Review > Climb It > Erosions

Does anyone remember the Sediments from Climb It? No? Well have a read here... it's from when we had the wall before our current cave and Noodles had more hair.

Done reading? GOOD! Imagine a set of holds like the Sediments, but without the sediment, the chunks, the bits to grab onto.... can you picture that? You're probably seeing something like this:

And you're right... they do look kind of brutal, and depending upon where you put them... they are kind of brutal! We first had these as an easy traverse, and it was just too nice, most of the holds have incut areas (or lots of incut areas) for your fingers to slide into, some better than others, and we found that whatever we set was getting sent very quickly. So we unbolted and then gave them to Seb, who has more length than the rest of us, so he could play... what he set was a hybrid of the route you see in the video that runs from the steps to the corner of the 45, but there were two changes we made, the holds he put on the roof (yes you did read that right) were moved to make it easier on the fingers. Trust us, trying to match on something that was meant for one hand on a roof is not much fun! Fingers were beginning to hurt.

Skip to a few weeks later (with the hybrid route) and we begin again... we all romped over the route and then decided something a little more spectacular was needed. Joel who's visiting Jacky from Switzerland came over so we gave the holds to him. Now begins a tale of spinning wrenches and the moving of holds; Joel hasn't set before... ever! And he's tall... and strong and he as he says "loves crimpy routes". Noodles went for a beer and then came back in to see what was being set; he'd mutter under his breath and then just walk out again shaking his head.

45 minutes later a route has been formed, the start is nothing short of brutal! Watch the video and if you've got a keen eye you'll notice the the position of the holds stays the same, but the holds do change; rule number one of Routesetting: "Make sure the person can get off of the floor". Eventually we did hit that point, the blind slap around the corner of the 45 was the stopper move for a good long time until we started hitting it and could get onto the 30 degree wall. Did it get easier from there? A little, but not much! The small holds from the set are more than hangable, but you need to be very very gentle getting onto them and how you position your body and weight your hands.
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The larger of the holds have by far some of the largest slots for your hands in these sets, so you could take them up to something around 60 degrees overhung, the rest of the holds as you've seen from the video are suited to either 30 or 45 degree walls, and everything in between. One way or another you will end up having your fingers in slots ranging from finger tip to just over two pads deep.. thankfully there are enough thumb catches and other slots to help you out of whatever mess you can get yourself into.

If you put these holds on slabs / vertical walls and err towards the larger holds then beginners will have some fun getting up whatever route you decide to set, there are more than enough areas for your feet and despite some of the slots being shallow the texture of the holds should grab enough shoe rubber to allow them to get through the moves.

This is another set of holds from Climb It that are pretty rock like in appearance and feel, these holds when matched with say the Cobblestones or Sediments would make for a very interesting route... hey, that gives us an idea... where are the wrenches?





Versatility: Vertically it's pinch time, horizontally it's crimp / edge time
Screw Holes: No



Ok so Seb went a little bit nuts with his route, I went a little nuts as well and then Joel, well Joel just put the icing on the cake... putting anything other than the largest of these holds onto the 45 degree wall was always going to be a real chore to get up/across. But what the hey, if we don't try it then we'd never know.

Speaking with Louie (the shaper) a while back when he heard we were going to look at these he thought that we'd have a real blast with these holds; they turned up at the same time as the Cobblestones and the Halos and we were never sure in which order we were going to review the three sets in; the Cobblestones obviously won, and now these have had a thorough beating (or is it us that took the beating?)

The Erosions are simply put the Sediments without the little stones to hang onto, you're looking at incuts all the way.... what's going to be next? A hybrid set of incuts and little stones... hang on that's actually a pretty good idea!! Oh Loooooouie :) The route I set took some time to get across, which given what I set isn't really a surprise, did you see me hit the hold on the edge of the 45 with my pinky and ring finger and hold it?? Oooof, it wasn't a pretty move, I had a full on case of tourettes going on when I hit that one I can tell ya! It's hard to pin down these holds into what makes them nice to hold onto... the texture takes some time to bed in (which is pretty usual), is it the fact that even the small crimp incuts aren't that brutal on your fingers? or is it the variety of use you can get from these holds? I'm not sure, it's a mix of a lot of things... these holds coupled with the Sediments in the same color is going to make for a really interesting route! (Remember we had the Sediments at the gym on a completely horizontal roof at one point for some knee bar fun); again it seems that Climb It have made a set of holds that we'd recommend, there's nothing bad with them, they can be as brutal as you want on steep terrain (even if they're next to each other) but nice to beginners on lesser terrain. I had fun, I'm never going to do that blind move again as it was crazy, but I will set something else very soon with these holds... well after the TDB they're going to the gym for some more testing....

