Europe Trip 2011

Well I finally sat down for more than a few seconds so that I could update this ol' blog thingy for everyone.  Over the summer I was lucky enough to explore Europe for a little over a month with my homies Josh Levin (fellow 5.10 athlete), Joe Gifford, and Nicholas Milburn.  Concluding my last SCS Youth Nationals in which I placed 2nd in after a very EPIC 12min long time on finals (haha if u were there u know), we booked it to Munich for a few days.  While in Munich I was able to go explore the Olympic Park and hang out at some festival right by the park which was crazy!

Big Up to Jansport for providing the bags for my trip to Europe, they held up amazing!

Munich

Festival near the Olympic Park 

One of many Audi R8's spotted

Sweet BMW

Olympic Park 

My new BMW bike :D

Another Audi r8

Arco

After Munich we headed on over to Arco Italy where the Arco World Championships were being held and which I was competing in Bouldering, Sport, Speed and Team Speed.  

Places:

Bouldering:

Sport:

Speed:

Team Speed:

I had a blast in Arco, by far the most climber friendly place I have ever been to.  Literally a climbing shop every ten feet, it was ridiculously awesome!

Cool fountain

Church

Cool castle

Church

Countdown clock in the town center

Bloody huge bag

Arco

Arco

The wall

Bouldering Wall

Riva Del Gardo - town south of Arco

Finals crowd

Male bouldering champs

Sweet!!

Arco

Arco

Underground 9a

Castle that was closed after we hiked all the way up this super longggg hill. (apparently there was a sign at the bottom that said it was closed) oops lol

Crazy rooster at top of long hill 

Super Model show that me and Joe Gifford got sidetracked by on our way to Finals and ended up watching instead haha

Ceuse

Following Arco nest stop was Ceuse France.   To be honest I was not too psyched on the hike up lol as I am not the biggest fan of hiking but the climbing was definitely worth the long grueling hike up (after a nice long nap of course haha).  Sadly it was raining the next day at Ceuse so we decided to host a mini comp at the little wall that they had at the camp ground near the bottom of the wall.  

Comp Wall

Joe's feminine side

The comp winners!!

Briancon

After Ceuse was Briancon, France where my second Sport World Cup that I was going to compete in was taking place.  I placed a solid --- at the event.  These blokes are super duper strong, let me tell you lol.  I had a blast though climbing with all the legends of rock that I see on the comp killing it all the time. 

This is what happens of you dont make finals haha

Super sketchy free solo of an old castle at least 35ft, thankfully I had 5.10 on :)

The A-Team!!!!!!

Huge sucker

Dungeon

Rodellar

Next stop was Rodellar Spain!!!! Rodellar was amazing!!!  We spent nearly two weeks here and I loved every second of it.  Tufas, kneebars and drop knees galore, climbers paradise.  It was here that I sent my first 8c "Welcome to Tijuana" and 8b+ "El Chorreras".  Cannot wait to go back!

Send List:

Attempting to get some good pics while on take working Welcome to Tijuana haha

Welcome to Tijuana 8c

El Delfin

Zillertal Austria.

Josh getting his photo on 

Imst 

Arco Sport Qualifiers

Arco Sport Qualifiers July 21st, 1st out on route #1 (Climb at Noon, Italy Time) and 36th for route #2 (Climb around 3:36)  Watch live www.ifsc.tv

Arco Boulder Men and Women Finals

A HUGE CONGRATS for Sasha DiGiulian of USA for 2nd place!!!

Watch Live Men @ 7:00pm Italy Time 

www.ifsc.tv

Youth Nationals

 Nationals

The 2011 Youth National Competition was held at Stone Summit in Atlanta Georgia.  It was a four day competiton starting on the 7th of July and ending on the 10th, sport qualifiers were held on the the first two days in flash format then followed by semis and finals.  I competed in both sport and speed.  I sent qualifier one without any trouble where as the second qualifier was a little tougher with some hard roof moves to the face above the long roof.  I fell within moves from the top.  Semifinals was a blast to climb on, I scored high point for my category placing me in first going into finals. After the finals route preview, I was super pysched to get on the route.  However, in the middle of the climb there was an awkard face dyno to two slopers, unfortuonatley I totally missed this during preview and did not want to risk falling of a dyno in finals so I chilled in the same spot for 6 minutes (thank god we had unlimited time as I was on the route for 12 minutes haha) untill i finally manned up for the not so bad move.  I then speedily climbed the rest of the way as to not be on the wall any longer than I already had been.  I ended up placing a solid 2nd place in my last youth Nationals and 4th in speed with a time of 6.07.  I will now represent the US over in the youth World Championships held in Imst Austria in August.  
Qualifier #1
Qualifier #2
Semi-Finals
Finals
(Videos coming soon )

2011 Bouldering World Cup Vail!

The 2011 Vail Bouldering World Cup was a blast!  The Bouldering portion kicked off with the opening ceremonies on the 2^nd of June.  It was fun to mingle with the fellow competitors.  The next day started off with the 35+ female climbers all vying for their spot into semi-finals, followed by the men.  We had only five problems for qualifiers.  

Problem #1

Problem #2

Problem #3

Problem #4

Problem #5

 I did not have the best of days but that has just given me more motivation to come back next year even more focused.  The US ended up with an impressive 14 climbers in the Semi-Finals with the two young Superstars Julian Bautista and Dana Riddle both placing 9th overall.  Could not have asked for much more in finals with Kilian Fischhuber of Austria making it look  easy with the flash of all four Finals problems. Alex Puccio had a very impressive day in finals ending up in 2nd without even getting a bonus on on the problems.  Angie Payne of USA also had an impressive finish of 6th place.  

Triangle Rock Gym

After my amazing experience at the Dominion River Rock Bouldering Bash, I went on over to Triangle Rock Club to hang out the team kids and to do a private clinic with a few of the members on going big!  I had a wonderful time with all the team kids there.  So freaking strong they are!  I wish them GOOD LUCK on their upcoming endeavors.  :)

Special Thank To TRC for flying me out to North Carolina to hang with them.  If you are ever in the area please check them out.  Great gym!  http://trianglerockclub.com/

Dominion River Rock Comp "Bat Hang" Climb

Semi-Finals Climb

Thanks pigsalreadyfly for the video!