Saturday, March 8, 2014

Coefficients of Friction – Hosted by MIT @ Central Rock Gym, Watertown, MA   Results

Eastern Boulder Regionals – Altitude Gym, Gatineau, QC   Results

I had so much fun at Regionals this weekend.  It brought out lots of the big names and they delivered some great climbing. The blocs were really fun.  There was a lot of variation, but I thought the overall focus was very technical. (Which is one of the reasons I love competing up in Canada.) I got to do some really awesome moves, a couple of which I have never done in competition before.  The route setters did a great job of forcing movement.

I finished 9th after qualifiers, just outside the group going to finals, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring for the citizens comp. I got there late, so I only climbed for 2 out of the 3 hours. One of the cool things about this round was that they left all the qualifiers problems up to be part of the citizens round which meant everyone could try the problems they saw the open competitors working on earlier. I was psyched to have a chance to try the men’s problems. They had looked fun too and I’m always jealous when there are problems that other people get to work on! I finished 1st in the citizens comp, after leaving it all on the wall (effort, sweat, most of the skin on my knees and elbows…) Finals were super fun to watch. Congratulations to all the climbers!!!

Small side note: I apologize to everyone who spoke to me in French and got an extremely confused “What?” in response. While I know that almost everyone there spoke French and that everything had been announced in both French and English all day, somehow when someone spoke in French to me it didn’t register. You’d think my brain would hear French and think “oh we don’t speak that, better let them know.” Nope! I guess my brain just heard sounds that it didn’t understand. So I just kept saying “what?” to everyone, as if the second time it would make more sense. I blame getting up at 5:30am and getting to iso before 7:00am. (Which is a personal record, I’m hoping stands forever, as the earliest iso I’ve been in.) Luckily everyone else was quicker than me and when repeating themselves automatically switched to English. Merci!

Thanks to everyone at Regionals for making me feel so welcome and cheering me on. I really had a great time. I can’t wait to see what you guys do for Nationals!