2010 Evolv Summer Series - Series Wrap-up

This Friday the 13th Urban Rocks Gym hosted the finale bouldering competition of the 2010 EVOLV Summer Series. In preparation for this competition, route setters stripped nearly the entire boulder and put up 60+ new boulder problems. As a special treat for competitors, gym owner and furniture designer, Chris Gibson, built six new volume features for all competitors to enjoy.

The competition began at 6 PM and by 8:30 PM all scorecards were turned in; however, the night did not end there. While competition coordinators tallied the competitor’s scores, the fun continued with climbers hurling themselves at twelve different dynos on our overhanging lead wall.

For climbers who exhausted all energy during the main competition, grill-master and URG member Walt had free hotdogs and drinks for those ready to re-fuel. After throwing down some crazy dynos and eating some good grub, the raffles and awards began. Thanks to some of our sponsors: Evolv. Rock/Creek, Friksn, Mountain Khakis, 3-Ball Climbing, Insane Paintball and Ruby Falls, every competitor left the competition with something in hand, be it a pair of Evolv climbing shoes, some cash or other climbing swag.

A few highlights from the competition and the series:

Mother and son combo, Susan Hulsey and Grant Speer, crushed it again in Female Recreational and Youth categories, respectively, receiving 1st place in the final competition as well as 1st place in the overall series. In a close battle for Male Recreational, Nick Doss won 1st place in the finale while Steven Holdaway took 1st place for the overall series.



Brooke Hadden, local Chattanooga climber, and Mohssen Fathi, representing Climb Nashville in all three comps, took 1st place in their respective Intermediate categories. Sean Smith won first overall for Mens Advanced and Ron Nance pulled through winning the series in the Masters category. All series winners went home with a free pair of Evolv shoes.

A big thanks goes out to Evolv and Rock/Creek for helping us out tremendously by donating loads of place prizes as well as raffle prizes. Also a big thank you to 3-Ball Climbing who set up a both at all three events and Dr. Ted Showalter who offered a free stress screening and free massage to all competitors at the last competition.

All three competitions turned out great and all competitors came full of psyche. We already look forward to next year’s Summer Series. Until then, our Halloween Cosmic Climbing Blowout supporting the Chattanooga Area Food Bank will be the next competitive event that we will host. So, look forward to October 22 for a speed climbing mini-comp and a highball dyno competition, both on our lead wall!

Competition Series Results Below:

Youth Category
1st - Grant Speer
2nd - Amanda Escandon
3rd - Penn Sibley
4th - Ayla Williams

Masters Category
1st - Ron Nance
2nd - Jim Starry

Female Recreational
1st - Susan Hulsey
2nd - Allison Escandon
3rd - Yvette Damewood

Male Recreational
1st - Steven Holdaway
2nd - Nick Doss
3rd - Chris Parham
4th - Amir Fathi
5th - Jack Shearer
6th - Mo Edmonston

Female Intermediate
1st - Brooke Hadden
2nd - Chandler Wells
3rd - Jillian Sompel
4th - Bethany Macke

Male Intermediate
1st - Mohssen Fathi
2nd - Andrew Byrne
3rd - Anthony Escandon
4th - Adam Macke
5th - Danny Starry
6th - Brad Edwards
7th - Brenan Vega
8th - Josh Littell
9th - Travis Pyke
10th - Trent Kontovich
11th - Conor Cook
12th - Brendan Ryan
13th - Joel France
14th - Patrick McClenahan
15th - Sam Taylor
16th - Jonathan Swader
17th - Akshay Khona
18th - Paul Merchant
19th - Davis Woody
20th - John Stewart

Male Advanced
1st - Sean Smith
2nd - Kit Buckley
3rd - Phil Adams
4th - Matthew Ballard
5th - Brandon Campbell
6th - Nick Ridge
7th - Lucas Kindervater
8th - Kyle Musgrove
9th - Zach Campbell

EVOLV Summer Series - Part I (Post Comp Write-Up)

This past Thursday, June 10th 2010, was the kick off of the first leg of our three part Evolv Summer Series Competition. This competition was a red-point format meaning climbers were scored by their top five problems completed. We had a great turn out with over 30 competitors and great climbing was done by all. There were over 40+ new problems on the boulder which kept all competitors motivated throughout the comp.

Evolv has been generous enough to donate shoes for the winners of the overall series. A big thanks to all of our sponsors, including: Evolv, Mountain Khaki, Friksn, Metolius, 3 Ball Climbing, Insane Paintball, Cheeburger Cheeburger, Blue Orleans, and Ruby Falls. Thanks again to all of the competitors for their overall psyche and good vibes!

