Comp in Western Mass: Nationals 2?

Last weekend, I drove up to Hadley, MA for a Central Rock Gym sport climbing comp... the "Ring of Fire"!  While there were fewer guys than 2 weeks ago, the competition seemed just as fierce, with Daniel Woods, Josh Levin, Alex “socks” Johnson, and others who attended the USA sport nationals.  For gals, Sasha was a clear favorite, same as at Nationals.  My sister, Nadya Vorotnikova came out of hiding and decided to clip a few draws despite having trained only on a miniature 7-ft wall at UNH.

Shane Messer, other route setters, and the staff put up a great sport comp that I think deserved more attention than they got.  The gym is pretty awesome, up there with Rockville Earthtreks and Movement in Boulder.  They even had live streaming and a gym full of something over a 100 people just to watch!  So, all you competitors out there, the "Ring of Fire" will be a big comp to watch out for as they promise to come up with even more money for top 5 (!!!) finishers!

Check out the results and links to some videos my dad got of people climbing in the finals:

Men	Women
1. Alex “sock” Johnson	1. Sasha Digulian
2. Daniel Woods	2. Kasia Pietras
3. Vasya Vorotnikov	3. Isabelle Faus
4. Josh Levin	4. Nadya Vorotnikova
5. Nicholas Millburn	5. Melanie Messer

Central Rock Gym even made their own highlights of the comp!!!



Also, LT11 decided to give an aspiring competitor a closer look at what he or she can expect from National Championships finals!  Here’s a closer RAW video from USA Sport Nationals!


2012 SCS Nationals RAW from USA Climbing on Vimeo.

USA Climbing Sport Nationals 2012

Here’s Louder Than 11’s recap of the USA Climbing Open Nationals. Having the pleasure to stay with LT11’s co-owners over the weekend, I have to say that they don’t just make professional videos, they also do it incredibly fast. They put their hearts and souls into these videos, so enjoy.



The hype was great. Everyone was friendly and was psyched for each other. Routes were set to international standards. Basically, a typical USA adult climbing comp...

There was a lot leading up to this event that really made this comp memorable for me… I haven’t competed in sport/difficulty since the USA Sport Nationals 2006. I’ve been out of climbing for four months October – January due to a SLAP tear in my left shoulder; so, I have only been climbing for the past two months, slowly progressing back to where I was. I became a US citizen last year, so this is the first time I’m eligible to be on a USA climbing team. School has been busy. The competition has been intimidating. Carlo Traversi has been up on podium basically every year. I haven’t even seen Matty Hong climb, but know he’s been kicking ass, and he’s young. There is a new wave of like 20 teenagers who are ready to convert their Juniors’ wins to adult titles. Then, there’s Daniel Woods, who decides to put up a 5.14d right after bouldering Nationals. What most people, including Daniel didn’t know, is that there was some history to me competing with him in this comp. Last time I competed in 2006, I got 2nd place after none other than Daniel Woods. Finally, with no other big enough comps to gain sport climbing expertise in the United States, it was the only logical choice to attend this competition.

Anyways, here are the results:

Men	Women
1. Vasya Vorotnikov (me)	1. Sasha Digulian
2. Dylan Barks	2. Delaney Miller
3. Daniel Woods	3. Michaela Kiersch
4. Noah Ridge	4. Chelsea Rude
5. Matty Hong	5. Tiffany Hensley

And here are some pictures of me on the finals route including the sequence with the bathang. These were taken by Caroline Treadway, a photographer for USA Climbing.

		Me on finals route. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL