2012 SEATTLE BOULDERING CHALLENGE.

The Seattle Bouldering Challenge was the very next Saturday after FGD12 on November 17^th.  It’s the longest running comp in the Pacific Northwest and this would be Sidney’s 6^th year in a row climbing in it.  Unfortunately, it would be quite different than the past 5 years that Sidney has competed as they would not have an exciting Onsight Finals round.  The reason for that is because Stone Gardens hosted a UBC pro event (which Sidney was not old enough to climb in) a couple of months prior and that ended up being their big event for the year. 

This year’s comp was basically a redpoint session for prizes but no Finals and no cash purses which meant that there were a lower number of female Open climbers as in years past.  Last year’s SBC had 20 women in the Open category and this year there were only 5 brave souls.  However, for the first time they also added a session that was a USA Climbing youth Local so their overall numbers didn’t dip they just moved to the youth categories.

Having watched the last 5 SBC’s, you could tell there was a different vibe in the air as there were no Finals to look forward to.  It made the session feel quite laid back and there was no sense of urgency to max your score out.  What also added to the weird vibe was that none of Sidney’s best friends climbed in the comp.  Melina Costanza and Cierra Graham were in Chile competing at the Pan American Youth Championships and Makenna Graham was out of town, too.  None of the Portland girls came up either so it was just Sidney climbing solo and that’s not any fun.

Sidney climbed hard in her session and was pleased with her score, figuring she was in the top 3 for the Open category.  I was a bad father and did not take any pictures but like I said, there was a very calm vibe and I didn’t feel any reason to take any pictures or video at the time.   After her session, we went across the street to Taco Time and waited for awards.  They soon announced the results and Sidney ended up in 1^st place.  Tara Boudreau from Canada finished in 2^nd place and Christine Deyo, a coach at the Seattle Bouldering Project, finished in 3^rd place.  Sidney won a hangboard and a $110 gift certificate for shoes which were very nice prizes. 

Oddly enough, Sidney did not have the highest female score of the comp.  That honor went to Shannon Russell but she chose to compete in the youth portion so she could get credit for the comp.  Still, out of the 87 female climbers in the comp, Sidney had the 2^nd highest score so she was happy about that.  The rumor is that Stone Gardens will probably not hold a UBC Pro event again next year so hopefully they will go back to the format they have always used and next year’s post about the SBC will be much more exciting.  With the latest edition of the SBC in the books, Sidney and I were really looking forward to traveling to Canada the next weekend for the 1^st time in 4 years so she could climb in the “November Sessions.”  Stay tuned.