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Review > Climb It > Halos

Now the Halos have a long and varied history, Noodles will explain in his own words:

"There was once a company called Halo, they made some holds called the Halo. We liked the look so I sent off a cheque to the owner and waited for the holds. The company went under... but we were assured he holds were en-route.....1 month, no holds turn up, so I sent a few emails. Couple of months.... still no holds. Couple of text messages.... no holds, but they are coming.... 8 months and STILL NO HOLDS. I gave up, I threw some money away essentially :(

Thankfully Climb It brought the molds, and sent us the reshaped versions of the holds, and what you're going to read in our review is us on some holds that should have been reviewed over a year ago, but due to poor timing it means you're reading this later than you should have been; sometimes life is just life, you have a good day, you have a bad day, sometimes your Halos turn up in the post :P - N out"What we're looking at today is the Halos, from Climb It; consider this the holds don't come in a size smaller than XL and whichever way you look at them they're pretty damn big; (left to right: XL, 2 Xl, 4 XL)

Once we had them there was no stopping to the crazyness that was being thought up, bear in mind that the holds are textured on the inside and slick on the outside so you have little or no hope in being able to use your thumb, we're talking open hand moves all the way, and depending upon you wall not easy open hand climbing; let's take a closer look:

So technically that says it all, but it doesn't, these holds are harder to stick than you think. Most (not all) of the inner areas are sloping outwards; you need to be dead on with where you're placing your hands to make sure you're good. One thing is for sure, unless you're fast on your matching or climbing on shallow walls, you will end up on your ass.... think we're joking? We set a route with these from the 45 degree wall all the way to the stairs, using the box and when we needed to added the Top Out Slopers for where we wanted something else.... what happened? There was a whole bunch of ass to mat action :) Then there was the time we set what we thought was a nice easy little route on the wall... easy? Nah, just plain hard

What we're missing from this video is the session that happened a few weeks later, when we set a move just on the edge of the 45 to the 30 degree wall... the original pull was hard, basically a jump to the 2XL hold, match and then move. Because of the angle most people couldn't even pull the first move; even the people that we thought would pull it with no problems. This just hammered the nail into the thought we'd had before, these holds are trickier than you think


From opening the box to actually to getting onto the holds, there is a couple of things that are apparent; 1) these are well made holds 2) tricky to hold onto, even with a match 3) we wish we'd had them way earlier!







Flat walls to very slight overhangs are where these holds are going to be best suited; anything over 30 degrees and you're going to be scrabbling for purchase, not because of the texture, but because of the way the holds are designed. We thought that these holds would be a hoot on the 45 and were just shut down, pulling off of the floor? Nope, sorry!

These holds, even though they are very simple looking are more surprising than you'd think. The insides are textured but the angle of this area varies as you go around the radius, which despite the matching possibilities, makes them different and yet-the-same when you rotate them... you know what you're going to hit, you just don't know if you can either hold it, or what angle what you're holding is going to be on. Once you've seen one of these holds on a wall you KNOW what it it! You KNOW how to hold it... it's just when you hit it that you'll know if you can actually stick it... or not :) Core strength... if you don't have it, you'll get it, that's one thing that we got from the sessions that we have and still continue to have on these holds.

Gym use is a complete no brainer with these holds, home wall use? Sure, if you have space; the XL's are pretty big! I'm sure that Climb It could make some smaller versions of these, even just as finger pockets (more than just one pad please) that will cater to the home wall owner.
Versatility: Rotate, the holds aren't the same all the way around
Screw Holes: Nope, but they do need a screw
Overall there's not much you can complain about with Climb It's holds most of the time, these are of the same high standard as you'd expect from this ever expanding company. But there are some niggles with these holds, nothing major just minor things that could be made a little better; these holds don't have a pre-placed screw hole, which with these holds do actually need as we've managed to turn them when they're weighted. The edges of the holds where they meet the wall are sharp and are very prone to chipping, they could be rounded a little to lessen this impact.

