Future of Climbing I: Cages and Volumes

Most people are interested, excited, and even anxious to see where the sport of climbing is headed.  I am one of those people, and I’d like to share my perspective on the progression of our sport.  There are many aspects I’d like to address, so just one blog post simply won’t do.  As good a place to start as any are the “cages and volumes”!

The wall is ready for finals (photo by Jesse Gagnon)

A bit over a week ago, Jesse, Rob D. and I drove down to the third annual Boulder Bash at the Dominion Riverrock in Richmond, VA.  As part of a sports and music festival, such an event brings in the biggest crowds and gives us a chance to show the world what climbing is all about.  Well, Brent Quesenberry with a team of professional setters took the opportunity one step further, put up a couple of oversized overhanging steel cages and pasted enough volumes on these things to make IFSC jealous!

The crowd loves this event with all the music, the lights, the crazy looking walls that resemble Ninja Warrior structures.  In turn, the event sponsors are happy and this helps our growing sport.  Does this really show off the basics of our sport to general public, though?  Don’t we sometimes climb slabs?  Don’t we scale smaller boulders with a tiny pad underneath us?  And don’t we also climb much taller walls with a rope to show off our fitness levels?  Sure we do, and we are used to those standards: bouldering and sport climbing.

Well, this event is something new and fresh to our sport.  It is more exciting for the spectators as these structures were never seen before.  It is fun for us athletes, and it is definitely still a climbing competition, with a twist...  Sitting in isolation, we had no idea whether our next round was going to be mainly to test our strength, our endurance, or maybe the ability to figure out all the toehooks and heelhooks on the wall.  In other words, one had to be good in all aspects of climbing to come out on top in the end.

To me, this event clearly demonstrates the potential for growth of climbing as a sport.  For instance, we have known for ages that we can make climbing look cool for climbers, but what about the general population?  This is still an uncharted territory for climbing that can be reached through music and outdoor festivals like the Dominion Riverrock and the Nor’easter.  It took a lot of ingenuity, dedication, time, and money to put together the Boulder Bash and should be viewed as a major accomplishment.  The athletes enjoyed competing and the spectators were thrilled to see something new, and it is this kind of symbiosis that is necessary for the progression of competitive rock climbing.

Check out this gallery by Jesse Gagnon:

		Riverrock 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I ended up in 3rd place just after Jimmy Webb and Rob D’Anastasio, while Sasha Digiulian proved dominant in the women’s category.  The 3-day event ended with speed bouldering, in which Meagan Martin took the title and in which I battled Josh Levin (or simply McLevin’) for 1st, but he took it with time to spare.

Josh (left) and I (right) in the final showdown.  Photo by Mark Pownall.

Road to ABS Nationals 2013

Hells yeah, I got 3rd place at Nationals!  Just being in the finals is already a win in my book, but standing on a national podium next to Daniel Woods and Ian Dory is… pretty fucking awesome!  Aside from give-or-take 16 years of climbing, here’s what got me here, I think…

Having recovered from my shoulder injury about a year ago, I’ve been looking forward to 2013 ABS Nationals.  After trying out a couple of sport climbing events on the World Cup circuit, I jumped straight into bouldering.

1. Win some, lose some

Starting in October, I did a bunch of comps on the East Coast to gain more experience and keep the motivation high.  I took 1st at the first of the Dark Horse Series in Boston, then the Midnight Burn in Philadelphia, then the Rock Wars down in Rockville, MD…  Then, Mike Feinberg showed me how to actually squeeze the juice out of pinches at the Winter Burn in Philly, putting on a commanding winning performance (I got 3rd).  Then, Jimmy Webb and I battled in the third Dark Horse. Jimmy took the win by topping out the last problem, all during his jaw-dropping annihilation of the Northeast classic boulders.

2. Rethinking my strategy

Going over why we all fell, fall, and will fall… (Emily Varisco)

Getting tested on some techy yet powerful moves. (Emily Varisco)

With a few losses behind me, I needed something to change up my training routine, and Chris Danielson with Tonde Katiyo helped make this happen.  These names are generally associated with setting, but these guys want to push the envelope in multiple aspects of climbing, and creating a generation of professional athletes out of climbers is on their to-do list.

They put together a 2-day training camp at EarthTreks in Rockville for some of the US top boulderers. You may recognize some of these names simply by looking at the final results at ABS Nationals 2013: Ian Dory, Carlo Traversi, Paul Robinson, and Austin Geiman all placed in top 10 among men while Isabelle Faus, Angie Payne, Meagan Martin, Michaela Kiersch made the same list for women.

With a comp-like feel the entire 2 days, we pushed each other as we obeyed our masters and pulled hard on anything they prepared for us.  Long story short, they made us fall (how dare they?), they made us bleed (nobody makes me bleed my own blood… nobody!), they made us rethink our competitive strategy…  I found out that climbers with 10+ years of experience, including myself, still do not know how to properly warm up.  I learned the importance of that flash attempt and how to move on to whatever is next…

Feeling stronger after the training camp.

