Pulling Down Chili in the South Sound While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

I have no skin left after yesterday, my back and shoulders are sore, and yes; I have won yet ANOTHER chalk bag. You guessed it, the South Sound Pull Down took place yesterday at one of Olympia's best gyms, the Warehouse Rock Gym! I believe this will have been the 4th or 5th time I have competed in this comp and it seems to just get better and better every time I compete, every year that goes by, and every decorative chalk bag that falls by the way side in my closet.

This year was no different. There was a great 5.10 shoe demo going on the whole time and you could see competitors dawning the funky new colors of their new Fall line up. The Green Hornet's looking and feeling the best of them all (even though I have already purchased a pair of Blackwings and LOVE them!).

The first session boasted some great climbers, namely my friends Dom, Kevin, Laura, Melody, Sarah, Keena, etc. etc.

Dom, who was feeling extremely intimidated and nervous by my new found strength, decided to drop out of the Men's Open category in favor of competing in the Men's advanced. I don't blame him though, we can't all be beasts like me. He gave the Men's advanced competitors a good run for their money but the locals have really been stepping their game up lately and when the chalk dust settled Eric Evans (originally competing in Men's intermediate) was bumped to Men's advanced and took first! It was a very close one, with the deciding points being allocated by who had the most falls. Dom was beaten out by one fall and took third but still walked away (literally) with some of those new trendy hippie Sharma shoes, a great score! Laura on the other hand was no slouch as she took first in her category beating out one of the Olympia climbing teams strongest females Victoria (who has a very long and crush-filled climbing future ahead of her). I think Laura picked out a nice back pack for herself, just don't let it go the way of my chalk bags, USE IT!

There were not a lot of people in my category, Men's open, but the spectrum was definitely in full swing, from me @ 29 years of age all the way down to Alex Fritz who I think is only 17 or so? I knew it was going to be an uphill battle as I watched Alex and his friend Sam propel themselves to first and second by making a mockery of some of the problems I could only dream to send in my wildest dreams of fantasies of hallucination induced dillusions of grandeur. Okay, so first and secondwere taken, but you know what?? Third is like second best to second place, which in a round about way is almost like being in first place if the second and first place winners stepped out for a bit and some hot girl who came late to the comp asked you what place you got and you could just lie and say first, right? So my eyes were set on the prize. I had already picked out this years next chalk bag vicitim and so I got to work. A nice flash of the softest problem there, led to what could only be described as an exponentially increasing fall from grace a.k.a a downward plummeting swan dive into what will always be known as a dimension I am far too familiar with labeled as 'obscurity'. It was between me, Nathan, and Miles. Surely my hardcore training regiment would pay-off in this fight to faux first? Even though I was climbing sort of strong, Nathan was climbing sort of stornger and wiped the floor with what was left of my pride and dignity. He deserved it seeing as how he sent some problems I could only do a few moves on and is proving to be in really good bouldering shape. Okay, so now the goal was to NOT come in last place. I sewed this victory up by distracting Miles as much as possible and telling him we had like 5 or 6 hours to complete 5 climbs when we really had 3 hrs. Strategy 'deception' a success! I came in 4th out of 5 competitors and thats like coming in first if it was a competition between me and Miles! YES! I am so good at climbing and so strong (In all reality Miles would have beaten me as well if he had only completed more than 2 climbs)!

In the end we all had a great time and wahsed our sorrows away/choked our victories down with a steaming hot pile/bowl full of chili. I climbed some really fantastic problems yesterday, drank some really good free beer, and got to totally trash the hell out of Boone and Steve's dining room table with a quarter. Oh man, do Saturday's get any better??!!

The weather is not looking so hot for next weekend's Leavenworth Halloween Rendezvous, but we'll see what mother nature has in store for us as the time draws near. What more can I say? We have one kick-ass climbing community here in our little state's capitol and I'm excited to be a part of it.