THE ADVENTURES

First!

2012-02-23T22:59:00.001-08:00

The Sunday after the PCI Clinic, Wolff-pack and I headed up to the Five Star boulder in Gold Bar. While I was busy bossing around kids inside the gym on plastic, Sam was outside crushing his first V11, Chutzpah, at the Index River Boulders. Psyched to get outside and see how our training has paid off, I convinced him to come work Ebriosity, V11, with me even though he was already three days on.

Once we got to the boulder, we quickly warmed up on Green Padded Ass, a slopey V6 with a sketchy landing. We first tried this problem 4 years ago and got our butts kicked, and the three or four times I have been back to Five Star, I've never been able to do it. Luckily, during the constant rainfall over the last few months, someone has taken the opportunity to come up and clean off the top of the Five Star boulder and clear up the landing. It was sadly very exciting to strap on my Team shoes and crush this problem easily.

Next we went straight onto Ebriosity. My first time trying this problem I flashed it until the last hard bump around the lip, and after 3 trips back up to Five Star, I've never been able to get half way through the problem until this day. The bottom section is two easy moves with a good slot for your right hand and a bad gaston sloper bump hold for your left. After bumping to the first sloping edge with your left, you begin to traverse out right with a series of bumping in and out between more opposing sloping edges, all while keeping a hard right heel hook, hoping it doesn't pop. After a few attempts of reassessing the beta, I finally got back to that last move and fell going around the lip to the finish jug. It took another three attempts of falling off the finish move before I finally sent my first V11! After another hour or so, Sam fell off the top a few times before finally calling quits for this trip. He was really close to sending and it will definitely go down next trip up there!

Next up we tried Kambucha, a daring V7 with a dyno to a massive jug over some rough terrain. Fortunately I had a height advantage over Sam and was able to static the dyno, where it took Sam a couple attempts to commit to it. After flashing it, I headed back down and tried it again to actually commit to the dyno but I couldn't force my feet to leave the rock and ended up doing it static a second time. Sam's send was pretty epic with his feet cutting and swinging out and campusing the next couple moves on the jugs.

To finish off the day we hit up Ross Bongo, a power endurance V9 that consists of a lot of big moves on really incut jugs. I finished this route second go last year and so I was hoping to repeat it just to get in some training and video footage. We were both pretty tired but luckily my previous beta knowledge allowed me to finish it up third go. Sam was pretty beat from four days in a row and we both called it good for the day.

All in all, I am pretty stoked to have sent my first V11 outside. This has been the first year I have ever felt really good bouldering and have actually enjoyed it at the same time. I wish I had time to climb outside more to see how good my training has done for me. It sucks that I have Nationals next week because that means the end of bouldering season and a downhill in bouldering strength. I am really psyched to climb at Nationals though because I believe I have a really good shot at making team.

Props to Sam on Chutzpah, too! Psyched to climb outside with you this summer, bro.

Unfortunately I do not have footage or pictures of me climbing it..but here is a video of climbs on the Five Star video, including local crusher Art Lim sending Ebriosity and Boss Ross sending Ross Bongo.

PCI Clinic - Seattle, WA

2012-02-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

Professional Climbers International (PCI) is "a non-profit association founded to promote the careers of athletes, develop and inspire the next generation of climbers and to preserve and protect our climbing areas." The PCI's main focus seems to be aimed towards working with the next generation of climbers through different clinic's run by professional athletes. I had the pleasure of traveling down to Portland last year to the first clinic run by Steven Jeffrey and Kevin Jorgeson (PCI President). It was a two day event broken down into onsight competition strategies and lots of technique training. I really enjoyed what they were doing with the clinics and was inspired to try and find a way to help out. Lucky for me, our good family friends, the Surmas, play a good role in the PCI clinics with Emmy (Mom) being the COO, so I had a lot more incentive to join and had a lot of support from within the company.

Last year I became a grass-roots member and was extremely excited to have my first opportunity to help out in any way I can, so I was stoked to hear that there was a clinic at the new Stone Gardens on February 4-5th with Steven Jeffrey, Kevin Jorgeson, and Sasha DiGiulian. I had the pleasure of climbing with Steven and Kevin previously and they are really great guys, but I think I was a lot more excited to work with Sasha over anything else! And the kids, of course.. ;)

Saturday February 4th rolled around and I showed up at Stone Gardens in Bellevue way too early, and since I had never been there before, I decided to head in and check out the new gym! The clinic was full of strong and motivated kids. I knew everyone because they all were from my team and neighboring teams in the PNW so I was amped to see how all the kids would do with the clinic. After discussing how the clinic was going to be run, Kevin told me that I would be working with Steven and Jeremy Bowler (SG's coach) with the Onsight competition portion of the clinic, where we would be running the kids through a loosely based onsight format on 5 problems. After allowing the kids to traverse a while, all the instructors were introduced and we split the kids into two groups.

Steven and I were there to keep it organized and talk the kids through the goods and the bads as they progressed through the problems. The first problems was fairly easy, but the second one was designed to kick everyone's butt....and it did. By the second climb, every kid was either frustrated, pissed off, in tears, or disappointed that they did so poorly. And that's where the instructors came into play..the next three problems, although easier, were much harder for the kids to get through after getting shut down on the second climb, and we worked them through it.

On the other half of the gym, the kids were split between Sasha and Kevin doing technique drills. With Sasha, the kids worked on back stepping, flagging, and keeping your center of gravity below your body, whilst Kevin taught the kids the famous "pogo" or "ninja kick". Technique is the most important part of being a good rock climber and the purpose of doing the drills were to refresh kids memories of how effective being able to use their feet is. Most kids know what back stepping and flagging is, but they don't understand how useful it really is.

Half way through the day, we had a lunch break and came back to switch groups. All in all, the clinic was very eye-opening and exciting to take part of. I'm honored I was given the opportunity to work with Jeremey, Mike, Emmy and the PCI instructors. I love what the PCI Clinics are doing for the kids and I am happy to be apart of it. I highly recommend checking out the clinics (EVEN IF YOU ARE AN ADULT - THEY DO ADULT LESSONS!!!) and hopefully I will work more of them in the future!

(All the kids listening to the PCI instructors during warm-up.)

(PCI instructor Sasha DiGiulian working with Jessy Humann on technique.)

(Bryan Franklin on the first problem during the Onsight competition.)

(PCI instructor Kevin Jorgeson watching (?) work on his pogo.)

(PCI Clinic - Seattle Team (L-R): Mike Surma, Steven Jeffrey, Kevin Jorgeson, Sasha DiGiulian, Alex Fritz, and Emmy Surma)

Motivation

2012-01-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

The best group of kids I have ever met. The best coaches I've ever had. My best friends.

Big kid time. Or "Team Grab-Ass" according to Tyson. I love every one of them.

Even though this is a bad picture of me cause I'm blurry, this is one of my most favorite pictures ever. Along with the one above. I say this over and over, but THIS is why I rock climb.

People ask why I rock climb, or how I am always so motivated, especially after all these constant years of training and doing the same thing....well, I've said it before but I'll say it again: the community. My friends. All of the kids and coaches you see in the pictures above. I would never be able to do any of it with out those guys. They have kept me going over the years and now as I go through my last year in youth for USAC and since most of them will be going out of state and away for college, they have motivated me more than ever. Probably because I'm scared I won't see them again for a long time, which is true - I will be rather depressed once they leave...but they have done so much for me over the years. I love you guys so much.

Part of what motivates me is because no matter how much we dink around at practice (and yes, I'll admit that happens), when we climb, we are giving 100% on every move, every route, every attempt on our proj. We don't let each other slack when it comes down to working hard, and we make working hard fun, too. It's also amazing getting to help you guys train, too, as a coaches perspective. I know I can't do much more than push you guys since you're old enough to do it yourselves, but seeing you guys get stronger and succeed in competitions...it's amazing. I'm sad - yet proud - to see you guy go off to college this year, knowing that even though all that work is gonna put a damper on your climbing, you are still going to do it. You guys will always climb. I know how much it means to because I know how much it means to me. Also, if any of you quit, I'd have to kill you. ;)

As for Team Vertical World....I could never ask for a better group of people. The entire team has done way more for me than I could have ever asked for. I always say that joining the team was one of the best things I have ever done and I will never say anything against that. Tyson is the best coach I have ever had. Along with helping Tyson, Ross, Josh, Chelsea, Bret, and Bryan are some of the best coaching staff you could have ever asked for. This team has not only taught me to be a excellent rock climber but to be an excellent person, and do everything you do with excellence. Always be the best you can be and always put one-hundred percent into everything you do. I will always be around for Team VW and I know the team will always be around for me.

Along with my long years of competing in USAC, I have met so many amazing climbers from around the country and world. I have met so many friends that I know will always be there for me when I need them. I have made some of the best friends in the world and I could never ask for anything more or less.

This goes for everyone.

Thank you so much...I love all of you guys.

Goals: 2012

2012-01-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have always loved reading about others' goals, and since I have never done this before, I thought that writing them down would help me actually figure them out myself..

1. I guess I should start off with the most obvious of climbing goals and that is the inevitable numbers game. I know I shouldn't have a goal like this because it shouldn't be all about how hard you climb, but I don't really think about it like that. I'm not doing it for anyone else, just for me personally. So I can see how far I've come. Goal: to climb V12 and 5.14b.

2. This is my last year competing as a youth in USAC. I have been climbing for going on 12 years and competing for 10. The US Team has always been my goal in competitive climbing and now that I have seen that goal achieved through experience, I want to make sure my last year in youth competitive climbing is a good one. I love this sport, it has become my life. I can honestly say that I am going to be more sad to "age out" of USAC than I was to graduate high school. Goal: Podium (US Team) in Bouldering, Sport, and Speed.

2.5 If I do make the US Team for Sport and Speed, I would really love to go to Singapore for my last IFSC Youth World Championships. Goal: Attend the 2012 IFSC YWC and participate in Finals for Sport.

3. I have spending time coaching and setting at the Vertical World facilities over the past year. I love seeing the kids I worked with over time finally having their hard work pay of and succeed. Also, it is very fun being able to express your style and creativity on the wall. It teaches you a lot of new things about your own style and how others think while climbing, as well. Goal: Gain my Level 2 USAC Setting Certification and USAC Coaching Certification for the 2013 season.

4. With working a lot, opportunities for climbing trips are going to be hard to come by. I have honestly been pretty unmotivated with wanting to go to Little Si lately because anything I start climbing will just be opening a project. I want to go to Gold Bar and Leavenworth but the weather is really bad and they are far away. Goal: Visit two new climbing areas for at least a week each.

5. I figure if I hold the button down on camera and take a dozen continuous pictures, one of them is going to turn out good, right? I've definitely got really good use out of my Nikon D3000 the last two years and I believe I am ready to upgrade to something a little better. Goal: Save up enough money for either a Nikon D7000 or Canon 60D.

6. I am not quite sure how this one will be achievable because I do not have a piano, but I always thought if I could learn to play an instrument, that would be the most fun. I have tried and failed at guitar. Goal: Learn to play the piano. Or...kinda...

7. I really like food. Goal: Read a cookbook and COOK SOME FOOD. MMMMM.

Here is a link to Chelsea Nicole Rude's blog. She is really strong and I believe most if not all of her goals are very attainable for her. Good luck Chelsea, and good luck to everyone in their 2012 year! Make it the best cause we all know it is going to be our last!

BLOG BY REQUEST: 6

2011-12-19T00:47:00.000-08:00

Julia Bakun -

I wasn't sure how to describe Julia. She's just so awesome. The only way I thought to express her coolness was lyrically. So, I hired Sam Wolff, who as many of you know, is in fact, a lyrical genius. After hours of hard work, this is the result:

Uh, Julia bakun, sittin in a room

Food consumed eatin cake with a spoon

Look at how she climbs, like a rapper without rhymes

Gets on the wall and falls early all the time

She thinks she’s sick cuz her hair is all curly

She gets on the wall and thinks shes burly

Well guess what Julia, you have tiny biceps

When I flex mine it makes Chuck Norris sidestep

Yeah my muscles are so fine so girls want me all the time

I have so many abs and my tan is so fine

If there was a Julia fan club, I would decline

Because I’m way too busy managing mine

Also, have you guys heard of www.youtube.com? It's so great. Like. A. Baws.

BLOG BY REQUEST: 5

2011-12-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

The Evolution of Competitive Climbing/Gym Growth

I wish I could show you guys a picture of the original Vertical Club America's First Climbing Gym est. 1987. Rich Johnston, owner of the then Vertical Club and current Vertical World Climbing Gym franchise has come long way since then. I wasn't alive back then, but I'm proud to be apart of the Vertical World community now, and even more proud to see the newest addition to the VW family opening next week in Seattle. Replacing the current Seattle VW, the new gym is opening very soon, and while it may not be able to hold a IFSC World Championships, its definitely going to see some ACTION.

The main attraction at the new VW4.0

Climbing gyms have come a long way over the years, to say the least. Now we have facilities like the mega ropes gym Stone Summit in Atlanta, the Kletterhalle Imst in Austria, and the tallest wall in the world in Netherlands.

Stone Summit. Atlanta, Georgia.

Tallest climbing wall in the world. Netherlands.

Kletterhalle Imst. Austria.

As the ever expanding climbing community get's bigger, stronger, better...the competitions get bigger and harder to set for, which means you see more and more "world class" facilities popping up around the world. Such as these facilities. Even local gyms are big enough and have good enough of an environment that the entire gym population is getting stronger. It's awesome to see.

It's great to see our sport evolve in this way. I hate the idea that people have about competitions ruining the purity of climbing. Or how the Olympics (if it ever gets there) will completely ruin climbing as a whole. I know I am biased towards competition, but there are tons of top notch athletes and even more local unknown climbers who try to make the best of both sides FOR both sides. I hear more climbers with outside backgrounds bash on plastic holds and competitions then I do the other way. In fact, I don't know a single gym climber who thinks outdoor climbing is stupid. On the contrary, they think it's awesome. So that's why it's sad to hear real rock climbers hating on the competition and gym scene when in a way, the new mega facilities that are opening up are allowing new climbers to have a way to get stronger and better at rock climbing so they can actually climb outside. Which I think is great.

I think it's our responsibility as gym members, competitors, athletes, rock climbers as a whole to move the gym scene forwards. Honestly, I think most of the reason to build a "world class" facility is to have "world class" events, other than the "mine-is-bigger" complex. ;) So really, in the last decade, I think you can blame (or thank) competitions for the major boom in the gym portion of the climbing industry. And as long as you have the support of competitors (which...you always will), you will continue to see new ridiculously amazing facilities popping up everywhere.

Here's to you Rich and Vertical World. You made a ridiculously amazing facility. Thank you for being what you are. Thank you for being there for me and so many other awesome people. You've made the PNW a better place. I've never been more psyched in my life to climb on plastic holds and I cannot wait until opening day. You've done something great, and you have something great. I will always support you.

Lounge area and bouldering room.

Third floor Mezzanine. With the main lead wall in the background.

Front desk!

Top rope area.

GET PSYCHED.

BLOG BY REQUEST: 4

2011-12-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

The Power of Chocolate Milk

Now, you may be shocked to hear this, as so many people are when I mentioned this, but chocolate milk is good for recovery. As an athlete who trains and works out A LOT, being able to recovery fully and quickly is very important. In rock climbing, it is very important to be able to to recover at a 4 day long National competition, or on a week long climbing trip outside, or multiple training days in a row. I don't do it a lot at home just because it's hard to keep chocolate milk constantly stocked in my fridge (I would drink it all before I need it), but I always make sure to buy a chocolate milk right after I climb at onsight comps where I need to get recovered for the next day, or a good, hard day climbing at the crag.

For an after work-out drink, comparing chocolate milk to plain milk, water, sports drinks, etc is vastly different. Chocolate milk has double the carbohydrates and protein content, perfect for replenishing your tired muscles. Also, the chocolate milks high water content replaces the body's water loss through sweat, preventing dehydration. There is also a lot of extra calcium, with a bit of sodium and sugar, all necessary to retain water and regain energy.

So athletes out there, next time you finish a work out and want to replenish your body with good stuff, don't drink that plain ol' water crap! Grab a big glass of chocolate milk and go to town! Mmmmmm.

My mom

2011-12-15T21:44:00.001-08:00

Mom,

I don't really know how you've put up with me the last 18 years, but thank you so much for not giving up on me. I know that climbing has put a lot of stress on both of our lives the last few years, but I never would be where I am if it wasn't for you. If I had never had you there for me, I would never have had all the amazing experiences that I have had today. You have done so much for me I could never list it all.

I've always been thankful for you not pressuring me that hard in school, and allowing me to do it on my own. You still made sure I got A's, but you didn't force me to take AP classes and that allowed me to actually enjoy what I was learning and made me want to take a few on my own.

You've made me the person I am today. I am not a stuck up, spoiled brat (at least I think so...), thanks to you. I don't take anything for granted, and I make sure to earn the things I want, especially in climbing, all thanks to you. You've supported me from the beginning and you've always made sure that I was able to do everything I've wanted to and I can't ever thank you enough. You have always been there to make sure I put in 100% for everything I do...work, school, climbing, it's all the same.

I have been able to travel to 8 countries around the world in order to compete in climbing, an opportunity that I can say most kids have never had, and many who never will, all thanks to your efforts into making sure I succeed in life.

I know we have fought over the years, but what family doesn't? I haven't always been the best son, but you have always been there for me, even when I've done stupid or bad things. I know I can always count on you to be there for me and I can't thank you enough for that. I am proud to be your son.

Thank you so much. I love you, Mom.

BLOG BY REQUEST: 2

2011-12-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

Strawberry Blonde power!
First, YOU ARE WELCOME!

Second, Shannon Russell is a freaking beast. In the last three months she has won over $2,000 in cash prizes from the PNW's local Open competitions. Starting off with the Vertical Club Tacoma redpoint competition back in September where she came in second to VW team member Chelsea M-Loftland to win a pretty decent $350. Last month at Stone Garden's annual Seattle Bouldering Challenge, she came in second to big named Lizzy Asher, winning another $500. Finally, earlier this month, she took it down south for the first annual Portland Boulder Rally where she dominated Qualifiers (first place by 500 points in the redpoint round), and then cruised problems 1, 2, and 4 in Finals, taking home $1,400 for gold. As you can clearly tell, Shannon is on a roll.

I am proud to say that Shannon has definitely taken that big step into success that so many really awesome climbs have trouble with. I always see such talented people not be able to go from climbing hard to climbing HARD. Now, Shannon doesn't climb V11 outside on real rock, but she sure as hell crushes hard on plastic. I've seen her work really hard the last few years not getting those results she wanted and deserved, but this year she has done amazing already early on in the season. The PNW is notorious for really good local boulderers and any placings in the top 6 is nothing to be ashamed of...so you can see why 3 podiums in a row is AWESOME.

Like I was saying, I am really psyched that Shannon's hard work is starting to pay off. However, I have always had the mentality that once you rise to the top (which she definitely has in the PNW bouldering scene), it's hard to stay there. It makes everyone want to beat you. ;) And she still has ABS Divisionals and Nationals to look forward to. If she keeps up the hard work and a level head, I know she will be successful and go far. And no matter how she ends up placing at the end of this year, her climbing team, friends, and family are very proud of how much she has done already this season. She also was recently picked up by Vertical Girl Clothing.

Along with being an excellent and humble climber, Shannon has been a really good friend to me the last couple years. She's a fantastic all around person. She's really smart and has high hopes of going to Stanford, but I think VW has made a soft spot in her heart and she has interest in staying local at UW so she can stay around her fantastic climbing community. ;) Thank you Shannon for everything you've done for me, I really appreciate your support and I hope you realize how psyched I am for you. How psyched everyone is for you.

Since I did not take pictures of the comp, here are pictures to Mike Surma's Flickr album. He is an excellent photographer:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1848120@N23/pool/

And here is a link to the live feed for the Finals portion of the comp:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/portland-boulder-rally-2011

And results from the comp:
http://thecircuitgym.tumblr.com/post/13882320364/portland-boulder-rally-winners

And an angry ginger:

BLOG BY REQUEST: 1

2011-12-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

Reasons to go to Squamish vs. Bishop

Besides going to Europe over the summer, which I am NOT complaining about, I haven't really been on a climbing trip locally in a long time. It's been months since I've been to Little Si, Leavenworth, Gold Bar, anywhere really...I've only ever been to Bishop, Smith, and Maple Canyon outside of Washington, so I haven't really traveled much around the US to climb outside either. SO here are some reasons to go on a climbing trip to either Bishop or Squamish:

Squamish:

Pros:

1. WAY CLOSER. Which means easier to pack for, and much more affordable, too.

2. My friend Jesse from Stone Gardens is going to school up there at the moment and I would have a place to stay while I am there.

