Dark Horse Series #2

This past Saturday was looking CHIIIIILLLYYYY. So we decided to shuffle out to a the second installment of the MetroRock Dark Horse Series. This weekend was in their flagship Everett location, a beautiful and huge gym.
The problems seemed very reasonable and we started pulling down on some solid V6s. Ben, JP, Aaron, Luke and myself all scored some solid routes. And I believe that we were all happy with out sends for the day. Unfortunately, many of us tried too hard at the beginning and weren't able to finish five solid routes.
Ben got his five in, with a V7, two V6s and two V5s. I, on the otherhand, sent four V6s and could only score a V2 in the final minute of climbing to round out my scorecard.
Again we stayed for finals to watch some of the strongest climbers in the area go at it for cash money. In the girls division, Franny Metcalf cleaned up as usual, sending three of four routes. Our friend Melissa Gotkowski was the only other woman to complete a route and performed well for second place.
The guys division was pretty exciting, as Julian Bautista (he took third at ABS Nationals in 09) flew out from California for the event. Bautista sent #1, #3 and #4. Next was Vasya who sent all four routes but in five tries; he got the second one in two goes. Finally it came down to Rob D'Anastasio who needed to flash all four routes in order to take the prize. With the whole crowd cheering, Rob calmly brushed and inspected every hold of the final route. Hopped on and quickly flashed the route for the win.

The true win of the evening came for the Shiloh's Edge team though, as we took two of the three available raffle prizes. Me, a backpack and JP, a Thermarest. JP is the RAFFLE KING.

It seems that comps are over for a few months, so we're praying for sunny, warm winter Saturdays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to all a hard SEND.