Sunday, May 14, 2006

Orange Crush tested by Nate

5-14-06 Our bouldering wall is complete (except for the 4-inch padded flooring). We finished putting the last route up with the orange holds. This is the most difficult route on the wall, which we dubbed, the "Orange Crush". It was designed for most people NOT to be able to finish! I wanted to have it tested by someone experienced in wall climbing, so I recruited Nate Garcia, a certified wall climbing instructor, to give it a run, even though he didn't have his gear or shoes!


Last Friday, Joel and I set up what is now the Orange Crush. Here is Joel, marking out the route with blue tape while I followed along, bolting the holds into the wall. (Thanks to Corey and Shan for helping Joel set up the green and the yellow routes!)


With Joel spotting, Robert, one of the construction crew, gives the wall a try. This part of the wall requires a lot of forearm strength just to hang on!


Our general contractor, Fred (yellow shirt), and Robert take a break to give the wall a try. Way to go, Fred! Looking like spiderman!


Nate nears the end of the Orange Crush. Here's a very difficult overhang where the holds are underneath that shelf! While he did very well, especially without shoes, he will need a few more runs at it before he can make it all the way without dropping off. He graded it "very challenging" and well-done (especially how we turned the holds more difficult), and looks forward to trying it again! Thanks for testing it out, Nate!

1 comment:

Dr. Ernie "PA Evangelist" Medina, Jr. said...

Hello Anon,

Thx for the input. I'm not a web person, and we're pretty busy with the start-up stuff and all (plus my other full-time job), so needless to say, this is as good as it's going to get.

The main reason for this blog is to keep our members and potential members updated on our progress, when we'll be opening, etc. So I'm using this blog as a temporary, quick way to post things without having to go through our web hosting co. and all.

Which means that this is as good as it's going to get, since we have other higher priorities that are taking our time, especially as we approach our opening.

If you know of anyone who is willing to volunteer their time to spruce up our blog, I'd be more than happy to e-mail them the content and they can make it look as fancy as possible! ;-)

In the meantime, keep checking this blog for the latest updates.

Dr. Ernie