FGD12!

Sidney had another week break after the Edgeworks comp and then we were off on our annual road trip to Bozeman, Montana to climb at Full Gravity Day 12 on November 10th. This would be our 3rd year in a row we’ve road tripped to the Spire Climbing Center and we absolutely love it! Unfortunately, the guest list changed this year as one of our regulars, Kayla Culmback, broke her foot and was not going to make the trip. This meant that two of my favorite people, Craig and Janelle Culmback, would not be able to enjoy the 11 hour drive to Montana. Instead, we picked up another Kayla. Kayla Erickson, aka Big Kayla, joined myself, Di, Sidney and Sequoia Meyer in my Liberty to Big Sky country.

On the way to Bozeman, we stopped in Spokane to see the Graham twins.  This is a picture of Makenna and Sidney looking happy with Cierra looking mad because she couldn't go to the Bozeman comp.  I'm kidding about that last part as she will actually be mad if she ever reads this.  (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)

So, a little background from past FGDs. Last year Sequoia climbed in the Open category for the first time and made Finals, finishing in 5th place. Two years ago in the Open category, Sidney won $100 as she qualified for Finals in 1st place and ended up in 2nd place behind Missoula's Molly Rennie. Last year in the Open category, Sidney won $200 as she switched roles with Molly by qualifying for Finals in 2nd place and placing 1st after Finals. Sadly, this year there would be no climbing with Molly as she had hand surgery a few days before the comp. We wish her a speedy recovery! With Inge Perkins, another top local climber, off at college, this would leave the door open for Sequoia and a couple other new climbers to step through.

The redpoint qualifying round was almost 4 hours long so everyone had plenty of time to get 6 climbs in on the more than 100 routes that the Spire set for the comp. Sidney, Sequoia and Big Kayla climbed really hard and attempted quite a few routes. Sidney shut it down to rest after 3 hours with Sequoia and Big Kayla climbing the entire session trying to max out their score. In the end, they took the top 6 women to Finals and all 3 from our group made it. Here were the Qualifying scores, 1st-Sidney-6,475, 2nd-Sequoia-5,650, 3rd-Becky Switzer-5,625, 4th-Sarah Dean-5,600, 5th-Susan James-5,500, 6th-Big Kayla-5,500. Sidney had a healthy gap on the rest of the finalists but there was a point difference of only 150 points between 2nd place and 6th place which meant a lot of places could be switched by the end of Finals.

The FGD Finals format they use is different but pretty simple. There are 2 routes and all the climbers get 5 minutes of preview on each route. They climb each route in reverse order of qualifying. Each climber gets a 90 second window to top each route, however, as long as you are on the wall when the 90 seconds is up you can then take as long as you need until you top or fall. All of this basically means that flashing the routes were really important.

On the 1st Finals route, Becky, Sarah, Susan and Big Kayla all fell at around the halfway point. Sequoia separated herself from that group by getting through 3/4s of the route and came very close to flashing the route. Sidney climbed last and just walked up the route for the only top of the group. You can watch her climb here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdsiqFmZ9bU&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=3.

The 2nd Finals route was on a 45 degree wall that went up and bridged over to a huge square with flames painted on it that was suspended from the ceiling. The finish hold was shaped like a huge skeleton face! It looked like a very cool and hard route. No one besides Sidney would be able to get to the bridge let alone the flame covered square. All 5 women fell around the halfway point again as the 45 degree wall took its’ toll on the competitors. Sidney was last and made short work of the overhang and then worked her way onto the square. She spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get around the square and control the finish hold. Finally, she went for it but fell and in the process tweaked her ankle on the landing which you can see here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2Bgw8jAb0&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=2.

After falling, Sidney only had 30 seconds to get back on the wall before her time ran out so she got back on the route right before time expired. Amazingly, since she had very little rest at all, she proceeded to top the route to the delight of the crowd. I actually expected Sidney to fall so I didn’t start recording until she got up to the flaming square.  Watch, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIOKQlqP0bw&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=1.

The final scores didn’t change much from the qualifying scores as only the 4^th and 5^th place competitors switched places and they were as follows, 6^th place-Big Kayla-6730.5, 5^th place-Sarah-6743, 4^th place-Susan-6862.5, 3^rd place-Becky-6982, 2^nd place-Sequoia-7087.5 and 1^st place-Sidney-8975.  Big Kayla was 1 hold from moving up to 5^th place overall but she was happy with how she climbed and was stoked to have made Finals.  Sequoia surprised everyone with her strong performance and collected her first climbing cash prize ever with $100.  Congratulations Sequoia!  Sidney had a lot of fun and won $250 for her 1^st place finish.  I was proud and amazed that she was able to top the 2^nd Finals problem with basically no rest but she didn’t think it was that big a deal.  She was more disappointed with herself that she didn’t flash it.  I’m guessing most climbers wish they had that problem, too.

Sidney, Big Kayla and Sequoia waiting for awards to start.  (Photo courtesy of Kayla Erickson)

In case you would like to see all of the climbers who made Finals, here is a very cool video of the event, http://vimeo.com/53808201.  Looking forward to FGD13!

A cool photo that shows Sidney on the 45 degree wall on her 2nd Finals route.  (Photo courtesy of unknown)