Quick on the Draw-2013

January 26 the team headed up to Adventure Rock for the in house competition. I was competing in advance  while most of the team was competing in intermediate. I started off by getting a warm up of different types of holds. I was going to be a different day because I had just recently cut my finger while climbing a few days before, so I was missing the pad of my finger. After my warm up they went over rules then the climbing started. I warmed up on one of the lower point routes. I then started to work my way up in points. The first route I did was about a 5.10. The holds that were on the route had small pinches sticking off the holds. I finished the route but it was a little difficult. One of my lead routes was about a 5.12 and I was able to make it to the second draw and fell. This route was just a bunch of huge pinches and some of them are so big they are hard to grab.  My other lead route had purple crimps on it. I t was relatively easy but when I had to make a drop knee move and lean back in to a hold I was unable to grab the route due to the cut on my finger. The bouldering problems that I had to do were a lot of fun. One of them you had to go under the bridge part of the wall and up the back side. It was a really cool route because in order to do the move you had to heel hock the hold that you are still holding on to. The back side of the route did not get any easier, the holds became big slopers and a couple small crimps. I completed 3 of my 7 routes and 3 of my 5 boulder problems. The wait for the bouldering problems was really long so i wasted a lot of time that I could have used to get a second chance on routes that I did not finish. I finished my last attempt on a boulder problem and had 30 secs to get on the wall. Since I left the easiest route for last that is where I went because every one else in that division had already completed this route. I was on the wall when there was 3 seconds left on the clock. I got to finish my attempt on that route. I took my time making sure that I was not rushing any moves that may cost me my attempt on that route. As I got closer to the top to more excited I got because I knew I was going to be able to finish this route with ease. When I was done I headed out to the truck to put extra gear away and waited for results to be posted. I was really happy with how I did because I had cut my finger pad off just days before. When I saw that I took 15th I was pretty happy with that because I had just started climbing back to normal again. In between the morning session and the afternoon session I went and got food. During the afternoon session I was taking photos of kids that are on the team that were climbing. When they were not climbing I was watching the people in Open climb their route. It was super cool to watch how they climb and how hard their routes are. When the afternoon was over we waited for results to be posted and for them to announce what time finals would actually be taking place. We stayed to watch all the finals along with taking videos of each climber that was in finals. We did not stick on for awards because we were too tired and wanted to get home before everyone started to leave.

That Monday we headed back up to Adventure Rock to give another shot at the routes that I was unable to finish. I attempted the Women Advanced final route and made it to the same sport as three of the competitors did. I was really happy with how I did Monday because I completed some routes that I did not finish or have the option to attempt. All videos and photos from the competition including the final videos are all loaded to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. Check them out because there are a lot of really neat photos of the routes that I had to do.

