http://fiveten.com/ http://fiveten.com/images/stories/NewBox_black.png http://fiveten.com/ http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12851-austrian-bouldering-nationals-2012-emi-moosburger http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12851-austrian-bouldering-nationals-2012-emi-moosburger This year I decided to take a break of the comp scene because I am doing my diploma at Uni besides working half time so there would not be much room and time flexibility for comps and I'd rather spend my free time on the rock than on comp walls. But the nationals were one of the events I wanted to attend anyway so I was well excited when the day came and we drove to the comp site.I trained a lot indoors the past months and felt in good shape, but had no clue what to expect, just... ]]> Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:35:00 -0400 12851 2012-04-15 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-worst-enemy-1334496939.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-time-check-1334496939.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-problem-3-1334496940.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-problem-3-2-1334496940.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-volume-wrestling-on-problem-4-1334496940.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_flomurnig-curious-looks-after-the-last-bloc-1334496940.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12843-scs-adult-nationals-2012-michaela-kiersch http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12843-scs-adult-nationals-2012-michaela-kiersch I was in Boulder, Colorado (the climbing capitol of USA) this past weekend to compete in the SCS Adult National Championships. Going into the comp, my goal was to make finals (top 8 competitors). Last year I got 9th place which I was proud of, but I wanted to improve my placement this year. I had been training on ropes for a while before this comp and I had set a high goal for myself. Looking at the start list was intimidating because of all the amazing women who had signed up- Angie Payne, Sasha... ]]> Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:52:00 -0400 12843 2012-04-12 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_398827-3606788527707-1213491599-3569689-1810429781-n-1334195549.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_560630-3606862729562-1213491599-3569755-971168250-n-1334195549.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_556217-3606870089746-1213491599-3569767-1790462559-n-1334195550.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12837-noah-ridge-at-scs-2012-open-nationals http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12837-noah-ridge-at-scs-2012-open-nationals 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... ]]> Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:53:00 -0400 12837 2012-04-11 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_470526-3606802168048-1213491599-3569699-1345170763-o-1334156006.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12835-scs-nationals-delaney-miller http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12835-scs-nationals-delaney-miller This weekend was SCS Nationals. It was so much fun and it was great seeing everyone! I came in second, which is something I'm really psyched about! The routes were awesome and I've always love climbing at Movement; it's a great gym. I didn't do as well I as I wanted to in qualifiers, but I feel like I did the best I could have during finals. The finals route was probably a 5.13a, and I was a little sketched out in the beginning, but by the end I felt confident. I love rope climbing because by the time... ]]> Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:46:00 -0400 12835 2012-04-11 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_boulder-1-of-1-12-1334105166.jpeg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_5.10389750-10150668808212877-557262876-9640014-1616728897-n-1334105167.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12820-abs-nationals-joseph-gifford http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12820-abs-nationals-joseph-gifford I recently competed in ABS nationals both youth and adult. They were both super fun and I had a great time climbing the routes that were set for both competitions.First I competed in adult ABS, The routes were difficult but really cool. I completed two out of the five routs in qualifiers, my first climb was a slabby route that wasn’t too hard and I flashed it, the second was a slopery ball hold climb. I got to the top of the climb and just popped off because I got way too exhausted, the third climb was really crimpy... ]]> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:12:00 -0400 12820 2012-04-04 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_422726-3540949762994-1249945189-33593731-287462593-n-1333581146.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_431549-3540949482987-1249945189-33593730-769969855-n-1333581146.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_424166-3540928762469-1249945189-33593688-346619793-n-1333581146.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_417622-3104841212777-1016652802-3001660-721068456-n-1333581146.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_429725-3540947202930-1249945189-33593726-2038519211-n-1333581147.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12777-vertical-endeavors-no-holds-barred-2012-greg-padovani http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12777-vertical-endeavors-no-holds-barred-2012-greg-padovani Vertical Endeavors, a Midwest based company has a few gyms in Minnesota and one gym, Warrenville in Chicagoland. For 11 years VE Warrenville has hosted a comp, The No Holds Barred. I have competed in all eleven years except for one year when I had an injury. VE has always put on an impressive competition with a mixed style of scoring. Due to the fact that the gym is mostly designed for rope climbing, the majority of the comp was based around routes. Qualifier rounds are redpoint based with the majority of points coming from rope climbs, but traditionally... ]]> Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:09:00 -0400 12777 2012-03-24 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_nhb-2012-balls-clip-2-1332565769.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_nhb-2012-headwall-1332565770.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_nhb-2012-balls-clip-1332565770.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_nhb-2012-balls-photo-1332565770.