The backs of the holds are flat and clean, well sanded despite their size. Our holds are bright as you like, and we like that way :) Having these holds as fully textured would have been cool on these shapes, but having the inside textured and the rest of the shape slick makes for a nice look and some crazy climbing, and they're skin friendly... not mad grippy like you'd expect, you will end up cleaning them a fair amount because you're going to be slinging chalk at these so you can stick; thankfully they clean up easily.

Only one of the holds is hollow backed, the 4XL and it still weighs in at 15lbs, the 2Xl runs just under 6 and the XL set that is four holds runs just under 12lbs. There's a couple of holds that could be hollow backed and it's an interesting decision for them to not hollow back the majority of holds to save material and make them lighter and make them a little cheaper.

Review > Climb It > Erosions

Does anyone remember the Sediments from Climb It? No? Well have a read here... it's from when we had the wall before our current cave and Noodles had more hair.

Done reading? GOOD! Imagine a set of holds like the Sediments, but without the sediment, the chunks, the bits to grab onto.... can you picture that? You're probably seeing something like this:

And you're right... they do look kind of brutal, and depending upon where you put them... they are kind of brutal! We first had these as an easy traverse, and it was just too nice, most of the holds have incut areas (or lots of incut areas) for your fingers to slide into, some better than others, and we found that whatever we set was getting sent very quickly. So we unbolted and then gave them to Seb, who has more length than the rest of us, so he could play... what he set was a hybrid of the route you see in the video that runs from the steps to the corner of the 45, but there were two changes we made, the holds he put on the roof (yes you did read that right) were moved to make it easier on the fingers. Trust us, trying to match on something that was meant for one hand on a roof is not much fun! Fingers were beginning to hurt.

Skip to a few weeks later (with the hybrid route) and we begin again... we all romped over the route and then decided something a little more spectacular was needed. Joel who's visiting Jacky from Switzerland came over so we gave the holds to him. Now begins a tale of spinning wrenches and the moving of holds; Joel hasn't set before... ever! And he's tall... and strong and he as he says "loves crimpy routes". Noodles went for a beer and then came back in to see what was being set; he'd mutter under his breath and then just walk out again shaking his head.

45 minutes later a route has been formed, the start is nothing short of brutal! Watch the video and if you've got a keen eye you'll notice the the position of the holds stays the same, but the holds do change; rule number one of Routesetting: "Make sure the person can get off of the floor". Eventually we did hit that point, the blind slap around the corner of the 45 was the stopper move for a good long time until we started hitting it and could get onto the 30 degree wall. Did it get easier from there? A little, but not much! The small holds from the set are more than hangable, but you need to be very very gentle getting onto them and how you position your body and weight your hands.
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The larger of the holds have by far some of the largest slots for your hands in these sets, so you could take them up to something around 60 degrees overhung, the rest of the holds as you've seen from the video are suited to either 30 or 45 degree walls, and everything in between. One way or another you will end up having your fingers in slots ranging from finger tip to just over two pads deep.. thankfully there are enough thumb catches and other slots to help you out of whatever mess you can get yourself into.

If you put these holds on slabs / vertical walls and err towards the larger holds then beginners will have some fun getting up whatever route you decide to set, there are more than enough areas for your feet and despite some of the slots being shallow the texture of the holds should grab enough shoe rubber to allow them to get through the moves.

This is another set of holds from Climb It that are pretty rock like in appearance and feel, these holds when matched with say the Cobblestones or Sediments would make for a very interesting route... hey, that gives us an idea... where are the wrenches?





Versatility: Vertically it's pinch time, horizontally it's crimp / edge time
Screw Holes: No



Ok so Seb went a little bit nuts with his route, I went a little nuts as well and then Joel, well Joel just put the icing on the cake... putting anything other than the largest of these holds onto the 45 degree wall was always going to be a real chore to get up/across. But what the hey, if we don't try it then we'd never know.

