It was a great SCS season for Sidney but there wasn't a whole lot going on. The only competitive climbing she did was on our road trip, Regionals, Divisionals and Nationals. Oh, and she was on a Nickelodeon TV show. I'll eventually post about all of these events starting with our road trip to.........
Reno! In a nutshell, for the past 2 years, the Culmbacks and Trinidads road trip together to a comp each ABS and SCS season. The past 2 ABS seasons we've gone to Bozeman, Montana and last SCS season we went to Boise, Idaho. We have a blast and love doing it. This year we went bigger! In the span of 6 days the girls went to a comp in Reno, climbed the world's tallest wall at CommRow and climbed for 2 days at Smith Rock. It was action packed. For the 1st time, we took 2 vehicles as the guest list expanded past the normal 7 of the Culmbacks(Janelle, Craig & Kayla), Trinidads(Di, Sidney & myself) and Sequoia. Added to the group were the Graham twins, their dad, Andy, and Melina.
Our road trip centered around the weekend of March 31st. We left on the prior Thursday evening and stayed in Eugene, Oregon. Friday was a travel day the rest of the way to Reno. While in Reno, we were lucky enough to stay at the home of Janelle's good friends, Joe and Cheryl.
On Saturday, the girls climbed at the Rocksport comp they call "The Best Little Comp In The West." It was nice to see people that we don't normally see until Divisionals like Rod Grossman and his family. I also enjoyed just being able to chill at a Local and not worry about helping to run the comp. Sidney and Melina climbed in the Open category while the other 4 girls climbed in their respective age categories. Because the gym is a bit on the small side, the format was different in that they scored your top 5 rope climbs but they also scored your top 3 bouldering routes. Needless to say, Sidney was not a fan of the format as it meant she had to get 8 climbs in and she was nowhere near in rope shape, yet.
All of the girls climbed extremely well. Sidney crushed on the lead routes but struggled a little to get some quality bouldering routes on her scorecard. It didn't help that she did all her rope climbing first and it drained her of some power when it came time to boulder. She finally got a high scoring route at the buzzer that made her happy.
After scores were announced for the USA Climbing portion of the comp, they announced the top 10 overall scores for both genders and they were allowed to participate in an onsight comp of 1 climb for prizes. They broke it up into two categories. "Advanced" were places 6 through 10 and "Open" were places 1 through 5. Sidney qualified in 3rd behind Jacquelyn Wu (2nd) and Cicada Jenerik (1st). Melina also qualified for the Open category in 4th, I believe. Cierra and Sequioa qualified in the Advanced category.
The "Advanced" group climbed first on a route separate from the Open category and Sequoia ended up crushing it and coming in 1st. Cierra had some trouble reading the route but still tied for 3rd which meant she would climb in a SuperFinal after the Open category climbed.
In the "Open" group, the top 3 girls all fell at about the same spot. Sidney came in 3rd, getting movement toward a pinch at the top of the route. Jacquelyn came in 2nd, getting usable surface on the same pinch. Cicada came in 1st, getting control of that pinch. What was unexpected is that Cierra climbed her SuperFinal on the same route and scored better than any of the Open girls did! She definitely had movement off of the pinch and may have had usable on the next hold but I can't be sure of that. That was pretty cool to see. The girls who placed got some prizes for their efforts but nothing major.
After the comp, our group went to a local casino that was kid friendly and we had dinner. Then the girls went on a mission to get as many tickets as possible to win some prizes in the arcade. The girls each ended up getting a big bouncy ball and it only cost me 30 bucks. Woohoo!
On Sunday morning, we got to CommRow right as it opened at 10am. For those that don't know, CommRow is a hotel right on the strip that has the world's tallest climbing wall affixed to the outside of the building. At 164 feet high, it's quite a sight. The girls bouldered inside for about an hour while we waited for the manager to give us the green light to go outside. The routes up the wall were only rated 5.9/5.10 but the height gave the girls pause and a few of them were a little apprehensive about trying it. They all decided that Sidney should go first and she buzzed right up it. That broke the ice and they soon all followed suit, Melina, Cierra, Sequoia and Makenna. The girls all said the climb wasn't hard but that it was really cool to climb that high.
As soon as the girls were finished climbing, we parted ways with Melina as she had to fly back to Seattle. The rest of us then started the trek back North to Redmond, Oregon and the famous climbing area, Smith Rock. We arrived in the evening and were really looking forward to a fun day out at the crags.
The next two days at Smith were sort of a blur. The Trinidads and Grahams had never climbed there before so the first day was definitely a learning experience. What we learned was to figure out ahead of time what to climb at Smith and get there early. The first day was also a time for the girls to get the jitters out regarding climbing high on real rock. Even Sidney had some reservations but I was fairly certain that all the girls would climb better on the second day. The girls spent most of that first day climbing some 5.10s just to get comfortable and then a few of the girls started on "Heinous Cling Start" which is a very popular 5.12a. We had been climbing for a while so Sidney was not at her best but it worked out because she took a few falls which helped her get over her fears. After giving it a go or two, we called it a day as we were famished and wanted to have dinner. Plus, we had to take Di to the airport because she had to get home in time for work on Tuesday. I knew the next day would be a good day for Sidney because she told me after dinner that she couldn't wait to tackle "Heinous" again. She also said that she didn't know why she was so scared and that it wasn't going to be a problem anymore. I should point out that all of these girls are gym rats. We try to get outside as much as possible but they train mainly indoors.
True to her word, Sidney redpointed "Heinous" the next day. After getting the 5.12a Start, she kept going and fell a few clips short of finishing the entire route which is 5.12c. Cierra and Sequioa worked it on toprope and both came very close to making it in one go but it was not to be. All the girls climbed well and had a lot of fun. Getting to the crag early also let the adults get on some choice 5.7s and 5.8s so everyone had a great time. The most impressive climbing I saw was when I was belaying Andy on "Heinous" and he got a couple of moves past the long starting crack. He worked it hard and Craig and I were really impressed. Sorry that I don't have any pictures of anyone climbing but I was belaying the whole time and forgot to take some. Sidney was very impressed with Smith Rock and we are definitely going back as soon as we can! Another successful road trip!