Joel has the longest reach and new at setting route, which made reconsider Noodles's suggestion that he set a route. I've noticed that when you're new at setting you tend to over think the moves and make the route harder than expected, and with Joels long reach this problem nothing but HARD! We came across the corner with a blind dynamic move to a hold that just bit into my hands. I think Noodles has some kind of climbers sixth sense and when he came around the corner he always hit the bottom part of the hold. Its made up of a couple of shallow finger pockets which are by far nicer than hitting the top crimpier part of the hold.

Climb It holds is one of our favorite hold companies (I know what people are thinking, "climbongholdreview.com should be objective in their review", but if get your hands on a set of Climb It holds and you be the judge) and their shapes give climbing outside a run for its money. The shapes coming from Climb It are consistent where the texture is nice on the skin and the holds are finger friendly (except when chucking a blind move around the corner on a 45 degree wall). Out of all the sets that we've received, I like these ones the most. Many of the real rock crimps feel like real rock and eat away at the skin but you won't find that with the Erosion's. The crimps on the holds are big enough to be comfortable. They're still not big enough for us to use on the 45 (check out the fail at the end of the review) and we ended up using one of the bigger holds for the long move. Not that it made it much easier, we just found the one hold that would allow us to execute the move.

What I really like about these holds is the variety of grips. Right side up, upside down and inside out, the holds will always give you something to grab. It may not be the best placement but with a little effort we could figure out all the moves. When Seb first set with the Erosions, he told us that he set the problem for us and said thought that he was not going to get around it, but we convinced him that it "wasn't that hard" he managed to complete most of the problem. My final words: Not to sound unprofessional or biased but these holds are sweet:P

Climb-It, Climb-It, Climb-It... CLIMB IT! How can you not be tempted to climb on holds like these? When it resembles rock, I can only be tempted to try them. Thankfully, there are companies that have understood that we are ROCK climbers, who are only training on plastic in order to be much better when we get to the mountain, Climb-It seems to have understood this. If you go and browse around their website you will realize that most of their collection is inspired from types of rock found in nature (If you are a competitor of Climb-It, note that!). Oh and I hear you already, thinking that I am picking sides, WRONG! I am an objective reviewer, but I am sick of holds that are too simple and have no natural characteristics about them. The Erosion set was very well conceived. It exists in a range full of sizes which will make you feel like you're supposed to when you're climbing. Holds with well gauged finger holds, without being too easy or too comfortable to hold onto, on a technical route you might even need to feel them out a little before finding your path. It is very possible to place some of the holds in such a way that will enforce certain moves on the climber, since some of smaller holds are quite limiting.

Conclusion, this is a quality set of holds which will be inspiring to both climbers and competitors... of Climb-It

If you are looking for a crimpy challenge then you would be served by the Erosions from Climb It. This series of bright pink original shapes that will remind you that gravity can be a precious gift or a curse! The route I worked on was a nice low traverse demanding more flexibility and balance than strength (I like those!). When set up as such, the Erosions are already challenging.

The stress on your fingers is not necessarily risking injury but your joints will get a work out. There is never quite enough space on the grips to place more then a knuckle's worth of finger. On the other hand, the texture is very nice (although, rock has been roughin' up my finger tips and maybe I'm being nicer than usual). The finish is nice to stick on without feeling like you might over-exfoliate your skin if you fall.

Then, the boys decided to play on the 45... Based on the fact that my 'squeeze' power had already been tested on the 30, I chose to watch and laugh... If I was you I'd do the same (see the video) ;).


SUPER BONUS FAIL PHOTOS / VIDEO
From the video you'll see a bunch of fails... but the faces and the different body positions are worth a second freeze frame look. Four guys, one set of holds and a lot of unbolting... once Pantera came on Noodles hit the move from the 45 and the rest followed; but that was three hours into the session... enjoy our pain :)

Review > Cryptochild > Blades

If you`ve been to any local gym, I`m certain that you`ve come accross holds from So Ill or Cryptochild's holds. They have a lot of unique looking holds that will add the wow factor to your wall and shapes like the Eye Booger and Hands can be attributed to Jason Kehl. Not only is Jason one of the worlds elite boulderers, his spice for life has driven him to create his own line of holds with his company Cryptochild. So from the twisted mind of Jason Kehl, we present the Blades...and of course nothing from Jason is complete without a little weirdness... check out this advert...

