The Lead Circuit is Finally Here!

Getting into the roof section on my second Qualifier in Briancon
Photo by Eddie Fowke

In case you haven't been following the lead circuit (which I highly recommend you do), three Lead World Cups have just passed in the span of two weeks. The World Cups passed through the French and Swiss Alps in the small mountain towns of Chamonix, Villars, and Briancon. As my first lead World Cups, I entered them with the mindset of learning and developing as a competitor. I may have yet to reach my goals in terms of placement, but at least I now know how to approach these goals with my training and preparation.

The Chamonix World Cup was the first one up. It was a brand new experience and I loved every bit of it. It was very strange but yet exciting to be warming up with some of the climbers I have previously only read about. When my time to climb the first qualifier came around, I was nervous but I felt decently ready. As soon as I started climbing, I realized that these climbs are not going to have an "easy section." They started off fairly consistent, but still very doable. I then reached the roof section, where I made a silly blunder, leaving the rope in the way of my next hold. I came off disappointed, but I took it as a learning experience. Lesson 1: Keep thinking about your surroundings. Lesson 2: These routes are going to be hard.

The view around Villars, Switzerland isn't that bad either!

Only two days later, I was in Villars, Switzerland for my next World Cup. It was the first time the circuit hit this town, and I believe it was one of my favorite cups thus far! Qualifier 1 went well, with me slipping out of an unusual hold and Qualifier 2 threw me off in an awkward barndoor move. I might not have fallen fighting, but at least there were no silly mistakes! I felt like this was my best World Cup thus far, and the placement seems to agree with me.

Sticking the move on Qualifier 1
right before popping off.

Finally, after spending a few days in Italy checking out a few crags, it was time for the Briancon World Cup. Being one of the oldest cups in the circuit, it is no secret that Briancon's routes are a little different. I would describe the qualifiers as being your normal gym climbs. On Qualifier 1, I made it past one tricky section, stuck the next big move with my left, and then popped off for what looked like no reason. I have probably watched the video 5 times now, wondering what happened. However, a recent gym session has revealed a fairly large weakness: my left hand is a lot weaker on edges than my right! I attempted a few one-hand hangs on a few different edges and my left consistently failed to last as long as my right. So I guess that is something to work on! Qualifier 2 saw another interesting phenomenon. While pulling the lip, I lost body tension and found my feet swinging out below me. Although I know I had more than enough strength to hold it, my mind slipped out of focus and went into a more relaxed state. It looks I have have both mental and physical weaknesses to improve on!

Now, I'm back in the Czech Republic for a few more weeks of training and some local comps as well. I have to get back into bouldering mode just in time for Munich while still keeping lead in mind for the Imst World Cup the weekend after! It's time to put my newfound experience to use and see what I can do.

Training for Vail and the Outdoors

The World Cup

The World Cup in Vail this past weekend has been quite the experience. I may not have done as well as I had hoped, but I know I am ready for next time. Not only the competition itself, but also the preparation, taught me a lot about what it takes.

The problems were as I expected, difficult but doable. Even though I didn't achieve any tops, I felt like the moves were possible for me. I was also able to figure out the correct beta for all of the climbs. However, some small beta changes could have helped me, especially on Problem #3 where going slower may have been beneficial. This is something I need to work on.

Setting up for a go on Problem #2 (Photo cred: Jonathan Barolak)

For the weeks leading up to Vail, I emphasized variety in my training. This allowed me to develop many different muscle groups, improving how well rounded I am on the wall. Each week I did different amounts of hangboarding, campusing, pulling, weight training, suspension/ring training, core, endurance (circuits and 4x4s), swimming, and running. Swimming might seem like an odd ball workout for climbing, but I found it useful. Swimming, like climbing, works a large range of muscles, varying between strokes. Additionally, it gives your fingers a well needed rest after climbing for a few days straight. However, the one downfall of swimming is how it softens skin, which is why I wouldn't recommend it if you have an upcoming day of competition or outdoor climbing or if you have bad skin in general.

