After a not-so-exciting spring, stuff is finally starting to heat up!  I have one more week of school and finals, and then I’m done with my sophomore year of high school.  I’ve been attending Peak Potential weekly, and have also been competing a LOT lately, basically having a comp every weekend for about a month.  On April 21 I had a sport comp at a gym in New Rochelle called TRC, and the weekend after, I competed in the finals for a new series started by Deadpoint Magazine called the YBS (Youth Bouldering Series).  The next weekend, May 5, I went to New Jersey Rock Gym, for the last comp before SCS regionals.  I placed first at all these events, so I was pretty psyched, especially since endurance climbing has always been a week point of mine.

Last Saturday was SCS regionals.  It was in a little town called Halfmoon, NY (like 20 miles north of Albany), at a new gym I had never heard of.  There were a few delays in the morning, but I was in the afternoon stack of climbers, so they didn’t affect me too badly.  I started climbing around 5:30 pm.  It was an onsight comp, with three routes per age group.  My first route was about a 5.9 up until the last two moves, where it went from about 5.9 to 5.11.  I flashed it pretty quickly, and moved on to the second climb.  This was a slabby, technical climb, which is definitely a weakness of mine, so I was happy to have onsighted this one as well, even though I was way more pumped and exhausted than I should have been.  The third climb was a bit misleading; everyone thought it was going to be really easy, but there was a reachy crux around the fourth bolt and another crux at the next bolt, only with pinches.  I got through these, then pitched off the climb at the last hold before the finish because I was so pumped.  This was enough to put me in first place, but it made me realize that I need to work on my endurance a lot more before divisionals in June, and hopefully nationals in July.  I then went and competed in speed climbing about three minutes after I sport climbed, and placed second in that.  I got home at about midnight, and passed out the second I hit the bed.

I don’t really have any plans set in stone for the next few months, but my climbing over the summer has a way of putting itself together at the last minute, so I’ll have to see where that takes me.  All I know is I’m going to be training as hard as I can for SCS divisionals, and hopefully getting to climb outside as much as I can in this great weather.  A huge thanks to Five Ten for all their help!  I couldn’t ask for better shoes or support!

Photos from the YBS final event