Perhaps only Red Sox fans will get the title reference, but their mantra worked for the Sox to clobber their competition, winning the 2013 World Series! I hope to keep a similar type of "Fear the Beard" magical motivation with me throughout competition season.

This season I'll be heading to Bozeman, MT in December to teach Mammut ice clinics and compete in the UIAA Open North American Ice Climbing Championships, then on to Ouray, CO the following month for more clinics and the Ouray Ice Fest competition.  The end of January brings my hometown Smuggs Ice Bash in Vermont, and in February, the 21st Mt. Washington, NH Ice Fest.

Training is underway. Ice isn't far from forming here in the East, and I can't wait for festival season to begin!  Get after it!  ~Andrea Charest

Bozeman, Montana's Spire Climbing Center held its annual Spring Fling competition on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13.

This two-day event features an adults-only Friday evening competition and a Saturday kids comp.

Over the course of the preceding work week, staff and volunteers strip the gym's entire main room of holds. These are then washed and assembled into routes over the course of 3.5 days (Tues, Wed, Thurs and early Fri). This is done in phases (i.e. one side of the gym at a time) in order to leave as much of the gym open to the public for as long as possible during the setting process.

Because of multiple finger injuries, I did not compete--but instead I worked as a route setter. Over the course of three days, I made 8 routes--each of which took me 3-4 hours to build. (I'm guessing that's a pretty average pace.)

This year, Spire's whole crew created 69 routes. If other setters were working at a rate of ~3.5 routes/ hr, this comp represented more than 240 man hours of route setting alone. That's not to mention all of the time spent stripping the walls, washing holds, fore running and scoring routes, cleanup, etc...

Though it was exhausting, the entire project was extremely fun to be a part of. I took many pictures of the process (below), and wrote an article on the competition for The Bozeman Magpie.

Check out the article here:

http://www.bozeman-magpie.com/thebigmt-full-article.php?article_id=677

And results here:
http://spireclimbingcenter.com/main/news.htm

Mammut athlete, Whit Magro, took second place for the men's adult open category. Good job, Whit!

I know it's ski season and all... but I'm going to throw some rock scaling in here anyhow.  Last month was my first ABS Nationals as a US citizen and I managed to get 3rd in a highly competitive field, which places me on a USA bouldering team.  I'm psyched to share this news as I'm getting ready for sport climbing nationals coming up in just a few weeks!  In the meantime, enjoy the men's and women's highlights provided by the LT11 crew!

The Plastic Passion Comp, The Front, Salt Lake City.