Touchstone Blog Archive
Monday, August 30, 2010
Awesome Comp and Anniversary Party
On Saturday, August 28th, Touchstone celebrated its 15 year anniversary by throwing an enormous party at the first of the Touchstone Bouldering Series comps.
There was carrot cake for Touchstone's 15th anniversary. There was chocolate cake for Ironworks' 10th anniversary. There was chocolate raspberry cake for the comp. And the white cake was there because it was a party! I shuffled between the options when Ironworks manager, Lyn Verinsky saw me eying the delicious desserts. "Try them all!" she said.
With a plate full of cake, I headed into the comp along with 410 other registered competitors. At least 600 people total enjoyed the party. There was a ton of fun going on.
For a number of lucky people, the best part was definitely the raffle. Over $900 dollars was raised in a raffle to support the Access Fund with a large array of great prizes. There were free shoes, ropes, crash pads, Mountain Hardwear clothes, and more. Not only were there raffle prizes but free granola was given out, cookies, and every competitor got a stylish TBS6 shirt to wear to the next comp in Sacramento.
In appreciation of the people who have stuck with Ironworks since it's beginning, Jeffery Bowling was manning the back room, where he was giving out awesome light weight camping chairs to 10 year members.
During the initial comp, the crowd got pysched by bouldering to the sounds of the Nigerian Brothers. The African folk group played a rhythmic drum beat while the competitors climbed on over 70 new problems, won free stuff, and watched the finals.
One of the coolest parts of the comp was the onsight final for men and women. With $1200 given out in cash prizes, the local talent came out and shined. Justin Alacron, a future Berkeley Ironworks desk staff member, grabbed a place on the podium. Alacron rarely comp climbs but headed to Touchstone to check out the festivities. He noted "Initially I came to the event to get a workout on the new problems, eat some food, and enjoy the party but I totally got sucked into the comp atmosphere and ended up climbing all day."
With delicious catered Thai food, awesome Pyramid Brewery beer, and four different kinds of birthday cake, the food nearly derailed the competition. "I nearly stopped climbing entirely about half-way through just so I could pig out, it was that good," said Alacron.
With a hundred people watching, announcers throwing out a move by move commentary, and lots of cameras, the finals had an air of seriousness. Mike Abell, of Flame and Flash- the Bay Area's Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender- represented his club, donning their new sleek tank tops on the big stage. He commented on the onsight final, "It was cool how they got a big comp vibe from a local comp setting."
Cicada Jenerik, a member of Zero Gravity, enjoyed the finals. "It was really nice to just hang out with people and climb, everyone got along really well and just had a really good time."
In the men's finals Ethan Pringle won first, Mike Abell placed second, and Justin Alarcon brought in third. In women's finals Natasha Barnes nabbed first place, Cicada Jenerik got second, and Ngan Nguyen crushed her way to third place.
The next of the Touchstone Bouldering Series will be at Sacramento Pipeworks on September 17th. The comps are free for members and a great opportunity to eat free food, drink beer, and enjoy a positive competitive scene.
There was carrot cake for Touchstone's 15th anniversary. There was chocolate cake for Ironworks' 10th anniversary. There was chocolate raspberry cake for the comp. And the white cake was there because it was a party! I shuffled between the options when Ironworks manager, Lyn Verinsky saw me eying the delicious desserts. "Try them all!" she said.
With a plate full of cake, I headed into the comp along with 410 other registered competitors. At least 600 people total enjoyed the party. There was a ton of fun going on.
For a number of lucky people, the best part was definitely the raffle. Over $900 dollars was raised in a raffle to support the Access Fund with a large array of great prizes. There were free shoes, ropes, crash pads, Mountain Hardwear clothes, and more. Not only were there raffle prizes but free granola was given out, cookies, and every competitor got a stylish TBS6 shirt to wear to the next comp in Sacramento.
In appreciation of the people who have stuck with Ironworks since it's beginning, Jeffery Bowling was manning the back room, where he was giving out awesome light weight camping chairs to 10 year members.
During the initial comp, the crowd got pysched by bouldering to the sounds of the Nigerian Brothers. The African folk group played a rhythmic drum beat while the competitors climbed on over 70 new problems, won free stuff, and watched the finals.
One of the coolest parts of the comp was the onsight final for men and women. With $1200 given out in cash prizes, the local talent came out and shined. Justin Alacron, a future Berkeley Ironworks desk staff member, grabbed a place on the podium. Alacron rarely comp climbs but headed to Touchstone to check out the festivities. He noted "Initially I came to the event to get a workout on the new problems, eat some food, and enjoy the party but I totally got sucked into the comp atmosphere and ended up climbing all day."
With delicious catered Thai food, awesome Pyramid Brewery beer, and four different kinds of birthday cake, the food nearly derailed the competition. "I nearly stopped climbing entirely about half-way through just so I could pig out, it was that good," said Alacron.
