April has been a very eventful month for me, from traveling to Boulder for Adult Nationals to having Senior Prom. Since I have been so busy, I am putting all my adventures into this one post.
The first adventure was to Boulder, Colorado for SCS Adult Nationals. This was my second time to compete in this event. Last year I did surprising well as I ended up in the finals. I felt that I could do just as well this year. I trained for a little less than a month, and I felt confident. My father and I traveled to Boulder on Thursday. We got in later that night and crashed pretty quickly. In the morning we headed into downtown Boulder. With time to kill we walked around the prAna store, met up with some friends, and got some sushi for lunch. Knowing I still had to climb, we headed back to the hotel to rest. After watching some March Madness, we headed to Movement Climbing Gym. It was truly humbling to get to warm up with people such as, Matt Segal, Emily Harrington, Paige Classen, Sasha Diguilian, Sam Elias and many more. The warm up went well, and I was ready to go climb. My first climb was a pretty long climb that started on vertical, then into a steep section, and at the top flattened out a little. I felt really well on the climb. Not feeling very pumped, I got to the crux and unfortunately my heel blew, causing me to fall. It felt premature, and I was pretty disappointed. Trying to put the last climb behind me, I continued to the last climb. The competition was set up where there was no rest in between climbs, but you had 8 minutes on each route. You had to strategize how long to rest before attempting the next route. The last route lingered in my head as I climbed the sustained steep route. I ended falling about half way up. I let the previous route get in my head, and I did not perform as well as I would have liked. In retrospect, I fell pretty much where everybody else fell on the 2nd climb. I knew that I had a slim chance at making finals. I was upset, and I felt that I should have climbed better. I ended up missing finals by one spot. That is just how competitions play out sometimes.
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| Adam |
Instead of letting the competition get me down, I went to Boulder Canyon to do a little lead climbing. My friend Adam from Ft. Collins took Joe Gifford, my dad, and me to an area he knew. My dad enjoyed seeing me outdoor climb for the first time. He almost didn’t make it though. He nearly passed out on the way up, and he ended up laying on a rock for 20 minutes before he could continue. Then as soon as we got up to the crag, he cracked open a beer that I carried. The climbing was not too difficult, but I was still humbled by the technical vertical climbing. We hiked out later, and went to watch the finals. The finals were run very well, and the competition was very entertaining. A big shout out to the junior climbers, Josh Levin, Shane Puccio, and Alex Johnson who faired very well against the stiff competition. Overall the trip was really fun and I look coming back in the fall to compete in the American
World Cup held at Movement.
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| Insulter 13b |
My next adventure was to a somewhat local area in Texas. It is a hush hush area located on the Nolan River. I had really wanted to go, and I finally got a person who knew the area to take me out. I went with my some friends from the gym, Colin who knew the area and Mario who was also psyched to see the place. After a little bit of bush whacking and getting a little lost, we found the climbing. I was really surprised to see this amazing rock in Texas. The limestone was surprisingly really solid. Pretty much all of the climbs were man made drilled pockets. Even though there was only a few natural lines, it was really nice to get on fun climbs that were close to Dallas. The climbs were very impressive. The warm ups like Black Rain 12a and Aqua Lung 12b to one of the few natural lines, Mariner 13a and the power climb, Insulter 13b. They all had something about them that made them unique and enjoyable to climb. We spent the whole day climbing these lines. I ended up sending all the lines but Insulter, where I came up a little short on my flash burn. Overall I was really happy to get outdoors, and I am very grateful that Colin showed me around. We left the area and finished with some home cooked barbeque. I look forward on going back out to the area in the near future.
The next two weekends I was out of town in Oklahoma City and Atlanta. I went first to Oklahoma City where I competed in a local Rocktown USA Climbing competition. This is always my favorite local competition of the year. The people are always extremely nice, the grain silos are interesting to climb in, and they always have a theme that everybody dresses up for. This year it was 70’s theme, and everybody pulled out their jean shorts, old trad gear, wigs, and tight fitting clothes. The volunteers really went all out on the outfits and the competition in general. Everyone is very helpful and glad to welcome you there. Route setters Billy and Aaron did an amazing job. I cannot imagine having to set vertical all day, and the walls are also 100 ft. tall. One of Billy’s routes took me about 16 minutes to complete. The climb went up and down, back and forth, but the time was worth it. A big thanks also goes to John Conti, for taking some really spectacular shots. I recommend this competition to everyone next year, it is truly a fun competition. Afterwards, I went back for Prom, where I had a great Senior Prom with my beautiful date Claire Edwards.
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| Claire and I |
My last trip was to Atlanta to participate in a full weekend of training. It was a training camp led by US Team coach Claudiu Vidulescu. We first landed in Atlanta Friday night. We wasted no time as we headed straight to the gym. We climbed at the new state of the art Stone Summit Climbing Gym. We climbed for about 3 hours before heading back to a clubhouse to sleep. The next day we climbed for 7 hours. The 7 hours really took a toll on me since the walls were 60 ft. tall. Claudiu had me working mostly on my tempo. I started to improve my tempo when I started to climb faster. After the practice I got the privilege of having dinner with my Grandparents who live in the Atlanta area. It was really nice to catch up with them, since I do not see them very often. The last day I continued to work on my tempo, but this time it was a lot harder since I was worn out. I really felt that I learned alot from Claudiu. I hope to continue to work on tempo and other small things to help improve my climbing.
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My father about to die on the hike.
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Adam
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Colin and Mario
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Joe
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The next two weekends I was out of town in Oklahoma City and Atlanta. I went first to Oklahoma City where I competed in a local Rocktown USA Climbing competition. This is always my favorite local competition of the year. The people are always extremely nice, the grain silos are interesting to climb in, and they always have a theme that everybody dresses up for. This year it was 70’s theme, and everybody pulled out their jean shorts, old trad gear, wigs, and tight fitting clothes. The volunteers really went all out on the outfits and the competition in general. Everyone is very helpful and glad to welcome you there. Route setters Billy and Aaron did an amazing job. I cannot imagine having to set vertical all day, and the walls are also 100 ft. tall. One of Billy’s routes took me about 16 minutes to complete. The climb went up and down, back and forth, but the time was worth it. A big thanks also goes to John Conti, for taking some really spectacular shots. I recommend this competition to everyone next year, it is truly a fun competition. Afterwards, I went back for Prom, where I had a great Senior Prom with my beautiful date Claire Edwards.
