On Wednesday, my dad and I flew out to Boulder. The flight was long and boring, as it was cloudy, and I spent my time playing Ooga Jump from Pocket God in my Ipod. After getting into Denver, we picked up a rental car and drove to Boulder and checked into our hotel. We decided to go to Moongate for dinner, which was my favorite the past two times I went to Boulder.
Thursday was spent getting to know where everything was and finding the Movement, which was used for ABS as the warm up gym because there wasn't enough space for a warm up area in the warehouse that nationals was in, and finding the warehouse that nationals was in.
Friday was the qualifiers. First we went to the Movement to warmup. My finger still twinged after, I think, climbing to much on it at Pipeworks and overworking it and slightly straining it. I climbed at three-thirty. There were four problems with four minutes of climbing time and four minutes of rest time. I forgot how the first two climbed but remember that they were fun and I flashed both of them. The third problem was on the middle wall, which was pretty steep, and had big moves between crimps. I also flashed it as it was around a five. The fourth problem was really cool with heel hooks. Apparently I used bad beta at the start doing a big cross move and gastoning the flat part of a sidepull but I flashed it nonetheless. With my beta it was probably around a seven.
On Friday Night I saw a retarded but pretty funny show called Winter Wipe Out. The show basically consisted of several random people who were supposed to run through several obstical courses without falling into the water below while walking on moving ramps and avoiding spinning arms and many other weird and silly obsticals.
Saturday was Semi-finals. Again I went to the movement to warmup and my finger still twinged a little. I climbed at four-thirty. The first climb was pretty easy but really fun! It started off with a small jump to a pocket and then you had to do something like a rose move while doing a 360 spin on the wall all without your feet. Apparently though only Nick and I used this beta. I think everyone flashed this problem. The second problem was a fairly easy slab problem, although apparently several people had a hard time on it. I decided to flash it and did! The third problem nobody got. The crux revolved around a scrunchy heelhook and reaching and pinching a baddish pinch. I tried it six times and could not stick the pinch at all. On every attempt my body, especially my leg, was shaking. On the sixth try I decided to move and grab the pinch for the points but did it in a way that I knew I couldn't move off of. I made it to finals in eighth place. (they only take the top eight to finals!)
Sunday was Finals. When I went to warm up my finger twinged a little more than before and I wasn't feeling my best. I started climbing at eleven-fifteen due to my eith place finish the day before. When I went to my first chair to wait to climb I decided that I would try my hardest and make national team, which consists of the top four finishers in each category. I flashed the first problem. I bypassed one hold because it would have forced me to use very high feet and I prefer using very low feet and no feet in one section. It felt around a six. I also flashed the secon problem, but was a little easier than the first. It had really fun moves on a small roof with a stalactite and cool sloper moves at the top. The third problem was amazing and nobody finished it. It started out with a seven foot sideways dyno to a good sidepull jug on a small triangular volume. From there you went to a pocket straight up left handed and either got a heel above the head or, what I did, one arm-rose moved, no feet, off the pocket and grabbed a small shelf with two bumps with my back to the wall. Then I matched and grabbed a small good tufa pinch above it and spun back around. Next I went left hand to a good crimp and heel hooked and moved big to some good edges, which is where I fell adjusting my hands on the crimps. Next, The problem went right to a okay pinch then left to the new E-grips bubble wrap sloper, which nobody stuck, then right to the top. I yelled three times on the problem and is possibly the hardest I have ever tried.
I finished in third place! I was back on the podium and National Team! I will soon have a new National team jacket and am very happy, especially after being edged out of national team last year by one place.
Hopefully I will soon be able to post videos of the climbs but don't have them ready yet. I will also be taking a short time off because I think my finger is mildly strained.
UPDATE: Here are the videos. You can watch them larger on Youtube.
Qualifier #1
Qualifier #2
Qualifier #3
Qualifier #4
Semi-Final #1
Semi-Final #2
Semi-Final #3
Final #1
Final #2
Final #3