3. Since Jesse has been up there all fall, he has seen WAY more of Squamish then I knew existed (even though I have been there probably over 50 times). There are dozens of new boulder problems that I have never even heard waiting for me to try and I have a guide. ;)

Cons:

1. Squamish, being part of the Pacific Northwest, has a very temperamental weather forecast. You cannot plan on going because it can go from perfectly sunny and 60 to rainy and cold in a matter of a couple hours. It can be sunny for weeks and then suddenly have harsh rain storms.

Bishop:

Pros:

1. I have only been to Bishop twice, and since it's the Mecca of bouldering in the United States (and world, really), which means I have everything to climb. It's bouldering season and Bishop is the perfectly place to tests your new strength on hard climbs.

2. The weather in Bishop is absolutely amazing. Sunny in the day and cool at night, so perfect for some climbing in the daylight and a couple night sessions. Not to mention the landscape (Sierra Nevadas) is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see.

Cons:

1. I would either have to find someone to drive down with, which means a lot of DRIVING, money to spend on gas, and camping, which can get really bad around the winter months. Or I would have to fly down, which means no crashpads, but I would have to get picked up by someone who drove and pay for a hotel, which is more comfortable.

2. It would have to be a lot longer of a trip in order to make it worth it!

Squamish: 3 and 1

Bishop: 2 and 2

I think Squamish wins. See you soon Jesse.

Biggest fan

2011-12-13T00:17:00.000-08:00

If you don't want to read a lame, sappy post about a kid who has a celebrity crush, then stop reading...cause I don't want to hear crap from you. Ha ha ha. But seriously...

Not to many people know this, but for the last couple years I've had a really big celebrity crush on Johanna Ernst, a 19 year old competitive climber from Austria. For those of you who don't know (which you should...), Johanna is currently among the best in the world for female competitive rock climbing. In 2008, she won the World Championships in Paris, becoming the youngest European champion of the sport. In 2009 she was overall IFSC World Cup Champion at only 16 years old, in which she became the youngest climber to ever become World Champion and the youngest Austrian to receive the Gold Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria. She was also honored with the title of Climber of the Year in 2009.

While she is more dedicated to competition climbing, she has also performed very well on the rock, too. There is a small amount of females in the world who climb 5.14, but it is good to see that number increasing on a regular basis. Johanna is one of the top leading female climbers in the world right now and she has been a really huge inspiration to me. I try to watch all the world cup live feeds as I can because getting to watch the big stars climb is truly amazing. In the last couple months, Johanna won the Lead World Cup in Boulder and Valence, and although she doesn't win every time like her Austrian male counterpart Jakob Schubert, she sure as hell looks good climbing. Her and Korea's Jain Kim are the two smoothest climbers I have ever seen on the wall. Even when they are not on their A-game, they still make people like Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra look weak. The climb with flow and with out hesitation and they look so much better than the buff male burly climbers.

I had the pleasure of "meeting" Johanna this summer at the 2011 WYC in her home country of (Imst) Austria, when she came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek and a happy birthday wish for turning 18. That was honestly one of the most unreal things that's ever happened to me and my trip would have honestly been made if she even just said hi......she's just so cute!!! :):):)

I love this shot I got of her coming off of a Qualifier in Imst.

Johanna in Finals in Imst.

ANYWAYS. since you've read this far into my awful gawking, I suppose I should get to the point. EVEN though a nice, beautiful, extremely talented, professional rock climber from another country kissed me on the cheek and wished me happy birthday, I think people like Johanna make the climbing community what it is. The smile and sincerity and friendship of the climbing community around the world is amazing. It's full of amazing people. And I have been thinking about this more and more the past few weeks (especially about that kiss...HA), and I can't express how much I appreciate what the climbing community has done for me. I have the best friends in the world. I couldn't never ask any more or any less of any one of them. Climbing is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me and I would not be who I am today with it and all of you awesome people who I've met over the years. I love you all!

And also, I always think it's great to hear a dudebro talk about a female inspiration, instead of their usual meathead, burly, climbing heroes. Hearing a tough, big bicep'd boulderer tell me that a tiny endurance-packed girl like Paige Claasen is his biggest inspiration, is AWESOME! The female climbing community is getting stronger daily, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being inspired by girls!

Thanks for reading this boring post about nonsense! See you on plastic! ;)

A "little" inspiration

2011-11-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

First off, "little" was to poke fun at body size, not amount.

Two years ago during my experience in Scotland for the 2010 IFSC Youth World Championships, I had the pleasure of meeting a little blonde Polish kid who was trying really hard to boulder on the small free-standing boulders in the middle of the EICA:ratho venue. I was hanging with my girlfriend at the time and Michaela is part Polish (also living Chicago where there is a large population of Poloks), so she spoke a little Polish and had overheard part of this kid's conversation with his friends. So naturally she went over and introduced herself with the little Polish she knows.

We learned his name was Alex Raczyński, he was 16, and didn't like competitions. Curious to why he was trying so hard on the bouldering wall (which wasn't very good, might I add), I asked him if he was competing or just here to watch. He said that he had competed in qualifiers and did not do well because it was too reachy. Now at this point I kinda laughed to myself because over the years I've come to realize how lame using the "I was too short" excuse is, but I had to give the kid a break, he WAS tiny. After a much longer in-depth conversation, I learned that Alex, at only 16, was a very experienced and well accomplished outdoor climber. Coming from Europe that is expected, but with his comp placement, seeing how hard to climbed on the bouldering walls, hearing his list of sponsors and all of the truly amazing ascents he had climbed on real rock.

After coming home and eventually becoming friends on FaceBook (what would I do with out you?), I began following his blog and paying attention to his latest ascents. Every time I had to click the "translate" button on Google Chrome to read is blog I became more impressed with this tiny Polish kid I met in Scotland. He at the time had sent very many 8b's and even a few 8b+'s (5.13d and 5.14a for you amateurs) and was so ridiculous to believe with seeing his height and knowing how moves on routes get naturally bigger the harder the grades become. I was impressed nonetheless.

Having him explain his views on competitions and why he didn't like them was a different perspective for me. In Scotland he did not to do well because the moves were just too big (which I believe having climbed them myself) for his height but whereas on real rock he can find intermediates and other such things that allow him to pass something that would normally be too big on plastic. He also did not find competitions very fun at all and thought real rock was the truest form of climbing, WHICH I completely agree with the latter, however, growing up in competitions I disagree and think they are very fun and a viable way to climb when you don't have the opportunity to spend time on real rock. A lot of things could be considered wrong with competitions, some that I will admit to agreeing with, but it's my life and I love it.

This summer, I had the pleasure of running into Alex in Ceuse, France (I also had the pleasure of climbing in Ceuse, France... :)), who happened to be climbing with none other than Enzo Oddo. Enzo, like Alex is not that tall and climbers very, very hard. He also has the same views on comps as Alex. Unfortunately it was Alex's last day in Ceuse and I could not climb with him (like I could keep up...), but I did get to watch Enzo climb quite a bit and it was really good.

A couple week's ago I checked on Alex's blog to see that not only did he grow in height, but he grew in grades he sending. The kid is crushing 8c+'s and working on 9a! UNBELIEVABLE.

This is to you, Alex. I know I was giving you crap about your height, but my point is, no one EVER has the right to say "I can't reach that hold" or "I'm too short". YES. YOU. CAN. Alex, you have been one of my biggest inspirations from my trips to Europe and you are a constant motivator to get stronger. Stay psyched bud, see you soon.

http://alexraczynski.wordpress.com/

Marmot VIM Shorts

2011-11-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

Everyone has always been all about the prAna Mojo shorts, which makes a lot of sense cause they are brilliant, light-weight, comfortable shorts to climb in. But for those of you who aren't into wearing the same shorts as every single other male climber in the United States, or maybe just looking for something new, I recommend the Marmot VIM Shorts. The VIM shorts are a little heavier than the Mojo because there is a spandex layer under the outside fabric, so when you are doing the awkward above-head heel hooks, all your friends don't get to see your junk through your pants leg. The spandex layer also allows you to stay warm while wearing shorts on a cold day. Both sides have a pretty big pocket like the Mojo and a small back zipper pocket (I like this more than the velcro - feels safer), however the pocket only has room enough to hold a small phone or cash/cards/change. And they sell for the same price as the Mojo.

Zeus Jacket

2011-10-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

I recommend the Marmot Zeus Jacket if you are looking for a lightweight and comfortable down jacket. I wore it last night during the Northwest Boulderfest Open Finals because it got pretty chilly with the big garage doors open so late at night. My favorite part was that I didn't get overheated either despite there being a mega crowd of 100+ people and a whole lot of stuff going on! It looks great, and also collapses down into it's own pocket, too!

Northwest Boulderfest

2011-10-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

The brand new mega-bouldering gym, Seattle Bouldering Project, boasting a 18,000 square footage of only bouldering - the biggest in the world - put on the first annual Northwest Boulderfest all day yesterday. I decided to compete in Open, since I don't have to do any youth competitions until regionals, and it's always fun to compete in finals for the cash prize. It's always good to see the Canadians coming down to steal some of the top spots in finals, and that definitely happened this year.

Unfortunately I do not have a ton of pictures to post (nor have I gone through them yet) because I was actually climbing myself most of the day, but if there are a few good ones, I will be sure to post them later.

It was my first time at this gym, which meant a lot of new holds and angles to climb on, and Bret, Adam and Boss Ross set as well, so I knew it would be a great comp. After the qualification session, I wasn't sure how I would place for Finals. I knew I needed all five climbs to be 900 points (max was 1000) to make finals, and while I had two high 900's, the other three were lower end. After a anxious wait for results, I surprised myself by ending up in 6th place going into Finals.

Problem 1 in Finals was really easy. It started with a big start hold, then throw up and right to the arete, and walk your feet up onto the start. After you stood up, you dyno'd over left to the Teknik Fat Lip, and then did some big crosses on more Teknik mini-jugs. With some more big moves and a bump, the first problem was finished.

Problem 2 was very tick-tacky. It started out on two Teknik crimps with a big move out right to decent pinch. With a big foot, you jump straight up to two really crappy slopers on the corner of a feature. The left hand had a good thumb-catch right on the end of the feature. From there you swung your right foot out into a heel hook on a pretty big Climb-It ledge. Falling down into the hold, you campused up to a series of three tricky holds with small divots, and then a big move to a Teknik Fat slopers, match, another sloper, and then out left to the finish. I flashed this as well and felt very good about myself.

Problem 3 was my favorite of Finals. Starting on two Teknik Franco pinches with two Fat slopers for feet, you dyno'd into two Talon pinches (my full arm span apart). Centered just above the pinches were two Spikes crimps, facing opposite directions and meant to be underclings. After an awkward move into the left Spike, you made another big move with your right hand to the worst sloper in the world, and then locked off big up to the finish (two Teknik Fat Lips on top of each other so it was only a small slot...low percentage)! I got to the sloper and had no chance of pulling off of it to the finish.

Problem 4 was another great problem set by VW's very own Bret Johnston (correct me if I'm wrong...?). Starting off with two E-Grips mini-jugs and a direction bubble wrap foothold, you made a move up and left to the big Mallorcan tufa. After hand-foot matching and readjusting all the way up the tufa, you made a low percentage jump to a left hand bubble wrap edge. With your right heel now on the tufa, you could now throw up to the bubble-wrap beehive and then again to a small E-Grips crimp. Adjusting your feet to turn your left hip into the wall, you crossed up to a right facing gaston crimp and then jumped out to a jug. If you stuck the jug (which one competitor managed to just slip off), you made a decent campus move further out right to the finish. Johnny Goiceochea and Canadian Simon Parton were the only two who topped the final problem, but I definitely felt like I could have got past the beehive and finished with a few more attempts.

All in all, the competition was great. I ended up in sixth after Finals was over - respectable considering I have been training both bouldering and ropes - and woke up this morning with a soreness that was well earned. Great gym and great setters. Oh, and the people were great too! ;)

A lesson

2011-10-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is a video of Alex Honnold. I am not going to introduce him, because if you watch the video, there is a woman getting paid to do that. However, I honestly believe that he is the best all around climber in the world right now, as I think they might have discussed in the video. It is dumb to say Alex's feats are not impressive. Death-defying or DEADLY, ridiculous, stupid, reckless...but still very impressive. He has set a very large amount of world records for climbing, many of which will not be topped...if ever.

On the flip side, I think it was very wrong for CBS to do this smaller documentary on him. Yeah, sure, it's news to people who don't know anything about rock climbing - which probably makes him the most well-known climber in the world now, but if you are into the sport...you know who Alex Honnold is already. You know what he's done, and you are impressed by his feats...but if you are over the age of 16, or have any common sense, you recognize the risks and dangers he puts himself in every day to achieve those feats. As the sport of climbing is going, especially in the competitive aspects, you have more and more kids from 6-15 all looking up to their professional climber role model. For many young athletes, that happens to be Alex. And while they may not realize his high-ball life style yet, repeating the same news articles of his different recent free-solo summits where he would-have-fallen-to-certain-death-but-didn't, isn't a very good image to be showing these younger climbers that look up to him.

I love his appreciation of the sport, his dedication, and his talent. No one can deny him that. But honestly, the dude is going to hurt himself, seriously bad (you know what I mean...), and we don't need hundreds of young athletes around the world seeing that happen. We don't need to lose one of our sports best athletes.

And don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash on Alex's lifestyle. I know he doesn't want all the fame and glory for it. He lives for what makes him happy, and not what other people think of him. Free-soloing makes him happy, and that's fine. But it's not okay for our up-and-coming athletes to follow those unprotected footsteps.

So for all you younger kids out there that are reading my blog (AMELIA), please think twice before doing this!

Switzerland

2011-10-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

After a few days of staying at Kilko's mom's house just outside of Geneva, I moved on to my next adventure with Mikaila Leonardi. She is an old VW team member who moved to Geneva a few years back, got her Master's Degree, and is now currently living and working in the city. She lives in a pretty little apartment about 5 minutes from what I guess you would consider the down town of Geneva. Unfortunately she has work most of two weeks I was there, but it gave me a chance to relax, get back on a normal eating and sleeping cycle, and explore the Swiss city a little by myself.

(Art Museum)

(It was very sunny in Geneva, all of the time. Most days were 80's, this particular day was 95.)

(Water fountain in one of Geneva's many parks.)

Mikaila was a very generous host, and I am super happy that I got to see her, since it has been a few years. She helped me get some training in by climbing for the first time in a few years! There was a very nice climbing gym in a mall called VitamParc, just over the border into France. I managed to run some laps on 7c+ and onsight a lot of 8a's to 8a+'s. The two weeks in Geneva were the strongest I have ever felt on plastic, especially in a gym...in Europe, and oddly enough I had only been climbing 4 or 5 days while I was there.

(More water fountains.)

(Lady Godiva was an Ango-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, road through the streets of Coventry, England naked, in order to stand up to the taxation imposed by her husband. Mikaila brought me to this pub for the Trivia night they have every Monday. I think we came in third?)

(This guy stole the McDonalds' "golden arches" and turned it upside down, and the Nike Swoosh for the logo of his restaurant.)

(Essentially ring toss, with very nice prizes. The only thing I won was a lighter...oh, and don't forget to look at the people in the picture..)

(So much screaming...)

I was also very fortunate enough to be in Geneva for the Les Fêtes de Genève, which is a couple week-long Festival taking place around Lake Genève, celebrating the Swiss Independence Day and other random things. The city streets were very populated and is was an awesome experience getting to ride all of the festival attractions and to eat great food. The one down side to Switzerland, and especially Geneva, was the AWFUL prices. For example, one night we went to a bar and I ate a hamburger. Let's just say that with my coke....it cost 30 Francs. And let's just say...that's a lot of US Dollars.

(More from Les Fêtes de Genève.)

(Les Fêtes de Genève)

(Panoramic view of Lake Geneva with Mikaila on the right.)

Before I knew it, my stay in Geneva was over, and I was running at 6 in the morning from Mikaila's apartment to the train station 1 kilometer away because her alarm didn't go off and I was about to miss my train. Luckily, I made it there just as the doors were closing and I was on my way to Zurich to meet up with Josh, Alex, Nick, Joe and his dad Charlie, for my last portion of the trip. Zillertal and Imst.

(Fireworks set to music over Lake Geneva. I apologize for the power line running under the photo.)

(My favorite ride.)

(More Panoramic views of Lake Geneva, from a different angle.)

Thanks Mikaila for all of the help. :)

Back to France!

2011-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I left Italy alone, hoping to meet up with Carrie and all the guys in Gap, France, no strings attached! Unfortunately things did not go as plan, and due to a late train, I missed a my last connecting train into Gap, the closest train station to Céüse. A little worried about what would happen next, I lucked out with the French train systems giving me a free ride from Lyon to Valence and a free hotel voucher for the night. Hmm, now when have I made that same train ride!? Coincidentally enough, I stayed in a hotel not too far from where I stayed in 2009 for the Youth World Championships in Valence. Knowing the area, it made me feel a load better staying in a foreign country by myself for the night. After relaxing a bit in my hotel room, I was finally able to convince the hotel staff with broken French to let me send an email (through THEIR email service) to my Mom about how I was stranded by myself and no contact with Carrie. HOWEVER, they did not let me check their email again to see if my Mom had replied.

I woke up at 7:00 the next morning and headed over for my early train ride to Gap. I didn't know if I would be meeting up with Carrie, or the Caballero's - the family I was staying with for the next two weeks, or if anyone would be there at all. Fortunately enough, the Caballero's showed up at the train station after about an hour (right when I was considering heading into town) and told me my Mom had sent out the email to them. I was instantly relieved and ready to start my journey through France.

I was filled in that our tentative schedule as to climb in Céüse for four days, about a week in Saint-Jeannett - where their house is, one day in Annot, and then a few days in Geneva before they head back to the States. From Gap, we headed to Les Gurians, the campground in Céüse. The drive became rather intimidating the closer we got because the continuous mountain-face that is Céüse become increasingly larger. The campground consisted of full utility bathrooms (washing machines, large sinks, hair dryers, showers, etc...) and a barn with a climbing wall on the inside for those rainy days.

(From the base of Céüse)

(Panorama from Berlin Wall. Just like in the movies, right?)

(Mirko on the last move of La Pinerie 7b, Demi Lune Wall).

The first day of climbing was wet and it actually made the infamously monotonous hike so much better. Thankfully most of the rock was dry for most of the day and I began my struggle up 5's. The only hard route I tried the first day was the classic Bourinator 8a, a rather short and bouldering rope climb, but it was unfortunately very wet at the top and I fell. The second day of climbing ended in very tragic down pour and after a nice breakfast in a near village, I had a mini world cup with Josh and Nick, courtesy of ADJ. Day three and four was beautiful and suddenly the hike to the top became much harder in the sun. I stayed mostly on the burly Berlin wall, and onsighted Violent Blocage 7c, Makach Walou 7c+, Berlin 7c+, and Carte Blanche 8a. Violent Blocage and Makach Walou were definitely two of the best climbs I have ever done, and although we were leaving just as I was getting use to the rock and style, I was ready to move on.

(At the base of Blocage Violent 7b+, Berlin Wall)

(Berlin Wall on a good day. And it just goes on...)

(I <3 Céüse)

After a long car ride, we finally made it to the small town of Saint-Jeannett, the small town near Nice where the Caballero's vacation home is. Their house rested by the base of a small cliff, and I soon learned that Saint-Jeannett was within range of more than 20 crags all no more than a half hour away. La Cagne and La Source 1 were two of the crags closest to Saint-Jeannett (and by close, I mean five minute walk down a hill on the other side of town, that literally leads straight into the rock), which were home to routes from 4 to 8b+, and many of the famous Fontainbleau bouldering circuits. My favorite climb of the area was Nounours 7b, a 5 bolt bloc (a term defined as a very short and boudery rope climb) that happens to be one of the first climbs you see coming into the crag. Following a 30 foot slopey ledge, you must move quickly in order to avoid the ant colony traversing across just below your hands (in my case, scorpions...), and clip the anchors which only rest about 15 feet above the ground. Surprisingly hard, it took me 3 goes to finish this classic established by the Oddo family.

