Review > Element Climbing > Aftershocks

Element has been around for a while but has kept under the radar working on shapes and recently released some of their creations upon the climbing world. One of their newest shapes, The Aftershocks, kept up with the cracked rock theme found on the Quakes and Tremors.
The Aftershocks have the same texture as the holds mentioned above but are of different shapes. Where the Quakes are by far the biggest holds and rock on roof sequences, the Tremors are medium ledges/pinches, the Aftershocks have filled up the void and consist of small to large pinches. Now we use the pinch classification for these holds lightly, they are actually classified as large ledges and slopers on the Element Climbing website. Their classification is a little misleading. There are no set guidelines that hold manufacturers use when classifying their holds and we here at climbing hold review have had some feedback on the issue; we have some stuff in the works that we'll unveil in the New Year; maybe it won't be industry wide but you will have some way of seeing the sizes of the holds :)

So suffice to say that Element Climbing has their own way of classifying their holds. When it comes to the kind of shape or grip, the fine line black and white can be askew, and the Aftershocks are round like slopers and have one good ledge on each hold, but since we’re exclusively bouldering we find them to be used more as pinches than anything else. As for the size, there are eight holds in the set, two of which could be called a “large hold”. As for their little brothers and sisters…well that just says it all…they’re the same kinds of shapes only smaller. If Element had to give this set one designation, it should be a medium size set.

WALKTHROUGH HERE

We like bright colored holds. Not only do they look cool but it’s easy to spot the next move when the holds stand out. Element sent us our first set to review in dark green and we weren’t to keen on the color, but this time around their holds are bright. The set has eight holds and the sizes are from two finger pinch (I mean ledge;) to large open hand matches. Although

VIDEO HERE

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The shapes are easy by design and we raised the difficulty by setting the holds far apart. We’ve had these holds sent with the Quakes and Tremors and we’ve been climbing on them for a while. The sets compliment each other and we set a round all the way around the wall using the three sets.

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A set with this wide a variety can be set on any terrain bar the roof or super steep angles. Not every hold will be good on the 45 but there is a hold for every angle. We mainly put them on the 30 degree wall and they made for some fun warm up routes or for some bounce around routes where we took it relatively easy. When they were set on the 45 they were very hard to hold onto even though the holds range from small to large, the large holds are ok, but the small holds are just plain hard to grip there's not really enough to hold onto comfortably; mind you sometimes a challenge is a good thing... but these were just plain hard to hold onto... probably too hard to hold onto for most people comfortably.

Mixing these holds in with others that are the same color (like we did) will make for some very interesting routes, when we set with the Rock Candy Ruffles the route was fun and allowed us to have way more fun than with the holds by themselves. The smaller holds should really be foot holds, so that means you've got four good handholds and four good footholds.

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 8
  
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt ons
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $44.95 / 8 = $5.62
  
• Color: Lime green
  
• Bolt placement: Right in the middle
  
• Sanding: Excellent
  
• Texture: The cracks in the holds help, you can dig your fingers in a little more
  
• Set size: Small to large
  
• Versatility: So-so
  
• Pre-drilled screw holes: ?? CHECK ??
  

Where they could save weight, they did it. Although the larger holds of the set are large enough to match, they still only fit in the palm of your hand. Element molded these shapes with hollow backs and it a good attention to detail. I think that if they could, they’d scoop out the backs of the smaller holds as well. The texture is nice and has good friction without the burn. If they’re like the hold we’ve had from them in the past, they can get a thick layer of chalk on them before they start to lose their grip.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Well packed, no damage to speak of

RATING:
Noodles:
This is the first set from Element Climbing that I'm not so mad happy about, there's nothing wrong with them, nothing at all. They're perfectly fine shapes, nice to hold onto and there's a good mix of sizes to allow you to set whatever you like. They're just not my favorites that's all. The holds are all well built and most of the shapes are hollow backed, something that some of the larger company's should look at, if Element can hollow back their holds of this size then so could you :D

When we'd climbed all over the place on them we decided to rock in with the Ruffles from Rock Candy to spice up our route and to add some edginess to our sequence. Adding these holds added a degree of fun that we needed, it was raining outside and we we're getting shut down on a couple of problems we'd set. Before we added in these holds I was having trouble with the sequence that Chris had set the smaller holds were just too small for me to be pulling myself off of the floor on time and time again; so I sat it out and let the others beat themselves up on the route.

