Awesome Days of Climbing

These last two weeks went by pretty fast. Friday I helped out at the Y till 8pm. It was pretty cool because roan and spencer we're both doing really good. Spencer is making it to the top of easy like its nothing and Roan is making its a little past half way. Saturday comes and I'm super psyched but I get to go to Adventure Rock. We got there and jumped straight in the lead climbing. I warned up on two 5.8s then worked in to the harder routes. I tried a new route that was just set and fell one time on it then about 15 minutes later I went back and flashed it. After flashing it I realized what I did wrong the first going at it. All in all it was a really good day leading climbing because I flashed everything that I tried. After a lunch/dinner break we went into the bouldering part of my program. For bouldering I started out on a V3. Bouldering actually went really well because I tried a V6 and got 4 moves in on it. I kept trying the route and started to figure out you had to have your body a certain way otherwise the next move doesn't work to well. I gave it one more shot before my body was toast. I gave it shot and got half a move farther which I was really happy with. Sunday I went to my buddies bike race. Since there were only 4 people in the category 1+2s race, the officials combined them with the category 3 riders. Now in stead of 4 people there's 30. He took 3rd place in his category. Overall the weekend was really fun including all the sun we had here in Wisconsin. I got a tan which is good so I'm set for the summer now. Monday we had climbing classes which was pretty fun because everyone was in a good mood and making jokes. Monday night I found out that I was going to get to meet Alex David Johnson. I was super excited because I look up to him both as a climber and a person. Tuesday comes and I get to spend the next 3.5 hours with him. Around 3:30pm we all headed to the Y to climb. Alex is an amazing climber and really showed me a lot of new things that I could work on. I'm still super psyched about being able to meet him.  On the 24th we headed up to Adventure Rock where we spent the next 8 hours climbing. My rope climbing was good but wasn't really where I would have liked it to be. On the Advance Women Final route from Quick on the Draw I got 4 moves farther on it and was able to make my next quickdraw. I was really happy I was able to get farther on it. At the same time a little upset that I couldn't get any farther than where I got. I guess I have a new challenge spot on this route. After climbing I headed in to the bouldering caves where I wouldn't sit still even during my breaks. During my breaks I would go to the campus board and work on that. Bouldering I warmed up on a V3 then jumped straight into the V6's and higher. I found a new project bouldering problem I got about to the same spot that I did the week before. I was really happy with that because of how off of a day I was having. I tried this route a bunch of times until I figured I would be able to hold on to the holds any longer. After I get done with the bouldering problem, I went to the front desk to get the stuff needed for the Treadwall to work. Once I got everything set up I set up a program for me to do. I set the program on the 5.11 after doing a quick warm up on it at different speeds and degrees. After I completed both the warm up and the 5.11 program, I set up my next program with was a 5.13 with a minimum degree of 20. The program was 3 minutes long and I made it to 1.25 minutes.  Sunday was my day off so I get to go to my buddies bike race. I was pretty nice out but as it got later in the day the windier it got. For the series he took 3rd place in the Cat. 1 / 2s. Monday I had school  which was pretty fun we did a lot of study for finals in my geometery class. Tuesday I got to miss school because I had a doctors appointment in Marshfield for a hearing test. Wednesday we took team practice outside to Estreet bridge. The routes we tried were really cool but hard at the same time. The rock was also really cold so if you stayed on it too long ur hand would be really cold. My season starts in a week officially at the competition in Homewood, IL. I can't wait for this years season to start because I am feeling really good about how I am climbing lately.

Amazing Climbing Weekend

This weekend was an amazing weekend for rock climbing. Friday I helped work open climb where Roan and Spencer came in. Spencer made it to the top of easy and Roan is making it to the 3rd quick draw on easy. They have gotten really good lately and I am proud of them. Saturday was the day of my competition at No Holds Barred. The day started off with me checking in and wondering around the gym to look at my routes. Once I saw all my routes; I went back to figure out which on I was going to do as a warm up. I made my decision and went back to my bag and started to get ready. The gym had a competitors meeting which shortly after the clock would start for climbing. The clock started and i got my name in like about 5 people down. I watched the people before me climb this route and it seemed that there was two crux's in the route. One early in the route and the other right before the finish. My turn on the route and I got a little tripped up at the first crux but I figured it out and cruised through the rest of the route, including the second crux. I came down from the route and headed straight to the second route. This route wasn't to bad but gave me a challenge. I went to the harder routes to give them a try to earn more points. I only finished one more route after that but made it two or three holds from the top on all the rest of them. Once I had tried all of the top rope routes I head to the bouldering section. I was really happy with how my bouldering went because the routes I was given were about V6 or V7. The first route i tried was a really nice problem but i was unable to stick a hold when powering up to it. Now I was attempted every route and boulder problem and the 4 hours to climb is almost up. I turned in my score card and went to my locker where my climbing bag was and put back any extra stuff I wouldn't need in case I made it to finals. They came back with results and they called the 4th place person. I was really nervous because I kinda didn't think i was going to make it to finals, considering I only completed 3 total route." In third place, Kolbi Lackey!" I stood up and gave my brother a high five thinking "oh my god I made it to finals wow!" I headed back to isolation kinda surprised to see every one there giving each other pointers on how to do something if you think you are unable to do it. The females advanced went first; I was going second in the running ordering. I get my climbing shoes on, put my chalk bag on and check my harness over one last time before my climb. I hear my name called saying that the crowd was ready for me to come out. I came out and everyone was really impressed with my chalk bag that I was wearing. I got to my route talked over everything with my belayer as I was tying in to my rope. I started climbing and the crowd started to roar. From the start of the route I knew I was gonna be able to complete the route. Making my third quickdraw I took a break to shake my arms out and to kind of rest my body. I started at the other half of the route; I made my 4 quickdraw and moved up to the crimpy rock that was a little hard to hold on it. I moved my feet up and started to stand up for the next hold. I realized my hand was not set on the hold so I slowly moved back down to adjust my hand. Now, I started to move back up to the next rock and all of a sudden i realized I was falling due to my foot slipping off of my foot hold. I was a little upset with that but there wasn't a whole lot i could do about it. I was still happy all consider that this was my first real final set up. I sat down to watched the rest of the finals and I was really impressed with the other climbers. At the end, my placement was 4th due to not making it as far as the other girls did on the route. I texted my mom and my dad because they were unable to make this competition due to work interference.  We got home and I sat down to relax and not do a whole lot more. Sunday I didnt do my lifting program because i had to the competition yesterday. I helped work open climb at the Y then climbed at team practice. For team practice I work on a bunch of routes that I am unable to do lead climbing. Most of the routes I am unable to do at the Y are the route I set or my brother sets to give me a challenge. Monday I had school which went by really fast then helped teach climbing classes at the Y. After classes were over I went to the weight room with my brother to do a couple set of the bench press. I started off with a warm up bench of putting 15 pounds on each side. I pumped 10 reps through like noting was there. After I did that set I put 25 pounds on each side of the bar and did 7 reps before it started to give me a challenge. I would have to say that this weekend was a great weekend of climbing and hope that every weekend I have a competition would go like it did this weekend. All photos and videos are loaded to Facebook, Flickr, and you tube. Check them out and see all the cool things that went on this weekend.