2015 SCS Regionals-Climb Iowa

May 9-10 was USA Midwest regionals which was a two day event at Climb Iowa. I climbed on Sunday as the first female junior. Everyone one else on the teamed climbed on Saturday so I got to watch them which was nice. As Saturday came closer and closer to an end I was getting more and more excited to climb. Sunday I woke up and was ready for the day and everything it brought with it. My first route looked pretty easy other than one power move. It started out with crimps and transferred into slopers. I had been doing a lot of training prior on slopers and pinches to help improve contact strength during power moves. Most of the route for me was power which kinda drained a lot of energy but I made it 3/4 the way up and fell only because I slipped off the foot chip that I was using to power up to the next hold. I was still happy with how I did because my power endurance is not the greatest and I still made it as far as I did which was higher than about half the other climbers in my category. My second route was a little tricky because it was punches that forced you to be square with the wall in order to move off of them. The second route had a blue X on it which meant we had to clip from that hold. In reality that hold actually made it a bit easier to get up to thee harder section of the route. The holds following the second and third clip were small pinches that you could use as a crimp.  I made it to the fourth clip and slipped off a pinch, I was kinda upset I fell so early becusse I could have made it further. My last route was definitely the hardest route we had. During the preview a lot of girls were adored they were going to slip off the starting holds becusse the were slopers going to two small foot chips that we were using as hand holds. I wasn't to worried about the start I was more worried about the power move from the two pinches to a sloper that had, basically a flat foot chip screwed into it. I started with little difficulty and got to the first clip and that's when the route got challenging. The moves from the first clip to the second clip had me a bit sketched out because the pinches we straight up and down and it made it difficult to stand on. I made it through that though and got my second draw clipped. Once I got the second draw clipped I relaxed a bit more and took a quick rest then kept moving. I made it two moves further and fell right before the power move to the foot chip on the sloper. I held high point on the third route till the last 6 climbers. I was a little upset with how I did until I started watching the other climbers and realized I was doing just as good if not better than some of them. I ended up taking 10th in sport and got an invatation to Divisionals in Chicago at Brooklyn Boulders. I also competed in speed climbing I don't know what my times were but I struggled a little bit but still went fast for me. I took 7th in speed but I will not be competing in speed at Divisionals. I am going to focus strictly on sport climbing. 

All of the pictures and videos are loaded to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for all climbing era of the team. Check them out, there are a lot of cool pictures of the routes that we did. 

SCS Local Competitions-Adventure Rock and VE

Feb. 28 was Vertical Endeavors SCS event. The competition was held at the new Vertical Endeavors in Glendale Heights. The gym is so large they shut half it down just for the competition and left the other half open for the public to use. The routes here were fun but challenging you only got points for the route of you made it to the top. The routes basically the harder they got the smaller the holds got or the moves became larger. Me and another team member were working together most of the day. We warmed up and start scouting out routes that would give us the most points possible for us. We did the first two routes pretty quick and only needed one more for the top three but we had trouble getting to the top of the high point routes. We couldn't find a route that was worth more points that we could finish. We both went back to a few of them that we got close to finishing. There was one route that we did that was a mantle/stemming route. It was a lot of fun but there was one move that if you got it wrong you were basically done for. The trick to the route was to push your toes into the hold as well as the wall so you got a stable foot. Trusting your feet was the biggest thing on all of the routes at VE. Zach(my teammate) and I ended with the identical scores. 

The competition at Adventure Rock was a lot of fun! Again Zach and I were working together and we warmed up on a 5.8 then jumped on a 5.10 lead route that was so much fun! There were a few routes that I knew I could do so I went over and tried them and finished the first one I did so I had three routes done and that's all I needed. I started trying harder routes to get more points. I got one more route that was harder but i struggled on getting a third one that was harder. I worked on the same two routes for a bit and relaxed I should try something different and I ended up getting another route completed but it was for the same amount of points as my lowest point route. I took about 30 minutes to look around and rest my arms because I was pumped. I realized that the one route that I was trying earlier was the only one I had a chance of completing and that point in the competition. By that time there were about 10 mins left so most everyone was done so I could take my time on the

route and try it again if I wanted to and had time. I made it further up the route but I was unable to finish it due to the fact that I had gone non stop since the start of the competition. I was happy with I did in the comp and took 5th in my category. 

