Once again I am coaching the Canadian National Youth Climbing Team, this year in Imst, Austria. This page introduces the national team and provides some reflections on our activities from my perspective.
Here's a link to a page with some photos.
Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions.

Here's a site that provides the results Competition Site

I'd also like to thank Static Mountain for providing the uniforms and Walson Tai of Flashed for providing the team shorts.

Here is the 2006 National Youth Team that will be attending worlds with alternates named. JJ Mah is still the reigning Continental Champion so we can send 5 people in the 16-17 age category. Michael Weldon is occupying the 5th spot.

Youth B Girls (14-15)

Katie Mah, West Vancouver

Hilary Rathbone, Banff

Ayesha Khan, Surrey

Brooke McGoey, Canmore

Youth B Boys (14-15)

Eric Sethna, Banff

Patrick Valade, Kamloops

Sam Melnyk, West Vancouver

Andrew Calder, Melbourne Florida

Youth A Girls (16-17)

Noella Nykyforuk, North Vancouver (not attending worlds)

Celeste Wall, Canmore

Natasha Calder, Coquitlam

Jessie Newton, Canmore

Miranda Guzzo, Coquitlam (alternate)

Youth A Boys (16-17)

JJ Mah, West Vancouver

Marshal German, Edmonton

Scott Kennedy, North Vancouver

Zak McGurk, Canmore

Alternates

Michael Weldon (going to worlds, we send 5 in this category)

Junior Girls (18-19)

Vikki Weldon, Calgary

Jamie Mckeen, Chilliwack (not attending worlds)

Caitlan Pinchin, North Vancouver

Amelie Morin, Montreal

Junior Boys (18-19)

Sean McColl, North Vancouver

Matt Johnson, North Vancouver

Tony Berezowski, Calgary (not attending worlds)

Simon Parton, North Vancouver

Derek Walsh, Surrey (alternate)

Leaving Vancouver for Munich, Germany

Arrive in Munich.

The flight to Munich was one of the worst flights I have ever been on. There was a family in front of me with two kids that were absolute screamers. Every little thing would set them off, and once they started every other kid on the plane felt they had the right to join in... a long loud flight.

Fortunately once in Munich everything went really smooth. I rented a car for the coaches but Jamie and Knut had arrived earlier and were hitching a ride with the Weldon's so it was just Caitlan and I for the ride to Imst. I couldn't remember anything from a few zears ago but somehow navigated our way to Innsbruck and lucked out getting on the right road to Imst (not that hard but luck all the same).

We arrived several hours before anyone else even though we were all on the same flight. I tried to find an Internet cafe and even resorted to walking through a shopping complex, trying to refresh the wireless signal every 30 seconds or so, but no luck.

We made it to the hotel in time for dinner and most people showed up not long after. Since everyone had just flown in it was a quick dinner and then off to bed.

This morning I had made the rule that everyone had to be at breakfast by 8:30 and then after breakfast we were going to go for a run/hike. Sounded like a good idea when I proposed it but I forgot how big and good the breakfasts here are. Needless to say it was a slow run since most people had very full bellies.

After the run we took the team to the gym here in Imst, for everyone except Sean this was their first time at this gym. It is an amazing facility, tall, steep walls, great terrain and cool features. The object of today was just to get familiar with the terrain, angles, holds and features. I also wanted to get to know the kids that I have never coached before.

We practiced the competition warm-up, gave everyone one onsight route and then just let the kids climb whatever they wanted. Surprisingly, since we had flown many hours the day before, all the kids were still gung ho after 4 hours. We finally called it quits and went out onto the fields to play ultimate.

After a game that got a bit rowdy (not my fault) some of the kids went to the swimming pool while I stayed at the gym and climbed with Eric Sethna who just arrived. It's pretty easy to get tired at this gym and by the time we left I was absolutely cooked!

Back to the hotel for dinner, played some card games, had a 21 person round of Mafia going and then off to bed. Another day at the gym in Imst tomorrow.

Today is the last day the gym is open so again we wanted the team to go and train. We went for a brief run in the morning (I was so sore from ultimate yesterday but tried pretty hard to not let it show), had some breakfast and set a time of 10am to meet at the gym. Fortunately for me many kids were late and we had a few new twists for punishment. We had them pair up and do wheelbarrow races along a soccer field singing Oh Canada! Pretty humourous until Simon thought he'd rather wrestle me than sing. Wiry little guy who actually knows how to wrestle. Fortunately I have probably 30lbs on him, although he claims he pinned me for a bit I don't think so :)

We talked with the team for awhile about what we expected from them at the competition, and what they could expect from us. With the majority of the team we feel that focusing on the flash format and using it to our advantage will make the most sense. That and making sure the kids know how to use the coaches when warming up.

