Sent!

Well I did it on my last day (Saturday). It was the day of the Rock Rodeo and Terre de Sienne was one of the problems on the list for the comp. Algerita, Diabolic, El Techo and others were on the list too. I decided to register for the competition after all figuring that if I did Terre, I would have a good chance of doing well. I warmed up and then got ready to try Terre. Paul Robinson was there as well trying to do it for the comp. While I was getting ready to try, he gave it a few attempts and looked super solid on the first move but fell on the second move. Then I gave it a go and did it on my first try of the day. When I stuck the second hold, my feet cut and I had to hold a tough swing on the bad crimps. I was so energized though from my own psyche and the energy of the people there for the comp that I just wouldn't let go. The rest went casually. It seems like this problem is probably V14. It feels harder than most (perhaps all) of the other problems I've done - though in some ways it's relatively simple. Paul repeated it shortly after I did it.

With Terre done, I got myself into competition mood. Next I did Diaphanous Sea V12 on my first try. Then I went over to Algerita V13. I was looking forward to trying it because I'd never done it and thought I had a good chance. Unfortunately, a key hold broke just before I was about to try. So I gave up on that hope and went and did El Techo V11 first try. Then I went and repeated Diabolic V13 on my first try. After this I went up to Bleeding Brothers V12 with a few people. I watched for a while and then gave two tries. Unfortunately, I had a cut on my pinky that was holding me back and I just wasn't feeling it. After this, I did Chbalanke V11 on my 4th try. Then I did Loaded With Power V9/10 on my second try. At the end of the day, despite being tired, I pulled off Dark Age V11 on my first try. What an amazing day - for sure my best ever. It felt really great to climb so well for a day though my body was pretty worked by the end. This performance was enough to get me second place in the Rodeo. I stayed close to Paul Robinson but he was able to win it in the end with these v points: 14, 13, 13, 12, 12, 11 (though the 11 got 13 points in the comp). A fun day and a great workout.

Now I'm back in Boulder after driving 12 hours straight by myself yesterday. It's nice to be home but I've lots to do to catch up with things - especially at school. The weather looks good this week though so hopefully I'll still get some local climbing in.

Thanks to everyone who followed my Hueco exploits through this blog.