Speaking with Louie (the shaper) a while back when he heard we were going to look at these he thought that we'd have a real blast with these holds; they turned up at the same time as the Cobblestones and the Halos and we were never sure in which order we were going to review the three sets in; the Cobblestones obviously won, and now these have had a thorough beating (or is it us that took the beating?)

The Erosions are simply put the Sediments without the little stones to hang onto, you're looking at incuts all the way.... what's going to be next? A hybrid set of incuts and little stones... hang on that's actually a pretty good idea!! Oh Loooooouie :) The route I set took some time to get across, which given what I set isn't really a surprise, did you see me hit the hold on the edge of the 45 with my pinky and ring finger and hold it?? Oooof, it wasn't a pretty move, I had a full on case of tourettes going on when I hit that one I can tell ya! It's hard to pin down these holds into what makes them nice to hold onto... the texture takes some time to bed in (which is pretty usual), is it the fact that even the small crimp incuts aren't that brutal on your fingers? or is it the variety of use you can get from these holds? I'm not sure, it's a mix of a lot of things... these holds coupled with the Sediments in the same color is going to make for a really interesting route! (Remember we had the Sediments at the gym on a completely horizontal roof at one point for some knee bar fun); again it seems that Climb It have made a set of holds that we'd recommend, there's nothing bad with them, they can be as brutal as you want on steep terrain (even if they're next to each other) but nice to beginners on lesser terrain. I had fun, I'm never going to do that blind move again as it was crazy, but I will set something else very soon with these holds... well after the TDB they're going to the gym for some more testing....

Joel has the longest reach and new at setting route, which made reconsider Noodles's suggestion that he set a route. I've noticed that when you're new at setting you tend to over think the moves and make the route harder than expected, and with Joels long reach this problem nothing but HARD! We came across the corner with a blind dynamic move to a hold that just bit into my hands. I think Noodles has some kind of climbers sixth sense and when he came around the corner he always hit the bottom part of the hold. Its made up of a couple of shallow finger pockets which are by far nicer than hitting the top crimpier part of the hold.

Climb It holds is one of our favorite hold companies (I know what people are thinking, "climbongholdreview.com should be objective in their review", but if get your hands on a set of Climb It holds and you be the judge) and their shapes give climbing outside a run for its money. The shapes coming from Climb It are consistent where the texture is nice on the skin and the holds are finger friendly (except when chucking a blind move around the corner on a 45 degree wall). Out of all the sets that we've received, I like these ones the most. Many of the real rock crimps feel like real rock and eat away at the skin but you won't find that with the Erosion's. The crimps on the holds are big enough to be comfortable. They're still not big enough for us to use on the 45 (check out the fail at the end of the review) and we ended up using one of the bigger holds for the long move. Not that it made it much easier, we just found the one hold that would allow us to execute the move.

What I really like about these holds is the variety of grips. Right side up, upside down and inside out, the holds will always give you something to grab. It may not be the best placement but with a little effort we could figure out all the moves. When Seb first set with the Erosions, he told us that he set the problem for us and said thought that he was not going to get around it, but we convinced him that it "wasn't that hard" he managed to complete most of the problem. My final words: Not to sound unprofessional or biased but these holds are sweet:P

Climb-It, Climb-It, Climb-It... CLIMB IT! How can you not be tempted to climb on holds like these? When it resembles rock, I can only be tempted to try them. Thankfully, there are companies that have understood that we are ROCK climbers, who are only training on plastic in order to be much better when we get to the mountain, Climb-It seems to have understood this. If you go and browse around their website you will realize that most of their collection is inspired from types of rock found in nature (If you are a competitor of Climb-It, note that!). Oh and I hear you already, thinking that I am picking sides, WRONG! I am an objective reviewer, but I am sick of holds that are too simple and have no natural characteristics about them. The Erosion set was very well conceived. It exists in a range full of sizes which will make you feel like you're supposed to when you're climbing. Holds with well gauged finger holds, without being too easy or too comfortable to hold onto, on a technical route you might even need to feel them out a little before finding your path. It is very possible to place some of the holds in such a way that will enforce certain moves on the climber, since some of smaller holds are quite limiting.

