I'll try to keep this page updated with the day to day happenings of the competition and the junior team. You might want to check out cecyouth.ca where some of the competitors and other coaches may be posting information.

PHOTOS!! - Finally I have posted some photos. Sorry no captions. Let me know if you want any high resolution copies.

1pm - Leaving Vancouver for Beijing, China.

8:00pm.
Well we have arrived in China and are now safely checked into our hotel. The flight was fairly uninteresting but it was definitely the first time I have ever gone from a Friday to a Saturday without seeing a sunset or a sunrise. When we arrived in Beijing we were processed through three different sections that each required documentation and then finally we were outside. Once at the bus Vikki Parton realized that she was missing a bag, we realized Jamie was not with us and my laptop was nowhere to be seen. Well we didn't get Vikki's bag, Jamie was waiting for people to show up and my laptop had been stowed underneath somehow.

That's it for now. At least now I know I can connect to the internet :)

11:00 AM
This morning we made sure all the kids were up at a reasonable hour, 8am, for breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style with lots of choices including basic cereals, eggs, toast etc... It also appears that we are the only team staying at this hotel thanks to Jenny Mah. I'm not sure of the details but apparently the Chinese Mountaineering Association didn't want any teams to stay here but Jenny persisted and here we are. The hotel is a **** hotel, amazing service, great beds and I guess the Americans (the only people we have talked to) are in a hotel that is not quite so nice. So a big thanks to Jenny Mah!
We walked over to the competition wall. It is located in a large park and the wall is HUGE! We made ourselves as discrete as possible but just quickly walked by. We then looked around the park and there was a children's amusement park there. There was one of those jungle gyms with the tubes and ropes, much like a maze. It was called the "Third Generation Naughtly Castle"... Needless to say we've made some jokes about that.

Soon we're going to try and go climbing at the CMA wall which is apparently close. Just to get the kids stretched out. Everyone is here with the exception of Cathy Laflamme and Patrick Valade but they should be arriving today. Other than Georgia forgetting stuff everywhere I'd say things are going great and the team is in good spirits.

8:00pm

This afternoon we were planning on trying to go climbing but the wall was at least a half hour away by taxi, and with 23 kids that seemed a little ridiculous. So we decided to go to a merket, get some lunch and then head out to a park called the Temple of Heaven, only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Unfortunately to get into the park we had to pay 35 yuan (approx $6) so many of the kids decided to go to one of the markets instead.

Apparently the kids enjoy bartering and have come up with different strategies for getting what they want. The favorite is the "walk-away".

Jamie, Andrew and I went into the park alone and it was very beautiful. Rigth away we saw this set-up that looked like a new playground but it turned out to be a fitness circuit. I guess with Beijing set to host the 2008 Olympics they are trying to push fitness. It was pretty fun; pull-ups, leg presses, monkey bars... The actual Temple of Heaven was under renovation so we couldn't go in but we were able to walk around. There were a few other structures that you had to pay more to go into.

Back at the hotel we had arranged to have a team dinner. The whole team was now together and we had invited a representitive from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Ian Burchette, to join us. We were having a traditional Peking Duck dinner. At the dinner I had to sit at the "head" table which at first I wasn't happy about but after meeting Ian I was glad I was there. He was very interested in climbing and knew a lot about the Beijing area and customs. We managed to get a team picture with Ian in it.

After the dinner I did a little work and then it was off to bed. Some of the team went to the market before nodding off.

10pm
Wow!! What a day! Today we had arranged a tour of the Great Wall but a part of it that was a 3 hour bus ride away. We weren't sure exactly how long it would take with traffic and it ended up being over 3 hours away, but worth it. Not too much happened on the busride only some rather unpleasant encounters with roadside restrooms. Once at the great wall most of the people purchased some tourist style chinese cone hats. Bruce and Jennifer, our tour guides, had decided that due to the traffic and travel time that we would hike the great wall and return to the bus rather than trek along the great wall and meet the bus somewhere else. I have to say that the Great Wall is incredible!! Standing there, on a structure built 2500 years ago, one that stretches for 5000kms was absolutely amazing. I managed to take tons of photos which I hope to post soon. Brendan, Cathy, Mike Weldon and I were able to run farther along the tower and hit this ridgeline. We could see the wall for miles.

There was this one part of the wall that run up this ridgeline even farther away and apparently the wall is only 30cm wide (1') at that point. Where we were the wall was over 6' wide.

All in all the visit to the wall was incredible. After walking on the wall for about two hours we were back on the bus for another 3 hours. Back at the hotel most of the team simply had a shower, went for dinner and then headed to bed. Tomorrow we plan to train in the morning and then who knows... probably more shopping at the market.

