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Hardrock in the city at last


cruze

22-Aug-2007
8:47:38 AM

On 21/08/2007 Cool Hand Lock wrote:
>Hey. I did the two cracks and the pockets. I'm thinking the cracks go at
>17 and 18 so some beginners can do some jaming... the pockets are more
>like 19.

I just can't imagine that the crack with the left leaning corner at the start would be 17 or 18. In part because I can't think of a comparable crack out there. The jamming is very secure. If it were on lead on gear then I would have graded it higher (maybe 19) only for the bouldery start. But, yeah, good fun.

Again the pockets are just bouldery fun goodness, and I think 19/20 is about right.

Then again I suck at bouldery climbing, which is why I prefer Altona to Nuna.


doc

22-Aug-2007
9:26:50 AM

The crack is great, lost some skin. The pockets I found some moves awkward, would agree with the grades. At least the climbs didnt spin!
Any update re the last?


nmonteith

22-Aug-2007
9:37:30 AM

My impressions...

First up, they need to get the loose hold issue fixed! Every single route I did had at least one spinner,
some routes had more than 8 totally spinning holds! This just isn't good enough. I've climbed at plenty
of 'new' gyms previously with no issue with loose holds. The unanimous comment from everyone at
the gym was frustration with random spinners. I ended up leaving early as it was really beginning to
piss me off.

Wall Design - Too much vertical stuff! Where are the steep pumpers? There is no roofs, no sustained
steep walls, no stalicties. The gym would be 90% vertical or slabby. I struggled to find anything to
build a pump. There is only one 6m wide section that has a steep wall (about 20' overhung) and this
only has two ropes. Not suprisingly this wall is always taken, so you need to queue to get a go. This
lack of angle variety is very disappointing.

Route grades - The gym seems set-up to cater for the beginner to middle grade climber. There is a
great lack of anything hard (grade 23+). The lack of any written grades meant I seemed to consistently
launch up something that was very easy thinking it could have been hard. Frustrating when I wanted to
maximize my gym time!

Leading - Why bother when everything is vertical? It seemed simpler to just top-rope.

Training aids - I usually like to finish a training session off with a few mindless chin-ups, campus runs
or something steep and pumpy. There is none of these. Even traverse bouldering the base of the wall
was easy vertical jug hauling at about grade 16.

This gym isn't going to be a replacment for Altona, Nuna, Lactic or even Burnley in my training
shedule. At best i would consider visiting once every couple of months.

And to end my night i copped a $110 parking fine by parking opposite RMIT which apparently is 'no-
parking zone' between 4.30 and 6.30pm. There was three other cars parked there at 5.30 when i
rocked up!


Bluey

22-Aug-2007
9:44:57 AM

A pretty scathing attack on the gym. Certainly the spinning holds are a nightmare. But on the whole "it's too slabby", "I don't get pumped" thing - it's a pretty darn good improvement for beginner/intermediate climbers who spend their whole life at Nuna nursing their forearms. If you like steep stuff, of course it won't be a replacement for Altona, Nuna, or Lactic. But if you don't like steep stuff, it finally provides a location with more than 3 appealing routes.


nmonteith

22-Aug-2007
9:55:49 AM

Very true Bluey. I guess I had high hopes that i'd never need to drive out to the outer 'burbs again (i work
inner city). Unfortunately i still have to!

The place was certainly packed last night, so targeting the mid spectrum of the market seemed to be a
good business plan for them!


Doc

22-Aug-2007
10:15:26 AM

I'm assuming its all slap cause otherwise there would be the potential to come flying off( a spinner) and swing out through the glass!! Vey james bond


nmonteith

22-Aug-2007
10:20:24 AM

Yere, the big glass wall has obviously limited the steep routes. I also wonder if the sun will beam straight
onto the wall in summer through that glass?


Doc

22-Aug-2007
10:27:17 AM

Those weird panels along the glass are said to be cooling. I imagine yes the early summer sun is going to be beating down. It will be interesting.
Am going tonight. Will update re the spinners. We were given the T spanners last time and fixed about 50. Now thats how you get a pump!


Bluey

22-Aug-2007
10:29:01 AM

It's facing east so would only catch morning sun.


cruze

22-Aug-2007
10:32:21 AM

Yeah I hear you Neil about the steep stuff. I don't mind techo slabby routes at all, but steep stuff would have been good... for me. But that is the point. I think that they purposely haven't targeted intermediate-experienced climbers. The gyms at Nuna and Altona have far too much steep stuff for the average beginner as far as I am concerned. I think it fills the void nicely.

My partner swung off a spinning hold on the steep wall and hit the glass opposite disconcertingly hard. Definitely should be compulsory to reclip a couple of draws on the way down the steep wall.

All said, I like the place, but I am going to Altona tonight...

