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.

Crunch Time!

Bozeman is getting close! Less than 5 weeks left for training and less than 6 before the comp! We’ve also been pretty busy getting trying to get promotional material together for our fundraising efforts.

One awesome thing going on is the support that we’re getting from Outland Adventure Gear in Orangeville, Ontario: http://www.outlandadventuregear.ca/

Nathan and I will be sporting some Rab MeCo 165 shirts for our World Cup jerseys and Outland is donating the profits of their Rab Meco sales to me and Nathan and IWC until the end of December. It’s a great product and I encourage everyone to check it out their store.

Other wise, I’ve been spending a lot of time climbing with Neil at his place when Nathan’s not available. Neil is also doing Ice World Cup this year, planning to compete in the same comps as me (Montana, Italy and France). His wall is fairly small, but I feel like we’ve been making some good use of it.

future crusher?

Neil’s a great training partner, we’re fairly close to the same level (though he’s a pretty good athlete and his drytool training is really paying off!) and having the same goals really keeps us focused.

Official World Cup Event at Bozeman!

Very exciting news from the UIAA!! The comp at the Bozeman Ice Fest is going to be an official Ice World Cup event this year! I was planning to participate in 2 of the 5 events happening overseas this winter, but with Bozeman on the list it means there are now 6 world cup event and I get to participate in 3, not just 2!

This also means that the Bozeman comp should be bigger and better than ever!

More details can be found on the UIAA website here: Bozeman on Ice Climbing World Cup Circuit

Photo from UIAA website.

 

Realization

It’s the end of July. Typically by this time of year I’ve got my rock climbing projects lined up and I hope to tick most of them off in the next three months. This year I’ve got nothing, nothing except calluses and peeling fingers. I’m in training.

Synchronized climbers at the speed event.

Last December we went to Bozeman Montana. We went for the ice climbing festival there, my husband Nathan specifically planned to participate in ice climbing competition. This competition was kind of a big thing as it was the first UIAA sanctioned event in North America. The UIAA is the organizing body for the Ice Climbing World Cup, which is a series of events held through Europe and Asia. This was a good step to bringing an official World Cup event to North America.

In the hotel room Nathan was finishing up some final registration details.

“You should sign up and compete!”

No way. I’ve seen the people who are competing, they’re good! I’ve also climbed with Nathan enough to know that he’s in a different league than me. Nathan had competed in the Ice Climbing World Cup the previous year overseas and had won the Elite Mixed Comp at Ouray the year before that. Myself, I had just started getting comfortable leading bolted mixed lines, having done my first mixed lead the previous winter

But still, I liked the idea of competing, so I made a compromise. The lead comp was the main event; I figured the sideshow of the speed comp would be enough to give me a taste of comp climbing with a lot less intimidation.

Straits of Gibraltar

Having arrived a week early we spent most of out time before the Ice Fest climbing at the Bingo Cave in Hyalite Canyon. Most routes here were way too hard for me, but I hopped on Straits of Gibraltar. On paper this route was too hard for me, but as I worked it I felt I could redpoint it if I had more than a couple of days. It was a bit of an eye opener of what I might be capable of.

I also started a search for some comp (fruit) boots. These are ice boots with integrated crampons which make them lighter and more agile. Unfortunately, these boots have fallen out of favour in North America and can be hard to find. I was able to try on other people’s boots to get an idea of what was out there, but in the end I borrowed a pair from Lowa for a couple of days to see how I liked them. It was exciting; I had never worn comp boots before.

Finally it was competition day for Nathan. After a week of thinking I wasn’t good enough for the lead comp I actually got to see what was involved. Heck, the two preliminary routes didn’t look that bad….I could probably even make it a good ways on the second and harder prelim route. That’s not to say it looked easy. I still marveled at the competitors as they figured 4 across the final traverse to the finish.

Nathan on the second Prelim route.

Rebecca on the speed comp route.

The last day of the festival was the speed comp. We used the same wall that the lead comp was held on instead of the spray ice wall usually used in World Cup competition. Nathan gave me some pointers, I practiced kicking my front points into plywood for the first time and then time to compete! I did okay the first round, but I was quickly bumped out by more experienced climbers. I still placed 5^th out of the small pool of ladies who competed and was pleased by my performance.

Most importantly it gave me a chance to shake off my stigma that competition climbing was only for the most elite out there. After this experience I was convinced to try Ice World Cup, but was a little late for the 2014 competitions. I now have my sights sets on the 2015 season. I’m still a little nervous, but I have a great training partner in Nathan and I plan to be ready by the time next December hits!