Metolius Hold Review

Hold review: Metolius Granite Macros, Hueco Macros, and Cobblestone Modulars

Continuing in a series, I'd like to offer a quick review of a few Metolius holds I picked up recently, since information on specific sets and holds in the Metolius line seems hard to come by on the internet. The two sets I'd like to review today are the Granite and Hueco macro sets, sold in packs of two, and a 5-pack of Cobblestone Modulars. In-depth reviews follow; if you want to read the lowdown, skip to the end.

Hueco Macro 2-Pack (Set B)

Keys not for scale, I just happened to have them there

If those don't look interesting to you, you must not spend as much time window-shopping holds on the internet as I do (not a bad thing). These guys are big and heavy, and pack a huge amount of detail into the interior of the hold. In nearly any orientation, you'll find something to use, whether it be a narrow pocket, incut crimp, deep pinch, or easy jug. The texture is good, and a bit grittier than some Metolious holds I've tried; if you wanted, you could even use the unfeatured part of the one on the left as a sloper.

I circled it, in case you weren't sure which hold I was reviewing.

The larger of the two holds I placed on my flat wall, arranged so the best part of the hold faces up. In my recent competition, people seemed to prefer to use this as a pinchey sidepull. The divots arranged along the bottom can be used as crimpy pockets, but if you can reach the upper part of the hold I don't know why you'd want to. Arranged with the jug side facing this right way, this would be a solid hold even on quite steep ground.

This kind of pinch seems to be the best way to grab the hold straight-on, in this orientation

The second of the two was about as juggy, and I put it right side up on the 40 degree overhand. This provides a nice full-hand pocket that can be pinched for added power. On a 40 degree incline the hold feels great from directly below, but won't offer much traction as you get further out from the wall like a jug would.

Maybe not quite full-hand

Flipped upside down, the underside of the hold offers a fairly good crimp that would be slightly less than positive on a slight incline and pretty bomber on a slab.

Both of these holds offer a wealth of setting options on all levels of steepness, and I love using them. You could probably even put them on a roof for a very tough pinching challenge.

One thing I'd note is that although I haven't had any issues yet, these holds lack anti-spin screw holds, like all Metolius holds. The large backing area seems to help, though, and adding a screw in the pocket would be an easy fix. Certainly it doesn't seem like the same glaring lack as the Incut Edges ledges. Anyhow, moving right along to...

Granite Macro 2-Pack (set C)

I really need to find a good place to store my keys

Again, two big holds, but not quite as featured or versatile as the Huecos above. The “outside” of these holds feels quite smooth, while the “inside” has a nice roughened texture... which still feels pretty smooth. These don't have the same level of grit as the Huecos or the Cobblestones.

The larger of the two I put on the flat wall (you can actually see the bottom of the Hueco above it). Aside from tilting it slightly or trying to use it as the World's Worst Sidepull, you're more or less stuck with a single orientation here. The top of the hold is a fairly thin ledge that ranges from almost neutral on the right side to quite negative on the left. The lip all across is quite sloped and while it doesn't feel that difficult, it's no jug.

Of note for setting problems is that this hold seems to look a lot better than it actually is. I've seen a lot of people go for it and then recoil like it was a hot stove. In the picture above I'm holding the best part of the hold- it looks like there's a bit of a lip on the other side, but there really isn't. I want to set a problem that forces a match on this guy, which would really take some careful movement. I have it set quite low, too, which adds to the fun.

The second of the two offers two useable edges, a neutral one and one that's just slightly positive on my 40 degree incline. Both faces are much narrower than on the larger hold, about a pad and a half to two pads deep.

The incut side is what I have up here, and matching on feels pretty good. The incut side would be very good on anything less steep and hard as hell on anything steeper. There's more of a lip here than on the other hold, but just barely. On a flat wall, the other side would offer a slopey crimp.

These two holds are certainly less versatile than some, but work well if you want some slopey ledges. I bought them to put on the flat wall, and put one on the 40 when it turned out to be more positive than I expected.  Like the Huecos above, I haven't had any issues with spinning on them yet.

