You'd think that a foothold that can be used as a handhold is a bad thing but these are really great foot holds. The set had enough holds that we could set both hand and footholds. I could tell from the get go that the holds have enough meat to grab But my hands burned after the session for ripping off the holds. The problems set are not for everyone but as foot holds, it would be a great addition for any home or commercial wall. If its foothold your looking for, these will fit the bill. With their size, it will help develop precision footwork and at the same time be big enough to be used in an overhang without to much bother. Footholds or handholds? Well I think if you want some small holds to add to your wall, this set can easily find itself on your wall.

PROS:

• Big enough to be used as handholds on shallow angles
• Light and strong
• Cheap shipping rates as the set fits into an envelope
• Great for introducing beginners to smaller positive feet
  

CONS:

• Screw ons are a pain to move and reset
• Screws aren't included
• Having a single screw rather than a double means that they could spin if they're not screwed on tight enough
  

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Review > DRCC > The Rail

This week we're looking at The Rail, we've had it for a long long while and as we've been running some hold demos locally and our first one in the States... we've been lending out the holds and totally forgot to review it :( In fact before we moved the wall to it's current location we'd actually done all of the videos and we'd already filmed a climb that involved the Slots and the Rail in a session that was crazy... enough excuses... here's The Rail:The Rail pictured above in maroon with a purple soft back is a part of a new generation of large sliding bolt holds that seem to be hitting the market, Metolius have had the Colonettes on the market for years and there are whole hosts of other companies that make large screw on rail features. There are positives and negatives to having large rail like features that screw on.. but there is a trend a-coming of large features that have a sliding bolt as well as a normal single bolt so the hold can be rotated and can fit onto walls easily!

Again the DRCC have, like dual texture holds, taken this technology and have introduced it to a bunch of their large shapes (Peace, The Hole, Smile Ledge) and they've done it really well; you don't need to have a washer on the bolt as the metal sliding rail takes a normal bolt head and is made of high grade material.

Bah.. tech specs and praise! What is the thing like to actually use? On the old wall we had a 5 inch centre on our t-nuts, this spacing at times has given us some trouble with some holds; the Nicros Infinity Board being one of them (we had to make an adapter for it to fit onto the wall), in the case of the Rail we didn't have any problems as given the single bolt and then the slider we were able to angle it pretty well wherever we wanted without a care. We went straight for the nuts with where we put it as well, we chucked it straight onto the 45 degree wall; thinking that there is enough texture and a couple of deep enough (although pretty shallow) scoops that would allow us to get onto the hold and then move off into the Slots (which aren't great on the 45 degree wall at all)... maybe we over played our hand a little, but as the wall was being taken down it was pretty empty and as Jason, Chris and Noddles were up for a challenge it seemed like a great idea... here are the results:


(Just in case you're wondering about that route... Jason actually managed to get it right at the end of the video... we faded a little quickly on that, but if you watch closely we had moved the two final slots around because the Slots in case you've not read this review are hard on the 45 degree wall)

As you can see the Rail is holdable on the 45 degree wall... what you can also see is that moving off of it at that angle is pretty hard. Sure we weren't setting for everyone, we were setting hard as there was a problem from Val David that we were replicating as we wanted to train some pretty specific moves. Putting the hold onto a vertical wall gives you a nice long slightly slopey, slightly incut rail that's really nice to hold, rotate it 90 degrees and then you have some really interesting laybacks that will test your balance. One of the best angles we've found for this hold is between 15 and 30 degrees, it makes the hold just_that_little_bit_harder_to_stick and will challenge most people to trying some moves / matches and crosses that you don't see too much with indoor climbing.

SUGGESTED USES:







Yeah. stick it on the 45 if you're feeling strong but if you just want to test yourself without being spat off of the wall then stick it onto something more 30 degrees or less. We've had the Rail on the roof and we were moving into it and managing to match it and then move, it was by no means easy but it was done by a bunch of people... mind you a bunch of people did take a trip to the mats on that move!

There is a large surface area on this guy is over 20 inches long, but there are only a couple of palm sized shallow dimples (one larger than the other) for you to really use, the rest is basically a sloper. It's a test that's for sure.


OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 1
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt on, single bolt and slider
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $109.95
  
• Color: Ours is brown swirled
  
• Bolt placement: Single at one end and slider bolt at the other
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Hollow backed: Yes
  
• Soft back (Rubber backed): Yes
  
• Texture: Dual texture
  
• Set size: Feature
  
• Versatility: Ok
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No, not needed
  
• Shaper: Vincent Cocciolone
• Weight: TBC
  

Quality is something that we've come to expect from the DRCC and the Rail is no exception, the texture on the hold isn't as grippy as you'd expect it gives you confidence to the point where you'll try to do something a little crazy with it and get shut down... that's where you find your and it's stopping point. The hollow back is superb, it takes enough weight from the hold without sacrificing the holds overall strength and as per usual it's a thing to behold.

