On behalf of all of us here at Movement, we would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy this very special white Christmas.
Today marks the completion of the 5th month that Movement has been open – thanks to everyone for their support! We’ve enjoyed every moment and are excited for 2010… There are some great things planned for the coming year and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Movement members Ken and Bettina Younge have a cabin in Estes Park and asked if we would be interested in getting a tree for the lobby for the holidays. We couldn’t pass up the offer and the result is this amazing 21′ tall pine! It was a bit tricky getting it in the building and standing the behemoth up, but we got ‘er done (and no one died putting the star on… which is always a good thing).

From the entire Movement staff, we wish you HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Since our last – and fairly optimistic – post late last week, we have heard further word from MSA regarding the autobelays. In fact, the International Stop Use will be in effect indefinitely, as MSA will no longer be making or servicing these apparati. MSA is backing out of the climbing industry entirely.

Movement has been working with the CWA to better understand what safe and feasible options may exist to replace the MSA Autobelays and we will keep our members and guests informed as we learn more.

In the meantime, you can read the full press release from MSA here, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have further questions.
We appreciate everyone’s continued patience with this matter and hope to have more answers soon.

Today we spoke with MSA who manufactures the Redpoint Descender, commonly known as the Auto Belay. They have completed a third party investigation as to why the units failed and are now petitioning the Consumer Protection Agency to remove the international “Stop Use Notice”. They did not comment on the cause of the failures.

Movement uses a company called Experiential Systems to have the units serviced and they are of the opinion that Auto Belays could be back in service as soon as next week. We’ll keep you posted with the latest information on the Auto Belay status here on the Movement blog and on our Facebook page.

In the meantime, we are introducing a new program at Movement called “Partner Tag”, for times when you come to the gym without a partner.
How it works:
Ask the front desk for a tag – green for lead, yellow for top rope.
Attach it to your harness.
Then, keep look for others with a tag!

On a different note…

We have set 51 NEW BOULDER PROBLEMS and 10 NEW ROUTES this week so there is plenty of freshness to climb on at Movement this snowy weekend!