Touchstone Blog Archive
Friday, April 25, 2008
Bouldering at the Leap
On the trail on the way up to Lover’s Leap from the parking area, just outside the campground, there are a couple of killer granite boulders that are worth the trip alone. There are a few dozen boulder problems of easy to moderate grades, the air is clean, the setting is beautiful, and the car is close.
SuperTopo publishers have a guidebook to the boulders in Lovers Leap Select by Mission Cliff’s own Chris McNamara.
Lover’s Leap is about 2 hours from Sacramento and about 3-4 hours from San Francisco off of highway 50 on the way to South Lake Tahoe. That’s close enough for a day trip, and you’ll be so glad you did it once you get your hands on that cool, grippy granite and smell the pine trees.
On the trail on the way up to Lover’s Leap from the parking area, just outside the campground, there are a couple of killer granite boulders that are worth the trip alone. There are a few dozen boulder problems of easy to moderate grades, the air is clean, the setting is beautiful, and the car is close.
SuperTopo publishers have a guidebook to the boulders in Lovers Leap Select by Mission Cliff’s own Chris McNamara.
Lover’s Leap is about 2 hours from Sacramento and about 3-4 hours from San Francisco off of highway 50 on the way to South Lake Tahoe. That’s close enough for a day trip, and you’ll be so glad you did it once you get your hands on that cool, grippy granite and smell the pine trees.
Labels: Chris McNamara, climbing, hot spots, Lover's Leap, Tahoe
¶ Friday, April 25, 2008 0 Comments
Friday, February 8, 2008
Pipeworks Logo Photos Wanted
If you have a photo of yourself doing something fun in a Sacramento Pipeworks logo shirt or hat, then we want that picture! Leave your picture (no larger than 5x7 with your name printed on the back) at the Pipeworks front desk and we will post it. The photo board will feature snapshots of members wearing Pipeworks or Touchstone logo gear on top of Mt Whitney, Shasta, Half Dome, on the crux of your hardest outdoor climb, snowshoeing in Tahoe, at the end of a 10K run or 100 mile bike ride – anywhere your adventurous life takes you!
If you have a photo of yourself doing something fun in a Sacramento Pipeworks logo shirt or hat, then we want that picture! Leave your picture (no larger than 5x7 with your name printed on the back) at the Pipeworks front desk and we will post it. The photo board will feature snapshots of members wearing Pipeworks or Touchstone logo gear on top of Mt Whitney, Shasta, Half Dome, on the crux of your hardest outdoor climb, snowshoeing in Tahoe, at the end of a 10K run or 100 mile bike ride – anywhere your adventurous life takes you!
Labels: members, Sacramento Pipeworks, Tahoe
¶ Friday, February 08, 2008 0 Comments
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Paul Barraza Gets Around
If you are planning a trip anywhere in the United States and you want to get in some good climbing time, it might pay to check in with Paul Barraza, manager at Berkeley Ironworks. He’s climbed in 30 of the 50 states.
“I took a road trip for two-and-a-half years and just went for it,” he says of his travel/climbing marathon.
The 34-year-old Berkeley native got an early taste of scrambling around on rocks as a child, when his family would go to Indian Rock Park in the Berkeley hills or to Yosemite. But he didn’t get serious about it until he was a sophomore at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
“They had a little rock wall in the football stadium underneath the stands,” he recalls. That was enough to get him hooked. After college he came back to the Bay Area to work for Hornblower Cruises & Events. The pleasure yachting company turned out to be a perfect place for an avid climber.
“You make decent money and work for nine months. During the winter there’s no work, so I would travel for three months,” he says.
Three seasons of that whetted his appetite for the big adventure. He had saved up enough to spend two and a half years roaming the country, covering the northern states in the summer and heading south for the winter. He managed to fit in a couple of weeks of Mexico along the way. When he felt like it, he’d look for a good climbing spot.
The end of the trip found him back in Berkeley. He had worked a little at the old City Rock gym, so when he heard of an opening at Berkeley Ironworks he went for it. After three years behind the desk, he was picked for the manager’s job at Touchstone Concord for two years. Then it was back to Berkeley again for his current manager’s job, where he can bike to work in six minutes.
Whether in suburban Concord or urban Berkeley, climbers are all part of the same tribe. One difference is that the Concord commuters are much less likely to stop in on a lunch hour, he says.
