Lessons from Bozeman

So I have finished my first World Cup in Bozeman Montana. Definitely an eye opener for me.

First, competition climbing is way more exhausting than I thought it would be. Early mornings to compete and late nights at the venue to watch everyone. You also eat like crap because you never sit down. My diet over the competition was a mishmash of cliff bars, whatever they had on hand for the competitors and samples from vendor booths.

Second, I have a lot to learn. First prelims route I didn’t trust myself and the holds and I climbed quite slow. Second prelims route I resolved to climb faster but didn’t plan out the moves as well and fell when I didn’t plant my feet well enough. I am most disappointed in myself for the semis route though. I came in at 12th place and left at 15th, I could have done better than that. I didn’t plan the moves out well enough and when I found I wasn’t strong enough to pull the move the way I envisioned I didn’t recover and didn’t switch strategies.

I think that the biggest take home for me is that I am not strong enough to climb these routes poorly and still pull through. But I am a good enough climber that I shouldn’t be climbing these routes poorly. If you can’t climb stronger, you need to climb smarter.

Third, travel is harsh! The comp was only two time zones away, but it took us almost 36 hours of travel time to get back to Ontario. Also, running through airports with a cowboy hat and a giant novelty check helps gets you noticed.

I am super excited in how well our team from Ontario climbed though. Nathan made it to semis easy and finished 11^th overall, his best showing yet. Neil finished in 30^th place and did better than some well known North American climbers. This is fantastic for his first competition. We convinced Stephanie to compete in the difficulty (lead) comp. She didn’t do great in it, but she didn’t expect to. I find her inspirational in how she put herself out there and gave it her best.

Neil and Steph in the prelims.

Hopefully I’ll recover from this comp in the next couple of days, then it’s time to start training for the next one. Italy is just over 6 weeks away!!!

Straits of Gibraltar

Tomorrow is the prelims for the Ice Climbing World Cup in Bozeman. So before the competition starts I thought I’d talk a bit about the climbing that I’ve done up in Hyalite Canyon.

Not knowing how my ankle was going to be on my ankle I eased into things. My one big goal was the try to red point Straits of Gibraltar. We spend three days up in the Bingo Cave, and to be honest the figure-4s to figure-9s out the roof felt tiring and I didn’t really fell like it was going to go this trip.

On our third day up in the cave I warmed up on Panama Canal, a tricky hard to read route. I misread it a couple of times and blew off when the line of holds I was following ran out.

I went up Gibraltar a couple of times, not really feeling it, but I wanted to get it down to one hang. This was my goal on my second redpoint attempt that day. Figure-4…..figure-9…..crap my tool is stuck! “Kick it!” shouts Nathan. Tool comes loose and thankfully doesn’t fall off the wall. Figure-4, figure-9….figure-4…..my hand is opening up! I had a big move to the last hold and there was no way I was going to make it. Quick toss to an intermediate and then establish on the clipping hold. Send!!!

I couldn’t even do all the moves on this route last year, so I’m super excited to send it. Definitely the hardest drytooling route I’ve sent yet.

The only photo that any one took of me that day…..sorry.

Bozeman Begins

So we made it to Bozeman and I’m hobbling around on my ankle alright. Yesterday we went up to the Bingo Cave and today we went up to the Genesis area to run some laps on our first ice of the season. It’s amazing to think that two weeks ago I was walking out of the hospital with a cast on.

Last week I went back to the hospital for more xrays and had an soft tissue assessment done by my chiropractor, Nichole Smyth. The new xrays didn’t show a fracture this time and Nikki didn’t think it was likely. Thank goodness! I still managed to do a lot of damage so I’m being super careful with it, but at least I’m out climbing!

Every day is feeling better, but I still have some limits on mobility. I won’t be 100% by the time of the Bozeman World Cup comp, but I’ll be climbing and doing my best.