(The main street through Saint-Jeannett.)

(Mirko on Nounours 7b, La Source 1.)

After a few days around Saint-Jeannett and one day at the beautiful Mediterranean beach in Nice, we went to the "Big Ben" sector of La Turbie for one of the last days of climbing in the Southern France. "Big Ben" was a large cave in the hillside overlooking Monte Carlo, the world famous city known for gambling and Formula One Grand Prix. All of the climbing there was overhung with big moves on good holds. And it made me feel very week getting pumped on the first 10 feet. This gave me a pretty good feeling of what climbing on tufas were like.

("Big Ben" overlooking Monte Carlo and Monaco.)

(Mirko lowering off "Big Ben" with Monte Carlo in the background.)

(Me lowering of Pestilence 7c+, "Big Ben", with Monte Carlo in the background.)

(Panorama. One of the many beaches in Nice.)

Our last climbing day in France was spent on the way back to Geneva, stopping in the Font-like bouldering area called Annot. After about an hour of getting lost and trying to find an area where we could climb without crash pads, we spotted a car with climbing stickers driving up the dirt road, so naturally we followed them. After the Caballero's and the other French climbers spoke in their language that still blows my mind, they agreed to let us follow them and bum off their pads. We had a lot of trouble with the online guide book and Annot's own personal grading system, but we eventually figured out where we were and what we were climbing. I did two unknown V9's and FA'd something I thought was around V10 (Grapefruit) - in comparison to other V9's and V10's I have done in the past. But who knows..

(Mirko on an unknown V4, Annot.)

Finally, after a good day of bouldering and a rest from rope climbing, I left Annot with shredded tips, scratched skin, and sore biceps, making the long drive through the night to Geneva so much better. Eventually we arrived at Kilko's mother's house and we all quickly fell asleep.

Arco

2011-10-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Arco, Italy. "The happiest place on Earth." Oh wait...

Just kidding. It was.

I wish I could rewind two months, back to when I first stepped off that train in Roverto, Italy. Back to when I looked out the bus window and saw the Trentino region for the first time. Back to when I saw the Castillo de Arco or swam in Lake Garda for the first time. I can, with out a doubt, say that Arco, Italy is the most beautiful place I have ever been to, and will ever go. Arco truly showed me how much better of a balance of life the Europeans have over us. They have managed a balance between work and play, stress and fun.

I don't know if it was the surrounding rock faces, making Arco the beautiful little village in the center of a massive valley. I don't know if it was the fields of agriculture that circled the town providing the people with their fruit, vegetables, or meat. I don't know if it was the delicious Gelato stands on every corner, or the restaurants that made every breakfast, lunch, and dinner the amazing feeling of a home-cooked meal, or the markets that sold everything you could ever possibly need to live, or the fact that no matter WHERE you lived in Arco, you could walk out your front door and not have to walk more than five minutes to see all of this.

We dropped off ADJ, Nick, and Joe at a separate hotel, and Josh, Carrie, and I stayed the first night with Alex Puccio and her boyfriend Chris Webb-Parsons at our new temporary home at Residence Franca. Eventually my girlfriend Michaela Kiersch, the rest of the Puccio family, and the Metcalfs showed up to share the apartment with us. The first day (along with the other 9...) was spent exploring the endless streets and roads and plazas of Arco. The nicest part of the city was the main plaza behind the church that had a connecting alley/street with all of the main shops and markets, which conveniently enough led you straight to the climbing venue on the other side of town. The North Face, La Sportiva, Teva...you name it, all shops along the street. Lining the streets on all of the buildings were up-close face shots (pictures) of famous climbers like Sharma, Alex Johnson, Magnus Mitboe, Johanna Ernst, Maja Vidmar, Kilian Fischuber, etc. And not to sound redundant, but the more I saw of Arco, the more I loved.

Eventually the competition rolled around and I found myself in isolation with Josh for 8 hours before I was finally allowed to leave as 61st in my running order, with him as 65th in his (two groups, not going to explain). My score ended up being 1 Bonus and 0 Tops, which overall is completely ghastly, but since I was not in bouldering shape and also just there for the experience, I was very happy to have even received 1 Bonus. Every single move on all 5 of my routes required every ounce of strength I had, even if that meant only the first two moves on all of them, and that earned me a solid 90-something-th place out of 150-something male competitors. Josh did very well, ending up around 60 (sorry if that's wrong, bro).

And now with my IFSC World Championship experience over, I now had another 7 days of the happiest place on Earth, all to myself. I spent 3 days with just Michaela in Riva del Garda - the most beautiful body of water you will ever see, eating lunch and dinner, with some time out on a paddle boat on Lake Garda. I also turned 18 and celebrated my MANHOOD by watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in Italian (I thought it sucked...). The other days were spent exploring most of Arco (and by that I mean...nowhere near most), eating Gelato, and watching the rest of the competition. CONGRATULATIONS to Team USA for placing 2nd in the overall team results, and to Sasha DiGulian for winning the Female overall results.

And now I sit here, writing this blog post, two months late, unable to fathom how I was ever even able to have such an amazing opportunity in the first place. I am so unbelievably grateful for everything I've been able to do and everywhere I have been able to go because of climbing. I would never have these opportunities if it wasn't for amazing friends and family. My Mom, my grandparents, my coach Tyson Schoene, and all of the wonderful friends who donated so much of their time and thankfully money to help me get there. I know I probably don't say it enough, but THANK YOU SO MUCH. I love you guys.

And this doesn't even begin to describe what Arco is really like...

I wish I had pictures to share with you, but they are on my buddy Josh Levin's computer still. Check out his and ADJ's blogs in the meantime. My pictures are way better though, so stay psyched. ;)

Marmot Genesis Jacket

2011-10-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Marmot Genesis Jacket is a pretty light soft shell jacket that has all the weather resistance of a hard shell. I was surprised with how breathable and comfortable it was considering it's made for harsher weathers. Perfect for Washington's coming Fall and Winter climate - oh, and it looks good, too. GO VW! (Comes in red!)

Thanks Ryan! Pics to follow!

The traveling begins..

2011-09-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

KEEP IN MIND I WROTE THIS WEEKS AGO AND HAVEN'T HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO POST IT UNTIL NOW

The last couple weeks have been a blur. I graduated highschool. I registered for classes for Community College in the fall. I had myfirst visit to Chicago and the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. I traveled to“Hotlanta” for the 2011 SCS Youth National Championships as my first year inMale Junior. The last two days were spent in Munich, Germany at the Pension Locarno, and I am now writingthis while watching the beautiful Austrian countryside go by on the train rideto Roverto, Italy, where I will begin the first part of my now 8-week-longEurope adventure.

Pension Locarno

From Roverto, we will take the bus to Arco where I will becompeting in the Bouldering portion of the 2011 IFSC Arco World Championships.For most climbers from the United States, being able to compete in the largestclimbing competition in the world is truly a humbling opportunity that very fewcan ever say they have had. I honestly hope I can represent the United StatesNational Team to the best of my ability, whether that is coming in last placeagainst the top-150 male competitors in the world, or kicking Killian’s ass. ;)

But before I talk more about things that have not happenedyet, I have a lot of writing to do to make up for the lack of blogging I havebeen doing in the last couple of months…

I began my trip by flying out to Chicago on June 25^thto visit my girlfriend Michaela Kiersch before heading out with her team(Hidden Peak) to The Red River Gorge. I unfortunately have to say I set reallyhigh expectations for myself on this trip and got shut down hard core. I had areally large tick-list from many experienced climbers of upper-ended 5.13’s andwas extremely stoked to try and onsight a lot of hard routes before Nationalsbut I can’t say that really happened. I believe it definitely helped me get inshape (despite eating delicious waffles, pizza, and ale-8’s everyday atMiguel’s) for the upcoming competition, but I didn’t do anything that I wantedto. The climate at the crag was 80+ degrees with what felt like 100% humidity everydayand made relaxing on the wall very hard. Although I struggled to get use to theenvironment, the heat and rock included, I did manage to send a little bit.

The world famous Navy Pier

Fountain in Navy Pier

After a week of climbing there, I am not entirely sure if Ilike the climbing or not. The Red is suppose to be the Mecca of rope climbingin the United States and having not been experienced with the climbing there Ican’t really give a legitimate opinion, but I can’t say I really liked it thatmuch. I know that will probably piss a lot of people off (Bret), but whatever,maybe it just wasn’t my style?

Campfire at Miguel's Pizza

Battle wounds from the gravel at Miguel's Pizza

Andrew Nimmer on Table of Colors 7c+, Red River Gorge

Michaela Kiersch on Table of Colors 7c+, Red River Gorge

Convicted 7c+, Red River Gorge. Photo courtesy of Michaela Kiersch

Emily was scary good at this...she said she was making a Taco and she did..

After a week of getting my butt kicked and into shape at theRed, we headed off to Atlanta for the 2011 SCS Youth National Championships...

After a couple rest days in and around Atlanta, check-in forthe competition started on Wednesday. One of my favorite parts of USAC and beinga competitive rock climber is the amazing community. Every Nationals I can’twait to see all my friends from across the country and at the end of everytrip, I hate saying goodbye. Being able to see all my friends again completelypsyched me up for the competition the next day, and with the previous week ofgetting fit in the Red I was definitely ready to compete.

The format for the National competition is Flash format forqualifiers, with 16 (or half) advancing to Semi-finals, onsight format forSemi’s, with 10 advancing to Finals, and then another onsight format forFinals. I have become pretty accustomed to this type of format, as they havechanged over to this because of the IFSC Youth World Championships. One of thebiggest things I believe the US needs to improve on in order to even compare toEurope at the highest level of competition is…well…everything; and changing theUSAC Youth Nationals is the best place they can start.

To sum up the competition the best I can without making youread another 10 boring paragraphs is…I placed third. I flashed the first twoQualifier routes, which put me in first place with three other people goinginto Semi’s. Unfortunately I had a poor Semi’s day when my foot slipped beforeI was ready to fall (wait…why would I be ready to fall?), which put me goinginto Finals in around 7^th place and meant I had to step it up a lotthe next day. Lucky for me, the Finals route was completely my style and I hadsecond high point for my category that day (stupid draw), which put me in 3^rdplace overall for the weekend (stupid accumulative scoring) and a spot on the2011 US Team.

Dominic LaBarge on MYA Semi-Finals

Michaela Kiersch on FYA Qualifier 2

Melina Costanza on FYC Qualifier 2

Audrey Hsu on FYA Semi-Finals

My plan for this summer was to decline my invitation for theYouth World Championships, which is happening at the end of next month in Imst,Austria, because I was already competing in Arco, Italy, and it would cost alot more to try and do both competitions. However, that was up until three daysago before my coach Tyson Schoene called me up and told me to change my flightand that I was going to stay in Europe until the end of August.

And thus my trip begins…

Moving On..

2011-06-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

So, lately I've found myself lying awake in bed, not able to fall asleep until the wee hours of the night...well, more like 11 or 12, but hey, that's late for me. I can't figure out why this is happening, though, because I'm always asleep by 9. It could be because I'm a rebellious teenager, who is turning 18 in a matter of a few weeks. It could be that I recently podium sweeped at the Division 1 Championships last weekend in Salt Lake City for Sport and Speed. It could be because, as of yesterday, I am a high school graduate (congratulations Class of 2011!). It COULD be because I leave for my month long trip next Saturday, which will include: Chicago with Michaela for two days, Red River Gorge for a week, Hot-lanta for 2011 SCS Youth Nationals, and finally Italy for the 2011 IFSC World Championships. Or it could be because I have anxiety problems. I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that this post has nothing to do with the fact that I have been losing about an hour of sleep for the last couple of weeks.

On Wednesday the 8th, I skipped out of school early and headed south to Portland in order to travel with the Surma's to SLC for Divisionals. Long story short, I won Difficulty through a super final with California powerhouse Eric Sanchez, and managed to pull out a lovely time of 5.87 seconds in Finals to win Speed as well, against Will Roderick, also from California. I had a great time hanging out with all my climbing friends, attempting to climb at Little Cottonwood - and failing due to inch worms gathering in masses, climbing with Zan Bode and the Surma's at Stephen Jeffery's woody, and hitting up the new Asana Packworks factory in Boise, Idaho on the way home. I am sorry there was no blog post for this, I hope all you avid readers can forgive me. ;)

As of around 8:30 P.M. last night, I became a 2011 Henry M. Jackson High School graduate. I was one of 390-some-odd students to graduate from the rich little suburban high school in Mill Creek, Washington. A couple years ago, graduating seemed so impossible...so out of reach, but something that I learned from climbing was that nothing is impossible, and always to keep pushing your limits and it will pay off. I pushed through high school and I am happy who I've become because of it. I graduated on Honor Roll (3.5-3.74 accumulative GPA), which was a surprise to me, and have never felt such mixed emotions at one time. Getting to see all my friends walk across that stage and receive their diploma (cases) and walk down the isle in those ridiculous green and black gowns was one of the happiest moments of my life. But having to say a definite goodbye to some of them was heart-breaking. I love all of you guys, and I know that none of you will ever read this, but thank you for all you have done for me over the years. I will miss all of you deeply.

For those of you that don't know, I will be attending Everett Community College next year and working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. I am doing so because of my financial situation, as well as competing my last year in youth for USAC and continuing to work up at the Everett Vertical World helping coach the team.

I leave next Saturday for the biggest trip of my life, thus far. I will be away from home for a month exact. I fly out for Chicago on the 25th of June and fly home from Munich, Germany on the 25th of July. In between those dates I will be being shown around the famous city of Chicago, Illinois by my beautiful girlfriend Michaela Kiersch, traveling and hopefully crushing mega sport routes at the stellar Red River Gorge (for the first time), winning (sarcasm) the 2011 SCS Youth National Championships in beautiful (sarcasm) Atlanta, Georgia, visiting Concentration Camps with my good friend Josh Levin and family, and then kicking (more like kissing) Adam Ondra's and Patxi Usobiaga's ASSES at the 2011 IFSC World Championships in Bouldering in Arco, Italy.

Before I leave, I want to make sure I thank EVERYONE who helped get me to Italy this summer. This trip would not be possible if it wasn't for such amazing friends, family, and a wonderful climbing community. I could never ask for better people in my lives and I love you all. You guys have done so much for me and I can't express how much it means to me having you here to support me. I have been given so many amazing opportunities in my life because of climbing and I could not been able to achieve them all with out your help. Thank you again, all of you, who helped fundraise or donate to my trip to Italy.

I will post something else tomorrow with pictures and maybe videos of various things mentioned in this post. Sorry it took so long for something like this to get up...

SUPPORT!

2011-04-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

HEY EVERYONE!

I recently found out that I have an invitation to the 2011 IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) Climbing World Championships in Arco, Italy this summer! I have the privilege of being one of 5 male and female competitors from the US competing at the Arco World Championships because I previously placed first and was Pan-American Champion for Bouldering this last November in Ecuador. The Arco World Championships is truly one of the most prestigious climbing competitions in the world that you can go to, and I am unbelievably honored to be able to go.

However, to get there, I need your help!

If you would like to support my trip and help me get to Arco, Italy this July for the World Championships, there are a few ways to do so! You can donate to my PayPal account denijoe@comcast.net, send me your donation through the mail - email me at afritzelcakes@hotmail.com to get my address, or get it to me in person. I'm not asking for a lot, but a little bit from everyone with help a whole heck of a lot to get me there! I recommend a $5.00 donation, but you are more than welcome to donate more! :)

If you have any question about my trip or about donations, please feel free to ask!

*****If you plan on using PayPal, after logging in (you can create an account - it's free), select the Send Money tab, then you must choose "Personal" when given the options between "Make a payment" and "Personal." Then select "Payment owed" as the reason why you are sending money. Note: If you do not follow these instructions, you will be charged $0.45 (cents) as a processing fee.

Thank you everyone for showing your support! My estimate for fundraising for the entire trip is around $2,500, and so far I have raised around $350. I really appreciate everyone's help, and please, pass this on to your friends and show your support! :) Note: If I am unfortunately unable to raise the funds for the trip by July, I promise that all raised funds will be fully returned to those who have donated. PayPal and I will keep records of everyone who donates. Thanks!

(Arco Junior Rock Masters. One of the bouldering walls at Arco.)

(The incredible lead wall with the crowd in the background.)

(The lead wall from another angle. Notice Arco's famous sheer rock cliffs jutting out surrounding the city in the background, all the way up to the castle on the top. The climbing is suppose to be as amazing as the view.)

Smith RockS!: day 1

2011-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Smith does ROCK.

Last Friday I headed out right after school with Bryan "B-Hops" Hopkins to the birthplace of modern American sport climbing. The Ruanas, a family on my climbing time (and boy, does climbing run in the family...;)), had recently bought a vacation home right outside Terrebonne, literally a 5 minute car ride from the crag. We rolled in pretty late that night and got a quick tour of the beautiful house before crashing from the long drive. Waking up the next morning (from rambunctious and eager kids), I was astounded at how amazing the house was. Thank you so much to Rudy and Christine for allowing us to stay down there, you guys are amazing! I look forward for the times to come. :)

After and early start, we headed down to the gorgeous Smith Rock State Park. This would make it my third time there, twice last year around the same time. The weather looked good for most of the week, but we were worried it might get a little too hot. I didn't have any goals for the week since it's not that far into rope season and I didn't really think I was still that accustomed to Smith's unique climbing style.

(Smith from the campground.)

(Another view of Smith from Morning Glory Wall. Those are THE best bathrooms ever..)

(More of Smith.)

The normal warm up area for us (Morning Glory) was already packed with people, so we headed over to The Testament Slab area and did Barbecue the Pope, 5.10b, setting up some TR's for the kids. After that, Bryan and I went over on got on Vision, 5.12b. This route starts off with some technical climbing at the beginning, to a big move of a really bad hold on the arete, and finishes up with some classic Smith big moves on buckets. Although Vision was a great route, probably not one of my favorites.

After being relatively warmed up, Bryan and I headed out to Morning Glory Wall to do some laps on the Smith classic, Churning in the Wake, 5.13a. This was my first Smith project last year and took me 4 attempts between 2 trips to send. Last year I had watched Bryan run laps on it like it was easy, so I was psyched to get to that level in my climbing, too. I ended up getting to the second to last draw before finally pumping out from messing up my beta too many times. I wasn't disappointed or shocked, I was expecting it, and ultimately only more motivated to do better next time.

Drew's project for the weekend was Times Up, 5.13b, just around the corner from Churning. After watching him struggle with the powerful beginning moves, I felt like I would have a much easier time on that part of the route because of my height. After the powerful moves, he moved into a few mono pockets to some small, sharp jugs, and then traversed out right on a rail and continued up a 20 foot run out crack (probably like 5.6...he chose not to place any gear there), and finally to a large ledge where you are able to straddle and rest before the second half of the route. After a full recovery, he headed up into the sustained pumpy moves until the finish. I couldn't tell what those moves were like, but I knew since Drew cruised it, I would struggle (funny how that works, right?). After that, I got on it and cruised through until the full recovery on the ledge, and then got my butt 2 draws from the finish. Bryan was trying to feed me beta about some "better holds", but I honestly found nothing but mono's and half pad, slopey, two finger pockets. After a while of hanging, I figured out some beta of my own and finished up the route.

To finish off the day, we headed back down and I did another attempt on Churning, finishing it off this time. Although we only had a few pitches in the day, it felt good to have sent Churning again. My psych level was high and I was ready to get a lot of climbing in during the next week.

Photos courtesy of Sam Wolff

2011 ABS12 National Championships

2011-03-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

It's about time I post something...

The 2010-11 ABS12 season wrapped up a couple weekends ago with Nationals in Boulder, Colorado. This made it my sixth time traveling to Colorado for climbing competitions or events. If you're a climber, than you know that Boulder is the bouldering Mecca of climbing. If you want to make a name for yourself, get stronger, climb within a community where everyone climbs VDoubleDigits, Boulder is the place for you. This year, Nationals was going to be held in a rented warehouse with custom walls built by Vertical Solutions. I'm not going to lie to you, those walls were the best competition walls that I've ever competed on in the U.S. (The EICA:ratho was the best out of everywhere..)

