I Guess You Could Call it a Post-season Reflection...

     

First place at 11&Under Youth Nationals

As a junior competitor, I was told that I should not let one competition and it’s results ‘define me’ as a climber. We all have good days and bad days...not every competition is going to go your way. For a long time this mentality worked for me. It kept me coming back to compete in events even after I had dropped the ball. It forced me to keep registering in the ‘open’ category of Tour de Bloc’s as a fourteen year old athlete.There were shiny days and $#!77y days. 

     So, when I started coaching development and competitive teams, I would tell my athletes, “don’t let one competition define you as a climber.” I encouraged them to attend nerve wracking competitions out of their comfort zone with the following logic: “ All you can do is your best. You might have an amazing day and you might climb horribly. You and I both know what you are capable of as a climber and that is what truly matters. Don’t look at the results, just do your best and enjoy the experience.” This spiel probably sounds pretty familiar to you if you have been coached by me. It’s because it worked. For many juniors and adult competitors it took a bit of the pressure off and they climbed relatively well and enjoyed themselves.  

Women's 3, Munich: Photo Wolfgang Kendler

     But now I am all grown up. I am sitting in the Mecca of competition climbing staring repulsively at my results from this past world cup season. I’m not necessarily talking about results in terms of where I placed, but moreover the scribbles on my scorecard. A bonus in 5 when it should have been a flash.The results that are the direct reflection of either a winning performance or a losing performance. 

     Now, all of a sudden, results do matter and they do, on a very large scale, define & reflect my skills as a climber. This is because I’ve grown to define myself as a competition climber... why the hell would I be training and competing in Europe otherwise!? What I want more than anything is to be something on an international scale.... to scrounge one measly point from the IFSC rankings. I’m not sure what they are yet, but some drastic changes must be made in my current training regimes. I was ill-prepared the entire season largely because I didn’t understand the style of world cup bouldering. 

Women's 5, Munich: Photo Wolfgang Kendler

     I’m positive that there are some Canadian juniors that will one day step up to the plate and fill my shoes as an international competitor. Kids like Becca Frangos and Eva Thompson have been throwing down and kicking my ass ever since they were fifteen years old... So in my time here in Europe I’ve made it my goal not only to climb as hard as I possibly can and be something... But also to share every bit of information I have acquired from competing here in Europe and pass it on to the juniors that actually stand a fighting chance in these large-scale international competitions.

     So...instead of walking you through my performance in the Munich World Championships, I’d rather walk you through my experience of participating in this season’s World Cups and spell it out exactly how it is... at least from my perspective; Here are the things I’ve come to know and value about competing internationally. The epiphanies of my inexperience and the lessons I will carry while training for next season.

Women's 4, Munich: Photo Wolfgang Kendler

    You will spend an entire year training for competitions, in which you will climb for no longer than 25 minutes at a time. More like 20 minutes actually, when you factor in time spent sequencing and falling on your ass. A maximum of Twenty minutes climbing to be something, so you better bring your A-game. Although the format is the same as many Tour de bloc Finals, these competitions cannot be compared.The feeling is so incredibly different...
     You will walk out onto a foreign mat and turn around to face a wall with unrecognizable holds, alien features and unreadable sequences. You’ll triple guess your sequencing because (this is in my opinion of course): a) 70% of the time the problems are sequence intensive and tricky as hell... you’ll think there is more than one way, but the best way is the only way and it is horribly unclear. b) you’ve never seen a hold, feature or wall like this in your life. c) The problems are circus tricks. Scary sideways slab lunges,  Drive by dynos... or Alex Puccio throws on ‘holds’  that resemble crimps but are actually just friction pads pasted to features.

     Nothing will be what you expected and what you have trained for... Half of being a world cup competitor is knowing how to catch a curve ball. so how do you prep for this sort of thing!? I’m still trying to figure that out... 

Women's 1, Innsbruck: Photo Sytse van Slooten

So I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned!

Big thanks to everyone who continues to support my dream of competing in World Cups.. Friend and Family, your support means the world to me. Sponsors, I couldn't be where I am without you, so thank you!

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Jelisa Dunbar

A Glimmer of Light: Magic Wood Monsoon

   

     8 hippies huddle under a leaking tarp, plucking away on a twangy out of tune ukulele, singing the blues. The two blonde dread heads weave the frayed ends of their locks back into place. Puffs of smoke linger low, weighed down by the moisture in the air as a single cup of coffee makes its rounds. Georg, a good friend who has spent the last four months working at the Bohdi campground educates us on the area. "The local farmers have had a terrible yield this year because of all the rain," he says "the best crops come from the prison in Thusis, where mental patients and criminals garden under supervision."

