The Whitney Peak Hotel, formarly CommRow, hosted its first climbing competition on Saturday, a combination of the Collegiate Climbing Series NorCal Regional Championship and a Citizen’s Competition.
“The energy here is great,” Humbolt State University climber Jack Schneider said. “Everyone’s really excited, you can tell. The energy is high, and the performance levels are high.”
Competators are judged on a combination of difficulty and speed.
“I focus on accuracy more than speed, definitely. It’s more important to make sure you get it right than getting to the top quickly. You don’t want to mess up any of your tries,” Schdeider said.
Schnieder prepared for the competition in advance, saying, “It’s monitering your diet and activity one week before the event. You get a good night’s sleep the night before, then you get here and you get excited for the competition.”
The competition requires climbers to do both “bouldering” climbing and “routes” climbing.
“The difference is that bouldering is closer to the ground, so if you fall, you just fall on the ground,” BaseCamp manager Brian Sweeney said. “The routes only have ropes for protection.”
Scheider said he was better at bouldering, having first done that type of climbing.
“Rope climbing is fun, but it’s not my speciality,” notes Schneider.
This was Schneider’s first time climbing at Whitney Peak.
The competition was held from 10:30 a.m. until 5:00, with finals at 4:30. A smaller speed competition was also held.
“This is our first competition. I hope to make this an annual event,” Sweeney said.
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