Catching Up

I haven’t been very good about blogging lately, so there’s really quite a lot to catch up on with this one. I’ll start with a list of all the important things that have happened since last July…

•  Went to pre-worlds camp in Victoria, B.C.
•  Competed at the Youth World Championships at Boulders gym and got third in speed climbing (somehow…)!
•  Went to my Grandpa’s funeral in Michigan.
•  Attended two comps in Boston, MA; the all-women’s “The Heist” and the classic east coast comp “Dark Horse.”
•  Went to the opening of the Midwest Climbing Academy.
•  Set for VE’s ABS local comp; Octboulderfest.
•  Got accepted to CU Boulder and confirmed enrollment for fall 2014!
•  Competed at ABS youth Regionals and Divisionals.
•  Had a first trip to Hueco Tanks over winter break.
•  Became a second semester senior! (Finally!!)
•  Signed up for ABS Open and Youth Nationals.
•  Began really training for ABS, and got PSYCHED.
•  Won Female Open at Adventure Rock’s annual Quick on the Draw comp.
•  Set for VE’s annual Passion for Flashing comp.
•  Attended Shane Messer’s pre-nationals training camp. 

Wow ok. I’ll keep everything kind of brief then.

Right now, being in training mode for ABS feels amazing. Bouldering is, by far, my favorite type of climbing. I love being able to do crazy moves during competitions that setters normally wouldn’t put on a rope climb. If you don’t know this; I like overhanging climbs. B2, really the only wall I climb on in Minnesota, is about 35 feet wide and probably 12 feet tall, straight up. It goes from a 45 degree overhang, to a 50, to a 60. Of course, this means I don’t get to practice slab much. We always set super powerful problems up there so everything is usually super hard, but that’s what makes it great for training. Also the 6 brand new pads make the landing MUCH better seeing as we don’t have quite as likely of a possibility of landing in the rubber (oh yeah, my gym has the cut up tire-rubber as the flooring). But we always get good seshs up there, with Nic harassing people and yelling at me to be “more manly” (while climbing, that is), Noah grunting and showing off to the random college club guys who come up, Tyler looking at the 10 day forecast and getting more depressed about Minnesota winter, Caius thinking of more ways for us to get new holds, and Wei somehow managing to crush v10 while eating only gummy worms and Red Bull all day.

Ok onwards to another bullet point.

So nationals is in like... less than a week now. I wasn't really nervous for the Open comp, because I try not to put pressure on myself for that. It’s just a great experience and an awesome comp. But youth nationals is always nerve-racking. Right now I’m trying not to think too much about it and just look forward to climbing some sick problems and seeing everyone again. 

Open ABS Qualifier #3
Photo: Keith North

Next.

I’ll mix all the random comps I’ve been doing into one paragraph, so that would be Dark Horse, Quick on the Draw, Regionals, Divisionals, the Heist, and Passion for Flashing. I think my favorite one would have to be either the Dark Horse of Quick on the draw. Both had amazing finals with TONS of energy from the crowd. I was expecting that at the Dark Horse (because that’s kinda what it’s known for) but I was really psyched to see it at a comp in the Midwest. Quick on the Draw was also my first ever time climbing in black light, which is pretty darn cool. The Heist also had some super fun finals, but I was pretty disappointed at the end because I thought the scoring didn’t really reflect how I climbed (which is always frustrating). I love the idea of an all-women’s comp though! They did a great job pulling it off, now I think there’s going to be something similar at the Metro Rocks in Boston?

Dark Horse Finals Problem #2

Regionals Qualifiers! 

Quick on the Draw Podium!

I've also started really enjoying setting for comps, I've now helped with two; this year’s Passion a week ago and Octboulderfest in October. Both times I ended up staying past 1am on the night before to finish taping starts and labeling climbs. So you all better appreciate how beautifully taped everything was if you went!

Onwards.

