Review > Element Climbing > Ammonia & Chloroform

We've got a two for one special for you today. Element Climbing sent us a bunch of holds and we'll be reviewing the Chloroform and Amonia set. The Chloroform is your standard roof jug, big deep two hand pocket but the rest of the hold can be used for other grips mostly pinches and, if set at the right angle, slopey. The Amonia set consists of three incut pinches. We're reviewing these holds as one because we've been setting with both sets together all this time and we find that they compliment each other. The Chloroform is a single hold found on the jugs section of their website, the Amonias are a featured set and you can link to the product page right off Elements home page.

Ammonia

Chloroform

So you can see why we've been setting with these two sets as one, they really look alike, so much so that they could be from the same line. The Chloroform is shaped for bolting onto a roof and usually we jump at the idea of setting in the roof but in this case we kept it on the 45 degree wall. The shape of the jug itself is quit generic, the pocket is round, finger friendly and you could hang off it for hours but flip the hold sideways or upside down things start to get interesting, if it was by design or not, setting the hold up at different angles allowed us to use the fins as pinches. Now not only do we have a two for one review, we also have a two for one hold :)


The Ammonia set are three pinches and their shape closely resembles that of the Chloroform, minus the big pocket of course. There categorized as X large pinches but they're not all that big and won't take up as much space on your home woody. We think that the X large grading is due to the size of the pinch itself which in some places can be quit wide. The holds are incut and although they may be categorized as X large they are still on the smaller side and you can only get two or maybe three fingers around the hold. SO we knew from the start that these holds were going to be tricky so we set them up on the 45:)

Element Climbing sent us the Ammonia's and Chloroform with two other sets, the Betas and Metamorphosis's, and our first problem we set was with all four. The problem started on the Chloroform and continued onto the Ammonia's and they ended up spitting us off a few times before we found the right foot holds to use and the correct sequence for the hand movements. We set them up so we could use the incut part of the hold, being on the 45 we figured we'd be giving ourselves a break, but it was still necessary to use the other pinching options on the hold. This didn't make the problem any easier, it just made it easier to match the hold, and it still required a lot of strength to keep on the pinch.

Our second problem was once again on the 45 with a long move to the finish on to the Chloroform. It was a short problem. only three moves, but once again the Ammonia's spat us off. The shape of the hold has many pinch options and makes even the short sequences fun to work, but hard to hold

We've had these holds around for quite some time and they seem to always find their way onto the 45 so we handed them off to Seb to set something different. And he didn't disappoint. He started his problem on a vertical wall, under the box, and ending on the Chloroform. The sequence was much easier than the 45, the pinches are still a little tricky to maneuver, but what Seb did with the Chloroform was to set it on its side. With the hold set up this way we needed to use the hold as a slope...yes a slope. The Chloroform has a big pocket on one side, but the rest of the hold is slopey and when Seb set it up as a side pull, we were able to grab the top of the hold instead of the pocket.




OVERALL BUILD

Nice and centered, use cap head bolts
Slightly smooth but grippy
Versatility: More than you think on first glance... pinchy fun!
Screw Holes: The Chloroform could do with a screw hole, the rest are fine

Element Climbing have only been around a short time and they've done their research. The holds are well built, the bolts are centered and the holds don't spin, they've even hollowed out the back of the Chloroform to loose weight. The texture is smooth and we could work our sequence, unbolt the holds, move them around and work another sequence without feeling any pain. I was a little disappointed with the colour. On the website, the holds are molded in a cool marble green but ours came in a solid tone.

The holds have been on and off the wall and they've gathered a lot of chalk and the texture hasn't changed very much. Usually the texture of a hold will mellow out bit with Elements holds had a nice smooth texture all the way through even when it's been caked in chalk.

