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Climbing News:
Ethan Pringle. When he was 21 years old, he climbed Realization (5.15a), Bah Bah Black Sheep (5.14d), Esperanza (V14), Goldfish Trombone (v14), the proudest line at the buttermilks--the highball Beautiful and Damned (v13), this is just to name a few... He climbs benchmark routes, he climbs benchmark blocs, and he has a really strong head for scary stuff. In early January of this year he broke his heel falling off the last moves of the "Mandallion" a solid v14 which climbs the sit start into the "Mandala", and finishes on the "Mandala Direct"; this has only been climbed by Paul Robinson. With a bad injury he was only able to take off his cast a few weeks ago. Now, he can finally wear a large Moccasym on his bad foot.. and climb!! This past weekend was his first day climbing outside in 5 months. And he climbed a solid 5.14. off the couch. The route was at Mickey's Beach and is called the Beach Arete. Fellow bay area local Kevin Jorgeson had the first ascent. Ethan may not be climbing any futuristic-hard crazy highballs in the next couple weeks, but expect alot from him in the next few months, from reading his blog it is easy to see he is very determined and is training hard.


BigUp Productions makes the best climbing films. Bar none. Dosage 5 will be premiering next week in Boulder, CO. this is what you can expect in the new film.

• Beth Rodden on Meltdown (5.14c) trad FA in Yosemite which would be awesome by itself. However, there will also be footage of her climbing on other traditional testpieces like The Phoenix (5.13a), Cosmic Debris (5.13b), Peace (5.13c/d) and Book of Hate (5.13d).
• Daniel Woods on the FA of Jade (V15) in RMNP plus Paul Robinson on the second ascent. Several other double digit RMNP problems from Daniel and Paul as well.
• Chris Sharma trying his two possible 5.15b projects in Santa Linya and Siurana, Spain.
• Dani Andrada on his 5.15 route/boulder Ali-Hulk Sentado in Rodellar, Spain.
• Daila Ojeda on 2 5.14s in Santa Linya and Siurana, Spain.
• Patxi Usobiaga on 2 5.14cs in Santa Linya and Margalef, Spain.
• Randy Puro and Tommy Caldwell on new boulders in Yosemite, including the 1st and 2nd ascents of Dogwood (V12), FA of Yabo Roof (V12), FA of Xenophile (V11), 2nd ascent of Tim Clifford’s Park Life (V12) as well as ascents of Drive On (V11) and Kumba (V11).
• Footage from Yangshuo, China featuring Mike Fuselier and Axel Ballay. FA of American Gangster (5.14b) and 2 other 5.14 FAs
• Dave Graham, Ty Landman, Jon Cardwell, Jason Kehl and Chad Greedy in Arkansas. Lost in The Hood (V14) FA, Wood Grain Grippin (V14) FA, many more FAs in the V12-V13 range.
• Jason Kehl and Chris Lindner bouldering in Albarracin, Spain
• “Secrets of the The East” - the unknown gems of New England with Paul Robinson, Matt Bosley and more - FAs of several V10-V14 problems around NY, CT, and MA.
  

get psyched! I know I am. Every dosage has been better than the last. And ThreshHold is working with Josh Lowell to be on the list of venues for the Reel Rock Film Tour...


Bouldering WORLD CUP in AMERICA... The first ever America bouldering World Cup, is being held during the Teva Games in Vail, Colorado. From June 5th-7th. This is huge. Top American competitors include Chris Sharma, Daniel Woods, and Paul Robinson, for the men.. And Lisa Rands, Alex Puccio, and Alex Johnson for the women. It will be very interesting to see how they stack up against the Europeans. My personal favorite for the event is Gabriel Moroni, of Italy.


GYM NEWS:

The Campus Board is up! It will be 100% complete after we get the wood rungs in the mail from metolius on monday. Rest your tendons so you can destroy them next week. Here is a really good article and regime for campus training. Specifically for training for raw finger strength/power. http://moonclimbing.com/SchoolRoom.aspx?ID=18 .
train hard. but be careful.. campus training is advanced training and should be used with seriousness and caution.

Routesetters & Comps

By Susánica Tam - Routesetters are arguably the most important component of readying a venue for a competition. Their experience and knowledge of the sport take center stage during comps when professional climbers step off the mat onto the start holds. A setter’s ability to effectively challenge but also separate a field of talented climbers is crucial to the comp’s success. Armed with plastic, a pocket full of wrenches, and some devious innovation, this close-knit group can choose to push a climber’s flexibility and precision in one problem, or test power and imagination in the next.

