Urban Rocks Overview

Thursday, January 20, 2011

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.