DNDEL: CLIMB IT ANIMATION

Review > Climb It > Top Out Slopers

When we get a mail that says:
"Heads up, there are some heinous slopers coming your way"
We're going to wonder whats going on! Then when you get the holds you figure out what's going on... and then you look at the name of the holds (which changed from when we first got these)... you kind of sit back and wonder just what you're going to do with them!

From the get-go on these holds Zach was very nervous about us reviewing them; why? Because these holds have a specific use, and he was thinking that we'd not be able to do much with them... we don't have a slab or a boulder we can top out on... but holds are just holds; aren't they?? Surely even though Louie Anderson has shaped some holds built for the tops of boulders so people can practice their horrible belly flop exits to climbs, there's no reason that they can't be used else where?? Really??

Noodles, was not worried, he set (for want of a better word) one of the most brutal balance / tension / foot popping traverse across the wall... and that's just where the fun began! Once we realized that there is no way in hell that you can use these even on the slightest over hang (well maybe a 10 or 15 if you're into double digit V grades) you get to thinking, how far can you push them on the vertical??




The answer is pretty simple, not that far, unless you have ninja like balance and hands like Spiderman; these holds are hard, but remember, these holds are for the tops of boulders!! So as there was a warm up comp happening at Allez Up we dropped them off for the evening to see what someone that was setting on the boulder would think of them. TJ and Alex used them at the top of the wall where the holds were meant to be, and the move into them was pretty damn hard, but once people dyno'd and caught with a hand they stuck and were able to pull up without a worry, even with the holds being thin. So it seems that if you have a boulder that needs spicing up then these will give you hours of setting and climbing fun, these holds were made with a purpose in mind and they fulfil that purpose as intended. Overall great holds for top outs, everywhere else it's a toss up as to how useful that they'll be, that being said look at last weeks video, do you see the Top Out Slopers in there?? They're the move out of the 45 degree wall, and then back into the wall and then the final hold you hit on that route... like we said, you can use them, hell before we figured out an easier beta on the start Noodles was matching on of the holds and then going into the top of the 45 wall; they can be used, but they're very wall / body position specific

Overall: we tried, we failed, but we had a laugh trying; that's for sure...they're a 50/50 not because of texture or size, but purely because they are meant for one function and one function only, that being said there are some more shapes coming that are in the same vein, but they'll be deeper and better for normal walls.... thank god :)






These holds are so specific that we don't even have an icon for them. The holds are best for top out and slabs but they also work well in corners like we had them set on our wall.

We like to find the full potential of the holds that we get and when we set them on the slight overhang we were surprised that we got as far as we did. But that wasn't very far and we were being very very creative with the setting and the moves; if you need something on a vertical wall that will allow you to hold yourself in place then these were a nice surprise. Putting them under the box and then matching was harder than we expected, you end up with so much pressure on your feet it becomes really hard to move. These holds could be used for some balance routes, but if the wall is vertical or overhung they're just going to be used (we think) as holds that will allow the climber to adjust their postion on the wall but not to pull on. Use them as intended; for the tops on a boulder and you'll have no complaints, elsewhere... avoid unless you're super super super strong on vertical thin as hell can I hold onto this slopers.


Climb It has taken the path of many companies and make their holds from urethane. If they were made from resin they would not have stood up to the abuse of the saw, we'd have shattered it all over the floor. Thus far we've not broken or chipped any of the Climb It holds that we have

CHRIS > Review > Teknik > Svelt Pinches

The Svelt pinches are new shapes from Teknik, (so new in fact that even though they have been released you won't find them on the Teknik website and you'll need to contact Seth and Zoe to put in an order) and ours came in a bright fluorescent orange. We like it when holds stand out on a wall and these holds stand out and you can easily see the sequence but don't be fooled, they are pinches with no positive edges and you'll be scratching your head trying to figure out the right beta. The holds are shaped with one flat side and one slopey side and this makes them super hard to hold onto.

