NACS Edmonton, Canada 2025

 

Well, this is our first time doing an International North American Cup Series (NACS).  We find ourselves in Edmonton, Canada, at the Climb YEG outdoor climbing facility.

I have to say, so far, my stay in Edmonton has been great. Only one small thing...when we got off the plane, I had NO INTERNET at the airport. And I wasn't alone. I heard other people talking about getting on the airport wifi, so I did the same. Since I didn't have internet, we decided to jump in a taxi...I haven't been in a cab in years...🙄. After some guy yelled at our cab driver, while taking his picture, hitting a curb on our trip, and trying to explain that I needed air in the back, the driver informed me how much our trip would be while we were driving. And then guess what? LTE showed up on my phone! 🙄🫩 Oh well, we will Lyft back to the airport.

UPDATE: No rideshares can be hailed at the airport, and all taxis have to charge the same flat rate of $62 CAD at the time of this writing. Our Lyft back to the airport will be $40 CAD...😒. You can meet your rideshare at Paid Arrivals outside Door 10.

Other than that, customs was a breeze. Be sure to get the ArriveCan app on your phone. It makes the border process super smooth and quick. I was glad, as I was worried about that...

I had to book an Airbnb for one night since the competition schedule was changed. We found a really nice 2-bedroom apartment that I will definitely come back to if we return to Edmonton! There are a lot of high-rise apartment buildings in Edmonton. I'm not sure I would live in an apartment on the 11th floor, but it was comfortable. This is a big city for sure, with lots of noise...reminds me of big cities back home. And for me, that is New York State, yes, including the Big Apple. We are at the Westin for the remainder of our stay, as that is right across from the climbing venue. Can't wait!

Oh, Brendan always laughs at me that I have plastic covers for our suitcases, but it is POURING in Edmonton today. They will come in handy, keeping our luggage dry! I hate bringing an umbrella, but in this case, maybe I should have...

We moved over to our hotel, the Westin. Good hotel with amenities. The room had a fridge but not a microwave. That is a bummer to me, but it is close to the venue and shopping options, including restaurants.

Edmonton has some amazing and unique restaurants, but I will say that walking around town can be an interesting experience. I can't say I felt 100% safe with the characters on the streets, but I'm glad I didn't have a car. We took a lot of Lyft rides and stayed in well-lit areas with people around.

Well, we found the venue. Holy cow! Right on the Saskatchewan River, and you have to climb down a lot of stairs to get there. (Smart tip: take the escalators in the Edmonton Convention Center!!! Big leg saver.) What a view and outside venue...see below.

The comp was held at ClimbYEG, and boy, do these people know how to please. They thought of everything, right down to VIP seating. I jumped at this and had a comfy, covered seat all three days, with snacks and 2 free drinks! I even came for the free showing of Reel Rock 19 in the pouring rain, and they set up my own tent! (Which I shared with other people who showed up...)

We also had a brush with fame as Kai Lightner was there at the event competing! Boy, was it cool to see him climb in person. The last time we saw him was at the 2017 Youth Nationals. He is amazing to watch! What he can do is truly inspiring, and so is his story. Had to get the obligatory picture...

Well, before this trip ended, I decided to try my hand at the ClimbYEG walls myself and entered the community competition. Needless to say, I have a newfound respect for Brendan and what he does. Those walls kicked my you-know-what (notice no video here of me...👀). However, going through the entire experience gave me a new understanding of competition climbing and the rush you get when your name is announced over the speakers and the crowd cheers for you. I was struggling on my 2nd climb, and I actually thought I heard a guy telling me what to do! 😂 I couldn't do it, of course, but I felt like folks were with me as I tried to get up the wall. That is a definite high that I can see being addictive!

Youth Nationals next! Stay tuned!

        CLIMB ON!

Photo Credit: @Westlake.Photo

Collegiate Nationals - Salt Lake City, UT 2025

The road to collegiate nationals is gearing up! This new circuit is quite a bit different but loosely based on the Youth circuit. It has some interesting twists, which I will explain.

As I said in previous posts, there are Qualifier (QE) events followed by the equivalent of Divisionals (CNQE). If a competitor makes their way through these, then Nationals is the culminating event.

There are two registration periods for Collegiate Nationals: one for climbers who have qualified and one for first-come, first-serve, which allows ranked competitors to register for the event if there is room. Registration is going fast, so you want to sign up early for this event. Boulder and Lead disciplines for the Advanced category have a capacity of 144 and 90 for the Intermediate category.

