SCS Boulders Comp-2012

The week before this competition I went  to Adventure Rock on Saturday. Saturday was a short day of climbing but it was hard climbing and I'm happy with how I did there. While we were there I tried the Purple Route that I am projecting. The week before I did it in 6 falls or takes. Saturday I did it in four on my first try. The hardest part I have is right have the first quick draw. I think that's the hardest part because it is the steepest part of the over hang and you have your second quick draw right there. I am unable to move up to the next hold because then I would be to high to clip to the second draw. Once I got past the next few moves it seemed to be a lot easier and I just cruised right there the top section. The  route is a lot of fun and I can't wait to go back in two weeks and try it. Sunday I had weight training then set three new routes that are about 5.10s. They are a lot of fun and really like some of the moves that were put in to them. Monday we were teaching class which was the last class of the session. Tuesday I had Tae-kwon-do and we did focus drills to help us forget about the surroundings and focus only on our forms that we were supposed to be working on. Wednesday I set another route that was a 5.10+ thats a lot of fun also. Its more technical than anything, you cant really move to fast through the moves other wise you might miss the hold or grab it  wrong. Thursday, I had school which went by pretty slow until about 3pm. When it was 3pm I got to learn how to TIG weld. It felt really hard to do but I guess I was doing it right. Im excited to learn but I know it will be hard to get used to. Friday I helped work open climb till 8pm, it wasnt to busy but always had a person climbing from the very start. Saturday I had a competition in Madison, Wisconsin at Boulders Climbing Gym. I took 5th place at Boulders Climbing Gym. I felt pretty good about all the routes that I did. I was able to lead climb two 5.10s and finish them. the lead route that I did were fun. The first one I did was a 5.10 and the second one I did was about a high 5.9. The first one was alot of power movements towards the top and then was a bigger power move to the finish. The second lead route that I did was a high 5.9 only because the moves that were in it were longer and I really had to push to get some of the holds. There was one route that I really liked doing but it was giving me a hard time. There was a part that you had to go under an overhang and then work your way over it up to two really not so great holds. The first time I did it, I got stuck at the hold right above the overhang. The second time I got on the route I realized the hold was good enough to pull my legs up over my head and heel hook the hold that I needed to get to. I got my heel on the hold and matched my hand with my foot. I was able to do the move and move off of the move but the next hold was a pinch. I got home about 5pm then took a 5 hour nap  before I had to get up again and get ready to go to work to help with the Post Prom Party at the Kenosha Y. The rockwall was open from 12am 2:30am, we ran about 35 people through the rockwall in those two hours. Sunday I came in at 1030am to get ready for Roan and Spencers birthday party. They were alot of fun and really excited to have there party at the rockwall and to have me there helping them out. They invited us to the party room for food and cakes after the party which was really nice of them to do that. From 1pm to 3pm I sent a new route that my coach thinks in about a 5.13. I spent the next 1.5hours working on this route trying to finish it. Finally about 4:30 I was able to complete the route completely. I had to work through each section so I would know what moves I need to do to get through it. Once I was able to get all the moves then I was hoping that I had the muscle endurance would hold through until I finished the route. I took about a 10 minute break then jumped on the route and finished it in one shot with no slips or crossed hands/arms. I was pretty happy that I was able to complete the route. My next goal for the route is to be able to complete the route with a lead rope. All the pictures and vidoes are loaded to Facebook, Youtube and Flickr. Check them out because there are alot of really cool pictures taken this weekend because I did a lot of really cool moves and a couple routes.

