BouldeRaVe 2011 – Post Cosmic Craziness

On Friday, October 7th 2011, Urban Rocks Gym hosted our 2nd annual climbing party: BouldeRave – presented by La Sportiva. BouldeRave 2011 was host to free cosmic climbing, an Industry Gear Demo, the pre-registration for the Triple Crown Bouldering Series, various climbing contests and games, two DJ sets by This Is ART from Nashville, TN and an after party sponsored by Riverside Wine and Spirits Company. In addition to providing activities for participants of all ability levels, the purpose of the night was to raise funds for The Trust for Public Land and raise awareness for the sport of rock climbing.

BouldeRave was our most successful event in 2010, so we were very excited to see attendance rise from 300 to 530 participants. BouldeRave is Urban Rocks’ way to give back to the Chattanooga community. We were able to introduce new people to the sport of rock climbing and throw a party for those already interested in climbing all while raising money for The Trust for Public Land (TPL). Throughout the night, participants purchased raffle tickets to test their hand at the game of luck. With the support from local business and gear sponsors, we raised $150 for TPL through raffle ticket sales.

New participants entered straight into vendor alley, where they could play with, test out and try on the newest climbing and camping gear on the market. This year’s presenting sponsor was climbing shoe company, La Sportiva, who had had their full demo fleet of shoes set up alongside other big names in the Industry, including: Evolv, Five Ten, Scarpa and Salewa.





Once inside, participants were engulfed in colorful lights and vibrant music. Volunteers were stationed throughout the gym to provide a safe climbing experience for any interested participant. Emerging artist and climber, Ashley Hamilton, entertained climbers with a live drawing during the event. She is currently putting the finishing touches on her 40” x 32” piece which may be purchased through her Facebook fan page for $150 upon completion (www.facebook.com/badashart).

The SPORTIVA CHALLENGE was a beginner-friendly climbing activity in which participants could race each other up the climbing wall. Anyone who attempted the activity was entered into a special raffle; and Christina Scheitel [climbing for 1 year from Murfreesboro, TN] and Brian Sheperd [just started climbing from Chattanooga, TN] were the lucky participants to take home a free pair of La Sportiva climbing shoes. If you raced at the CHALLENGE - friend us on Facebook and find your photo!

From 7 – 9pm, This Is ART was pumping up seasoned climbers to put their agility to the test during the SPEEDSTER SPRINT – a speed climbing competition in which 1st and 2nd place winners, David Eisonstad & Greg Wingate, also took home a free pair of La Sportiva shoes. After raffle winners and awards were announced, the Riverside Beverage kegs were tapped, This Is ART began his second set and The Crash Pad – Pad Stacking Contest was underway. Participants attempted to stack AND stand on top of as many crash pads as possible for a chance to win a night’s stay at Chattanooga’s only hostel, The Crash Pad. Congrats to the best balancers out there: Rachel Bonham and Brandon Campbell!



Chattanooga is one of the best cities to live in if you are a rock climber. With at least eight crags in the area, it is a destination location for adrenaline junkies interested in climbing on a wide variety of rock. We believe that the sport of rock climbing has its benefits to more than just those adrenaline junkies out there. It is physically demanding and mentally challenging; but most of all it is a FUN sport.

The climbing community is a bit of a niche community here in Chattanooga. “I feel like climbing is perceived by the general public as a super extreme sport and while it can be an intense activity at times, climbing can make for a fun afternoon as well,” says manager, Jonathan Berry. BouldeRave is Urban Rocks’ way of giving back to the entire Chattanooga community. The event exposes the public to that niche group of climbing athletes in Chattanooga and provides insight to the world of rock climbing.” Berry continues, “My hope is that BouldeRave will be the event that continues to get students and young adults interested in the sport of climbing for years to come.”

We want to thank all of our sponsors who set up vendor alley, who provided raffle prizes to raise money for TPL and who kept thirsty participants happy! A special thanks goes out to volunteers who kept climbers safe and excited throughout the night. We are pumped about BouldeRave 2012 and already have a few ideas of how to make it bigger and better next year. We would love you hear some feedback from you, so If you think of any suggestions for next year’s event, please send them to Jonathan at JBerry@urbanrocksgym.com.

2011 EVOLV Summer Series Competition Wrap Up - Including Overall Scores

Urban Rocks is happy to announce that the 2011 Evolv Summer Series was a great success this year. The purpose of the Summer Series is to introduce new climbers to the competitive side of climbing in a welcoming atmosphere while giving seasoned climbers some motivation to keep training during these hot summer months. This series was host to 75 competitors (a 30% increase from the 2010 Summer Series!). The word must have gotten out over the course of the series because competitor participation doubled between the first and second competitions (from 28 competitors to 56 competitors).