Conclusion, this is a quality set of holds which will be inspiring to both climbers and competitors... of Climb-It

If you are looking for a crimpy challenge then you would be served by the Erosions from Climb It. This series of bright pink original shapes that will remind you that gravity can be a precious gift or a curse! The route I worked on was a nice low traverse demanding more flexibility and balance than strength (I like those!). When set up as such, the Erosions are already challenging.

The stress on your fingers is not necessarily risking injury but your joints will get a work out. There is never quite enough space on the grips to place more then a knuckle's worth of finger. On the other hand, the texture is very nice (although, rock has been roughin' up my finger tips and maybe I'm being nicer than usual). The finish is nice to stick on without feeling like you might over-exfoliate your skin if you fall.

Then, the boys decided to play on the 45... Based on the fact that my 'squeeze' power had already been tested on the 30, I chose to watch and laugh... If I was you I'd do the same (see the video) ;).


SUPER BONUS FAIL PHOTOS / VIDEO
From the video you'll see a bunch of fails... but the faces and the different body positions are worth a second freeze frame look. Four guys, one set of holds and a lot of unbolting... once Pantera came on Noodles hit the move from the 45 and the rest followed; but that was three hours into the session... enjoy our pain :)

Review > Climb It > Silverado Cobbles

I want to see the size of Louis Andersons garden because the shapes from the Sliverado Cobbles come from the rocks in the stream in his backyard-I wonder if there's anything big enough to climb on? The shapes come in all different sizes and the texture is slick, they feel like the smooth stones you would find in a stream. Louis shapes for many different companies and we've given a lot of praise to to other companies for the shapes that have been sculpted from Louis but personally I think these are the best shapes we've ever gotten and I've been wondering when someone will make holds from the real thing, which I suppose these are an instance of!
Out of the box and onto the wall you're going to have trouble hanging onto these holds, a real hard time, but once you get these things caked and I mean CAKED in chalk then you're in a whole world of fun! Yeah Climb It advertises with us, and yes we've done a bunch of reviews for them... but I / we / climbingholdreview will point out one thing about these holds: they're amazing, and that's not because of ads or anything else... it's because they're sick, straight up sick. Well slick... and then sick. As per usual the 45 degree wall got the holds first, there was no way these holds were going anywhere near the roof, there's not enough to hold onto, but on the 45 you can hold, pull and set some good routes. Until this man turned up:
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and as you can see he turned the 2xl the largest of the holds, and the crux of the route upside down... then it became something beyond technical and strength alone, it just became something mental; as you can see!

Once we stopped mucking about and realised that we weren't going to finish that, we set the hold back to normal and let other people have rip at it, most people liked the route, loved the holds but found it hard.. so we changed the route and let people have rip at it. With normal feet it seemed easy enough for most people, so Jacky and Chris started only using a start foothold and then hooking for the rest of the route.
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Overall once you get past the initial slickness of the holds you're going to find shapes are are very real rock in feel and texture, they're quite possibly the best "real rock" shapes out there, normally when a hold is described as being real rock feeling it means sharp edges and something that's going to be a little brutal on the finger tips, in the Silverado Cobbles case it's nothing but smooth shapes and clinging on in a whole bunch of different manners so you get the send. We've racked our brains to find a place that we've climbed on real rock that is something like these holds, and other than Dan Osman climbing a waterfall (anyone remember that gem) there's no where we can think of.. unless of course you're strapping on a snorkel and then climbing upstream in a river (something we suspect Louie may actually be doing) It's a shame there's not more of these holds, we guess that Climb It were waiting to see what the impact of these shapes were and how well they'd sell, well Louies got a river, so I suspect there will be more of these coming. Natural shapes molded from real rock is always going to be a winner, add the fact that years of water flowing over stone is going to make some smooth shapes means you're going to end up with some comfortable climbing, as long as Captain Stupid doesn't think that an under cling on a smooth hold on a 45 degree overhang is a good idea :P (oh and we're going to reset that problem, it's got to go down at some point!)