One of the highlights of my summer was of course the Youth World Championships in Victoria, B.C. Except, while I was there, my mom was in Michigan with my grandpa who suffered from Emphysema. Two days before the comp started, I got the call from my mom telling me my grandpa had died and that I’d be flying to Michigan and not back to Minnesota the day after the comp. That news, of course, was hard to take. It’s hard to explain, but competing with that in my mind wasn't easy at all. Michaela Kiersch, was an amazing friend during that and helped me deal with it the most, so thanks Michaela :).

Michaela and I at Open ABS (Father photo-bombing in the background)

I’d like to think my grandpa would have been super proud of how I did, so that at least made me feel a little better. I just wish he could have watched. 

Qualifier One, Youth World Championships  

Qualifier Two, Youth World Championships

SPEED

We’ll move on to happier subjects.

At the beginning of January, I officially decided to go to school at CU Boulder next year! I think it’ll be the place that will make me the happiest, and therefore be the best for both my education and my climbing. Side note: I’m hoping to break the stereotype of the “move to boulder for school—end up dropping out and becoming a climbing bum.” Not that being a climbing bum would be a bad thing. I fully expect to do that at some point; I’m just going to try to make it through college first. 

Along with that, I’m now in my FINAL semester of high school, and I really couldn't be more excited about it. Attempting not to senior slide is kind of hard, but at the same time, I’m already accepted into college. I should be fine.

Sooo outdoor climbing.

This fall, I was able to get out to one of Minnesota’s best bouldering areas a fair amount; Sandstone. I haven’t done a lot of the things there, so I was really psyched on the climbs. The goal before the end of bouldering season is to finally send Pocket Hercules, a v8 that is super hard for me. There’s a really extended move on a short roof that involves a hard foot cut.  Super dab-y and super core intensive. Really fun. I also went to check out this problem that is on a river. Literally, over a river. Like, the ice has to be frozen to climb it. It's a v10 called Icy Hot put up by Nic Oklobzija, it has a really intense right foot heel hook that i majorly messed my knee up on, but whatever, it'll heel! (haha--get it? It's a pun). 

GoPro Photo at Icy Hot! Noah climbing, Tyler being pro at spotting.

Noah and Tyler talking beta at the River Boulder in Sandstone!

Route Climbing at Sandstone
Photo: Kyle (Kylo) Struthers

Just how pretty Sandstone is in the fall!

This winter break I also had my first every trip to Hueco, which I was ridiculously psyched about. Although the trip wasn't what I was expecting, I of course enjoyed the climbing there. I want to go back and get on more of the classic crimp climbs, because I didn't really get to try any. I also want to try to send Free Willy, the v10 on North Mountain and TenTen, the super dab-y power endurance roof on East Mountain. Both are climbs that I fell on the last move of. But the psych is high for next winter!!

Sunset in Hueco

Last notable thing.

I attended Shane’s camp at CRG (Central Rock Gym) this past weekend and it was amazing. We had phenomenal setters who set mock comps for us twice a day and tried to mimic what we would be seeing at nationals. I went to this last year as well and thought that it was extremely helpful. I think it was again! Just getting onsight practice like that is super necessary before a big comp. Also, I sort of have a lack in the coaching department in Minnesota. Meaning, I haven’t had a coach in over two years. So, getting the top notch coaching there was great.

So that’s like half a year in review and super quick, but now it’s time to focus on next weekend’s nationals! Can’t wait! 

Nationals and Pre-Worlds!

          The two weeks before nationals this year I went to stone summit for a pre nationals training camp. This was my third year doing it and it's amazing how much it helps. When I climbed there the first day I felt like I had absolutely no endurance and thought I was screwed for nationals... But, after two weeks in that gym, you get endurance whether you want it or not.
 

The whole camp!

          The coaches for the camp were Claudiu Vidulescu, Chelsea Rude, Brion Voges, Brad Weaver, and Jonathan Brandt. Since I don't really have a coach (I have a trainer though!) it was nice to be able to get some really good advise for my climbing. I've always sucked at breathing while I climb, which is sometimes necessary for, you know, living and not passing out. They'd yell at me to relax and breathe while I was climbing and especially while resting. By the end of camp I noticed a HUGE difference. I think this really was what made it possible for me to win this year.

