123: January 2011

I have just recently returned from the Pan American Games which were held in Ibarra Ecuador in which I took 1^st place in Juniors for Bouldering and Sport and 6^th place for Speed. It was a real privilege for me to represent the USA in the first ever Pan American Games. The games had a very impressive turn out with representation from Argentina, Canada, Mexico, USA, Venezuela and of course Ecuador. Bouldering was the first discipline to start off the competition. Due to weather conditions the competition schedule had to be rearranged and moved around a lot; however it all worked out in the end. Bouldering Qualifiers went really well as I was the only one in Junior to send 4 of the 5 problems. In doing so I felt pretty confident about my chances of doing well for finals which were the next day. I really liked the way they held finals, because they used the world cup format. In the world cup format all of the six finalists, preview each of there four problems. Each climber then takes turns climbing the problem, once everyone has finished we then move onto the next problem. This way each climber has a good solid rest between each problem, allowing the problems to be harder in difficulty. I really liked problems two and three for finals. Problem two had a sick dyno to two spiky looking holds, my first attempt I didn’t fully commit and slipped off the two holds. Second go I fell on a cross move in which you had to step your foot up really high. Then third go I had my beta down and finished it off. Problem three was really unique in that you started the problem by swinging from a hold attached to a rope to another hold on the wall. I thought that was really unique. I ended up flashing problem number four as well making me Continental Champion for Bouldering in Junior Male. As you can imagine I was super stoked!!!