We first set the route with the pinches on vertical into the 30 degree overhang. We set them quite low and we needed to squeeze hard on the hold so as not to fall off. Our local gym held a mini competition and they requested the Svelt pinches for the finals (Editors note: they asked for holds, I lent them the pinches because I wanted to seel people suffer :P). Personally, I think that these holds would be great for training purposes, but the opinions are mixed on the subject. If you're strong on crimps you'll find that these are still pretty hard to pinch and you'll be cupping and squeezing the hold like we did on the 30 degree. That being said, if you lack pinch strength you'll be struggling to hold on and the texture is quite smooth which makes it even harder to stick and those who lack the strength will be frustrated with these holds but if you're looking to increase your pinch strength, these are the holds train on. One thing that we all agreed on is that a 45 degree wall is too steep for the Svelts. We proved this to ourselves by setting a short problem on the 45. After repeatedly falling off, swapping the holds around and trying out different beta we were convinced that they will not go back on the 45. So the best place for these holds are on vertical terrain or slightly overhanging. On a vertical wall even those who struggle with pinches can work on the sequence without tormenting themselves, add some angle and they start to get harder, add more angle and you're just going to get pitched off onto the mats.

The good thing about the holds are where they come from, Seth and Zoe or Zoe and Seth have their shaping down, we can't think of a hold from their entire line that isn't nice to hold onto, the immediate sets of hols that you may have seen from Teknik that compare well to the Svelts are the Fat Pinches; if you know these and are thinking about getting the Svelts then bare in mind that these are about 25% thinner and about 1 million times slopier!!







When we put the holds on the 45, we thought that with a little work at least one of us could make it to the top but after falling repeatedly, we decided to call it a fail. Setting a full problem on pinches isn't the best for your hands and I could feel the strain from the session in my joints. There's a fine line between sticking and falling off these holds and we need On vertical and overhangs up to 30 degrees is ideal placement for the holds and are a whole lot a fun if you set a low traverse.Setting the holds so they are angled flat (rather than in pinch mode) gives you some serious sloping / pinch fun, that most people will be able to muscle their way through.


attractively or gracefully slim; and these holds are probably that, they are svelt in shape and form, they're probably more "merde" for most people when they grab them :) Yup they're not easy pinches to get a-hold of, good on the hands, sweet on the skin but soooo hard to stick if you get it wrong; is this a good or bad thing?? It's tough to say, we've been criticised for not being harsh enough on peoples holds (we're trying trust me) and we sat long and hard thinking about the pros and cons for these guys; there's not much you can say that's wrong with these holds, Teknik (as do a lot of company's) have their game down, they don't put out half baked shapes and these sure as hell aren't half baked, they're full on cooked.

The holds have a solid centre for the bolt to run through, and some of the holes are off centre a little; I don't know if these holds are sanded and then drilled or drilled and then sanded; but there was a slight lift on one hold that allowed it to spin til we tightened it more than the others. This didn't affect the holds performance in anyway, it's just a side note. Why more companies don't do this with their holds is a wonder to me sometimes, it helps with overall strength for the shape and braces the bolt somewhat....

Overall, I thought I was strong on pinches, have realised that I need to be stronger for the competition scene as if these holds start popping up (and I'm sure they will) I'm sure to have a hard old time getting to the top of the route; good work, I / we and maybe you will have a set of holds to work on your open hand pinch strength
JACKY
The feeling when you first see the holds is that you really want to touch the floro orange shapes, they're the kind of holds you see first when you enter the gym... then you take a couple of seconds to look at them, just so you can see the route and then you realise that these are probably the kind of pinches that are going to make you sweat and swear. I went onto the routes what were set once the holds had been chalked, so I cannot comment on the feelings that have been expressed about the holds when they are clean, but it doesn't matter, each time you arrive to a route in the gym, it's always chalked up. I'm the kind of climber that likes to climb long moves where you use a lot of strength and where my hands are on big holds, almost near slopers. The Svelt pinches are tiny and will make you use your open hand strength when they're used on vertical walls.. these holds work your body but you can't tell which muscle til the day after, but they're forearm sappers for sure!! Yeah baby I like it! The routes we set my favorite was the Svelt set as a sloper to a long more to a small hold, my favorite!!! I don't think that Noodles ever finished the route :D

Review > Project Holds > Kreases

When you look at holds, and more specifically hold shapers you will generally run into a name that pops up a lot, and not because we mention him a whole bunch, but because he shapes for more companys than you can shake a stick at... Louie Anderson is probably one of the most prolific shapers out there right now, there are company's that have his shapes sitting waiting to be molded, the holds we're looking at are one of the lines he shaped for Project Holds, and there are more sizes being molded and added to this line of shapes as we speak.