          As soon as camp finished, nationals started. I along with two other people (Katie Lamb and Zoe Steinberg)  in female A flashed both of my qualifier routes. The first was a super easy roof climb that nearly everyone flashed and the second one I was worried would be too easy, but it actually separated our category really well.

Photo: Greenz Productions
Qualifier 2!

          So for semifinals I went out third to last (I was the first person out of our three way tie for first) and I made it to the second to last hold of our route. It was a really long route that had an easy beginning and a slab section that went to two bad pockets, I think the pockets were the crux of the climb. Me, Hannah Tolson and Katie Lamb all made it past those pockets and fell on the same move, but I got usable surface which put me in first going into finals!

Photo: Just Fab Photography
The beginning of the semifinals route!

          This was the first comp I've ever had where I was in first in both qualifiers and semifinals, so that was really different for me.. I usually flail the first couple rounds an then pull it together for finals.

          So on Sunday we had finals! Our finals climb was the same as female juniors, which was fun because we got to preview with them. When I was looking at the climb I was pretty positive that you could skip the hardest looking section of the climb, and I told people about it to see what they thought, but no one else thought so. We get unlimited time to climb in finals, unlike the other rounds where you had a limit of 8 minutes on the wall. So I really took my time (something that's pretty weird for me, seeing as I usually climb really fast.. Whoops). At the beginning of the climb I was super nervous, but once I got onto the flat part of the wall --about 2/3 of the way up-- all my nerves were gone. Then I was able to relax, especially when I found the best rest ever. I basically sat on a volume and got everything back.

Photo: Just Fab Photography
So happy I found a great rest before the crux! (I was on this for a minute and a half)

          As soon as I got to the hard section around clip ten (where everyone had fallen, but I didn't know that) I WAS able to skip the moves that I thought I could, so I kinda bypassed the crux of the climb by doing one harder move. By then I could tell I had made it the furthest and I kinda got really excited and climbed really fast to the top and had so much adrenaline that I nearly fell clipping the anchors...! But now that's just funny to watch in the video.

Photo: Liam Murphy
Finishing the climb!

Photo: Father
Coming down off the finals climb!

          I really couldn't be happier with how the results turned out, seeing as almost everyone who I wanted to do well, did! Michaela got second to Delaney after they both finished the finals route too! Noah got fourth (being the only person in his category who DIDN'T REST which is really damn impressive), Josh got second (also finishing his finals route), and with speed climbing, the US team is almost exactly what I predicted it would be for all the categories! And of course a huge congrats to John Brosler for breaking the US male speed record for the ten meter!

Photo: Father
Me and Kayla racing!!

Photo: Liam Murphy
Female A speed podium!

Photo: Jennie Jariel
Five Ten takes over speed! Brandon Lieuw, Josh Levin, Me, Kayla Lieuw.



Photo: Father
There are very few non-Texans in this photo.

          Then I was only home for 4 days when I went to Reno to go do speed training! By the last day there I got a best time of 10.99 seconds for the fifteen meter! I think I'll be able to get it down to low tens after the pre worlds training camp in a few weeks.
 



Photo: Me
Our view from the speed wall's balcony. Reno!

          After Reno, Josh and I drove to Salt Lake City to pick up Charlie and climb with Ben and Sam Tresco in Maple Canyon! I ended up sending Neptune Spear 13b on my fourth go! I also managed to flash Gun Tower 12c which I was pretty psyched about. The style of climbing in Maple is super sick!  

Photo: Charlie Andrews
Standing in The Compound in Maple Canyon.

          After, we wenr to Rifle, CO to meet up with Dalan, Nicholas, Joe, and Tiffany to climb some more! Now that I'm back home I'll have about a week of training with Noah at Vertical Endeavors until we both leave for Canada to do the training camp. So psyched!!
 

Photo: Josh Levin
Snow Cone Wall--Fluff Boy 13c
Rifle, CO



Ring of Fire and Dominion Riverrock!

