Climbing

[Duvet]

Thought that I'd make a thread here since Tyler expressed some interest in trying out rock climbing at some point, and a large majority of the active users here still reside in Peel and GTA regions. I've made posts about rock climbing in another thread here: xiiiidiots.proboards.com/post/79863/thread

As most of your are aware, I've been bouldering on a weekly basis — it's quickly become one of my favourite recreational activities / hobbies.

Below are some other rock climbing gyms around the Peel & GTA region, many of which I've visited before (I'll mark them with an asterisk):

*Aspire (Milton), located near Bronte Street North & Main Street West: www.aspireclimbing.ca/
*Basecamp (Toronto West), located near Bloor Street West & Bathurst Street: basecampclimbing.ca/
*Boulderz (Etobicoke), located near The Queensway & The East Mall: www.boulderzclimbing.com/etobicoke/
Boulderz (Toronto West), located near Dupont Street & Lansdowne Avenue: www.boulderzclimbing.com/home/
Climber's Rock (Burlington), located near Harvester Road & Appleby Line: climbersrock.net/
*The Cave (Mississauga West), located near Argentia Road & Mississauga Road: www.climbingthecave.ca/
*Hub (Markham), located near Woodbine Avenue & Hwy 7: hubclimbing.com/markham/
*Hub (Mississauga), located near Wolfedale Road & Burnhamthorpe Road West: hubclimbing.com/mississauga/
Joe's Rockhead (Toronto West), located near King Street West & Dufferin Street: www.joerockheads.com/
*The Rock Oasis (Toronto East), located near Gerrard Street East & Carlaw Avenue: www.rockoasis.com/site/
*Toprock (Brampton), located near Steeles Avenue East & Dixie Road: www.toprockclimbing.ca/
Toronto Climbing Academy (Toronto East), located near O'Connor Drive & St. Clair Avenue East: www.climbingacademy.com/
*True North (North York, Downsview), located near Sheppard Avenue West & Keele Street: www.truenorthclimbing.com/
*Up The Bloc (Mississauga East), located near Dixie Road & Dundas Street East): www.upthebloc.com/
(Up the Bloc is my home gym)

And I'll just quote this post I made in that other XF thread I linked, because it pointed out some general information if you're going to try rock climbing:

The only thing you'll require other than purchasing a day-pass is the shoe rental. For picking the optimal climbing shoe size, a general rule of thumb is to have your toes comfortably curled at the top. Try your regular shoe size first and then move up or down a 1/2 size (or full size) depending on how your toes feel from wearing the shoes.

Chalk and all that stuff are optional, but it's difficult to get good grip on holds if you naturally get sweaty/moist hands, especially after climbing a few problems/routes. Chalk bag rentals are available as well, but if you're just fucking around, you probably won't need it. First time visitors need to fill out a waiver, which you can do either online or at the gym when you visit (and obviously you'll need identification). You'll also need to go through a quick 5 minute orientation where someone will show you how to fall safely on the mats, as well as give you a tour of the facility.

If it's your first time rock climbing, make use of your footholds as much as possible and try to keep your arms straight because you're literally going to annihilate your forearms otherwise. Try VB/V0 difficulty problems first before attempting V1/V2 problems/routes. Each increase in grade is exponential, so expect problems/routes to get much harder — there are some problems/routes that are underrated or overrated depending on your strengths and weaknesses (upper body strength, grip strength, finger reach, etc.). You should expect to feel some soreness in your hands or arms after your session within 24 hours, I'll tell you that much, lol.

[Duvet]

I guess a bit of an update to this thread, as I've gone to both Toprock and Up the Bloc since making this thread.

I would say that Toprock is on the smaller size compared to other rock climbing gyms in the area, as they only have one single long stretch of wall for bouldering, and only 4 auto belay stations for people that actually want to top rope (doubtful, since there are less than 10 routes to climb for that). The bouldering wall also isn't very high, compared to other gyms in my opinion, so a lot of the routes heavily rely on a bit of traversal to get around and difficult starting positions and rock placements to progress. The place is owned and operated by two tall white bro dudes and because they don't have any other route setters other than themselves, a very large majority of the routes are biased towards tall individuals or people with long arm wingspans for reaching. For example, there was a route I was attempting that requires you to dyno (jump) from the starting position to get to the next hold, and one of the bro dudes attempts the same problem later on. The nigga just reaches and grabs the next hold statically, without even needing to leave the starting position.