Urban Rocks will be having two more boulder competitions this summer with cumulative scoring for the big prizes being held at the last comp on Friday, August 13th. The next two comps will be bigger and better with crazier problems and even better raffle prizes. Look forward to an all day event for the Series Finale with slacklining and a cookout before the comp, a qualifying round of climbing followed by a finals round and the possibility of a speed climbing mini-comp during the after party!



The results are as follows:

Youth:
1. Grant Spear
2. Manda Escadon
3. Ayla Williams

Masters:
1. Ron Nance

Women’s Recreational:
1. Susan Hulsey
2. Yvette Damewood

Men’s Recreational:
1. Steven Holdaway
2. Nick Doss
3. Chris Parham

Women’s Intermediate:
1. Brooke Hadden

Men’s Intermediate:
1. Adam Macke
2. Mohssen Fathi
3. Andrew Byrne

Men’s Advanced:
1. Kit Buckley
2. Phil Adams
3. Sean Smith

2010 SCS Regional Championship Results

On Saturday May 8, 2010, Urban Rocks Gym hosted the SCS Regionals Championship. This was the first competition of its kind in Chattanooga and Urban Rocks was happy to support USA Climbing and the Sport Climbing Series. Emily Taylor, the southeast regional coordinator, worked in conjunction with Urban Rocks owners, Chris Gibson and Becky Robran to put on the most exciting competition that we have had to date.

Saturday was a fun filled day with strong youth climbers competing for a chance to go to divisionals and then on to nationals, which is scheduled for July 8-12th at Stone Summit in Atlanta, GA. By 8 A.M, competitors started arriving at the gym full of energy, all with positive attitudes looking ready to out-climb the competition.

The championship had two rounds of climbing: a difficulty climbing round and a speed climbing round. The difficulty round was an onsight competition, meaning competitors have no previous knowledge of the routes that they are to climb and climbers get called out by the announcer one by one to put their skills to the test. During the difficulty round, each climber had five minutes to climb each of the four routes. During the speed climbing round, four competitors climbed simultaneously with agility and light feet while pushing themselves to get to the top of the wall in the shortest amount of time.

Regionals championships can be very stressful for competitors especially the younger ones new to the sport. Waiting in isolation, being called out one at a time, racing against a timer and hearing the cheering crowd at your back can make for a very nerve racking competition, but everyone had smiles on their faces and were ready to climb!

The competition had five different age groups and split start times. Youth C and D (competitors ages 13 and under) climbed in the morning and Youth B, A and Juniors (ages 14 – 19) competed in the afternoon. The afternoon consisted of Youth A, B and Juniors (ages 14-19) as well as the speed climbing portion of the competition. Due to very competitive categories, the top climbers were required to climb head to head during a super finals round in order to break three ties that took place. First place winners for difficulty and speed rounds are listed below.

Climbing teams traveled from all around the southeast to represent their hometown gym at the Regional Championship. Team Adrenaline, Atlanta Rocks, Ascension and Urban Core represented Georgia and Team Charleston, Stronghold, and Trailhead hailed from South Carolina. This was a very successful day of climbing and competing and it was great to see that all the training and preparation had paid off.

These young competitors have been training for months now in order to bring their A-game to the competition. Parents and coaches have a lot to be proud of because every competitor in the gym was determined and performed very well. We look forward to seeing these kids move on to divisionals and nationals.

The South East region has such young, strong climbers and we can attribute a lot of their success to the patient parents and coaches of these kids. A big thanks goes out to the parents of these climbers for supporting your kids and letting them do what they love.

We want to give Emily Taylor special thanks, as this was her last regional championship as regional coordinator. When Emily first became the southeast regional coordinator only 24 southeast climbers competed in sanctioned USA Climbing competitions, 5 teams, only 7 climbing facilities with only 4 participating in USA Climbing in the southeast and no major sanction competition venue. The southeast now has over 200 registered USAC members, 10 teams, 13 climbing facilities and for the first time ever, the southeast is the host of the Youth National Championship.

This comp would not have been possible if it were not for our volunteers. Some came in the morning, stayed until the very end and others stopped by throughout the day but in either case, every volunteer that assisted during the competition was extremely helpful, and made the comp run as smoothly as it did.

And of course, we want to give a huge thank you to our local sponsors Greenlife and Rock/Creek as well as the USA climbing sponsors: The North Face, Native Eyewear, La Sportiva, Clif Bar, E-Grips, Vibram, Climbing Magazine and Urban Climber Magazine.