Over those few weeks, I didn't see an increase in climbing level per say, but I did notice an increase in consistency and how good I felt on hard climbs. I found myself consistently climbing V10 in the gym within one or two sessions and I generally felt more comfortable on the moves. I'm sure this will lead to an increase in climbing grade in the near future.

Just missing the dynamic move to the bonus of Problem #4
(Photo cred: Jonathan Barolak)

World Cups, however, require more than just general strength. Training technique, coordination, and route reading might not seem so straight forward, but is certainly not impossible. On-sight practice on new problems, creating your own competition style boulders, and outdoor climbing all help with this. With three Earth Treks climbers going to Vail, one section was reserved for World Cup boulders which are good coordination practice.

After some endurance training over the next few weeks, I am sure I'll be ready for my Lead World Cups in Europe over the summer. I only have two weeks left in Colorado before I leave for two months! I am really curious to see how I do in both disciplines. I am learning a lot this summer about competitions and training, which makes me confident about the seasons to come.

The Great Outdoors

My first attempt on
Return of the Jedi (V8)

Sticking the first desperate move on
Purity Control (V10) (Photo cred: Jonathan Barolak)

This summer I have hit up a few great bouldering locations around the front range and Vail. I got to go to Flagstaff Mountain, the Flatirons, Clear Creek, Matthew Winters, and Kluttergarden. All of these are new locations for me and I must say, they are quite spectacular. As it was my first time to all of these, I haven't secured any hard sends quite yet. I have been able to do a few V8s within a few goes including Rennak's Delight in the Flatirons and Return of the Jedi (left picture) near Vail. I am also very close to sending Purity Control (V10) at Matthew Winters. If you are ever in Colorado, I would strongly recommend all of these places, especially Clear Creek and the Kluttergarden if you're willing to do the drive. The rock all around Colorado is of high quality; it supplies enough friction without being too sharp. I haven't had any problems with my skin out here except on the sharp pockets of Purity Control.

Before I depart to Europe, I am really keen on trying my project from before a few times, possibly securing the FA. However, it looks like the Monastery and Mt. Evans will have to wait until I return. Hopefully I'll be in better shape by then and will be able to get some good sends.

Month of Comps

CCS Regionals
photo cred: Sunny Side Productions

April has been quite a busy month, with a competition every weekend, and, not to mention the upcoming end of the semester. I still managed to find some time outdoors over the week but with finals so close now, I'm holding everything off till the summer.

My first comp of the month was CCS Regionals, held at Miramont in Fort Collins. This was surely one of the more interesting comps I have been to, as halfway through the qualification round, a city blackout caused the whole gym to go dark for 3 hours. As you can imagine, this made climbing very difficult. Due to the delay, however, I was unable to make finals. This was the first time I really saw the enthusiasm for collegiate climbing. Colorado is full of large and motivated climbing teams and it taught me a thing or two about how to do the same at Mines.

ORC Bouldering Comp - photo cred: Jonathan Barolak

The next weekend it was time for the Mines Spring Bouldering comp. I really enjoy these nice friendly competitions where I can just climb with my classmates and have a good time. It's really amazing how strong this school is! I ended the day in third, with the top four all being separated by attempts. Nothing is set in stone yet, but next semester I might step away from this competition and instead help out with the setting.



The following competition as well as the most recent one were youth locals at Rockn' and Jamn' and my home gym Earth Treks. It is unlikely that I will be doing the youth circuit this summer as I have an already packed competition schedule. However, I will be making a showing at regionals a few weeks from now, so it's nice to have a back up plan.

CCS Nationals Final Route
photo cred: USAClimbing

Finally, my best and biggest competition this month was CCS Nationals held at Mesa Rim in San Diego. The competition had almost 400 climbers from universities all over the US, some of which I have never heard of. As the only climber from my school, I realized that Mines is really missing out. After a very close finals round, I ended in 2nd for sport, on a podium dominated by Colorado. From what I have seen this year, CCS is constantly growing, with more and better climbers competing every year. I am interested in watching it develop through the years and I'll be there every step of the way.

