by Samantha Anderson
The BC Provincial Boulder Championships took place at Project Climbing Centre in Cloverdale last weekend, hosting more than 220 athletes who competed for the chance to represent B.C. in the upcoming national championships.
Project Climbing Centre, which opened its Cloverdale location in October, is an 8,000-sq.-ft. bouldering facility.
“It’s a big, new venue and the athletes are always looking for new challenges, new terrain,” said Adam Diamond, one of the facility’s owners.
Left: Victoria's Becca Frangos, 19. Photos by Boaz Joseph.
The climbing gym closed its doors on Thursday and Friday to take down all the holds and create an entire new set of climbing routes, or “problems,” for competitors to face.
“The problems are both a physical and mental challenge that need to be solved,” said Diamond. “Competition problems are a little bit more extreme, on both levels.”
Each competitor faced around five problems, depending on their category and age group. They had five minutes to climb each problem, then five minutes to rest before moving on to the next one.
The person who completed the most problems with the least attempts ranked the highest in their category.
Not every athlete attended to secure a spot in nationals. U.S. athletes came up to test their skills from as far away as Salt Lake City.
There was also a classic scramble, with a round robin of recreational, experienced and master climbers.
“It was a huge success, everybody loved it,” said Diamond. “It was bigger and better than even we were expecting.”
The top-ranked female and male athletes for each youth category were: Youth B, Sami Singleton and Kindar McNamee; Youth C, Nicole Mar and Oscar Baudrand; and Youth D, Amelie Everett and Vail Everett.
The top ranked male and female athletes for the open category were Elan Jonas McRae and Allison Vest.
For competition results, including overall 2017 Boulder rankings, visit www.sportclimbingbc.ca
The Open Boulder Nationals will take place March 4-5 at Rock Jungle Climbing in Edmonton.
More photos below.