Cobblestone Modulars 5-Pack (Set C)

Honk if you love slopers! Like the Granite pieces above, I bought these in preparation for the building of my flat section, and they turned out great. Metolius's Cobblestone line consists of all sizes of flat slopers. This set ranges from the big and fat (lower right) to the nearly non-existant (bottom). Although these holds are simple, they feature a great gritty texture and versatile design.

The centerpiece of this set, for me, is the fatty shown above (lower right in the top picture). This sloper bulges out at the top just enough to be very slightly positive on my 30 degree wall, which is where it lives now. As you can see by the chalk, it gets a lot of use, lending itself well to interesting problems and being a perfect level of difficulty for me at this steepness. On anything up to about 15 degrees, this would be an easy sloper for a beginner. Past that it gets harder; I can match and move past it with careful footwork and slow moves, and a stronger climber could incorporate it into more dynamic moves. On anything steeper than this, I think it would get pretty difficult to use, being too fat to effectively pinch.

Two hands will fit, barely

The rest of the set is much smaller, and I have them on the flats. All are quite similar, with one side of the hold offering a slightly more positive surface. All of them are small enough to act as pinches.

How good the holds are at sub-optimal angles depends on the hold- some are fat enough to be decent even when hanging out, and some can only be used from directly below.

The flattest of the holds I haven't found a home for yet- I'm waiting to put it on a volume or possibly the arete, the only places I think it would be worth using. It's incredibly shallow.

Oh yeah, I did put another one on the 30, but it's awful. A stronger climber could probably use it- this is the most positive hold after the big one, but it's still negative on a 30.

On a final note, I have had some problems with spinning on the big sloper. The hold is fat and positive enough to invite lean-outs and compression moves, but these can cause it to spin; the bolt hole is slightly below center, so if the sides of the positive area are grasped and pulled left or right, it can spin. Like all Metolius holds, a screw hole would be very welcome here, especially since the shape of the hold makes perimeter screws difficult.

The Lowdown:

Hueco Macros: Versatile and fun to set with. Good for vertical to steeply overhung, probably tough on a roof.

Granite Macros: Good sloper ledge and a thin crimp ledge. Not very versatile. Great on vertical, smaller of the two usable up to 45 or so.

Cobblestone Modulars: Great slopers, good texture. Great on vertical to slightly overhanging, with one big hold that can go a bit steeper.

Thanks for reading!

My New Arete + Metolius Hold Mini-Review

Welcome back to the blog! I've been away for a while, but progress is continuing. The snow is finally gone, so I've been out trying out some real rock- but that's a story for another blog post. I've just got two quick mini-posts for you today.

First thing: The arete section is (mostly) complete! If you recall, I had a gap between the 40 and 30 degree sections of my wall:

Welcome to the spider kingdom

And while this did allow for some interesting movements...

Don't say stuck. I'm not stuck.

I knew that a proper arete segment would allow for a lot more. And now it's done!

Phase 1

Phase 2

A small hole is still open at the bottom, but I'll cover that as soon as I have a scrap of plywood the right size. As a side effect of this piece of wall, I now have no access to the back of the wall. Hope I don't need to get back there for anything!

Placing the arete allows for more interesting transitions between the two sections of the wall, and allows me a place to use holds that would otherwise be unusable. The yellow hold you can see near the edge and the orange sloper above it fall into that category- terrible holds that would have been nearly useless, even on a normal vertical section of wall. Here, you can wrap around and grab them- they aren't great, but they can be used to make challenging and interesting movements. Climb on!

To finish my post today, I'd like to offer a quick mini-review of some Metolius holds I picked up. There seems to be a real lack of information about individual Metolius holds on the internet, including on their site- it can be hard to tell what you're getting, exactly. Since I have a fair number I'm going to periodically go through and post my thoughts.

The set I got for this review is from the Incut Edges Macro line, I believe set A. The set consists of two no-frills ledges, a small one and a large one.