Climbing trips to Hoosier Heights and ARock

This weekend was pretty fun. We needed to head to Indy because we're getting a new dog  and went to go pick him out of the litter. Before we went to pick him out we stopped at Hoosier Heights in Indy for about 5 hours. We did our lead tests which was fun because we could go to the top and not clip the top anchors and just fall from there. It was pretty cool because I have never really done that before. After that we headed to a 5.9 which was near by. It was a little tricky at the top. You would want to do this move by bumping holds but if you did you would lose your footing. You were leaning to the right with your feet to the way left of the route. It was a little tricky but if you got a really high left foot you would be able to bump to the next rather easily.  Once  I got warmed up I started looking for some higher 5.10s. I found four that look like they would be really nice routes. The first one I did was a 5.10b and the hold that were on the route were mainly crimps. I onsighted the route and that got me really excited because I haven't done a 5.10 in some time so that really helped me out a lot for the following routes. I started working on routes from 5.10c-5.11b. I did about three 5.10d which were a little harder and one of them I had to take because I was confused on the where the route went and how to even make the next move. I tried an 5.11a but got about half way and could not figure out have to do the the next two moves. So I came down and tried an 5.11c on top rope. I did a lot more lead climbing and top ropes of 5.10d or higher. After I was done rope climbing I took a 5 min break and then went and tried climbing the Snake. The Snake was a bouldering tower that hung over an eight foot deep foam pit and was about 20 feet tall. It was pretty cool and it didn't matter how high you wanted to go. I tried it about five times and got to the same spot every time. The first time you go on it and you are ready to come down it a creepy feeling because you laying backwards in the over hang and don't want to land on your back. I ended up letting my feet hang then swinging so that I would land on my side. After we were done climbing we headed to a restaurant to get food then headed out to home of our new puppy that we were picking out of the litter. We are getting an Alaskan Malamute/Grey Wolf mix. The puppies are only 4 weeks old so we have to wait a couple weeks but I cant wait because the puppy we picked out looks pretty close to the my Malamute that we have now when he was a puppy. Monday, New Years Eve, we headed back home to rest up for a few hours before I had to go to work at 6:30. I was working in the X-Arcade at the local Y. It was my first time working and there and it went pretty well. I was a little busy but I was not surprised because last year I helped out in the Rockwall and we ran about 250 people through there in three hours. I was fun because when I slowed down a little bit I was able to play some games with the kids that were in there alone. At 9:50 pm they started there simulated countdown in the gym. Kids got candy, party hats and little buzz whistles. At 10 o'clock they let out balloons and started playing new year songs. After work I headed home with some friends and had a movie night until 1:45 am because then no one would get any tickets for parking on the wrong side of the street. New Years Day I worked on my math homework and relaxing because we were heading up to Adventure Rock around 1. When we got there I did 2 top rope warm up routes and 3 lead warms up. After that I headed over to a 5.10+ and finished it in one fall. Which made me really happy because the first 5 draws are straight power moves and were longer moves. After I did that one I tried another 5.10 but I was more in the over hang part of the gym, I finished it in 4 falls. I took a little break and got ready to try a 5.11+. It took a couple tries to do the first move but once I got it I made it to the fourth draw with out falling and then was to pumped to do anything else on the route. After I did that route I went and grab the Tread Wall cord and did that for about 30 minutes. I did a slow warm up on it and the kicked the speed up and put the incline at 15% and used just the pinches and crimps that were there for about 10 minutes and climbed about 300 feet. The next ten minutes I used just two finger pockets at the same incline but slowed to speed down and climbed 250 feet. My third set I did one of the programs which was graded at a 5.13 using just the jugs. I made it two thirds the way on the program  which was at 20% incline. I was pretty happy with how I did for the day. At the end of the month there is going to be a competition at Adventure Rock called Quick on the Draw and I am getting ready for this competition. About two weeks after Quick on the Draw starts my SCS Season which I cant wait to start because I am climbing a lot better this year than last year around this time. All the videos and photos are loaded to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr check them out there are a lot of really need photos of this weekend.

ABS Midwest Regional Championships

About a week before Regional Championships I spent about 6 hours at Adventure Rock training and working on things that I needed to continue working on. I spent about 2 hours bouldering working on problems that started around V4 up to a V7. I warmed up on a couple V3s then started working more on V5s or higher. I was able to complete a few V6s which I am very happy with. I felt pretty good about bouldering so I decided to take a break from bouldering for the day and go lead climbing. Top rope climbing  I did pretty good but my hands were tired and didn't have a lot of strength left. By the time I wanted to project a route that I have already been projecting my hands were really tired and that made the route harder. Lead climbing I was doing laps on a 5.9- which helped a lot for Regionals because I built up my endurance and was ready for some of the long power routes that might be there. There is one route in the over hang that was giving me some difficultly because there are a few spots that are long power moves. I took about 10 falls on the route and then moved on because I was not progressing any further. I then started working on routes that really made me work on feet placement. Saturday, December 8, was the big event that I had been waiting for. I got up around 6 am to start to wake up and eat and have time to get the the gym before isolation started. This is my first time doing the Bouldering Season and wasn't sure what to expect. During isolation I had about 2.5 hours in there so I started stretching and warming up with an hour left before I had to leave. For my routes I felt pretty good because I onsighted my first route then got about half way doing the next two routes. My second route was pretty cool because you have to go up and over. then convert in to a bat man move than touch the finishing holds with two hands while being in the batman. My third route was kinda hard for me because it was a lot of power moves that were really long and on an over hang. I did pretty good with this route making it to the seventh hold. I was really happy with how I did for it being my first big bouldering comp. I was hoping to make finals, but at the same time it wouldn't upset me if I didn't. I did the best I could and that's all that matter to me. When results came out I saw that I took 10th place and I was excited because I was making finals. I had about two hours to sit around and relax and get ready for finals. I got all my stuff together and headed back to the gym to check in for finals. In isolation I was second in the running order so I had to warm up and be ready to climb in an hour. I was all ready and then my name was called. I packed up my stuff and headed out to my first chair. I had a 4 minute rest period where I had more time to get ready. My first route looked pretty good during my preview. When I did the route I realized I was tired from the routes I did during qualifiers. My second route looked really easy because the holds were jugs and big. My route was also in the over hang part of the cave which made the holds not so great. I made it about half up the route which made me really happy because each time I tried it I would made it to the same spot. My third route was all slopers and I'm not to great with slopers and made it to about the fourth move. I was happy with how I did for the day because bouldering is not my strong suit. Over all I took 10th place and I was fine with that because it was first bouldering competition. I start training for sport season once I get back in to town. I have been doing a little bit of training before regionals but I can really kick sport climbing training in to high gear. I set a goal for my self in November to be at the grades for Open Nationals lead. Right now I am climbing 5.10s lead and 5.11s top rope. I'm pretty happy with that considering I have done a lot of bouldering training. My SCS season start in March but a competition that helps me know where I am before my season is Quick on the Draw. As of right now I will be competing in Advanced but if I keep training and increasing grades like I am I might move to Open.  All the photos and videos of ABS Regionals are loaded to Facebook, Flickr and YouTube

