A Year Gone By: The Cliffs Looks Back

Looking back, 2015 was a landmark year for climbing. We can all cheerfully say that we made it through another year within the sweet, towering gym walls we call home. On the other side of the country, the Dawn Wall was finally sent after two and half weeks of battle by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. Closer to home, local and worldwide superstar Ashima Shiraishi took down the unrepeated problem, Nuclear War V14, quickly followed by The Cliffs' own strong gun Bryce Viola. Ashima also became the first ever double World Champion (along with Janja Garnbret), taking home the gold in both sport and boulder competitions in her category. The whole climbing community made a collective shrug, once again asking "Is there anything this girl can't do?"

Across the pond, Alex Megos ticked the first ever 5.15 send second go, and officially made 25 year olds feel like they were out of date. Everybody's favorite nicest strong guy/strongest nice guy, Chris Sharma, got hitched; Isaac Caldiero became the first American Ninja Warrior; Daniel Woods stamped V16 on his FA of super-mega-cray-cray highball, The Process; Sasha Digiulian taught the Eiger North Face a lesson. On the sadder side of life, we lost legends and heroes such as Dean Potter and most recently, John Ellison.

By no exaggeration, this was another epic year for climbing, and we felt those ripples at home

We made a BIG announcement, and believe us, we were psyched! DUMBO Boulders will be opening in Spring 2016!

The tenth annual Feats of Strength in February saw proud victories from Vasya Vorotnikov and The Cliffs' own Molly Gaynor.

For the second time, LIC hosted a screening of Reel Rock, this time with their tenth installment, followed by our womping stomping Halloween Dance Party, which was a rousing success.

Another success was the Team Rope Climbing Comp, hosted by The Cliffs Routesetters, which saw our members out in full friendly, competitive, smack-talking force.

10 kids from The Cliffs Vikings Teams are going to Divisionals!

The Vikings Adult League more than doubled in size from last year! With dozens of participants, the buzz was real every friday night. The only way to defend your honor? Send.

We teamed up with Patagonia to host our first-ever Job Fair! More than ten outdoor industry companies lined up on the sidewalk outside LIC to take applications and show you what your dream job could be.

We wrapped up the year with a (surprise!) proposal. Two lovebirds, intertwined with ropes and sweet nothings, found themselves caught in a moment at the base of a toprope climb at The Cliffs at LIC.

And that doesn't even begin to cover it. Other than that, we opened a gallery on the LIC mezzanine, got some giant black volumes (like really giant) on the walls in Valhalla. We said goodbye to Kyle, Ben, Ava, Party Pete, and Lizzy (and Juniper!), and welcomed Talia and Crystal, and so many more to the family.  We got down with Power Wash Porn, we pulled hard on Dry Ice Tool routes. We waited for winter and she never came. And now we patiently await the grand opening of the LIC Chipotle. Needless to say, 2016 will bring many more great things.