Icy and Snowy, but still a Merry Christmas

Here in NY we have had two major storms over the last few weeks. The first came in the form of freezing rain and ice, which knocked out power all over the Capital Region. For some, it was almost a week without power. Many homes were destroyed by falling trees or flooding (no power to the sump pumps). JP and Ben both live in the 'Old Niskayuna' section of town which HAD many beautiful old trees. This was probably the worst area hit in the state because of the tight neighborhood and the old trees.
JPs basement was destroyed, as his step brother woke up to step in a sinking carpet. Ben's family had a tree fall and hit both of their vehicles. Not a total loss, but significant damage was done. Miraculously, I live in one of the few areas that never lost power. Other sections of Troy were considered states of emergency, but my neighborhood seems untouched.
This storm hit on the 11th and 12th. The roads were clear on the 13th, so Luke, JP and I made the 3.5 hour trip to Newburyport, MA for a competition. We all climbed very well and both Luke and JP were bumped up from their intended division. None of us placed, so we are not sure yet where our scores landed us.

The second storm came a week later, as we had nearly a foot of snow on Friday the 19th. We had hoped to climb outdoors, but with the roads still terrible on Saturday morning and the climbs surely covered in snow, I had the guys come over and climb in my attic. We had fun setting some new routes up there for a few hours and then we rolled up to a small local competition in Queensbury. This was a bouldering and top roping competition (you had to do at least two climbs of each). Ben and I scored many of the same problems, but he styled his way up the hardest wall route and went on to win the whole comp, beating me by about 300 points. (I took second) JP also climbed well, placing 3rd in Intermediate.

We'll now have a break from competitions until Jan. 10th, when our home gym, Electric City will host a final ABS comp before regionals. However, we'll try to get outdoors a day or two during Christmas break.

Merry Christmas

Catching up

Since mid November, we have done both an outdoor trip and another local comp. On Nov. 22nd, a crew of us headed down to Peter's Kill in southern NY. It was a very cold and windy day, but we had some good sends. Most of us hit Mentos (V4) and Luke sent his project Delicate Soul V7. Ben made good progress on Village Idiot V7 but P-Kill is now closed for the winter so his send will have to wait until spring.

On Monday Dec. 1, we rolled up to train at RockSport in Queensbury. It was a very fun and productive evening session, as they set great routes up there and we sent many of them.

On Thursday Dec. 4, Electric City hosted the EMS sponsored 'Circuit Breaker' competition which was both bouldering and climbing. Ben took 4th overall and I finished 5th. JP was 2nd in the intermediate category with many nice sends.

Ben made a trip down to the Gunks on Sunday the 7th with a few strong climbers from the gym. He was able to send Black Boulder V5 and Boxcar Arete V8.

For those who aren't familiar with the V-scale rating system, V0-V1 are on the easier side, V2-V4 are intermediate, V5-V7 are advanced routes and V8 and above are very difficult. If you know the YDS climbing scale, V0 is equivalent to 5.10, V4 is like a 5.12b, and V7 is like 5.13a.

Depending on the snow and rainfall, we will be attempting to get outdoors as much as possible on Saturdays this winter. There is also another EMS sponsored competition at RockSport on the 20th that we will be attending.

Petra Cliffs, Nov. 15

As I expected, this competition was incredible. The routes that they set are always a ton of fun and everyone filled up their scorecard pretty quickly. Matt Stoker (a graduated Shiloh's Edge participant) joined us for the trip. I believe that everyone was happy with their performance and the prizes they collected. There were many strong climbers there, both men and women. Ben had a great showing, taking 1st place in the Advanced category. Stoker took 1st in Intermediate and JP was 3rd in Intermediate. I also was pleased with my climbing and finished 7th in the Advanced category.

Rhode Island Rock Gym Nov. 9

Wow! This comp was insane. 130 registered competitors jammed into like a 20x30 foot area. JP, Ben and I waited in line for like 15 minutes each time we wanted to get on a climb. It was very difficult to do well when you couldn't workout the moves on the route. You fall, you're done for another 15 minutes.
JP did really well. Tallying the high score of the three of us and taking 3rd in his Youth B division. I finished second in the Intermediate category and Ben took second in Juniors.
We were pretty disappointed about how the comp was organized and learned a few things to remember when we host a comp at Electric City in January.
Another disappointment came when I brought my disposable camera to be developed and found out that there was only one picture on the roll.

Stone Age comp, Nov. 1

The weather for the day was fairly iffy, so rather than chance getting rained on, we headed for the Stone Age gym competition in CT. We attended the comp at this gym last year and remembered that although the scene was a little to competitive ("the Mothers" situation is how we refer to anxious and stress inducing parents at competitions) they set pretty fun problems.
Being that it was the day after Halloween, the attendance was a little thin, maybe 25-30 competitors. However, as expected, the problems were very fun to work and were varied in style and wall angle, which makes for a great competition.

Luke and JP are both freshmen and are in the Youth B category. They were praying for at least two more competitors in their age group so that full points would be awarded from the ABS (a national ranking system). There did happen to be five in the category at the comp, but only three turned in their score cards, so it was not considered a 'full' category. Both guys found some advanced problems to send as well as some intermediate and finished first and second, respectively. Luke beat JP by just 10 points (the difference of one fall over the course of the afternoon).

I was excited to start the day off with a few sends of some advanced slopper problems. This sparked a great day for me and I went on to win the Advanced category and finish with the third highest score for the day (Open category is above Advanced).

