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