After the meeting we had them warm up then Jamie and I ran some routes with the kids watching and then we reviewed how well they learned from us. Some kids were great, and some not so much, making obvious mistakes even after talking with coaches and observing several other teammates on the routes. Yikes!

All in all it was another long day at the gym, about 4-5 hours of climbing when all was said and done. Dinner was well deserved and after playing a few card games we all crashed pretty early.

Today was a full rest day, and a free day with nothing planned for the kids. Several parents had planned side excursions to either Salzburg or Vienna. I'm not a very good tourist and I was just hoping to get some work done.

In the morning Knut, Sean and I went to the climbing gym to help them strip the walls and clean some holds. Sean wanted the money, Knut and I wanted to help. It actually went really fast whihc surprised me based on how large the gym is. Knut and I were both pressure washing holds outside while there were people in a lift and working from the ground to take the holds off. A few times one of teh ladies that was helping asked me to reclean a hold. It's been a long time since I have cleaned holds and even longer since I have tried to impress anybody by how clean they were but they were pretty serious about having super clean holds.

Around noon we went back to the hotel and grabbed Jamie. We were hoping to drive up to Landeck and find an Internet cafe or similar to work from. On a Saturday afternoon this turned out to be quite a chore and ended up playing cards at a cafe for a few hours.

All in all a pretty uneventful restday.

Poor Derek Murphy... First year on the team and he was late for breakfast this morning. In fact he skipped the run as well! Needless to say this required much more than just a simple round of pushups and Oh Canada. I decided that a few burpies were in order, and even better every time he missed a line in the anthem he had to start over. He didn't quite expend as much energy as going for a run but it was probably pretty close :)

Today the team was scheduled to train at the gym in Innsbruck but yesterday I was unable to contact the manager of the gym. I guess I just don't know how to use the phone system here because this morning one of the people at the hotel called him no problem and we managed to schedule the gym for 11:30.

At the gym we wanted some of the competitors to practice onsighting while we wanted the others to practice flashed format. We had Sean, Vikki and Katie onsight a route that the others were then required to flash. After their one attempt the climbers were allowed to climb around but just not get too tired. All in all we spent about three and a half hours at the gym.

After the gym Jamie, Knut, Sean, Caitlan and I went searching for an Internet access point where Jamie and I would be able to connect our laptops. The first Internet cafe we stopped at had a laptop station and I connected but it was really smokey and Jamie's throat has been bugging him so he went searching for another place. We ended up finding this hotel where we could buy a coffee at the bar and they would give us an access code that would last 24 hours. How sweet is that! Buy a capuccino for $3 and then sit and work for a few hours, not a bad way to spend some free time.

After working for a few hours we had to take off in order to make it back to the hotel in time for dinner. Not knowing exactly how the whole autoroute-vignett-toll system worked we ended up taking the back roads home. While it was very scenic it was also verging on scary as we arrived back at the hotel with only 10 minutes to spare for dinner.

After dinner some of us decided to play poker. Knut and Sean went head to head on the first hand, both of them betting all their chips. Unfortunately for Knut, Sean had a better hand and Knut's poker playing time was short lived. In the end I was third last, Pat second and Sean won (lucky trust me).

Tomorrow's another free day.

Today was another pretty uneventful day. It started with the kids having to be up by 7am, which is no fun for anyone. Many people were planning on going to Salzburg but Jamie and I just went into Innsbruck to do some work.

After a few hours of work I was hoping to drive into Switzerland for a bit or something but all in all we were too lazy and just went back to Imst, to the hotel. I decided to try and teach JJ how to drive standard. I mean when better to learn than on a rental car? Zak decided to tag along and I'm sure he enjoyed himself.

Dinner was fairly uneventful, Hilary Rathbone finally showed up so now the entire team is here. Curfew was in place for the evening at 10 am, so after a fairly slow poker game (which I won) it was off to bed.

I told you it was a boring, uneventful day.

Ah.. another early morning and run. This time at 6:30am, trying to get the team ready for the competition. It wasn't supposed to be a hard run, just something to get them active in the morning. The previous day Marshall, Michael, and Sam were late for breakfast so we had them stand on these scary playground poles and sing Oh Canada! Fun for everyone else :)

After the run we went back to the Alpenblick for a wonderful breakfast and arranged to meet at the gym in Innsbruck at 10am but from 7am to 10am was a lot of time so a game of poker ensued. I won this one fortunately and now had enough to pay for laundry.