9:00pm
Today we were able to go to an outdoor wall and get some climbing in. The wall was located about 20 minutes away and was located in a park. It took 8 or 9 taxis to ferry us to the park and fortunately everyone made it without incident.

At the park there was another one of those fitness circuits that Jamie, Andrew and I had played on in the Temple of Heaven park. The wall was about 40' high and had three main sections. A very steep section off to the left, a vertical section in the middle and a slightly overhanging section to the right. In addition there was a bouldering cave that was great to use for a warm up area, except there weren't enough big holds...

We made a quick running order and tried to simulate comp conditions. It wasn't terribly warm but we were trying out some techiniques to cool the kids down, such as putting their shirts in a cooler, wetting them down, or misting their backs with water. I only hope the day of the competition was as cool as today. Mostly we were working on the communication between the coaches and the kids that we don't know that well. Oh yeah, and the Bigras-Masse twins (Alex and Gabby) are trying to learn O'Canada and Katie is doing a great job of teaching them.

It was amazing how many people there were watching us and for about 3 hours we had the wall to ourselves. Eventually the Ukrainian team showed up but fortunately we were done most of what we were attempting, the wall wasn't quite big enough for 50 kids.

After the wall I just went back to the hotel to do some work and relax. Jamie ended up going to one of the markets with Sean, Marshall and Matt. I guess some guy offered to show them where they could get cheap DVDs, he lead them down this alley, up a flight of stairs and into a house. Sure enough it was filled with DVDs and apparently a little baby girl sleeping on a bed. The DVDs were about $1.20 each! Some of them even worked on my computer.

When they returned they grabbed Andrew and I and we all went to a Market that was quite close to the hotel. I just couldn't get into it. I don't really need anything (I have no style anyways) but there are all these knockoffs for really cheap. Watching Marshall barter was hilarious. He's a big guy and he loves it. Jamie bought some jeans and shirts, Andrew bought some shoes and I didn't buy anything. I might head back there a little later to see if something catches my eye.

After the market we ended up just getting some dinner and heading to bed. Tomorrow we hope to go to the Forbidden Palace and Tiananmen Square.

11pm

Finally a late night, tomorrow is comp day.

This morning Andrew, Jamie and I had to go register the kids. Fortunately this was super easy. All we did was show up and they gave us some shirts and the appropriate numbers for each kid.

We had asked all the kids to be back in the hotel by 1pm so I think we screwed up the shopping plans for most of them. In the morning most of the team went to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. After registration we (the coaches) decided to go there as well.

Tiananmen square was huge with Mao's mausoleaum right in the center. There was also the government house and the museum off the the side and at one end was the Forbidden city. While walking through the square we were approached by these two girls who started speaking to us in English. They said they were students in Beijing and were studying English. They were from out of town and initially it appeared they just wanted to practice their english. They said they were also studying art and some of their works were appearing in the museum and could be viewed for free if we wanted to see them. We agreed and in the museum was a small room filled with art. They explained which ones were theirs and after a bit suggested that we could buy a parchment with some calligraphy on it with our names, the date and a sybmol for happiness, luck... whatever all for 200 Yuan ($33). Pretty elaborate scheme and not one you could really barter with.

After the musuem we headed for the Forbidden City. It was absolutely packed. As we were moving through it we arrived at this one building (one of the throne buildings) and in the little square in front of the building was a little girl of about 3 years old calling out "mama, mama", and I guessed she was just lost. Within a few moments she was screaming and crying but there's not a lot I could do to console her with my two phrases of Mandarin (Thank you, and Hi how are you). We stood there for awhile looking for any distressed parents and other people arrived to help her. Fortunately her dad came back for her, yeah a happy ending.

It took awhile to go through the city, it was massive. Near the north end was a garden with these elaborate rock structures built in to it, with guard towers on top.

Once out of the Forbidden City we decided to hike up to this temple that was overlooking the city. From there we could see back along the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square. Unfortunately with the smog we could barely see past the city. After that we just took a cab back to the hotel.

I was reading when Sean called, asking if he could watch a movie on my laptop. I agreed only to have 15 kids show up to watch the movie. By the way Dukes of Hazard is stupid.

Tonight we had the team dinner in the hotel restaurant and all the kids had to be there. The dinner was really good and we managed to get some funny photos the the kids interacting. I still don't think I'm going to be able to top the JJ hot pepper photo from Bulgaria, but I'll try.

After dinner was the technical meeting for coaches and then we briefed the team. Nothing major in the way of funky rules for this comp. After briefing the kids we did a visualization drill (pretty much the same one that is on my training page) and then did some one on ones with the kids. Most of them are excited for tomorrow, some a nervous but all in all it should be an interesting day.

8:00pm

Well today was a hard day. Of all the categories only 5 people topped out in the competition and none of them were Canadian. The routes were very hard and at least tomorrow we'll be prepared for that.

