New season underway
Goat Fort climbers compete in Cincinnati
Submitted photos The Goat Fort Thundering Herd was back in action last weekend for their first USA Climbing Qualifying event of the season in Cincinnati. Pictured above is Nina Harrington.
Lily White
Ivan Darling
Freya Heath
Grant Criswell
Connor Spear
Elodie Criswell
Submitted photos The Goat Fort Thundering Herd was back in action last weekend for their first USA Climbing Qualifying event of the season in Cincinnati. Pictured above is Nina Harrington.
Lily White
Ivan Darling
Freya Heath
Grant Criswell
Connor Spear
Elodie Criswell
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The Goat Fort Thundering Herd was back in action this past Saturday for their first USA Climbing Qualifying event of the season.
Youth climbers from Warren County traveled to Cincinnati to compete in a bouldering competition -- one in a series of USA Climbing qualifying events.
The majority of our kids have been at this for at least a couple off seasons now. Still, Goat Fort does have two younger, less experienced, climbers. Connor Spear is in his first season, and Freya Heath is in her second season.
Climbers started the day at 7 a.m. and did not wrap up until after 7 p.m. The day was broken up into three separate three-hour sessions. In each session, climbers had the task of mastering six different climbing challenges (boulder problems). These challenges are designed to be both mentally and physically demanding. It is quite difficult for a climber to know how to pull, press, squeeze and sometimes even jump their way up the boulder. Plus, there were nearly 90 climbers per session all vying for time on a limited number of boulders. It was chaotic, long lines of climbers waiting for their turn amid a cacophony of chatter and cheering. Athletes are not guaranteed a certain number of tries or time on each climb, and it was difficult to even get attempts on boulders. Managing time and making the most out of every try was critical. Every miscalculation, each slip, was costly. Still, each triumph was exhilarating.
Almost everyone from the team was in the top 10 of their respective categories.
In the Under 11 Division, Heath was sixth and Spear was eighth.
In the Female Under 13 Division, Elodie Criswell was first.
In the Female Under 15 Division, Neola Harrington was third.
In the Male Under 15 Division, Grant Criswell was seventh and Ivan Darling was 12th.
In the Female Under 17 Division, Lily White was second.
The Thundering Herd will be on the road again in a couple of weeks, heading to Akron, Ohio, for the next USAC qualifying event.