Meheco by Olivia Metcalf
This past November, my sisters, Francesca and Amelia, and I were honored to have the opportunity to go to Mexico and represent the USA in the North American Continental Championship for Climbing, or as they called it in Mexico, Campeonato Norte Americano de Escalada .
When we arrived into Mexico City, Mexico, I was already nervous. The staring faces of people and the blank looks when we tried to talk to them, not being very good at Spanish, didn't help much. We were staying at the dorms in the Olympic Village where the Olympics were held in 1968. The traffic was horrible and it looked like a very crowded and dirty city. It took us a while to get there, considering that the taxi driver had no idea where we were going! It was supposed to take 30 min…it took 2 hours! We finally got there but now we had to find someone who spoke English so that we could check in. The people behind the desk spoke less English then we spoke Spanish. Another difficult process, but we did it.
Once we were set in our dorm rooms, we met up with Claire Concannon and we talked about how exciting it was, this was our first opportunity to be able to compete in a foreign country. It was dark out by now but we could see the bouldering wall being built right outside the dorm. ? All of the climbing was going to be outside. Did they think this would be done in two days?
We quickly made many Mexican friends, not fluent in English but we were able to communicate someway or another. We laughed a lot which took some of the pressure off. That night in the cafeteria we watched a climbing movie that Claire had brought called the Pilgrimage with Chris Sharma. We were watching it on her DVD player and some of the Mexican kids asked if they could show it on the two big TV's in the cafeteria so that everybody could see it. When we turned it on, all the people in the cafeteria started watching it and it made everyone get excited about climbing. Even the soccer players were excited about climbing.
Walking to the cafeteria was hard, the bouldering wall was right between our dorm and there, still being hammered and painted and routes still being set, but we were not allowed to look at it. Everyone was excited, but I knew everyone was a little nervous, we didn't know a lot about the other competitors. Were they much better climbers then us? Would their competitions be totally different then what we were used to? We only knew about the Americans and how we climbed, but not the Mexican and Canadians.
I remember the night before the bouldering competition, being so nervous. All I wanted to do was to make it to finals, the next day. I was thinking about the number of people I had to beat and I really had to push it. Then I thought: it really doesn't matter how many people I beat, I'm here and that in itself is an honor. Thinking that, I felt much better. My parents had urged us to go to bed early, but I couldn't get any sleep. Finally morning came and I heard knocks on the door. Claire, Francesca, and I had to get up to be in isolation at 7:30 a.m. I was past nervous and into excitement. I really wanted to get up to that bouldering wall and just do my best!
Let me explain to you how this comp. worked. It was all or nothing. If you got to the top you got a Y for Yes and if you didn't make it you got no points and just an N, for No. There was a "hot hold" to break ties that was in the middle of the route. You also had unlimited amount of tries. When I first heard this I was surprised. If I did well and made it to the second to last hold on every route, I would still get no points. But if someone else made two routes and fell on the first hold on the other 3 they would do better than me. At first I thought it was unfair, but after the comp I realize it didn't make a big difference at all.
Finding out I was 3rd to climb, I hurried to iso and tried to warm up fast because I wouldn't have a lot of time. As they called me, Claire and two other girls to go to second iso right near the wall. I was so nervous. My heart was pounding and my whole body felt like it was shaking. I had some time to settle down thought, because the Mexican president arrived. The Mexican people are very proud of their country and heritage so whenever the President come, they hold a huge assembly and everyone dresses up. So, all the Mexican competitors got on their "uniforms" and went outside for the assembly. Thank God Claire had her DVD player; we watched almost all of Shrek2 before the first two climbers were called out. It was now 11:00 a.m. Walking into that hot sun, I wondered how I could climb in these extreme conditions. It was the extreme heat of the day when the sun in beating directly on you, there was no shade!
Once they blew the first whistle I jumped out of my seat and looked at what my first route would be, it looked hard. I got onto it and tried my best. I made it. The moves where tricky, it required a lot of precise skill and balance. I was unsure how the next four would be; I didn't expect to make most of them. The second one I made but only got to the "hot" hold on the last three. The routes were really fun!!! They ranged form about V3-V7. They had really cool moves! Once the comp. was over, I was unsure if I had made it to the finals. Even though, it was one of the best days in Mexico. I was so happy on how I did, and proud that I had made it this far.
Once I found out I was in, my day got even better. I watched as my sisters did the routes. My younger sister Francesca shocked me by making all five of the routes without any falls. My other sister Amelia, working her way and doing two of the routes and making it really far on the other ones! We had all made it to the finals.
On the second day, I was more relaxed and walking into the hot sun which I had spent all day in yesterday, didn't seem as bad. I got onto my first route and made it to the top easily. After making it to the top, again, on my second one, I thought "Wow, I'm having a really good day." I felt strong and confident. I did the third one, with one fall on the last hold. I was so HAPPY!! YAY! My fourth one didn't go as well… During that route I got a huge blister on the tip of my middle finger. So I barely got to the third hold. After a few tries I stopped so that I could get tape and rest before the fifth route which I wanted to do good on. I got tape and almost made the fifth one! I made it to the "hot hold". Today's routes ranged from V4-V8. Once I was done I was congratulated by my family and friends and was told how my sisters did. Francesca was going to get third place; she did three of the five routes. Amelia got fourth, making two of the routes. We were so excited, especially when I found out I had gotten third place in the continent! Beaten by two of what I thought were the best boulders in my group, Emily Ziffer and Kate Carr, I felt like I had really tried my hardest and it really paid off!
The next few days flew by. Claire and I were not participating in the difficulty part, so we were asked to help out in the iso area. Claire was in charge of taking people to the bathroom and I did the rest of the running. Iso was at the top of a hill about 50 yards away from the climbing wall. I took people to the climbing wall as they were called; one by one . . . I was so hot and tired by the end of the day that it would have been a rest for me to climb. But on the bright side I got a really good tan!
When we finally got a break, we watched. Well, if you know us, we didn't just watch, it was more a scream and yell and cheer on, all the other climbers we new like : Francesca, Amelia, Marah B., Sasha D., Emily, Cicada, Daniel W., Ben, Kate C., Ben, Matt…. and anyone who we had made friends climbing area, with in the last few days. Everyone did awesome, considering they were climbing 72 feet of climbing. Everyone did as well as they wanted to, some people did better then they thought they would, I am so proud of them all! The routes the first day were 11's-12's and the second day they were 13 a,b,c,d. There were some tears, frustrations and disappointment as in every comp., but everyone got over it quickly. There was a Mexican Fiesta that night near the climbing wall. There was a mariachi band and everyone danced. It was so much fun and a great way to end an exciting trip!
We had such a good time the entire week we were there. It started out being all about climbing, but looking back, I will always remember the old friends that were there and the new friends I made and the good times we had being there together doing something that we all love.