Collegiate Nationals will have two rounds:

    Qualifiers - top 20 advance from each category to Finals

    Finals - top 5 from each category will be selected for the National Team

This year, Collegiate Nationals is May 2-5. There was quite a bit of controversy this year with dates from USA Climbing. These dates are right before finals for most college kids and the same weekend as the Montréal NACS. USAC has offered to write letters for any student wanting it for their College. My advice to all climbing moms trying to schedule things: wait until all dates are published, OR get everything refundable. TRUST ME...you will be glad you waited. 

        CLIMB ON!

photo credit: @permafrostpictures.photography

NACS Greenville, South Carolina 2025

 

Photo Credits: Brady @Blochaven

NACS Greenville 2025

I have to say, this 2^nd year around doing the NACS circuit is getting easier; for both Brendan and me. He made semifinals for the first time and finished 20^th overall. 

Take aways from this trip are I much prefer being in a shopping area where all conveniences are close by. We had a hotel that was literally around the corner from Whole Foods and REI. For a climbing trip, you couldn’t ask for a better location. And with the comp on Saturday and Sunday, there was no traffic to interfere with us getting to isolation on time.

As for the comp itself, BlocHaven is a beautiful gym in Greenville, SC. They really put some thought into the building of it, considering spectators. I anticipate there will be more Elite comps there in the future. It’s always a good idea to bring earplugs for finals…the music was great but REALLY loud. But there isn’t a bad seat in the house. They have a workout island that is elevated that doubles as spectator viewing for a great back bouldering wall.

As for as advancement, here are the requirements in a NACS setting:

• Top 24 climbers from the Quals go on to Semis
• Top 8 climbers from Semis move on to Finals

For those of you who fly a lot, I had a pretty good experience on American to get to South Carolina, BUT…. I have to say I like Alaska better. For starters, I am on a 6-hour flight from Dallas to Anchorage and the only thing they had for food was cheese and crackers…for $11! Come on! Alaska has hot food for sale. And I have to say the seats are a lot closer than Alaska planes, but these Airbuses have a bathroom in the middle of the plane. Very cool. But WIFI $21? On Alaska, it’s $8. Not a fan…but as I said, it’s a good means to an end.

The big thing for all you Alaska mileage members that I learned is that since American is part of the One World Alliance with Alaska, I can put in my Alaska mileage number in the American site when I purchase the tickets and get the miles deposited to my Alaskan account. PLUS, my status carries over. As a MVP Gold, I get two free checked bags and Brendan as a MVP gets one free bag. That really helps because I end up bringing a lot of stuff on climbing trips, especially if we have an Airbnb.

So, if you need to get to the other side of the country and Alaska doesn’t necessarily go there, American is a pretty good choice. And you don’t lose any miles making the switch. American has a major hub in Dallas/Fort Worth, which I just learned has major thunderstorms in the spring. We got lucky and dodged them.

There are two stops on the Elite circuit that seem to happen every year: Vail, Go Pro Games, and the USA Climbing Training Center. But for these varying stops, Greenville was a good choice. They have a beautiful airport with the essential amenities. I even spent some time in their Escape Lounge. Small, but did the job. Greenville has every restaurant you could want. We have an Alaskan tradition of visiting the Cheesecake Factory in whatever city we end up in and making sure we get our Cheese Cake fix. No, we don’t have that one….

Great climbing trip and Brendan and his teammate from Alaska Rock Gym represented Alaska well! ONWARD to the next one!

 

                        CLIMB ON!

Jermey @cmsninjagoat

Collegiate National Qualifying Event - CNQE

 

Well, there is much to learn about the Collegiate National Qualifying Event, or CNQEs, otherwise called Collegiate Divisionals. The event is nothing like youth divisionals in the strictest sense, but it is the penultimate event before Collegiate Nationals, so one can think of them as related.

But there are two very big differences: the first is that a collegiate climber, who has qualified by competing in a Qualifying Event (QE), can attend any CNQE in the country, but only ONCE. If the climber is not among the top 8 climbers, they will not advance to nationals.

The second difference is the real kicker: If a climber makes it into the top 8 in one category, then they make it into both in the Nationals event. So strategy comes into play here: If one makes the top 8 in the morning session, then they do not have to climb the afternoon session. In Brendan's case, Bouldering was in the morning and Lead was in the afternoon.

There are two ways to strategize here as a team. If a climber makes the top 8 and does not climb in the afternoon session, that leaves room for the team to have another climber try to make it in. The opposite of this strategy is that if the top 8 people climb in both categories, they essentially could take up 2 available spots for nationals by making it into the top 8 in both disciplines.

The next thing we noticed was that some climbers were coming from very far away because either their CNQE was full or they wanted to have a better chance of qualifying by coming to a less populated part of the country. It really pays to register early for the event you want because they tend to fill up quickly.

