So I went to Europe, competed in Switzerland, Italy and France. I’ve been super lazy since I’ve gotten back though, making all sorts of excuses not to update my blog. I’m going to put it off one more time now too, but I will throw out this bone.
Just before I left I started an Instagram account, and I did update that with all sorts of pretty pictures. So until I get my shit together and write up my reflections on the comp you’ll have to be satisfied with this:
If you wait for everything to be perfect then it never happens.
I have accepted that my ankle is going to have a long healing time. I have also accepted that I am going to make the healing time even longer because I keep climbing and training. I can rest when I’m done Ice World Cup.
Next week I leave for Switzerland. I decided to tack a couple of extra days onto the start of my trip, using up almost all of my vacation for the year, but this way I can sneak in the competition in Saas Fee. I will be showing up jet lagged and worn out and need to be ready to compete by the next morning, but I figure if I’m going to do this world cup stuff I might as well go all in! Three competitions in 18 days…..it’s going to be intense.
If I’m going to be honest though, I am a bit intimidated. The competition in Bozeman went okay, but not as well as I wanted. Since then I’ve still been training with my ankle, but I’ve had to change tactics. No more pushing moves at Neil’s home wall and tumbling to the floor. If I am doing movement training or climbing outside I’ve been taping the crap out of my ankle. Otherwise I’ve been sticking to my smaller training wall, trying to build my strength and endurance, but mostly I’m just trying to maintain the fitness that I built before the Bozeman comp.
One more week and I fly out! Eek! Hopefully I can still get a couple more training sessions in before then.
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 11th overall, his best showing yet. Neil finished in 30th 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!!!
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 5th 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!
Mixed Progression 