Fun times at Boulderz Bloc Party!

Despite an early morning winter snow squall I trekked out to Boulderz to attend the TdB Bloc Party. I had a solid outing.

Bloc party!!

There were lots of fun problems to work on; I found two which were at or around my limit. One of them I got after considerable effort; the other had multiple attempts all resulting in failure. Hopefully they'll get put back after the comp finals are done so I can work on them some more! I was surprised by the relative dearth of cave problems; my weakness on overhangs was not an issue this time around. The sloper problems were all too hard for me -- so it looks like I have some more time to work on my overhanging and sloper technique.

The overall setup was very good -- even though Boulderz is a small gym, it didn't feel crowded. They split up the Youth participants onto another day, and this made a big difference. Registration was a breeze, and I think everybody was having fun.

Results - another squeaker

My goal for this season is to make a case that I belong in Open, and not in Experienced. I'm not quite there -- I need to get stronger. At this comp there was a clear set of problems for Rec and Experienced (1 through 39), and everything past 40 seemed to imply, 'if you can't climb this, you don't belong in Open'. As mentioned above, there was only 1 in that latter range I was able to complete.

Practice makes perfect!

Thanks go to the organizers and Andrew McBurney of Boulderz for putting on a great event!

Neither snow nor rain...