            The past two weekends have been two of the most fun and exciting weekends, well, ever. The first was Dominion Riverrock, which Dalan Faulkner, Danyelle Faulkner, Josh Levin and I all stayed at Riley Varner's house for. The competition was one of the best competitions I've ever been to.

The Wall!

 

 

          The wall, thanks to Brent Quensenberry, was an amazing thing to look at both for climbers and non-climbers alike. The route setters did a phenomenal job of setting crowd pleasing routes that were also fun to climb.


Backlight Photography
Josh Levin and I waiting to climb Qualifier #1!
 




Backlight Photography
Qualifier #2

 

Backlight Photography
Qualifier #2

           I ended up placing sixth after finals, which I was definitely pleased with (females had a SUCH a hard category!) but of course I'm hoping next year will go even better! That part of the comp was Friday and Saturday, on Sunday we had the speed bouldering competition. This was unlike any other thing I've ever competed in, but was a ton of fun. It ended up being speed campusing though! This was interesting because it made people who don’t typically speed climb more interested in competing. I ended up placing second to Megan Martin!


Backlight Photography
Speed climbing/campusing!

 

            Overall the comp was a great experience and I'm definitely going back next year! Not onl was it a great competition with good friends and competitors, but the festival was super fun too! There were dogs all over the place and tons of things to watch, like BMX, slacklining, and dogs doing long jump into water!   


Yeah, we were psyched.



Five Ten represent!



Pugs are the best.

            I flew back from Richmond on Monday morning, and I was back at the airport on the next Friday to go back to the east coast, but this time, Boston! Shane Messer had been talking about this huge competition he was organizing ever since Singapore last August. He told me that I should go because it was going to be amazing, and oh, my god, this comp was sick. I decided last minute to go and I'm so psyched that I did. It was a different format than I had ever seen before, we had three routes to do in 3 hours, and it didn't matter when we climbed each one. From there they narrowed down male and female open categories to 9 people for finals. All the finalists walked and stood in front of the huge tarp they had covering the finals routes and, after introducing us, they dropped the tarp and all the athletes previewed.


Photo: Jennie Jariel
All the finalists!

           Our route was super cool, it started on the left side of the wall and traversed over the roof section to the right, the men's route did the opposite (started right and went left). After preview we went back into iso. We were taken out one at a time to go climb! The feeling of climbing alone in front of a huge crowd like there was is really hard to explain, but it's a ton of fun. Of course, Shane's fantastic jokes kept the crowd amused... :) When I climbed the route I made a few dumb mistakes here and there (which I always seem to end up doing..) but I still made it past the roof section to where the climb began traversing left again. I also found a SWEET rest in the middle of the roof with a bomber kneebar!

Screenshot from the louder than 11 highlights video!!
Check it out: http://vimeo.com/67185712
yup, that's the kneebar. So sick.
 

             I ended up in fourth place behind Sasha DiGulian, Delaney Miller, and Chelsea Rude. For feeling like I'm not in the best of rope shape, I'm really happy with how the results turned out! The other finalists also did an amazing job, with other youth athletes Claire Buhrfeind coming in 5th, Grace McKeehan in 8th and Katie Lamb in 9th. The female category was once again super tough, but the men's category was even more stacked. I think this competition was even more competitive than SCS open nationals was to make finals. Some super strong guys and girls didn't make finals who definitely could’ve done really well. Then there's Kai (13 year old bad-ass) who was in first place going into finals against big names like Daniel Woods, Vasya Vorotnikov, and Jon Cardwell. He's such an awesome kid, I can't wait to see what else he does! Central rock gym Hadley put on an amazing event that I hope to compete in next year again! 

Another screenshot from the LT11 highlights video!
Riley, Dominic, and I all looking psyched for the comp to start.

