Last weekend I competed in the SCS 2012 open national championships at movement climbing and fitness in boulder Colorado. I had a great time competing and I’m really excited about placing 4th. The comp was a 2 day event at movement with a flash format qualifier on qualifier on Friday and an onsite style final on Saturday night. The qualifier consisted of 2 routes, for the 2 routes we were split up into two groups, one which started on the first route and one which started on the second. In between routes we had a break of at least 30 min which was great compared to last year when the format consisted of climbing 2 routes in the span of 14 minutes. I was in the first group which climbed the easier route first, in the first group I was the only one to flash route A.  Route B was a completely different story, it was a winding powerful crimp route that had no rests other than a few crappy kneebars that my knees didn’t fit in.  After climbing route B I ended up in 5th place.

The next day, Saturday, was finals in the evening. I went into the final knowing anything could happen as I was competing against some of best climbers around. The finals route was powerful and slopey, with a bathang from an enormous volume about 2/3 of the way up.  Competing in finals was a really cool experience; there was a spotlight, an announcer and tons of people in the crowd. In finals I fell hitting the volume for the bathang, which only the winner Vasya Vorotnikov did. After finals I ended up in 4th place, which I was really happy with as this was my first time in finals at an adult open competition. I’m really excited for what’s to come so now it’s back to training for the summer outdoor season and youth nationals in July.