2014 Regional Championships in St. Louis

May 10 was 2014 Regional Championships at West County Upper Limits in St. Louis. Regionals has the same set up as the YOLO competition in Iowa except I now climbed in the afternoon. I checked in around 10:45 and went in to isolation. There I did some stretching cause no one was in isolation just yet. Everyone checked into isolation and we went out for route previews. Our first route didn't look to difficult other than one spot that we figured was the crux of the route. My second route looked like it was tricky. By tricky I mean the setter put in moves that made you think about what you were doing. The thrid route everyone was thinking that this route is going to be the fourth draw that was the crux and right after the crux was another hard sequence. We went back to isolation  and I started warming up cause I only had an hour or so before it was my turn to check in for my chair. My first route was all pockets till about the fourth draw then it turned in to the huge pinches. I got a little tripped up there but I worked it out and continued up the route. I made it out of the crux and worked about three moves past it and got pumped the instant I touched the next hold which was a sloper. I kept working past it until my left arm cramped up as I was making my way to the next hold causing me to fall. I was alittle bummed with the fact I was so close to the finish of the route. I worked the cramp out of my arm during my rest time and kept pushing through it making the best of it. My second route was a little tricky. The start was super easy but it could difficult very fast. Right after you clipped your second draw you moved in to a traversing under cling. You moved to a crimpy hold after getting out of the under cling. That was as far as I made it because I got alittle tripped up at the under cling moved but I gave it it my all. My arm was feeling a ton better by the time I got to my third route. My third route was definitely the most difficult of the three. It stared with a few pinches with little feet so it created a lean back. After the lean back the route turned into sloping crimps which were really bad. You followed those up about two draws. Right after you clipped a draw you were given the worst crimp they could find to move up to two small foot chips. I moved up to the first foot chip and then tried to move up to the second foot chip. I touched it and slipped right off of it, the same way everyone else did. I was pretty happy with how I did on my first and  third routes. My second route was excepting to go much further on that route but still happy that I made it where I did. I packed up and we waited for the female youth-C to finish. They had about 25 girls in that division. They finished and we started speed climbing. The juniors were the last to climb so we had a bit if a break. There were only 5 speed climber in my division. I did my climb against Maddie Rafkin and did a climb time of 16 and 13 seconds. I ended up taking 2nd behind Maddie by 3 seconds. In sport climbing I took 7th place behind 6th by .5 points. Overall I am happy with how I did at Regionals and got an invite to Divisionals for both sport and speed climbing.

The following day the team headed to So iLL Climbing Gym. The gym opened around 10 so we got up and tried to find breakfast but realized that it was Mother's Day and everything was really busy. We got there and found out that our waivers were still good and all we had to do was a lead belay test for my brother and our new coach. They passed their lead test and we started climbing. We finished warming up and started jumping on some routes that were harder in grades to continue to train. We got on a 5.10c that was super easy. I was really excepting something different from the route, mostly something harder. After everyone else jumped on it we got on a 5.11a which was a ton of fun. All of the routes I was getting were about 60feet tall. After we finished that route and moved on to a 5.11d. This route was a ton of fun and I was super pumped when I finished it but so relieved to onsight all the routes. My mom came back with food and more water so we took a break for about 10 minutes. During our break I did some stretching to keep my back loose because it was starting to cramp up with the amount of overhangs there were. After the break I jumped on a 5.12c and made it about half way up and got shut down on one move and couldn't move past it cause the only other route around was a 5.13c. I tried the 5.12c a few times in that spot and then came down because I wanted to try the 5.13 before the end of the day. When I came down I stretched and got ready to try the 5.13. My hand were so tired and were starting to get cramp up and become sore. I try the 5.13 and got about 3 draws up the route and got stuck. I was really happy with how I did considering I climbed really hard the day before. After we finished sport climbing we went upstairs and tried to boulder a little bit before we had to leave for back home. I was beat by the time we started bouldering. I started on a V0 then worked my way up to a V4 which was super hard for me to complete. I found this V5 that I really liked alot! It was a ton of fun and had a bunch of really fun movements. I was super happy with how I climbed this weekend and cant wait till we go to divisionals!

I would like to say a big thanks to all of my sponsors! Thank you Rock Candy, BlueWater Ropes, PowerBar, KASK Helmets, Kaisers Pizza and Pub, and FiveTen Climbing. 

2014 YOLO at Climb Iowa

April 26th was Climb Iowa's YOLO Competition. This competition is structured similar to Regional Championships so competitors get a feel for it is going to work at regionals. I climbed in the morning session which was fine with me. I started climbing around 10:30 so I decided to start warming up when we came back from route previews. We went out to look at our routes and the first route didn't look to bad. It looked rather easy, more like a 5.10a. The second route didn't look to bad, getting to the first four draws looked easy because most of the holds were jugs. After the fourth draw the route turned into crimps and slopers. I made to about the fourth draw and got stuck. I tried to reset my hands and move up but I slipped in the process. I didn't make it quiet as far as I thought I would but I was still happy with how I climbed. My third route was definently the hardest route and the start on it was brutal. It was all slopers placed just right so it made it difficult to clip your draws. I made it to almost the fifth draw and that was the second highest of all the girls that completed on that route. I was very happy with how I climbed that route especially since most of the holds were slopers. Now all that was left to do was wait for my brother to finish his climbs. He finished really strong taking 7th out of about 15. I took 3 place out of 8 girls only short .5 points of the girl on second place. I was extremely happy with how did at this competition. 

2014 SCS Local at Boulders in Madison,WI

Saturday April 12 was our first local event of SCS 2014. It was at boulders climbing gym in Madison, WI. The morning was the USA Climbing competitors I competed in the morning comp to receive my points towards regionals. My main focus on the day was the open house competition. The morning I was taking pictures for my brother. I ended up taking almost 40 hundred pictures for the morning competition. The afternoon comp came around and I competed in their hardest category. The easiest route in my category was harder than one of the harder routes that was listed. I ended up bouldering freely, just to complete my warm up. Afterwards I started climbing the harder routes to create points for my self. I found a few routes that really challenged me so I tried them a few times. One of route I was not able to complete due to a movement that through me off balance almost every time I went for the next hold. I figured out about half way through that I was the only female in their hardest division. I continued to attempt routes to increase my score so I could shoot for most points completed. Some of the routes were really hard which gave me a nice challenge. I didnt want to push myself to the very edge because I still had to climb the final and the final looked rather challenging. I pushed through most of the routes and reaching a platue in points and difficulty of route. I started working on bouldering problems because my hands with getting tired and I figured I could get in some power practice in before the finals. Finals came along and the gym ended up taking the top 3 places of the female intermediate for the final. Which was nice because I had someone to climb against. The final route was different they had the training balls on the route as holds which was good but also bad because they moved very easy. Getting to them was easy because the holds on the way there were all jugs. Once you got to the balls the holds after them turned in to like crimps and back to jugs then you finished the route on crimps. It looked like a ton of fun and really wish that my hands would have allowed me to continue on up the route. I was only able to make it 4 draws but getting there was a ton of fun. I ended up taking first because I was the only one in that category and made it just as high as one other girl that climbed the route. They announced placement and allowed the first place person to come up and pick their prize. I ended up getting a set of the training balls that they had on the route so I can continue to train with them. I use them when ever I do my hangboard works outs. A ton of picures and videos were taken from the competition be sure to check them out and stay tuned for a blog coming up here shortly after 2014 SCS Regionals.

A big thanks to all of my sponsors. FiveTen, BlueWater Ropes, Kiasers Pizza&Pub, KASK Helmets and Rock Candy.