All of the pictures and videos are loaded to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Check them out. 

2015 Quick on the Draw

January 24 was the 16th annual Quick on the Draw Competition at Adventure Rock. I was competing in Open along with another 15 girls. It is the largest the category has been in a few years but it is stronger than ever. The routes this year were really strong and allowed each person to get points on each route. The first route I attempted was the lowest point route. I was not totally warmed up but I gave it a go and made it to the the last draw before the finish. My land hand cramped on the route and I believe it was due to the amount of crimps that were on the route. I went back to where rules were given and took 15 minutes to warm up a little more. I went back out and tried the rest of my routes and boulder problems. A few out my routes had easy beginnings allowing me to get off the ground before it got difficult. Some of the other routes I could only get to the first draw. My favorite route was the second route I attempted. I like It because it was the type of route that had nice holds because moves that made you think about what you were doing. You had to have a game plan before going at it because of you didn't you would be wasting energy on the wall. The routes were a lot of fun and really made you slow down and actually think about how you were climbing. One of my favorite routes was one i struggled on but I loved the route becusse it was slow movements that forced you to have complete control of each hold you touch. All of the routes were a lot of fun and the bouldering problems were hard for me because my bouldering is not as quiet as my high as my lead climbing is. The Boulder problems were still fun. I ended up taking 12 of 16 but I didn't feel too bad about how I did because there were only two routes that go finished in my division. All of the pictures and videos are posted to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Them out there are a lot of neat shots. 

ABS 16 Midwest Regional Championship

December 6 was Midwest regional championship at the new Vertical Endeavors in Glendale Heights, IL. My category didn't climb till the afternoon but I was able to watch my brother climb in the morning this year which was a bonus. I took note of where every climber got on every route to figure out an approximate placement for my brother. After the morning session was over we found out Jack took 7th place and did advance to Divisionals in North Carolina. We went to lunch after the Male Youth B'd finished climbing because my isolation didn't close for another 2 hours. After lunch I headed to isolation and just sat down to relax because I was in isolation for at least 2.5 hours before I started to warm up. I took a nap for a little bit because I had to been still 4:30am. I started warming up about an hour before my chair time. The warm up area was full of jugs and pockets and wasn't really much of a warm up. I ended up doing laps in order to warm up and a few power moves to the few crimps that we had in isolation. I went to my chair which was still in isolation and then when it came my time to climb I just went straight to my first climb. My first climb was a better warm up than my actual warm up in isolation. I topped the route first attempt. My second route was just volumes with a single flat foot chip on the bottom of the volume. My first attempt was a little silly but I did the route on my second attempt like it was nothing. I felt silly because I could have done it my first attempt. My third route had designated starting hand holds which made me waste a little bit of energy. I ended up not being able to get past the first hold from the start. My fourth route was my favorite route because it had a combination of crimps and small jugs. I attempted the route a few time and realized I was trying to go too fast and I had to slow down. I looked over the route a few times and checked the holds to see the type. I attempted the route and got a little bit further than my other attempts. I tried it a few more times and was able to get one hold further every attempt. I checked the clock and saw I only had 30 seconds left and I gave it on more go. My last attempt was my strongest and I was able to make it 4 holds further and only 3 holds from the top. I was a little frustrated because if I could have had on more attempt I know I could have gotten to the top. My fifth route was pretty cool. The starting I've was a dyno which I tried to avoid at first but realized I had to do it. I did the dyno and was able to get a few moves out of it but not to the top. My last route was definitely the most challenging and I was able to get to the first hold out of the start. The route looked doable when I looked it over but the starting move was very difficult to get in and out of. I finished my attempts and was happy with how I did on the routes and was thinking I was in the middle of the pack. Results came out and I found out I took 10th place. I am very happy with how I performed because bouldering is something that I struggle at so a 10th place finish is really good for me. I am not going to divisionals for bouldering because I am going to focus on my sport climbing so I am prepared for nationals and anything beyond that.

Pictures and Videos of Regionals are on my Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts, check them out.

January 24 is Quick on the Draw this year at Adventure Rock and I will be competing in Open. More information will come out once this competition has been completed.