Hello! Since my last climbing post, I’ve gone a few more times and made some breakthroughs! My friend Ava (who is my climbing partner) and I have set Wednesday evenings as our climbing day. This has really helped me to make sure I am making the time to go to the climbing gym and actually see some progress, it also helps keep track of how often I’m going. Last week, Boulderhouse had a Halloween event on Friday the 28th which included climbing competition, local drinks and a dj. It was also their 7th anniversary and they had various contests including a costume contest, early bird registration and the climbing score competition. This created a really fun environment and a strong sense of community. It was cool to see the range of abilities at this event as there were many people who came with a friend and it was there first time climbing. On the other hand, me and Ava met someone who was on the youth Team Canada for speed climbing. We enjoyed observing his techniques as he flew up the wall.

The climbing competition itself on Friday was a scramble competition which consisted of many different circuits on the wall as usual but the catch was the coloured tapes were all white, so the levels were not displayed. Each circuit had a number associated with it at the start of the run and so if you complete it, you log it on the online competition score sheet. Each registered climber keeps track of their successful climbs and plugs them in online. Boulderhouse staff then add up how many circuits each climber completed and their difficulty to decide who makes it onto the leaderboard. It was such a busy night so Ava and I didn’t get too many runs done because of how many people were there! I ended up not even logging my climbs in the competition because my goal was not to try and win (I also didn’t stand a chance) but rather just to improve my technique and push myself.

This week, we went climbing on Tuesday instead of Wednesday as we both had plans. Instead of 8 pm, we went right after school more around 4 pm and it made such a difference! The climbing gym was so nice and empty and this gave me a new sense of confidence to try circuits I haven’t tried before and test out some more difficult levels. When the wall is busy, it can feel like you’re holding up the others while you try and figure out a circuit. Having the freedom of no one waiting to go after allowed me to try and fail more difficult circuits until I was able to complete them. On the slab wall, there was some large volumes (A volume is an extension of the wall- multi-sided climbing feature that attaches to the wall similar to a climbing hand hold) which provided a unique challenge. I enjoyed experimenting with these and I spent some time working on this circuit which was a green tape.

Next week, my goal is to work on some overhang climbs. I feel like my upper body strength has improved and I’d like to work on my grip strength more. I have been sticking to the slab wall but I want to push myself to work on a wall I feel less confident on. Till next time!