TLockwood

22-Aug-2007
2:01:49 PM

Its probly just me not climbing harder than everyone else, but i thought the left hadn crack felt like 23, the right crack like 20 and the pockets like about 18/19
Im assuming with the cracks ppl are using only the crack, not footholds, stupid qn but im just interested apart from probly my lackin form i found them harder, thought i had my grade eye in. thoughts..?

Jimminy clip it !!

22-Aug-2007
2:06:08 PM

>thought i had my grade eye in. thoughts..?

Locko !!! --- have u finished Grade 7 yet ??? Can u xpln wot this means ???

R U gunna come climbing with me an Ryno at Araps soon ???

Ralph


Diablo

22-Aug-2007
2:30:40 PM

yeah, me and locko (tim tam) were guessin the cracks a few grades harder, 20+ as he said. and the pockets at the far end were really not that hard, not more then 19, surely. clip it- are you gunna be at araps around the 22nd at all?? would be good to catch a climb

Jimminy clip it !!

22-Aug-2007
2:38:47 PM

YEAH, MAN, WOOOHOOO --- I'll be there, bro !!!!!

Just look out for the cool dude with the humungous mullet , shaggin his gf over the bonnet of a light green suburu 4wd !!!! :D

U can lead me up Orestes !!! U should get it in 13 shots , eh !!!! :D

Ralph


eisbear

22-Aug-2007
11:49:09 PM

I would just like to say BRAVO! for having the grit and committment to bring another training option to the
Melb climbing community. Well done for doing it a little different and not just copying what is already on
offer. And sheesh! its been two weeks....give em a break! I can deal with a few spinning holds and
guess work grading while they get it sorted!
Noice work team :)


Cool Hand Lock

23-Aug-2007
12:01:07 AM

On 22/08/2007 TLockwood wrote:
>Its probly just me not climbing harder than everyone else, but i thought
>the left hadn crack felt like 23, the right crack like 20 and the pockets
>like about 18/19

think kitten wall... it's at mount arapiles, that's somewhere towards Perth.

>Im assuming with the cracks ppl are using only the crack, not footholds,

You can climb it anyway you find easy enough for you. Personally, crack only 17and18. With Foot holds... 15/16.

Maybe you should do some jambing. It's easy once you know how.


matt

23-Aug-2007
12:35:59 AM

Thought i might finally add my 2c into this... Myself and a friend showed up the first thursday they were open all excited at the idea of a new gym. Things weren't completely ready as such but the few things that annoyed me the most were:
spinning holds, i brushed that off as they only need to be tightened.
the idea of swinging though the glass, it did cross my mind when playing around with the overhangy stuff.

The damn wall texture! has no one else noticed? maybe it has improved, but when we went in it is evident that the wall was painted after the holds were placed, as some have orange paint on them. But more annoying is the sand/grit shit on the wall. Trying to smear on the wall wasn't possiable on several climbs as you would simply slide off. A secondary result is every hold been filled with the remaining sand/grit. Maybe its worn off now.

And the most concerning: i'm not claiming to be an experienced climber, but i know and my climbing partners know how to put a harness on. Whilst we were there two "instructors" were on a wall, the one up the wall hadn't put his harness on correctly. My parter pointed this out where we were informed he had never climbed before that night. WTF!!!!!!!!??!?!!!!???!?!?!?!?!?!

I like the walls (weren't graded when we went) but i can see where the more experienced climbers would be disappointed. Though the lack of features and shapes (not sure what to call it) was a little disappointing, no random cracks lying around etc etc...

Just my thoughts... enjoy...


Cool Hand Lock

23-Aug-2007
12:39:53 AM

Yeah. Spoke with most of the staff there. And they're not climbers at all. WTF???

I asked them what grade they thought of something. And the response was. "I don't know. I don't climb." WTF???

dave

23-Aug-2007
1:42:03 AM

On 23/08/2007 matt wrote:
>The damn wall texture! has no one else noticed? maybe it has improved,
>but when we went in it is evident that the wall was painted after the holds
>were placed, as some have orange paint on them. But more annoying is the
>sand/grit shit on the wall. Trying to smear on the wall wasn't possiable
>on several climbs as you would simply slide off. A secondary result is
>every hold been filled with the remaining sand/grit. Maybe its worn off
>now.

Yeah this is simply because the walls are new- they have a lot of loose fine grit on them which wears off with use. Look at Hardrock nunawading the friction there is great and the walls are basically the same thing.

patto

23-Aug-2007
9:42:47 AM

On 23/08/2007 Cool Hand Lock wrote:
>
>You can climb it anyway you find easy enough for you. Personally, crack
>only 17and18. With Foot holds... 15/16.
>
>Maybe you should do some jambing. It's easy once you know how.

I should learn to jamb.

I couldn't get up the first crack, but I have never done proper jambing before. I wasn't using any holds. It felt like a 20 to me but probably better graded a 19.

The second crack, the one that leans left at the start I got up once taught myself to jam properly. I used the footholds it felt like a 17 to me but it's probably better graded at 16.

The pockets was awesome, I cruised up it. 19 i rekon

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