New (big!) gym opening in Golden - Earthtreks

Auto Belays: There are strong feelings about Auto Belays, and everyone is right. I personally agree strongly with the "Community" aspect already brought up. As the owner of Earth Treks, I'd like to share our experience with them. A few years ago we had 4-6 per gym. We had orientation programs and barriers (4 ft vinyl triangles with STOP signs on them, covering the starting holds). Sadly we still had several accidents from climbers failing to clip in, climbing around the barriers, then dropping to the floor. Miraculously no one died and no one was hit by a falling body. But the impact was still catastrophic. Climbers were hospitalized and their climbing careers were ended. Those who witnessed the falls and responded first dealt with powerful emotional responses (as these were not pretty sites).
When we analyzed the accidents the themes were similar: experienced climbers were either distracted or "spaced out" or in the zone. They all thought they had clipped in. When you google auto belay accidents you will find that story repeated time and time again. Just a few months ago, an experienced climber died when she failed to clip into the auto belay and fell from the top of a relatively short climbing wall.
We realize that it is an inconvenience to many that we do not have auto belays. We realize that potential customers will choose to climb elsewhere. But we also realize that we are avoiding a likely scenario, one that is too ugly for any of us to experience.
We also realize that risk management and personal responsibility are essential to the sport of climbing. Bouldering and roped climbing involve a constant state of heightened awareness. We back off, down climb, etc when we have to and we double check ourselves and each other before climbing. Even the best of climbers make mistakes. In our experience mistakes happen with greater frequency with auto belays (the devices don't fail, but the climbers do).
While I applaud Nicros for developing what is possibly the best system for limiting auto belay accidents (a lights and siren system), I wonder if that, too, will be ignored by experienced climbers being distracted, spaced out or in the zone.
Please double check yourself, every time you climb. Having fallen for 450 feet when a rappel anchor failed, I can tell that the few seconds you spend in the air, knowing the impact is really going to hurt, are the least fun seconds of your life.

I haven't been in yet (finally just got the OK to start climbing from the doc after a foot injury), but I'm super excited to become a member. Thanks again for bringing this wonderful facility to Golden.

Will Anglin wrote:In regards to the forerunning. Almost every route and boulder problem was forerun before opening. The lack of chalk on many routes is because they were done with work gloves on. Climbing over 300 routes and boulder problems on fresh holds in about 2 weeks is not kind to the skin.

Dude, nobody really cares about the grades. It's just that its -6 degrees outside and there's nothing else to argue about! Rather than climbing through Snowpocalypse you could just start an Obamacare thread and all this grade nonsense would be forgotten :)

CBW wrote: Having fallen for 450 feet when a rappel anchor failed, I can tell that the few seconds you spend in the air, knowing the impact is really going to hurt, are the least fun seconds of your life.

Thread drift. I'm glad you're still here, but I'm curious to know how you managed that after falling 450 feet.

rob.calm

CBW wrote:Auto Belays: There are strong feelings about Auto Belays, and everyone is right. I personally agree strongly with the "Community" aspect already brought up. As the owner of Earth Treks, I'd like to share our experience with them....

I appreciate your response and the position you are in with your business and the fact that you don't want anyone to get hurt or worse. I wish people would just sack up when they get hurt and it was their fault, instead of lawyer up and blame everyone else. I also think that if you can't hook a locker to your belay loop correctly to use an autobelay, you should find a different way to occupy your time.

The sequence of posters on this page makes me smile a little.

Norse Force wrote: I appreciate your response and the position you are in with your business and the fact that you don't want anyone to get hurt or worse. I wish people would just sack up when they get hurt and it was their fault, instead of lawyer up and blame everyone else. I also think that if you can't hook a locker to your belay loop correctly to use an autobelay, you should find a different way to occupy your time.

Frequently it's the insurance companies that lawyer up, not the injured people.

I've heard a lot of people complaining about stiff grades. Mainly, just watch up for the routes cryptochild set. They are indeed harder than the posted grade, but very unique with thought provoking movement.

I figure the east coast setters are probably having a good laugh about the Colorado climbers whining and complaining about grades. So... I shut up & tried hard.

My only frustuation is spinning holds, but they get on it quick. ( 5 minutes ) I generally assume any hold can spin, and especially with foot placement, stay aware of the physics. (ie, weighting the hold over the attachment bolt)

AND I'm pysched about the olympic lift platform in the weight room and the 10,25,35# training plates (with the outer diameter of a 45!!)

JenH wrote:I've heard a lot of people complaining about stiff grades. Mainly, just watch up for the routes cryptochild set. They are indeed harder than the posted grade, but very unique with thought provoking movement. I figure the east coast setters are probably having a good laugh about the Colorado climbers whining and complaining about grades. So...

Most climbers who transfer to the Rockville gym after extensive climbing in other areas suffer from grade shock as well.
The routes are almost always hard for the grade even by "sandbagged" east-coast standards when you get into 5.11+ and higher (compared to Rumney, the New, and especially the Red). Take it for what it is - it's great for training, and it's always a pleasant surprise to go and crush a letter or two harder when climbing elsewhere.

