Coming off some great weekend bouldering at Coopers, my week got off to an even better start when I came home Monday night to find a new crashpad waiting at my door.
One of the new Pro Spotter pads from Asana, I've been looking forward to getting one ever since hearing about them back in July. While it's not something I'd take huge falls onto by itself, as a part of a multi-pad system it's easily the most versatile pad I've ever seen. At 36x22x3, it's roughly the same size as the Shorty piece of my Sir Lands-A-Lot pad, making it great for sit starts or narrow corridors. While I've also used the Shorty as a spotting shield, keeping a good grip was often difficult, and the handles of the Pro Spotter really make it ideal for that purpose. As if that weren't enough, the solid foam core has been replaced with a foldable 74x44x3/4 mat. Fully deployed, it can cover two standard crashpads, safely sealing the gap to create a single landing surface. Folded in half, it makes a comfortable sleeping pad. And that's not all... Used in shield mode, the Pro Spotter is the ultimate in personal protection during chalk bag duels, perfect for all of those climbing partners who are also closet LARPers!
Photo: Jon Alexander
Yesterday Dan and I drove out to The Acre to put my new pad to the test, meeting up with friend and photographer extraordinaire Jon Alexander for his first visit to our new favorite boulders. After putting in a bit of work clearing out a couple of sharp stumps, we spread out the mat over my other pads while Dan made a run up Beehad. Although he never ended up falling, we did conduct a thorough jump test, finding that the mat sealed the gaps tightly enough to have withstood a fall from the top.
Photo: Jon Alexander
Next I moved around the corner to a new line I'd been looking at, starting off by laying back the left arete of Beehad to a good pinch, then turning the corner to traverse a rising crack across a tall slab.
Photo: Jon Alexander
Photo: Jon Alexander
Although Dan was ready with the Pro Spotter to deflect me away from the rocks behind if I fell off the upper portion of Heffalump, the pad instead got its first official use when the intended start hold blew off, sending me careening backward directly into my stunned spotter. I can't really say how it felt on the spotting end, but as the falling body I can honestly say I've never been so comfortably redirected onto a crashpad!
As the sun continued down and we realized none of us had flashlights, Jon wanted to get a couple shots of Dan on the nearby roof, which he had originally climbed with the sharp stumps below the slopey topout fully intact. Even though the landing was significantly safer this time, and he still didn't fall, I at least got to take a turn with the spotting shield. While I had initially thought that the handles seemed a little high, I realized as soon as I was spotting that their position allowed the pad to naturally lay down along my body, and the dual handles allowed full control of the pad while still keeping a free hand if I needed it.
Photo: Jon Alexander
Realizing we could barely see our scattered belongings to pack up, and knowing we had a mile between us and the cars, we decided to call it a night slowly make our way back out of the forest. As we picked our way though the trees, I enjoyed the lights of Frederick twinkling below us, a sight I'd never seen before in any of my trips out there. While we didn't get as much climbing in as usual, it was probably my most memorable visit to The Acre to date, and I'm more excited than ever to get back out there. More to come soon...
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