Kyle and I picked up Marty and headed to Saanich to compete on the new wall at The Boulders. Registration was at 7:30am so we had to catch the ferry on Friday night.

Marty hooked us up with a cheap room at the naval base in Victoria for Friday night. Small, clean and cheap! Only $20 a night. I was up at 6am on Saturday and headed down for a shower (shared between several rooms). How difficult can it be to adjust the temperature of the shower? The shower was boiling hot and I couldn’t figure out how to adjust it. It turned out to be the hottest shower I’ve ever had. Basically, I stood to the side and splashed boiling hot water on myself. It turned out that it wasn’t just me; Marty had the same problem. We never did figure it out. We enjoyed a great breakfast in the mess hall. Thanks Marty.

We arrived at the gym at 7:30am. After registering we went to check out the new wall. Amazing! The building, floor, massive door on one wall, the wall, everything is amazing. The nicest wall I’ve ever climbed on.

The first thing we noticed was how cold it was. I don’t think I’ve ever climbed in these temperatures. We had a cold day like this in Red Rock this year; we went back to the hotel after one climb. They opened the massive door all the way right after we got there. They kept it open all day/evening so that spectators could watch. Total amazing in the summer – totally cold in December.

Kyle, Marty and I all did well enough in the qualifiers to make finals. Marty qualified 2nd. Kyle and I both snuck into finals qualifying 4th and 5th respectively. Kyle’s final route was my second qualifier. He climbed 11 moves farther than I did – good job Kyle!  My final was on one of the more vertical walls on the side and finished on the roof. This worked out good for me, more technical and less power. I made it to the top of the vertical wall and finally fell moving out onto the roof. Everyone was falling because their hands were numb not because they were pumped.  I made it 1 move farther than Scott and 2 moves farther than Marty.  Sorry Marty. 

Kyle finished 3rd and I finished 2nd.  Great day!  To top everything off, my name was drawn for a door prize.  I won a rope.

Kinsey, Kyle and I all competed at Stone Gardens this year.  This is Kinsey’s first comp and she has been looking forward to it for weeks.  Kinsey had a fantastic day.  She completed lots of problems.  She even fell at the top of one problem (that is a big fall for someone her size) and went back later to complete it.  Way to go Kinsey!  Kyle and I both struggled a bit but had lots of fun.  They always have lots of great problems.

The 2011/12 climbing competition season started today with November Sessions at Cliffhanger Coquitlam.  Kyle is in Youth-B (14-15) this year and I entered in Intermediate.  Kyle climbed really well.  He finished 3rd with 2000 points; 10 points out of 2nd and 60 points out of 1st.  I squeaked out a 2nd; my best finish ever at November Sessions.  Marie was the official score keeper for the day.  Kinsey was her assistant handing out t-shirts, collecting score cards and reading out everyone’s top 5 scores.

We still haven’t climbed The Chief this year.  The weather cleared up yesterday so we decided to go for it.  Marie, Kyle and I left the house at 6:30.  We stopped at Starbucks and Tim’s then headed for Squamish.  As we drove past the Apron at 8 we knew it was not going to happen.  The rock was still soaked.  We decided to hike up the back instead.  An hour later we were on the summit and I thought I was going to die.  Apparently I need to work on my cardio.