I arrived in Boulder on Wednesday the 16th, two days before Qualifiers. I had brought some Airborne with me to load up on Vitamin C, because Bouldering Nationals is notorious for spreading disease and germs and colds and all the gross stuff kids get during this time of the year (I recommend Airborne, it worked well and I felt great every day, until this last week when I ran out of them and got sick. So..it's good and holding it off when it counts). As I said before, I got in two days before Qualifiers. Weird, right? Qualifiers on a Friday? This year, the format was a little different. The format was a 3 day event, Qualifiers on Friday, Semi's on Saturday, and Finals on Sunday. This is the first day that we've ever had a 3-day Nationals for bouldering and it was definitely going to change the playing field for the kids that didn't have the training to go hard for all three days. With the new 3-day format, we also had a altered climbing schedule than in past years. Qualifiers consisted of 4 problems with 4 minutes to climb each problem, Semi's had 3 problems with 5 minutes to climb, and Finals had 3 problems again, this time with 4 minutes to climb. Also new this year was the ability (requirement, more or less) to warm up at an offsite facility; USAC provided the competitors with Movement Climbing and Fitness, a new(er) mega gym in terms of others in Boulder, but the Vertical World Climbing Team decided to use the would-be less crowded Spot Bouldering Gym.

For Qualifiers I didn't climb until 6:38 in the evening....ridiculous, right? Although it sucked being one of the last climbers to go out, I loved the freedom of sleeping in and waking up essentially whenever I felt like it (except, breakfast at the hotel ended at 10...). After hanging around the hotel with my friends Shannon Russell, Sam Wolff, and girlfriend Michaela Kiersch, we decided to head to the local movie theater to get our psych up by watching The Fighter. The Fighter turned out to be a really good movie. Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg did really well with playing their characters, however the move wasn't as action packed as I thought, yet it still told a great story. I headed to the gym about 3 with Sam because he was my ride to the gym (a few hours earlier than I needed to warm up..) and I really just needed to be in the climbing environment with all my friends and other climbers who were getting their psych up to climb, too. Even though I've been to Boulder 6 times, including this event, and have had not-that-great experiences at The Spot for Youth or Adult Nationals, it is seriously one of my favorite gyms. The gym had new Walltopia walls put into the right side where the upstairs and desk use to be, and my psych level skyrocketed walking through the front doors. I honestly felt like I could get on the wall with out warming up and crush.

After hours of sitting, climbing, sitting, climbing, and more sitting, I left to walk across the train tracks to the isolation area at the venue. After standing confused outside for around 5 minutes, I finally found where I needed to go (I didn't want to get DQ'd for walking in the back entrance, but I did it anyways...). The little wall in isolation was actually really freaking cool and I think I could have warm-up just as well in there as I did at the spot. As 6:38 rolled around, I turned around for my first climb. Our first two Qualifier problems were on the far left wall with the overhanging arch and fairly easy. [On a side note, it's been such a long time from the comp until I have finally updated my blog, I don't remember most of the routes, but I will do my best.] The third Qualifier problem was really powerful on small crimps up the right side of the wave wall. I finished it, but I felt like crap climbing it. I've always had trouble with small crimps and I'm definitely not a powerful climber, so this route was definitely not my style. I was shaking most of the way up and was kinda out of the right mindset going into the fourth climb. The fourth Qualifier was complete power on really bad holds. I got about half way up this climb and was kind of depressed after getting down off of it. I had no idea what to think about how I climbed but I felt like I made it in.

I ended up placing 8th in Qualifiers and I needed to get my game together going into Semi's.

[Sorry, I did not take a lot of pictures this trip. I actually have none from Qualifiers. I will post as many as I can from the other two days though. Bare with me!]

Advanced Bouldering Clinic

2011-02-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

This last weekend was the second Advanced Bouldering Clinic (ABC) at The Circuit Bouldering Gym in Portland, Oregon, meant to train kids for Nationals by teaching them different techniques and strategies to prepare them for the big competition. The instructors this year (I don't know who they were last year...they might have been the same) were Mad Rock Athlete Steven Jeffery and Five Ten Athlete Kevin Jorgeson. It was a two day clinic focusing on mental preparation and climbing techniques for the competition.

Steven's portion of the clinic was on mental preparation, especially because the National events that us youth climbers compete at are Onsight format, meaning that we are in isolation warming up, with no previous beta of our routes - besides previews, until it is our time to climb. Steven worked with us so we knew when to rest, climb again, and the overall mental aspect of competitions. He really reiterated that it is very possible for any one of us youth climbers to walk into a open competition and beat a professional any day. He used a really good example of Ian Dory this last year at the summer OR show...and I hate to quote Steven verbatim...but he basically said Ian looked like he was going to shit himself in isolation sitting next to all the professionals. Yet he calmed himself down after making it into finals and showed the entire climbing community what a young gun could do up against the likes of Daniel Woods. I think the point was, any one of us (and this was aimed more at the A's and Jr's) could walk into an Open competition with the right mindset and kick ass.

Kevin's portion of the clinic was on physical preparation and different footwork techniques, since Kevin is known to be a footwork Nazi (sorry for my terms..). The famous highball professional created a series of stations teaching the differences in back stepping, drop kneeing, and heel hooks; all emphasizing on the placement of the "trailing foot." Kevin really believes that footwork is just as important if not more important than everything else in your arsenal of being a good climber. These work outs were not very intensive, but I found them very helpful to refine my footwork and work on some things.

Positives:
- Climbing with the Pros
- A lot of one-on-one attention
- Instant feedback on climbing
- Constantly being pushed to your limits (climbing with them)
Negatives:
- Not super intensive
- No female instructor
- Possibly more effective if the camp was longer than two days (allowing a wider range of aspects of climbing covered)

Anyways, the bouldering season has almost wrapped up, with the final event in two weeks. I hope the ABS12 Youth National Championships will be just as good as last year, with hopefully another place on podium. My category has slightly slimmed down, but it definitely won't be easy to place in the top 3. Last year I placed 2nd in MYA behind Josh Levin, and also placed 1st at the Pan-American Championships in Ecuador this last November, giving me a free bye to Nationals and the US Team. Even with this title, I don't think it counts for me to just slide by and do okay at this event and still make the US Team. I believe the US Team is only earned by hard work and dedication and that's what I hope to prove in two weeks down in Boulder, Co. Hopefully this season's training has paid off because I think it will be my last ABS season as a youth climber.

Hopefully I will have a post before Nationals (I've been slacking lately...sorry!), but if not, definitely expect a few after the big event rolls around.

See you out on the rock!

Second First Attempt

2011-01-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the second video...

(Retro, V4)

First attempts

2010-12-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

So long story short (I'll post about it later), Sam and I hit up the Mukilteo Library Boulder today because we didn't have anything to do. It snowed a couple days ago and has mostly been sub-to-low 30's the last few days. After finally arriving at the boulder we went to work on what we could.

This is OBVIOUSLY my first attempt at making a video. The footage was very, very low quality, and so was my video editing software. But I enjoyed making this in about an hour (totally had no idea what I was doing...never done it before) and I hope you can, too!

(Low Start to S.P.O.S. - V6)

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! Series

2010-12-23T23:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some really cool videos that I found while checking out Jon Glassberg website. I've watched a lot of Glassberg's videos and I am really impressed with his work. If I compared them to most of the climbing videos I've watched (and if you know me, I don't like climbing videos), I would say these are way better than anything I've seen. Since I didn't do any extensive Internet research, I have no idea on the whereabouts of Lincoln Lake or these ridiculously cool boulders, but I wish I could climb there. I think what makes these videos really cool is that it doesn't show these guys going out and crushing V12's and harder, they are just FA'ing new problems. I really appreciate people who spend the time to expand the outdoor aspect of climbing and putting up new stuff like this and are having fun doing it, too. I hope that one day I have the opportunity to do adventures such as this as well. As long as these guys don't steal all the new, undiscovered rock... ;)

Enjoy!

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! • Chapter 1 • Footprints... from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! Chapter 2 • Bones... from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! Chapter 3 • The Warning... from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Lincoln Lake GIANTS! • Chapter 4 • The Finale! from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Videos all courtesy of lt11.com

Injuries

2010-12-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

Injuries are not very fun, especially in a sport like climbing. When you life revolves around the sport, any injury or harm done to your body can put you out for a long time and makes the weeks of recovery very hard. No climbing, no physical activity, just restlessness. I have been fortunate enough to not had any injuries in my ten years of climbing, but I can only hope to keep that up with how hard I continue to train year round. Yet I have friends who are not so lucky that have had to take time off due to injuries or problems they've had with the like.

So in hopes of a speed recovery, here is to Callie Walter(z), a friend from Texas who had surgery on her elbow today and is out for six weeks:

(Callie in Ecuador.)

(Callie climbing at the 2010 YWC in Edinburgh, Scotland this last September.)

(Callie climbing the ruins of St. Andrews Castle in St. Andrews, Scotland.)

(Callie in St. Andrews, Scotland.)

Callie, try not to eat too much straight sugar while you are resting, okay? ;)

Continentals '10 pt. 5

2010-12-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I still have 2 more posts after this one. It's been a long week and I will be happy once these are all over. I want to talk about something else for a change. ;)

After a pretty relaxing day for the Speed portion of the competition, I was pretty psyched for Sport to start. It was Flash format, which means that you watch a forerunner climb your Qualifier routes and then you are allowed to watch your fellow competitors climb as well, until it is your turn to climb. For this competition, we climbed our first route and had a bit of a break in between for our second climb. I was late in the running order again which kind of ticked me off, but I was still psyched to climb. Owen Graham from Texas and Tomás Vilá from Argentina were the only two competitors that I knew would put up a good fight for first and I was planning on bringing my A-game.

As we pulled up across the street of the venue and saw the slightly overhung wall that the Speed routes had been on the previous day labeled as "IV", all of us MYA and MJR competitors started to complain. After checking out the route, we were utterly confused and didn't really know what to think. The overall route did not look harder than 5.13a, but probably more like 5.12c/d, but there were definitely some tricky sequences for a few parts of the route. The route was pretty technical and then turned into some powerful moves towards the top. We honestly thought the route kind of sucked and didn't flow at all. It didn't climb like a real rock climb, every move was locking off and felt like it was set to make you fall everywhere desperately. Both Owen and I flashed Qualifier 1, along with Eric Sanchez and Alex David Johnson for MJR. Michaela Kiersch flashed her first qualifier and Isabelle Faus fell going for the finish hold, both in FYA.

(Alex David Johnson on MJR Qualifier 1.)

(Me on Qualifier 1. Photo by Kevin Costanza.)

(Isabelle Faus on FYA Qualifier 1.)

(Nicole Hansen on FYA Qualifier 1.)

(Eric Sanchez on MJR Qualifier 1.)

(Michaela Kiersch on FYA Qualifier 1.)

With a short break between the first and second routes, the forerunner made short work of Qualifier 2 and we were on our way to climbing. This route was a favorite of mine for all the routes I've climbed at competitions. It flowed really well and climbed like a real route (outside). Owen and I both flashed again, as did Alex and Eric. FYA had a tweaked version of our first route making it a little easier. Michaela flashed again with Isabelle only a few moves behind her. All the MYA and MJR competitors flashed their problems (the only ones to do so) and were tied for first heading into Finals the next day.

(Melina Costanza of Vertical World on her way to flashing Qualifier 2. Photo by Kevin Costanza.)

(About to top out on MYA Qualifier 2. Photo by Kevin Costanza.)

(Eric Sanchez on his way to flashing MJR Qualifier 2.)

(Francis Guillen of Venezuela on FYA Qualifier 2.)

(Isabelle Faus high up on the crux section of FYA Qualifier 2.)

(Michaela Kiersch on FYA Qualifier 2.)

OH MY GOD EVERYONE, THE FONT IS BIGGER AND I MADE TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY.

Continentals '10 pt. 4

2010-12-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

Since all 5 of the people who read my blog have complained about my font being to small, this post is just for you. However, I am still not sure what you are complaining about because it appears normal on my computer. So it must just be you guys. ;)

Thursday was Speed, Speed, and more Speed. With a little Bouldering mixed in for the categories that didn't finish Tuesday due to the rain. Unfortunately most of the US Team had been training on the official IFSC World Record route and they Pan American officials decided that they weren't going to use them the day of Speed. Instead, we would be speed climbing a 5.11 on a 15+ degree wall for more than 45 feet (I am sure it was more).

I placed 9th in MYA for Speed, with times of 15 and 17 seconds, missing Semi-finals by 1 place. To be brutally honest, I was really unpsyched on the Speed portion of the competition after finding out we wouldn't be on the IFSC route and wasn't bummed when I missed Semi's. Actually, I felt like puking and passing out after speed climbing the first route and barely made it up the second climb. My head was fuzzy and I was dizzy for about an hour, and a few kids even got checked out by medics and were puking. Dumb climate change. Besides the big altitude change (3,000m), the US still managed to pull through with some podium spots, but we were rather dominated by the other countries. We weren't really prepared for this type of speed route and that's okay. It just means we need to get better and we will. One day, the US will own speed climbing. Just wait. ;)

Here are some pictures from the Speed day as well that including the speed climbing and the other kids who bouldered this day. Enjoy! (Remember to click to enlarge the picture.)

(Kayla Lieuw, FYC.)

(Kayla Lieuw, FYC)

(Megan Mascarenas, FYC.)

(Soloman Barth, MYC. By Eric Sanchez)

(Brendan Mitchell, MYC. By Eric Sanchez)

(Alex David Johnson, MJR.)

(Claudiu Vidulescu, Head US Team Coach.)

("Coach Kyle" Clinkscales, talking to one of the US Team members. A special thanks to Kyle for all the help in Ecuador and the support this season. I find it really helpful when your rival team's coach is giving you tips on improvement and what you can do to get stronger.)

(Emma Faus, Isabelle's sister, was our translator for the week. Thanks a bunch for all the help, we probably would have died if you weren't there...By Eric Sanchez.)

(US Team Member Callie Walterssssssss. By Eric Sanchezessssss.)

Continentals '10 pt. 3

2010-12-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Bouldering Finals was delayed Wednesday morning due to rain, but not for very long. Enough to relax and get ready and not have to worry about rushing to isolation. We were very unsure of the format for the competition up until about a half hour before the comp was to being. It ended up being World Cup format for Bouldering Finals, which was new to me, but not to many of the US climbers on the team. The way this format works is every category goes out and previews each route consecutively for 2 minutes each, and then each of the 6 finalists sit in chairs facing away from the wall. The 6th person starts the competition with 4 minutes to climb and has as many attempts as possible. As soon as they finish the route (even before the 4 minutes is up), the next person (5th) starts their time to climb, and continues like this all the way to the 1st place person (me). However, unlike most competitions with a time limit, if you are all the wall when the time runs out, you are not called off, you can continue your attempt. This format also controlled the infamous "bonus" or "hot" hold and scores were primarily based off of "Tops" and the "Bonus" hold. Meaning, you either topped and got the bonus (or just the bonus), or got no points. This is a weird and new format for me, but I really liked it.

Since I placed first in Qualifiers, I was last to climb in the Top 6. I was nervous for the route previews because I felt that since the Qualifier routes were pretty easy, that they would be stepping them up quite a bit for Finals. Qualifier 1 looked fairly doable, but with some tricky moves thrown in there. Qualifier 2 and 3 looked pretty intimidating with some new setting that I have never seen before at a competition before and I wasn't sure if it looked easy or hard. Qualifier 4 was kinda long and looked pretty pumpy.

After about 15 or so minutes of sitting and waiting it was finally my turn to climb on Problem 1. I was a little worried about the start because it started on slab with an awkward uncling start hold that didn't really have much of a place to match on, and a big move up to the jug on the feature under the roof that you almost basically gastoned. After a big move over the roof and falling into the hold back under the roof, you set up to throw to the bonus hold. I kept a hard toehook on the second hold and controlled the swing to stick the bonus. From the bonus, a hard throw to a small left crimp that required some precision to stick, then a right fall-into move on a bad uncling, bump left to another small crimp and a big cross to a mini-edge finish. I flashed Problem 1 with the bonus hold and calmly sat back down to wait for the next problem.

(Set up for the throw to the bonus hold. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Sticking the bonus hold with the toehook. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Hard fall-into move. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(FLASH. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Eric takes good photos. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

Now that I have bored you with way too many pictures of Problem 1...

Problem 2 was a run-jump start up into two So-ILL horn holds that had been rotated into underclings. From there it was a a big throw (pushing off the wall...although I stemmed between the two walls because I couldn't reach from the jump) to a mini-jug on the feature, then a quick bicycle on the start holds in order to bring your right hand into the adjacent hold. From there you had two options: drop the feet and campus to the bonus hold, a small e-grips crimp, or keep the bicycle and throw into it and hope to control the swing. I could do neither. From there, you heeled on the right hand below, pulled through to a crappy left hand pinch, throw out right to a balance hold and then go for the finish. While sitting in the chairs, we had the courtesy of listening to the crowd roar as the 3rd place climber flashed the problem like it was nothing (however, he could not do the first problem..). This was a little demoralizing after not even being able to get the bonus hold, and being one of the only two kids who couldn't. After sitting back in the chair waiting to climb Problem 3, I pretty much came to the conclusion that there was no way I could win now. I mean, not even the bonus hold on Problem 2? There was nothing I could do.

(Trying to campus to the bonus hold with no luck. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(I was actually just testing the padding...I took some nasty falls on this problem. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

I was struggling to control my breathing and my mouth was really dry. My thighs were really tight after that problem for some reason and it bothered me. Everyone took up their full 4 minutes on Problem 3 and that allowed me a full 20 minutes to get my head back in line. No one before me got exceptionally loud cheering and that calmed my nerves. This is it, I told myself turning around to the swing-start of Problem 3.

(Ignore the holds that are on the right side of the yellow tape. Look to the left and see the thing that is hanging down that is right in front of the 3? That would be a hanging hold, and that would be a swing-start. One taped right foot and one tape for tapping the wall to start.)

For some reason, no one else that I talked to liked the idea of the swinging start, but I thought it was one of the best problems I've climbed in a competition before. To start, I moved as far right as I could because I knew making one full swing to the first hold would be the better way to do it (everyone else began from a hang and built up momentum). From the first hold, you made some big moves on pinches and a crimp to the even bigger pinch that was marked as the bonus hold. From the bonus hold, I swung my right foot out to the next mini-jug (and it's really hard to describe what I did next...), hand foot matched, did a **360 turn, and then bicycled on the bonus hold. From there, I fell down onto the screw-on thumb-catch and went big for the slopey hold over the lip. The final move was probably the biggest lock-off that I've ever made in my life, and it required me to bump around 5 times before I was finally adjusted on the finish hold well enough to match. Barely staying on, I was able to match and flash Problem 3.

(US Team Member Griffin Whiteside (3rd place) on the move to the bonus hold. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(US Team Member Owen Graham (4th place) on the start to Problem 3. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Favorite shot of the whole competition. **Hopefully this describes the move that I couldn't with words. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Another amazing shot. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Lock-off to the finish. Photo by Eric Sanchez)

Finally, Problem 4. The last chance to make it count. The problem was really long and I was psyched because I had trained power endurance more than anything else before coming down. From listening to the crowd, I gathered that everyone was getting around the bonus hold but not much further. The Ecuadorian climber who flashed Problem 2 also flashed this final problem. The problem had a difficult start and some really powerful moves that required some core. The move to the bonus hold was a big campus around a feature, but I managed to figure out interesting beta of my own by straddling the feature and just pulling straight up to it easily. The last couple of moves were the hardest because I was feeling the fatigue of the first 3 problems. I chalked up on the bonus hold and pulled through to the finish, missing the good part and controlling the worst part of the hold. For what seemed like an eternity (merely a few long seconds), I struggled and struggled to readjust to the juggy part of the hold. Finally I was able to pull through to the screw on hold that was over the lip adjacent to the finish and then readjusted to secure the flash of Problem 4.

Securing first place. The first Youth Pan American Champion for MYA Bouldering.

Photos all by Eric Sanchez.

And now that I've bored you with an entire post about me (well, hey...it is my blog after all), I PROMISE to make the next post about everyone else. There will be a lot of pictures up about Speed and everyone else in bouldering. :) Enjoy!