At the gym we played a cruel joke on the kids, we had them preview routes that were quite hard and as we brought them out we had them tie in, turn around, and just before they were about to step on the wall we directed them to an easy route. Some of the kids were surprised, some probably expected it and some had no reaction whatsoever. I was surprised that word didn't leak back into isolation towards the end and I think it went really smooth. The only issue was that Brook tweaked here ribs slightly in warm-up but I'm hopeful they'll heal up before the comp in two days.

After training the kids and sending them off Jamie and I did a few climbs then went to do some work at the Hotel Europa. I also had to do some laundry so we finished off an exciting afternoon by washing clothes.

Back at the hotel we pretty much just had dinner, then I sorted some photos and got ready for bed. Tomorrow is the last day before the competition so it's a team day.

Today is the final day before the competition begins and I had planned for a couple nice leisure activities to keep the team pre-occupied and together. We woke up super early, 6:15, in order to get ready for tomorrow.

At around 10am we drove up to Hoch Imst (Mt. Imst - a local ski area) and were set on going up the chairlifts and taking a roller coaster down. We took both lifts up and then hiked for about 15 minutes to a small landing where we had lunch and enjoyed the view. We then went down to the top of the 'Alpine Coaster' which was the ride. I didn't know what to expect but it was basically two person sleds with brakes and that ran on a track. You weren't allowed to take backpacks down on the coaster so I went down the first lift and took all the packs, that way I could also set up to take photos of the kids on the coaster. I had told them to wait half an hour and it turned out to be a bit long so I had plenty of time to set up.

Soon the kids started coming down and since I had no idea how it was set up I wasn't sure who was coming when. Sometimes there were two kids on one car, sometimes just one, sometimes unknown people in between. I guess I was fairly easy to see since everyone was shouting or making silly faces.

Unfortunately somewhere on the ride Celeste lost her wallet. She claims to have felt it slip around turn 18. We asked at the bottom and they said they did a sweep every day and would let us know if they found anything. We decided to leave and let the staff sort it out.

The walk back from the mountain was surprisingly short despite the initial grumblings from some of the team. Once the team was back at the hotel Knut and I ran back to search for the wallet. The plan was to have both of us go up the chairlift but only one of us go down the ride. The other person would run down the hill, search around turn 18 and then jump on the coaster. I hadn't been on the ride yet so Knut volunteered to run down the mountain. The wait was pretty long, longer than expected so I didn't think Knut would be ready for me as I was coming down the ride. Since you could stop anywhere I figured I would go really quick at the top, slam on the brakes when I saw him and he'd jump on, and we'd be off. Unfortunately it was really busy and there were slow people in front of me. Before I even got to Knut I had already stopped twice, each time letting the people ahead of me go for awhile before continuing. Sure enough as I rounded a corner there was Knut and in a gracefullness never before seen by me, he jumped the electric fence, took two steps and was up on my car without me even having a chance to come to a complete stop, and we were off (Done by trained professionals, not to be attempted)!! I'm not sure what the rules were on that, or what the people behind me thought. Knut searched from pole 15-20 and was not able to find the wallet but we had to get back to the hotel for the rules meeting so we didn't have time to search anymore.

Back at the hotel we had a quick dinner, and a very brief ceremony where I basically said 'Sean, you're captain' and handed him a team jacket with the letter 'C' emblazoned on it. Right after dinner Dung, Knut, Jamie and I went to the rules meeting. As I've come to expect there wasn't anything of great importance other than the running order and the meeting went rather smoothly. Directly after the meeting was the opening ceremonies. This was the first competition where the opening ceremonies involved the team marching through the streets of the host city. Pretty cool all in all, but next year the Canadian team needs candy to throw to the people on the side :)

After the opening ceremonies it was back to the hotel, team meeting and a meeting with the parents. Then it was a visualization drill with the team and off to bed.

Tomorrow's the big day!

Qualifiers: Day 1
Well today is the first day of qualifiers and with 24 competitors registered I'm sure it'll prove to be a busy day.

Breakfast was at 6:15 and with the gym opening at 7:30 and the first observation at 8:30. Many of out team was in the early morning and was there for the observation but with up to 92 competitors in a single category I wasn't too concerned with every kid being there for observation. Somewhere in 92 competitors they would see the sequence.

