The Climbing Comp

May 11th I volunteered to help with the youth climbing comp at Mesa Rim.  They stated if you volunteered the full 10hour day you'd get a free month of membership.  I'm game for free stuff so I sent an email volunteering for the whole day and got a reply to show up at 7 am Saturday.

A few days later an email went out to every volunteer with the hours they'd be required to work.  Next to my name it said AM, meaning only 7 am - 1:30 pm (and no free month), instead I'd be given day passes at the rate of 1 per 90 minutes of service (approximately 4 passes).  At the bottom of the email it said they still needed volunteers.  I was confused, why were they not accepting a full day of service from me but then still asking for volunteers?  I emailed the coordinator, Paul, and got no reply.  I called Mesa Rim and asked to speak to Paul and was told to email him, which I did again and got no reply.

I showed up at 6:55 am and headed inside with my climbing gear (which Paul requested).  I saw Paul, asked him if he got my email and he said "didn't I reply to you?"  Would I be asking if you had?  I treated myself to the bagels and cream cheese they brought and then learned how to be a judge.  Oh, the responsibility!  I'd never been a judge before, let alone participated in a climbing competition (I get nervous when I know people other than Scott are even watching me climb).

The judging was easy and I wouldn't be responsible for scoring, just marking the highest hold held in control, if they tried to move towards the next when/if they fell and if they got a hand on the next hold when they fell.  The route I was judging was a lead climb route with 45 holds and 10 clip in points.  After the first couple of climbers, and some consultations with my belayer, I got the hang of judging and settled in.

At the midday point I helped time the speed competition until I was relieved for free lunch (see my previous post of that--Extreme Pita) and then bouldered for about 30 minutes.  Some of the boulder routes were dated from mid-April but I wonder if that meant April of 2012 because the holds were so dirty they were black and slick with shoe rubber.  Mesa Rim's boulder area is just ok.  They have more angles than my home gym but no true cave area which is really what I want to get better at.

After that I called Scott to check in and find out what Kivah was doing.  Then got my assignment for the afternoon competition and then at 3:30 pm was told they didn't need me to stay until 5 pm so I should go home.  I was really bummed because I wouldn't be getting the full month membership but was assured I'd be getting 6 day passes.  It's quite a come down from thinking you're going to be getting basically 31 days of climbing and unlimited yoga to 6 day passes because the coordinator won't let you stay 90 minutes longer to help out.

All I can think of is that they wanted to give the free month to people who were already members and not just Multi Pass holders like myself which is fine, I just wish they would have said at the outset that "preference will be give to Mesa Rim members."  That way I would have just volunteered for the afternoon and not have had to get up at 5 in the morning.  As compensation I took four organic bananas from the two large boxes at the front and I ate an orange.

It did seem that the people in charge weren't as prepared as the volunteers and most of the info was given on a 'need to know' basis.  In the morning I was told what route I would be judging for the morning.  Later we were given our route assignments for the afternoon.  Mine was the same route, just different kids.  Why didn't the coordinator just say at 7 am that I'd be judging the same route all day?  The Official Climbing USA folks were conflicted on whether we'd be judging on 'movement' and 'usable surface' and said at first no, we were not and then changed it all when the judging forms were brought out and we were given a crash course on what that meant by some of the other volunteers, not the Climbing USA folks.

The one thing I thought was amazing was how quickly the volunteers worked together to take all the competition things down, with hardly any direction from the coordinators.  As soon as one person starting pulling up colored tape on the ground everyone pitched in and the floor was clean in no time.  The chairs got folded up and put away in a blink of an eye.  The cones and curtains set up to keep parents in the spectator areas were cleaned up fast, opening the areas back up to the public.  I found that really impressive how all the volunteers pitched together and cleaned everything up so fast (and yes, I helped too).

Somehow I ended up in a lot of the photos that Mesa Rim put up so here they are:

Center but on the right hand side getting a climber to sign his sheet.

The judging board with a photo of the route and all holds and clips numbered.

Following a climber with my hand against the judging board.

Waiting for the climber to start.

Can't miss me!

I'll do (almost) anything for something free.

So a few years ago  friend offered me a beer if I could rip a phone book in half.  So I did.  The friend welched on the offer but another friend bought me a Gatorade to make up for it.  But then my husband drank that Gatorade because he couldn't remember where it came from so I made him replace it.


This was the first phonebook I ripped in half.  Now it's a fun party trick and way less offensive then ripping puppies or kittens in half.  I hope you know I'm joking, I never do this at parties, ha! joking again, really I'd never hurt puppy or kitten unless it involved punting an ankle biter or punching a big dog that was going to hurt my dog.

So, today Scott was flipping through his Facebook and told me that Mesa Rim was looking for volunteers for Saturday's youth climbing competition.  I checked it out and for 1.5 hours of time they'll give you a free day pass (that's a $17 value).  BUT, for 10 hours of work they'll give you a one month pass plus yoga (and they offer yoga 3 - 4 times a day) which is a $105 value.  Oh, and you get lunch too.  Well sign me up!!

I emailed them right away and then called them a few hours later just to make sure they knew I was interested.  Well, 2.5 hours after the first email I heard back that they want me and I'm to show up at 7 am Saturday. 

Those who know me know mornings aren't my thing but now with Kivah that means I'll get up with her instead of Scott so some private Kivah time ain't so bad.

I really hope I don't have to take my free month of climbing/yoga immediately because it would work out well to use it in October when Scott has 3 weekends free due to SDSU's unusual football schedule.  (More on that some other time I'm sure.)

Here's a video of me bouldering at the ARC on the route that I got set.