If you get these holds in the same color as a bunch of other holds then they'll fit in nicely on any routes you'd like to set, for short bouldering problems they're not so bad, you can set some fun stuff but nothing massively outstanding in my honest opinion; you win some, you loose some

Chris:
Element climbing has sent us plenty of holds in the past. They have a large selection of shapes and the ones we've seen in the past have all had a degree of challenge to them, the Aftershocks are much easier to climb on than the previous holds we've reviewed. The shapes of the Aftershocks are straight forward, its obvious where the good part is and despite the grip you use, you will always feel solid. Personally I find that the set by itself is nothing special and serves better purpose if you have other holds to set with. We had more fun with the problem we set with the Ruffles than anything else. It didn't take too much time before everyone sent the problems we set on the vertical and 30 degree. Even with the long moves we all got around it. The Ruffles added diversity and a degree of difficulty that the set can't offer on its own.

As a whole, this set would not be my first choice from Element. I find that the shapes are very simple and there isn't a whole lot of variety for setting. What the set has going for it is the variety in size. The grips may stay the same from hold to hold, but the degree of difficulty increases as you get onto the smaller holds.

PROS:

• Nice hollow backs on small holds
• Large variety of sizes
  

CONS:

• The small holds are very small and hard to hold onto on steep terrain
• All the grips you'll use are the same (Minor)
• Color could be hard to match it you want it exact
  

PRICE:
$44.95 gets you eight holds

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OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds:
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons):
  
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Color:
• Bolt placement:
• Sanding:
• Texture:
• Set size:
• Versatility:
• Pre-drilled screw holes:

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:

PACKING / SHIPPING:

RATING:
Noodles:

Chris:

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA

PRICE:

Interview > Uprising Holds

Name and job

How long has Uprising been around?

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

Why the name?

Where are you based?

How many people work on making the holds?

What's your process for shaping a new hold? Do you say grasp a door handle and find inspiration?

We love the look of your training shapes especially the Sky Hooks look interesting, how long did it take to come up with the shape for those?

How about the Extensor? Is that an existing device or did you take a forearm bar and then refine it?

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

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

What holds from your line would you suggest for (and why?):
a)A home wall
b) Gym looking to spice up their walls?

As you're in NZ, where would suggest someone that's visiting for a few weeks go and climb?

How often do you add shapes to your current line up?

Any holds you're particularly proud of?

Any shout outs?

Core climbing logo

http://coreclimbing.co.uk

UPRISINING

Review > Contact Climbing Holds > Warheads

It's always nice to see something from Contact Climbing, their holds always have a pretty unique feel to them but of late they've been very quiet... they've been away from shaping and they spent the summer outside sending! But Autumn is here and now they're back in the workshop toiling away, molding and getting shapes ready for the winter season.

First up are the Warheads...As you can see that the Warheads are a large set, and when you look at the price being $48 then you're looking at some holds that are jacks of all trades, good for pretty much (notice we say pretty much) any angle... some of them are actually a little trickier to hold than first glance may suggest.
Why do we say they're pretty good for all angles? Look at the image above... lets go left to right:

1. Huge sloper, but there's enough for you to grab onto for when it's on the roof
2. Massive jug, hang on anywhere
3. Jug, really incut, super fun to swing about on
   
4. Sloper, we put it on the roof and Noodles managed to hang and campus off of it when it was on the Nicros Jug-or-Not, but it was horizontal
   
5. Huge sloper, but it has a sneaky incut right at the back which gives you some help when it's on the roof
6. Big ol' edge, the area you grab is a little sharper than we'd have really liked, but it's doable

See we're not completely mental :) We've had these all over the wall and they perform well, the lines that have been incut around the holds really help with the grip, and even though they don't really need the lines to help the grip on these holds because they're grippy as hell without the lines. That being said they do add an nice aesthetic to the holds

The devil is in the details with these holds, from the well placed pre-placed screw holes to the little nuclear symbol that's around the Contact logo... they're called Warheads so that's a nice touch!

