Portland Boulder Rally 2013

It was a rough weekend 

I came to this event not expecting anything, just go out there and climb and have fun! 

For the first two hours that's what it was... I was trying all sorts of boulders but only completed two harder ones

But the ones I was trying were really fun and I was progressing on them, but could never manage to get to the top! 

I'm the last hour of the event I started to spiral down into a very bad place... And I couldn't control it

I have five boulders on my score card but three of them were warm ups... And I just couldn't manage to send anything else! 

I try all the hard ones at least once and nothing... 

I was in the rabbit hole and couldn't crawl out... It was very frustrating and annoying... I didn't realize how out of shape I really was

It shows that I have not been doing much to improve my climbing, and the only thing that I have to say to my defense is that I've been traveling the last two months which caused a lot of disorder in my life.  I am just now settling in and feel like everything is in place.  But in the end I feel as it is just another excuse that I give myself. 

In the end I did not make finals but jimmy did so it was great to watch him climb. Chairing outside the gym was I little iritating because I do not like crowds, but once we were let in it worked out well because we were in the front row and were able to have maybe the best view in the house! 

Chris and I were keeping track of results and it was nerve racking to watch jimmy compete since he was last out on all the boulders and I knew what he had to do to stay in the lead.  My palms were sweaty and my blood was racing.  

JIMMY WON!!! I was so happy!! 

Sunday we played putt putt at a glow in the dark place.  It was really fun!! 

We ventured to the gym later on where I tried a bunch of other boulders along with the finals boulders.  Once again I was disappointed with myself, but at the end of the day I was able to calm myself and just turn the last two days into training days.  

I finished off with doing an ab workout after all the climbing and I know I will be sore tomorrow!  There are so many things I need to work on, and my attitude is one of them! Hopefully with time I will be able to get to where I want to be.  I just have to be patient and keep a smile on my face even when it seems I'm failing all the time... 

I mean 90% of climbing is failure, falling, trying hard and only 10% of the time we succeed! 

So it's time to train! And get back into shape!! 

The bonus of today was breakfast!! 

Either way I want to thank everyone that made this event possible!! 

Trip to Idaho!!

Almo, ID is a small town of 172 people which encompasses a large area. They have a general store, a pizza shop/car repair place, an inn and a steak house. 

There are two main areas to climb at in this small town... City of Rocks (free access) and Castle Rocks ($5/vehicle).  There are a few places you can stay such as the Smokey Mountain Camping ($20+ per night) but they do have awesome showers ($3) or there's the City of Rocks campground ($12/night).  There's also the bunk house at Castle Rock that sleeps twelve and is $12.95/person/night and you have to go to the Visitor Center to make a reservation.  We got the hook up and were told about the FREE camping. Down the main road in town till the road turns into dirt and right after you pass the cattle guard you take a right. 

Most of you might of heard of Castle Rocks... It has the infamous 40+ move roof climb "war path" along with many rope climbs for both the trad climber and the bolt clipper... We unfortunately didn't bring our rope and gear, so I won't be able to tell you much about that. 

What I can tell you is that the "taco roof" is an amazing formation of rock that we are fortunate to climb on.  There's a few different lines on.  Most of which are a little bit "morpho" and hopefully I'll be able to figure out some beta before we leave to send a few of these boulders.  

Jimmy and I explored the boulders that surround the 'taco cave' and were surprised at the amount of untouched rock.  There is a great amount of potential out here and hopefully more climbs get developed as the news spreads. 

As of now, due to the goverement closing down nationals parks (which I think is ridiculous but there's a time and place for that rant) City of Rocks has limited access. Some of the land is owned by the state so as climbers we have access to that part of the land.  Jimmy and I hiked around to explore the large amount of rocks that litter the area.  Unfortunately most of the rock is choss with the occasional dyno boulder or some morpho (I hate that word) boulders.  We were able to find a few boulders that had the potential of being good climbs.  

The best part of this trip has been being together with Jimmy (and Oreo).  Even though we had an epic time getting here due to snow in wyoming we have enjoyed our whole time here. I'm really grateful to have these guys in my life. 

The main purpose of this trip was for Jimmy to try and send 'war path'. It took him four tries over a four day period. First day he fell off the move over the lip. Same for the two tries on the second day. Then we took a rest day which involved a lot of hiking around. And the fourth day he did it his first try and made it look easy. I am so proud of him for accomplishing one of his goals.  Watching him over the years has empowered me to become a better climber and I'm psyched to see what the future brings.  

Video of our trip will be up soon!! Till now just pictures!! 

The Heist

I was very fortunate to be part of the Heist competition held at Central Rock Climbing Gym in Watertown. 

For those of you that haven't heard about it,

It was an event organized by FEMALES

set by FEMALES

for FEMALES

I was the head route setter and going into the event I didn't really know what to expect. I have been the head setter/organizer of small local competitions but nothing of this caliber.  The days leading up to the event I felt pretty organized, focus but anxious. I just wanted Monday to roll around so that we could start setting for the event.  At the end of the week I was very grateful to have Sydney McNair at my side.

I have learned that no big event goes without some small problems here and there. Overall things went according to plans.  We fell a little bit behind Monday with having set only 22 boulders out of the 25 which was our goal. But by Tuesday night we had all 60 boulders set.  Wednesday was spent on forerunnimg and setting up the finals boulders. And the bottom half of the route got set as well.  Thursday we spent forerunning finals and the advance/open problems. We finished the route on Friday along with forerunning it. 

It was a long and tiring week where we'd get to the gym between 10am-11am and not leave till 10pm most nights.  I was especially tired because in the 3 weeks prior to the event I had been in 4 different time zones (one of which was in Europe) and I had been on 11 flights. My body was all sorts of tired!! 

Saturday rolled around suddenly and everyone was coming through the door to check in and getting ready to compete. I got really nervous and for a few hours of qualifiers I found myself sitting in a rocking chair in the hold room, thinking what we should do. You see the problem started that morning, when I felt that all the open problems were maybe too easy for the field of competitiors that showed up. After qualifiers my fear became a reality and the top 8 girls sent the top 5 boulders. Luckily they didn't all flash all 5 boulders.  Going into finals we had two ties to break. Two girls were tied for 1st and two were tied for 3rd. 

Final's boulder #1

This was my master piece.  I had to set with the heart holds from atomic.  It was quite the challenge. It was a vertical, technical rock climb that I was very happy with. All the girls sent the boulder, but that's what we wanted. Luckily the boulder broke one of our ties.  

Final's boulder #2 

Sydney was the mastermind behind this powerful pinch fest! (Holds courtesy of teknik) Our goal was to have one of the girls get to the top. Unforunetly that didn't happened.  We might have tweaked it to make it harder than it should of been. But either way it broke our final tie.  

Final's route #1 

I have never heard or attended an event where finals was a mixture between boulders and routes. I think it gave the event it's own little spin on things.  I don't think the route could of been any better.  We expected two girls to top and they did.  And everyone else fell in a different place on the route.  Sydney gets most of the credit for the route with a few of my ideas mixed into it. 

Sunday was a day for clinics with some of the athletes along with myself.  I taught a setting clinic which I think went really well.  I hope that the people that took my clinic learned some valuable things that they will be able to use in the future. 

There was a good amount of publicity for this event with a few interviews prior to the event featuring Sydney and myself. 

Did I mention that there were 158 competitors?!? All females!!! That's amazing!! 

I can't wait to see what next year brings!!