Continentals '10 pt. 2

2010-12-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

Honestly it rained so many days while we were in Ecuador, I'm beginning to mix all of them up. I can't remember the first day it started to rain and affected the comp, but I'm pretty sure it was the first day. Or the second. Either way...Because of the rain, the tentative schedule was to play out like this: Tuesday - Boulder Qualifiers, Wednesday - Boulder Finals, Thursday - Speed + Boulder Finals (whichever categories didn't finish due to rain), Friday - Sport Qualifiers, and finally Saturday - Sport Finals. Oh wait, I forgot Sunday - the Census. (So for some stupid reason, Ecuador decided to have a Census on the day of Sport Finals, so because of this...we lost Bouldering AND Sport Semi's and had to deal with 5 days of climbing instead of six.) Anyways...enough needless rambling during introductions...

The 2010 IFSC Youth Pan American Continental Championships (yes, that's the official name that I said I wouldn't mention in my previous post, and yes - that's a mouthful) had officially started on Tuesday with Bouldering Qualifiers (repetitive..). My category was originally scheduled to go in the later session, but for some reason (which means rain) we started early. After a twenty minute bus ride into town to the venue (should have taken five, but our bus driver almost took out a cop on a bike) we arrived at the beautiful, blue, Mazda sponsored walls in Ibarra. As many of you know, this was the same venue used for the 2007 Youth World Championships, but after some bad experiences, some much needed renovations were added.

(This is actually shot on the day of Bouldering Qualifiers by Eric Sanchez. The bouldering area was the small area to the bottom left of the screen with grey and red covered walls. It's bigger than it looks, so be surprised. Our isolation was basically the bottom of the whole rope climbing area, with the exception of the very last left side wall. (i.e. 2nd most left Mazda sign all the way to the right dark grey wall). Also including the little woody inside the building).

Since I just described isolation in a unnecessarily long caption, I will just continue with the competition...After a long wait for being second to last in the running order, I finally began climbing. Qualifier 1 was a really cool problem using a awkward feature with grip tape, requiring you to mantel up into a big lock-off and into a dynamic throw to the finish off a small crappy finish. Qualifier 2 had a dynamic move to a feature right off the start, a hard drop down move, and a hard cross to the finish. Qualifier 3 was kind of a tricky sequence and required a couple campus moves (actually, I probably just had the wrong beta), but was pretty straight forward. Qualifier 4 had some funky beta; technical at the beginning and pretty powerful at the end. I flashed all four Qualifier problems and was the only one to do so. I don't think any of them were over V6. So, I was first going into Finals on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, Eric decided to sleep in late that day and not come for the morning session, so I have no pictures from it, but I will now bore you with a lot of pictures of flowers and geese. ;)

(Photo by Eric Sanchez)

(Alex David Johnson's little sister, Ariana.)

(Yeah, that's a coconut.)

(Cock fighting ring.)

Hope you enjoyed! More to come tomorrow.

Continentals '10 pt. 1

2010-12-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

I spent the last ten minutes struggling over what to call these series of posts because the entire name of the competition is too long to put for a title and it rather confusing, but on the other hand, I wanted something catchy...so I finally just went with the old and original name of the competition.

It's been about two weeks since I headed down South to the hotter side of the Equator and a week since I got home. Out of the three international trips that I've made in the pasts two years (France '09, Scotland '10), this was without a doubt the easiest. With a reasonably short 4 hour flight (when I say reasonable, I'm comparing a full day from SF to Paris) to Houston where I met up with Eric Sanchez, who was my legal guardian for the week. From there it was another short 5 hour flight to the first of our two homes for the next week: Hotel Hilton Colon in Quito, Ecuador. After a late night of eating dinner with Claudiu, Stan, and Scot (the 3 official US Team Coaches for the week), we finally got some shut eye.

It was a great morning waking up to see everyone at the hotel who I haven't seen in a couple months (not to mention about 15 kids Youth C and below that I've never seen in my entire life). The view from our hotel was beautiful, and I don't think I had ever been more psyched for a comp in my entire life. After some decent enough breakfast (the eggs were runny, the juices were disgusting - and you didn't even know what kind they were, the milk was...[I will get to that in a later post], the bread was hard - but hey, there was Nutella and pancakes!), Eric, Tayler Mitchell from Texas, and I headed across to the park to check out the area for a bit before a long bus ride to Ibarra.

(The view from our hotel room in Quito, Ecuador.)

(Tayler Mitchell from Texas.)

(Eric Sanchez in the park across the street from our hotel.)

After a quick flashback to being a little kid in the park, it was time to get back to reality and get on the bus to Ibarra. Nothing really major happened on the bus, but we did get to stop at the Equator (I probably would have shot somebody if we didn't get to) for a break before finishing up the rest of the 3 hour drive.

(The Equator!)

(For some strange reason, still unknown to me, there was a lot of this in Ecuador. I know, right?)

(Hey...I don't know if you knew this, but...that's the Equator!)

Eventually, we reached our final destination of the Hacienda Chorlavi (shor-la-vee) in Ibarra, Ecuador, about a five minute taxi ride our of the actual city. We were greeted with most of the hotel employees outside waiting with little mixed berry drinks for everyone (eh), calling our names to get shown towards our rooms (seis!). We had a really nice (but expensive - which led to Eric, Isabelle, Emma, and I eating out the rest of the week for a considerably cheaper amount) dinner and settled into the hotel. The hotel was considered 5 stars - compared to the rest of the city, it was! - and I agreed. Restaurant, WiFi, futbol field (you will hear about this in a later post if you haven't already!), basketball and volleyball, foosball and pool, pool and sauna, courtyard and fountains, a cockfighting ring and geese pit, and beautiful plants (including avocado, lime, and lemon trees - with some pepper plants). Now, the catch: our sheets were damp - all week, and our shower was one of the few working ones in the entire hotel (a few different people used it...), that's if you didn't mind it spraying everywhere and getting the entire bathroom soaked. Monday night, time to get some sleep because of Bouldering started the next day!

I was loving Ecuador.

(Room number 6! Our home for a week. I miss this room.)

(Little bridges all over the hotel.)

Scotland pictures

2010-10-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anymore about my trip to Scotland, but I've been rather busy with school and climbing practices again. I've been kind of unmotivated to write anything on here, so I'm just going to sum up the rest of the competition...

I placed 17th out of 76 competitors in the MYA (16-17) category. This was a lot better than I honestly could have imagined placing. I went into the competition with not a lot of goals besides to climb my best, and I think I did even better than that.

Also, a special congratulations to Dana Riddle, Youth World Champion for FYB (14-15) Speed. You're basically everyone's hero.

2010 Youth World Championships at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Miura Hawkins on the main lead wall.

US Team Member and Five Ten athlete Joshua Levin on MYA Qualifier 1.

The speed wall during Opening Ceremonies.

US Team Member Michaela Kiersch on FYA Qualifier 1.

US Team Member (?) on the MYB Qualifier 1 route.

US Team Member Eric Sanchez on the MJR Qualifier 2 route.

US Team Members Shannon Lochridge and Kyle "Tiny" Francis. Best friends <3

THIS IS FOR YOU SHANNON!

US Team Member Tiny Francis on the MYA Qualifier 2 route.

CAN Team Member on the MYA Qualifier 2 route.

Scotland: Wednesday

2010-09-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hmm...Wednesday. This was the first and only real day that we got to check out the city of Edinburgh (even though that's where we were staying...we were more on the outskirts). We drove to the local park'n'ride and hopped on one of their many local double-decker buses that ran into town. I was super excited to get to ride on one of these until actually doing so. I'm glad that the bus drivers are very practiced in their profession because I was honestly kind of scared for my life the whole way into the city. The roads were very narrow, people were parked on the side of the road, and there was a lot of traffic for those large buses to be driving through. We made it though and I was rather happy to get off the bus when we did.

We started off by hitting up the Tourist Center right across the street to buy some gifts for friends and family, and then headed up towards the Royal Mile to have some lunch with Charlie and Thomas at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, which is famous for a man named Deacon Brodie, the prototype of Robert Louis Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. After some quick food, we headed up towards The Witchery where the US Team had organized a Ghost Tour (which doesn't make sense to do in the middle of the day..but whatever) around the city to learn a little history of ancient Edinburgh. The tour was very comedic, although the jokes where either aimed towards the younger audience or had suggestive humor.

After the tour, Josh, Richard, and I headed up the Royal Mile towards the Edinburgh Castle (a.k.a "the castle on the hill") to check it out. I was really excited to see the castle, but honestly kind of disappointed. The architecture itself was beautiful, no doubt, but was rather boring to just walk around and look at. The "Royal Jewels" (crown, sword, and scepter) were probably the coolest part, yet we were not able to take pictures of them because of some laws. On the way out, Josh and I were making up imaginary routes on the side of the castle wall (not ACTUALLY climbing on it) and got yelled at for touching the rock because it is "very expensive." This would make it the second time of the trip that we had gotten yelled at by cops or officials for climbing on stuff that we shouldn't have been (Josh in St. Andrews..). :)

We slowly made our way back to the bus stop and headed to the hotel. Josh and I packed up our stuff and moved up to Charlie's room to enjoy some guy time like we had in Bishop (don't take that the wrong way...). We went to bed early because we knew that tomorrow was the day to make it count. Qualifier one for the 2010 Youth World Championships was about to begin.

(I cannot remember the name, but this is where the Queen of England stays when she comes to visit.)

(Clock tower on an old chapel.)

(IFSC World Youth Championships 2010 - Edinburgh, Scotland...in case you didn't get the picture.. ;) )

(Faith Sullivan taking part in the Witch Tour. "She's a witch, she's a witch!"

(These guys were funny.)

(Performers in the square. BUBBLES)

(A failed panorama of the Royal Mile. I like it though!)

(Anyone seen Braveheart?)

(Josh and I at the front of the castle with the city behind us.)

(The Royal Mile and Princess Street.)

("The castle on the hill." Edinburgh Castle.)

Scotland: Monday/Tuesday

2010-09-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin...?

It's been about a week since I got back, and two weeks since my first day in Scotland. I've been spending the last week trying to catch up on school work and getting back into the groove of things. The trip was soo amazing and I'm going to try my best to describe something that, in reality, really isn't explainable. It is the definition of a "you should have been there" moment. (This post is mainly going to be pictures of the day because we didn't really do much besides walk around or practice. Enjoy!)

After a very long, delayed day (technically two days..Saturday and Sunday) getting to Edinburgh, Scotland, we arrive at our hotel around 11:00P.M. Josh and I messed around outside in the dark for an hour or two taking pictures and trying to work off the jet-lag. We woke up decently early Monday morning with the plan to head to St. Andrews with the Callie Walter (from Texas, with her mom Carole and dad Dale), home of the famous golf course.. but I was really psyched to check out the college and ruins of the castle, as I've heard a lot about it - and I'm not really that big of a golf fan.

The majority of the day was spent wandering around the many streets of the small city of St. Andrews. We checked out St. Mary's College, through the partial ruins of the castle, walked down to the beautiful coast line and out on this half-mile stretch of dock, headed up to the actual castle to find out it costs money to look at it, ate some delicious French baguettes, and then headed back to the castle-like golf resort hotel that we called home.

Tuesday we headed out to Glasgow for the usual pre-comp team practice at a gym that was built in a old chapel. The practice was fun but we didn't get that great of a practice in. The 3 hardest routes (two 7c+'s and an 8a) were all on the same draw line which caused 45 kids trying to climb the same routes in a short period of time. I still got a few laps in and some hard stick game upstairs with Mike Lyons, one of the US Team Coaches, but it still could have gone better. I felt pretty good after not climbing for 3 days before that and was definitely ready for the competition to start on Thursday.

(Vertical World Climbing Team representing at 2010 Youth World Championships! Photographer: Josh Levin)

(Train station in Paris airport...we had some time to kill. Photographer: Josh Levin)

(Home for the week...)

(St. Mary's College in St. Andrews.)

(Callie Walter climbing on the ruins of St. Andrews.)

(Jealous yet?)

(This was actually really scary...Josh was holding on to me while I did this.)

(A wishing grave.)

(Callie and the coast line.)

(Such a beautiful coast line...)

Equinox!

2010-08-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (8/21) I headed out to Equinox for the first time with Sam, Sydney and B-hops, really psyched to get on a new wall with lots of possibilities. We got a later start than expected and had a time specific time frame, but we still got a good a few good runs in. With a ton of new routes to try, I was looking forward to practicing my onsighting skills and to just get on some new lines as well; it was a big change from multiple days a week at Little Si.

We warmed up on a really cool line called Clearcut (5.11d), which starts out on big moves on jugs, to a technical crimp sequence, with a cool mantel-like move on this weird horn feature that stuck out at the top. Next, Sam and I hopped on Stick It or Clip It (5.12a/c - with the c part being the second set of anchors), which turned out to be probably one of my favorite 5.12's ever. It was consistently pumpy the whole way through, on jugs nonetheless, with a really tricky sequence to a heart-breaking last couple of moves. With two really good routes under our belt, I was psyched to take it up a notch and get on something a bit harder. Fight Club (5.13c) is a really amazing 5 bolt extension of Debate Club (5.12b/c) that requires some pretty good power endurance that you have to keep fighting through until another heart-breaker finish move (either static/dyno to a really big jug from a small, half-pad, three finger crimp after you are really pumped).

Sam and I onsighted Debate Club and moved into Fight Club with B-hops spraying us down with beta for a flash attempt. I cruised through it until a few moves before the cruxy finish where my glasses fell off and I managed to catch them, finally getting them back on after struggling to fight my pump, and then got to that bad crimp and wussed out. This was super disappointing because I have been wussing out a lot lately on climbs where I shouldn't be...Sam gave it a really good burn too, making it just a few moves below me before falling. B-hops gave his own burn on it, but forgot the beta! Syd made good work on Debate Club, too, but I'm fairly certain that was like her 3rd time climbing ropes outside in Washington state. After each of us gave the new project a second go (which by the way, SUCKED...), we decided to call it a day and head out. This was a really good first day at Equinox, and I was so psyched to get back with so many new routes ahead of me.

(Me on the cruxy finish moves of Debate Club (5.12b/c). Photographer: Sydney McNair)

This last weekend on Saturday (8/28), I headed back up for a second round of Equinox with Audrey Sniezek, a pretty famous local who has definitely set standards for female climbers around the worlds (in my opinion!). This is the second time that she has asked me to climb with her and I was pretty psyched to say yes. When we got there, we warmed up on the first bolted climb when you walk in to the area, which turned out to be a really easy and fun 5.11. After some discussions on whether to warm up more, I decided to get straight back onto Fight Club. I reassessed the beta through my head and got on it hopefully. I climbed through the beginning pretty easily and then managed to get a decent rest at the chains (which is really hard to do...unlike climbing at Little Si where it's hard move, hard move, hard move, GIANT REST; this place is consistent hard moves on jugs), and twice more through out the route. I got to that dynamic move, shaking, and managed to pull through it statically. From there, I shook out for a while to make sure I could pull through the last couple of moves, because they are definitely willing to send you back down to take a whip. PSYCHED. My fourth 5.13c, this one 3rd go...this one was definitely worth the effort. One of my favorite routes of all time.

(Although this is a picture of me about to fall on Fight Club (5.13c), I was not actually doing the correct line. Normally you climb through from the anchors of Debate Club (which are below me), yet I was attempting a different version that I wanted to send that started on Green Machinist (5.12d). This would have been a little bit harder of a route, and it definitely felt hard because it was my last attempt of the day. Photographer: Audrey Sniezek)

Audrey then hopped on her project Groove Tube (5.13a), which she almost onsighted her last trip there. She didn't warm up properly this time and forgotten some of the beta, so she ended up coming off a draw from the top. I then got on and managed to onsight this route, but it was definitely a tough one with ANOTHER heart breaker move at the top. Audrey gave it another burn and sent it this time. Today was getting really inspiring.

I had been eying a lot of routes on this wall, all in the mid 5.13 range, yet there were two hard 5.12d's that really stuck out to me because of their very bouldery beginning. I decided on trying Black Magic (5.12c/d) with the low start off the bad crimps that turned it into a solid 5.13a. After botching up the sequence in the worse ways imaginable (with the whole crag of probably 15 people watching and waiting for my slip), I managed to pull through and clip the chains (which by the way, I could also not get to close for many attempts...flash backs to Smith Rocks). From there, I got persuaded into trying an open project that a man named Kimmo had bolted a while back and had yet seen any attempts besides his. I ended up hanging bolt to bolt for the first 4 draws, slicking and slipping off of holds that hadn't been touched in months and had been left with the reminder of ooze from when the wall seeps. I didn't make it all the way through the route, but I could already tell it was going to be HARD. I definitely think it looks like a classic that will be a good test piece for someone to tick one day....but I was pumped out of my mind from the route before and wanted to rest before climbing more.

To finish off the day, Audrey and I both then onsighted Green Machinist (5.12d), which was another route with a bouldery beginning to some more moderate climbing and then another crux move at the finish. On my attempt, I thought I would try to link this into Fight Club depending on how I felt and how much I could get back on my rest at the anchors. I gave it a go and managed to get 3 clips in before whipping. The locals said they didn't think anyone had attempted this before and I thought it would be fun just to try and good for training. I think this can actually be done with full energy and not a last attempt of the day. I felt really good ending the day with another onsight, with a total of one 5.12d, two 5.13a's, and a 5.13c redpoint. I really enjoy climbing at the crag and psyched to get back there soon. Unfortunately, rope season is coming to an end as I head off to Edinburgh, Scotland on Saturday for the 2010 Youth World Championships. As soon as I get back, the ABS12 season has officially started. Leavenworth, Gold Bar and Index....GET PSYCHED.

(Me on Green Machinist (5.12d), looking up at the massive wall that is Equinox. For a local crag, there is really nothing like this. Probably my new favorite place to climb outside. Photographer: Audrey Sniezek)

(Beautiful.)

(Andrew Philbin on Baby on Board (5.13c), attempting to link into Fight Club, which I believe they call Baby Fight. Not sure what it goes at though...really hard. Photographer: Audrey Sniezek)

(Another action shot of Drew on Baby on Board. He was there with Brian Smith, both from Stone Gardens. Brian finished up Fight Club, as well. Photographer: Audrey Sniezek

Shout outs

2010-08-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a shout out to a few kids in the climbing community who have been tearing it up outside climbing. 8a.nu has been posting a few things about some of them in the last month with all their sends outside and I have honestly never been more impressed with them. I'm so psyched right now and I hope that one day I will reach that level of climbing. Enjoy...

First up is my friend from Wyoming, Kerrek Stinson. I don't think too many people have heard of him because he lives in the middle of nowhere and doesn't make it out to a ton of comps, but he's definitely shown himself in the last year climbing outside. I first met Kerrek at 2008 ABS Regionals at ClubSport in Tigard, Oregon when he came out to the PNW Regionals instead of the one in Big Sky. I had never seen him climb before, but he definitely showed everyone how he could climb at the comp. He definitely beat me by flashing all the routes, yet misunderstood the rules by not "matching" any of the finish holds, resulting in multiple attempts to complete the problems. This last ABS11 Nationals in D.C. in February, Kerrek placed 8th in Finals after a really strong performance, getting really close to making team. I've been following him on his blog and talking to him a few times lately, and this kid has been CRUSHING. He has sent probably ten or more V10-12's, and I believe even one V13. Along with all these double digit boulder problems getting crushed, he has been FA'ing (First ascent - for those non-climbers out there) a TON of stuff too! Kerrek has also recently told me of his cruising through hard rope routes, all the way up to 5.14a. Say whaaaat? This has me psyched more than ever to climb outside and push my limits (I have to in order to compete against this kid!). Keep crushing, Kerrek. You can check out his blog here.

Next up, Brian Antheunisse. If you follow my blog, you might recall mentioning BA in my posts about 2010 Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia where he won an award for being one of the most decorated climbers in USAC history (for US Team placements and National Champion titles). Brian has been in Rodellar for the last couple of weeks climbing before the 2010 YWC. I've been following him on 8a (surprise...), where he has onsighted up to multiple 7c+'s, 2 8a's, and 2 8a+'s; along with 2 8b's and his first 8b+. This probably doesn't mean a lot to most people, but this is really exciting for me to hear about him crushing routes over there like no other. He is one of the best youth climbers we have in the US and I'm psyched for him. Good work, BA.