The competition started at 9am with an opening ceremonies featuring dragons, breakdancers and some bands. I missed most of it since the climbing started at 10 and I was warming up kids. During the forerunning of the routes none of the forerunners made it to the top of the wall without either falling or taking, you'd think that indicated something...

I'm not going to go into to much detail, suffice it to say that most of the climbers are waiting for tomorrow and I'm exhausted.

4pm

Well I hate difficulty climbing, some kids climbed well, some not so much, but it's impossible for everyone to be happy. I don't have the results but I'll post them as soon as possible.

The climbing started at 9am but most of the kids were at the wall much sooner. We have a couple of kids just outside of semis (two in 27th place). I'll try to get into more detail later but once again I am tired and I'm going to have a nap.

11:00pm

I have the results for all categories other than Youth A female (16-17).

  Junior Girls:
  32) Nani Woolings
  37) Georgia Temple
  38) Amanda Berezowski
  43) Noelle Mayes

  Junior Boys:
  5) Sean McColl
  50) Brendan Tersmette
  52) Alex Quiring

  Youth A Boys:
  5) JJ Mah
  7) Matt Johnson
  46) Simon Parton
  55) Chris Skeet
  65) Zak McGurk

  Youth B Boys:
  23) Marshall German
  26) Pat Valade
  35) Michael Weldon
  37) Andrew Calder (He was called for stepping on a bolt, low on his second route. Ended up 12th on it)

  Youth B Girls:
  8) Katie Mah
  26) Gabby Bigras-Masse
  27) Alex Bigras-Masse
  35) Miranda Guzzo

Sorry that I don't have the Youth A girls, I do know that Vikki made it through, in I think 21st.

10:30pm

Another tough day filled with joys and sorrows... This will be written from my perspective which as always is in isolation.

The day started with one group going to the wall at 7:30 followed by another group of competitors at 8:00am. The youth B girls (14-15), youth B boys, junior girls and junior boys were running first thing in the morning. Pat Valade, Marshall German and Gabby Bigras-Masse were all out fairly early in the running order so we warmed them up quickly and didn't get a chance to talk to them after preview. Katie Mah was near the end of the Youth B girls so she had a little more time in ISO along with Sean McColl. Before going out to climb Katie had Vikki fix up her hair into turbo mode and apparently it worked. Sean was late in his field and seemed confident before going out. We could hear from the crowd that he hit a high point but definitely didn't send. There were still four climbers after him but it was hard to gauge the crowd, I mean the Canadians are just so loud.

For the afternoon session Vikki was up pretty fast after preview. Andrew was working with her a lot and again I could tell from crowd noise that she put on a show, but being in 21st place I didn't have a lot of confidence she would make final. It was good to know that she climbed well though.

JJ and Matt were out at almost the same time and I spent most of my time warming them up and getting them ready to climb. By the time they were going out it was really hot, even in Iso which is in the shade. I only really had an opportunity to watch these two climbers.

Matt was climbing really well, found a good rest of an undercling over half way up the route but then in the next few moves his foot slipped and he fell. You could tell by his reaction in the air that he was not happy, probably not tired enough to fall.

JJ was two climbers after Matt and he too climbed very well through the bottom, pausing only slightly on a few powerful moves. When JJ got to the move where Matt fell he hesitated too long on a powerful move and ended up fall there as well. It was a hard move and the climber between JJ and Matt had fallen lower. It would be close whether or not they would mkae finals.

Well after a slight confusion with the scoring JJ finished 9th, and Matt 10th. Both not in the top 8 and just out of finals. It really was quite a heartbreaker for both of them.

Next up was speed climbing but we managed to get a quick shower in to cool down a bit. The speed climbing wasn't quite as eventful as previous years (the ICC wouldn't allow us to climb in any costumes). It was still a good time and I have no idea what the results are. I think Sean, Georgia, Chris and Miranda may be through to finals. Oh yeah, I ran another 5 minute speed climbing clinic with the Kiwis and Aussies as well as the Canadians :).

That's pretty much it.

Sean is in 2nd going into finals.
Katie Mah is in 5th.
Gabby finished 24th.
Vikki is in 6th (moved up from 21st)!!!
JJ finished 9th.
Matt finished 10th.
Pat Valade finished 26th
Marshal German finished 21st.

11:59pm

Well another junior championships is over.

Sean finished in 6th, Vikki moved up again to 5th!!! and Katie finished in 7th (perhaps the best of any first year Canadian competitor?).

In speed we had Chris Skeet, Miranda Guzzo, Gabby Bigras-Masse, Georgia Temple and Sean McColl in the finals. Only sean made it through to teh quarter finals and fell despite giving the guy who was ranked 1st a run for his money.

That's it. After a wrap up tonight the team will say goodbye tomorrow and I'm off to Thailand for a few days.

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