December is a busy time for everyone with finals, the holidays, and the height of competition season.On December 10th we hosted the ABS13 Youth Regionals at Miramont Lifestyle Fitness. I love setting for youth competitions. All the problems fit me perfectly and the kids are amazing. I can’t believe how good the competitors are. From the youngest kids to the 18 year olds, the talent is unbelievable. The future of our sport is in capable hands. The next generation is going to do things we did not think possible. All the kids are so psyched! It is very inspiring....

Two weeks ago was bouldering regionals. I took first, but I had made quite a few mistakes. I suppose that's what competitions are really about- efficiency. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody is usually strong and capable of the climbs as well. But in most cases, especially at higher level competitions, the climbers that are most efficient and minimizes their mistakes are the ones that take first. I'm glad this competition was not nationals because there would have been even more strong climbers trying to be the most efficient. Two weeks ago there were seven girls in my category. At divisionals,...

In an earlier post, I alluded to some changes in the way I think about success and failure in climbing. Over the past year, I’ve been working to develop what you might say is a healthier relationship with climbing, spurred on particularly by my first big alpine trip. Understanding why this has been a difficult but necessary process requires knowing a little more about me. My own self-awareness was enhanced recently by a personality test of sorts I had to take during a staff retreat at work. Couched in terms of uncovering each individual’s “strengths,” the test results provided...

Well I'm posted up in Santa Cruz, California for a minute. I've now been on the road for over two months, fully recovered from the Wisdom Teeth/Concussion epidemic. (Although I'm still waiting for my tooth chasms to creep the rest of the way closed...)

After five weeks in New Zealand, it felt like high time to leave... The weather had changed to a nasty Easterly flow. Low-lying cloud rolls in off the sea, leaving Christchurch damp and miserable. "The Cave" is worst of all - It is the one place left to climb, and faces due east, therefore immediately becoming a nasty spooge bowl! A week before I left I came very close to climbing one of the few climbs which I have not climbed in the Cave, but the Easterly made a send impossible. A little frustrating, yet it made leaving NZ...

I remember getting bored on my first long road trips. I did my best to prepare with an arms load of books, journals, or playing cards. I would even try out new hobbies like knitting or baking or something. Usually I wouldn’t really like these hobby, the books would get read, my writing wasn’t all that notable and at the end of those long, long rest days I wanted something else to DO.