New Paltz Co-Op Burns Down

New Paltz Climbing Co-op.  Photo: New Paltz Climbing Co-op.
New Paltz Climbing Co-op. Photo: New Paltz Climbing Co-op.
The Poughkeepsie Journal is reporting that a fire has burned down the New Paltz Climbing Co-op. The fire, which was deemed an accident, seems to have started as a mechanical failure in the neighboring tire shop which also burned to the ground. No injuries were reported. Chad Foti one of the people behind NPCC posted on their Facebook page, “I’d like to personally thank everyone for all their kind words, support, and confidence, now, and throughout the entirety of our existence. Today is a particularly sad one… But the New Paltz Climbing CoOperative represents so much more than anything destroyed in today’s horrible fire. I’ll be taking the rest of the day off… Tomorrow… We start again.” There is no word yet on whether the co-op will re-build.

Video: Failed Petzl Gri Gri

A video posted to the Routesetters Anonymous Facebook page shows a Petzl Gri Gri found during a routine equipment check that no longer functions correctly.
“Ever seen a failed Gri Gri? Not many have. In fact when I emailed Petzl they said that they had never encountered a failure like this one. I just discovered this Gri Gri failure during routine safety checks this last month. Albeit rare, it’s still a good reminder to keep up on safety checks, always use good belay technique, and put safety backup knots in the tail end of the rope when working on a rope route setting. For reference this one was used on a kids wall top rope anchor it’s whole life (date stamped 2006).”

USAC and Entre-Prises Extend Partnership at Nationals

ABS Nationals Wall.  Photo: Huey Photography
ABS Nationals Wall. Photo: Huey Photography
At the American Bouldering Series Open National Championships this past weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, the competition featured the newly designed bouldering wall from Entre-Prises USA. The wall is part of a 5-year deal between Entre-Prises and USA Climbing. In 2012 EP became USA Climbing’s Official Partner and Official Climbing Wall and Hold Sponsor. In January of 2015, they extended the agreement through 2019. “Supporting our National Governing Body is part of our culture since the beginning of EP,” said Todd Chester, EP Product Manager. “We have been involved with climbing competitions since the 80’s and continue to support national and international organizations that build healthy competitions for everyone.” USAC’s CEO, Kynan Waggoner, told CBJ, “EP has a track record and history of providing great competition climbing walls to some of the biggest events in the world.” In fact EP has been sponsoring competition climbing in America since the first US World Cup at Snowbird in 1988, and built the bouldering and climbing walls for the ESPN X-Games. “It seemed natural for USA Climbing to partner with Entre-Prises after the completion of our previous 3 year agreement,” Waggoner said.
Noah Ridge getting it done at ABS Open Nationals.  Photo: Huey Photography
Noah Ridge getting it done at ABS Open Nationals. Photo: Huey Photography

Wall Design

The design of the new wall has been a closely held secret with no photos or wall renderings released before last week’s event. Along with EP’s in-house design guru, Grant Ortman, USAC enlisted the creative talents of Chris Danielson, an international routesetter and climbing wall design consultant, to come up with a competition wall that would test the climbers on all skill sets. “The three main wall types (low angle, slight, steep) and the variable configurations can help us test climbers across as many diverse styles as possible,” said Danielson. “It helps us give them the opportunity to demonstrate their unique skills.” Danielson has helped design a number of commercial climbing facilities including Sender One’s Santa Ana and LAX facilities in California, Ascent Studio in Ft. Collins, CO, Vertical Adventures in Columbus, OH, and Stone Gardens in Bellevue, WA. He has also honed his design chops over multiple iterations of USAC comp walls: from the original Pyramid wall used at UBC events and the Vail World Cup from 2008 – 2011, to both versions of EP’s bouldering wall. EP’s new wall is a refinement of the previous bouldering wall, which was used from 2012 to 2014 at ABS Nationals and the Vail World Cup. “Whereas the original EP wall was one of greater extremes, with big slabs and massive steep bays, the new wall is intended to balance out those extremes with more mid-range overhanging options,” Danielson said. For EP’s Todd Chester, the largest difference between this year’s and last year’s wall is the addition of “adjustable sections and ensuring everything is interchangeable with the previous wall,” he said. “This allows the diversity for different skill levels, scaleable to the event needs and continues to prioritize install and disassembly times.” Danielson, who was also on this year’s ABS Open Nationals routesetting crew, believes the wall is as important as the holds and the volumes used. “It is just as integral to the feeling of a competition and the results it creates as any other element of the equation,” he said. “But considering the walls or the actual routesetting, we are not determining the outcome of the competition but rather creating situations that challenge the climbers to manifest their own results.”
Photo: renoyounggun.blogspot.com
Original EP wall from 2014. Photo: renoyounggun.blogspot.com

The Two Shall Meet

Even though USA Climbing has a new bouldering wall, that doesn’t mean it’s time to retire the old EP wall. The original wall will be re-paneled with the light grey and pink color scheme that is used on this year’s wall, and it will be given a fresh coat of EP’s new wall texture. USAC’s Waggoner said they have no intention of selling the old wall. Instead they will keep the wall for future events. “We will have an infinite amount of different wall angles and orientations to choose from when we next host an event,” Waggoner said.

Adaptive Climbers Compete at ABS Open

Ronnie Dickson.  Photo: Adaptive Climbing Group.
Ronnie Dickson. Photo: Adaptive Climbing Group.
Kareemah Batts, President of the Adaptive Climbing Group, announced that for the first time in history, two adaptive athletes will be competing in USA Climbing’s ABS Open National Championships. The two parathletes, Ronnie Dickson and Corey Ramos, are veteran competitors in the paraclimbing circuit, but this is the first time they are competing against professional climbers at an Open Championship event. Ronnie Dickson is a board member of the New York based Adaptive Climbing Group, and was one of the team captains for the 2014 USA Paraclimbing team that competed at the IFSC World Cup in Spain. He brought home silver in the amputee category. Corey Ramos is out of Atlanta and represents Catalyst Sports.