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Pueblo Comp

We had our longest drive as a team down to Pueblo, CO last weekend for a comp. Eight of us met at 8 am Saturday morning to start our long day. We had three girls this time! The other car b-lined it down to Pueblo and got a legitimate lunch. Our car ate snacks in the car so we could go shopping at REI. Personally, I think we made the better choice. Spencer was such a good sport about hanging out with the females. Once we got down to Pueblo, the weather was SO WARM. Jeez, it must have been like 70 degrees. The four of us did yoga in the sun until our heat started :)

The comp was at YMCA-Pueblo. It was bouldering and top-roping, with your score being comprised of your hardest three climbs from each section. If you climbed three routes in the category above you, you got bumped up. Knowing this, I tried to plan accordingly by climbing 2 high-scoring intermediate problems and all the upper beginner routes. Sadly, the super awesome but super tall 50 foot top-roping wall completely wore me out and I couldn't actually get both my intermediate problems :( I am not looking forward so much to our scores coming out this week. But it was so awesome to climb on such a cool wall and see some of the friends I made last time! I feel like I pushed myself a lot harder this competition and I'm sad there's only one Rocky Mountain comp left that we'll be attending. After a long day and stopping to get pizza at Pizza Casbah, we got back around 10 pm.

Nicole crushing, as is tradition

I think my new friend pulled off the pink shades nicely

Nora gettin' it on the big wall! Yes, that is a crack feature.

Nick on the bouldering wall

One of the most frustrating climbs I've ever done- but there were Dum-Dums at the top :P

Classy Team shot
(myself, Nora, Brian, Andrew, Nick, Esteban, Nicole, Spencer)

Flashy Leggings

Last weekend was the last of Half Acre's Friday Night Bouldering Series competition to ever be held on our current wall. At the end of this semester, it's getting torn down as part of the renovations to the gym and a bigger, better climbing wall will replace it... in a year. What we're gonna do with ourselves until then, I have no idea. I'm freakin' out just a little...

But on to highlights! The competition had a great turn out from UW students and Casper, WY and Colorado residents alike. It was a toss up for which category I should enter in. I had placed in the intermediate category at my first comp when there were few girls and I had seen only one female enter the marathon category at the next one, so with more girls at this comp than I had ever seen before I had no idea which basket I should put my eggs into. I decided to shoot for doing marathon and it ended up that was the wrong choice, but I think I'd been screwed either way. My climbing is at such an in between level right now. When I can flash 9 out of 10 of the beginner routes but can barely do 2 or 3 of the intermediate, it's a wake up call once again that I need to step up the training and really commit to moving past that beginner level.

I made some awesome new friends this competition though! I hope to keep climbing and hanging out with them in the future.

Gameface on.

Showing off our beautiful leggings.

Reppin' the UK gear

wooooo

And a climbing pic, just to prove we actually did climb.

Heading to satisfy those post-comp munchies.

UW Climbing Team's First Comp

The USA Climbing Collegiate Climbing Series has officially begun! This is UW's second year with an organized climbing team, and from what I've observed so far, we're going to have a super exciting season culminating in UW hosting the regional competition in April! We've started having practices twice a week, and then all of a sudden it was time for the first competition.

After a five hour drive (with a stop at the infamous Big City Burrito), our team of 8 climbers arrived at the Sport Climbing Center of Colorado Springs. Their gym was sweet. A large room with sport climbing on one side and bouldering on the other, with a center section that was connected to one side by an archway, which was all climbable. You could even top out on most of the bouldering! And all supported by nice cushy, new padding... There were 3 difficulty categories, and about 30 problems set throughout the bouldering sections of the gym. After settling in and inspecting all the nooks and crannies, announcements were made, door prizes were thrown from the top out area, and we got to work.

Spencer, Matt, Nick, Ian, and Nicole crushing routes

With around 100 competitors and spectators, the gym was a little crowded but not too stuffed. Having to wait to do your next problem provided much needed recovery and a chance to chat with others. I got to meet people from the Air Force Academy, CSU- Pueblo, and Adams State University. Everyone was really friendly and of varying strength. It was awesome to see people crush problems that I couldn't imagine doing after at least a couple more years of intense training.

Climbing Buddies fo' life

Our whole team qualified in the intermediate category! Nicole placed 2nd in Women's Intermediate and Brian got 5th in Men's Intermediate. Now that we understand the scoring, I hope that I can train harder and not be sick next time so I can place a little higher :) We had a long drive back that night, but everyone did a really awesome job and had an awesome time.

UW Climbing Team has good prospects for this season!