To keep in shape, Barraza has adopted the training advice of Tudor Bompa, the famed Olympic coach who brought victory to Eastern Bloc teams in the 1960s.
“He came up with ‘periodization,’ and this whole program that we try to convert to climbing, and it works pretty good,” he says. The idea is that the body gets used to doing the same things over and over again. To break through the plateaus, it helps to change your routine every six to nine weeks.
“It works pretty darn well,” Barraza says. “The first cycle that I did, I really noticed a difference in how I felt.”
When his workweek is done, Barraza and his girlfriend spend “every climbable weekend” in Yosemite, especially during the winter when cold temperatures help with friction. There’s a lot of exploring to do beyond the areas that have become popular in the past 30 years, he says. In the summer, Tahoe also gets his attention.
Oh, and he’s still working on those 20 remaining states.
If you are planning a trip anywhere in the United States and you want to get in some good climbing time, it might pay to check in with Paul Barraza, manager at Berkeley Ironworks. He’s climbed in 30 of the 50 states.“I took a road trip for two-and-a-half years and just went for it,” he says of his travel/climbing marathon.
The 34-year-old Berkeley native got an early taste of scrambling around on rocks as a child, when his family would go to Indian Rock Park in the Berkeley hills or to Yosemite. But he didn’t get serious about it until he was a sophomore at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
“They had a little rock wall in the football stadium underneath the stands,” he recalls. That was enough to get him hooked. After college he came back to the Bay Area to work for Hornblower Cruises & Events. The pleasure yachting company turned out to be a perfect place for an avid climber.
“You make decent money and work for nine months. During the winter there’s no work, so I would travel for three months,” he says.
Three seasons of that whetted his appetite for the big adventure. He had saved up enough to spend two and a half years roaming the country, covering the northern states in the summer and heading south for the winter. He managed to fit in a couple of weeks of Mexico along the way. When he felt like it, he’d look for a good climbing spot.
The end of the trip found him back in Berkeley. He had worked a little at the old City Rock gym, so when he heard of an opening at Berkeley Ironworks he went for it. After three years behind the desk, he was picked for the manager’s job at Touchstone Concord for two years. Then it was back to Berkeley again for his current manager’s job, where he can bike to work in six minutes.
Whether in suburban Concord or urban Berkeley, climbers are all part of the same tribe. One difference is that the Concord commuters are much less likely to stop in on a lunch hour, he says.
To keep in shape, Barraza has adopted the training advice of Tudor Bompa, the famed Olympic coach who brought victory to Eastern Bloc teams in the 1960s.
“He came up with ‘periodization,’ and this whole program that we try to convert to climbing, and it works pretty good,” he says. The idea is that the body gets used to doing the same things over and over again. To break through the plateaus, it helps to change your routine every six to nine weeks.
“It works pretty darn well,” Barraza says. “The first cycle that I did, I really noticed a difference in how I felt.”
When his workweek is done, Barraza and his girlfriend spend “every climbable weekend” in Yosemite, especially during the winter when cold temperatures help with friction. There’s a lot of exploring to do beyond the areas that have become popular in the past 30 years, he says. In the summer, Tahoe also gets his attention.
Oh, and he’s still working on those 20 remaining states.
Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, staff, Tahoe, Yosemite
¶ Sunday, June 10, 2007 0 Comments
Monday, November 27, 2006
McNamara shows the way
Some people go to a Touchstone gym to train. Chris McNamara goes because he likes it.
“I don’t train. I just climb,” he says. “For a long time pretty much all I did was climb in the gym and climb El Cap.”
The 27-year-old bachelor has been going to Mission Cliffs since he was a teenager and the gym was brand new.
“I was one of the first investors, and I worked there when I was in high school,” says McNamara. “The gyms just keep getting cooler. And there’s more people at the gyms, which is pretty cool. It’s definitely more fun when there are more climbers to meet and go climbing with.”
McNamara’s climbing has spawned a couple of ventures. Not satisfied with the El Capitan guidebook he was using in the late 1990s, he wrote his own article.
“I did one step, got a lot of great feedback from people, and went to the next level” he says.
Those steps evolved into SuperTopo, a series of climbing guidebooks published out of South Lake Tahoe. Key features include a history of the climbing route, pitch lengths, gear sizes, and detailed approach and descent maps.
Some climbers have said such detailed information takes the adventure out of climbing. While McNamara agrees that the sense of adventure is important, he doesn’t think he’s giving too much away.