The sliding bolt arrangement, which is laser cut... LASER CUT!... is very well formed, to the point where you don't need to use a washer for this to work the bolt head is more than enough to hold it tight to the wall, the main (single) bolt hole is nicely placed and is also pretty... well pretty, it has nice round edges to it so nothing can catch and the inset washer is nice and flat

As usual on any hold that the DRCC produces that they deem to need a softback this hold has one and it sits really flat against the wall without and areas lifintg at all. The DRCC is known for their dual texture and it's the same high quality shiney material that's just useless for any thumb catches that you might think are going to help you.

Now we've been running some hold demos of late, lending out holds here and there to see what other people think :) The Rail has been shipping with a bunch of other holds (all wrapped in paper) to a number of different places and so far it's come back unscathed from it's travels... and we all know how some parcels are handles by the postal services... so it's pretty damn strong as well

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Good

RATING:
Noodles:
When we got this hold way back when I remember email Vince raving about it and asking the question "why have you haven't you made more of these?"... "why isn't there one of these with more incuts for steeper angles?"... I guess it's because they're a pain in the ass to make, get the dual texture right and to get the hollow back complete. That's not really an excuse.. Vince, get to work! :)

This hold is what we'd consider the next generation of colonettes / rails... a colonail if it were, it's a shame it doesn't have more grab able features. Having a bunch of these and a huge wall would be a hoot in my mind.. imagine long long lay backs on lots of different feeling versions of these?

Putting this hold on the 45 (or the roof for that matter) was never a great idea, but it sure was fun. I can't remember if anyone actually ever finished that Rail/Slots route, I think I got close but I never finished it... technically the Slots and the Rail are going to be super hard on that steep of an angle, but what the hell someone had to try it :P I like the hold, the texture is just enough that you feel you can stick it, what's the word(s) I'm looking for??? Confidence inspiring, yeah that'd be the one... the hold is confidence inspiring and then it uses itself as a huge bat and beats you into submission in one foul swoop

I want more of these, I want a whole range of these, different sizes, different incuts... but all in the same color. I really like the hold, the fact that there isn't more is something that kind of brings me down a little. For home walls, if you've for about $100 kicking about it's a pretty good investment as you can do a lot with it... if your wall is super steep then I'd wait for the next installment before investing

Chris:
So how many of you enjoyed watching us fall repeatedly on our asses? Well we had a lot of fun trying out the problem and we've set a great many problems with it and always had a blast. If you're unfamiliar with DRCC, they make the best duo textured hold on the market. That's not an opinion, its a fact, and if you want gnarly technical holds, DRCC make some of the best there is...and that is just an opinion :)

So The Rail is one of those holds that will give you a taste of humility. The dual texture made it impossible to utilize the thumb to give you a better grip. Gotta love that dual texture :) So for me, I found that it was really hard to set a problem to the grade that I expected. If I were to try to set something in the V2 range, I would end up setting something that is at least a V4, with the possibility of being a Vimposible. The hold can really only be used with an open hand and there are only a couple of places on the hold where its slightly positive that adds to the degree of difficulty. Now even though this hold gave me a good kick in the ass, I liked climbing and working on the problem.

Although this hold is very technical, it doesn't have any sharp edges or require all that much brute strength to climb. It's really just a test on footwork and core strength. The texture lends itself to working on problems all afternoon in that you'll always find enough friction to keep you on the wall, until you suddenly find yourself on your ass. Now these holds aren't for everybody, but we've had the DRCC dual textured holds in a commercial gym and the strong burly climbers couldn't stay off the DRCC route. For me, I would buy this hold and for the record, it climbs well with the DRCC pinches :)

PROS:

• DRCC's shiny dual texture is beautiful
• Hollow backed for low shipping weight
• Layback fun for all
  

CONS:

• Not that positive so it's only good for shallow(ish) angles
• Price might put some people off
  

Review > Element Climbing > Carbide

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SUGGESTED USES:








OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 8
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $44.95/8 = $5.62 per hold
  
• Color: Orange
  
• Bolt placement: Middle
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Hollow backed: No
  
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
  
• Texture: Good
  
• Set size: Medium
  
• Versatility: Ok
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
  
• Shaper: David Filkins
  
• Weight: 2lbs
  

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Good

RATING:
Noodles:


Chris:

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA

Review > Summit Labs > Medium Muscles Pinches

Ah Summit Labs, they've made some interesting stuff from the Small Comfy Pinches, Dual Texture Edges and then their Large Granite Slopers... they're a small company but when they do put something new out there has been a couple of things to note:

1. Their products have always been very well made
2. Even though their shapes are simple they seem to be very well thought out!

The set we're talking about today is something we've had for over a year, they've been off and on the wall numerous times, but most notably they were part of one route that stayed on the wall for about 6 months.... mainly because people loved it so much... without further ado lets look at the Medium Muscles Pinches:

What you're looking at is six pinches that are going to test you.... a lot of the time these holds dwelled upon the shallow angles of our wall.. they never went past the 15 degree wall and then as we came closer to writing the review we decided to put them onto something a little steeper... only 15 degrees steeper mind you but steeper none the less... we knew that there was no way we'd every want to meet one of these guys on the 45 or anything steeper than that so we grabbed the holds off of the floor and put them onto the 30. What ensued is something that doesn't happen very often.... an almost epic ass kicking :)

All we wanted to do was set something that was a little spicey, nothing crazy, just a quick route where we could film the holds easily and at the same time have a little fun. Oh man, head locks, chin bars, drop knees, swear words and child like laughter were all seen within a short space of time. What Chris set was something that we never expected.... it was gloriously painful to start and then it all just came down to one move and one move only... one thing was for sure; there wasn't going to be any hanging around on the final hold for too long :)


SUGGESTED USES:






Looks can be deceiving and in this case deception seems to be the name of the game, these holds are nice to hold onto but at the same time really quite hard to stick but they do double quite well as slopey crimps... but when they're on shallow walls up to 15 degrees, as soon as you add another 15 degrees to you angle then you're into a World of balance and some very technical matches.