CryptoChild Comercial 1 from Cryptochild on Vimeo.

The Blades are a blend between pinches and jugs. On the one hand the larger holds have huge blades on them that resemble a frisbee stuck in a mound of ice cream that are quite obviously jugs, but if you check them out closely you'll see that some of them have an extra blade (or frisbee) that you can use to pinch the hold, just turn the hold and bobs your uncle, pinch to jug with the twist of a wrench!

So as you can see the holds are pretty big and finger friendly so we set up a nice easy traverse starting on the 45....well easy enough untill you get to the last hold. I described the Blades as a blend between pinches and jugs and where all the holds are jugs the exception is this one holds which is a pure pinch. It's the red hearing of the set and we always found ourselves figuring out which grip to use on the pinch. Having two blades on one hold makes it so there are many different ways of gripping the hold. So natuarally, our next step is to put them on the 45:)

On the 45 the holds are comfortable and there is no real effort pulling on the holds and the only challenge came when we tried to get through the pinch hold. Its a really sneaky hold, the two blades on the hold are parallel and have a bit where you can get your fingers in so although its a narrow pinch, it feels as though you can hold on. My pinch strength isn't as strong as Noodles but we both had problems sticking the pinch and ended up using it to bump to the next hold.

So thus far, we're having fun, but the holds don't pose any big problems and to shake things up a bit I set a route starting under the box. The second hold only has one blade and I put it the wrong way up so you can use it as a really, really narrow pinch or somehow use it as a slope. We all thought that the first couple of moves looked difficult enough but it didn't take us very long to get through the sequence.




With holds of this size and having the deep incut, these holds could be set on any terrain. We had them up as steep as 45 degrees but we stayed away from setting them in the roof. The incut is not quite big enough to be called a jug and setting them in the roof would require some work to send.

The set is great for home walls. The shapes are skin friendly, easy to climb on and we had a lot of fun just trying to find the right beta for the pinch hold. For us here at CHR, the holds were the right mix for everyone to have an evening of fun and even after putting the hold upside down on the box there is a sense of gratification after completing the problem. These holds lend themselves well for warmups or for breaks on hard sequences and they're catagirized as easy on Crytochilds web site.


Versatility: Some of the holds have double grabs, others... just rotate them
Screw Holes: But the larger holds could do with them


EVE
Ooh, that I like! Nice big holds that are useful in any angle. You can create whatever move you want with these, you can pinch, you can crimp, you can lean, but you really can only do one or the other on any given hold. The cherry on the sunday that is the Blade set is this hold that looks like... well, see I've been describing it in R-rated terms but lets say a double parallel blades... yea! Anyway, this hold will drive you insane. In any given set up, you will find a million ways to hold the darn thing and yet, nothing is quite comfortable enough to be confident when you finally put your weight on it. On the 45, it left us pondering which way we had to set the sucker up to be able to finish the route. Otherwise, the rest of the set allows beginners to find their niche on the overhang since they are large enough to compensate for one's lack in core muscles.

I guess I should mention that they are black and boring and turn grey when chalked which no more exciting. The shapes (except for that one hold) are fairly repetitive as well but serve their purpose nicely although a full route might be a little over repetitive, also, using these as footholds means basically setting up a staircase, but they are on the website as easy!

JACKY
Ooh,

$62 for five holds

Review > Element Climbings > Beta

We received a few sets from Element Climbing, everything from a roof jug to crimps. Now sitting in front of the box of fresh new holds it was easy to see the jugs and pinches but way at the bottom, there was a little bag of lonely holds. So we fished the bag out to find the Beta crimps. At first we thought they were foot holds but when we got them out of the bag we realized that they are too big for foot holds and that they must be crimps, a quick check on Elements site and yup they're crimps...Ranging from incut, to slopey to flat out edges this set has something for everyone, setters will have fun as these holds are good enough for walls up to 45 degrees, we had a number of routes that we used to see how the holds performed, the best one was also the hardest! From the Ammonia holds on the 45 into the Betas on the 30, round and under the box and then finishing up with some easy roof moves on the Metamorphosis... everyone was left pumped at the end of this one!

The holds at first sight are going to leave you thinking "feet?" and sure they do make some pretty nice footholds, big and positive; but where they're best is when they're used to as handholds. Two sets and you're going to have a ball, one for hands and one for feet, but maybe the holds when used as feet are too large for anyone other than beginners or on very steep walls, there's nothing really special about these holds in this mode... keep them for hands unless you're in need for some bomber bolt on footholds.