In my opinion, most of the difficulty comes from the lack of good resting stances. From what I understand, the setters tend to avoid rest stances on harder climbs in order to have sustained and continually engaging routes in spite of relatively short wall height (~40 feet in the Rockville gym). And as you've probably noticed, they are engaging --you guys sharked Keith and Will, two of my favorite setters from the MD facilities.

Monomaniac wrote: Dude, nobody really cares about the grades. It's just that its -6 degrees outside....

That -6 deg would probably only be -1 deg in MD.... ;)

Seriously though, I haven't really found the grades (in my range at least - moderate .8 - .10d) to be out of line. Totally depends on the setter - some of the .8s have felt really hard to me, and some of the .10s have felt pretty easy.

I go in with the approach - there are only two grades..... :)

Loving the gym though - such a great addition to Golden (especially now that winter has landed for real)!

ErikaNW wrote: That -6 deg would probably only be -1 deg in MD.... ;)

Ha!

Great new gym, professional and friendly staff, enough parking (yeah), lots of other nice ameities, etc. The route setting was interesting and added dimensions that I haven't seen in other gyms. The ratings did seem sort of off, or stiff on some routes, but not others. About the only improvement to route setting would be to add more foot jibs for climbers of different heights. With this good of a facility they'll have to start planning their next Denver area gym.

I went to Earth Treks for the first time a couple days ago. I have to admit that it was a pretty impressive gym. It hosts a ton of well-set, thoughtful, and sustained routes (I don't think they are sand bagged, just way more sustained in general, and truer to outdoor sport grades than most gyms). One thing I'll note is that the V grade scale didn't seem very consistent to me from boulder problem to boulder problem, and comparing V grade difficulties with their sport analogs also yielded some discrepancies IMO.

It's pretty rad that the routes all have unique hold colors. No tape. This makes route finding a lot easier as there are no similar colored taped routes side by side that can easily get confused in the glare of the lights, like most gyms.

The only beef(s) I have with it is a.) the cost @ a whopping $19/day pass, b.) the distance from my house :), and c.) the sterile, corporate vibe. All of those things are trumped by the quality of the actual training facilities and routes though. You get what you pay for I suppose.

All in all, I will likely be training there maybe once a month or so in the cold season, and staying local at the DBC for all other sessions.

If you haven't been there yet and you are in the Golden/Boulder/Denver area, check. it. out.

I checked out the new gym today and I enjoyed the experience. We got there early before the crowds arrived; that was nice because it turned into a complete clusterfoo by the time we left in the early afternoon. Some observations:

o the route setting on the steepest lead wall seems to encourage clusters because a lot of those routes merge or overlap in strange ways.

o there's a wall with several cracks (#0.5, #0.75, #2 camalots, and fist/off-fist) with quickdraws nearby to facilitate leading. For some strange reason, I was able to get on the 0.75 camalot crack without waiting in line.

o the grades of some of the easier routes (10a to 10d) didn't seem internally consistent; I did a 10a that was as hard as a 10d I did earlier, for example. it's a very minor quibble as it's all just a bunch of plastic, after all.

o the 11's and 12's I got on seemed comparable to what I'm used to at the BRC.

o all routes have a draw every three feet; this seemed annoying at first but I adapted by "waist-clipping" most draws.

o overall, the facility is impressive.

I've been a member of the BRC for about ten years and have no plans to switch but it's nice to mix it up on occasion and visit a new gym.

I haven't read all of this thread. Has the texture of the wall been mentioned yet? I thought my technique was decent enough but after a single visit I had more than a few abrasions. Seemed a bit much. Other then that I thought the place looked great and has a lot of potential.

The walls and the holds are quite abrasive, it's great when you need the friction but a little hard on the skin, clothing and shoes if you happen to slip a bit.

The grades at the lower end are wildly inconsistent, more what I expect at an old school trad area than an indoor setting. The routes are quite well set though, and the layout of the walls is quite good. Maybe they could go with a consensus rating system like R&J does.

All things considered, I think it's a great facility and I'm looking forward to spending more time there this winter.

Thx for the replies RE: Light Rail

Sounds good and possible :)

Right now RTD's light rail schedules are offline but Ill check them to see how late they run out there...

NO auto-belays? DAMMIT

I liked the gym. If you live in or near Golden, you have good reason to be happy.
Routes were well set and ratings seemed close enough, although a single day's climbing isn't enough of a sample to really pontificate.
Lot's of interesting features, although personally I prefer a stadium architecture a la Movement to the canyon/arch at ET. I also find all the different colors distracting, but that's a minor quibble.
On the other hand, the texture is WAY too harsh for me. I would be a walking abrasion if this was my home gym.
Finally, paying $19 is painful!

I posted this on their FB page but somehow don't see it anymore. Anyways, I was checking out the upstairs hangboard area and was wondering if they would add pulley systems to each of the board and have weight plates upstairs as well. I don't think they would be excited to see people bringing weight plates from the workout room to upstairs. Oh, and clocks might be helpful too.

CBW wrote: Having fallen for 450 feet when a rappel anchor failed, I can tell that the few seconds you spend in the air, knowing the impact is really going to hurt, are the least fun seconds of your life.

I want to hear that story.