Youth Divisionals

This past weekend many of the kids from Hidden Peak competeted at the 2011 SCS Divisional Championship, held at Planet Rock in Ann Arbor Michigan.  Hidden Peak brought 12 climbers to the competition for both Speed and Sport disciplines.  For a few of the kids this was their first Divisionals and for others it was just another walk in the park.  Both Dave and did everything we could to keep the younger kids calm and composed in isolation as many of them were excited and were bouncing off the walks. 
On day one the day was broken up into a morning and afternoon session to help shorten wait times in isolation (in the old days isolation could last as long as 6 hours).  Most of our younger kids categories were in the morning and the older kids were in the afternoon.  Every category had their preview time and then each kid was brought out one at a time to climb their routes (two for the first day and 1 for the second day).  The first route typically is a warm up and then the second route is what separates the field. 
A few of our younger kids were eliminated on day one but many of them moved on to day two.  It is upsetting for the kids that did not make it to day 2 because all of the kids train so hard and really want to do well at these events.  Some of the kids made mental errors that cost them, others climbed flawlessly but got pumped out before they could get high enough to qualify for day two. 

On day two all of the kids climbed beautifully and all of them that qualified for day two made it to Nationals.  While warming up in isolation that morning all of the kids were extremely nervous as they knew that they needed to do really well if they wanted to move on to Nationals.  I had to make sure that they all were completely warmed up before heading out to climb as there was only one route for them to climb and it was hard!  They were given one shot (onsight) to climb as high as they could.  Many of the Peakers had exciting falls that made the crowd ooooo and aahhhh.  In the end all of the kids left Ann Arbor with a smile on their face as they all had good times and good climbs with friends and competitors alike. 

Canmore Bouldering World Cup

The Canmore World Cup was this weekend boy was it a blast! This World Cup was for bouldering and it was the first World Cup to be held in Canada. When we flew in it was 35 degrees and raining - we hoped that the weather would turn for the better as the event was being held outside. Unfortunately the weather was even worse on Friday; it was 30 and snowing for almost all of the day. It was extra difficult to warm up in the iso area with these conditions. They brought us out one at a time in order of IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) ranking.  Because this was my first World Cup I had no ranking and I was placing near the end, and this was a distinct disadvantage as the holds were much more greasy after 40 people were climbing on them.

I was shocked at the problem set that we were given as most big comps have huge moves with tons of slopers and pinches. This set was more about 1 arming off ridiculously small crimps. On one of my problems I popped off one of those tiny crimps and gashed open my knuckle. I did not realize this until my judge told that I was dripping blood all over the place. I tried jamming chalk in this wound but it was bleeding like a sieve came real close to sending that problem but I had to go see the EMT before I got another good try on that problem. The EMT was not able to stop the bleeding so my finger was painfully gushing all over the place for the rest of my comp despite my use of chalk, superglue, and tape. Had I not been preoccupied with that finger I believe would have been a bit more focused for last few problems. However, the end of the comp was not what killed my score, it was the first few problems, and I think it had to do with the cold and me not be too psyched be dynoing around on crimps. Hudson and the other TEAM USA coaches said that I am more than strong enough to pull some of the same moves that these world champs pulled but I just was not trusting in my instincts.

But enough of that, it was a fun comp nonetheless and my very first World Cup. I received the bid kinda late for this comp so next time I hope that I have more time to prepare and train for this specific event.

Now I set my sights on what I do best - ROPE! 

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