My mountain biking friend got right to work and had his race in and
done before we even got through the registration line to pick up our
id cards and tee-shirts. My rock climbing friend and I were both in
the very full amateur division so there was a long wait to even get
on the route so we had plenty of time to sit around and hassle the
local proto-celebrities. There are some dj's for a local alternative
radio station that were handing out stuff but wouldn't give me any
after I made a comment about there status as the reason I didn't
listen to X96 in the morning because they were the type of people who
like to laugh at their own jokes and congratulate themselves on their
great knowledge and wisdom. For some reason they didn't like that.
When it came time to climb I harnessed up and headed up the side of
the 80' foot tall building with the plastic rocks bolted to it. It
was not a terribly difficult climb but 80' is a pretty long way to
climb without rest. I Along with about 12 of the other amateurs
finished the harder amature route and just then organizers realized they had no way
to differentiate our performances so after a little ad hoc-ing
they decided that we would all climb again on the professional wall.
The pro route was still very tall it just had smaller holds and
sloped backwards and had a roof which all but two of the pros had
fallen off of so far. They took a break from the pros to let us all
have a go at it to weed us out quickly. I was third or fourth and
when I went I was doing really well for the first seven feet or so
when I stopped on some what I though were some pretty good holds to
reposition my feet and I slipped and fell. I was embarrassed at my
pathetic attempt I was by far the worst showing of the remaining
climbers. Most of the rest made it up the forty feet or so to the
roof before falling off. I don't know what place I got because for
some reason they stopped at 4th place. I was so
disappointed because I had fallen not because my strength or skill
gave out I had just been careless and thinking about how to make it
over the roof. It sucked and it was embarrassing but I was able to
top my performance in just a few minutes.
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| The beginner and intermediate routes are facing and the pro wall with the roof is on the right. |
