The Oaks Climbing

Meet our newest Touchstone Athletes, Malcolm and Pierre Alcutt! They both come from 8+ years of indoor trampoline experience, which they say helps a ton for their general fitness base and body awareness. After years of bouncing and tumbling, the two brothers found a new challenge in climbing and a new community in their home gym, Diablo Rock. Climbing is just like a more grown-up version of what we were already doing, Pierre says. A self-identified boulderer, Malcolm oft...en runs out of projects in the cave & Kilter Board. I love how each climb is a puzzle to be solved both physically and mentally, he says, and how each climber’s strengths and weaknesses often allows them to unlock the same puzzle, but in different ways. While Pierre can often be found quietly scrolling through his Instagram feed (or respectfully avoiding yet another lap on your project), don’t let his modesty fool youhe’s got incredible determination and laser-like focus. But climbing is about more than sending the gnar for him: It’s the best excuse to be outside, discover a different view and perspective of nature, and spend time with my brother. On top of putting down big numbers in the gym, they’ve also both just recently done Ill Cave (V10) in Tahoeafter only 1.5 years of climbing. We can’t wait to see what they do next. Say hello to these crushers out at the rocks or in our gyms when they reopen! : Steve Babuljak

When we say climbing is for everyone, we are taking a stance. We are saying that we believe in everyone’s right to access to our sportand that we know we haven’t gotten there yet. Access is not about opening our doors and expecting people to walk through. It is about recognizing the barriers to entry and working to take them down. And there is no greater barrier than being denied your basic humanity. Black people in America can’t expect to feel safe jogging in their neig...hborhoods, buying candy from a corner store, holding cellphones in public, or even relaxing in their own homeshow could we expect them to feel safe rock climbing? To our Black community: We stand with you. We recognize our role in creating a more just society, starting with our gyms. We are reiterating our commitment to do better. We will continue to do the work within Touchstone to cultivate social equity at every level, from hiring practices to employee trainings and staff support. We will continue to work with organizations and support local leadership who fight for equity and access to rock climbing, both indoors and out, for all. We hope everyone in the Touchstone family feels empowered to speak out in this painful moment. It can be hard to know what you can do to fight systemic racism as an individual. It feels scary and impossible to change a system, but it CAN be changed. Here are ways that you (yes, YOU) can fight racism today: * VOTE. Laws are made by lawmakers. You choose who those lawmakers are. Register to vote here: https://registertovote.ca.gov/ * Support Black-owned businesses: https://bit.ly/supportBlackbizBayArea * Support on-the-ground activist groups: https://bit.ly/supportactivists #BlackLivesMatter #SayTheirNames

OAKS UPDATE! Our long-awaited building permit is IN HAND, and we have a few cool wall renderings from Walltopia to share. We can't wait!

Touchstone Tips Outdoors: Clean Your Tick Marks Be sure to clean your tick marksand if we had our druthers, ALL tick marksbefore leaving a boulder, route, or area.

Touchstone Community Spotlight | Episode 4 Summer Winston is a professor, tiny house builder, and all-around powerhouse of a human being. After experiencing a true sense of belonging at the 2017 Color the Crag festival, Summer and co-founder Darrick Broudy created The Brown Ascenders, a climbing meetup group for POC superheroesthey’ve been meeting up all over the Bay and in Touchstone gyms ever since. Check out our spotlight video on them!

New Touchstone Tip Outdoors is up! Pack out all of your trash, even the "biodegradable" stuff like fruit peels. Before you move on to a new climbing area, do a final sweep to check for wrapper corners, finger tape, or other easily-missed or dropped garbage. Bring your own trash bag and pick up any trash you see on the trail for bonus points!

Introducing Touchstone Tips: Outdoors! First up is all about parking. Lessen our impact on crags by parking only in designated areas. Carpool with your buddies whenever possible. If the parking area is full, choose another area to climb.

What another INCREDIBLE Woman Up Climbing Festival! Thank you to everyone who came out and made this year so very special. If you missed the events of 2019, check out our recap of this past weekend celebrating womxn in the rock climbing community and industry.

CONGRATULATIONS to the 2019 Woman Up Open Finalists!

For this Touchstone Community Spotlight episode, we wanted to highlight someone who is doing the most, ALL the time: Maricela Rosales. In addition to being a superstar desk staffer at Cliffs of Id, Marci is a coach, a teacher, and an advocate. Check out the third Touchstone Community Spotlight!

Check out our official logo designed by Design is Play!

OAKS CLIMBING UPDATE: Thank you everyone for your continued patience and psych! We’re happy say that we have completed most of the demo work inside the Oaks and have been working with Walltopia to finish up the wall design process. We’ll be submitting our plans to the building department in the coming weeks. We so appreciate all of your support, and will release more updates as they become available.

Second Touchstone Community Spotlight video is live! Randi Johnson perfectly captures all the things we <3 most about climbing. Check out her story and if you see her at a Touchstone Gym make sure to cheer her on! Video: Outpost Digital Cinema

The Oaks Theater has been around since 1925. It has certainly seen its share of changes over time...but who would have thought that it would ever host a rock climbing gym?! That's right, we are proud to announce that after almost 8 years of vacancy, The Oaks will be home to Touchstone Climbing's newest gym! We could not have done this without your vocal support. THANK YOU for calling your reps, showing up at community meetings, and for all the kind messages you've sent our wa...y thus far. As always, watch this page for news and updates!