Difficulty Round - 1st Place Results

FYD - Louise Tester*
MYD - Matt Nunes
FYC - Ansley Murphy*
MYC - Alex Lawson
FYB - Laurel Mailman*
MYB - Jacob Wilbur
MYA - Ryan Strickland
FYA - Morgan Saylor
MJr - Robert Henry
FJr - Victoria Nabb

*These competitors had to climb head-to-head in a super finals round for a tiebreaker

Speed Round - 1st Place Results

FYD - Audrey Miller
MYD - Matt Nunes
FYC - Sophia Nabb
MYC - Jeremy Heit
FYB - Bailey Dickinson
MYB - Thomazs Pitzel
FYA - Katlyn Myers
MYA - Griffin Mock
M-Jr. - Robert Henry

2010 ABS Youth Regional Championship - Competition Report

This past Saturday, January 16, Urban Rocks Gym hosted its first ABS Youth Regionals Championship for the southeast region and the first of its kind in Chattanooga. The ABS is the American Bouldering Series and is the nation’s leading competitive circuit for bouldering. Competitors ages 5 – 18 travelled as far as South Carolina to compete against some of the region’s best climbers. Teams that competed included: Adrenaline, Urban Core, TBA Ballers, Stronghold Athletic Club, Team Reality, Atlanta Rocks, Evolution Climbing, Trailhead Climbing and West High school.

After 87 local ABS events, the regional championship is the competition that determines which climbers get invited to the National Championship. The top one or two climbers from each category received invitations to nationals, which will be held next month in Alexandria, VA. With 67 competitors and twice as many spectators, the event was a great success. USA Climbing sent Chris Danielson and Mark Mercer as head route setter and head judge for the event.

Urban Rocks would like to give a big thanks to both Chris and Mark for all of their help as well as our sponsors who included: USA Climbing, the American Bouldering Series, The North Face, Rock Creek, Native Eyewear, Mountain Hardwear, Mountain Khakis, La Sportiva, E-Grips, Climb On, Vibram, Clif Bar, Metolius, Climbing Magazine and Urban Climber Magazine. In addition, Urban Rocks wants to send out a thank you to all of our volunteers who stuck it out with us for the full day event and helped make the entire day run smoothly.

For competition results check out USAClimbing.org.

For photos of the event search Urban Rocks Gym on Facebook.

ABS Locals Results

November 17, 2009

We are psyched to announce that our 1st ABS locals compeition was our largest comp to date. We had 68 competitors and just as many spectators to make it a packed house. This comp is also the 1st time that we stripped the entire boulder of all 100 problems to set on a blank palette. Urban Rocks setters put up 50 new problems and with several new hold sets from E-grips to challenge the competitors, everyone had to bring their A-game to place. Locals Jimmy Webb, Kaisa Pietras, Jacob Fellers, and Grant Speers all placed first in their division despite stiff competition from climbers ranging from Atlanta to Knoxville. The comp finished up with a great raffle with gear from Mountain Hardware, Native Eyeware, Klime, La Sportiva, Evolv, and Frickson. Prizes ranged from t-shirts and a pair of La Sportiva shoes to several Mountain Hardware hoodies, beanies, an awesome backpack and a pair of Native Sunglasses.

A big thanks to all of our sponsors:

The North Face, Native Eyeware, La Sportiva, Mountain Hardwear, Klime, Mountain Khakis and E-grips - Without their support this comp would not have been possible!


Youth Competition Results:

Youth D:

MEN
3rd Micheal Newell
2nd Zach Galla
1st Grant Speer

WOMEN
2nd Jenna Holland
1st Katie Lyne

Youth C:

MEN
3rd Nathan Bramlett
2nd Billy Porter
1st Ryan Lowther

WOMEN
3rd Mollie Cole
2nd Sophia Nabb
1st Melanie Meier

Youth B:

MEN
3rd Matt McDonald
2nd Thomas Pitzel
1st Jacob Wilber

WOMEN
3rd Halley Mallory
2nd Laurel Mailman
1st Carina Claussen

Youth A:

MEN
3rd Ben Vanwinkle
2nd Brady Hart
1st Jacob Fellers

WOMEN
3rd Anne Holmes
2nd Michele Fredrikson
1st Isabelle Faus

Junior:

MEN
2nd Brennan Bull
1st Andrew Minnick

WOMEN
1st Victoria Nabb

Adult Competition Results:

Intermediate:

MEN
3rd Chris Lyne --
2nd Sam Bendriem
1st Caleb Higgonbotham

WOMEN
2nd Chandler Wells
1st Holly McMullen

Advanced:

MEN
3rd Jacob Mund
2nd Jake Higgonbotham
1st Nathan Drolet

WOMEN
1st Sarah Rennich

Open:

MEN
3rd Alexander Presten
2nd Brion Voges
1st Jimmy Webb

WOMEN
1st Kaisa Pietras