The Kreases are going to stand out on your wall, no matter what color you get them in, ours are pink... and it's not the color that makes them stand out, it's the shapes; the holds look like you want to grab them... and you do want to grab them, and then you're going to have to find out where you really want to have your hand, because these holds are hard to read, you think that an area is going to be good until you reach, slap and realize that it's actually not as good as you think :) Sitting somewhere between sharp crimps and gritty slopers the sets offer a fair ammount of variety of hand positions if you use your brain and your body, if you don't you're going to just end up crimping and that's not a bad thing, but as the angle gets steeper the passable edges on the holds start to really bite into your fingers, we know this because after we set some nice travereses on the slight overhang we chucked them onto the 45 to see what would happen!
VIDEO

VIDEO END
As you've seen there was a lot of falling going on, with Noodles eventually getting the send! But that send took two weeks of working on and off, the cross into the pinch is hard enough, moving off of it was just totally hit and miss. If you have keen eyes you'll notice that a couple of the holds change towards the end of the video, why? Because some of the holds are just plain unusable on the steep walls. That being said our local gym got the same holds as us and there are some killer routes up on the vertical to slightly overhung walls, given the nature of the holds these do lend themselves to 5.9+ routes, and some pretty hard bouldering. The holds have seen alot of traffic during the comp (which they were brought for) and after, I've been asking people that I've seen climbing them their overall impressions and most people do like the nature of having to feel for the correct slot on the holds. If you're looking for a set to make people think, with their hands and their feet then you can't really go wrong with these, they are sharp in places, but aslong as you're not dynoing to them then you should be fine.





Well the Creases have some good edges and if you're crazy, strong or stupid enough you could get them on a wall as steep as 45 degrees. Despite the look of the hold, they are crimps and they have the creases which give you a veriety of way to grip the hold so you will use your head well and your grip strength. These holds hit our local gym for a comp (in a different color) and the route that was set was super fun to climb on... infact it's still up! These are best suited for vertical to slight overhanging walls, unless you're a mutant, then get them on the steeps and you can sit at the bottom and look at them, because if you're not in shape, or you get a hand / foot placement wrong you're going to be right back on the mats.. we'd suggest keeping these holds to nothing steeper than 30 degrees over!


What was I thinking with these holds over Xmas? Stick them on the 45? I must be crazy... two weeks of trying to complete the route crazy :) My fingers hurt at the end of it all, but I was happy to get those moves done in one go! Even though the route I set maybe a work of genius (or madness) if has had most people struggling for beta, or in Jacky's case; struggling to get off of the floor. When some people came over during Xmas it was plain to see that these holds on the 45 isn't going to work for anyone that is a low end intermediate climber, the moves were just too powerful; so I set an easy sequence for them and they still struggled (I was skipping holds)
It just proves that if you're buying these holds you're going to have to set for whom you'd like to get up the route! I almost took down the route a number of times as it just seemed like it was going to be too hard to see a send, but Chris urged me to keep it up, and I'm glad I did, my fingers aren't so happy from all the crimping, but then again I suppose it's my own fault for putting them where they are. If you want some decieving holds that are going to make people have to work (and I do mean that) for the send then these should be on your shopping list, if you're looking for some holds for your home woody then again these "could" be for you, but they're not the most friendly in the World (they're also not the worst)
Our first experience with Project was with the Jugs. While going through the catalog, the Kreases really caught my eye, and I was really happy when Noodles put in an order :) A product of slopers and crimps the holds provide a wide variety of grips so you'll have to use you head. We first set a traverse on the 60 degree wall. After we put up the 45, the route got an extension starting in the 45 and ends on the original route. It took us awhile to get the route because the holds hurt and we could only have a couple of go's a session. Despite the pain the holds are fun and we came up with different sequences before finding the right beta. So ideally these holds should be on slight overhangs to slabs but if you're strong enough you could have fun on steeper terrain; I think I prefer long routes in a gym than bouldering on these holds... but that's just me!