          The next day nearly all the competitors went and climbed at the new Central Rock Gym in Watertown, which was incredible. First of all we had a TON of the strongest climbers in the country all projecting together and secondly, the gym was AMAZING. They had incredible bouldering angles, super tall sport routes, super well set routes and boulders, and even a to-be speed wall! I hope I can get back there again sometime soon. But for right now, it's time to get psyched for the Vail bouldering World Cup!!

 

2013 SCS Open Nationals!

This last weekend I competed in my second ever Open SCS nationals! When I competed last year I finished 8th place in sport climbing, and 3rd place in speed! Going into the comp this year I wanted to do better than last year, but the female category had some really tight competition.

I went into the comp feeling really good. Right now, I'd say I'm in better bouldering shape than rope climbing, having just made the transition from bouldering season into rope season. Luckily, rope climbing at movement involves a lot of power, and not as much endurance!

Qualifiers went pretty well, and I was in 8th place and also happened to be the youngest competitor to qualify for finals. Before finals a bunch of the youth competitors at the comp all hung out and ate lunch at this great place in Boulder called Sherpa's. There were way more youth competitors there than last year, which was really cool to see, and made the comp super fun!


Photo: Wade David
http://www.wadedavid.com/#

Josh, Noah, and I all went into isolation as soon as it opened at 5:30 Saturday night. All the other competitors were already warming up, and it was definitely different/inspiring to be warming up with people like Sasha and Charlotte. Warming up, I felt really good and extremely psyched to see the route!  

Photos: Wade David
This was such a sick climb, the route setters did an amazing job this comp!

 

Once all the competitors were called out, preview started. Delaney, Cicada, and I all read the route together, and the beta seemed fairly straightforward. After seeing the route, I was way less nervous and just excited to climb with the energy of the huge crowd behind me!

Photo: Wade David
Sticking the second crux of the climb!

I was really happy with how I climbed, I felt like if I had a little more endurance I would have been able to do better. But with the amount of time I’ve had to train ropes, I think climbed about as best as I could.

Photo: Wade David
I was definitely starting to get pumped here!

Speed climbing is a little different... I didn't really know what to expect. I'm consistently pretty good at speed, but I hadn't done any sort of training before this comp. I don't have the IFSC route or holds to practice on, and I think this might have actually helped me. The speed route at movement was pretty off compared to the real route, and I didn't have the intense muscle memory for the route that other competitors had. I was really happy with how the results came out, with Josh also taking first place and Kayla Lieuw taking second! My training partner, Noah, also crushed by taking 3^rd in sport climbing.

Photo: Kim Puccio
Kayla Lieuw: 2nd, Marissa Romero: 3rd  

Competing at this definitely made me really psyched to train even harder for Youth Nationals, and also really excited to see everyone again! It's hard to believe I was competing against some of the best female climbers in the world! Watching Charlotte finish the finals climb was incredibly motivating.

I can’t wait for my coming competitions and to get going on some climbing trips once it warms up around here!

 

ABS 14 National Championships

Within the last month I competed in my 5th ABS youth national championships, and my first ABS Open national championships! I had a fantastic time competing, hanging out with friends from all over, and watching the competition.

During the Open competition, I completely exceded my expectations by finishing in the top ten places. I had gone into the competition with the hope of making it to semi finals, so nearly making finals was a complete shock.

My fifth qualifier climb

  Photo credit: Father

But, watching finals completely inspired me to train even harder, and hopefully be up there with the other top women athletes next year.

After Open Nationals, many of the youth competitors stayed the week in boulder, waiting to go back to Colorado Springs for Youth Nationals the following weekend. We had a super fun week, climbing at all the different gyms and chilling on our rest days.

On Thursday morning my mom, dad, Josh Levin, Melissa Godowski, and I all packed into our rented Subaru and headed to Colorado Springs. On the way we stopped at Garden of the Gods, which was absolutly beautiful.

 

 Me, Josh, and Melissa sitting on the balancing rock!

Photo credit: Melissa Godowski

 

 

When we finally got to the hotel, I checked in and then kept seeing people in the lobby! So many people stayed at the Antlers.

