My whole experience in Chile was amazing. From the busy streets of Santiago, to the Pan American Climbing Championships at Mall Sport, to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile; I enjoyed every single minute.
When I stepped out of the stuffy airport just two weeks ago, I was greeted by an incredibly warm blast of air; which was quite a releif after being stuck on a plane for ten hours. Even though I was still groggy from the full day of travel, I wanted to explore the city to its fullest potential. Just after a few hours my first impression of Chile was a good one. Chile was everything that I had be wishing for; Kind people, amazing food and a picture perfect landscape surrounding Santiago.
As for the competition side of the trip, I had the most fun I have had at a competition in a long time. Even though the days were jam packed full of climbing it is always such a great feeling to be in a competition environment. It gets me psyched!!! The competition started of with lead climbing and I climbed both qualifiers on day one. I felt like my first climb went pretty well given that I only fell three holds from the top and my day only go better when I topped my second climb, which was completely vertical (not my strong suit). I ended up placing 11th in lead ,which I was not too happy about. But soon after I managed to put the past behind me and take all my frustration out on Bouldering which I would be competing in the next day.
After a long restful sleep, I was all set for Bouldering the next morning. After a few long hours in isolation, it was finally my turn to head to the wall. As I sat waiting in the stuffy isolation tent I though to myself "okay Becca, you have made it this far; now it is time to show everyone what you got" and this is exactly what I did. After four difficult boulders I ended up in 7th place, making it into semi- finals by a long shot. But it was not over yet, because I still knew I would have to take my climbing to the next level if I wanted to make it in to finals. (They take 6 people to finals). The next day was the semi-final round for Bouldering. We had four boulders to climb, and five minutes to complete, or at least try to complete each climb. To make a long story short, I did end up getting to the top of all the boulders on my first try, except for the first route when I fell off the final move. After a morning of hard climbing, I ended up still maintaining my position of 7th place only missing finals by one spot.
I was disappointed that I did not make finals in either disipline, but I felt like I climbed my best and I have not felt like that in a long time. Pan Am's this year was definitely an amazing way to end the 2012 season, and I am looking forward to this coming year of competition.
Another blog post to come soon,
Becca xoxo
![]() |
Some of the team hanging out before heading into isolation |
![]() |
Qualifier one - lead |
![]() |
Working a tricky slab route- Qualifier #2 |
![]() |
About to top the first boulder of the day |
![]() |
All smiles after the onsite of Semi-final route #4 |
![]() |
Gearing up for a big move to the top-Semi Finals Route #1 |