This is my fourth competition of the season. There were 58 climbers in the open category. The out-of-town climbers came only from Toronto and Montreal.The Coyote Rock Gym is a famous place for competitions in eastern Canada. They always put on a good show for spectators and have good problems for competitors.The qualifying round was not too hard and many climbers did the hardest problems. After three hours of climbing, I completed six problems in the top seven problems. This score put me in eighth place in the finals. I was nervous because all the climbers were in excellent...

Making a transition between the seasons is always an interesting shift for me. One day it is summer living, flying and riding as much as possible, from mountain biking to BASE jumping. Then, as what seem like a drop of a hat, I am smack dab in the middle of my winter rush. The 4-5 month rush of traveling around the globe, chasing snow, skiing, BASE jumping, and what seems like endless competitions with the newly united Swatch Freeride World Tour. Currently I am in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada, where the snow continues to fall....

So much has been going on this summer it’s been hard to keep track of everything: Lots of comps, busy at work, and plenty of training and outdoor climbing.Most recently, I’ve been competing at the Summer Sweat Fests. This competition series is not sanctioned for CEC points, but competitors from across Ontario come out and have their shot at the title and big prize money. Aside from cash and bragging rights, this series serves as an excellent tool to practice my competition mentality. When the beach weather hits and the real rock becomes climbable it can be harder to...

In eastern Canada, the hot and humid days are slowly going away, and the good temps are coming soon!For us eastern Canadians, this is the ideal time for training. The prime time to start climbing at our local areas start mid-august and end in November, just in time for the beginning of our competition season! So it is time for me to hit up my campus board. This time I have decided to try out a new training strategy for my general training...I call it The Russian technique!!! 3000 chin-ups in a month + outdoor climbing + indoor climbing...

Since my last blog entry, after the Canadian bouldering championship I have had to work a lot. I knew the difficulty (routes) national was coming up 4 weeks after the bouldering national (we were lucky this year with both nationals being held in Montreal) and I was hoping to train hard in between, but I could not seem to be able to make time for it. So I did what I could, when I could. I did resistance training on the bouldering wall because it takes less time than rope climbing. I even wondered if it was worth it...

I have been competing for a long time. I have taken breaks throughout the years but I always get back to it because I enjoy it. I have always liked to have a direction or a goal to work towards. This is how I get myself motivated for the 6 months winter we have in Montreal. Comps allow me to keep training, see my weakness and it is such a good challenge. The hard part is staying injury free. I have only gotten hurt at bouldering comps. Basically, I go one comp at the time. If I am too...