Compared to some countries, the United States has fewer internationally-certified setters, but the U.S national level comp-setting crew functions cohesively, frequently fine-tuning and exploring new possibilities of their trade. High-level setting involves rigorous certification processes as well as a sprinkling of skill—apprentice/intern setters are currently required to climb V6 and 5.12 before applying to join the club—and these minimum standards will be increased next year, said Mike Helt of routesetter.com. At the upcoming Vail Teva Mountain games, chief setter Kynan Waggoner and his crew including Mike Moelter, Jamie Emerson and international setter, Korea’s Donghyun Kim will be showcasing their work.

New Line at Stoney Point

Dimitrius Fritz has added a new line at the historical bouldering area Stoney Point. Dimit's line is behind Uma Gumma, on the same boulder. He calls it The old man and the Point, and suggests a rating of v8.

15-year-old Wonder Kid

Adam Ondra, the 15-year-old Czech who has already completed nine 5.14d or harder routes, added perhaps the first and most famous 5.14+ to his resume this week: Action Directe in Germany’s Frankenjura.

On May 19, Ondra redpointed the classic Wolfgang Güllich testpiece, characterized by dynamic moves between tiny limestone pockets. He had thought at first that one dyno on the big overhang might be too powerful for him, but after about 15 tries he stuck the move. Güllich first climbed Action Directe in 1991, two years before Ondra was born. It has been repeated about nine times in the 17 years since.

Ondra had already completed one 5.14d this month in the Frankenjura: Unplugged, the Markus Bock route that Ondra called his hardest send yet, taking five days of effort. Ondra also recently won the bouldering competition at Melloblocco in northern Italy’s Val Masino, a festival that drew more than 4,000 people. Watch the video of Ondra making the first repeat of Antropos (8B/V13) during Melloblocco:

Thresh Hold in Urban Climber Magazine

Well, if you havn't seen it yet...issue #23, we are Uraban Climber's Plastic Paradise of the month. They did a great full page story on us toward the back of the magazine. Please check it out. Also this month in UC check some great coverage for the past ABS comp season. Remember guys, OCT 4th is the first ABS comp of the season right here at Thresh Hold Riverside. Start Training.

Coordination Training to Enhance your Climbing

Written By: Dale Partridge - B.S. Exercise Physiology

There is a lofty amount of science behind the sport of rock climbing that I think most of us rarely tap into. I don't know if its the because of the "scientificness" and the energy put into understanding it may be too much for some to handle. Or if most of the tips out there are just not as applicable as they should be. Regardless of the reason the information is out there. I have been doing a little research on my own for the last few months on the topic of Neuromuscular efficiency. I studied this for about a year in school at the National Academy of Sports Medicine while working on my degree and thought it would be a cool post for a forum.

So here we go hang on tight.

Neuromuscular efficiency is the ability of the neuro-musculo-skeletalsystem to allow agonists (big muscles), antagonists (oposing muscles exe: bicep & tricep), synergists (smaller muscles that help the big muscles), and stabilizers (tiny muscles usually surrounding the joints) to work synergistically (together) to produce force, reduce force, and dynamically stabilize the entire kinetic chain.

Wow! Holy crap what the Hell did that mean?

In more layman's terms... its means coordination. Its how well your muscles, nervous system, and you brain cancommunicate. When it comes to sports whether climbing, baseball, or lawn bowling there is a certain matter of time your neuromuscular system uses to adapt to a certain movement, motion, etc. In climbing we see this all of the time. Example: You're projecting a V7 at the Tram and your first few goes are horrible but after working the moves a few more times you slowly but surely are sticking sections of your project. What is happening here is your neuromuscular system went from speaking English and Spanish to speaking Spanglish. It takes time to warm up if its not trained often.

Now the questions is... What about those climbers who flash hard problems all the time? Well they have awesome neuromuscular efficiency, and they're strong. For the rest of us who aren't flashing problems left and right here are some tips to make the time from your first go to your "send" much faster.Work your hand eye coordination, foot eye coordination, core tension, balance, body stabilization, static movements, dynamics movements.