In an attempt to raise funds for Siskin and encourage more climbers to try out competitive climbing, two thirds of donated gear were given away at raffle. One hundred percent of raffle ticket sales have been donated to Siskin Children’s Institute, and thanks to all of our wonderful event sponsors, we had a slew of prizes to raffle off at each event. With over $575 raised for Siskin Children’s Institute, this comp series was not only fun and exciting, but also beneficial for local area youth. A lot of that money can be attributed to the big-ticket raffle prizes that every climber was crossing their fingers for: a BlueWater Rope and a pair of La Sportiva Climbing Shoes. To make sure we rewarded the competitive at heart, 1st through 3rd place overall series winners also went home with place prizes!

Gear Sponsors Include: Evolv Shoes and Sports, La Sportiva, Five Ten Shoes, VooDoo Climbing Holds, BlueWater Ropes, Sterling Ropes, Mountain Khakis, Black Diamond, Friksn, Metolius, SoIll Climbing Holds and Horsepens 40.

Local Sponsors Include: Rock/Creek, The Crash Pad, Insane Paintball, Lupi’s Pizza, Big River Grille, Urban Stack, Clumpies Ice Cream and Cheeburger Cheeburger.

You can find photos from the event on Facebook and a video will posted shortly. All-in-all a great event that we look forward to continuing for years to come!

Here are the scores for all our competitors over the course of all three competitions. The overall competition series winners are listed in order. Great job everyone!

Click here to view the overall comp results along with scores from each comp

ABS SEASON 12 REGIONALS CHAMPIONSHIP

On Saturday, January 15 2011, Urban Rocks hosted the ABS - Season 12 – South Eastern Youth Regionals Championship. The ABS is the American Bouldering Series and is the nation’s leading competitive circuit for bouldering. Competitors ages 6 – 19 travelled as far as South Carolina to compete amongst some of the region’s best climbers. Packed to the brim with over 300 people, Urban Rocks was teaming with excited competitors alongside their friends, family and coaches.

Comp day was filled with adrenaline, motivation and an exhilarating competitive spirit. Sixty eight competitors gave their all for a chance to win one of sixteen invitations to the ABS National Championship in Boulder, CO. The day began with the Qualifying Round of climbing in which competitors had three hours to complete the five most difficult climbs they could muster up. About half of each category moved on to the more intense Finals Round held that evening. During finals, each finalist had five minutes to complete each of three boulder problems.

Congratulations to Chattanooga locals, Grants Speer, Anna Fox and Jacob Fellers who all took first place in their respective categories at the championship. Sarah Grainger, of Flowery Branch, GA, deserves big props, as she was the only competitor to crush all three Finals problems on the first attempt!

After all finalists ran the gauntlet of Finals problems, everyone settled down to listen up for raffle prizes. Our sponsors deserve a big thank you for giving these competitors a chance to win some great prizes. Our event sponsors include: USA Climbing, the American Bouldering Series, The North Face, Metolius, La Sportiva, Native Eyewear.

In an attempt to give competitors something different to go home with South Eastern climbing gyms, Stone Summit, Adrenaline Climbing and Atlanta Rocks from Georgia; Climb Nashville and The Climbing Center of Tennessee; First Avenue Rocks from Birmingham and Trailhead Climbing from South Carolina, all donated day passes as raffle prizes to give competitors a chance to climb at their gyms as well.

Urban Rocks would also like to give a big thanks to the new South Eastern USA Climbing Regional Coordinator, Paul Mailman, who worked closely with Urban Rocks to prepare for the event and helped carry out the most well run championship hosted in Chattanooga to date.

The most warranted thank you must go out to all Urban Rocks volunteers who donated a total of 140 hours of their time to ensure the competition went off without a hitch.

A big congrats goes out to all competitors who received an invitation to Nationals in Boulder, CO. Everyone here at Urban Rocks Gym wishes you all the best of luck. For full competition results and rankings, check out USAClimbing.org. Thanks again to parents and coaches for bringing your climbers here to throw down at the Urban Rocks!

Additional Notes about the comp:

Chuffer Photography and volunteer, Mandy Rhoden, got some great shots at the competition. We post our event photos on Facebook, so become a fan or Urban Rocks Gym to see if you made it in the album.

We will also be putting together a video from the comp that you will be able to view at either YouTube, Vimeo, our Blog or our Facebook page.

Competing teams include: Georgia Spiders, Adrenaline’s A-Team, Stone Summit’s Urban Core, TBA Ballers, Stronghold Athletic Club, Atlanta Rocks, Trailhead Climbing, Stoneworks Climbing and West High school.