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12756-abs-nationals-2012-michaela-kiersch http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12756-abs-nationals-2012-michaela-kiersch I'm a little late on the update, ABS Nationals was a little more than 2 weeks ago. I was really psyched to compete at this competition and to see all of my great friends in USAC. The qualifying round was interesting for me. I woke up early that morning, due to nerves and excitement; but because of this, I was left anxiously waiting around the lobby until I could finally head over to ISO. After a good warm up, it was my turn to climb. The first two problems went really well, I flashed both of... ]]> Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:54:00 -0400 12756 2012-03-20 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_64987-2640797193824-1672394256-1631216-1565965881-n-1332208469.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_423853-10150593716103994-622023993-9065456-785245428-n-1332208469.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_429190-10150826028161102-788821101-12271914-1158592041-n-1332208469.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12743-2012-abs-youth-national-championships-mike-rougeux http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12743-2012-abs-youth-national-championships-mike-rougeux It's been over a week since the 2012 ABS 13 Youth National Championships in Colorado Springs so it's probably a good time to post something about it. This was the fourth ABS Nationals that I've coached at and I can say hands down it was the best one yet! For the second year in a row we had really nice comp style walls and I'm happy to see the events being held in bigger non-climbing gym venues. This years walls were built by our hometown companyEntreprises. The walls looked great and I'm still digging the inclusion of slab in... ]]> Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:12:00 -0400 12743 2012-03-16 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_wall-shot-1331860354.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_lukas-2012abs-nats-photo-bob-1331860354.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_abs13-us-team-photo-bob-1331860354.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12722-2012-abs-13-youth-boudering-nationals-mirko-caballero http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12722-2012-abs-13-youth-boudering-nationals-mirko-caballero This past weekend I participated in the 2012 USAC ABS 13 Youth Bouldering National Championships. My Dad had to work in Colorado all week, so my Mom and I traveled with him. On Tuesday I went to train at the Movement gym in Boulder, and we met Lynn Hill. We talked for a while, and then she bouldered with me. It was just awesome meeting her, and Lynn was really nice! I also met Matty Hong and Jamie Emerson. Wednesday I trained for a couple of hours with Justen Sjong, who gave me lots of good advice, and Thursday... ]]> Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:06:00 -0400 12722 2012-03-11 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_36558068-abs12-04-111954-1331435160.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_dsc-5902-1331435162.jpeg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_national-champion-1331435162.JPG http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_zero-gravity-1331435163.JPG http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_usa-team-1331435164.JPG http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12688-2012-bouldering-nationals-greg-padovani http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12688-2012-bouldering-nationals-greg-padovani Overall, from fit to finish, I felt pretty good this weekend. I could tell right when I landed that I was at a significant disadvantage due to the change in altitude - I was winded walking off the plane. I tried my friend’s trick of doing some sprints immediately after landing, but it is hard to tell if it helped. I proceeded to follow a high water and lower protein diet for the day preceding the comp to help my body acclimate to the altitude. ]]> Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:24:00 -0500 12688 2012-03-02 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-1-1330719860.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-4-1330719861.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-6-1330719861.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-15-1330719862.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-5-1330719862.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-7-1330719863.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_greg-p-16-1330719863.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12669-abs-youth-nationals-michaela-kiersch http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12669-abs-youth-nationals-michaela-kiersch So ABS Youth Nationals are coming up this weekend! I am really psyched to go to Colorado Springs to compete. I've been training for bouldering since September and I feel confident in my ability right now. I've been going to the gym 6 days a week and doing various chin up, campus, system board, and hangboard workouts. It's been a long season and I'm really psyched to see how it's going to turn out! Aside from the competing, I am also excited to see all of my close friends. Over the years, I've been... ]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:22:00 -0500 12669 2012-02-27 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/12669_mk-1-1330530388.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12616-3-comps-3weeks-sebastien-lazure http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12616-3-comps-3weeks-sebastien-lazure January 28th.It was the third editions of the Gonflé à Bloc comp in Montreal and it feels to me that the first one was held only few days ago. Time goes by, and it's been already three years since my home gym's first Tour de Bloc stop. It was the only stop of the tour in Montreal this season and expectations were high! A total of 235 climbers competed that day! I think it was an overall success and one of the best one so far! Not because I’m really happy of my climbing that day but surely because... ]]> Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:44:00 -0500 12616 2012-02-10 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_seb-problem-5-nic-1328903097.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_bagley-darkhorse-2-4-2012-3725-1328903097.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_bagley-darkhorse-2-4-2012-3923-1328903097.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_vertical-bourdeau-2-1328903097.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_vertical-bourdeau-1328903097.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_vertical-guy-1-1328903098.