Tournament Climbing

This past week has been a lot of fun. Wednesday we found out that we are starting a climbing tournament at the Y. We have a total of 10 routes that are currently apart of the tournament. We can get points for either top roping the route, top rope while lead clipping and sport climbing. I have completed two routes with full points in all three categories. I have finished 8 of 10 top rope/ lead and just top rope. The two routes I have not finished yet are routes that I about 2 weeks ago to challenge me and help me get better at certain things. I am the only one to complete the black route that is graded to be a low 5.13 both top rope and top rope/lead. I am liking that we started the tournament because it is really helping me keep pushing on routes that I have a hard time completing and doing. There are new routes that get set about every 3 or 4 days so that there is always something new to work on. I do more lead climbing and practice falls so I can continue working in to leading climbing. Saturday, November 10, we were at Adventure Rock and they have a few new routes in the lead climbing wall that are 5.10s, 5.9s. The 5.9 I am working on doing about 3 or 4 laps on it. There is also a 5.11+ that I have been working on for the past couple weeks. I have done the route all the way up to the last 4 moves with just one fall. After that spot I have trouble because you have to transfer your weight to the left when your right. Then match and go up with a hand crossing move that is fairly easy to the finish. I can do that set on about my third of forth attempt. I'm pretty happy with how that route is going because each week I try it I do it in less amount of attempts. Sunday I work on one route to see if I could finish it by the end  of the night or at least get the finishing move because it is long and awkward. By the end of the day I was in the lead by only 100 but I had only finished a total of 3 routes at the time and the other kid had finished all by the one I was working on just top rope and top rope/lead. So all he can do is sport climb the routes. Monday I am in and flashed the Black route (the one I was working on Sunday) so got my points for that route for both top rope and top rope/lead. Now I am leading the tournament by 10,000 points with a lot more to come by the end of the week. I am now doing a new training program for lead climbing. I training on short and long route, crimpy and sloper routes. I am also doing a lot of technique training to help with my forearm strength and endurance. I started by taking a few days off because my body start to reject the training. I just finished my first quarter in school and I completed my three classes all with A's. The score I received on my chemistry final was 112% so that put my final grade to 108% for quarter 1. All photos and videos from the past week has been uploaded to Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. Thanks to all the support from my sponsors FiveTen, KASK Helmets, Powerbar and So ILL Holds.

Madison ABS Competition and Team Training

The past week have been pretty exciting between a climbing comp and team training. Training on Wednesday, we did a few rounds of boulder problems then went to sport climbing. The boulder Problems we were working on were short routes with power moves in them. For sport climbing I was working on route that I have  yet to finish since the competition. I only have to finish one qualifier route and the final. In between each route that I attempted I would do a set of lead falls just to practice them and keep up with it. Thursday I was training but it was a light training. Friday I helped work with the Rockwall and it wasn't very busy so I started helping a buddy figure out the moves to a route and showing them different way to do them.  Saturday was the day of the ABS Competition held at Boulders Climbing Gym in Madison. When I was looking at the routes that we were on our score card. I was thinking that I was going to be able to to the 400 or 500 point routes. During the comp I ended up working on a lot of 300 point routes. I had a really good day of climbing Saturday because I was able to climb really hard route but my forearms never really pumped out. I was very happy with how I climbed for the day. I took 8th place out of 13 competitors for the day. I was really happy with that because the route were harder than they looked. Sunday the team headed up to adventure rock for another day of training. I was very surprised because my forearms were not sore. They were tight but that did not effect my climbing ability for the day. I was working on a bouldering problem that I have not finish yet but am getting closer and closer each time I try it. I tried a new boulder problem Sunday that got my the first time I tried it but then after taking a closer look at it I realized that I was missing a foot chip off to my right. After looking at it a little longer, I tried it again and stuck every move on the route and finished with a nice smooth finish. I was surprised that my forearms were even a little pumped out from the day before. Sunday two friends to their lead belay test at Adventure Rock so know I have both Lead and Top Rope belayers for when I go up there. For the day I was bouldering about V3 to low V5s and lead/top rope climbing I was around 5.10-5.12. There is a 5.11+ that is a ton of fun because there is a move were you have both hands pinching a sloper and then you are moving up to crimp. I really like the move and the route. The next few moves right after the two slopers are long because you run out of foot holds. All in all the day was really good. All the videos and pictures from both Saturday and Sunday are up on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. Check them out there are a ton of really neat photos of the routes I was doing. Now I'm just training to get ready for Regionals and beyond!

