ABS 13 Northwest Regional Championships, Boise Idaho

Jack

It's been quite some time since the blog has been updated and I'm attributing it to the fact that the team has been super busy training and crushing!  We've been training hard since September and are now entering our championship season with Regionals this past weekend, Divisionals in January, and Nationals in March!

This past weekend 12 members of the Bend Endurance Academy Climbing Team competed at the Northwest Regional Championships at the Boise Front in Boise, Idaho.  With the new region designations in place from USA Climbing we really didn't know what to expect in terms of how many climbers and what teams would be there beside our fellow Oregon teams.  The gym was smaller than what we were used to for a Regional Championships but the fields for each category were also smaller without our Washington counterparts in the mix.  The walls were great with nice sweeping angles and the setting was good albeit on the soft side for Female Youth C and Male Youth C which both had super finals.

The BEA athletes climbed very well despite some of them being in isolation for over 4 hours and some of them at the gym for 14 hours!  All the sitting around and schedule changing can really take a toll mentally and physically on the climbers and I'm very impressed with how all of the climbers handled it.

As a team we finished tied for 2nd with the Multnomah Athletic Club with first place going to the Circuit Bouldering Team.  Both of these teams have some great climbers and its always impressive to watch all of these kids tear apart the routes the setters throw at them.

Results:
FYD- Leah Pfeiffer,
MYD- Brady Pfeiffer, 5th
FYC- Olivia Brumwell, 2nd
FYC- Iris Flattery, 9th
MYC- Lukas Strauss-Wise, 1st
MYB- Tristan Helmich, 4th
MYB- Jack Groh, 5th
MYB- Walker Davis, 6th
MYB- Ethan Flattery, 13th
FYA- Riley Joyce, 4th
FYA- Abby Black, 6th
FYA- Sadie Koch, 9th

Lukas

Leah

Abby

Sadie

Riley

Walker

Iris

Tristan

Brady

Ethan

ABS Season 13, Season Opener, Fall Fever Comp at Bend Rock Gym

October is the month for rock climbing with cool temps bringing great friction and outdoor climbing conditions.  October is also the start of the American Bouldering Series (ABS) competition season.  For the Northweat region of USA Climbing (USAC) the season opener was held here in Bend, Oregon at the Bend Rock Gym's Fall Fever Bouldering Competition.  61 climbers from all over Oregon, Idaho, Washington and even as far away as Germany tested themselves on over 50 boulder problems for over 3 hours to see who would come out on top.

The Bend Endurance Academy Climbing Team was well represented with 10 climbers competing in four different age categories.  The team climbed well in their first competition of the season and with only a week and a half of training! Congratulations to all the competitors and a huge thanks to the Bend Rock Gym staff and all the volunteers for putting on a great competition!  

Bend Endurance Academy Team Results.
Female Youth A
Abby Black- 2nd
Riley Joyce- 4th
Sadie Koch- 5th


Male Youth B
Tristan Helmich- 3rd
Walker Davis- 4th
Jack Groh- 7th
Ethan Flattery- 9th

Male Youth C
Lukas Strauss-Wise- 2nd

Female Youth C
Olivia Brumwell- 2nd
Iris Flattery- 6th

Youth Climbing Article

This past month the website Greatoutdoors.com published a great article that focused on youth competitive climbing.  Be sure to check it out.  You'll see some photos of team member Tristan Helmich climbing in our backyard of Smith Rock and a couple quotes from coach Mike Rougeux.

Kids and Climbing: A Step Up In Life

For a lot of kids, youth climbing teams have eclipsed more traditional athletics

By Nancy Prichard Bouchard - July 26th, 2011

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Photos from 2011 SCS National Championships, Stone Summit, GA

Back in Bend and enjoying the relief from the relentless humidity of Hotlanta.  We had a great trip for Nationals and have come away as stronger climbers both physically and mentally.  Here's some photos from the 4 days of competition.  Yes, those walls are that big!

Over 14 draws on some of these routes!

Lukas way up high and on his way to flashing Q1.

Jack grabbing a quick shake and chalk before things get real steep.

Steep.

Steeper!

Steepest!

Lukas starting his way up the steep climb.

Getting onto the steep stuff.

Climbing the steepness!

Lukas chalking up on the massive roof.

Jack on Q2.

More steep climbing for Jack.

Transitioning to some vertical face climbing.

And back to the steep stuff.

Lukas finishing up a mandatory down campus on his finals route.

Lukas on his finals route.

Lukas on his finals route.

Lukas (4th from Right) finishes in 6th place.

Day Four 2011 SCS Youth Nationals, Stone Summit, Atlanta GA

Done.  It's been a long four days of climbing for all the competitors here in Atlanta.  Four days on very hard routes is really stressful when one false move or wrong sequence can bump you down several places in the standings.  Over the whole four days of competition there were only 2 climbers in all of the catergories who flashed all four of their routes.
Lukas had another good day on the wall on a cool route with a couple unique movements.  He made it high on the wall and looked very solid climbing through a couple complex sequences and then fell high on the route matching on a bad hold. 
Lukas had a good run at his first SCS Nationals and finished 6th place in the nation for Male Youth C.  Way to go Lukas!

Day Three 2011 SCS Youth Nationals, Stone Summit, Atlanta GA

Another day done here at Stone Summit.  Today were the semi-finals where the top 16 in each category were climbing on some ridiculously hard climbs.  Isolation was a bit lonely this afternoon with Lukas being the only climber from Oregon in the afternoon iso.  Lukas had one route today with over 50 hand holds for him on the wall!  There  was a real techy traverse section to a very cool no-hands rest that Lukas found that I didn't see any other climber use.  A couple more  moves and Lukas was in another no-hands with a real cool drop knee.  Climbing smooth Lukas negotiated a little crux with a very high heel hook that seemed to work well for him.  After moving off the face climbing Lukas was unfortunately thwarted by a powerful move way up high.  Going into today Lukas had qualified in 6th for semi-finals and now sits in 5th for tomorrows finals route.  Hopefully he can continue to claw his way up a couple places!

Day Two 2011 SCS Youth Nationals, Stone Summit, Atlanta GA

Day two of the 2011 SCS Youth National Championships is wrapped up here in Atlanta at Stone Summit and I can't tell you how impressive the level of climbing is in the qualifier rounds.  The youth climbing teams in the US are getting more and more organized and the athletes are really stepping it up. Today's routes for Jack and Lukas were a mix of some old and new routes.  The gyms walls still seem super high and it's hard to climb so strong and precise on these long routes.

Lukas was first up for the Bend Climbing Team and was climbing on the same wall and route as Jack did yesterday.  After watching the demo climber and a few extra climbers Lukas felt that he had the route pretty well sussed out but was still nervous about the long moves out the horizontal roof.  Lukas had some great flow through the opening sequence and the first crux. He moved well through the direction change on the roof but fell after a couple power moves pulling the lip.  His hard work put him into 6th place after qualifiers and will be moving on to semi-finals tomorrow.

Jack's route today found him off the horizontal and onto some steep sections with some dead vertical thrown in for good measure.  After watching some other climbers and figuring out the moves Jack was ready to tie in and give it his best.  The start of his climb was steep but on good holds, sticking to his plan Jack climbed smooth and fast through the steep section to an awkward rest and shake just under halfway and before the first crux.  After some chalk he was into some hard moves but not stopper. a wrong foot placement and body position forced Jack into a harder than it should have been move where he fell throwing to a pocket.  Jack finished the two day qualifier round in 30th place which means he doesn't advance to semi-finals.  We're all extremely proud to say that Jack finished 30th in the NATION in the Male Youth C category.  Way to go Jack!