As hand holds on our 30 degree wall the small slopey holds are super hard to get onto and hold, you can hang them but you need to be delicate, what made our route run was the edges that gave you a slight break before you head into the box and the moves there, then you end up on some of the slopey guys underneath the stairs... brutal? You betcha!!

Most of the holds are deep enough (as you can see from the above image) for two pads of your fingers, so they're really not all that bad for your fingers, some of them to have flat edges so they could dig in and cause a little pain, but no one complained about this, what they did complain about mind you was the move from the 45 onto the 30 degree wall, it was the small round holds and dynamic moves and then hand bumps that caused a lot of problems.

Overall the holds are good as either feet or hands, it depends upon what you need and where you're going to place them, they're by no means anything out of the ordinary but they do climb pretty well.





We went all the way upto 45 degrees with these, and the only real complaint people had was that they were getting pumped out, that is because of a number of reasons the holds (the slopey ones aside) are big enough that if you're semi strong or have good foot placement you can hang around longer than you expect... so you can think about your next move and figure out what you're going to do. That could be a problem for beginners as they're going to be looking ahead (we hope) on a small hold and then are just going to fall off the the wall pumped, this of course is by no means a bad thing, but it could put people off of your intended route / problem because they get pumped out quickly. The holds do inspire confidence, they're small but they're actually pretty damn big compared to other crimps on the market, and that leads us to a question... "Are these holds true crimps?"; well the answer is yes and no, Dan (pictured above) crimped on them, whereas Noodles was using them open handed (better for the tendons) and everyone else did something in between, these holds don't force you into the classic "crimp" hand position, which is a good thing, but if you're looking to train crimp strength you could find these holds a little too big for that.... they're more like 2 finger pad edges than crimps

You can put these holds anywhere as feet, and on a 45 degree wall they're superb, not too hard and not too easy. There are a few sharp edges, but nothing that we found overly bad


Versatility: Crimps to 45 degrees, or footholds
Screw Holes: No, not needed

Urethane! It's a pretty strong mix from what our torque wrench tells us, there were some bubbles on the backs of the holds but nothing major to worry about, unless you look at the Worms which we think will be reshaped... those holds although huge, do not make use feel comfortable on the roof at all!

The holds were well packed and came via Fed Ex. Ah Fed Ex, how I love to hate you! As per usual I had a run around with the buggers and had to make some phone calls to get the box; they'd not thrown it around too much and the shapes came out without being bashed about, which is pretty unusual for Fed Ex :) There was enough packing in the box to give your rabbit bedding for a month or two, so needless to say it was more than enough (Copy from before as we have had the holds a while)

JACKY
These are the type of equipment that asking for beta is not shameful, unless of course you are only using them as footholds. Otherwise these are clearly to be used by experienced clientele. The surface finish is porous, giving good adhesion, that is, if you can even hold onto the Betas. The surface gives the feeling that these holds will be nice and sticky, and that they will remain that way despite exposure... under the condition that you treat them to a nice brushing to avoid magnesium saturation.

The fact that there are some holds in the kit that have positive angles brings a level of difficulty I do like to see in crimps. Since the Beta come in a pack of 12, a setter can use them to force a given movement on the climbers. The construction seems solid since we didn't feel like we were going to snap the pieces when bolting them onto the wall. The size of the pieces are well guaged, giving solidarity and a nice technical difficutly, there are no irregulaarities that could cause finger discomfort or skin flappers. And so for me it's back to the wall for training, remember... it's all in the footwork :P

In order to lengthen the problem we set, we used the roof jugs "Metamorphosis", you know the ones that look like worms, which is why we clearly named them "Worms" around here! Again the holds are pourous so once you're holding them, you know there's no slipping off of these holds. Although the "Worms" are pleasant to look at on a first glance basis, we wondered if they could handle a few extra pounds or "big-bones" hanging off of the roof... the skinny part of the Worms caused us to worry about their durability, until none of these holds have broken, even after we've had a heavier guest over then Noodles*, leaving us with more confidence. Conclusion on the Worms, they're massive handle bars to be used on a roof or to entertain children with their shape. Although I should mention that we still doubt their strength against someone 200lbs or more

*Noodles being the heaviest member of CHR... hahahaha!

DO NOT DELTE ME!!

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Versatility: More than you think on first glance
Screw Holes: No

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