I also personally find the bro dudes comparable to those annoying salesmen that never leave you alone when you're trying to do shopping in peace — almost every time I tried a route, they watched and always follow up afterwards showing how they climb their route or what they intended climbers would be doing. Part of the joy that comes from climbing is having to figure out what the route setter's intended path through a problem is without being given the answer, so when these guys constantly pester you to both showoff and show you the god damn answer, it's one of those situations where you go, "Oh, okay. Thanks, I guess..." One final minor qualm I had was that because their wall manufacturer and rock supplier is Rockwerx, the manufacturer in the same building as Aspire Climbing, everything feels like rubbing fucking coarse sandpaper on your skin. It's really easy to scrape the fuck out of yourself if you slip ever so slightly, but I guess this is to be expected. Other gyms like The Cave Climbing use donated/used rocks from other gyms, so everything's been nicely worn down over time, making it less likely you'll scrape the fuck out of yourself.

These are just my personally nitpicks from Toprock, having gone to the majority of climbing gyms in the area, so that's not to say that another person's experience would be as negative as mine. For what the place offers, it is decent, but I don't see myself making this place my main go-to gym despite the convenient close-to-home location.

Moving onto Up the Bloc, this place house practically two Toprock length walls that are much taller and have multiple inclines and volumes in the wall design — this is important, as it allows for multiple variations of climbing routes such as under hangs, rather than straight verticals. They've been open since Feburary, so the rocks have been worn down a bit so they don't feel like fucking Rockwerx's coarse sandpaper. Routes overall were very fun and varied, although this is exclusively a bouldering gym with no top-rope. Overall, this place is bomb diggity and I can see myself making this my main go-to gym as of now — I even bought a t-shirt from them, lol.

Anyways, that concludes my blog post for this month. Please like, share, and subscribe if you'd like to see more commentary like this one.

[Hauskaz]

I am very intrigued by your posts and would like to look into it if I can ever find the time.

[Duvet]

If you ever actually go somewhere to try climbing, hit me up and I'll be more than happy to accompany you — it's always fun to have friends to climb with.

Following up with more updated blog posting below.

Boulderz (Etobicoke) recently constructed a new bouldering wall and second floor traversal wall, which are open for climbing. These are nice additions to the gym because ironically enough Boulderz (Etobicoke) had a lot more toproping/lead surface area compared to the bouldering sections.


New bouldering wall. About the size and length of Toprock's wall from the looks of it.


A decent view of what the facility looks like from the second floor traversal wall. I believe the new bouldering wall is directly underneath the second floor, so it's not shown here.

Hub Climbing in Markham also recently added a Moon Board for climbing. Basically, it's an electronic rock climbing wall where you can program and set any route you want to climb on the spot via the gym's smartphone app, making it excellent for training and practicing purposes.


As for myself, I've been frequenting Up The Bloc practically every weekend for my climbing sessions — I love this place.
>tfw the only live streams you watch nowadays are bouldering world cups

[Duvet]

henlo

here is a video of me sending my first purple problem at up the bloc (v4-v5 range)

[Cheesemaster VI]

Pretty intense.

[Duvet]

I randomly remembered that I made a climbing thread here, so I figured I'd make a rant update of sorts.

Hub Climbing recently just opened up their second location in Mississauga, which is actually just down the street from Square One. It is currently Canada's largest rock climbing gym with both lead/top-rope and bouldering walls. I actually visited here last week and personally I was mildly disappointed for a number of reasons:

1. They use a colour assigned difficulty scale, which only has 6 difficulties: pink (VB-V0), blue (V1-V2), green (V3-V5), orange (V5-V7), red (V7-V8), and gold (V9+). I don't mind colour difficulty scales, however the problem with how they did it is that they grouped together a huge range — every step up in the V-scale is exponential, so a V4 is twice as hard as a V3, etc. The fact that they assigned V3-V5 and V5-V7 all in the same colour tag is absolutely fucking brain dead retarded. If you want even more icing on the cake, the colour tags to mark the start of each problem aren't even fucking labeled with what difficulty the route is intended to be. That means, you have absolutely no fucking idea what difficulty it's going to be until you actually get on the wall and start climbing it — it could be a really easy climb for you or completely out of your fucking skill range.

2. I don't like the route setting or the route setters. At least for the bouldering walls, they only have 3 route setters, and they all route set the exact same method/style. The entirety of the bouldering walls are grip strength, crimpy, and/or power problems, and it ultimately stems from the main route setter there, who is infamous for those methods/styles of route setting at the Markham location. I don't mind climbing these kinds of routes, the problem lies in that the entire gym is set the same way with no variation. Where are my balance/slab problems? Where are my dynos? Guess what, they don't exist at this gym.

3. New gym = New rock climbing holds = Sandpaper = Peeled Skin. This can only be solved with wear and tear, which will take quite a few months to break everything in. This is only a minor complaint, as I realize that this is a brand new gym. However, when you pair this with the aforementioned grip strength, crimpy, and power route setting, this is absolutely not friendly on your hands. Everyone that I went with last week, including myself, have fucking peeled skin on our hands, and I don't normally experience this when I climb every Sunday.