 

 



The next day everyone had qualifiers, but the Youth A's and Juniors had to wait till past 4pm to check into iso. So all of us ate breakfast late and chilled in the hotel all day! It was pretty relaxing, but it was hard not to think about how we would be competing in a matter of hours.

So qualifiers went really well, I was nervous on my first climb, a slab problem, but I still managed to flash it. My second climb I fell one hold from the top on my first go, which was frustrating. But I got right back on and sent it second go.

The third climb was completely my style. I really like pinches on an overhang, and I'm fairly good with dynamic movement. And the third climb was exactly that, three pinches in a row with a one-handed jump from the third pinch to a handle. So I flashed that climb, and really enjoyed it, it was probably one of my favorite competition problems of all time.

The fourth climb I did OK on... I think I could've sent it, but I was trying some really weird beta that made it really hard.

My second qualifier climb

Photo credit: Father

I ended up going into semi-finals in 2nd place, behind Megan Mascarenas, who had finished all four routes while I had finished three. The top four spots going into semis were all really close though.

My first climb in semis was a really balancy and tricky slab climb. I gave it, I think, 5 tries, and sent it on the 5th go with about ten seconds left when I grabbed the finish.

The second had crazy sideways, around-the-corner dyno that I couldn't get, and ended up falling on my face every attempt! It was actually pretty painful... (the routesetters actually changed that route before the female juniors climbed it, i think to prevent the dangerous falls).

The third was super cool and had a (sort of) hand jam in the middle! It was on the section of the wall that's my favorite (the middle overhanging section) and I flashed it!

When I walked away after I finished my third climb, I wasn't totally happy with how I'd climbed. I was actually really worried that I hadn't made finals because I didn't stick the dyno on my second climb and the first climb took me so many tries. But, it turned out I was wrong, and was in fourth going into finals!

I felt like I hadn't climbed my best in semis, so though I was content in fourth place, I was hoping to step up my game in finals.

The dyno on my second climb! It looks so close... but it wasn't

Photo credit: Father

 

So finals was Sunday, the third day of competition. And everyone was definitely starting to lose some energy, but psych was still high. My category had a super strong field going into finals, and I knew it'd be super close. Going in in 4th place had me worried that if it came down to breaking a tie, I'd have a disadvantage.

 

When I went out and sat in front of my first climb, I had some crazy deja vu to last year's finals. The crowd was HUGE and so loud. I had to turn my iPod almost all the way up to block out the sound and get in my zone.

 

The climbs in finals were amazing, the first was really cool technical.

 

The second, was really fun and had a sweet toe hook on it.

My second finals climb!

Photo credit: Father 

 

And the third climb probably was my all-time favorite climb I've ever done indoors. It was on my favorite wall again, and had a turn-around and jump move.

Looking at the climb, the jump was the only move I was really worried about before I got on. I hadn't sequenced turning around before jumping, but as soon as I was standing on the climb and about to jump backwards, I realized turning around would be much easier. The rest of the climb wasn't too bad, but had some bad slopers on it.

 

 

I couldn't have been more excited after flashing all three finals climbs, but I knew some more (really strong) girls still had to go! But I ended up being the only Female A to have flashed all three, making me National Champion for the second year in a row! I never would have guessed that it'd happen again, but I owe a lot of my thanks to Kris Peters for motivating me to start training.

 

The jump on my third finals climb!

Tricky section on the first climb

My training partner, Noah Ridge, my coach Kris Peters, and me!

 

 

After I had finished climbing though, I still wasn't over my nerves. Some of my best freinds were about to climb! Josh Levin, Noah Ridge, Michaela Kiersch, and a lot of others were all in the Junior category, who all climbed after me. But, it turns out I didn't need to be worried, because they all came out and crushed it. Josh with three tops took first, Noah got third, and Michaela got second with flashing all three climbs!

 

Overall the entire competition was a wonderful experience, and I can only hope next year's ABS nationals will live up to it!



Female Youth A podium! Me, Megan Mascarenas, and Hannah Tolson!

Female Youth A and Male Junior Champions! Me and Josh Levin