VERTICAL WORLD - REDMOND.

The last local of the season for our region was on November 12th at the Redmond Vertical World gym. It had been 3 years since they last held a local there so it was very nostalgic to be back for another comp, especially knowing that they will be re-modeling the bouldering area soon. There were over 80 climbers for the comp but they had two separate sessions (male and female) so they were really laid back. Everyone had plenty of time to get in all the climbs that they wanted to try.

Unfortunately, Melina and Makenna were sick and couldn't climb with Sidney and Cierra. Lia Messinger, from Portland, made the trip up and climbed with the girls so that was a cool surprise. It was sort of like a VW team comp as almost 50 of the 80+ competitors were on the VW team. Let's just say that there was a higher concentration of red than usual. To illustrate this, in Sidney's FYC category, there were 14 climbers and 11 of them were on the VW team. For the entire region, there are 17 climber's in Sidney's category and 14 are on the VW team. Wow.

Like I stated earlier, it was a really laid back comp. It was easily the most relaxed comp I have been to. Sidney crushed it and won her category by a healthy margin. Lia and Cierra were pretty even but Lia snagged 1 big climb that was the difference as Lia took 2nd and Cierra came in 3rd.

Sidney going horizontal on a hard route. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Grannell)


It's going to be a Battle Royale at Divisionals when all these girls (Sidney, Melina, Cierra and Lia) duke it out for the invites to Nationals. It actually will be a great preview of Nationals. I say this because if you look at last year's ABS Nationals results for FYC and omit all the girls that aged up to FYB, all 4 girls would be in the top 6. Here is what I mean. 1st-Aged Up, 2nd-A/U, 3rd-A/U, 4th-Grace Kane, 5th-Sidney, 6th-A/U, 7th-Melina, 8th-Lia, 9th-A/U, 10th-A/U, 11th-A/U, 12th-A/U, 13th-Piper Boudart and 14th-Cierra. Cierra has improved tremendously since last year and it shows as Melina, Lia and Cierra's climbing scores have basically been the same all season. Throw in strong veteran climbers Olivia Brumwell, Olivia Durant, Dakota Angeli, Jenna Wang and a strong group of first year "C" girls, it means whoever gets an invite to Nationals will have earned it. I would bet that any "C" girl who gets an invite from our Division will do well at Nationals. It certainly will be exciting to watch.

FGD11!

Full Gravity Day 11 was on November 5th at the Spire Climbing Center in Bozeman, Montana. We love to road trip to one comp every bouldering season and this one has now become our annual trip. Our road trip "crew" consists of the Culmbacks (Craig, Janelle and Kayla), Sequoia Meyer, Di, Sidney and myself. We came upon this comp solely because our good friend, Kayla Erickson, wanted us to come visit her last year. We enjoyed it so much, we are now always looking to road trip to a comp every season (Bouldering & Sport).

Sidney, Sequoia and Kayla clowning around the night before the comp. (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)


Last year, Sidney made "Open" finals and this year we were hoping to double that number with Sequoia climbing in "Open", too. The first session were all the youth categories and Little Kayla was climbing during this time. It was a team effort as we narrowed down a lot of routes that fit her climbing style and she crushed it by scoring 750 points more than last year! In the end, she came in 2nd in her category, narrowly finishing behind 1st place by a flash bonus of 25 points. More impressive was that she had the 2nd highest score of ALL the youth females at the comp. Nice!

Kayla crushing one of her many routes! (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)


Hanging out that 1st session gave Sid and Sequoia a chance to scout routes for the "Open" redpoint round. By the time the session started they were eager to get climbing. Sidney started fast and never looked back as she got 4 of her top 6 climbs in the first half of the session. With a half hour left, all 6 of her top scores were 1,050 or higher with a total score of 6,650 points. This was 250 points higher than last year so she packed it in and we waited to see who made Finals. Sequoia climbed great throughout the session and ended up with 5,950 points which was a whopping 1,000 points higher than her score last year! That exact score was also the cutoff for making Finals last year so I thought she had a great chance to make Finals this year.

We hung out and watched the "Barrel Riding" event while waiting for the scores. Sidney, Kayla and Di all gave it a whirl with Sidney having probably the longest run of everyone and Di having the best fall (she was okay) right on her head!

Sidney riding the "Barrel Bull" for 8 seconds! (Photo courtesy of Kayla Culmback)


Halfway through, they announced the Finals competitors and guess who was in the 5th spot? Sequoia! Portland's very own Hanna Copper was in the 4th spot with Bozeman's best young climber, Inge Perkins in 3rd. Sidney qualified 2nd and Missoula's Molly Rennie qualified 1st. Only 75 points separated 1st through 3rd place so it was very tight going into finals.

