Chuck Millsaps, who had climbed once in the past year, sends a V1 bouldering problem on The Wave wall.
Need incentive to visit a spanking new climbing gym? Try this: If you’re, say, a 5.7, 5.8 climber, there’s a good chance you could send a 5.9 on a freshly minuted climbing wall.
“I came in and did two 5.9s,” Raleigh climber Phil Gruber said of his first visit to the Triangle Rock Club’s just-opened gym in North Raleigh. “In a row,” he was quick to add. “I’ve never done that. And I talked to a guy who did three 5.11s.”
“The grades are a little soft,” TRC Managing Partner Joel Graybeal said during a climbing session this morning.
Today was my first attempt at the wall, and I wouldn’t say the routes are easier — they’re set by chief TRC routsetter Scott Gilliam and his crew, the same group responsible for routes in TRC’s flagship Morrisville gym. The difference: the holds are all new and exceptionally grippy. Thousands of hands have yet to act as the indoor equivalent of wind and rain to smooth the holds’ surfaces.
I developed an appreciation for this phenomenon climbing a 5.8 rife with grippers (small holds that require greater hand strength to hang on to. After getting a feel for the route by watching Phil and Chuck Millsaps before me, I took my turn. I third of the way up, in a 15-foot stretch of nothing but the small holds, I managed to keep moving and punch through. The grippers were like flypaper.
Alas, there are new holds in this gym that may be grippy but require techniques that eluded me this morning. Always good to have a new challenge.
If you’re an existing climber looking for a confidence boost or a newcomer who likes to excel the first time out, check out the new North Raleigh Triangle Rock Club soon. The grip won’t last forever.read more
You could practically hear the wolves start to howl as the sun sets over Lake Waccamaw — if there were wolves at the lake.
Start your weekend Friday evening with a Friday the 13th evening wander around Lake Waccamaw, then spend what promises to be a glorious Saturday high in the mountains at the Elk Knob Headwaters Community Day, or join us in Raleigh at Umstead State Park and get hiking — with our new GetHiking! Triangle program.read more
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.read more
Jason Thomas had one concern when a climbing gym opened in his hometown of Cortez, Colo.
“Will it hurt my hands?”
Assured that it would not, he gave it a try.
“I was hooked immediately,” says Thomas. So much so that despite still being in high school and having now climbed once, he asked the head of the rec center housing the gym who was managing the wall. No one? Well, mind if I give it a go?
That led to an improbable trajectory that saw him head to the University of Colorado in Boulder (to major in Philosophy) because of the local climbing, a job at a Boulder climbing gym, and soon to Eldorado Climbing Walls, where he managed to talk his way into a construction job. That was in 2005. Today — literally today — he stood at the base of the “tall walls” at the freshly minted Triangle Rock Club North Raleigh talking with climbers about his latest creation as Eldo’s lead designer (officially, he’s the company’s Design and Creative Director).
To the untrained eye, the new gym, which opened at noon today, more resembles something you might find at the N.C. Museum of Art with a sign at the base reading “Do Not Climb.” The angular, vibrant orange and yellow walls cover 13,500 square feet, climb to 30 feet and are pocked with an array of equally artsy plastic holds. When Thomas explains his inspiration, though, he doesn’t refer to cubist influences, modernism or realism. He starts with the business of demographics.
“I think of areas in terms of different user groups,” says Thomas. Standing just inside the entrance to the gym, carved out of a cavernous former Gold’s Gym at Duraleigh Road and Glenwood Avenue, Thomas explains the crucial first impression he hopes to land.read more
The three-day Crystal Coast Paddle Festival opens in Swansboro Friday while the inaugural Green River Games promises to offer some of the most challenging competition the state has seen. Meanwhile, in the Piedmont, it’s the Big Muddy Challenge, big muddy fun for parents and kids.read more
