CANMORE – Without use of harnesses or ropes, youth climbers were busy crawling up 20-foot walls in the name of competition.
Canmore climbing stars Alexa Vanier and Jakob Learned-Lavoie took gold and silver in their categories, respectively, at the bouldering competition at Canmore’s Elevation Place last weekend (Nov. 24-25).
Vanier, 12, notched another golden performance to her name – she won a national bouldering title in June – with the weekend showing in girls 12-13.
“I’m always a little nervous before I compete, but once I get on the first route I’m fine,” she said.
Bouldering takes some thinking on your toes, as climbers plan a way up a challenging 15 to 20-foot wall that has plastic holds poking out and volumes to manoeuvre around.
Despite it being a hometown event at Elevation Place for the Canmore Climbing team, Vanier said it’s brand new holds and volumes for the competition.
“I always expect it to be more difficult than it actually is,” she said. “I have the same strategy (entering competitions) even if I go to any other gym. It’s the same for me because they are all new holds to me, anyway.”
Learned-Lavoie also performed impressively in Canmore despite a nagging injury.
The 16-year-old got around the first two boulders with ease before an old shoulder injury flared up and affected his performance in the finals.
“I tried to put it in the back of my mind. Obviously I don’t want to destroy my body, but you don’t want to be thinking about it when you’re climbing, so I tried to put it out of mind and it’s worked out well so far,” Learned-Lavoie said.
He added that “mostly everything” seemed to come into place over the two days of competition.
“I learned I had to work on more burly, physical moves because I’m more of a technical climber,” he said. “(I’m) not as strong as other guys in field, but I make up for it kind of being a little bit more smart.”
Other Canmore athletes at the competition included Thomas Gosselin and Marta Pieri capturing bronze in their categories, and Will O’Brien and Emilie Macleod placing fourth in Youth A boys and girls, respectively.
The Youth Provincials for climbing are Jan. 12-13 in Calgary, which Canmore Climbing team members such as Vanier and Learned-Lavoie plan to attend.
“I hope to place first in provincials and then head to nationals,” said Learned-Lavoie.
