We are having a great time at the newly added onto Portland Rock Gym in Beaverton, Portland, Oregon. We first came to this gym last year in 2024 for Divisionals, and they had only completed the Bouldering side. Now, the Ropes building is complete and is amazing. I just wish that when these gyms are built, more thought is put into where to put spectators. There has got to be a better way!
UPDATE: OK, so my previous comment was about the rope area. The boulder area is amazing! Now, why couldn't there be seating for ropes?? There were a huge number of seats set out in front of the boulders. Bravo!
The walls are amazing, and the warmup area is spectacular for competing athletes. They really thought about all aspects of the climbing experience for athletes, especially during competitions.
The only downside to this gym is that it is in an area that has terrible cell phone coverage. Inside the gym, the only way to check the results page is to consult a computer that the gym puts out for the crowd to access... not fun. On the plus side, there are lots of shops in the surrounding buildings of the shopping strip where the gym is located: Starbucks, a Barber shop, and a Gyro shop, among others. This is a welcome change from going to the Portland Rock Gym location downtown. It is really nice to be out of downtown and in the suburbs with more options and accessible amenities.
When it comes to planning for your climber's time in Isolation or ISO, here are some things to keep in mind: when competing in ropes, there is such a thing as a rolling clock. This means that if a climber on the wall falls before their allotted 6 minutes are up, the next climber is brought out to start. This can really mess with an athlete's warmup, because you never really know how much time you have to get ready. Brendan's time in ISO is getting shorter and shorter in ropes because of this, so plan to send in things like protein bars instead of perishable foods.
Now, it’s different with Bouldering. Everyone has 4 minutes on the wall, so folks in ISO HAVE to wait. Their time could be hours, so in this case, it is a good idea to send in lots of food!
Well, Brendan delved into the world of Finals this year in Ropes and made it onto the USA Climbing Development Team! As in my previous post about the Youth Circuit, the top 5 places in each category are on the USA Climbing team. The next 5 spots will become members of the Development team. Pro tip: If you make finals, be sure to head back to ISO for the awards ceremony! You will be presented as a group!
We are super excited about this, and when I know more, I will write a post about it! But it was interesting to find out that spots 4 - 10 in Finals get medals as Finalists. See below!
One of the most important things you can do as a parent to prepare for nationals is to read the Info sheet on the event in its entirity. Sometimes this is hard to find, as the current one gets taken down after an event. I have saved this year's HERE so you can get an idea of what to expect, even though the details will change.
Photo Credit: @Permafrostpictures.photography
No comments:
Post a Comment