As with most competition days there were some good and some upsetting performances. Great performances (performances that stood out) were Pat Valade, JJ Mah, and Andrew Calder. Sean McColl was one of only two people to top out his route but because the guy just ahead of him topped out his ascent didn't have as much thunder. The truly upsetting performance of the day was Zak McGurk, this guy has worked so hard all year and then his foot just slipped... I hate this sport. Some of the other kids had hard days but they were more expected.

Oh well another day done.

Qualifiers: Day 2
Have I mentioned that I hate this sport... Today's big heartbreaker was Sam Melnyk. It started with Andrew Calder being the first climber, which he was nervous about and then he hesitated on a big move that wasn't that far on the route and fell. Fortunately he topped the route yesterday so his first place points were enough to carry him through but he didn't know that when he came off his route. Pat Valade climbed very well and cruised into semis. Celeste Wall also climbed very well in the early morning, pushing 3 or 4 moves farther than where I thought she looked like she was going to fall, but back to Sam. Yesterday Sam climbed well but was just outside of semis, today he was absolutely cruising up the route even looking so good that his movement on one of the cruxes could be described as textbook. It was just before the upper crux, after a great rest when he went to place a toe hook, then moved his hand and lost the toe hook and down he came... still fresh and only a few moves from advancing to semis. He finished in 28th spot. Damn sport...

JJ Mah ended up having to play the rush warm up game since his category was moving very fast and he was back at the hotel. Such a rushed warm up that I had to hold him back a bit even while they were calling his name. I felt bad for the judges who were trying to keep the category moving and there we were purposely slowing it down... JJ ended up falling and didn't get a proper warm up. Tomorrow will be different.

All in all I think most of our climbers put forth great efforts today, nobody was terribly disappointed with their climbing although some were disappointed with the results. Moving on to semis are 7 climbers; Sean, Matt, Vikki, JJ, Pat, Andrew and Katie.


After the comp the coaches went back up the mountain to search more thoroughly for Celeste's wallet. We ended up renting this scooter looking things that had mountain bike tires. We went up the chair lift and road the scooters down the ski run. We stopped at around turn 5 of the Alpine Coaster and started looking. Jamie and I did a search from turn 8 all the way up to the start of the run, on both sides of the track but the wallet was no where to be found. After about an hour and a half of looking we gave up. I have no idea where that thing could be.

Back at the hotel we had dinner, it was Simon's birthday so there was a cake and a pathetic rendition of happy birthday. After dinner it was off to bed and preparing for the semis and finals tomorrow.

So much happened today... I laughed, I cried, I witnessed great joys and great sorrows.

The day started at around 6am with breakfast and we checked into isolation around 6:30am. We managed to be one of the first teams there and went directly to one of the locker rooms that they had in iso. There were only two of these rooms so we were rather lucky. Having seven people in isolation and a room to ourselves was quite the treat considering it was cold outside this morning, the isolation area is small and there were almost 200 people in isolation.
The previews came up pretty quick and I knew we were warming the kids up well. It was absolute chaos near the exit from iso where people were trying to track the running order but between Jamie, Knut and I we managed. Dung was in iso to start but went out to help map the routes and watch the kids in case of a technical incident. Andrew Calder was early to leave iso with Pat Valade not far behind him. Most of the kids left iso pretty quick with Katie, JJ and Sean being the stragglers, leaving iso near the end. By the time they were getting ready to leave it was a little more calm and we were able to time them well. JJ chose to spend most of his down time in our room just getting psyched. I was able to watch Sean's semi final route which he was the only climber to top out. After all the dust had settled it was only Sean and Katie in finals. Andrew Calder climbed amazing finishing 9th, Vikki climbed very well finishing 10th, Matt Johnson cruised to a high crux on the route but due to countback he finished 14th, Pat Valade was disappointed with his 22nd and JJ was very disappointed by finishing 14th. I know JJ timed out on his route after resting too long on a jug but it is too bad for him since he had such a dominant performance on the first route in qualifiers. Katie must have had one of the best routes of her life and was sitting in 4th place after semis. I have never seen her look so nervous as she was after coming back from preview so I was psyched to hear she made finals.

For finals I was once again in iso. Katie was quite tired from her earlier route so we chose to try a quick warm up instead of a long drawn out tiring one. Climbing was to start at 2pm so we timed it for her to be warm when she went out for preview, to come back and talk to me and then do a quick lap on the wall. At 2pm they announced a 45 minute delay so she had to cool down, and then warm up again. At 2:45 they announced another 45 minute delay so again she had to cool down and try to warm up again. I could tell she was tired so we just tried to minimize the actual climbing time and maximize the amount of warmth from previous climbing etc... All it all it must have worked somehow since she finished THIRD! I guess it was another amazing performance for her but I was still in iso with Sean so I didn't see it.

