Before the heady days of Elevation Place, the Vsion climbing gym, under the watchful eye of coach Dung Nguyen, stressed the importance of bouldering.
In his small but challenging gym full of overhangs and routes that favoured powerful moves, he helped sow the seeds of the next generation of Canada’s top bouldering athletes.
Several years later, the national bouldering team is ready to harvest from the Bow Valley, as five local residents were hand picked to don the maple leaf at world cup stops in Toronto, Ontario and Vail, Colo. Becca Frangos, Alison Vest, Stacey Weldon, Elise Sethna and Eric Sethna will be among the 18 athletes Canada is sending to the top level competition.
While Weldon and the Sethnas add a veteran presence to the team, it will be a world cup debut for Vest.
“I don’t know what to expect, but I’m excited to be there at the international level,” Vest said.
Having battled against many of Alberta’s top climbers as a youth, Vest said she’s not surprised so many top athletes are emerging from Banff and Canmore. Relieved her teammates will add some familiarity to the competition, Vest said she’s been training a lot alongside Weldon and Eric Sethna in preparation for the world cup.
“Almost all of the top Canadians at nationals were from Alberta. It’s not unexpected to see that, but it’s nice to see everyone put forward their best performance. It’s exciting to have my friends from all over Alberta compete on the world cup,” Vest said.
To reach a world cup in her first year out of youth is a great opportunity, Vest said, and one she hopes won’t be her last.
“My climbing career has taken a shift from youth to open. This whole level of competition has been new to me and it’s taken a bit to get used to,” Vest said.
Before she leaves for Toronto on May 30-31, Vest will compete at the provincial rope climbing competition at Elevation Place on April 18, where she’ll be one of 16 local climbers chasing a provincial climbing title.
“I haven’t been training for lead climbing, mostly for fun. I see the athletes in the valley are training for it, so I’ll have to train fast,” Vest said. “The route setting staff have been working for months to prepare for the competition and it will be a good show. It will have long falls and big, dramatic moves.”
Eric Sethna is one of the route setters for the provincial rope event. He said he’s trying to add “some funky stuff” to the show, and should have climbers cursing his name by the time the awards roll out.
“I’m trying to give rope climbing more excitement. Traditionally, bouldering is more exciting and roped is more straightforward. I want to bring some of that bouldering skill to the competition this weekend,” he said.
He’s also honoured to earn a spot on team Canada’s world cup. He made his debut on the top series in 2011 in Canmore, when the event was held on a makeshift wall at Millennium Field. The 23-year-old, who has been competing in two to three world cups a year since then, plans to skip the Vail competition in order to focus on two world cups in China.
“World cups are an entirely different thing. The route setting is more technical than pure, pulling hard. They make complex sequences which are tricky to figure out. On the mental side, it’s a lot more intimidating. You’re against the best in the world, and you have to keep a level head,” Sethna said.
He said the competition is growing harder and harder at the top level, as the sport continues to grow in popularity, and Canadian crowds are soaking it up.
“I’ve been to Europe and the States, and Canada is a different atmosphere. They go crazy for the Canadians and it really pushes us on the wall. It’s also great to have world cups at home because we get extra quota spots,” Sethna said.
Sethna left the Bow Valley to earn his civil engineering degree, but is back to train for the time being. After he left, his climbing changed as well, but he still appreciates the base he achieved in the Bow Valley.
“I’ve developed a lot. My style has changed a lot. The biggest influence is the gyms and people you’re climbing with. Going from powerful moves at Vsion to flat and technical moves elsewhere, it’s good to have a mixture of both,” Sethna said.