On a less competitive note, I only managed to go outdoors twice this month. One was to hop on my project, which, well, still remains a project. The week after, Sean, a friend from back in Australia, came up to climb around Colorado (as well as make me lose the game of life a few times). Even with the unlucky snowy weather, we drove down to Morrison to climb around the Black Hole. I got a quick send of Cytogrinder (V8), and then tested my endurance on a 100 ft V11, which I still have to come back for.

Now it's time to train and get ready for the Vail World Cup in June. It might be a bit hard through finals but in the summer, I will have plenty of time to not only train but explore the outdoors. Get ready for the next blog post about my first few summer adventures to places such as Rocky Mountain National Park.

Rope Season in Full Swing

With the recent start of rope season last month, it's been fairly hectic training endurance and getting back into the feel of sport climbing. Last weekend, rope season came into full swing with the SCS Sport and Speed Nationals in Watertown, Massachusetts. Being my first open ropes nationals, I was pretty excited to see how I could perform, especially on such hard climbs.

Qualifier 1 at SCS Nationals

Qualifiers went as expected. I performed well on the first qualifier, and then got quite pumped on the second. This put me in the second to last semifinal position, which I was quite stoked about. In semifinals, I performed quite decently, with my foot coming off in a fairly difficult section. Overall, even though I do believe I could have done slightly better in semifinals, I am very happy with my performance. My one goal was to make it to semis and I did just that. I am quite eager to come back next year with more experience and training under my belt. In the end it was a great experience coming back to Boston where I was born and scouting out the sport climbing field.

The Proj

Alongside sport season, the outdoors are slowly starting to open up in terms of weather. Recently, I was introduced to a forgotten project that was bolted a few years ago. Being only a 15 minute drive and a 40 minute walk in, the location couldn't be better. After cleaning and tearing loose holds of the wall the two past times I went, the route is just about ready to be seriously attempted. The start of the climb consists of some very crumbly rock which caused the start holds to change about 5 times now. The current ones will hopefully be more solid. The route consists of a burly and steep V9 start to the second draw, followed by a nice rest, and then finishes off with another hard techy boulder pulling the lip to the anchors. Overall, it is expected to come out as 5.14a. All but three of the moves have been done by now, so I'm hoping that after tweaking some beta and giving it a few more attempts, I can nail all the moves.

As time goes on, more climbing areas will thaw and become accessible. I am especially excited to hit up the Rockies (maybe sometime in April?). I have had my eyes on The Grand Ol' Opry (5.14c) for quite some time now. I am also stoked to try Sarchasm (5.14a) which, with an altitude of 12,000 ft will need some aerobic training no doubt. Finally, I will attempt to make a trip out to Rifle this season, but no promises there. Stay tuned to hear more about my exploration of outdoor climbing here in Colorado! The next update will most likely be entirely outdoor related, considering the lack of big competitions in the near future. Hopefully, it will be full of some nice sends.

Nationals, Nationals, and Rope Season!

As I'm sure most of you know, ABS Nationals (Open and Youth) were a few weeks ago, held in the one and only, snowy Madison, Wisconsin. To be honest, I expected it to be a frozen, Midwestern wasteland, but it turned out to be quite a nice town, making it easy to come back two weekends in a row. This year, Open's brought the biggest crowd yet, with ninety strong competitors. Luckily, I was one of the first climbers out of isolation, saving me six hours of napping. 

Coming into qualifiers, I really didn't have any expectations. I've been training and preparing for this competition for quite a while, but going up against some of the best climbers in the nation seemed very daunting. However, I came out of iso and just climbed my best. After flashing the first qualifier, I already felt quite good, so as I came up to the fifth problem (a slab nonetheless) with no other tops, I didn't expect much. But, by some miracle, after a few falls, I managed to stick the first move, and then crimp my way to the top. Being the one of the first climbers, I thought I did ok, but I still had no idea how I actually did. So I watched a few other climbers, ate some dinner, hung out with friends for the next 5 or so, until finally: results. Coming in 21st was amazing, I never expected to make semis, or really even come close.