JACKY SAYS
Since I'd just got back from HP40 my fingers are similar to a new born babies! So please remember that when you read below:
These holds are the kind that you love to have on a 45 degree wall, I felt awkward on them, but once the sequence clicks in your head you can get through the kind of problems that Noodles sets. Most holds have enough space for two or three finger tips, like any normal crimp; inside the crack it's slippers, with a good texture on the outside. The sizes of the holds are good when they're used on vertical or positive (slab) walls. Slabs are going to end up being super tech, and probably the way Noodles sets painful :)
Most people will find a place to grab the holds, they maybe sharp in places but you'll be able to balance and pull until you go past 45 degrees.

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Three Ball Comp Entries

Three Ball Climbing ran a competition with some of their holds before the holidays, all you had to do was buy a set of their holds and then submit a short review of them with some pictures and then they'd get the cost of the set refunded. We figured, as the reviewer(s) had done a bunch of work we figured we'd post them up on the site.... so we've got three reviews, on two sets of holds, the Hover and the Mantis sets :) The reviews have only been edited slightly (by me) for editing purposes.... otherwise they're untouched!

The Hover: Review by Joshua Vance
I really enjoyed climbing on the Hover set. The holds are all very deep giving you an opportunity to get a good grip every time you reach for them. They are fairly comfortable, though after climbing on them for a while, they are a little rough on the fingers. Some of that may be due to the amount of hang time to get the pictures taken, though I felt that the holds were extremely easy to hang from. The hand holds themselves are all very good size and shape. There is plenty of room to get a big hand in and not worry about missing a finger, and therefore falling on your back. The value of the holds is very good. At just $10 per hold, you are getting a ton of hold for very little money. I would consider buying another set of them in fact. I would definitely recommend them to a friend or anyone who has a roof to climb on. I put the holds close together to test them out,
but they will be spread out over the wall to make a very challenging climb. I hope this review helps. Thanks for the great product.

Joshua Vance

The Mantis: Review by Mark Petnuch

My FedEx guy was here before 2PM, holds went up an hour later, then climbs and got a couple photos before the snow and cold comes in tonight. Pretty much the end of my outdoor wall season.

Here's the beta: My wall is outdoors, plywood, east wall is about 110 degrees, west is close to 130. So they are 10 and 40 degrees off vertical. 12 to 18 ft. high in most spots. Sorry I couldn't clear off the wall of other holds. Tried to edit out the photos to some degree. One (w8) is a full blown shot of the steep wall. Got a couple close ups of them, and your old fist and footie holds are in there too on the east wall. And I even painted the little '3 balls' in red on each one! I've only got a 10 second delay on the digicam so did the best in racing up to the holds to get some photos.

Evaluation: Holds are bomber on the less angled wall, no problem staying on them,even with a tweaked finger joint. None are too big to be a jug, but also not too small to wear out your tendons or fingertips. On the steep side at 130 degrees, well they get pretty challenging. I'm not the best at sloper / incuts on a steep wall and prefer some bomber jugs, great crimps or sharp edges at that angle. Never got up high enough, fast enough, to show my feet with the 10 second camera self timer. I plan to rotate them in my hold cycle, and probably put them up on the steep side to mess up someone working on a project here next summer. Holds have large screw anti-spin holes but I didn't need to use them at this point.Texture is just right, slips a little at they get steeper. All shoes do fine on them for footwork. Several of the larger holds have nice underside edges that make for great thumb catches to help the fingers stay put on upper side sloper. Lots of repeat similarity in the set; maybe a few sharp angles to a couple holds, or one much larger hold would add something different.

Hope this helps you in your evaluation of the set. Thanks again for a fast delivery.