3. Another injury

Dark Horse Series Finale was up and it seemed like a perfect chance to try out the new skill set.  But, as can happen to anyone, I fell and unfortunately spraining my ankle.  Instant pain got me worried I may have broken it, but another minute and a competitive adrenaline rush later, I pulled my shoe back on and finished the comp.  It was a stupid thing to do as I’m sure trying to toe down with a sprained ankle didn’t help the healing process and in fact likely did the opposite.

On adrenaline, on #4 (Vince Schaefer)

On #4, I just had to campus, so foot was good (Nick Milburn)

4. Training with a sprained ankle

I was able to walk, almost without a limp, within less than a week.  Excited about such an improvement, I figured signing up for ABS Nationals was practically a necessity.  Then, all I had to do was train…  It’s actually pretty straightforward to train with a sprained ankle: you can’t run, can’t jump, can’t bike, can barely walk, obviously can’t climb…

BUT, you can do pullups, pushups, deadhangs, campus, pullups, situps, pullups, campus.  So, I taped up, put my sneakers on, and got on the campus board at Delaware Rock Gym.  About 50 campuses an hour, 3 days a week for 4 weeks gets you so bored that the psyche to get on the wall goes up exponentially, even if painful.

Finally, 30 days after the injury, I put my shoes on and attempted to climb.  Aside from jumping off the wall or toeing down on the injured ankle, there was no pain.  While not 100%, I had to start climbing because I wouldn’t be able to do anything at ABS.  Another 3 days of climbing with the taped-up ankle (props to TJ’s taping technique) and another 4 days of rest before the comp and… Boom, I was on the plane to Denver to meet up with Josh Larson.

5. The comp: strategy and luck

At the comp, my strategy was pretty simple:  no expectations, try to flash (falling hurts + it’s kind of a winning strategy to begin with), and just enjoy the boulder problems.  This is also when an injury can be a blessing in disguise: the personal expectations may be significantly lower and the mental state no longer requires much preparation.

So, with some strategy, some luck, and a whole lot of friends cheering for me, I tried the best I could.  I was first pleasantly surprised with my qualifier results, finishing in top 3 with Dylan Barks and Daniel Woods.  In the semifinals, I flashed 3 of 4 problems, but got stuck on one where I had to use my sprained ankle the most.  This barely gave me enough to move on to finals.  Going first in the finals allowed me to fully focus on my own climbing and the rest was enjoying the boulders!

Ian and I scoping out the finals (Beau Kahler Photography)

Finishing up # 1 (Beau Kahler Photography)

Working through # 2 (Beau Kahler Photography)

Finishing # 2 (Beau Kahler Photography)

Working through # 3 (Beau Kahler Photography)

Dyno on # 4 (Julian Boyd)

6. Summary of an awesome weekend in Colorado

The best way to summarize my trip:

Josh Larson and I en route to Colorado Springs, through the snowy neighborhood of friends from LT11.

Joe Pill was able to come up with this artsy ensemble by, believe it or not, simply adjusting levels in Photoshop!

First Lead World Cup: Chamonix 2012

Chamonix, France was the first stop of the year and just happened to be my first ever appearance at a World Cup event!  Despite it being such a short trip, it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience both in terms of climbing and traveling.  For results, check out the IFSC website.  In this blog, though, I’ll try and give a short recap of the event from a World Cup newbie standpoint.

I generally consider myself to be the kind of person that learns from the mistakes of others, but Chamonix proved me wrong.  I f***ed up quite a few things, but also observed what some others did right.  As a result I came up with two lists: what to do and what not to do.

What not to do for/at a World Cup event:

• For training, do laps on 5.11s: it’ll help you with endurance training for the big event
• Even if traveling from 6 time zones away, arrive to destination less than 20 hours before the qualifiers
• Don’t sleep on the plane at night, because it’s already morning at your destination
• Expect 3 cups of macchiato to help you climb well if you only had 7 hours of sleep in 2 nights
• Warm up, then relax for a while before climbing; there’s no need to keep your hands warm
• Expect all of the holds at a World Cup event to be similar to the ones you train on; after all, how different can these slopers, pinches, and crimps be?
• Treat a World Cup as just another comp; there’s no need to try hard in the qualifiers to make it to the next round

What to do for/at a World Cup event:

• Volume is important to endurance training, but nothing beats being able to climb something really hard even once.  Ramon Julian sent some 9a+/9b just the other week…
• Make sure you are in the best shape of your life; top 10 climbers all have ~2% body fat
• When traveling from afar, arrive at least a couple of days early to adjust to the time zone; it’s important to feel naturally energized… If possible, just move to Europe.
• Warm up well, stay warm all the way until you begin climbing
• Try your absolute best; even if you’re pumped, you can typically will-power yourself another few holds

Enjoy the pictures… and I’m off to Stuttgart for Adidas Rockstars!

		Chamonix VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL