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.