The smaller of the two is about a pad and a half deep, with plenty of room for four fingers and even a somewhat sketchy match. The texture and shape feel very comfortable to hold. I have this on the 30 degree section, where it feels like a pretty good jug; on the 40 it would be almost flat on top, and probably still usable. As a foothold, the gripping surface is wide enough to stand on, and getting a toe into the hold would be a tricky but doable move.

The larger of the two I have set as a goal on the 40. It's huge, with plenty of space for both hands- really more of a ledge than anything. This thing is ridiculously deep and positive, and would remain bomber on anything less than a roof.

The complaint I have with this one is that it spins. The thing is huge and invites hanging on one side or the other, but only has a single bolt hole- no set holes for screws. I've never seen a screw hole on a Metolius hold, but if anything needs it it's this one. I quickly had to place two below it. This wasn't an issue with the smaller of the two holds.

And that's that- stay tuned! I'll probably review more Metolius holds at a later date, especially the ones that came in my starter box.

Getting Your Kicks

You already know this, and I already knew this, but the last few days of climbing on my semi-completed wall has confirmed a basic fact- without some seriously stupid foot holds, getting a start on a 40-degree overhang is tough work.

I don't want to put anything bigger than a foot chip down low, so that means a kicker- a small section of flat wall at the bottom of a steep bit, for starting your feet on. I put this in yesterday.

I guess I could just use this as a foothold. If I was LAZY.

First, I put up some wedges to support the kicker, one on each end. These triangular chunks are actually the discarded ends from the 2x6s I cut to make the side supports- waste not want not, and they are already at a perfect angle!

Look how clean it is!

Likewise, the plywood I used is a cast-off bit from one of the wall panels. The panel is really short, about fifteen centimeters. This is fine, as it just needs to provide a surface for foot chips/smearing, and the smaller it is the longer the main climbing surface is.

Ready 2 Climb

I threw on a few chips- these tiny-ass holds are basically useless on anything much steeper than vertical, and would be unusable (by me) on this steep of a wall, or even on the 30 that hasn't gone up yet. But they sure make it easier to start a problem!

And that's that- short update, but things are progressing. I'm nearly done putting the T-Nuts in the 30 degree section, at which point I'll put it up as soon as I can get the help. This will involve getting behind the wall for the last time and (hopefully) squeezing out over the top at the end- it should be a great time. Until then!

Just hanging around

Hey ya'll, just a miscellaneous update and assorted picture dump. In preparing to assemble my wall, I've had to consider which holds will be usable on the horizontal roof section, and make sure enough I have enough good jugs to make it climbable. What I realized was that I can test this out myself on my adjustable hangboard-thing, Kuraimu V2. It can go nearly horizontal, but I've somehow never tested it. Hold testing proceeded:

Hmm, yes. I see.

And, as things do, quickly escalated:

The first version of this picture had visible panties. Yowza!

End conclusion: A lot of the holds I ended up with are usable even at a totally horizontal angle, but require careful movement and thoughtful feet to avoid coming off. Very few of my holds, as it turn out, are the sort of bomber roof jugs that guys in toques like to do pull-ups on.

I do have a package coming in from Element containing a few good jugs that I hope should add options. Once those come I want to take a big shot of all my holds in a group- probably the last chance I'll have to do it!

Speaking of Element holds, I want to mention-

Element has some sweet customer service!

Element offers free shipping over a certain amount, like most hold companies. In putting together my latest order I sent an email asking if there was any amount I could spend that would result in free shipping- you never know. I got a very prompt response from a sales rep who told me that the free shipping was for U.S. addresses only, but that he could give me a discount code worth half of the hefty Japan shipping cost. Totally unexpected and cool! Along with the sale on large-size holds I got a sweet deal. And of course, the Element holds I have so far are high quality and I expect no less from the next set. Great experience!

Last, I want to show off this sweet mug I got from my lovely climbing friend:

The hold isn't any better than it looks

Hand-made and one-of-a-kind! Now everyone at my office will know that I'm a climber! I mean, they already knew since I talk about it incessantly, but now there's extra evidence.

Stay tuned for some pics of the framework currently making my garage unusable.