Banff comp, scramble format. Felt great and was just trying to onsight as many routes/ boulders as possible. After warming up I began by doing 28 by watching Kyle and Matt onsight/ flash it. Next I think that I tried 32 and fell near the beginning because I messed up the sequence, so I drifted over to the other side of the gym where I tied into number 29, which was a stemmy sort of route, and I successfully onsighted it. Beside that there was 36 and I had seen a couple of the boys that were much stronger then me struggling with the start because they didn't have the sequence correctly figured out and so on my third try I was able to balance my way around to the next obstacle, which was a big blue feature, sort of in the shape of a slice of an orange just glued to the wall with the peel facing down. There I couldn't figure out how to get around it so I struggled for a couple minutes, getting pumped before finally falling off the wall. When I came down Eva told me that I need to like lean over and do sort of a muscle up and sticking my foot underneath me. That worked, therefore I got over it and ended up pressing into the small roof. There was now an orange sloper that I could barely hold onto (other people were holding it with two hands and trying to rock over to the next crimp. I on the other hand could not possibly, do that so I shifted as far as I could to the left under the overhang and then placed my foot onto a feature, with my right hand on the really bad orange sloper, where I then released my left and was able to grab the quite positive crimp. At that point I was pumped and so I couldn't do the next move statically therefore I fell off and had to get some more problems because I only had 2.
So I put my card into the pile for 32 (which was long giving me a bit of time to rest) and climbed it after 4 tries. Now I was beginning to run out of time and if I remember correctly then 2 hours had passed and I only had 3 routes done. So I found 30 which seemed like my best bet for another high number because of the technical aspect to it, and gave it a shot. Fortunately for me I onsighted it. Therefore I only had to move another pile over to one of the sort of headwalls where there was 27.
Apparently there were two piles and I was in the wrong one and when my turn came then I had to try number 35 because it was
a) a boulder
b) other people were falling off of the last move but seemed to be getting there alright, therefore if I
could stick the last move then I would be good to go
So as I tried it I got almost to the part where you stand on two foot hold with relatively no hand holds and have to jump to the finish, but unfortunately, I forgot about this really big feature and so I got super pumped before I could try that move.
As soon as I got off I put my card into the right pile for 27 and got ready to climb it. It looked really easy from the bottom and so I didn't sequence properly. I can't recall if there were fifteen minutes left before or after I climbed this one but it was quite nerve racking because I still needed 3 routes in.
Everything up to the lip of the overhang was quite easy, and so I was just climbing fluidly then I realized that I had messed up my sequence about two moves from the finish, and I could go back because I was getting pumped. So I locked of my right hand (which was a jug) and tried reaching for the finish which was two far away. At this point I was sure that I was screwed and was going to fall off of the wall, so I pushed one more time rocking over my foot and committing to the move. and just barely caught the finish hold which was a mini-jug with my left hand.
At that point I was really happy because I still had a chance for doing good. Therefore next because I usually save the easiest or best for last I quickly did 25 and 24. At this point there were seven minutes left and I had a choice for trying to get problem number 26 or 35 to knock off 24. The line up for 26 was three people long and as it was a lead route, then I didn't think that I would get a shot at it before the time would be up so I went over to 35. It was a short boulder therefore it didn't require that much energy.
My turn came and as I started climbing then the announcer said that there were 10 seconds left. I quickly climbed to the no hands rest area and stood there looking at the hold. Another person who was in a hurry to climb a lead routes was in my way so I had to wait a couple seconds before they were gone. Looking at the hold in those moments was something special. Knowing that you only had one shot and in that moment you could gain all or nothing. I recall telling myself that the most important part was going to be to have the right amount of body tension.
So I bunched my muscles and jumped, trying to lead my body and my chest towards the final hold and clasping it with my left from the left side and right from the other to control my swing. As I reached the high point of the pendulum then I knew that I had stuck the hold as came back down.
That comp was the funnest climbing comp that I had ever been to, full of onsights, close calls, and great climbing.
I ended up third with the following seven routes:
35, 32, 30, 29, 28, 27, 25
It sucked that parents weren't allowed because now I have no pictures to show.