Eve wanted to set with the holds as soon as she saw them, we've been setting some hard stuff and none of it's been very easy... so she wanted the holds, and she wanted to play on the 45 degree wall, so we let her play where she wanted. The one thing she mentioned about what she was going to set was the fact that she was going to put the sloper as the last hold... we didn't worry! Well we didn't worry until we tried to stick the last move... til we actually tried to stick the last move and we got spat off of the wall. Spat off of the wall until Eve told us that the walls upright on the left was in, still we had trouble as the footwork was a little tricky to get right... but we got it done. As we we're comfortable with the holds and we didn't want to use the side wall, we wanted to try to finish the route without it... NOPE! Fail, the sloper is just too hard to hang as the last move... but rotate it slightly so it's angled and it's much easier to hold onto... well it's hard, really hard.

Apart from one of the holds that is a little sharp on the edge and the sloper that is hard to hang onto these holds are good for short bouldering problems on pretty well any angle; we let Eve play with them and she wanted a simple problem on the 45, if you've watched the video then you can see that Eve was pretty sneaky with what she set... that sloper was plain evil as the last move!
This set has a little (actually large) something for everyone, big ol jugs, a sloper that's just about doable on the 45 and then the large sloper (number 1) that's go to much room on there that you have so much friction you can stick it easily and then there's number 5 a hold that's a sloper or a huge edge it's having a slight identity crisis.

Ok, we made a complete mess of the walk through, and we're sorry about that... we learnt that our files on the camera get over written :(


Versatility: Quite a lot, spin them around
Screw Holes: Yes

NICK - THE NOOB
"Hey everybody, The Noob is back with another color commentary ( YAY!!! ;D ). I haven't been climbing nearly as much as I should these past few days but I was lucky enough to drop in when everyone was testing out a set from Contact Climbing and as the name of the set suggests, these holds are the bomb!

So Warheads, what's so good about them? Well for starters there weren't any rough edges I could find to rip your hands open and keep you off the wall for days healing, they're a large set so there's plenty of surface area to grab on to unlike some other holds on the wall right now (you know who you are) and best of all you can use them on any (and I mean any) incline you can dream up! I got a chance to try them out on the 45 and I'll admit they were fun to climb there but they really blew me away (hehe, I made a funny ;p)

When we reset them on the roof, it was the first time I've managed to climb a route on the roof so I was pretty impressed with myself and the holds. It gave me a real incentive to try out some other sets from CC and after briefly looking over their catalog I've got a couple ideas I want to bring up the next time we climb. I'd also like to see if we can set something interesting on the 30 to the 45 and see how they transition from one slope to the next but I'll have to leave that up to the guys for the final approval as well as certain time constraints (so many holds to review, so little time).

So why should you get a set of these for your wall at home? Well, they're comfy, easy to set on any incline and from their design and the six holds included in the set you can make a ton of easy to challenging routes depending on your skill level. Of course that's good news for me and all you other novice climbers out there but the best part is that they aren't an expensive set either (about mid-range based on what I've seen).
My advice, get the set! I just hope I get a chance to try more CC holds so I can form a better opinion of the company as a whole.... like getting a set of large and medium Guidelines for example (Noodles I hope you're reading!!!). As far as first impressions go I was blown away ;)

Interview > Summit Labs

Name and job?

My name is Morgan Barnes. Making climbing holds.

No no, your real job!

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

How long as Summit Labs been around?

For about 1 year now.


Why the name?

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

Where are you based?

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

How many people work on making the holds?

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

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

Very much so.

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

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

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

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


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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

Is there a guide yet?

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

What does the future hold for Summit Labs?

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

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TEST

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PROS

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

CONS

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

PRICE

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

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