Climbing competition to be held in SRC
A bouldering competition, the 13th annual Palouse Climbing Festival, will take place at 8 a.m. Saturday in the Student Recreation Center (SRC).
The University of Idaho hosts the Palouse Climbing Festival as a part of the Northwest Collegiate Circuit (NC3), and UI’s Climbing Club will help set up for the event.
Nate Mattson |Argonaut
U of I staff set up for Saturday’s Climbing Festival at the Rec Center’s Climbing Center.
Climbing Center Coordinator Elise Clausen said the festival is open to the public costs $30 to register. Climbers can download the registration form on the university’s website.
UI Climbing Club President Susy Ruiz-Gallegos said registration is open between 8-9 a.m. and the event usually lasts all day and ends around 6 p.m. She expects between150 and 200 climbers to attend.
There are four categories in the competition: beginner, intermediate, advanced and open — with open being the best, based on level of difficulty, Ruiz-Gallegos said. The categories are divided into two sections of three hours each, so each climber will get to climb for three hours. The first heat consists of the intermediate and open climbers and the second will be the beginner and advanced climbers.
To set up for the event, Ruiz-Gallegos said the UI Climbing Club participated in what they called a “stripping party” Wednesday to tear down all of the holds on the lower half of the climbing wall in the SRC. She said Clausen and Outdoor Program Director Trevor Fulton washed the holds and a select few people are going to reset the wall.
Ruiz-Gallegos said Clausen will choose the settlers, and the climbers aren’t allowed to see the wall before competition day. Because of this, the people who set lower problems, or routes, climb really high, so knowing where the holds are won’t be an issue. One person who isn’t competing and someone who’s paid will come in and set the harder problems, she said.
Clausen said she wants the competition to be about having a good time, rather than winning prizes — so she didn’t focus on buying anything extravagant. The first place winners will receive the same small prize, and larger prizes will be raffled off.
Clausen encourages students and the general public to attend the event, because she believes it will be a fun and worthwhile experience. She said the atmosphere at the competition is always welcoming and comfortable, and the climbers are friendly and helpful — even to their competitors.
“As a competitor, I think the NC3 does a good job of prospering positive competition,” Clausen said. “As a spectator, it’s really fun to come and see.”
Ruiz-Gallegos said she’s attending the competition to have fun with her fellow climbers, although she hopes the event inspires others to rock climb, too. She believes many people have a misconception about what climbing is — that rock climbers are risk-takers who just want a thrill — and she wants to dispel this belief.
Although she’s not primarily attending to recruit for UI’s Climbing Club, Ruiz-Gallegos said it will be the perfect venue to try to get people to join.
“It is a beautiful sport that requires strength and mental skill,” Ruiz-Gallegos said. “If they come and watch, they’ll learn how great it is.”
Jamie Lunders can be reached at [email protected]