Saturday morning rolled around, and I was stoked to try some really hard boulders. Getting close on both the first and second slabby boulders was somewhat frustrating at the time, but semis went just as I had hoped. The boulders were exceptionally enjoyable (shoutout to the routesetters) and it was an amazing feeling climbing alongside competitors who I thought would leave me far behind. At the end of the day, I came in 20th, far beyond what I anticipated.

This competition was certainly an experience to be had. It was my first large Open competition and it showed that I am capable of competing at this level. As I graduate from youth, I will be competing in Opens almost exclusively and it's comforting to know that it's manageable.

The next weekend, I was back, and this time for my last youth bouldering nationals. This time, it was a little more disappointing. During qualifiers, I felt a lot more pressure and it reflected greatly in my performance. After finishing, I knew I had done poorly, but I unexpectedly made it into semis. During semis, I learned my lesson from qualifiers, and just tried to climb my best. This reflected in my performance on the last two climbs where I performed relatively well. However, with a big screw up on problem one, I failed to get any tops, and came in 16th. Overall, I was fairly content in my performance during semis (except for problem 1) and learned a few lessons that will come handy during my Open circuit.

After a hectic two weeks travelling, competing, and making up schoolwork, it's nice to be in rope season! I am extremely excited to explore the outdoor climbs around Colorado and compete in open nationals. After a good bouldering season, I am feeling strong on a lot of rope climbs; all I need is a little more endurance.

My next blog post will most likely be after Rope Nationals in March so stay tuned. I will also be updating you on any outdoor trips I do!

2016: Divisionals and Some Outdoor Updates

A sweet dyno on Problem #2 in Qualies

Well, the new year is here! Which means more competitions, more outdoor climbing, and another semester of school, all of which I am quite excited for.

So on the competition front, youth bouldering divisionals were just last weekend in Tucson, AZ (conveniently still while winter break was going on). The comp went quite well, with me finishing fourth in the end. However, the main lessons I took away were my weaknesses, especially slab. Both in qualifiers and finals it was the slab route that pulled me down (quite literally). All in all, it was a very enjoyable final bouldering divisionals: hanging out with old friends and having Nerf gun battles in isolation.

A desperate campus on Problem #3
in Finals

On the outdoor side of things, I have so far gone on both of my free weekends. My first outdoor climb this year was near Sedona, AZ at The Anvils, a new place for me. After spending a good half hour trying to cross a somewhat flooded river, we finally made it to the boulders. I managed to get a fairly quick send of a very nice climb, Mars Attacks, my first V9 in Arizona. Afterwards, I gave Alien Baby Right (V9) and Big Sexy (V10) a good amount of attempts without too much success. Out of all of the places in Arizona, this is one of my favorites. The boulder problems really flow and allow for very interesting beta. The approach is also quite enjoyable as long as you don't fall into a river.

The first move and the crux of
Mars Attacks (V9)

My second venture outdoors was just yesterday in Colorado. A few friends and I hit up Matthew-Winters Park which is only fifteen minutes away from school. The approach was quite icy which ended in me slipping and landing on my ass upwards of ten times throughout trip (my choice of approach shoe was also not the best). Climbing in the cold was also quite a new experience for me, and I think its safe to say I'm not a fan of numb fingers. I gave most of my attempts to a 2-move V10, Purity Control, and I looked at some nice projects for the spring when it warms up including Bambi (V11+). Eventually, however, the lack of feeling in our toes and fingers lead us back home.

I am very eager to see what this new year holds for me in terms of outdoor climbing. With rope season coming up, I think this will be the semester of the 5.14. I have already begun looking at some nearby 5.14a's to begin projecting.

Well, now I'm back in Colorado, in for my second semester at school, one which will be packed with more training, competition, and outdoor climbing. In two weeks, I'm off to my first Open Bouldering Nationals followed by my last Youth Bouldering Nationals, both of which will be in Madison, WI. Then, it's straight to endurance training for Open Lead Nationals in Boston, MA. I am thrilled to start this new chapter in my climbing career and it's all happening this semester. Which means, training, training, and more training (especially on some slab).