Comp season has officially begun! A couple weeks ago, I participated in a bouldering and sport climbing comp at UTSA. It’s a fairly small gym, but one of the walls is 54 feet tall, so it’s a nice opportunity for some endurance training. They dedicated a whole week to climbing, calling it Climbapalooza. It was a 4-day competition with about 35 routes/problems, and a complimentary showing of Reel Rock 7 halfway through the week. It was an absolute blast, and I really surprised myself with some of the problems. I’m not exceptionally dynamic or capable of utilizing slopers, but...

Fall is here in Colorado. The leaves are changing and a chilly breeze inhabits the air. This can only mean one thing: Psychedelia is on it's way! For those of you who don't know, Psychedelia is The Spot Gym's annual halloween themed glow in the dark black light bouldering competition and the second of four comps in the Spot Bouldering Series. Every year The Spot replaces all the regular light bulbs with black lights and begins painting hundreds of holds with fluorescent paint. They also bring in a handful of people to create tape art. It's amazing what people...

The fifth edition of this year’s speed World Cup was held in amazing setting for Upland of Qinghai Plateau in China. Edyta wasn’t a favorite of that event. Qualifying round was a big challeng for her, during first run as a result of bad belaying she accidentally grabbed the rope, causing a slow-down run. She obtained time 9,56 seconds. In second race she unfortunately fell off the wall. She was classified in 10th place. The final spacing is the darkest of the possible scenarios. In all final races she was spaced with the strongest athletes in...

Hello again! The 2011/2012 competition season has finally come to a close – just in time for the first Tour de Bloc of season 10! The Summer Sweat Fest season wrapped up with the finale at True North Climbing a few weeks ago. I had been looking forward to the comp for weeks after having a ton of fun at last year’s finale event. The setters and organizers also had surprises up their sleeve for the comp format this year, which both excited and intimidated me. I managed to win all the Sweat Fest comps...

For any athlete, recovery is incredibly important. Without it you risk injury or further worsening a pre-existing condition. Sadly, it’s the one area we all seem to actively overlook. Normally, I see a fellow climber that does my physio and some needling work. I also work with a former competitive gymnast turned climber for massage therapy. I feel it’s important to be choosy with who does your recovery work and to know what someone is working on, how they plan to work on it and why. Asking questions is the easiest way to ensure you are being given proper...

Out of all the competitions this season, I must say that the setting for this year's PBR earned top points for creativity and interesting vagueness. I was a little nervous after our preview since it wasn't the difficulty of the problem that was intimidating; it was figuring out how to even climb it! We weren't familiar with the sweet spots on many giant volumes that dominated the walls and there were random holds we may or may not have needed; we truly forged into the unknown! Once I was on the problems however, everything more or...