     The boys pass time cheerfully by cooking delicacies over the camping stove. First was about 6 batches of cayenne french fries, next... bread in a pan! Our little tarp community had grown every day, especially on this day with such homey kitchen smells rising into the air.

     Wet & wetter ist das wetter. Yep, the German word for Weather is "wetter." Hah, funny right? One week of endless rain and even the forest's driest caves were seeping. All my high hopes were washed away with the monsoon that struck Magic Wood. Coming down from the mountain for groceries, you'd almost forget that the season was summer... that the sun in fact existed.
     All this 'serious' cooking keeps distracting me from my story. The bread is no longer bread, it is a pizza! Who on earth cooks handmade pizza over a gas cooker in the rain in switzerland!?
     In the 1.5 hour gaps between showers I would trudge around the forest looking for dry boulders, or at the very least, something climbable. Alas! I found a 3/4 dry project! I remembered goofing around on the topout of this line last year but being much to weak for the powerful roof moves between pinches at the beginning of the climb. The thing about roofs is they are almost always dry....ish! There was only one thing left to do... fetch a climbing partner!

     Remy and I huddled under Exclusive's roof. He tried to brush away the moisture as I carefully propped our pads so they wouldn't slide down the steep terrain surrounding the boulder. Somehow, with slimy holds and raw tips, we found joy experimenting with heel toe cams and trying to pull our behinds off the pads. When your hands keep blowing off crimps, you can only get angry so many times before it becomes hilarious. Before you just have to make the best out of a horse-s&*! situation. Climbing in the rain felt as ridiculous as cooking hand made pizza in the rain.
     Remy's first fall was scary. He landed hard on the pad causing it to lose traction with the earth. He rode the crashpad down the steep and muddy terrain until the pad wedged itself  against a rock and ejected it's passenger. I watched in horror... my biggest fear has always been falling.
     I stopped trying the problem after this and we went home once Remy had a couple more burns. Having learned from his previous fall, I positioned myself straddled between two rocks praying to God that I wouldn't have to break his fall should he fall hard again. Anyone up for a game of human dominos?? The forest didn't reply.... it was empty.
     The next day it hadn't rained for five whole hours! Five hours!! Conditions were on! Remy patted down the finishing jug on the top out, laughing sarcastically under his breath as he said " it's dry!" in the most convincing tone he could muster. What really happened though, as he patted the topout jug, was the birth of a death trap. A floury, pasty, slick and slimy death trap.
     "Maybe I'll just finish there..." Remy pointed to the last dry hold underneath the lip of the juggy mantle.
     "Good plan!" I encouraged him, having remembered the mantle, though easy, to be extremely dangerous if one were to fall. You'd essentially fall down a miniature cliff if you popped off on the last move. "It's not worth it in these conditions Remy, it's maybe a 6a mantle at most..." I reassured him.
     Remy pulled on first try that day and breezed through the cruxy roof section. Then, he sticks the last dry jug which we had deemed to be our finish hold. Woohoo congratulations Remy! NOPE! JUST KIDDING!
     Remy hucked for the jug around the lip. It's an easy move so I guess I vaguely understand why he did it. He latched the death trap, his foot popped, his hand BLEW and Remy was falling. I think life slows down slightly during an adrenaline rush. I watched as if it happened in slow motion. He swung out over the mini cliff and did a pirouette in the air. Dodging the rock, he fell about ten feet landing in a crouched froggy position on all fours. He absorbed the fall by springing overhead into a somersault where he did another 180 degree spin on his back like a turtle...ending up closer to the river than the boulder problem.
     He picked himself off the ground and escaped without a scratch. I just about started crying but he shrugged it off and compared it to a downhill biking fall. "Falling is part of the sport" he said " you ready to try? Apart from dialling the first move, I didn't try the problem that day...

Gearing up for one last rainy attempt

     The next day we were leaving. Completely fed up with the cards we had been dealt, we packed up camp in the morning's rain before wandering out to the woods for one last burn. I was determined to leave Magic Wood with a send... even if I had to make my own version of a send up. I wanted to leave feeling I had accomplished something that I hadn't already done in that forest, something I could be proud of...I officially cut out the death trap calk-paste jug that Remy had flung off the day before."I'll call it Exclusi, short for Exclusive" I joked "and downgrade it to 7a+!  First female 3/4 ascent!"
     And so I did just that. I climbed Exclusi to the safest point in the given conditions and left happy. Of course it doesn't really count because I couldn't do the mantle, but what counted to me was reaching my pre-set goal of a finish hold. What counted for me was pulling smoothly through moves I could barely hang off last year. For me, that was something to be proud of... My sliced and diced rainy send with good friends in Magic wood.

Playing with the roof beta on Exclusive,  Photo: Jeremy Koyman

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Jelisa Dunbar