Another climber who has been pushing the limits of female climbing and youth climbers from the US is none other than Sasha DiGiulian. I think Sasha is pretty famous from youth and pro comps in the US, recently international comps, and just outdoor climbing in general. She has always been at the top of her category, even making the podium at Youth World Championships. For the last few weeks, she has also been in Rodellar with Magnus Midtboe, both whom have been crushing routes as well. Sasha has onsighted up to multiple 8a+ (with a broken toe), just like Brian, along with 8b, 8b+, and recently her first 8c, Welcome to Tijuana. Magnus has been doing really well, too, with A LOT of 8a+ onsights, as well as onsighting all the way up to 8b+. I didn't know it was even possible to onsight that high!? He also recently sent Dani Andrada's famous Ali Hulk, 9a and Ali Hulk Extension 9a+.

With all that said...these people have been a lot of my inspiration lately. I just wanted to share. Thanks!

Early rising!

2010-08-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

I got invited to go climbing at Little Si yesterday with Audrey Sniezek (if you don't know who she is, check her website here) for a morning session in order to get some climbing in before the sun hit the wall and climbing was not possible (obviously it was possible, but try climbing in 85+ degrees with the sun directly on you and making the holds greasy). When Audrey said "early", my first impression was around 8:00AM...but we met at the park'n'ride in Bellevue at 5:00 and were at the crag at 6:00. I was kind of skeptical about how early, but it turned out to be really great and I was psyched.

We warmed up on Technoriginie (5.12c) because we planned on trying Porn Star (5.13d) later in the day, but after much discussion prior to warm up, we decided to head all the way past Techno into Ben Gilkison's recently bolted Extendoriginie, which probably adds 60 or 70 more feet of excitingly exposed climbing but doesn't make the route any harder. After probably a good 30-45 minutes and the (believed) first female ascent, Audrey lowered off the route and it was my turn to make the new journey. I managed to finish the route, but it took forever. There were several times that I had to climb up and then down climb because I could not figure out the beta the first time. The route ended up being really fun (although I'm not much of a fan of Techno) and I'm psyched for it to get way more traffic. This will allow it to clean up a bit and add visible chalk spots on all the holds which will make it a ton better. Thanks Ben for bolting it!

After our warm up, Audrey gave her niece a burn on Reptiles (5.9). That was her first time on that hard of a route and she did awesome for only 9 years old! :) Audrey then hopped on Porn Star to try out some new beta (including a knee-bar at the rest jug before entering the route - it cuts out left after the crux on Techno). Then it was my turn. AHH! I didn't manage to make it all the way up the route (working it, of course) because about one draw in the sun hit the wall. And hard. I feel like I can make it through the first three draws which still felt incredibly hard for the first time on it, but after that I'm not sure. If I can forget the chance of potentially taking 30 foot whippers in between every draw, I feel like working this route will be a blast and I am psyched to do so. I think this will potentially be my first real long-term project. It will take all that I've got.

Overall, it's been another good week of climbing at our local crag of Little Si.

Little Si again

2010-08-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

I headed up to Little Si on Wednesday with Sam, Rosie and Andy hoping the rock wasn't too wet from the few days of rain that we previously had been getting. Luckily, the rock was perfectly dry and the temps actually turned out to be great. Ben Gilkison and his friend showed up right about the same time we did, with his eyes set on finally finishing his link-up of the whole wall (see early posts).

Sam and I warmed up on Aboriginie (5.11b), while Andy and Rosie hopped on Reptiles and Amphetamines (5.9). After our quick warm-ups, I hopped on Extended Illness (5.13c), the right cutoff of Chronic (5.13b) that has a bouldery crux, with a "good sickening pump" (guide book quote) until the anchors. I tried this once on my last trip up here and felt pretty good on it, but wasn't sure how fast I would finish it because of the power it required. I gave it a pretty good burn, but fell going into the crux because I couldn't get a great rest off the jug and messed up my sequence. Then Sam gave a really good burn on Californicator (5.12d), the left cutoff of Chronic, but fell coming out of the rest. After our burns, Ben got up on his link-up for a really good fitness check. He cruised along super smoothly until the Flatliner crux, cutting his normal time spent on the wall to that point by half. I believe he pitched off at the part that he had normally been struggling with, although he looked super strong on it. He definitely would send it next go...

(Traversing into the "typewriter" rest on Chronic, before heading into Extended Illness. Photographer: Rosie Bates)

(Ben Gilkison on his FA Wide World of Fitness (5.14b).)

(More pictures of Ben on Wide World of Fitness.)

After being inspired by Ben's close send, I gave Extended Illness another go and found a new hold at the undercling rest that allowed a way better shake out then my two previous attempts. After getting way more back then normal, I (sketched out) managed to get through the bouldery crux and cruised up onto the hard slab moves. I got to the final slab moves in the seam to the finish and found ANOTHER new hold. I previously had attempted to go really high in the seam to really bad crimps, but instead found a good sidepull that was unchalked and not very visible right above the jug I was on that allowed me to reach all the way to the finish! It was slightly frustrating that I had not seen either of those two holds before while working the problem, but also felt really great completing it!

Next up, Sam Wolff. This time, Sam pretty much ran through the beginning of Chronic to the "typewriter" rest, then completely destroyed the rest of the route. He finished up Californicator very quickly which I was psyched about (and him too!).

(Sam Wolff on Californicator (5.12d). Photographer: Rosie Bates)

(Sam on the "typewriter" rest before heading into Californicator. Photographer: Rosie Bates)

...and he definitely sent next go. He again, cruised across the whole wall until that Flatliner rest, then slowly got a full recovery (which by the way, is hard to do off those holds IMO). Heading into the crux....HE STICKS IT. After a few extremely excited screams, he chilled out and got his calm back before finishing up the route. In fact, he was so calm....he peed off the wall into the bushes below (don't worry, it was NOT on the wall, nor anywhere near the belay edge) before he finished up. Carefully, he worked his ways through the final moves before finally and successfully FA'ing this endurance masterpiece. Wide World of Fitness (5.14b - both name and grade after much consideration) had been sent. Good work Ben. I can't describe how psyched I am for you!

(Ben getting it back on the Flatliner rest. He manages to get a knee-bar in here to alleviate pressure.)

All the while, Andy and Rosie had been putting in great effort on Rainy Day Woman (5.12a), probably one of my favorite routes on this wall. Both are extremely close and could send very quickly if they weren't leaving back to college. ): I finished the day off by running a lap on Chronic without resting (for the first time). SO PUMPED. Sam gave a super solid burn on it, too, but unfortunately one hanged it. Sam has been putting a ton of effort into climbing out here lately and I am really psyched to see him finish this route and more. It excites me that he is actually enjoying rope climbing. ;)

(Andy Gonzalez blurred off in the background on Aboriginie (5.11b).)

(Rosie Bates smiling for the camera! Look at your climber!!!)

More good days at Little Si! :)

Thank you!

2010-08-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'd like to give a really big thank you to all of the Vertical World Team and parents, climbing friends and families, and all my friends and family outside of climbing who have donated to my trip to Scotland. I can't really express how appreciative of all the wonderful help you all have been! This really means the world to me, and I hope I can go there and make you all proud!

For those of you who are wondering how my training is going, I have been climbing 5 days a week since Nationals and trying to run that many days too. The running is really hard for me, but I'm trying. I have been climbing out at Little Si (Exit 32 in North Bend) a lot lately, also and have been really enjoying it. A year or two ago I had no interest in climbing out there, but it seemed to really click for me this past season to the point where I can't get enough of climbing out there. I probably would be out there 5 days a week if possible..but I think my training is going pretty well. I'm climbing harder than ever and am really psyched to see how I do at this high level competition. There is really no other competition that can show me how far I have come in competitive climbing besides adult world cup circuits. I promise to go over there an do my best!

I'll keep you guys posted as time closes in to the event. HOPEFULLY I will have a live feed for you all to watch...so I will work on that. Thank you all so much! :)

Seriously?

2010-08-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a video made by Cedar Wright that I came across on the internet while searching random climbing websites and such...really, really, ridiculously funny.

Boogie 'til You Poop from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.

Thank you Cedar for such a wonderful video.

:)

Little Si Sendfest

2010-08-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Josh and I made the weekly Sat-Sun trip to Little Si, again (it's becoming a common occurrence now) and with some guests this time. Yesterday we picked up Chelsea and Charlotte with Kale meeting us at the parking lot. Kale then spent the night at my house and then headed out with us again today, but this time Sam was with us! Saturday we ran into the whole Olympia crew (Jimmy, Dom, Micah, Nic - minus Lisa - and sorry if I'm missing someone..) for some major sports action! Today we ran into Ben G and his friend Patrick who both put some serious effort into some HARD routes. Ben has been working on this major link up of the whole wall, which I can't even express how in-shape you have to be to even attempt, yet didn't manage to put it together today. It's really inspiring watching this climb..not going to lie.

Saturday: Jimmy and I came to the conclusion that this was the best sending day in Little Si history. We're probably wrong, but everyone was psyched. I watched Jimmy give Chronic (5.13b) a repeat lap to try the extension Lizard Prince (5.13b), which he sent on his first go. He gave a good go on Vanilla Ice (5.13a) also, but sketched out on the crux. Later on, we all finished off the day watching him hike his way up Flatliner (5.13c), which I don't think he was expecting to do. This route has been my project for the last month, and he did it in around 5 tries. Proud dude, proud. Next up: Bryan "B-Hops" Hopkins gave a good burn on his project Pornstar (5.13d) before sending it (FINALLY) second go. I've honestly never seen this kid more happy and psyched in his life. Congrats, you earned that one!!! Back from college for the summer is Owen "O-town" Anderson, crushing routes such as Psychosomatic (5.12d - I was also informed of Drew Ruana's send earlier that day). He actually looked incredibly solid today, I'm psyched to see what he sends before he heads back home. Dominic Kehoe crushed Gerbil Killer (5.13a) today, and it was nice to hear good things from him about the Rathos gym in Edinburgh where I will be competing at for the 2010 YWC. I managed to get a clean send of Black Ice (5.13c), which will have been my hardest send to date until today. I've been told it's only 13b, which I feel like it would be if I was in a little bit better shape, but right now...I want to take the grade for what it is in the guide book. I don't really know how I feel about this subject, and I want to be honest with the grade...but ehhh. I then tried Flatliner as a last go, but got sketched out at the gaston move and came down...damnit. However, it was also a great day for Josh, who (FINALLY) sent Technoriginie (5.12c/d?) after 5 long goes. ;) Happy for you dude. It was good to see you crush this.

Micah and Nic both gave solid burns on Californicator (5.12d) and Californication (5.13a), respectively. I've known these guys for a while, and they are a couple of the most dedicated climbers I've ever met. It's actually fun watching them climb. They are great guys and I'm psyched to see them out there crushing routes. Kale also gave a solid onsight on Bust A Move (5.12a), which is super awesome for his first time on that wall. He walked that thing. He later gave a couple of great burns on Psychosomatic, but to no prevail. Next time. I'd say it was a good day, right? Every letter grade of 5.13 went down...and some 5.12 flashing. This is rad...I love seeing people send their projects. It's so inspiring.

Sunday: Not AS much sending as yesterday, but still a great day. The wall was not NEARLY as packed today as it was yesterday...so we got more than 3 burns in. I warmed up on Psychosomatic, before giving Flatliner a burn. I was super solid the whole way...got to the gaston, hit the "credit card" crimp (but unfortunately, the wrong part), and got my left foot up only to find it doing an "elvis" shake. Time to grab more nylon jugs...! ;) Staying psyched, I gave it another attempt....SUCCESS. Two 5.13c's in two days. Apparently I looked incredibly sketched out (according to the general consensus of everyone) during the crux, but I held it together. Patrick did Black Ice, Ben got close on his crazy link-up, Sam crushed Psychosomatic and almost sent Californicator, and both Kale and Josh gave two hard burns on Psychosomatic as well. All in all...two great days of climbing at Little Si.

Training is going really well for me. I have been training power endurance the last 3 weeks, 3 days a week with 2 days on long/hard routes outside at Little Si. I think the power endurance is actually kicking in a little bit on top of my recovery, making for some good strengths. I still think I need more power, but there is always time to make that up. I'm not sure how necessary it is though right now. I sent to 5.13c's in the last two days, which is my hardest climb to date. Black Ice felt easier than Flatliner, but I honestly think it's because I had done the easier 5.13a variation called Vanilla Ice before doing the harder version. I had to give it two burns before figuring out all the right beta and dialing it in for Black Ice. I don't know honestly, but I still give it the 5.13c rating. I gave Extended Illness (5.13c) a burn today, which is a variation of Chronic that cuts out right mid-route, and it was HARD. I figured out most of the beta, with a crucial knee-bar that will go if I wear pants next time...but the top part is heinous. I'm feeling 3rd or 4th go, which I'm really psyched on because I want to move onto working Pornstar (5.13d). We shall see...

I'm finishing up my 3 weeks of PE this week and starting my new training from Claudiu Vidulescu, the head US Team coach. Hopefully there will still be time for Little Si, but now is the time to step it up. I want to be as ready as possible for this competition...goal: top 15. :)

Check in with you guys soon! Thanks for reading!

Chasing numbers...8a.nu review

2010-07-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

I feel like this might interest some people...

I'm guessing most of you have heard of, seen, or have an account on 8a.nu, the internet site created by Jens Larssen of Göteborg, Sweden, allowing boulderers, sport climbers, [new] trad climbers, or any type of climber to keep track of their ascents in a log-book form which ranks you on your top-10 climbs (either boulder or sport - but combined, if you want) in the last 12 months. It also comes with various specifications such as North America, Junior, Combined, Trad, Female, etc -- to fit everyone's liking (mine being North American, then Junior, and then Combined, if need be...). When you go to enter a route or problem that you have sent, you also have various selections to choose from: Grade (hard, soft), Style (RP, OS, Flash, TR), Notes (FA, Second Go, Trad), and a few others -- all of which will increase or decrease points, deciding on the total amount you receive, ultimately ranking you amongst the other 32, 136 members. But of course, if you don't care about these shenanigans and just want to have a fun place to keep track of your sends to show your grandchildren later in life when they are learning how to pull on plastic, there is the "log-book, no score" option. ;)

The thing that seems to bother people the most about this site in general is the idea of the certain users whom have been deemed as "number chasers"; or the climbers who are strictly out there for the points earned by "onsighting" or "flashing" hard routes and getting "FA's". Sure, they are just trying to get all those points so they can say they are #[enter moderately high ranking here] in a very specific group such as North America - 35+ - Combined. But hey, they are still the ones climbing hard and sending the routes right? Why should they be punished in taking pride in their hard work?

Many of you whom I talk to on a regular basis, probably have noticed that I talk about the website a lot. In fact, in the last couple of months, I've received a lot of crap about this site -- which is perfectly fine with me, I might deserve most of it -- but I just wanted to say a few things about it. From the crap I have gotten, I seem to get the vibe that a few might think I'm a "number chaser". I feel like with how much I talk about the website, the term is considerable, but I don't think I'm chasing those numbers for the same reason. I like climbing...a lot. I am very competitive when it comes to climbing...that's why I compete. I take it very seriously and like to do well in competitions. Another aspect of this sport is climbing outside. Part of climbing hard indoors is climbing hard outdoors as well, and vise-versa. 8a.nu allows me to not only keep track of what I've climbed outdoors, but it allows me to see how I am doing compared to my competitors. My friends. Not that "I really need to beat this kid" comparison, but that "Hey, [enter name here] sent [enter route/grade here]! Dang! That's so cool. I should get on that next time I'm out there" comparison.

And sure, comparing yourself to anyone really isn't necessary. Ever. But why not? When I see that one of my friends Owen Graham (Texas) recently sent an 8a+ route at Red River Gorge, or that my other friend Zan Bode (Oregon) sent an 8a boulder problem in Joe's Valley...don't you think I'm going to be motivated to go climb as hard as them? Or to train so I can be able to climb 8a+, too? That's how I see it...and besides, it's all good fun, right? We're all friends!

(North America, Junior - 12th in Routes, 13th in Boulders. Congrats to Michael and Gregor who hold the top spots!)

(North American, Junior, Combined - 6th. Not to bad...congrats to Michael again. Ahead of your brother! ;) )

Also, 8a.nu is honestly the best source of information when it comes to "what's hot" in the climbing community. Who climbed what, and how hard? Or maybe watching videos of Chris Sharma not climbing very well in the recent 2010 Arco RockMaster (which, by the way...you can watch here); or even watching CAN's Sean McColl race CZE's Adam Ondra at the same event (watch here). Because of this website, I now know that Paul Robinson sent 8b+ in Rocklands and renamed the route and claimed FA because a few holds have broken since Fred Nicole's original ascent. Ridiculous.

I feel like I could go on about this subject, but you might be a tad bit bored now. Also, this was not meant to offend anyone...so hopefully it did not. But I thought that it might be an interesting topic for something to blog about. Enjoy!

Brian Smith

2010-07-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

Just for you, buddy. I was up at Little Si today and ran into Brian, and he reminded me that I was suppose to blog about his mustache. So, here it is. Can't wait until they are handle bars. :P

More Outside Climbing

2010-07-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

With summer finally beginning, it is time to start climbing outside (because that's the only time you can in Washington) and start ticking off hard stuff! I mean, how else are you going to update your -- wait for it -- 8a.nu scorecard? :) The Tuesday after Nationals, I headed out to Little Si with my friend Sam...and yes, I'm talking about Sam Wolff. And yes, he did go to Little Si...for some rope climbing. Sam had just got back from Europe just over a week before and had not gotten a lot of climbing in since then, so I was psyched to see how he'd do at his ~~favorite~~ climbing area.

We met up with our Olympia friends Jimmy and Lisa, and it ended up being a good day for all of us. Sam sent his mini-project Technoriginie (5.12d), which is totally his type of climb, even though he had the worst beta I've ever seen. It is a 5 bolt, boulder problem extension to Aboriginie (5.11b) that I highly recommend trying if you are ever out there. Jimmy sent both Propaganda (5.12c), which is a very stiff, technical climb, that spits off even the most intricate climbers...and Californication (5.13a), which is a route that links up half of Chronic (5.13b) into Technoriginie, for some major pumping out. Lisa worked numerous different routes and got close on all of them! And then I sent Lizard Prince (5.13b), a 2-bolt extension of my old-time project Chronic. It took me like 2 years to finally send Chronic and then I flashed the extension (even though it only goes at around 5.12a). I ended up running laps on this route a fews times and it felt really good. I also tried Flat Liner (5.13c) again, with no success...I need to get over my fear of falling from above that bolt. But dang, it's scary.

This last Friday I headed up with Sam and the Warrens (Allie and Jesse - from Stone Gardens) to Squamish for the first official climbing trip there in over almost a full year. We had a big group go last August, and tried to climb a few months ago after a Canadian bouldering comp, but got rained out. I was really excited to get back to this area after such a long time away, and even though I didn't have super high hopes to send hard this weekend because I am in rope shape, I happily proved myself wrong. :)

Sam, Jesse, and I all crushed a total of one V10, three V9's, three V8's, and a few V7's between the 3 of us. That's what's up! Sam and Jesse made quick of their project from last year, No Troublems (V9), while I did the "Loh Start". Jesse also ticked off Worm World Cave (V9) while Sam and I "sussed" out some beta for the Low Start. Jesse and I also managed to tick off the relentless Sesame Street (v9), while Sam kept working it until his little fingers couldn't take any more! It felt really good to send this one because last year we spent around 3 hours barely able to pull our butts off the ground, let alone figure out the beta. We also ticked off classics like Mantra (V8) and The Bulb (V8). Our friend Larkin Flodin from Edgeworks looked really strong this weekend, as he managed to tick off Golden Boy (V7) and get really far on many other classics in the forest.

For not training bouldering since early February, I am actually really impressed with how I did this past weekend. Larkin, Sam, and Jesse all looked incredibly strong as well and we are all definitely psyched to get back up there soon. I can't wait to see what "low starts" or double digits might get sent when we are all actually in shape! :)

(Jesse Warren setting up for the crux move on Worm World Cave (V9). Squamish, B.C.)

(Kale Perrone working the crux move on Mantra (V8). Squamish, B.C.)

(Sam Wolff testing his slab tech on Black Slabbath (V7/8). Squamish, B.C. *Unedited)

(Sam Wolff, pitching off Black Slabbath (V7/8). Squamish, B.C. Favorite picture... *Unedited)

(Jesse Warren finding as much as he can from the chalk spots on Black Slabbath (V7/8). Squamish, B.C. *Unedited)

(Larkin Flodin working out his own beta for Worm World Cave (V9). Squamish, B.C.)

