Problems Sent: Open 1 (flash), Open 2 (flash), Open 3 (2 falls), Open 4 (flash), Open 5 (2 falls)
Place: ? (I left early)
Problems Tried: Open 6 (6 falls), Open 7 (8 falls!!!)
A Flurry of Climbing ParentsOpen 6 (I'M NOT CLIMBING)
The first crux was not dabbing on the start. GUTTER!!!
I found a different sequence which reduced the dab factor.
The second crux was making the jump from the world's worst pinch to a good pinch.
Notes: I sacked up and entered the Open Category. I did surprisingly well, a full scorecard. I have been able only to do 1 or 2 Open problems in previous contests. The current problems might have been soft but I'm taking it.
Overall, the comp was well run, and there was a full house. Onto my thing - routesetting. I give it a B+. There were no giveaways and only a couple of sandbags. There was a decent variety of moves but too vanilla. The one lame problem was a "jump start" without a foothold on the wall to kick off. That meant if you were tall it was a standing start. On the other hand, if you were short, i.e. a junior competitor, it was impossible. Most of the harder problem involved open hand holds and dynamic moves.
The jump between pinches shut me down on O6. I trained pinches, but that left hand pinch was far worse than anything I trained on. I got shut down on O7 because it ended in an all-points-off dyno. I tried it soooo many times but couldn't stick it. If I wanted to be an American competition climber, I would have to address these limiters. But I'm interested in the wide world of climbing, some of it involves the closed hand position.