These guys are hard but comfortable as pinches, they have a nice radius to them and the lines (like what you'd see on a muscle) allows a degree of leniency for your fingers as you can use them to position your hands for maximum grip... but be warned if you're pinching on the lines you're probably seconds from pulling that fabled climbing move "the one hand clap" because more than likely you're seconds from flying backwards!! Overall... technical fun!

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 6
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt ons
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $28.95/6 = $4.83
  
• Color: Blue
  
• Bolt placement: Middle
  
• Sanding: Good
  
• Hollow backed: No
  
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
  
• Texture: A little crystalline
  
• Set size: Medium
  
• Versatility: More pinches than anything else
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
  
• Shaper: Morgan Barnes
  
• Weight: 4lbs

One thing that Summit Labs seem to have in spaces is quality control, their holds always arrive in perfect condition... from the first set we have from when they started making holds (the Granites) to their latest sets (Comfy crimps (which will be reviewed soon)) we've seen their holds from day one and they're all very well made. We've not broken any of them, we've not chipped them... overall it's pretty impressive

The Muscles have some interesting shaping going on, they do actually look like muscles if you pull the skin off of your body! The lines help these guys with gripping the holds, but not so much that they intrude and give pain, they're not sharp they're nicely rounded and actually give some personality to the shapes. Size wise these guys fit nicely into the palm of your hand they have a nice radius to them, the only part of the holds that could cause some skin irritation is the Summit Labs logo which is a little raised and could cause some minor problems

Other than the texture being a little crystalline these holds are very well built, the sanding is great, the holds double as pinches or small sloped crimps/ledges and there's nothing to complain about the only thing is the fact that you can't really put these onto super steep angles.. there's no way that's going to happen as the holds aren't incut enough. Oh one other thing... these guys do seem to gather chalk more than you'd expect, so have a brush handy

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Very good

RATING:
Noodles:
These holds have been part of a route I set on our last wall and then transferred to this wall... the route consists of Rock Candys "Ruffles", Project Holds "Tankers" and of course Summit Labs "Medium Muscles". It's a fairly long route with lots of technical moves on most of the wall, the Muscles come into play right at the end on the flat wall right when you're good and tired. What makes these holds stand out is that even on a flat wall with ample feet you have to have your body in the right position to cross and rotate your hips to get to the next holds... and even then when the holds are set more like edges than anything else you still have to be super careful when moving. It's something that's been a lot of fun for a lot of people... now it's been taken down and will be replaced with something that (hopefully) will be as much fun.

Luckily we have Summit Labs "Comfy Crimps" to play with now... so I think that we're going to have another interesting time on those guys.

The Muscles were a surprise as they were harder than I thought, despite the simple design there what seems to be lots of grabbing options on these guys... pinch, slopey edge or evil crimps you can pretty well get a little of everything on them. You're never going to be able to run on super steep angles with them because they're so shallow... but that's one of those things. If you pair these holds with the Small Muscle Pinches or Summit's Comfy Pinches then you have the making of a very interesting route, with the Comfy Pinches allowing you to hit the 45 and the other sets being good of a 30 and a 15; you'll be pumped but you'll enjoy the result... pinch strength without destroying your hands

Top notch stuff; I'd love to see a much larger set of these shapes that allow them to be used on steeper angles.

Chris:
Awesome, wicked ass pinches! One thing I wish they had done was design more of these shapes. The holds can be described as slopey pinches but if they were to design larger holds with the same theme as these, they would be more of a slope than a pinch. Now although they become increasingly difficult even on the shallowest of overhangs, the groves and crimps let you grip the holds with confidence.

You may have noticed that I used the term "crimps" in that last sentence and it was not an error. As Noodles stated, we've had these holds for a year now and when we went to set for this review, we set them up on our 30 degree wall for a spin. I set that problem thinking that it would be hard but not impossible. Well, it was more on the impossible side and in order to get our butts off the ground for the starting move, I actually crimped the hold...I think I was using my finger nails more than relying on skin contact.

Now if you're looking for a set of pinches to compliment your collection of holds, than this is a good bet but I find that these small grip specific sets are limited. When we review holds, we try to set problems exclusively with the holds to be reviewed. This set was hard to create problems with and I ended up setting problems way above the level I intended which is not neccesarily a bad thing, it just makes for a hard boulder session.

PROS:

• Very well made
• Comfortable design, but harder than you think
  

CONS:

• Limited angle use
• Gather chalk a lot

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