The format they use for Finals is different than most other comps. Once the climber starts their route, a running clock of 90 seconds begins. If you fall, you can attempt as many climbs in that 90 seconds. You can take as long as you want to finish a climb as long as it starts in those 90 seconds. In a nutshell, your best attempt better be your 1st attempt because you're not going to get higher than your 1st attempt unless you bombed it early.

Sequoia was the first female to come out for Finals. I'm sure she was really nervous climbing in front of such a big crowd but she didn't show it. The first route was almost entirely on the 45 degree wall. Sequoia climbed great until just past the halfway point when she could not make this big, power throw to a slight sloper. She gave it another go but without the proper rest time she did not do any better.

Sequoia on Problem #1 right before her high point. (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)


Hanna came out next and fell at the same spot as Sequoia. Inge was 3rd out and got past that to the crux, which was a slight left hand crossover to a small crimp/pinch. She snagged it and held on for a good second. I thought she was going to be able to hold it but she fell and that ended up being her best attempt. Sidney came out and then cruised to the crux and held it pretty easily. She then cruised to the top for the only flash of problem #1 as Molly came off at the same spot as Inge. I have to admit that this problem was tailor made for Sidney's strengths and she made it look easy.

Sidney getting past the crux on Problem #1. (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)


Problem #2 immediately went into a corner and there was a long reach to the hold on the other wall. Sequoia is the same height as Sidney but her wingspan is a good 3 inches shorter than Sidney's. That made a big difference as Sequioa tried a few different ways to get across but in the end, she could not. She still had a big smile for the crowd and she got a lot of applause. Hanna made it just past the halfway point before falling. Inge came out and just crushed the route, resting at the kneebar for a good 30 seconds before finishing up her flash. After seeing Sequoia struggle, I was just a bit worried that Sidney might have trouble with the start but she was fine and she also crushed the route with a flash. Molly looked strong and flashed the route, too. All the ladies climbed extremely well and gave the crowd a great show!

Sidney, just past the kneebar, flashing Final #2. (Photo courtesy of Ty Morrison-Heath)


Since they combine the scores from the redpoint round and Finals, it was not a given that Sidney had won but I was pretty sure she had pulled it out. All we could do was hang out and wait. After a short while, they announced the scores and Sidney did indeed come in 1st and won $200. Sequoia kicked some booty all day and finished in 5th place. Great job girls!

Sidney looking happy while holding her winner's check! (Photo courtesy of me)


We celebrated by going to Arby's! It was late and not a lot was open. Then we woke up early Sunday morning and drove the 11+ hours home but it was worth it as we all had the best time on this trip.

Thanks to the road trip "crew" and thanks for a great time FGD11!

The road trip "crew" doing our annual futon picture! (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)

2011 EDGEWORKS HALLOWEEN BLACKLIGHT COMP!

Our region's annual Halloween Blacklight comp was this past 29th at Edgeworks Climbing Gym. There are really only two opinions that people have of this comp, they either hate it or they love it. Sidney and I are in the "love it" camp but I can understand why some people don't like it. Mainly because it's different to climb in the dark and it can get pretty warm in the gym with everything having to be sealed up so it will stay dark. It's tradition that she always wears a costume. One year she wore all black and was covered with neon painted climbing holds. It looked like part of the wall was climbing the routes.

Sidney dressed as a climbing wall in 2008. (Photo courtesy of Sydney McNair)


Last year, she paid homage to Vertical World Head Coach, Tyson. She was hesitant to look bald but did it anyway. It took some work to get her bald wig to look good but it was worth it. Her costume ended up looking great and it got a lot of laughs.

Sidney dressed as Tyson. (Photo courtesy of unknown)


This year, her and Melina went as the Dynamic Duo, Batman & Robin.

Batman (Sidney) & Robin (Melina) showing off their huge muscles. (Photo courtesy of me)


Sidney always does well at this comp and this year was no exception. There were close to 140 youth competitors in her session which made it very crowded with long lines. This put a premium on flashing your routes to get good scores and Sidney is great at that. An hour into the comp she had already bagged 5 solid routes so she was cruising and she actually flashed her highest route in the last 20 minutes of the session. In the end, Sidney had the highest score of all the Female youth competitors and by a healthy margin. To top it all off, she won a 5 pack of Petzl Ange quickdraws in the raffle. Score!

Even after climbing for 3 hours, Sidney and Melina had the energy to fight crime! Their alter egos, Batman & Robin, took down the Joker (Makenna) and the Riddler (Cierra) in the gym parking lot.

HOLY V7, BATMAN! WHAM! BAM! POW! (Photo courtesy of Robyn Graham)


Good once again triumphs over evil! Alas, the Joker and the Riddler later escaped from prison AGAIN and are believed to be hiding out in Poulsbo, WA.