Mark Petnuch

The Mantis: Review by Joshua Vance
I placed the Mantis set on a 45 degree wall and set up a very easy route. At my climbing ability level, these holds were extremely difficult for me to hold on to. I was only able to make one move and that was while holding on to the largest 4 finger hold with my left hand. The pockets are not very deep and therefore, I was not able to make transitions at that steep of an
angle. I think the set is a good value though at less than $4 per hold, the set has a good mix of holds as well. I enjoy these holds at a higher angle, like 60-80 degrees and was able to climb them much more efficiently. My friends climbed on them as well and as we are about the same skill level had very similar feelings. I would recommend the set to a friend, but I will have to improve quite a bit before I am able to climb them at 30-45 degrees. Thanks for making a great product!

Joshua Vance

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CHRIS > Review > Nicros > Skin Saver Crimps

When we mentioned to Greg at Nicros that we were building a 45 degree wall he mentioned that he had something that we'd like! They have a set of crimps that as they say on their site:
"Wanna climb on the 60 without feeling like you're climbing on the 60? Skin Saver Crimps are available in all shapes and sizes. Every hold is strategically Dif-Texed, revealing just enough texture to help preserve your pads." That piqued our interest, and once they arrived they were one of the first sets of holds to be bolted up and hauled on...
What's interesting about these holds is the nature of the dif-texture on the holds, some are left or right hand bias and when you grab them your fingers fall into the optimal spot with the textured area! We set some routes all over the wall, from the 15 to 45 degrees to the ceiling and what you're going to notice is that these holds are exactly as the Nicros site describes, nice big dual textured crimps, as usual we had the video camera on hand to record some of the routes (We're using a new video package, so the quality is better (you can watch in high quality) but the editing is a little bit below our normal standard!))

The holds preferred realm is going to be steep walls, so our holds now reside on the new 45 degree; all of the holds are nice and positive without turning themselves into jugs, the steeper you go the harder they get, but they never get to the point where you say "they're not going on to that", they always remain and feel very doable. We think that the holds are a nice in between set for people that have been climbing for a while that want to haul on steep walls, for beginners given the right hand / left hand bias these will teach (if set right) route finding and problem solving, for the strong climbers out there; there is enough hold/grip to slow you down should you misread the problem or route. There is a lot of fun to be had, the amount is up to whomever sets the route

We had these on the wall before the new 45 went up, all over the place; we even put them on our Jug-or-Not that we have on the roof... and on the roof by themselves. For holds that are designed for steep to super steep terrain these get the job done and get it done very very well, they don't rip your skin to shreds when you're hauling away, there is one minor gripe with these holds is that we'd have preferred the radii of the lips on the holds to be a little larger, they're not sharp like most crimps these are rounded, but when you dyno to some of them they do bite a little!!! But these are crimps (pretty big one's at that) so it's nothing major

When you put them on a roof they do feel marginal... they weren't designed for roofs so don't expect an easy time if you set with them there. That being said, if you're feeling strong and your padding is good then they are more than climbable when your back is pointing at the floor

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Dead Point Magazine Interview

Recently I was contacted by Dead Point Magazine with reguard to a project that they have in mind, if you don't know what DPM is I suggest you click the banner and go and have a look at their latest issue.. for those in the know, DPM is a digital format climbing magazine that's FREE, yup you read correctly FREE!

This may well strike some people as a weird and rather wacky way of having a magazine, but digital media is here and it's here to stay, I decided to have a chat with Matt Stark one of the guys over at their base of operations to see what's up with them and what people should expect from their magazine... read on people, read on:

CHR: Name.... and job:

MATT: My name is Matt Stark. My business card lists my title as, "climber". I hate job titles. I think they sound pretentious. I work at Dead Point Magazine, so I guess work for climbers as well. We are trying to give the younger core community what they want in their climbing media so we have to listen to the pulse of the climbing community and do whatever it is they want us to do.