Spring Break Training

.I headed to St. Louis for a 2 day training climbing camp. April 10th we went to the new Upper Limits in West County. We were one of the first people there so we had the whole gym to ourselves. We started off by doing three warm up routes that were about 5.9+. After that we did a couple harder routes about 5.11 the were a lot of fun and crimpy, my favorite type of holds. For lead climbing it went really well today! I'm super happy with how I did today. I on sighted multiple 5.10s and 5.11s. My favorite route that I did was a 5.10c. I wasn't to hard but it was a lot of fun and really tested my endurance. This was what started off a great day of lead climbing for me, by on sighting this route. The trickiest part of the whole route was being able to reach over the volumes. Doing a bunch of 5.10+ really boost my confidence and knowing that I was about to do multiple 5.10 in row. April 11th we headed to the brand new So Ill Climbing Gym. This place was amazing and really represented their plans. I didn't know what to say for a good hour about the place. We started off the day by taking out lead test. The lead test took place on an easy 5.9 and I took a fall about 8 draws up. I had a really good day climbing and was able to again multiple 5.10+. One of the coolest route I did was on the roof section of the lead wall and it was a 5.10c and it was really fun and straight forward. There was nothing tricky about the route. I did this route multiple times because this route also tested my muscular endurance. Once I felt I was completely warmed up I jumped in the 5.11s. It was a really good day for climbing and I felt really good about how I did. I did a lot of routes that were very crimpy and pumped my forearms. One of the crimpier routes was a pink 5.10d. I had a really good time at Climb So Ill and was really impressed with how everything turned out. Thursday, April 11, we didn't do a whole lot of anything. We stopped by my grandmas house and visited for a little while after that we headed back in town for pick up fishing bait, meal worms, and then headed to my uncles place. There we went to the pond and set up a couple of chairs and sat down to fish for the next 5 hours. The whole time we were out there is was about 55 degrees and only one little baby bass was caught. When we decided that we were done fishing we headed back to the hotel to go to the hot tub and to swim. The pool was about 95-100 degrees. Overall this week was very helpful on boosting my lead climbing confidence. It was a lot of fun and really wish it didn't go by as fast as it did. We got back Friday morning around noon and then I spent the next 4 hours relaxing from days before. I headed to work around 430 to work open climb at the rock wall at the Y. It wasn't to busy until 7 then I had every harness filled and people lined up out the door. It calmed down about 730 and that's about the same time Roan and Spencer came in to climb. They both did very well and i was happy to see them doing so well. Saturday comes and im heading back up to my home gym. I was really excited to go back so that I could tell one of the coaches of Adventure Rocks climbing team how cool of a place Climb So Ill was. I walked in the door at Adventure rock and it was packed full of boy scouts everywhere. They were mostly in the repelling area so it was it big of a deal, that and I dont think to many of them know how to lead climb. I warmed up on a 5.9 top rope then warmed up lead climbing on a 5.9 also. After the warm up I did went and tryed 5.12a lead. I got to the second quick draw but wasnt able to clip it. I came down and realized I was up for a real challenge and told myself I could do it and I was going to make it to the finish. I did another warm up route because I felt I should have done another one before I jumped into something that hard. After another two more warm up routes I went and tryed the 5.12 again. This time it went alot better; I did it in 6 falls. I was really happy with that and then did another few routes and then took a lunch break. After lunch I did another warm up route then jumped on that route again. I did it in 5 falls and then completed the last two draws and the finish draws with no falls. I was really happy with how my last try on that route went. I still did a bunch of really hard routes after that. Sunday I had to be at work by 930 to set up for a merit badge. There was only one kid so it was realy easy for him to learn and pick up on everything that we were teaching him. After that we had open climb and it was really busy we ran through over 40 kids in 2 hours. After open climb we had league where I worked on harder routes that we have set here. All of the photos and videos will be loaded to both Facebook and Flickr by thursday night. Check them out there are alot of really neat pictures that were taken. If you ever get a chance and your in St. Louis stop by Climb So Ill and Upper Limits in West County. They are alot of fun and the people that work in both places are friendly and will help any person at any ability level.

Homewood, IL SCS Competition

This past weekend I competed in my first SCS local event for the year. Saturday, April 7; the team headed to Homewood, IL to compete in the USA climbing event. Climbing started at 10am and we got there around 9am. When we got there we checked in and made sure all of our information was correct then went into the gym and started looking at the routes that were up. I figured out what routes I wanted to do for my warm up and then routes I would do to get all my points. I went back outside to the truck and check over my gear and make sure I was set one last time before the comp. I started stretching in the back of the truck because it was really nice out and really crowded in the gym. We started climbing at 10 and I headed straight to my warm up route which was really easy(*warm up*). After my warm up I found a route that would be somewhat hard to complete my warm up. There was a route that I wanted to do look pretty straight forward but it was stretchy for me and it was a little hard to reach a hold that you still have another 6 inches till and you are fully stretched to your toes. I jumped and missed but I saw I was one of three people that tried it and only on finished it. I moved up a division this year from youth-B to youth-A. I'm excited I moved up but realized that it would be a harder year of climbing and I would have to push much much harder. Overall my day of climbing was pretty good completed most of the routes that I tried. 3rd-7th place were all less then 500 points of each other. That means it's all about one route that made a difference that was 75 more points than the person below them. I took 7th place I was pretty happy with that and happy knowing I didn't get beat by too many points. Knowing that it was just one route that made the difference is a little upsetting because I would have found a route that was worth a lot of points and try to get the max points on it I'm still very happy with how I did this weekend. Tuesday I am leaving before the sun rises for St. Louis for a 4 day climbing camp to help me train and boost my climbing grades back up to the 5.12+ I was at before my accident. I'm really excited about this trip because we are going to both Upper Limits and the brand new So Ill Climbing Gym. I'm really excited because I have been wanting to go there and now I get to and it will really help me out so much with my climbing All climbing pictures and videos are loaded to both Facebook and Flickr. Check them out! There are a lot of neat photos of what happened this weekend.