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.

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.

New Program is Tough

I'm on this new training program is its really tough. I can tell that it helping me out a lot I cant want until I start a new program. Well the program I am on now is really cool because it does a lot of need exercises that I love. Friday the 17th, I helped worked open climb at the Kenosha Y. We weren't all that busy so I got a lot of work done. Around 7pm Roan and Spencer came in to climb. Spencer made it to the top his first climb of the day and he dad was really proud of him; he even got Spencer Bubble Gum. I was really proud of him because it took him only 5 weeks to make it to the top and he did it by him self. Saturday the 18th  was a lot of because I went with my mom to Naperville, IL. I went with her because she as setting up for a meeting at the Westen hotel in Lombard. Our room was on the 18th floor and you could see downtown Chicago from her room. It was really cool to see that. I helped her sent up the Xbox Kinect and made sure it worked. Saturday was a lot of fun all around!! On the 19th, we headed back to Kenosha to set up for a climbing party. After the party I worked on my Eschool so I could catch up. During league I did a bunch of lead climbing to get ready for the competition on the 3rd of march. I worked on lead laps to help boost my mental game. Monday went by really fast, as did Tuesday. But Wednesday was crawling on. Finally it was 6pm and I could climb! We did a really hard climbing work out which included weighted pull ups, weighted climb, one handed bouldering, and lead climbing laps. Thursday at club we were designing our new car that we are going to build for next year. We worked on that and bounced ideas off each other for about 4 hours. Friday was fun because school went by really fast and then climbing was really cool because it was not that busy so I could get some homework done. Around 7pm Spencer and Roan came in and Spencer again made it to the top of the wall on his first try. I am really happy with how is doing and he keeps getting better. Roan made it about 18 ft up the wall and that is the farthest he has made it. Saturday I couldn't wait till 230 because then we got to go to Adventure Rock! While at Adventure Rock we did our warm up and then jumped right into the harder routes. We did a lot of 5.10+ lead climbs. I was really happy with how I did Saturday. After 4 hours of rope climbing we headed into the bouldering cave. In the bouldering cave we did one warm up then started going the V5-V6 routes. A route that I am projecting I got 3 moves farther on. This project route is a V6 or V7 I am really happy with how I am doing because the highest grade I have finished is a V4. I worked on this route for about 3 hours! It was a lot of fun and I am really happy with how I am doing bouldering wise. My grade goes up little by little each week.  Sunday was the start of trying to get Trango Climbing as a sponsor. If you go to there Facebook page and post something about why I should be on their team. This is going on till Thursday, March 1, 2012. I'm competing at VE in Warrenville on March 3 in the advanced category. I cant wait for the season to start and for the regional event!

Training Days Kicking it Hard

Since I had my competition on the 28th of January I took almost a week of recovery due to my back locking up. After a good long day of stretching it slowing started to loosen back up. On the 3rd, I went to the Y and climbed for about 2 hours. Once I completed my climbs, I helped up a good friend learn a bunch of new anchoring system so that he is all ready to go by the time outdoor climbing season comes around in this lovely state of Wisconsin. The 4th was a good day for climbing and a great day for bouldering! Before we left to go to Adventure Rock I worked on my eschool class for about 3 hours. Around 12:30 I headed to the Y to help with a climbing party. Finally 2:00pm comes, we can go to Adventure Rock and we jumped right into the top rope when we got there then into the harder routes that I was unable to completed during the competition. I did a lot of top route and lead climbing. For the day, all the routes were over 5.10+ I was really happy with how I did because I completed the female advanced final route. That really made me happy that I was able to do that route. After a really long day of rope climbing, we headed to the bouldering caves. Aah, the bouldering caves, they gave us a big challenge. We attempted V4 and up due to the fact that the V3s just became to easy. We found this one V6 that is really a ton of fun; we have decided that was going to become our project route for sometime. On the 5th I had league where I took more time to work on my lead climbing. I also helped completed a new 5.9 that we set, its a lot of fun. On the 6th we had rock climbing classes which was fun. On the 8th, I had weight training and a really hard but well worth it. For training I did my warm up and went right in my weighted climbing. For that I did 4 laps with three sets. After weighted climbing, I did weighted pull ups. After everything else was done I did lead climbing laps. Thursday I had Supermilage Club which was really cool because I got to drive the car. On Saturday, we headed to Adventure Rock. While we were there I did 2 hours of roped climbing which we mostly did 5.11s lead and I got alittle more than half way up on them. After my 2 hours of climbing, I headed to the bouldering caves to do alittle more than 3 hours of bouldering. We did mostly V5 and V6 problems. I was getting more than half way up on those to. I was really happy with how everything went this weekend. Sunday I had weight training and climbing league. During climbing league I worked on a bunch of harder routes!! In the next month I will be in Warrenville climbing. One day for training and on March 3rd for their competition. This past week I got news that I was apart of the Powerbars Advisory Board. I am really pyched about being on this board because they make really good products plus this will be my first sponsor.