It Saturday the 23rd, we headed to Vertical Endeavors in Warrenville, IL. We got there about 12:30 and started climbing around 1 pm. Everyone was belayed tested and climbing on their own by 2. I started by warming up on a 5.8 lead. The last time I was at V.E. they had a separate set of quickdraws at the top of the line. They did not have another set of quickdraws at the top of the route. This caused everyone who was lead climbing in out group to clip the last draw before the finish. The reason there were no top anchors was so that you have to pull the top rope down and then climb using that rope. I was a safety precautions so that no one would be trying to climb the same line as you. After I completed my warm up, I jumped on a 5.10c. This route was one of their longer routes because it went through the arch. This was there easiest route that they had in the arch way. The 5.11 that was there was most a roof until about 30 feet when it started to go back up the arch way. My second route I did was a 5.11a that went up the crack that they had. Half of the route was a lean back in the crack while the other half was a lean back on holds. I made it about three fourths the way up the route and then got a little lost on where the route went. The route was kind of run out with longer power moves. I took a break and stretched my arms out and figure out the last few moves of the route. I finished the route, at least what I could do. I jumped on a another 5.10c. This was rather easy for its length and the types of moves that it had. One move you had a hold around the corner of this natural and your next hold about 3 feet of the left of where you were. It was pretty fun. We went to lunch and after lunch I got on a 5.6 for a new warm up. I then got on a 5.10d; the moves in the route really weren't all that hard. The last few moves before the finish was what made it the 5.10 it was. I go on a few more 5.10-5.11 routes lead then started climbing 5.12-5.13s top rope. Saturday March 2, there was a competition at VE in Warrenville. This was my first climbing comp that I'm competiting in the open division. It was a little nerve racking because the whole team was competiting in this comp. So I didn't have a coach there to help through the whole thing. It was the first time that had happened and I just worked with it and talked with other competitors about the how the comp was going. I did one of the easier routes as a warm up which I flashed. I felt really good about how I was climbing. One of the routes was a lead route which was a lot of fun. The route started on the isotope and went up into the roof section for the wall. The route was about a 5.11b or c; I made it to the last draw before the finish and was super pumped out and then fell making a move to a round sloper. I finished in 6th place.
Saturday, March 9th we head to St. Louis' Upper Limits for the first SCS Event of the year. There was about 150 competitors, four teams and Team Climb This. We were the farthest traveled. We were a team of three for this comp. They had routes for the new climbers and routes for kids who have been climbing a long time. We started climbing and a really easy route just to get the rope climbing warm up in. Then I jumped in a 5.9 that was really easy for me and got on a 5.10- lead route. I got on some routes that were about 5.12 and made it about 3/4 the way up the route and fell. One route was rather easy and I made it to where every one was getting stuck and was making a move up and then my hand hold spun causing me to lose balance and fall. They went up and fixed the hold and I got a second chance at it. I went up the second time and went through it rather easy and got to the same spot and my arms were pumped and I moved up and my foot popped off. I wasn't worried because I had a lot of high point routes and already. Now there was 45 minutes left of climbing and I was reaching the end if my day. I jumped on some routes that got ride of the lower point routes. I was able to get three of my lower point routes crossed off with higher point routes. I was on a route that was worth 3500 points and they called 5 minutes. I was able to finish the route with two minutes left and my brother was on a route I needed just to get rid of one more set of points. The other route that I could have gotten on had like 10 people still in line. My brother finished the route and I let Michael go, new team member, I let him get on the route so he could get some points. Time was called and I was very happy with how I did t this weekend because I didn't call on to many route and of I did I was able to finish them on my second try. I finished with a little over 12,000 points. I was happy I was thinking about 3 or 4th place. Awards came around they announced that first place for Female-Youth-A had a little over 14,000 points. I was think about 4th. And they announced 2nd and I got second place. I was about 6,000 points ahead of the 3rd place. I'm really happy with how I did and that was my first time I placed second in a SCS Event. All the pictures and videos are loaded to Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. Check them out their are a ton of awesome pics from the comp and from our warm up before the comp.