NATIONALS!: day 4

2010-07-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Last day to make it count...everything about this season came down to this one route. I had a lot of things racing through my mind that morning. Where would the route be? What kind of route would it be? What if I don't make it? What if I do? ...to name a few. Thanks to my friend Tayler Mitchell from our rivals/friends from Texas, I wore a Team Texas shirt all the way through isolation up until I went out to climb. Since many of you asked...yes, Tyson did give me permission to wear the shirt. Yes, Tyson supported me in wearing it. He actually told me that I was only allowed to wear the shirt if I climbed good. And he had a point. As long as I have known him, he has been gunning to beat Texas in the Team Championships at Nationals, and we have yet to do so. Him and Kyle are good friends and I notice a lot of similarity between them. I honestly believe that Team Texas is the best team in the nation, and I also believe that if we were meant to beat them at Nationals, we would. The day will come, soon, but we must train harder and better to do so. And it will happen. I promise you that.

Back on track... admittedly, the route surprised me. Just when I thought they could did everything they could with all the overhangs and bends and roofs, they surprised me. This route was built primarily on endurance with a few powerful moves thrown in, then traversed onto the head wall, finishing up on more powerful moves on small holds. I have to say, I think this is the best route I have ever climbed in a competition. The first hold on the route was The Growth from So iLL, then a campus move around clip 5, a knee bar at 7, traversing into down climbing, small crimps and then a big pinch, with a huge move to the finish. Sounds fun right!? I managed to get through the down climbing and a few moves into the small crimps before falling. I climbed right after Owen, who placed farther than me, and then followed up by Josh, Tiny and Julian, who all placed farther than me as well. I ended up in 5th place for the day and the weekend, which got me a spot on the 2010 US Team for MYA (for those of you that don't know, usually the top 4 make team, but Julian is Continental Champion from Montreal 2008, which allows another spot onto the team).

(Vertical World climber Audrey Hsu hangin' around on the FYA Finals route. Photographer: Hansen Ullrich)

(Me starting the down climb crux of the MYA Finals route. Photographer: Hansen Ullrich)

(Shannon Lochridge from Team Texas, on her way to her 4th National Championship title in a row.)

(Charlie Andrews clipping off the knee bar on the MYA Finals route. Photographer: Hansen Ullrich.)

Overall, the weekend was amazing. Again, I didn't really like Atlanta, but the whole experience at this fantastic facility made up for it. :) I would love to come back here and climb. Anyone who has the opportunity to climb here regularly better be ridiculously strong, or they should quit climbing...anyways. I'm really glad with how I placed, even though I felt I could have done better in some spots. I felt really strong and think I tried 100%, but it was not to 100% of my capability. Julian, Josh, Owen and Tiny are incredibly strong climbers...the best in the nation. I have been competing against these kids since MYD and they get way stronger every year I see them. They are all great kids and I'm honored that I get to climb against them all the time. They push me to train harder and harder, and I'm definitely looking forward to competing against them on the world level in Scotland this September.

I can officially say I have placed on the US Team for each discipline (Sport, Speed, and Bouldering), which has been a long time goal of mine...this makes me extremely happy, yet even more motivated to keep making team, now that I know I can. I shall be attending the 2010 IFSC Youth World Championships this September in Edinburgh, Scotland at the largest climbing facility in the world. Check it out here.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me this season, and to those who continue to support me all the way to this next amazing event. I truly appreciate it, and enjoy spending time with all of you. I hope to see you all this summer, and to all the climbers who are going to Scotland...TRAIN HARD. SEE YOU THERE! :)

NATIONALS!: day 3

2010-07-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

SEMI-FINALS! Today is usually considered the hardest day out of the competition schedule. I talked to the head setter Mike Helt about which routes were usually the hardest, and he said they try to separate the most on this day, and then put on a show for Finals. Personally, both were kind of showy routes, but this one was FREAKING HARD.

Fortunately enough, my category happened to get placed in the second session which means SLEEP. Boy do I love sleep...sucks for all those kids that had to wake up early. Hehe. I was super nervous walking out for the route preview knowing that today was the day to make it count, and also the fact that this gym is still new to me, and I really wouldn't be prepared for anything they threw at us. In this case, I was...another dyno. If you might recall...I complained a whole bunch in my post about Divisionals that there was a dyno on our first qualifier route. I don't want to say this helped a whole lot for this situation, but in reality, knowing the movement of dynoing on a sport route helps a lot, since I bet a lot of the kids in the category might have not done that before.

Here is footage of me on the MYA Semi-Finals route:

I ended up tying the high-point when I came out, but still had the stronger of the competitors to go. Josh tied with Owen and I (but Josh beat me on Q2, whereas I beat Owen), and then Kyle "Tiny" Francis, and Julian Bautista in first. The results put me in fourth place going into Finals. Now all I needed was to stay consistent.

(Michaela Kiersch on the FYA Semi's route. Michaela ended up in second place and on US Team.)

(Zak Surma, the "boulderer" from the Circuit, repping VW on MYC Q1. Nice work this weekend buddy.:) )

NATIONALS!: day 2

2010-07-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of Nationals started out just about the same as the first. Woke up around 7 to find out that it was already like 80 degrees outside...and to think people like this kind of weather!? We got to isolation early, and then I immediately went to check out our route (Note: Remember that this is Flash format, meaning that there is a forerunner climbing the route before you do, and you can watch/see other people climb the route before you). Not to my surprise, the route setters put us on a tweaked version of the MJR route from the day before. (See last post with pictures of Brian Antheunisse.)

After watching the forerunner climb the route, it was pretty much straightforward climbing on jugs on the roof until a cruxy boulder problem at the end. The ending sequence was a little funky, but it looked really doable and I figured if I could maintain not getting pumped until the end, I would be okay. Today I went out 29th in the running order, so I had a lot of chill time and this allowed me to watch all my friends do what they came to do. I was a little jealous of the MJR's second qualifier because they went straight out the curved roof onto the head wall and this route just looked amazing.

(Me, coming out onto the arete on MYA Qualifier 2. Every single hold on this route was a EC jug..but you still got pumped.)

(Noah Ridge, Kelly Birch, and Jordan Bridgewater working MYA Q1, FYA Q1, and FYB Q1 respectively.)

I did pretty well on the route, even though I didn't get as far as I wanted to. I mean, I personally think I could have finished the route, but I got pumped out coming up onto the head wall at the end of the climb. The last 6 moves were bouldery on small crimps and I didn't really have the juice to finish it up. I ended up placing 7th, tied with 3 others, going into Semi's. Not an ideal spot, but it was still with-in striking distance. ;)

(Augy Cohn starting up onto the overhang, mid-clip, on MYA Q2.)

AVID CLIMBING!

2010-07-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! My friends at Avid Climbing are raising money to help Team Avid (Brian Antheunisse, Peter Grill, Eric Sanchez and I) go to 2010 Youth World Championships this year in Scotland!

Here's what they said:
"SO...as you may or may not know, TEAM AVID MADE IT TO WORLDS!!! Purchase the "CAM WE JUST GET ALONG?" tee and help them get to WORLDS! 50% of your purchase will go directly to these guys. They did the hard part, now its your chance to help out! :) www.avidclimbing.com"

SO PLEASE. I highly encourage you to check out their shirts! I own quite a few myself and they are seriously some of the most comfortable clothes to climb in or just wear anytime and anywhere! And also, more importantly...THEY LOOK GOOD. And that's what counts right? ;) Now seriously guys, click on your URL search engine and type in "www.avidclimbing.com" (minus the quotations of course!) and then click their store section and just check out their stuff! Any help would be appreciated. :)

Help send us to Worlds!

NATIONALS!: day 1

2010-07-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Where should I start? Oh yes...Atlanta sucks. If it wasn't for Nationals and Stone Summit, I'd honestly have no reason or desire to ever go back to that city. The weather sucked, the people weren't very nice, and there really wasn't a whole lot to do there...Now that my rambling is over, back to the part that I know you all want to hear about:

2010 SCS Youth National Championships...damn. Months of hard work came down to this four day event. The competition format was changed this year into two days of qualifiers (one route on both Thursday and Friday), semi-finals on Saturday, and finals on Friday. I really have to say, that this is the first time that I haven't ever actually been all that nervous for a competition. The first route was probably no more than 12a, even though it felt like mid 5.11, and went straight up the main wall on very large jugs. What else could you set with though? 80+ foot routes are hard to climb with anything short of an jugs, jugs, and more jugs. I went tenth in the running order, and with a rolling clock, my turn came up very fast. The hardest part on the route for me was the rest on the slab in the middle of the route, where there was a match on small crimps. I personally feel like it would be far too easy to slip and fall of something like that, but again, it still wasn't all that hard.

(Brian Antheunisse clipping on MJR Qualifier 1. Brian received and award this last weekend for being one of the most decorated climbers in USAC competition history. That's pretty BA.)

(Local Edgeworks climber Larkin Flodin on the crimpy rest of MYA Qualifier 1.)

(Chicago local Isabelle Faus on FYA Qualifier 1. She made US Team in 4th place.)

24 out of 36 MYA competitors flashed the first Qualifier route on Thursday, making the competition already stiff going into the next day. No one was cut from the running order because we still had one more Qualifier route the next day, but I could already tell that it would be hard making it into Semi's and then Finals.

It was really fun to get to hang out with a lot of the kids I haven't seen since February and even more the kids I haven't seen since last summer at Nationals. Everyone looked really strong and I could tell it was going to be a fun competition.

This is it.

2010-07-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is it. The last competition of the season. Pretty much 9 months and two seasons worth of hard work all comes down to this 4 day event. 2010 SCS Youth National Championships takes place next Thursday through Sunday at the Stone Summit Climbing and Fitness Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This gym is less than a month old and is officially the biggest gym in the U.S, which means you better be prepared. With rumored up to 80 foot routes, being in prime shape is required to climb at such a high level competition.

I've spent the last week making the final step in training at my teams' nationals camp, with one final and easy practice left tomorrow before I leave for "Hot-lanta" on Tuesday. The gym is nothing like I've ever climbed at before, and hopefully all my training will pay off next weekend. A large majority of my category has been spending their previous weeks training with Claudiu Vidulescu, the head US Team Coach, at the world class facility or on the road at the Red getting their own form of training on. My category is much stronger than the previous ABS11 Nationals back in D.C. in February because their are a couple more additions to the roster for those who don't compete in bouldering. I wouldn't be doing my friends justice if I just said they were strong...because these guys are seriously the best youth climbers in the country, and many of who have also placed internationally as well. This competition is a real test of physical and mental abilities that I am glad to be apart of because I believe this will show me where I am truly at after all these months of hard training.

Here is some video footage of the walls in action, and some pictures I've found on the internet:

(Makes the 60 foot VW Everett roof look like NOTHING!)

(Do you think it has enough types of bends and curves and overhangs?)

(The infamous IFSC World Cup 10M speed route. Our team was lucky enough to get our hands on a few of these to train on before nationals. Let's make it count!)

Overall, I am incredibly excited about climbing at this gym and I think just the experience of it makes this week's trip worth it. Although, the competition is what it's all about. ;) I'm also really excited to see all my friends again after a few long months and psyched to hopefully make some new ones!

Let's do this.

Divisionals

2010-06-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

I'd say it's about time for another blog post, right? I've been slacking lately, my bad. I really need to find something to post about besides climbing...still searching.

Just got back from a really good Divisional weekend. I got to see a lot of good, old friends from the Big Sky and NorCal regions, and even met some new people. This competition was flash format for Qualifiers, which means I got to watch people climb the routes before I went...which I ended up not doing because I went out 4th. It was really interesting to find out that the MYA (Male 16-17) Category's first route had a dyno about half way up...dang, harsh start to Divisionals. Just about everyone stuck the dyno, so it was no big deal, but I personally think that it wasn't a good idea for the first qualifier route in such a big deal competition. The second qualifier route wasn't hard until about half way up where all the holds turned bad and were incredibly awkward positions resulting in needing some technical climbing that none of our category had. I placed second behind my long time friend Josh Levin (Zero Gravity, NorCal) by his usable surface, whereas I had movement. Then came speed. I don't know how I did it, but I pulled out first going into Finals by .1 seconds faster than Josh. Even if it was only Qualifier results, this was really inspiring for me and got my psych up because I've never seen that happen before. Maybe he slipped...

(VW team member Sam Wolff checking out the dyno above him on the MYA Q#1, while Sydney Daniels from Alaska gets ready to clip 6 on FYA Q#1.)

(ZG team member Cicada Jenerik a few moves before the crux on FYA Q#2.)

(VWCT showing everyone our definition of domination; with Sean Bailey on MYB Q#1, Audrey Hsu on FYA Q#2, and Aran Kagen on MYA Q#2.)

Finals commenced of your typical onsight formatted competition with a route preview before climbing time. I went out second to last because of reverse running order from yesterday's placement, which allowed a little more warm up time than the previous day, even despite the always worrisome running clock. Finally it was my turn to climb, and I smoothly got through everything up until the crux, where I hit probably the worst hold on the route and found it to be even worse from greasiness. I'll admit that I actually was scared for a second with where I was above the draw and not being able to clip from the bad hold. I stupidly went back down a hold to chalk up and get a quick rest on jugs, but then forgot I would have to do the crux move again. I threw to the hold and fell from being pumped. I ended up with the high point then and shortly after was passed again by Josh, this time by a little more than usable surface or movement.

Later in the day I got really psyched on speed and had incredibly obnoxious, but really helpful cheering from past team member and friend Bryan "B-hops" Hopkins that pushed me to do my best. I believe he honestly helped me get up that wall and take first. I raced Josh for the Finals round where he beat me ever-so-slightly on the first run and then I beat him by enough on the second run to take first. He actually missed the box by a few inches, but I gave him the judgement call on whether or not to let the head judge know what happened. He did the honorable thing and disqualified himself from the competition, letting second place go to my team mate Sam Wolff and my good friend Charlie Andrews.

(The picture is blurry, but I really like it. This is the second time in less than six months that Josh, Charlie and I have been able to sweep the podium in competition. This is only Divisionals, but after ABS11 Nationals in February, we are really determined to see it through again at SCS Nationals in Atlanta next month. Photo courtesy of Gabi Strandberg)

With a 2nd place finish in Sport and 1st place in Speed, I am really satisfied with how I did. I'm super psyched to be able to sweep the podium again with Josh and Charlie. These two constantly motivate me to push me past my limits, because in all truth, these two are the best in the nation, and you have to train your butt of to be even remotely better than that. I'm glad I can compete against them every other year and keep up with them. It's really good to have these guys as my friends and I'm super psyched to see our plan follow through again to Nationals next month. Get psyched boys, let's do this. I'd also like to give a big shout out to the rest of the ZG crew. You guys are all great and really fun to be around. It's a pleasure having you as the "enemy" team and it really motivates us to train harder.

Good work to all the Vertical World Climbing Team. You all make me proud to be part of the team. Get really psyched for SCS Nationals next month at the Stone Summit gym in Atlanta. Be ready to get pumped at the 3 clip and still have 65 more feet to go.

JOSH LEVIN!

2010-05-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

My NorCal climbing bud, Josh Levin, now has a blog. He's pretty strong. I'm sure you knew that if you've heard of him. I've been climbing with this kid since we were in 11&Under. I beat him once at Divisionals 2 years ago, and haven't done it since. That was probably one of the coolest moments of my life...just sayin'. Anyways, this kid is a beast. Check it out:

http://levinjosh.blogspot.com/

Yeah. Also, I went to ClubSport today down in Portland to train with Sam and Audrey. My last rope climb of the day, I campused the overhang part of the lead wall (the longest part) on a 5.10+. Basically, not the smartest idea of my life, and I'm still pumped even though it was over 5 hours ago. Wooh. Also, the Aszman's Agave Artisan Mexican Grill is amazing. I highly recommend it.

Getting close..

2010-05-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...so close to the end of the school year. I can feel it. I feel like I never post anything besides climbing on here and I just keep thinking and thinking of things to write about..but I can't come up with ideas. So I am asking you...what should I write about? What do you like to hear?

ANYWAYS, the end of this week was good. I had a half day at school...so I pretty much did more nothing than I normally do at my wonderful school of Henry M. Jackson. I have had a lot of friends at school tell me they have looked at my blog lately, and frankly this kind of excites me. I think pretty much everyone at school who has heard of me, knows I climb. I mean...pssshhh...rock climbing? What is that nonsense? It's not a sport or anything...yeah, screw you football jocks. You don't know anything. It's rad to hear that my career in climbing interests people, or that I at least have friends who are nice enough to feign interest in it. I was recently in the school news paper, and got flooded with questions with people asking me about it, yet it's so hard to explain it to them. I've had a lot of kids ask me to take them climbing, which I'd be super psyched to do...but who? And when? Gah. Nonetheless, thank you students at Jackson who read this and support me in my climbing career. Even if you think it's weird, or say it isn't a sport, or ask "is it how fast you get to the top of the wall?!"; your interest is appreciated.

Also today, I went to the Seattle gym with Sam Wolff to get a good endurance sesh in, hoping to work a little harder considering how fast Divisionals is closing in on us. Bret was nice enough to introduce us to his "strong friend" John, and volunteered us to belay him if needed. Only later did I put 2 and 2 together and recognize him as Johnathan "J-Star" Siegrist. While resting, this decently attractive - yet young looking girl comes in and talks to Tyson for a few minutes and leaves with John. Naturally, I assume it was his little sister, but it didn't make sense to me why she was saying she had been climbing out at Little Si all week. Personally, I can't picture one of the nation's best climbers and his little 14 year old sister climbing at Little Si together. WELL. Let me just tell you...she wasn't 14. She wasn't John's little sister. She was one of the nation's leading female climbers. Can you guess..? Oh yes, Paige Claassen. Damn, I feel stupid. Do I get deranked to "noob rock climber" or something? I mean...really? I've been climbing for TEN YEARS.

Later on the way home to drop Sam off, we stopped at the Mukilteo Library in search for a "hidden boulder" in the forest behind the retirement home that had been mentioned to us by a few local climbers at the Everett gym. Hmm. We were also told not to go looking for it because said-climbers wanted some "FA's". After a month of respecting their wishes, we figured that it was time to start the hunt. Well...unsuccessful is a good word to describe our search. As we pulled into the parking lot, the rain started to pour and we decided to go on a quick run through the (mud-soaked) trails...in our fancy white shoes and button shirts (with no jackets), nonetheless. About a 100 feet into the trail, we decided it'd be a great idea to run around in the torrential downpour with out a shirt on....Boys will be boys. And you know how Sam and I are...basically, we didn't find anything and we are now irritated with the climbers than mentioned this boulder to us. We will hopefully resume our search for this magical, backyard, masterpiece soon. Possibly Monday.

On another note: due to delightful Washington weather, I will not being going to Deep Creek this weekend. Instead, I'm going to my grandparent's 50 Anniversary. YEAH. FIFTY. DANG! Congrats guys! And then Sunday, a few of us our making a day trip to Portland to train at the ClubSport walls, where Divisionals will be in less than 3 weeks.

Thanks. Stay psyched.

2010-05-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

If you didn't ever see these, here are two videos from the 14th Annual Frigid Flash competition that I went to at the end of February this year. I really enjoyed this competition and I love all the people up there:

4th Qualifier route:
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Finals route:
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Also, thank you to all my readers. I really appreciate going to comps, the gym, and now even school (YES!) and having you guys tell me you read "this" or "that" on my blog. I'm excited to be able to share all this with you and have you readers actually interested in climbing and how I am doing. Thank you a bunch. Keep reading!

SCS Regionals 2010

2010-05-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the PNW SCS 2010 Regionals at the Bremerton Vertical World in Washington. This is personally one of my favorite gyms in the region but is a little far away to practice at regularly, despite being part of my team's franchise. Looking at the running order, I went out 8th of 10, which was fairly sad considering there were over 20 MYA climbers at the ABS11 Regionals last January.

(Audrey Hsu matching a foot hold on FYA Route 1 at 2010 PNW SCS Regionals.)

The MYA routes were super technical and on slab, which I personally did not like at all, and nor were they set to accommodate our climbing style. According to Mike Helt and Tyson, they planned this. The MYB category got 2 of their 3 routes placed on the only wall with overhang, which is where I would have thought they would have put us, but apparently it's fun to screw with a bunch of teenage boys whose climbing style is solely based off of power. And screwed us up, it did. I'm not going to talk down about the routes, because they probably were really good and fun to someone else, but to my climbing style...it just didn't work out. I did manage to get high point for my category, but the MJR first place (Jesse Warren) and MYB first place (River Helmich) both beat my high point by matching. Over all, I don't think anyone in the categories that climbed this route did very well on it..or just didn't do the best they could have. I personally don't think I could have gotten much farther on it though, even if I tried it again.