First Bouldering Competition

This past Saturday I competed in my first ABS Competition held at Vertical Endeavors in Warrenville. I have been working on bouldering for about a month. When I started bouldering more I was climbing a V3, I am now climbing V5's on a regular basis and working on most V6's. For bouldering I felt pretty good because I have a hard time with power moves and that's what a lot of bouldering is. During the competition I warmed up on the Intermediate problems and then tried the Advanced problems. The intermediate route ranged from V3 to V5 and Advance was V5 to V7. I completed one advance route and five intermediate routes. I felt really good with how I was climbing the routes there. Some of them were pretty stretchy were made it hard to complete the route. Even though it seemed like the day was going by slow it was earlier to figure out where I was standing by the way my body was feeling. There was one route is the corner of the gym wall that I really liked. The finishing move was a technical move because I had to turn my hip over while lunge to the finish. After I finished climbing we did a raffle prize to give time for the judges to add up and put score cards in the correct order. We waited about an hour to get results but in the end it was worth the wait. I took 5th place out of 15 people in my division. I am very happy with that because I am not big on bouldering. I am looking forward to the rest of the ABS Season because I feel I will do very well. This new training program that I am doing is a lot of fun and can be very hard on some days. Some days I will be doing long routes that are V6 or harder. Other days I may have to do short routes with a pyramid of pull ups. School I have three classes a day so I get out at 12:30 pm. I have a lot of time between school and the start of training to finish my homework so I do not have to worry to much about finishing things after training. My sponsorship with So ILL Climbing has helped a lot with my bouldering. So ILL gave me a pro deal on gear that i got myself a nice crashpad. I am also waiting on a helmet that is coming in from KASK Helmets. KASK Helmets is giving a product sponsorship. All pictures and videos for the competition and gear are/will be posted to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Check them out a lot of really cool photos from the competition.

Start of the New Season

The past two weeks I have been having a ton of fun competing in fun competitions. My first competition i helped set the routes for the intermediate division at Climb This, this competition took place at the Kenosha Y. For the competition I was in advanced division. The route were a lot of fun and I really liked the moves that were in them. The day of the competition I was feeling good but my forearms didn't agree with me or the rock wall. All of routes we about 5.11-5.13 and all were lead but one. I completed three of my five route that I had to climb and got half way on my final route. Result wise I took second place with a difference of one hold that had points given to it. I was pretty happy with how I did for having a rough day. The day after the competition I came back in and warmed up and went straight in to the routes that I was given for the competition. I flashed all the routes but the final. The final route I got four moves from the top hold. Where I got stuck you can do the move two way, either you can dyno for the next hold or you can grab to edge of the lip on the wall and do a very slow more up to the next hold. The day after the competition I was working on a certain move an a route and I went for the next hold but my hand slipping off and I fell about 12-15 feet. Due to the type of move and where i was located on the doing the move. That helped a lot with my next competition and will do a ton in the long run of things. I spend the next couple days trying to work the last couple move of the final. Thursday I got the last four moves so I went back to the beginning and tried the whole route. I got the the one tricky move and stuck it but got really pumped out right after that.

Friday, the 21st, we headed up to Adventure Rock for the Battles of the Ages competition. I got on some really neat routes there. There was one route that was about a 5.11+ that I had to do a knee bar in order to move my hands up with out falling off the wall. The route was a lot of fun. I really want to do that one again lead, though. For the night I was feeling really good about my climbing. I took second place in the 14-19 year old category. I have gotten a lot more comfortable with take lead falls which has spiked my climbing grades up again. Within the past two weeks I have gotten some new sponsors and have been sending out information for gear to companies that have sponsored me. Recently my coach had surgery on his wrist so he is unable to climb for about 4 months. I have a new climbing partners and he is helping me out a lot as I help him. Along with a new climbing partner, I have a new training program that is a 16 week program for both bouldering and sport climbing. Right now I am doing the bouldering program to help prepare for USA Climbing ABS Season. I have been in the Kenosha News Paper for 3 weeks straight now because of my climbing achievements and how its helping me with everyday challenges. My newest sponsor is KASK Helmets; other sponsors are ClimbTech, So ILL Climbing Holds, Powerbar, and FiveTen Climbing Shoes. Thank you to all the companies who have sponsored me this year and helping me further extend my climbing career. All of the photos are loaded to my Facebook and Flickr and all videos will be loaded to YouTube with in the week.