Ah were would we suggest you put these? Well to 45 no worries, 60 yeah sure no problem.. it'll be hard but more than doable with some screaming; anything more than that is going to be a real test of your foot work and sloper strength. These holds aren't all slopers, most of them are incut and super smooth, there isn't a single sharp edge on them... they were molded from stones from a river, so water running over what was once sharp rock is now smoooooooth!! As a representation of "real rock" these are some of the best shapes out there, setters are going to have a blast making routes that challenge everyone. Noodles set with these last week and we'll have a video and pictures of the route that he set fairly soon, can anyone say mantel or rock-over? Yeah, that's what he set!




And it looks porous, but it's slicker than you think, nice smooth ridges and the only sharp edge is the one that hits the wall. Like I said, hard to explain, but wonderful to hold, consider that these are the stones that the holds were molded from (click on images for super view):

sent the whole line. Its safe to say that there are a wide range of sizes and even when you look at the regular Silverado Cobbles, the set alone has a lot of potential.

We try to be objective in our reviews here at climbingholdreview, but (as with most of Louis shapes), we couldn't help but praise them just a little. After we managed to stop drooling on ourselves, our imagination went wild trying to figure out where to set the holds and decided that it was on to the 45! Now despite their size (most are open hand pinches) we figured that we could turn them up the wrong way and get up with no problem and as you can see from us repeatedly trying to stick the big boy on the 45, we underestimated the sticky factor of the holds. When you get a set of holds you can see the texture that comes from the air pockets from the mix. Air pockets are practically non existent on these holds and the texture is slick. When we set the new problem heel hooks were a breeze and comfortable. There is a problem in Niagra Glen that reminds me of the Cobblestone, it has a perfect heel hook, very comfortable (heel you can even do it in bare feet) and the Cobbles are the same in that your heel just falls into the right place.

Do you like climbing outside? Do you like comfortable holds that you could climb on for hours? Is your answer yes to any of these questions? Then chalk up and get a set of these holds.
EVE
Luv 'em! The color is bright and fun, the texture is simply amazing... it doesn't leave you with the softest skin but it's not painful. You can feel every little rock-like crevice and bump, and its sticky icky icky!!!! :D They come in a nice variety of size too, which means you don't destroy the same muscle or tendon for a whole route. The part that sucks is that I don't have much to say about them except for: try them.....now!!! Lol!

JACKY
Cobbles XL = BIG & SLICK.
It’s nearing the end of winter, and I can’t wait to touch real rock... I've been waiting a long time for a near real rock feeling! They're shaped like a real rock, and feel like a big greasy rock that you can’t trust because it’s hot outside the rock itself is sweating. The holds are big and you can’t use your whole hand on them, which lowers your grip even more. Like that wasn’t enough, Clim-It made them slick! Yeah… there’s some grip, but the surface is mostly smooth, and that’s what reminded me of that good feeling of a huge, hot and sweaty rock. Mixed with the set of standard cobbles, we set-up a nice problem, which was just my style. Old school, heel hook, little over hang and a dynamic final move ...really fun! The standard set is good too. The effect is the same, reproducing the feeling of moist rock. We had a nice presentation and I had a good time with these holds. Since I’m missing some minerals on my fingers, here’s what I think in two lines:

• IN: Holds that remind me of real rock
• OUT: Holds reminding me of the gym!