CHR: Explain to us the who, what, where, when and whys Deadpoint magazine came to life:

MATT: The business plan was hatched several years ago when UCmag came on the scene. It was supposed to be a new hip and edgy, "like skateboard," magazine. It grew stale really fast for a lot of us. I remember I wrote an article for them and they took out the word, "fuck" and replaced it with "darn" or something mundane. I knew right then the "edgy and youthful" bit was a load of canned crap. Even Newsweek and Time print the word "fuck." That is when my hope that another publication would come forward and offer the younger climber what they really wanted. I didn't know then that I would later write the business plan that would become DPM. When I think of today's youth, and what they want, I don't think of endless pages of text. I think of rap videos, video games, I.M, and energy drinks. I think of Volcom's "youth against establishment" motto. Young climbers don't say, "Hey guys, lets go out and climb on the side of that building." They roll out in a posse and say, "Yo, see that boulder? Let's go send that shit!" That intensity and youthful exuberance is what we want in every issue of DPM.

CHR: As climbing gets more and more mainstream, I suppose the phrase "Sex Sells" will come into view more and more. What's your opinion of this factor coming into the sport, more so than it is already.... you're current issue actually address' this factor, what's DPM's standpoint on this?

MATT: That article has certainly been talked about a lot and I am glad. I think the topic needed to be addressed. Our industry, at least in America, has always been a little prudish when it comes to marketing. A few companies have stepped outside the box and have used eye-catching imagery to get people’s attention like Red Chili and Etch. Most people who have seen those ads remember them. I don’t think sex alone can sell hard goods though. Obviously reputation plays a huge roll in that. Clothing on the other hand can benefit from a sexy image. The point is, a sexy image grabs people’s attention. It can’t replace functionality and construction, but it can add to its appeal. Petzl actually ran an ad of a completely naked girl laying on a rock with tan lines from one of their harnesses. It never ran in the states except in the 8a.nu annual which had a very limited distribution here. It actually prompted me to look at their website because I wanted to see the harness and more pictures of course. haha

CHR: What's the goal of the magazine

MATT: The primary objective is to give back to the climbing community. Hopefully, we can rise to that occasion even more so in this dreadful economy. Our media platform is already free for climbers, and because of our low overhead working from home, our advertisement rates are the lowest in the industry allowing the smaller companies in our industry to get their name recognized.

CHR: I assume that Deadpoint is a magazine's staff mainly consists of climbers, how many are you and are you allowed to slack off to climb?

MATT: 100% climbers. We are proud of that! The full time staff is actually a small list. Aside from myself, it consists of Megan Phillips, Bentley Brackett.. We have many others that help us out on a part time basis. As for having time to get outside to climb, I have to admit, my climbing has been infringed upon because of the amount of time working on the magazine. I am trying to stay in shape playing my wife's Wii Fit.

CHR: The current issue you are working on is number 3, how much work does it take to get the mag done, and why digital media rather than a traditional print format?

MATT: Actually, we have both a printed magazine with a circulation of 20k and our digital edition. Both formats are free. The reason we chose to have both is because we had a hard time getting video images to stay on a printed page. That shit kept moving! It also allows us to reach a wider audience. We have readership in 84 countries right now. That is dope! It is cool to see what countries are logged in to DPM. I usually work late at night and often see IP addresses from South Africa, Japan, France, Pakistan, and other countries. That trips me up because I am your typical unilingual American, and I hardly speak that language well! As for how much work is involved.... I though being a full time route setter was rough until I found myself in front of a computer 15-20 hours a day. My tips are getting soft and my ass has calluses. It is a lot of hard work, but as we grow, much of that work will be delegated to others so I will have more free time.

CHR: You're running a home wall give away (we'd like to win please), how did that come about?

MATT: We had teamed up with Etch in our first issue, and we had discussed some cross promotion ideas. The idea for the home wall giveaway just stuck. I have been friends with Ben Montgomery, from Etch, ever since the two of us set for the Petzl Rock Comp together. Knowing Ben probably helped.

CHR: I've spoken to Ben on and off for a while, we've not seen their holds yet but he seems like a pillar of the climbing hold community. The gym scene is exploding right now even with the economy being in the crapper with gyms popping up everywhere, are you going to catering to both sides of the climbing spectrum, indoors and outdoors?