We continue to support Brendan on his journey and learn more about the world of competitive climbing. You heard it here first!

                CLIMB ON!

Team Trials

 

I have to say that I am enjoying watching the USA Climbing team trials. Of course with the hopes that one day we will see Brendan there! So just watching to try to figure things out because, hey, you never know!

The only way to get invited to the Team Trials is by placing in the top 40 climbers in your category at the Yeti Climbing National Championship, otherwise known as Open Nationals. Team Trials are going on right now from March 12 - 16, 2025, so they tend to land predictably in March. 

How does it all work? Well, watching the lead competition, the men started out with 31 competitors and reduced it to the top 24 climbers for the Semis. Finals took the top 8. There are apparently points accumulated by climbers so the podium doesn't necessarily determine who makes the team. 

The manual in section 2 states that points are awarded from the National Championship PLUS the National Team Trial competition. The total number of points determines who makes the team. With Colin Duffy and Jesse Grupper already preselected for the lead team, that left three spots on the team for the top three ranked climbers. Sergay Lakno, Decland Osgood, and interestingly Cruz Padilla who came in 9th at the Trials but had more points than the 3rd place finisher, Dillon Countryman, because he came in 1st at the National Championship.

I can't say I understand the reasoning behind this system, but it does seem that it provides validity to the number and challenge level of the total amount of competitions that a climber competes in. The way to ensure you get on the team is that you must do well at BOTH events. That does make sense in that the team is looking for the most well-rounded and experienced climbers, but it is hard to understand when looking at the Team Trials itself without knowing this.

Well, we will see what happens tomorrow for Bouldering!

Update: Bouldering was amazing! And we have connections to two of the climbers who came from our Division, Vail Everett and Melina Constanza. Brendan grew up with Vail at many youth competitions and I have to say we all saw this coming watching his immense talent over the years. Congrats Vail! Melina is older than Brendan but comes from our Division as well. He met her at a training camp in Philadelphia where she gave him expert advice. Big thanks and congrats to Melina! She is amazing!  You both have done amazing things for the sport of climbing!

                CLIMB ON!

Photo Credit: Orea Media

Surviving all THREE Circuits AT THE SAME TIME.

 

Now some of you climbing parents may not be dealing with this, but I wanted to make a post for those who might end up in this position like we are.

The last year of the youth series, at this time, coincides with the first year of college. And most serious climbers who are 16 have already started the Elite series. So, it is possible to be in all three circuits at once for a year.

MY ADVICE TO ALL: Do not buy anything that is non-refundable until USA Climbing puts out the last set of dates for the terminal championships. What I mean is wait to find out when the Collegiate Nationals is going to be. Around this time, the CNQE dates will also come out.

The problem right now is that some of the Elite NACS dates conflict with the Collegiate dates. Brendan almost needed to miss Collegiate nationals to stay in the Elite circuit until another CNQE opened up which made the whole jigsaw puzzle work.

To be safe, be sure to get travel insurance and make every reservation refundable or pay when you get there! Ugh!

            CLIMB ON!

Heart and Soul 2025

Photo Credit: Andrew Hanson

Internet snooping: How to get good at it!

 

I find myself more and more perfecting what I am calling the art of internet snooping. And the above website is really an incredible tool.  The USA Climbing Competition Data Base lists just about everything, although I am finding that it has a ways to go in the Collegiate world, but I guess that will come in time.

The database lists every known climber in the USA Climbing circuits. That is the ultimate snooping ability. Keep seeing a hotshot climber who shows up at comps? Look up his record! Hey, this is all free information that everyone has access to. This website just collects it and stores it as an archive.

Other areas of internet snooping involve stalking a gym's website and for any informational updates related to their competitions. This really gets me: sometimes you have to wait FIVE days after a comp to find out what the results are. Oh, they post the top five finishers right away, but everyone else is left to wait to see what they got.

Keeping an eye on USA Climbing's website is also a must. I stalk it a couple times a week to see how some comps are filling up and see if there is any news coming out about upcoming locations or event sign-ups. Some competitions fill up fast and you have to jump on registrations. And of course, that is where you find the information sheets to comps for the results pages. The best internet snooping tool! You can continuously check it before the event to see who is registering in your climbers’s category, see scores in real time,  as well as download scores after a competition. The guides put out by USA Climbing for each type of event are extremely helpful for understanding rules and policies.

And I can't forget to mention Instagram! The main tool in my snooping tool kit. Gyms will post updates on their storylines. That is the ultimate place for internet snooping! I will sometimes get a glimpse of Brendan just by watching the gym's promotional videos! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I know, I'm such a mom!

                CLIMB ON!