Review > Climb It > Top Out Slopers

When we get a mail that says:
"Heads up, there are some heinous slopers coming your way"
We're going to wonder whats going on! Then when you get the holds you figure out what's going on... and then you look at the name of the holds (which changed from when we first got these)... you kind of sit back and wonder just what you're going to do with them!

From the get-go on these holds Zach was very nervous about us reviewing them; why? Because these holds have a specific use, and he was thinking that we'd not be able to do much with them... we don't have a slab or a boulder we can top out on... but holds are just holds; aren't they?? Surely even though Louie Anderson has shaped some holds built for the tops of boulders so people can practice their horrible belly flop exits to climbs, there's no reason that they can't be used else where?? Really??

Noodles, was not worried, he set (for want of a better word) one of the most brutal balance / tension / foot popping traverse across the wall... and that's just where the fun began! Once we realized that there is no way in hell that you can use these even on the slightest over hang (well maybe a 10 or 15 if you're into double digit V grades) you get to thinking, how far can you push them on the vertical??




The answer is pretty simple, not that far, unless you have ninja like balance and hands like Spiderman; these holds are hard, but remember, these holds are for the tops of boulders!! So as there was a warm up comp happening at Allez Up we dropped them off for the evening to see what someone that was setting on the boulder would think of them. TJ and Alex used them at the top of the wall where the holds were meant to be, and the move into them was pretty damn hard, but once people dyno'd and caught with a hand they stuck and were able to pull up without a worry, even with the holds being thin. So it seems that if you have a boulder that needs spicing up then these will give you hours of setting and climbing fun, these holds were made with a purpose in mind and they fulfil that purpose as intended. Overall great holds for top outs, everywhere else it's a toss up as to how useful that they'll be, that being said look at last weeks video, do you see the Top Out Slopers in there?? They're the move out of the 45 degree wall, and then back into the wall and then the final hold you hit on that route... like we said, you can use them, hell before we figured out an easier beta on the start Noodles was matching on of the holds and then going into the top of the 45 wall; they can be used, but they're very wall / body position specific

Overall: we tried, we failed, but we had a laugh trying; that's for sure...they're a 50/50 not because of texture or size, but purely because they are meant for one function and one function only, that being said there are some more shapes coming that are in the same vein, but they'll be deeper and better for normal walls.... thank god :)






These holds are so specific that we don't even have an icon for them. The holds are best for top out and slabs but they also work well in corners like we had them set on our wall.

We like to find the full potential of the holds that we get and when we set them on the slight overhang we were surprised that we got as far as we did. But that wasn't very far and we were being very very creative with the setting and the moves; if you need something on a vertical wall that will allow you to hold yourself in place then these were a nice surprise. Putting them under the box and then matching was harder than we expected, you end up with so much pressure on your feet it becomes really hard to move. These holds could be used for some balance routes, but if the wall is vertical or overhung they're just going to be used (we think) as holds that will allow the climber to adjust their postion on the wall but not to pull on. Use them as intended; for the tops on a boulder and you'll have no complaints, elsewhere... avoid unless you're super super super strong on vertical thin as hell can I hold onto this slopers.





Climb It has taken the path of many companies and make their holds from urethane. If they were made from resin they would not have stood up to the abuse of the saw, we'd have shattered it all over the floor. Thus far we've not broken or chipped any of the Climb It holds that we have










AFTER A MONTH IN THE GYM
We set a route on the slab with the Top Outs / Patina's & Teknik: Svelt Pinches, a nice technical sloper / pinch route on a slab. Lot's of the real good climbers got stumped despite the lofty grade of 5.9 :P Here's some images of the holds from when they came back:Unsurpisingly due to the holds nature and lets face it slopers are pretty hard to stand on sometimes the holds have a huge ammount of rubber on them... a quick dunk in a bath (actually my bath) with some soapey water and a brush and they clean up pretty well, the rubbers pretty much gone. We're using a nylon brush, washing up liquid and just hot water!

There's no real damage to the holds, and considering the ammount of hands and feet that hit these holds the texture is still the same