Interviewer: Can you tell me your histories with climbing and what you like about it?
Emma: I started climbing when I was in high school, then kind of on and off for a couple years, mostly due to lack of access to climbing.I’ve been climbing more consistently since I moved to Victoria three years ago. I like that it’s a social sport. I get to see my friends, meet new people, chat; I also like that it’s a puzzle and requires problem solving; I like that you can make it as hard as or easy as you want, and that you can climb with people who have never been climbing before or who are really experienced and it feels balanced.
Leslie: I first climbed when I was 13 with my mom. I stopped climbing for a long time and then eventually got back into it in Victoria when I was about 23, so about 13 years ago. I started climbing routes at Crag X and then got into bouldering, then I got really obsessed with competition climbing, speed climbing for a while—
I: Gross. [laugh]
L: I love speed climbing, it’s so fun. It’s my favourite, but I can’t really train it anymore. I used to be able to train a lot more and speed climb whenever I wanted. I was doing competitions in Vancouver. I also worked at the gyms since forever—Crag X, Boulder House, I worked at some gyms in Australia which was super fun. More recently, I’ve dialed it back due to injuries, so I’m climbing more recreationally, once or twice a week. Some of the perks about climbing is that it’s such a fun way to travel, finding outdoor climbing destinations. It gives you a reason to get a group of friends and go somewhere you wouldn’t usually visit. I definitely also love the problem solving aspect, too.
I: What in specific do you love about speed climbing? I’m still hung up on that.
L: Good question. I just love going fast. You can track the progression so much easier. That’s the one thing that gets me with climbing sometimes, is feeling a lack of progression. Grades can vary between setters and styles and gyms, so it’s hard to track your progress. For speed, it’s the same route every time and you time yourself and you know if you’ve done better or worse. I love the fast thinking where you have to get to a point where you’re not thinking at all, it’s just motor memory. You can get that sport climbing outside when you can’t think about the fear too much. I feel like people like it for a similar reason, where you have to just turn your brain off.
I: That makes more sense now. The opinion feels more justified now, haha. How about you, Hunter?
H: I started climbing back when I was 11 in Albert, predominantly outdoors since there were really only 1.5 gyms in Edmonton at the time.
I: What do you mean by 1.5 gyms?
H: There was a university wall before there was a good university wall. It was basically one line. It was not really feasible. It expanded over the years, but at the time there was not a lot going on there. The reason I got into it was because of my parents. They wanted their children to be sherpas and carry most of the gear up the crag for them. Then they had to entertain us by letting us climb. I got more into it in university because I was climbing with people my age as opposed to my parents and their friends. I got into bouldering in a big way during then. I’ve eased out as I’ve gotten injured because nothing is worth an injury and I keep getting injured every time I’ve been bouldering consistently. Now I do a lot more ropes, especially lead. What I like about climbing is that, when I’m on the wall and fighting to not fall, I’m not thinking about anything else. It’s about being present in the moment. There’s the massive social aspect about it that you don’t get in a lot of sports. If you’re playing soccer or something, you’re not really having a conversation while you’re doing it, depending on what level you play at. When you’re bouldering, you’re on the mat more than you’re on the wall. I like climbing in groups of three because you always have someone to chat with, plus you get longer breaks.
I: Super true. While you can technically solo boulder or self-belay, it’s just not as fun. You want spotters, you want belayers. That social aspect is part of what I want to talk about most, which is comp stuff. You all signed up for Spring Fling Comp Thing, and I always see most of you sign up for the comps each time they come up, which is awesome. I wanted to ask: what encouraged you to join, social or otherwise?
H: I like doing the comps, especially that Crag X has done the rope comps, because it’s a lot of new routes in succession. The fact that they’re typically not graded is something I really enjoy. It’s fun to climb something and not know what people think the grade is. I find that as soon as you know the grade, it can deter people from trying a climb. I enjoy the novelty of it and the social aspect in a major way. I don’t compete to try to win, I just go to have fun, and it’s another way to do that.
E: I like the comps for similar reasons as Hunter said. I like that the grades are unmarked, so I try things I normally wouldn’t try. I like the turnover of the new routes really quickly. I end up trying a lot harder and climbing harder things as a result. It’s very entry-level too, so you don’t need to necessarily be good at climbing, or competitive as a person. It’s usually a fun, do-at-your-own pace competition. I’m not competitive, but I enjoy getting to challenge myself without feeling like I’m competing.
