Caroline at Bouldering Regionals

This year was our first venture into a Regional climbing competition. The way it works, as long as you compete in two locals and finish in the top twenty, you're eligible to participate. Most of the comps we attend barely have twenty competitors, so if you want to go, you basically can. Brandon STRONGLY encouraged Caroline to attend. She had done so well in her locals and he was sure she could place well at Regionals, too.

He was right. :)

Regionals is so different from locals. You have to get there early and climbers are put into isolation. Only climbers and coaches allowed in there. No electronic devices. C's coach isn't USAC sanctioned, so he wasn't allowed in there. And C doesn't have any teammates her age, either. So she was back there all by herself for a couple of hours. I felt bad, but she was able to meet some of the other climbers and had fun.

Our region consists of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. She was climbing against girls she had never seen before. There were twenty-one climbers in her age group and the top ten finishers would get to go on to Divisionals--competing against climbers from another region as well. Caroline doesn't really like competing. It stresses her out. She gets anxious. Before she went, she asked me, "If I qualify for Divisionals, do I have to go?" I told her that I wasn't going to make her go if she qualified. I was afraid she wouldn't even try if she was afraid she'd have to go on.

At Regionals, you have an assigned start time and they bring you out one at a time in that order. You're supposed to look down at the ground, not even catching a glimpse of other climbers who might be on your route. Following these procedures allows all the competitors to start with routes with ZERO prior knowledge. None of them have seen the routes, climbed the routes, or even seen anyone else climbing the routes. It's a timed format. You get three or four minutes (I can't remember which) on the wall and can have an unlimited number of attempts during that time. Certain holds are marked as being worth 5, 10, or 15 points. And if you finish a route, you get 25 points. Tenths of points are deducted if it takes you more than one attempt to finish.

There is strategy involved. If an experienced climber makes a couple of attempts and feels like she can't get more points on a route, she'll just sit out for the rest of her three minutes so that she doesn't lose any more tenths of points. And to save her strength for the remaining routes. As a first-timer, C wasn't aware of any of that strategy. She only knows how to try as hard as she can. And that's what she did.

She flashed her first two routes. (That means you finish on your first try.) Unfortunately, those two routes were around the corner from where spectators were allowed to be, so I wasn't able to take video of the ones she kicked butt on. Boo. But here are some clips of the other routes she did. They were HARD. After finishing those first two routes, she wasn't able to get more than ten points on the others. There were a total of six routes that she climbed.

She was frustrated when she was finished because she hadn't been able to complete any of the others. But, hardly any of the other girls in her age group could finish them, either.

So, she ended up taking FOURTH PLACE in the Region! Woo hoo! I was so proud of her! She was thrilled, too.

The girls in her age group.

FOURTH PLACE in the neighboring three states.

Pretty impressive.

When we got back into town and B and W were congratulating her on her great finish, B asked her, are you going to Divisionals? And without hesitation, she said, "Yes!"

I guess she just needed some motivation from her big brother. Looks like we're going to Divisionals in January!