Touchstone Blog Archive
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Great Western Pacific Works Bigwall Facelift
This past week Great Western Power Company's 150' smokestack was enhanced. With the consultation of Oakland's Ray Peretti and graphics designed by San Francisco's Mark Getty, Touchstone only needed someone to scale the mighty steel encased concrete monolith.
Touchstone Facilities pooh-bah Russell Olsen was up to the task, with the help of assistant Eric Schmidt. Something this silly needed the attention of someone with big wall experience - Mark Melvin rigged the ropes and pasted most of the stencils. Says Mark, "the pencil thin nature of that thing makes it scarier than all but the hardest big walls I've been on," although he admits the ladder up the side, backed up with a auto belay isn't something you get often on El Capitan.
Check out Russell's awesome work next time you visit! Tell us what you think.
Touchstone Facilities pooh-bah Russell Olsen was up to the task, with the help of assistant Eric Schmidt. Something this silly needed the attention of someone with big wall experience - Mark Melvin rigged the ropes and pasted most of the stencils. Says Mark, "the pencil thin nature of that thing makes it scarier than all but the hardest big walls I've been on," although he admits the ladder up the side, backed up with a auto belay isn't something you get often on El Capitan.
Check out Russell's awesome work next time you visit! Tell us what you think.
Labels: Big Wall, Great Western Power Co., Mark Melvin, Russell Olsen
¶ Thursday, July 16, 2009 2 Comments
Friday, May 1, 2009
Climbing Clip of the Week: Breathtaking in Borneo
Today's Climbing Clip of the Week comes via ClimbingNarc.com and really does show how far technology is coming in the world of climbing. No longer do you have to wait months and years after a climbing trip has been made to see footage of the expedition, now, you can see it literally hours after the climb has been made.
So, for this week's Climbing Clip of the Week, we're going to check out some absolutely breathtaking climbing that took place in Borneo. Climbers Mark Synnott, Conrad Anker, Kevin Thaw, Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold and Renan Ozturk went to Borneo to tackle some big walls and sent home videos of their trip. This is part 2 of the series, so feel free to head over and check out the rest here.
Nevertheless, enjoy the video, and enjoy your weekend. Start submitting some climbing videos of your own, we want to feature our very own climbers!
Borneo Dispatch Video #6 "As Free As Can Be" from renan ozturk on Vimeo.
So, for this week's Climbing Clip of the Week, we're going to check out some absolutely breathtaking climbing that took place in Borneo. Climbers Mark Synnott, Conrad Anker, Kevin Thaw, Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold and Renan Ozturk went to Borneo to tackle some big walls and sent home videos of their trip. This is part 2 of the series, so feel free to head over and check out the rest here.
Nevertheless, enjoy the video, and enjoy your weekend. Start submitting some climbing videos of your own, we want to feature our very own climbers!
Borneo Dispatch Video #6 "As Free As Can Be" from renan ozturk on Vimeo.
Labels: Big Wall, Borneo, Climbing Clip of the Week, Climbing Video
¶ Friday, May 01, 2009 0 Comments
