NEW SEATTLE VW OPENING TODAY!!!

Are you ready for the BADDEST lead walls in the Pacific Northwest? If so, then you will want to go to the new Seattle VW which opens today at 4pm. I actually took a tour of the facility yesterday and the gym matches the pre-opening buzz everyone is hearing. The bouldering area is nice but is not going to make you forget the SBP. That's a minor quibble as the sole reason to come to this gym is to get your lead on.

Here is a shot of the back wall of the lead area. Notice the tiny and beautiful Laela (Sidney's sister) at the bottom of the photo. (Photo courtesy of me)


The bouldering area is very nice and incorporates the same wall technology as their Tacoma gym. It would have been cool if the bouldering area was bigger but you can't have everything and it's still a great place to boulder.

Sidney getting some bouldering in a day before the grand opening. (Photo courtesy of me)


We will be at the grand opening today even though I know it will be a zoo! Hope to see everyone there!

2011 PORTLAND BOULDER RALLY.

This past December 3rd was the 1st ever Portland Boulder Rally at the newest Circuit Gym in Portland, Oregon. The Circuit has been away from the comp scene for a few years now but made a big splash on their return as this was a huge event. The winner of each "Open" category received $1,400 so they weren't messing around in trying to attract a lot of climbers to the event.

Sidney climbed in the "Open" category of which there were 14 competitors. We made a day trip of it with Cierra and her father, Andy, so the girls climbed in the 2nd session. Being that Sidney is only 12, I know that when she competes in the "Open" categories, there is always the possibility of her running into some reach issues. It's never a complaint, just a fact. The PBR was definitely set with the adults in mind as a majority of the upper point routes had very long reaches. Sidney's scorecard was not her usual strong zone of 5 climbs all bunched together. There were some big gaps between the points of her routes as she attempted a lot of different climbs but kept running into a section of the route that she was not able to reach. She was a bit frustrated but understood that she had to make the best of it and try to maximize her score as best she could.

Sidney extending as far as she could at the 1st Annual Portland Boulder Rally. (Photo courtesy of me)


In the end, Sidney came pretty close to maximizing her score, although there were a couple of routes she possibly could have gotten but she ran out of time. They took the top 6 to Finals and Sidney finished a strong 8th so she was actually pretty happy with her result.

Sidney using ALL of her reach to get this hold. She had to throw with both hands from the hold that her left hand is on, all the way up to where her right hand is with only the right foothold and smearing the left foot. (Photo courtesy of me)


We stayed to watch Finals and were rewarded with watching some excellent climbing. In the end, it was a good thing Sidney did not make Finals because she would have really, really struggled on those routes. She might have surprised herself a bit, but overall she would have had a rough go of it as they were very tough with a lot of reach. The first thing she said to me after Finals were over was that she was glad she DIDN'T make Finals and I agreed with her. If she stays on the same career arc that she is currently on, I would bet she makes a bigger dent in the PBR next year!

2011 SEATTLE BOULDERING CHALLENGE.

The oldest and biggest bouldering comp in the Northwest, the SBC, took place this past November 19th. This was Sidney's 5th year in a row competing at the SBC. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of her climbing and I have not found any of her on the web. I did take video which I will post on my youTube channel, Chasesidney13, sometime in the near future.

As you hopefully have read in a previous post, last year Sidney qualified in 11th place after the Redpoint round in the Open category. They only took 10 to Finals but because of an injury to Tiffany Melius, she was able to climb in Finals and moved up to 8th place! Her past SBC results have shown a clear arc of getting better every year so I was curious if she could continue to improve this year.

Sidney, as always, started out strong and flashed quite a few high climbs. She then looked around for some higher climbs and worked some projects. With a half hour left in the session, she thought she was good enough to make Finals so we shut it down to rest up and wait for results. It was very hard to gauge her score compared to the other Open competitors as this is not a USA Climbing youth event. A lot of youth compete in it but it is definitely an event geared for adults. With Sidney not even being a teenager, yet, my goal for her is just to improve her Redpoint score every year. If she makes Finals, that's just icing on the cake and gets her more experience. I know the Finals routes are set for the adults and that's the way it should be. Well, Sidney improved again by qualifying for Finals in 7th place this year.

As I expected, there were 4 Finals routes and they were TOUGH! The first route had a bunch of really big holds that Sidney is not a fan of, yet, but she flashed the route with no problems. The second route she climbed well and got two holds from the top on her first try but did the wrong beta for her and fell. Her second try she used the correct beta but was not able to execute the move, fell and then decided not to try it again as time was short. She thinks she could have made the route if she did the correct beta her first try instead of her second. The third route no competitor came even close to making with Sidney getting to around where everyone else was falling. The fourth route gave her all kinds of trouble as the beta was really hard for her to read and she was hurt by her lack of height. All in all, she climbed really well and finished in 9th place for Finals, a couple of spots back from where she started. However, she got some more experience climbing really HARD problems in front of a big crowd so it was a very positive night.

Here is a really cool warped view of the event. (Photo courtesy of Stone Gardens)


These are Sidney's results for the past 5 years which really shows her improvement.
2007 - Age 8 - Redpoint score was 65th out of 76 female competitors.
2008 - Age 9 - 48th out of 90.
2009 - Age 10 - 22nd out of 77.
2010 - Age 11 - 11th out of 96 - Qualified for Finals and finished 8th.
2011 - Age 12 - 7th out of 100 - Finished 9th after Finals.
2012 - Age 13 - ????????

Looking forward to next year!