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CANMORE – Canmore’s Alexa Vanier needs a bigger trophy case.
Fresh off winning bronze at bouldering nationals in February, the young climbing ace added more hardware to her abundant collection at last weekend’s (March 16-17) Alberta Climbing Association’s competition at Elevation Place.
The 12-year-old wall-climber defended her difficulty and speed titles, using agility and brains to win duel gold in the C girls contests.
“I’m running out of space, I don’t know where I’m going to put them next,” said Vanier with a laugh.
Vanier loved the final route in the difficulty course and said it constantly challenged her to think over what her next move would be.
“I feel like it was more difficult, so it was more of me thinking, so it was more fun for me to try,” she said.
In the speed race, the objective is as it sounds: climb up Elevation Place’s 15-metre wall as fast as humanly possible.
Vanier did in record-breaking time, earning a personal best at 9.65 seconds in Sunday’s speed race.
“My sequence went really well,” she said. “I really like speed, it’s a lot of fun.”
Also competing in C girls, Oceane Gelinas just missed in the podium and finished fourth in difficulty. Ella Ricci finished 13th.
Canmore’s Lea Vanier and Ruby Baty finished eighth in the A and B girls divisions.
On the boys side, Canmore’s Louka Gay earned a couple of bronze medals in the B division for his ability to scale a wall like a web-slinging superhero.
“It was kind of hard because I’ve never done speed (racing) before, this was my second time doing speed,” said Gay, 14. “If I could practice it more, I think I could do a bit better.”
Difficulty climbing is more Gay’s style, he said, and he pulled off a risky jump in competition, leaving all four points of the wall to get to the next point.
“My favourite climb was the one with the big jump at the end because it was really, really scary and I was the first one of everyone to get it; the crowd was going wild,” he said.