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.