Next weekend, the Rhode Island competition starts early Sunday morning, so we will travel out Saturday night and stay about an hour away, giving us an extra 2-3 hours to sleep.

Carabiners, New Bedford, MA 10/25

Although we had to cancel our outdoor climbing plans due to the serious rain storm approaching, we made the most of the day by attending a not-so-local competition.

Ben, Luke and I made the long drive down to New Bedford for the Carabiner's comp. The 12 hour day was well worth it, as we all come home with victories, great prizes, and a fun day together.

Ben climbed very strong, finishing 1st in the Advanced category and with the 3rd highest score of the day. Luke took 1st place in his Youth B category and I took 1st in the Intermediate category.

The gym was enormous and was showcasing their brand new feature, a 14 foot boulder, which added about 1200-1300 new square feet of climbing surface to the gym.

Next weekend, back to CT for the Stone Age competition.

CT Rock Gym comp

The team made the 3 hour trip down to New Haven on the 18th and had a pretty decent showing at the ABS Bouldering Comp.
JP took 3rd place in the Intermediate category, even sending one of the Advanced problems.
In the Advanced category, Ben took 3rd, Luke 4th and I was 5th.
JP was very pleased with his showing. Ben, Luke and I were wishing for a few problems that we could have worked on. For all three of us, the problems that we sent were on the first or second try and those that we couldn't send seemed many steps above us, not just one or two, or they were too painful to work on for many tries.

This weekend we will make the most of the remaining fall weather and climb outdoors at MacKenzie Ponds in the Northern Adirondacks. And on the 1st we'll head back to CT for a competition at Stone Age in Manchester.

9 Corners - Columbus Day

Ben and I took Steve, our new ropes course ultra-volunteer, out to 9 Corners Lake for some bouldering. As usual, I forgot my camera. However, we had a send-fest out there, rolling through about 15-20 problems.
I sent 13, up to a V4 in the Cave area. Ben also sent 13, including one of his projects from the summer, a V4 'Power of Belief'. Steve enjoyed his first visit to 9 Corners and sent a few V3s.

We've got an indoor competition in CT this weekend and will probably head outdoors again on the 25th. May be hitting up Snowy Mountain Boulders.

Opening ABS comp - Gravity Vault, NJ

This weekend we attended the opening American Bouldering Series competition for this area. It was a juniors only competitions, so I didn't get to attempt the routes along with the guys, which was kind of disappointing. I think some of them like to try to beat me ;-) and sometimes they succeed.
Anyway, it was a learning experience for two of the guys, as they burned themselves out attempting many difficult routes and only completed 2 or 3 routes (instead of the required 5).
Only one of our guys climbed to his potential and had energy for the entire 3.5 hours of climbing. He took 6th place in his age group, a good start to the season for him.
The gym was excellent and the routes were good as well.
They are definitely excited to redeem themselves at the next comp, which is in CT on the 18th. Hopefully they'll have learned from their mistakes and get some points on their cards before trying to push their limits.

Nor'easter Climbing Festival (Sunday)

On Sunday, we again got up early and were the first ones to the mountain, however, the night of rain must have come in from a different direction because now everything was wet. We attempted one route that seemed dry enough, but it was just too difficult to make any good progress on with dampness all around. There was literally a waterfall coming down the route five feet right of what we were attempting. We decided to just pack it up and make the 4 hour trek home.

All in all, we had a great time and I believe we made the most of the weekend, climbing as much as possible and enjoying meeting the pros. We'll have to make a return trip to Rumney on a drier weekend to really get all the great climbing in that we missed out on with the rain.

Nor'easter Climbing Festival (Saturday)

The SECT was not so eager to give up on our climbing for the weekend. We woke up early and hopped on the first bus over to the mountain. As I suspected, there were plenty of routes dry enough to keep us busy. We spent the entire morning climbing on the most impressive crag at Rumney. We really had to push ourselves on the harder routes which stayed dryer then all the moderates. In the afternoon, we went back down the hill and found some bouldering to attempt. Much of it was wet, but there were plenty of people trying to make the best of it and climb anyway. We finished the climbing day with a nice moderate that somehow stayed dry down near the parking lot and then hopped the bus back to the Tenney Mountain basecamp.

For an hour or so before dinner, we roamed around and chatted with the pros. They were surprised that we had found dry routes and seemed disappointed that they hadn't wandered up to climb as well. After an incredible homemade pizza dinner, we went back up and listened to music in the rain until 10pm before retiring to the van.

10/4 Gravity Vault - ABS Competitions begin

This Saturday, Oct. 4, the Team will begin its competition bouldering schedule. We will travel to Gravity Vault in NJ for the first of 8-10 competitions that we will attend this fall/winter. I'll update this post next week with the results of how we finished.

Nor'easter climbing festival (Friday)

EMS put on what was supposed to be a festival for climbing, music and conservation. The Shiloh's Edge Climbing Team (SECT) was psyched to attend. Despite the rain, rain and more rain, we had a great time. The big climbing day was supposed to be Saturday, with nearly a dozen of the top professional climbers competing on outdoor routes and running clinics. However, because of all the rain Friday night they canceled the climbing activities and showed slide shows Saturday morning.

While most folks were setting up their tents in the rain and camping in the mud, we decided to take "Uncle Rico" up to the festival, take out the back seat, and all sleep in there. It was really a blessing to have this vehicle, despite it's age, rust and gas consumption. The guys are very much in love with "Rico" now and have already named new routes at the gym after the 1991 Chevy Beauville with 144,000 miles.