This type of training takes a little more thought than traditional training regimens as well as the help of some cool out of the ordinary equipment. With my clients I often use a stability ball, airex foam pad, dyna disc, medicine balls, kettle bells, bosu balls, 1/2 foam roll, speed ladders, and floor markers. We have all of this equipment at our gym here in Riverside (Thresh Hold) if you want to ever stop by and try it out just let me know.

There are tons of sites on the topic as well as some articles by some of the smartest people in the world on sports medicine.

Here are some videos that show some cool exercises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPgXDGAzeo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJroZI_tYO8

Try throwing it in to your regimen and see if it helps break down your project time. If you ever have any questions feel free to contact me at: dale@climbthreshhold.com

Good Luck

Rock Climbing Summer Camp

Summer Camp... it was always a good memory for most. Personally, I did not get a chance to go to a rock climbing summer camp when I was young. I think its important to focus on the youth to grow the sport and community of rock climbing.

Thresh Hold Riverside will be hosting four one-week long summer camps for kids ranging from 9-16 yrs. Four days indoor and one day outside. If you have anyway of helping us get the word out to the public please get in touch with me at Dale@climbthreshhold.com. Thanks.

En Arche

THE GYM: 

Air Conditioning is coming soon...  In the meantime we are doing our best to keep the air well circulated.  It is better than outside!

LOCAL:  

Hopefully you got a chance to check out Jason Kehl's slideshow last week.  He has been repeating hard classics up at the Tram and at Black Mountain.  If you want to stay posted on his socal chrushage check out his blog. 

Allright, well it's not exactly breaking news... But our very own Alan Moore has recently repeated Dan Mill's "Devil's Dance" (v12)  This is the low start to the popular "Steep Sharma Arete" (seen in the climbing film "Rampage"), here's some footage.

WORLDWIDE:  

Chris Sharma. 

It is hard to know exactly what he is up to without waiting for the next production from BigUp.  He doesn't have a spraysheet and doesn't have a blog.  According to Dani Andrada, Chris is in the Catalunya part of spain.  He has been redpointing and onsighting some hard sport routes, including "Full Equipe" in Oliana, Spain.  He also just recently had the FA of "Victima Perfecta" (9A). What's next?

Paul Robinson. Paul added a one move wonder to the Veritas boulder in RMNP.  He dubbed it "Mendax" and graded it 8B (v13).  Local strongmen Daniel Woods and Jon Cardwell have both already repeated it, both doing the "contrivance" slightly differently, Daniel feels it is an 8A+ and Jon says his way goes at 7c+.

Daniel Woods. His stay in Europe is over, but just before he left he sent his project, a new 8C (v15) in Magic Wood called "In Search of Time Lost".  This is a left exit to Dave Graham's "Left Hand of Darkness" (8a) in the Darkness cave.  

Speaking of Dave.  He recently has badly injured the pulley in his right middle finger, disabling his left hand from crimping.  Yet, in Fontainebleau he was able to find a project not requiring a powerful left hand crimp, and he sent!  Dave's new problem is called "The Island" 8C (v15).  Looks like some crazy compression!  You can check out a short video here. 

RANDOM:  

Case study:  The Mandala.  Probably the most famous boulder problem in the

 world.  The only others that can compare are Midnight Lightning, Karma, and Dreamtime. FA'd by Chris Sharma in 2000. If you have ever seen the climb in person, and then watch the way Chris did it-it is mind-numbing.  The problem had been tried for over 20 years.  Much speculation rose about it's difficulty, many thought it was solid v14, Chris jokingly said it felt like v16, the way he climbed it, it may have been that hard. Dave Graham came along and found a micro-crimp that provided a much more reasonable (human) sequence, and graded it v12.  

Another noticeable ascent, was the recent first female ascent by Lisa Rands, I speculate there won't be another female ascent for some time.  

Tony Lamiche came along and added a low start to the problem, making for one of Bishop's three v14's (next to Edward's "Goldfish Trombone" and Birch's "The Swarm").  For those who can climb 8b+ it is nearly the most sought after boulder problem in the world.  To this day the Mandala SDS has only been repeated by Dave Graham, Daniel Woods, Paul Robinson, Kevin Jorgeson, Shawn Diamond, Matt Birch, Gabriele Moroni, and Sean McColl.  *note Paul robinson climbed the sit into the "Mandala Direct" (straightens out the original exit, also v12, FA: Jeff Sillcox), having the first and only ascent thus far.. he refers to it as "The Mandala Direct Assis".