Last weekend in February I headed down to Colorado Springs, Colorado for ABS 13 Open Nationals. This was my first bouldering nationals that I have gone to which was pretty exciting. Me and my mom drove there from Reno, Nevada driving through Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. Driving through Utah and looking at how beautiful Salt Lake City is, we talked about how a competition works. How that you are scored on your highest hold you control. After driving for about 13 hours we made a stop in Rawlins, Wyoming. Watching the weather in our room, thinking on what our next step was (due to it going to snow that night) we decided to try to wake up early and trying to get out before they close I-80. Waking up at 4 AM and seeing that there was about 4 inches of snow on the road and realizing that they closed the freeway, we were stuck for awhile till they opened it back up. Sitting in our hotel room waiting, I decided to watch some of last years nationals to keep being psyched. Once they opened the I-80, we headed out as quickly as we can so we can get as far as we can in case they close it again. After a 5 hour drive we finally made it to Colorado Springs, driving past some amazingly built structures we found our hotel and got all settled down. Looking on Google Maps I learned that the city auditorium was only a mile away! (this is where they held the wall) I told my mom that I was going to go for a walk. I brought my climbing gear to go climb a little at City Rock. Walking and being amazed at what this gym looked like I worked my way over to the desk and got to climbing. After a solid hour of climbing I walked back in the cold brisk air of Colorado.
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| Beautiful Wyoming Sunset |
Waking up early the next day to go watch the girls climbing, eating a really lousy breakfast that the hotel had and walking back to the auditorium, I was in aw when looking at the beautiful walls Entre Prises has made for this comp. Watching some of my friends and some of the pro's crush it for qualifiers, we had to leave and let them reset for the men's qualifiers.
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| Entre Prises Wall |
Now it was time for the men to climb. Entering isolation, looking around at all of my competitors, getting a little scared. This isn't the youth comps anymore, I am in the world of the big boys. Sitting in isolation warming up, looking at my competition and my friend Josh Levin comes in and we start warming up. Getting nervous walking out of the isolation area to the climbing area, last thoughts were entering my mind like don't screw up, make it to the top but sitting in the chair for problem number one I told myself that this is just all for fun and that no matter what you do or how far you get, you will do great. Recomposing myself before the timer ran out and then starting to climb. Moving on the every problem just trying to keep calm and have fun. After my last problem I went to go get my camera and take photo's of everyone else climbing. Got some good shots of Jimmy Woods and Daniel Woods.
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| Problem Number 2 |
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| Problem Number 4 |
Not making it to Semi-Finals and watching my friends from the Bay Area Crush it, we left and came back for the final show down. For the women's we had Alex Johnson, Lizzy Asher, Angie Payne, Sierra Blair-Coyle, Sasha Digiulian, Shauna Coxsey and leading the way was Alex Puccio. For the men's with Daniel Woods leading the way with Ethan Pringle, Michael Bautista, Carlo Traversi, Jon Cardwell, and Austin Geiman not to far behind. This was a pretty crazy final with everyone giving it all they have to make it up there. After finals were over and after everything has settled standing on top for the women's was Alex Puccio and for the men's Daniel Woods reigned supreme as the National Champions. Here is a link below to watch the finals go down!