4. They don't have any volumes, which in turn would add variety to the route setting. This can easily be resolved when they get in more rock climbing holds within the next few months.

Overall, I'd rate this gym to be average/slightly above average as of now. I'll give this place a few months to get their shit sorted out and go back to see if it's any better. For now though, I was quite disappointed with Canada's largest rock climbing gym.

Here are my power rankings for all the gyms in the area that I've gone to:

1. Up The Bloc
2. Hub Markham
3. Boulderz Etobicoke
4. The Cave
5. Rock Oasis
6. Aspire
7. Hub Mississauga
8. Toprock

And yes, I basically live at Up The Bloc and I love this place. I'm there every Sunday, unless I decide to go to a different gym, have other plans, or if I decide to take a rest day.

Skill wise, I'm comfortably climbing V5s and very easy V6s, just starting to break into harder V6 and even V7 territory. I'm basically at a skill plateau where I won't get any better unless I start seriously training, because V6+ climbs are all about power.

[Duvet]

I've been uploading bouldering videos to my YouTube channel fairly regularly.







[videp]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgE05nqQLXY[/video]

[Duvet]

Figured I'd post an update on how my climbing's been going through this year.

In summary, I've had a total of three rock climbing related injuries this year in 2019:

1. Right shoulder injury at the beginning of the year at Hub Markham. Basically, I did a sideways dyno on a V5 boulder problem and upon catching the hold with my right hand, my body contorted 180 degrees from the momentum/swing and I fucked something in my shoulder. Had pain for a good 1-2 months, so I climbed very light sessions after resting a couple weeks.

2. I partially tore the A2 and A3 pulleys in my right middle and ring fingers at the end of April 2019. I was projecting a brutal V6+/V7 crimpy overhang and one of the moves required was essentially a dyno to a 10mm crimp edge — I had tried this problem at least 10 times, way beyond my physical limit. Silly me didn't think anything of it until I climbed the following week and tried a few problems that required crimping and at the end of my session, the base of my middle finger was swollen to a plump and hurt like fuck. I had to take 6 weeks off climbing, and then progressively ease my way back into easy climbing. I went for an ultrasound and x-ray, and the doctor that examined me didn't see any major damage and just suggested that I follow my icing and finger glide/stretch routine. Now that I'm about 4 months into the injury, it hasn't impacted my climbing by a huge margin, although I have to be extremely mindful when trying anything with crimps and edges. The only thing is that I'm physically incapable of bending my right middle and ring fingers inward to touch the base of the finger where it meets the palm, and this is something I have to live with unless I go for tendon surgery.

3. I broke a blood vessel in my left elbow after a bad fall off a slab problem in June 2019. My left elbow smacked right into the safety mat after my uncontrollable fall from about 10-12 feet high on the wall. It bruised almost immediately and there was about a ping pong ball sized lump at the end of my elbow after the impact. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, so I thought icing it at home would've been fine. Later that evening, that ping pong sized lump started swelling like a balloon and it became the size of two tennis balls beside each other — I actually fucking looked like Popeye. Went to hospital emergency (Credit Valley) and they put me in for an x-ray, as they were concerned that I may have fractured my elbow from the impact, which I luckily didn't. Swelling went down after a couple days of taking Advil, icing, and resting, but the bruise was the ugliest one I've ever had in my entire life and it cloaked my entire left forearm — This bruise took more than two months to fully disappear.

Injuries aside, I've gotten better in terms of skill. I'm comfortably climbing V6, and I did my first V7 recently. At the beginning of this year, I was only comfortably climbing V5 and had not done a V6 yet, so the jump by a full V-grade is pretty major for me.

I had also started doing some form of training this year, in the form of hangboarding. This is my DIY hangboard contraption that I put together, which is just a Metolius hangboard mounted onto an Iron Gym Pullup Bar.



My jump from comfortably climbing V5s to V6s was mostly from improving my overall climbing technique, but also a result from increasing my finger hang times by conditioning and strengthening my tendons. Let me put this into perspective, I'm able to suspend and hold my full body weight with just my four fingers on both hands on a 6mm edge for about 5 seconds. A 6 fucking MILLIMETRE EDGE. I don't suggest anybody do this because it's a very easy way to injure yourself if you don't know how to hangboard train and don't have the finger tendon strength.

Oh, and I went to Norway for my two-week summer vacation, and on one of my last days, I went to Oslo Klatresenter to boulder. I unexpectedly met Magnus Midtbø, the famous Norwegian rock climber and YouTuber and got a photo opportunity with him.

That's it for my blog post. Maybe I'll make a year-end follow up and see where I'm at.

P.S. Follow me on IG for climbing content

[Hauskaz]

Your IG is intense.