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12577-quick-on-the-draw-michaela-kiersch http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12577-quick-on-the-draw-michaela-kiersch This weekend was the annual Quick on the Draw competition at Adventure Rock in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. I was really psyched to go to this competition because it is always fun, exciting, and full of great people! Every year Adventure Rock staff thinks of a crazy theme for Quick on the Draw. This year, the walls were littered with intricate tape robot designs to signal the start of each route. This comp is unique in that each boulder problem or route you do counts towards your score, so you have to get a ton of climbing in... ]]> Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:51:00 -0500 12577 2012-02-01 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_400534-2837481169749-1040831577-32827813-421291877-n-1328061083.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_403067-3161363516376-1333970166-3193882-1331009228-n-1328061084.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_404472-2837480529733-1040831577-32827812-1940202722-n-1328061084.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12572-first-tour-de-bloc-win-of-the-season-eric-sethna http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12572-first-tour-de-bloc-win-of-the-season-eric-sethna The Canadian open bouldering series, The Tour de Bloc, is now in full swing! There was just a competition at Climbers Rock in Burlington, Ontario. In late December I competed at the second competition of the season at a newly opened gym called Grand River Rocks (GRR) in Waterloo. I am super excited to have this gym built here as I’m currently going to school at the University of Waterloo. GRR is going to be my training gym during school terms. I was actually quite impressed with the gyms structure. Rock Works did a nice job in building a... ]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:39:00 -0500 12572 2012-01-30 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_pic01-1327963176.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12566-winter-burn-francesca-metcalf http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12566-winter-burn-francesca-metcalf I spent last weekend in Philadelphia competing at the Winter Burn, one of the many competitions annually held at the Philly Rock Gyms. My whole family met me in Philly, as well as a huge chunk of the Metro Rock crew, including Dave Wetmore and Josh Larson. To my surprise, I woke up Saturday morning to see my first snowfall of the year, but even with the bad weather and icy roads, the comp had a great turn out. The red point in the afternoon was packed to the brim, but fortunately, there were tons of places to climb... ]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:48:00 -0500 12566 2012-01-30 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_409132-10150504839008546-704293545-8750781-705557714-n-1327884517.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_394274-10150504837863546-704293545-8750776-2121565146-n-1327884517.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_397308-10150496673876766-646371765-9217781-1533859743-n-1327884517.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12553-2nd-place-abs-regionals-tim-rose http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12553-2nd-place-abs-regionals-tim-rose This weekend was the 6th annual Philadelphia Rock Gym ABS Regional Championships (Winter Burn). Despite some snowy weather Friday night that looked like it might impair our travels, Saturday morning came and the roads were clear so we made the trip to Philly. ]]> Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:13:00 -0500 12553 2012-01-25 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/12553_comp-pic-1327707926.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12540-seattle-riley-joyce http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12540-seattle-riley-joyce Once I arrived in Seattle I was overwhelmed by how beautiful Seattle was, even though I was drenched by the rain. Soon enough I came back to reality, there is a comp tomorrow morning but not just any comp.. Division 1 Championship for ABS season. This was the first time that there is a Divisions for ABS season (usually it is regionals then to nationals). ]]> Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:00:00 -0500 12540 2012-01-21 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_img-3863-1327179656.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_img-3859-1327179656.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_img-3835-1327179656.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_img-3857-1327179657.JPG http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12538-divisionals-2012-michaela-kiersch http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12538-divisionals-2012-michaela-kiersch This weekend was the first youth Divisional Championship for ABS (bouldering).  I traveled to North Carolina to compete for one of 7 bids to nationals.  The comp was held at Triangle Rock Club, a gym I hadn’t been to before.  I was really psyched going into the competition because I really like to see all of my friends from USA Climbing.  I had high expectations of myself and planned on using this comp as a way to see how much stronger I have gotten. ]]> Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:50:00 -0500 12538 2012-01-21 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_2012-01-15-14-27-06-844-1327110624.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12537-german-boulder-competition-monika-retschy http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12537-german-boulder-competition-monika-retschy The final of the German Boulder series in 2011 took place in Überlingen, a nice place next to the Bodensee. It was traditional. Unfortunately, the weather was not as good as the last years, so the organizers had some problems with the competition walls.  The holds were wet; also the mats were wet, so that the climbers got wet shoes, when they started in a boulder problem. The atmosphere between the climbers was not good. The competition was a disaster. ]]> Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:16:00 -0500 12537 2012-01-20 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_p7090789aa-1327065363.jpg http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_p7090778ca-1327065364.jpg http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12529-divisionals-delaney-miller http://fiveten.com/community/blog-detail/12529-divisionals-delaney-miller Divisionals for the ABS youth series was this weekend at Stone Summit. It was a lot of fun, and the problems were sweet. I took first both days of the comp. On the way home I held my traditional lock off comp that I stared last year in an airport. Every time I get on a train in an airport, the kind that take you from one terminal to another, I challenge fellow climber travelers to see who can hold a 90 degree lock off position, off of the bar that people are supposed to hold on to... ]]> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:25:00 -0500 12529 2012-01-16 http://fiveten.com/images/stories/jreviews/_delaney-divisionals-201-1326734715.jpg