“We listen to a lot of people, and go from there as far as deciding what to say. We don’t describe every single move,” he says. “Even with the information we provide, you still have to do all the climbing yourself.”
McNamara also founded the American Safe Climbing Association, a group that replaces deteriorating bolts on climbs throughout the country and educates climbers on safety. It grew out of his own efforts to replace bolts on El Capitan. He realized other people might be willing to help out, and the ASCA was born.
“I ran it for maybe five years,” he says. “I’m now kind of just on the board.”
McNamara continues to push boundaries. These days his big passions are big-wall climbing and BASE jumping, “finding new cliffs that haven’t been jumped off, and climbing big walls in a day that haven’t been done in a day."
Some people go to a Touchstone gym to train. Chris McNamara goes because he likes it.“I don’t train. I just climb,” he says. “For a long time pretty much all I did was climb in the gym and climb El Cap.”
The 27-year-old bachelor has been going to Mission Cliffs since he was a teenager and the gym was brand new.
“I was one of the first investors, and I worked there when I was in high school,” says McNamara. “The gyms just keep getting cooler. And there’s more people at the gyms, which is pretty cool. It’s definitely more fun when there are more climbers to meet and go climbing with.”
McNamara’s climbing has spawned a couple of ventures. Not satisfied with the El Capitan guidebook he was using in the late 1990s, he wrote his own article.
“I did one step, got a lot of great feedback from people, and went to the next level” he says.
Those steps evolved into SuperTopo, a series of climbing guidebooks published out of South Lake Tahoe. Key features include a history of the climbing route, pitch lengths, gear sizes, and detailed approach and descent maps.
Some climbers have said such detailed information takes the adventure out of climbing. While McNamara agrees that the sense of adventure is important, he doesn’t think he’s giving too much away.
“We listen to a lot of people, and go from there as far as deciding what to say. We don’t describe every single move,” he says. “Even with the information we provide, you still have to do all the climbing yourself.”
McNamara also founded the American Safe Climbing Association, a group that replaces deteriorating bolts on climbs throughout the country and educates climbers on safety. It grew out of his own efforts to replace bolts on El Capitan. He realized other people might be willing to help out, and the ASCA was born.
“I ran it for maybe five years,” he says. “I’m now kind of just on the board.”
McNamara continues to push boundaries. These days his big passions are big-wall climbing and BASE jumping, “finding new cliffs that haven’t been jumped off, and climbing big walls in a day that haven’t been done in a day."
Labels: Chris McNamara, climbing, El Capitan, members, mission cliffs, Tahoe
¶ Monday, November 27, 2006 0 Comments
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Teen Team in Tahoe
On Sunday, September 17th, fourteen members of the Berkeley Ironworks Teen Climbing Team took their first-ever team climbing trip to the Echo View and Pie Shop boulders of South Lake Tahoe. Two fathers, David Leoung and Ed Johnson, were kind enough to each drive a van-load of climbers to the mountains. For many of the kids, it was their first opportunity to climb outside. The team members did tons of problems with helpful advice from coaches Kendall Taylor, Jonathan Perry-Houts, and Matt Johnson. Aside from raw fingertips and forgetting a crash pad the day went off without a hitch and everyone had a fantastic time.
More trips are in the works and the Team is looking for adults (like YOU) to help out by driving or assisting in other ways. If you are excited about making outdoor climbing accessible for the Team, please contact Kendall Taylor at the BIW front desk.
On Sunday, September 17th, fourteen members of the Berkeley Ironworks Teen Climbing Team took their first-ever team climbing trip to the Echo View and Pie Shop boulders of South Lake Tahoe. Two fathers, David Leoung and Ed Johnson, were kind enough to each drive a van-load of climbers to the mountains. For many of the kids, it was their first opportunity to climb outside. The team members did tons of problems with helpful advice from coaches Kendall Taylor, Jonathan Perry-Houts, and Matt Johnson. Aside from raw fingertips and forgetting a crash pad the day went off without a hitch and everyone had a fantastic time.More trips are in the works and the Team is looking for adults (like YOU) to help out by driving or assisting in other ways. If you are excited about making outdoor climbing accessible for the Team, please contact Kendall Taylor at the BIW front desk.
Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, climbing, Tahoe
¶ Thursday, September 28, 2006 0 Comments
