The Great Debate

To gym or not to gym that is the question. The great debate, or non debate as some are calling it pits Stone Garden versus the new kid in town Seattle Boulder Project. It's the wild West vs the Southies,  old vs new or as I like to see Rocky vs Ivan Drago.

Let's face facts SBP is the equivilant of a tip top state of the art cold war Russian training facility.(complete with super strong Russian girls crushing v9***) Although not quite a barn Stone Gardens is in the middle of nowhere and boast large trees for lifting in their weight room or at least its been rumored.

Noticeable differences can be seen across the board but does this give the average Terry Boulderer a distinct advantage? Let's weigh out the differences....

Space... SBP has all the space in the world but with all it's newness it's more crowded than the latest hipster bar in Capitol Hill. Stone Gardens on the other hand is a veritable ghost town. The down side of the ghost town is there are a lot of first timers blinding walking around trying to help people break ankles. The other noticeable difference is that SBP seems to be pretty hot, and I'm not talking hot like your hipster girlfriend in skinny jeans. I'm talking Arizona in July at 7pm on a Tuesday hot. This one goes to SBP only because I'm claustrophobic.

Ratings(aka Making Me Gooder)... If you are or were a SG regular you know the ratings their are schizophrenic today's v3 is tomorrows v6. There is also the ever present v4 aka v2-v7 rating which seems to be doled out whenever it's convenient not to climb your problem but rate them anyway. Still there are some great problems there ... Dave T is a personal favorite and Scooby sets some good ones too. Over at SBP though things seem to be fairly well tapered, v6 is nothing if not consistent but let's face it SBP has gone with the feel good rating style because I should not be flashing v5 and v6 on a regular basis. SG may be all over the place but the reality is NW granite is too. All the new flashy holds in the world on soft v6's won't make you an outdoor v6 boulderer in Leavenworth. If you do work you get stronger. There is something a bit more primal a la Rocky with the log on his back in 3 feet of snow at Stone Garden, so this one goes to the Garden for all your wackiness we salute you.

Height & Padding... Fact: Climbing at Stone Gardens is sometimes like climbing outside without a pad. Fact: I've only had one friend wounded in boulder combat indoors in the least year and a half and it was at SBP. Even with the recent ankle roll I'm giving the safety factor to SBP.

Beer... Clearly having frosties at the gym gives SBP a clear advantage... or does it. Unless SBP puts together the beer selection that Kiss Cafe Noble Fir is currently offering it's even Steven. Convenience vs selection is a zero sum game so this goes as a toss up. (I'm assuming the beer thing is going to happen at SBP and this is not just a pipe dream)

That makes it Stone Garden 4 vs SBP's 2, giving the clear advantage to Stone Garden. Look for more on this arms race as a new Vertical World opens in the coming months. Until then get out and get some granite because when it comes down to it all the plastic v6s in the world don't amount to a hill of granite v3s.

***Side note if you are or know a strong Russian girl that would like to donate a picture crushing v9 let us know we think it would make a great addition to this post.