MATT: Everyone is saying the economy is in the crapper and by most accounts it is, but I have spoken with a lot of retail shops and gyms that are claiming that in spite of a slow Christmas, the year as a whole was a good one. I think the media plays such a huge roll in consumer spending that they alone can swing our economy. If Katie Kuric announced the economy was on an upswing and Macy’s was having a sale, the racks would be empty. As for catering to both spectrums of climbing...hellz yeah! Climbing indoors has become a staple for climbers staying fit.

CHR: We're obviously hold orientated, apart from the Wii Fit training you do are there any shapes that you particularly like that are out on the market?

MATT: Well, I retired from professional setting this past year, so I maybe a bit out of the loop as far as new shapes go, but some of my favorites are Project Hold’s Nikons, SoIll’s Limps, and Etch’s Ergos among others for gym setting. There are so many manufactures out there and they all make good shapes for general setting. Feature holds are where it is at though. Every gym should invest in a large assortment of feature holds. It can really add to “fun Factor” of the routes and boulder problems. For comp setting I liked oversized holds from companies that allowed me to tweak them because it created one of a kind obstacles for climbers to get past.

CHR: What's next for the magazine?

MATT: We don't want to give away too much, but there are a lot of exciting things in store of 09'.

CHR: Anyone you'd like to give props to?

MATT: Props, to all the climbers out there who dig deep and are crushing it every time their feet leave the ground. And, thanks to you guys for keeping everyone up to date on all the fresh plastic shapes.

Review > Atomik > Fonts 21 pack & Steep Wall Fonts

Kenny over at Atomik asked us after our last series of reviews what we'd like to see from them, as we loved their Font shapes so much, especially the XXL Font Sloper we suggested they make some more Font shapes and make some packs with them... and what did they go and do?? They only went and shaped a bunch of new Font holds.... HELL YEAH! Not only that the holds we had last time where poured from G1 (Generation 1) molds so the texture was pretty harsh... this time (and for their entire range from now on!!) these holds came from the G2 molds... DOUBLE HELL YEAH!!... so we'll see how the texture go's for the review.. let's introduce the holds we've been playing with:

21 hold Font pack, medium and smalls

Steep wall Fonts, 5 pack

These holds arrived and went straight onto the wall, there was no messing about! I wanted to see what the texture felt like on these shapes, they'd felt pretty good when they were on my desk at work so I was keen to get onto them as soon as possible... and know what? Perfect for the size of the holds, the smalls and mediums have just enough texture that you feel like you're going to be fine, and then Steeps feel the same, it's about how you grab these holds!

As you'll see in the video, we're playing on the smalls are fair amount on the overhung section of the wall, they're small and slopey in most cases so it's pretty hard going most of the time. The stand out holds are the steeps as they can go most places, the red one we have on our box got a lot of attention (and still is) just because it's so nice to hold onto, it's not in the nicest position, but where it is and how you get onto it is a very interesting move :)






These holds are going to be very good for beginners as the areas that you're going to want to grab isn't at first obvious, so they'll teach people about body movement if you set with that in mind. Where these holds will shine is going to be technical slab climbs where balance is going to be key, they're fun on traverses but the going does get tough the more the wall gets overhung, the smalls are super hard on our 30, there's no way they'll go anywhere near the 45. The reason the 45 is in there is because of the large steeps that we have as well, once these are on a steep wall you're going to have to be very delicate to grab the right spot and hang on... so therefore in our book a bunch of fun



SEB
I don't climb anywhere near as much as Chris and Noodles, and I hate small holds... but these seem to be an exception for me (maybe I was just strong that day) as I managed to get most of the way around the route without feeling like my fingers were going to explode. Small holds, as I'm a big guy are my nemesis, I avoid them, but these were very nice to climb on... I just wish my footwork was better so I could finish the route

The 51 pack is $219.99 includes bolts, t-nuts and shipping to lower 48 US states.

The 21 pack is $49.99 includes bolts, t-nuts and shipping to lower 48 US states.

There is a sale on right now... the 51 pack is $199.99 about $4 a hold i.e: CHEAP!