I was able to watch Sean's route but he was the only climber I saw on it. I knew he was confused by a sequence up top (I asked if he had previewed around the sides) and when I got out I could see why. There were quite a few holds in a small area but you couldn't tell how good they were. As Sean climbed he looked a little shaky but the route also looked really hard. He managed to get a heel hook rest right before the tricky sequence and then just committed to it. It looked really hard and powerful but he managed to pull through and make a few more clips. Then came a boulder problem right at the last bulge where he threw for a hold over the lip, stuck it with his body swinging out and then fired for the next hold for the tag. It was enough for the win in the junior boys category and once again Sean was the world champion.

After the comp I heard how Katie did and I'll be honest it brought tears to my eyes. That girl... good job Katie. Jamie and I stood around with Anna and Terry (Sean's parents) while the rest of the team headed off to the speed climbing. Sean was taking for ever in the doping control room (he couldn't pee) so Jamie and I took off for the speed climbing.

I was a little late to give the 5 minute speed climbing clinic that I am known for but I rounded up a few game competitors and ran through it complete with Katie Mah demonstrating the Russian speed dance. It was fun to watch the speed climbing and Andrew Calder did really well qualifying in 2nd position. Unfortunately the rain moved in and the competition was postponed until tomorrow.

After the rain moved in we just went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.

Speed climbing was moved indoors today and many of the Youth A girls had to rerun their qualifier routes.

I appologize for the brief update but basically Sean won the junior boys speed climbing as well. Part of it was luck since he never posted the fastest time on either of the two speed routes but he did beat everyone he went against. Double gold in his last year!!

Back at the hotel I prepped a slideshow, we had a last night together and tomorrow everyone is going separate directions.

Off to Ceuse for a few days, then maybe to Arco to watch Sean.

I am now back in Canada but wanted to provide a little summary on the rest of my travels.

After the competition I travelled to Ceuse with some of the American competitors (Brian Hopkins, Brian Boiko, Simon Benkert). As I was already exhausted from the competition it didn't help to have a long drive to Ceuse and we didn't arrive until around 3:30am. The next day was pretty much a write off. I hiked up to Ceuse and climbed a few climbs but wasn't really into it. The next day wasn't much better but at least the weather was amazing and the views spectacular.

In the evening we decided to drive up the hill on the other side of the campsite from Ceuse. There's a gate about 200m up the road and we thought we were stuck. The gate is a steel pipe about 20' long and locked at once side but with the lock inside the pipe and a slot over the latch of the lock. Since the pipe was about 4' in the air we decided to try and walk it. On my second try I was fighting to stay on and the pipe was swaying/bouncing and when I fell off I flexed the pipe enough that it popped off the latch!! Divine intervention we figured so we continued up the road. Pretty nice up there.

Climbed a third day and then left late at night to drive back to Arco, Italy.

I arrived in Arco around 2pm on Friday September 1, did some laundry and refamiliarized myself with the Arco area. That evening was an awards ceremony for two categories; Climbing of the Year and Competition Climber of the Year. Josune Bereziartu won climber of the year and Angela Eiter won Competition Climber of the year.

The next day was the onsight climbing competition for the Arco Rockmasters, having seen onsight climbing before Jamie, Dung and I decided to climb at Massone instead. That place is amazing, such fun climbing. In the evening we went and watched the women's bouldering competition. The routesetting and atmosphere was amazing. The problems were really varied, dynos, power and slab problems. Anna Stohr from Austria won by flashing all four problems.

On Sunday was the redpoint difficulty portion of the competition. On Friday the competitors had 30 minutes to work the problems and then on Sunday they had once chance to get as far as possible. Sean was the first person out and climbed really well. It was pretty cool to see him out there with over a thousand people sitting on grass watching. He climbed really well and fell at an upper crux that stopped a few of the other competitors as well. In the afternoon was the Men's bouldering competition and again the routesetting and varied problems was amazing.

In the evening we went out climbing to an area called Belvedere in order to get photos of us climbing above a town. The sun wasn't in a great position but it was still tons of fun.

The after party was pretty fun. It was much smaller than I expected but pretty much only climbers. Also is was Sean's 19th birthday which added a little twist, or purpose, to the evening.

I flew back on Tuesday, Sept 5 and the only thing to note is that the same noisy screaming kids on the flight out were on the flight back... What are the chances?

These guys support me so I'd appreciate it if you support them.

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