April 21, 2018 Thrash & Dangle Fest. For the competition many fun side events were created for the competitors to gain more raffle tickets to win prizes with. 
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- Blacksmith Route sponsored by Desert Rat Forge
- Blindfold Crimps Route sponsored by Evolv
- Balance Beam sponsored by Zen Lizard Systems
- Lord Of The Rings
- Rope climb
- Spinner Route
- Two Person Route sponsored by Crafted Foods
- Obstacle Course sponsored by Four Peaks Brewery
- Ninja Warrior Route sponsored by Three Ball Climbing
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Awesome photo showing climbers on four of the Side Event Routes. The Two Person Route, the Spinner Route, the Blindfold Crimps Route, and the Rope Climb.
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Jake Swanson with his choice of oven mitts prepping to send the Blacksmith Route.
The entire Blacksmith Route is created with all metal climbing holds including a few antique farming plow wheels, old mining equipment, coil springs, holds made by Planetary Climbing and Desert Rat Forge, and the route finishes on a hanging boat anchor. The climber has to wear oven mitts while ascending the 30' route. For fun we had a pile of different oven mitts of which the competitors could choose from. Fastest time wins a prize.
​Clay Gordon 6.23 seconds.
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Blindfold Crimps Route sponsored by evolv.  30' top rope route where the climber is blindfolded. We attached a pile of one inch crimp holds all the way up the wall so the climber had the best chance of successfully climbing the route. Fastest time Jake Swanson 15.90 seconds.
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Quest For Balance Route sponsored by Zen Lizard Systems. From the start box on the carpet the competitor runs down a 12' long balance beam while holding a tennis ball on a wooden spoon. Put the tennis ball in the ball holder then run back to the starting position and place the spoon in the spoon holder bracket on the wall to stop the time. The competitor could gain a extra raffle ticket if two spoons and two tennis balls are used. NEO is in the photos showing the way to do it. Fastest time Nicholas "NEO" Oxentenko 8.15 seconds.
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Lord Of The Rings Route. Super fun easy challenge where the fastest time wins a prize. Only 4 hand holds are used on the route and a continuous 1/2" rail for the feet. Start on the right side and while climbing left across the holds the competitor must move the quickdraws from one ring bolt anchor to the other until the far left hold is reached. Then climb back going right across the route moving the quickdraws back to their original position in the ring bolt anchors. Once the final hold is reached, which is the original starting hold, and all quickdraws are finished being correctly clipped, time stops. I thought I was going to be able to hold the fastest time overall by using my dynoing method on the two largest holds, but it was impressive how many competitors beat my best time. 
​To make the route even more challenging we used oval carabiners for the quickdraws that had open loop "unsewn" dog bones. So if the climber messed up on the clips the carabiner could rotate upside down adding more time and frustration to the climber. Fastest time Nicholas "NEO" Oxentenko 19.91 seconds.
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You can see NEO in the background prepping to go across the Balance Beam with two wooden spoons and two tennis balls to score the extra raffle ticket.
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Spinner Route. 30' top rope where all of the climbing holds are not firmly attached to the wall and spin. To make the route even more fun we had the competitors attached to a auto belay system so when the competitor got pitched off of the route the auto belay added the extra thrill of being lowered back to the ground. It only takes one wrong out of balance move to get pitched off of the route. Fastest time Nicholas "NEO" Oxentenko 32.0 seconds.
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Two Person Route sponsored by Crafted Foods. Two competitors climb at the same time while being tied together at the wrist. The tower feature at the rock gym was perfect for this event since the climbers can use the tower side aretes as hand holds. But for added fun I designed the route where the two climbers had to hold hands to assist each other to get through the sloping holds mid section of the route. The route was mirrored so the climbers were climbing on the same holds as each other. Fastest time Keane Maraquin and Andrew Haight 34 seconds.
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Obstacle Course sponsored by Four Peaks Brewery. For this 2018 T&D we designed the course to be backwards of the previous years since there were two top rope routes that competitors had to have access to within the yellow canyon. Start by climbing over to the arch with the rope swing, jump across in the two taped boxes then go under the spider web crawl. Go over and under some beer kegs and ring the bell on the wall. Climb left across the beam with hanging balls and drop down to climb traverse under a few beer kegs and then over to the finishing hold. Each competitor was accompanied with a staff member who assisted the competitors by shouting directions as the competitor ran as quickly through the course as they could. After the finish hold was achieved, then the competitor rolls the large dice to see how many raffle tickets the competitor receives. Super fun!!! Fastest time was   Clay Gordon 27.0 seconds.
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Ninja Warrior Course sponsored by Three Ball Climbing. Super fun course built by all of the PRG course setters. Balance beam start to the climbing wall where a no hands balance traverse is required to get across the two Planetary Climbing wooden box feature holds. Climb up to the beam and climb across the cone hanging holds to a large hanging climbing ball. Use the hanging ball to lower yourself onto a few big holds and down climb to a white PVC tube which is attached to the wall with a rope. Crawl into position placing the PVC tube at your back, and then two open hands placed in separate finish boxes successfully completes the route. This was not a timed event but it did have three bonus positions that once reached the competitor receives a raffle ticket. So overall three raffle tickets could be achieved.
Toughest move on the route was letting go of the hanging ball hold and getting onto the two large climbing holds that the climber in the photo is presently sitting on.