I: I really like this comp for that reason: usually you can get a sense of the grade based on the different point values, but they’re all one point for this one. You are just against yourself with team support, which is awesome.
L: I love competitions. I love the competitive aspect, actually—
I: The outlier!
E: So opposite, haha.
L: Not competitive against people, but it motivates me to do the best that I can at the gym because it feels like there’s no point to try so hard. When there’s a competition, I have a very specific goal and I want to do the best that I can do. I love the team format because I am still motivated to be competitive in the sense that I am going to try the hardest that I can, harder than if I wasn’t in a comp, but if I don’t do well it’s not any one person’s fault. It takes away the negative aspect of competing while retaining the positive motivation.
I: It’s a group project, instead of you fighting against your performance. Did you do Spring Fling Comp Thing the last time it was run? I wasn’t around for the last one.
H: Yeah. 2024.
E: I didn’t do the 2024 one, but I did Rope-A-Dope.
I: I don’t know the difference, much. It was still teams, right?
H: It was teams of four, more similar to Rope-A-Dope where higher grades got you more points.
L: For finals, they had the crate stacking, which was a lot of fun.
I: That sounds fun. I’m looking forward to this one, it’s going to be somewhat terrible, haha. You get one chance to send all 40 routes in one day and you try and get as many as you can throughout the day. There’ll be food, coffee, all that stuff. It’s going to be hard. I love bulk, quantity climbing. Leslie talked about some other comp experiences, so I wanted to ask about all of your experiences in comps generally. Have you taken part in many others?
L: I will say, I really like the Crag X comps in comparison. I usually have a good time at all competitions, but… finals at other competitions in the sanctioned competitions are a lot more stressful, and you’re just wrecked. It’s a lot easier to get down on yourself if you’re not doing well, whereas I really enjoy the Crag X competitions because they’re often so different, so you can’t really compare to your performance last year. I love the ones with the games, like the crate stacking and stuff, because it’s just unrelated to any other climbing you’d be doing, so you get to try a new skill.
I: Sneak peek of the scorecard: there are also bonus points you can get by doing little tasks, like belaying for a rival, or trying a certain type of climb, so I expect you don’t get that in other comps.
L: 100%. The only other similar comp I went to was in Australia, where the final was just a bunch of games that we set up for people to try. We set up holds on the floor where you had to try and mantle, stuff like that. You had to climb around a table. Really silly stuff. I think that’s the most fun.
I: Lessens the stress a little bit.
H: The comps I used to do were all local bouldering comps, where it was truly just: boulder, a lot. One thing I really like about the Crag X comps is that it’s not always the same people winning, which can end up feeling like the gym is sponsoring five people, which is not a lot of fun for everyone. I like that the gym introduces an element of the team that tries the hardest gets to win—
E: Or the best poster.
H: Yeah. It’s not just: the person who is the strongest gets to win.
E: I haven’t done any other climbing competitions and I probably wouldn’t. It sounds really scary and I don’t want to do that, haha. I like that they’re usually spread out over a longer period of time instead of just one day, too. If you’re not feeling good one day, that sucks, but over a month you’re going to have both good and bad days.
I: I always feel bad watching the IFSC comps and they have a dryfire after the first clip or something. That’s just it. They were building up for one day for months and a little mistake happens and it’s over. It’s heartbreaking. You shouldn’t have to be judged on the worst possible outcome. Last question: do you have any words of encouragement for your fellow participants?
H: It’s okay to fall. Try something that you think is hard and see how far you can go. I try to get people to try things they think might be too hard for them, but it’s okay to fall. People will catch you. It’s the whole point of having a belayer.
E: If people are hesitant to sign up—I was hesitant to sign up for my first comp because it sounded very official—but it’s not that serious. You’ll have fun. Come for fun and you’ll probably improve and challenge yourself and have a good time and make some friends.
L: Don’t be afraid to fall, don’t be afraid to not be able to do any of the routes. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about having fun.
I: That’s great. No more questions, thank you for talking with me today.