Build wise the backs are flat, the bolt holds nice and square with an inset washer... we've not had any of the holds spin on us yet, but it's a matter of time before the Chloroform gets some jewelery in the shape of a set screw
Urethane! It's a pretty strong mix we've not cracked a hold yet

I really like these holds, they nice and round with no sharp edges in sight, the texture is smooth and the shapes are unique. They gave us a challenge and everyone had fun with the holds. We had to work most of the time to get any progress, but in the end everybody had tried the problems repeatedly.

PROS

• Good for all level climbers (Depends on the angle of wall)
  
• Nice texture
• Varied pinches, just spin the holds
  

CONS

• They could have a bigger line, maybe some small pinches
  
• Order the colour you want, don't get caught with a colour you don't like
  

PRICE

Ammonia, are three XL pinches for $44.95
The Chloroform is a single XXXL roof jug for $49.95

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Review > Element Climbing > Orbits

It's always nice to see a new company spring out of nowhere, I can't remember how I found these guys I think I was looking for a name of a company for one of the people that reads the page and I just stumbled upon it by accident! One thing that I noticed from the start is their website is pretty damn slick, it's not the website you normally see, it was in the form of a periodic table (and as I'm a geek) it stood out. They've been selling holds to local gyms for a while, and we figured we should have a look and see what's up with their line. First up is the Orbits, some round shapes with the tops lopped off and flat edges / slopers for your climbing enjoyment.




We went a different route with these holds, normally we ask can they go on the roof or the 45... this time we gave them to Seb and let him have fly out of the box; he set something that looked just to low to get onto, the first hold was high, and then the second two just looked too low for anyone to be able to make use of them.. and then a throw to what can only be described as a flat edged sloper; remember all of this on an overhang, so the hold (pictured left) is going to be just-that-little-bit-worse then it needs to be! Thankfully, the camera was rolling and I managed to nail the route first time, I'd never touched the holds so it was an interesting climb:

As you can see Chris was a little muddled on his feet, he had a harder time than me because I'm short and I can just keep a lower centre of gravity, Seb on the other had was having a hell of a time keeping his 6'2 frame on the wall; he could actually reach the throw from the start but doesn't have enough strength to hold onto it and move... he'll get it eventually.

One thing we all noticed during that session was the lips on the holds, where the nice round shape is cut off on every hold there's a lip that catches your fingers from time to time. From an aesthetic point of view it makes the holds look nicer than just a sloper with the tops flattened, but from a climbing point of view it's not really needed. People with smaller hands are probably going to feel this more than your monkey clawed brethren, it's not sharp, it is round but it's one of those little things that could have been better. I spoke to Dave over at Element the day after the session and mentioned that the shapes climb well, but the lip gets in the way. The holds would be pretty good without the lip, he agrees and might shape some more shapes without the lip to compliment these.

The second route as you can see what a little more technical, Eve set something that was pretty hard and stretchy, note the use of a head jam for her to get across the route! Again the holds performed well, the edges are just enough for you to hang on without worrying about being spat off once you get the sequence in your head.

You could go to 45 on these holds with some good, no great feet.. your core is going to get a work out trying to hang these, it is doable, but it's hard. Given the nature of the shapes with only one of them being incut this is where the lips do come into play, but you're going to have some sore fingers if you attempt this over and over again! On a 30 degree wall you're going to be challenged with some balancey moves and matches that are going to give you a test but is by no means undo-able. Seb / Eve and Chris had a hard time to start with on the first route, but once they'd worked it a few times they either got the sequence in a few more trys or just nailed it once they figured their footwork out.



EVE
Climbing is always fun! Well, to some. Being some, I can say that the Orbits from Element are fun to climb on! However, I can't say there was enough to them to make them memorable. They're round yeah, and they came in this ordinary shade of green... Dull. Once it's covered in chalk, its pretty gray and unexciting. They have a texture which is fairly soft and sticks nicely. It feels like it looks cause it looks like it feels! They are, I guess, serving their purpose since they almost totally lack in flexibility. The advantage is that it allows a setter to impose pretty easily what the move is going to be. Although when you can't set you can confuse yourself; they just didn't see the headlock :). So I say Orbits work but they won't send you flying.

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