(Lisa Chulich beasting it up on FJR Route 1 at 2010 PNW SCS Regionals.)

The rest of the comp was a blast, with a large group of climbers playing Frisbee, soccer, and football outside in the beautiful sunny weather while scores were being done. Speed climbing went well, I placed first in that, too. Sam got second with only a quarter of a second behind me on each route. I raced Melina Costanza, an FYD climber on my team, who is a complete beast. It wasn't very fair for her, but it was fun and gave everyone a good laugh.

(Melina Costanza getting psyched on speed climbing against me. Photographer: Denise Nerison)

In other news, I went out to Little Si on Sunday with the Warrens, Sam and Audrey. Sam did really well for not really ever have worked anything out there. He almost flashed Technoriginie (5.12d), but he only tried it once. I think he could definitely do it next go. Jesse was pretty solid on Psychosomatic (5.12d), sending it for the first time. I got really close on Flatliner (5.13c), only to find out that the last draw - during the crux - before the finish was taken off. DANGIT. Oh well, I could probably get in shape a bit more before it goes down. And it will go down. Soon. I feel it!

Smith Rocks...again!?

2010-05-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

I'll start this post off with a panoramic photo of beautiful Smith Rocks...wait, what!? I must admit, a couple years back, I use to laugh at the idea of climbing at Smith Rocks whenever my friends Jesse Warren or Zach Chalmers talked about it. I have had a lot of people tell me it was a pile, so of course I believed them and never wanted to go. I finally made my first trip down there last month during my Spring Break. And now all of a sudden, I was finding myself heading down for a second trip only 3 weeks later. Crazy.

Sam and Audrey were unable to make it on this trip, but I did go down with other team members such as Aran Kagen, Shannon Russel, Chelsea M-Loftland, Emma Durand, Julia Bakun, Annette Quarre, and none other than coach Adam Brossard. Now, if you read my posts about my previous trip down, you would probably agree with me when I said it sucked. Cold, windy, colder, windier...you get the picture. This time was the exact opposite. Hot, sweaty, hotter, no shade. But, it was definitely a ton better than before.

The first day, I hopped onto Magic Light (5.11b) as a warm up, and cruised up the extension which goes at 5.12a. This route is definitely one of the best routes I've ever climbed, although it lived up to the notorious Smith run-out quick draws at crux moves. There is a crux move right off the bat after passing the first anchors, and probably a crux move before every quick draw on the way up. Sustained and pretty hard for 5.12a.

(My attempt at being artsy. One of my first coaches, Adrien Pritchard gave this to me as a present before he moved to California. I brought it as a good luck motivational piece. I probably spent 20 minutes - and you can ask everyone - trying to get this in the right spot for a picture. I was just trying to take a cool picture, and I thought it looked cool. It's a small piece of trad gear that is probably 10+ years old and I don't know if it has ever been used!)

Next, I got on my mini-proj from the previous trip, Churning in the Wake (5.13a). Last time, I had both Bryan Hopkins and Rudy Ruana giving me move-by-move beta because I had never been on the route before and I wanted to flash it; instead, I broke a hold off at the 3rd draw and fell. My second attempt on the route, I fell on the finish move and never tried it again because it was far to cold. This trip on my first attempt, I felt pretty solid the whole way through despite forgetting every single move of beta and all the rest spots, yet I fell going to the finish again. I then waited while a local ran a quick warm-up lap on it - brushing all the holds on the way down (thanks dude!) - and then sent it my second go. I almost fell off the finish jug, and spent almost 5 minutes trying to clip the second locker because it was rusted shut before finally giving up while yelling "ADAM TAKE. IT COUNTS, IT COUNTS!" Ha ha ha.

(Me sticking the finish move of Churning in the Wake (5.13a) . Photographer: Emmaline Durand)

By the time I was down off of Churning, the rest of the group had left and split up going to different areas. I met up with Aran, Chelsea and Kirsten Oldroyd (from Stone Gardens) at the base of the MASSIVE face wall when you first walk down the trail and across the bridge to Smith. We weren't really sure what we were getting on because the guidebook was not very clear, yet managed to find out it was Apian Way (5.12a). This route was actually a pretty - short, but - stellar line that had a couple compression-like moves with heel hooks
to a big hueco jug and delicate slab climbing on "nubbins."

(Vertical World Team Member Aran Kagen working his way up the 7 bolt Apian Way (5.12a).)

That pretty much finished off the day, where we later went to have a deliciously rewarding dinner at the Terrebonne Depot. We headed back to the camp ground and bouldered a little on the EP wall and then I hit the hay. We started a little earlier on Sunday because we were leaving about 3:00 to make it home in time for school the next day.

Unfortunately I didn't really climb anything hard today, but I did get on some classic easier routes. I climbed Blackened (5.11d), which is probably the funnest route I've ever climbed, and Heresy (5.11c), which is a short, 4-bolt route, that has a ton of bouldery moves that wasn't really all that hard. I got to watch a guy try a really solid redpoint attempt on Scarface (5.14a), but some unknown climbers set up the "king-swing" on it and left the top draw locked after they were done.

Overall, I will admit it was a pretty good trip and I am really starting to like the climbing here. I haven't even seen a tenth of what climbs are here or routes that are possible for me to climb. I'm super psyched to have sent Churning and other classic routes like Heresy and Blackened. I hope I can get back down here soon and explore the crag more to see what awaits me. And for those of you who don't know, 2010 SCS PNW Regionals is this weekend at Bremerton/Kitsap Vertical World. Get psyched. Here are a couple of more photographs from the trip (remember to click to enlarge). Enjoy!

(Shannon Russel warming up on the giant huecos of Nine Gallon Buckets (5.10a).)

(Again, Aran Kagen cruising his way into the boulder crux of his first outside 5.12a, Apian Way.)

(More photos of Aran on Apian Way.)

(Shot from across the valley, Chelsea M-Loftland finishing up Blackened (5.11d).)

(Emmaline Durand working through the 4-bolt, boulder moves of Heresy (5.11c).)

Edgeworks

2010-04-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday was another SCS season local at Edgeworks in Tacoma. Long story short, the routes were pretty fun but seriously felt like none of the holds on the wall have been washed in ages. I personally think that their annual black-light competition is not very good for their holds because it gets into the holds and stay there permanently. Which sucks. But, anyways, Sam beat me by usable surface, whereas I got only movement. Which is rad. Psyched to see that happening. There was some speed climbing, I won overall with sub 5 seconds on each run...but it's not like they were very hard or anything....But then, Saturday night I got home for 20 minutes and then left to go see Clash of the Titans with my friend Jerrett. Rad stuff.

INTERVIEWS:

Cierra Graham

Name: Cierra Graham

Age: 10

Years climbing: 6 months - Competing: 4 comps

Favorite method of climbing: Ropes

Favorite climbing shoes: Evolv Hera

Favorite climbing area: Vertical World Bremerton

AF: Why do you climb?

CG: Because it's fun!

AF: How did you start?

CG: I went rock climbing in New Zealand, and then we [sister] just started at Vertical World Bremerton.

AF: What's it like climbing with your sister?

CG: It's fun with my sister on team!

AF: Who do you think is better?

CG: I don't know. Both!

AF: What are your goals in climbing this season?

CG: To climb a .12d and to get second at least.

AF: What's your favorite part about being on team?

CG: Climbing with friends.

AF: Is there anywhere in the world you want to go climbing?

CG: I want to go back to New Zealand!

AF: What do you want to be when you grow up?

CG: A professional rock climber.

Cierra Graham is a fairly new girl to the Vertical World Climbing Team based out of the Bremerton/Kitsap area. I've only seen her a couple times, along with her sister, but from what I have heard from Ross, they are both excelling really fast. Both of them have already become fast friends with many of the VW team members and other climbers in the PNW. Cierra appears really motivated, but also just likes to have fun. With in 4 months they are already working mid 5.11's, which in my experience is really impressive. That goal of 5.12d will hopefully be reached really soon. Good work Cierra.

Billy Beggs

Name: Billy Beggs

Age: 11

Years climbing: 5 years - Competing: 3 years

Favorite method of climbing: Bouldering

Favorite climbing shoes: FiveTen Dragon

Favorite climbing area: Smith Rock

AF: Why do you climb?

BB: 'Cause it's fun. 'Cause I like competing.

AF: How did you start?

BB: My sister took me to Edgeworks and I didn't want to stop climbing.

AF: What are your short term/long term goals?

BB: Short term: to get Top 3 at nationals. Long Term: to climb 5.14s.

AF: Who is your favorite pro and why?

BB: Dai Koyamada because he can climb V14.

AF: How do you feel about competing?

BB: It's fun and well set-up.

AF: Where do you find your inspiration?

BB: My sister because she used to rock climb and she is the one that got me started.

AF: What do you want to be when you grow up?

BB: A rock climber!

AF: What's your favorite part about climbing?

BB: Climbing outside because you can accomplish a lot more outside and there are more options.

AF: Worst part of climbing?

BB: Getting hurt.

AF: Best competition placement?

BB: First at Divisionals in Salt Lake City.

AF: If you had to climb at one place for the rest of your life, where would it be?

BB: Colorado, easy.

I've been watching Billy climb over the last couple of years and have been really impressed with his motivation. He is really dedicated to the sport, and that's partly due to his coach Mike. I definitely think Billy is a stronger boulderer than rope climber (despite competition placements showing otherwise), but am still really psyched to see him hit that point in a couple years where he really starts sending hard. If there is any male youth climber in the PNW that is motivated and dedicated to rock climbing, Billy is at the top.Get psyched bud.

To end the weekend off, I headed out to Little Si with Josh and B-hops, hoping to meet Tyson and Brian, Rudy and Drew, Sean, and Jimmy all out there for a good day of sport climbing. I was kind of expecting it to be really wet, and it definitely was really wet. My goal for the day was to get Propaganda (5.12c) down, to open up some other projects that are extensions. Propaganda looked incredibly wet, but I climbed clean through the beginning until the no-hands rest...no water or anything. Then, looking up to the "M" hold, water seemed all over the place. I just said "man-up" and went through it. NOT WET! YES!

So, I sent Propaganda which was really cool. I got kind of close to onsighting (at least the crux part) of Gerbil Killer (5.13a), but took a nice 30 foot whipper thanks to B-hops trying to keep me "safe" while doing an all-points-off dyno because I screwed up the sequence. A few feet later after hiking myself all the way back up the rope, I got onto the Pyschosomatic finish of Gerbil Killer at the crux, and fell. This time, it was just a normal fall with the draw AT MY WAIST, and I fell somewhere between 35-40 feet because B-hops decided not to pay attention and leave me a nice "euro-loop" and then the gri-gri didn't catch. Scary but first, but got to admit....kinda RAD! Josh got his project, Hang it out to Dry (5.12b) and Tyson gave a decent run on Porn Star (5.13d), but it was a little wet...good day, good times.

GET PSYCHED!

Future of Climbing: Pilot Interview

2010-04-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

To spice things up a little bit, I decided I'm going to post something which I like to call "Future of Climbing: Interviews", where I will interview one boy and one girls at every competition I go to. These kids will be ones who stand out to me, and who I believe fit my idea of the "future of climbing." If you noticed before, I posted an article a little while back about Ashima and a few other little ones who I felt were the new "up-and-coming" climbers and expected to be doing well in 5-10 years (even though they are rockin' now!). Here is my pilot interview with my best friend Sam Wolff, who many of you know. Everything is verbatim (grammar, too). The questions will vary from kid to kid, depending on my creativeness. I hope you all enjoy!

(My friend, Sam Wolff, at ABS11 Youth Nationals in Alexandria, Virginia this last February.)

BIO:

Name: Sam Wolff

Age: 16 years old, "but 18 is the legal age, right?"

Years climbing: [After counting on fingers] 5-ish years, 4-ish competing

Preferred method of climbing: "O.A.B." (One arm burl)

Preferred climbing shoes: FiveTen Jet 7

Favorite climbing area: Squamish, BC

AF: Why do you climb?

SW: For one, it gives you big biceps. Two, it's a great outlet for everything, and I enjoy it. Four, I really love the climbing community and I have a lot of friends who climb. And five, have you lived my life? [Enter sarcasm here] I have nothing else better going for me. Don't write that down!

AF: What are your short term goals for climbing?

SW: I'd like to find a legitimate outdoor route that uses a figure-four and/or bat-hang.

AF: Long term goals?

SW: What are YOUR long term goals?

AF: Sam, this is only a pilot interview. Work with me here.

SW: I think it would be cool to be good at rope climbing at some point. And you know, bigger biceps. Don't write that down!

AF: Some say you need to be good at both bouldering and ropes to be the best at one. Do you believe this?

SW: I don't think that is necessarily true, but one discipline definitely helps the other.

AF: How do you feel about competitions?

SW: I think they are fun and is a good way to hang out with friends I wouldn't get to see very often but there is a point where I have to remind myself sometimes that I'm not always happy trying to be the best at something so I have to just lay back and have some fun. That's what she said.

AF: If you had to pick a professional climber to look up to, who is it and why?
SW: Probably Alex Fritz because he has cool hair.
AF: Where do you find your inspiration?
SW: People. Also, routes with cool names. People pulling down hard, basically.
AF: Climbing aside, what do you see yourself doing in twenty years?
SW: I was kind of hoping to go to college at some point. I was hoping to do that already though. I kind of want a job. Hopefully, I'll have moved out of my parent's house by then, too. Don't write that down!
AF: Seriously now, how do you feel about stem cell research?
SW: Well, it's a very complicated matter. Personally, I'm not like uber-religious or anything, but I still believe in the value of human life. However, I have some mixed feelings about this topic. Okay, I mean they talk about the whole deal being cruel to the pre-developed fetus thing, but when I was a pre-developed fetus thing, I didn't even know I was a boy yet. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything but honestly, would you rather save Gandhi's life or the life of some pre-developed fetus who doesn't even know he's a human yet? Those are the kind of questions we'll be facing in the near future, if Gandhi was alive, of course. I think I'd go with Gandhi, but in the words of a wise man, "Don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling. Street lights, people. Don't stop believing." End quote. Honestly, we're all just human beings...but this debate is one for another time and place.
AF: To finish up: I realize that at 16, neither of us are far into our climbing career (as far as I can tell). Any "words of wisdom" for the little ones or "up-and-coming" climbers?
SW: Get psyched on training and getting better but remember to sit back and realize there is more to climbing then being the best and pulling hard.

(Sam working on The Practitioner (V12), in Leavenworth. Photographer: Denise Nerison)

(Sam on his send attempt of The Coffee Cup (V9/10) in Leavenworth. Photographer: Denise Nerison)

As most of you climbers know, Sam is one of my best friends. I met this kid a few years back when my old climbing gym, Cascade Crags, was being bought into the Vertical World franchise. Our friend Bret Johnston had been spreading rumors between the two of us, telling each other that we said things that we didn't. Fortunately, we didn't let that come between us and became fast friends. Sam is a really funny, cool guy who is down right devoted to climbing. He progressed amazingly fast the last couple years, even though it seems to have been more focused on bouldering than ropes. He's really strong and I'm psyched to seem him get outside this summer to really see what he can do. You've probably seen him at the local PNW crushing, along with 2009 ABS10 Youth Nationals, making the US Team for Bouldering. He is definitely at the top of my list for the "future of climbing." Just wait a couple years, you'll see him in UC and Climbing Mag crushing double digit boulder problems. If you know Sam, then you know he is a great guy. If you haven't, that sucks for you. Thanks Sam, for all our memories, I'm psyched for years to come.

Fritz, signing off.

Outside climbing

2010-04-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed out to Gold Bar with my best friends, Audrey Hsu and Sam Wolff. Unfortunately, it was pouring by the time we arrived in the area, and decided to continue on to Leavenworth hoping for some better weather. Through out the whole day, the weather was kind of bipolar, switching back and forth between too hot and little sprinkles. But mostly, fairly good temps for L-town.

I have to say that it wasn't really a successful day for me, but I'm really psyched on how Sam and Audrey did. We warmed up in the first area in the Forestlands, repeating The Shield (V7) and other various easy problems. Afterward, we moved up to The Ruminator (V6), a sweet looking overhung line that follows a crack into a highball, sketchy top out. If it wasn't for that "highball, sketchy top out", the problem would be really cool. The crack at the top gets really thin, to the point where I was only getting maybe a quarter pad and crimping down hard, along with moss and dirty crap all over the place. Obviously not climbed very often. Still decent though, I'd recommend it.

(Me on the crux of The Ruminator (V6). Photographer: Denise Nerison)

After Sam and I finally topped out the awkward V6, we moved around the backside of this rock to Kobe Tai (V8) (which I learned today was FA'd by Tyson Schoene and Andrew Philbin - and if you want a good laugh, look up the name on Google for its origins). I sent this towards the end of last summer with Jesse Warren from Stone Gardens, and I believe it is definitely a solid V8. As it was Sam and Audrey's first real time in Leavenworth (a.k.a. their first time working hard stuff), this was my first recommendation for them to send. Sam make fairly quick work on it, which made me happy. It took Audrey a few more tries, but I am really psyched that she put the effort forward and stepped it up. I hopped on it last for a repeat, and it definitely was just as hard as the first time I did it last year.

(Audrey Hsu on the start of Kobe Tai (V8). Photographer: Denise Nerison)

Off to The Coffee Cup (V10) and The Practitioner (V12). Sam made really quick work of The Coffee Cup, which I totally think fit his climbing style. Powerful and big moves on decent holds. Audrey didn't give it too much of an effort, as I was lifting her (literally - off the ground) to the start; but it's not really her kind of problem. Then I gave a few quick burns on the V12 - which in reality, seems really climbable - but the problem completely baffles me. According to the guide book, it's L-town's hardest boulder problem, and I can see why. I can pretty much do it in two pieces, but I think it's too far into rope season to give it to much effort. I've lost some of my power and strength, so it will definitely be going down next fall.

(Sam Wolff, "feeling the buzz" of The Coffee Cup (V10). Photographer: Denise Nerison)

We wandered around the rest of the day, eventually driving down the road to The Lonely Fish (V9). Sam again made quick work of this problem, even though it's fairly soft for V9. Audrey and I did the "jump start" variation of the problem, which goes at V8. We headed 150 feet north to Dropping the Kurschbomb (V10), which we worked for quite a while to no prevail. Then went to WAS and IS which I think are both pretty dumb, so I'm not gonna even bother mentioning them (ha-ha).

As for today - I went to Little Si for some sport climbing action with my coach Josh. We met Tyson and his friend Brian out there. To make me happy, I did a repeat run on Technoriginie (5.12d) which is the last part of Californication (climbing Chronic to the "typewriter", then climbing left to the anchors of Aboriginie (5.11b) and then into Techno'). I managed to muster the endurance to tick off Full Californicator or Californication (5.13a - whatever the name of it is) too, and onsighted a really cool route that for some reason I've never tried - Hang It Out To Dry (5.12b). To finish off the day, I worked more on Propaganda, which I swear is probably the hardest 5.12c I have ever tried. It will go eventually, and I will feel really good about it, but until then....

Also, to ruin my weekend...my mom decided to scare the crap out of me by showing me the huge freakin' spider in her bath room. Instead of just killing it like a normal person (normal people are incredibly scared of spiders, right?), she decided to tell me that I needed to see "something", resulting in me running out of the bathroom into the living room and leaving me scared to go to bed tonight because I recently took apart my bed frame and moved my mattress to the floor. Gee, thanks mom.

Anyways, to finish off - I'm really psyched on rock climbing outside right now. I should stopped bouldering in Gold Bar and Leavenworth cause it is tearing apart my tips and I'm sick of having raw fingers that bleed randomly at school for no reason - but hey, that's the sweet pain of success. After the last two weeks, I have a really good feeling about this coming summer and rope season. I'm really looking forward to getting outside, and pushing myself to my limit. It was also great to see Audrey and Sam starting climbing hard outside too. I really need to get them out and do some rope climbing, but they both worked really hard yesterday and I'm proud of them. Good going, both of you.

Gotta love climbing.