"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it goes on flying anyway. "
-Mary Kay Ash

Saturday 8 December 2012

A Great Way To End The Season

After two amazing weeks in Chile, I found myself sitting in class today daydreaming about warm weather. It's funny what a 35.C temperature drop can do to your mind...
 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


No comments:

Post a Comment