With a hundred people watching, announcers throwing out a move by move commentary, and lots of cameras, the finals had an air of seriousness. Mike Abell, of Flame and Flash- the Bay Area's Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender- represented his club, donning their new sleek tank tops on the big stage. He commented on the onsight final, "It was cool how they got a big comp vibe from a local comp setting."
Cicada Jenerik, a member of Zero Gravity, enjoyed the finals. "It was really nice to just hang out with people and climb, everyone got along really well and just had a really good time."
In the men's finals Ethan Pringle won first, Mike Abell placed second, and Justin Alarcon brought in third. In women's finals Natasha Barnes nabbed first place, Cicada Jenerik got second, and Ngan Nguyen crushed her way to third place.
The next of the Touchstone Bouldering Series will be at Sacramento Pipeworks on September 17th. The comps are free for members and a great opportunity to eat free food, drink beer, and enjoy a positive competitive scene.
Labels: Touchstone Bouldering Series, Touchstone Climbing Comps
¶ Monday, August 30, 2010 0 Comments
Sunday, November 1, 2009
DRG Comp Video
Check out the recent video made of the Touchstone Bouldering Series comp at Diablo Rock Gym.
TBS5 @ Diablo Rock Gym from Diablo Rock Gym on Vimeo.
Labels: Diablo Rock Gym, Touchstone Bouldering Series
¶ Sunday, November 01, 2009 0 Comments
Thursday, June 25, 2009
TBS5 Dates Announced
Get out your chalk buckets, the Touchstone Bouldering Series is coming back this summer. The TBS is returning for it's fifth season starting at Mission Cliffs in July and continue through the finale in November at Berkeley Ironworks. You can see all the dates below and you can get more details on the TBS page.
Get out your chalk buckets, the Touchstone Bouldering Series is coming back this summer. The TBS is returning for it's fifth season starting at Mission Cliffs in July and continue through the finale in November at Berkeley Ironworks. You can see all the dates below and you can get more details on the TBS page.July 24th Mission Cliffs
August 21st Diablo Rock Gym
September 18th GWPC
October 16th Sacramento Pipeworks
Nov 13th Berkeley Ironworks
August 21st Diablo Rock Gym
September 18th GWPC
October 16th Sacramento Pipeworks
Nov 13th Berkeley Ironworks
As always, these comps are FREE to all Touchstone members. They all include Free Food, Free Beer & Soda, Free T-shirt & of course, lots of climbing.
Labels: Competition, T-Shirts, Touchstone Bouldering Series
¶ Thursday, June 25, 2009 0 Comments
Thursday, March 26, 2009
TBS4: A Wrap-Up
TBS4 has officially come to an end and while we have to wait until July to see it return, we wanted to give all of you a bit of a wrap up to let you know just how fun, and how successful it really was. Without a doubt, this was our most successful Touchstone Bouldering Series ever, and after the way it went, we're looking forward to the next round!
Here's a bit of a wrap up, in case you missed anything, or if you just wanted a little bit of information as to exactly how it all went down:
The last competition was at Ironworks on Friday. We had 345 competitors at this one and that officially made it our largest ever competition. Over the 5 different competitions that made up TBS4 we had even more people, 758 total climbers came together over 5 different events to make this our largest series Ever.
If you want to see the full results, feel free to head over here and dive right in. For now, here are the winners of each different category, but congratulations to each and every one of you that participated.
Thank everyone who came out and made this such a great season. If you have not had a chance to come to these competitions, they have free pizza, free Beer, free T-shirt, Raffle Prizes, tons of new climbing and lots of great people. Now is the time to join up and start putting your skills to the test and having a lot of fun.
TBS4 has officially come to an end and while we have to wait until July to see it return, we wanted to give all of you a bit of a wrap up to let you know just how fun, and how successful it really was. Without a doubt, this was our most successful Touchstone Bouldering Series ever, and after the way it went, we're looking forward to the next round!
Here's a bit of a wrap up, in case you missed anything, or if you just wanted a little bit of information as to exactly how it all went down:
The last competition was at Ironworks on Friday. We had 345 competitors at this one and that officially made it our largest ever competition. Over the 5 different competitions that made up TBS4 we had even more people, 758 total climbers came together over 5 different events to make this our largest series Ever.
If you want to see the full results, feel free to head over here and dive right in. For now, here are the winners of each different category, but congratulations to each and every one of you that participated.
- Women's Beginner Division - Tobie Chan-Kalin
- Women's Intermediate Division - Karen Benitez
- Women's Advanced Division - Hally Tollner
- Men's Beginner Division -Joseph Markette
- Men's Intermediate Division - John Ricco
- Men's Advanced Division - Troy Gibb
Thank everyone who came out and made this such a great season. If you have not had a chance to come to these competitions, they have free pizza, free Beer, free T-shirt, Raffle Prizes, tons of new climbing and lots of great people. Now is the time to join up and start putting your skills to the test and having a lot of fun.
Labels: Climbing Competitions, TBS, TBS4, Touchstone Bouldering Series, Wrap-Up
¶ Thursday, March 26, 2009 0 Comments
