Heart of Steel, 2011.

Video of the finals of Heart of Steel competition at the Boston Rock Gym.

When I was a climbing teenager, my non-climbing friends often used to ask me if I was paid to climb the mountains or if there were bags full of money on the summits. The usual response to my answer “NO” was to call it “STUPID”. It was hard for them (and for me too!) to understand why one would risk for free. Well, that was long ago, now times have changed and people can literally climb for money, but only if they are super strong and skilled. Welcome to the new era everyone!

Heart of Steel annual climbing competition was held at the Boston Rock Gym for the third time. More then a hundred competitors were performing trying hard to make it to the finals, where the “money for skills” event happened. Many of our school’s students participated, showed great skill and some achieved excellent results:

Colin Harvey – First in Youth group;

Brian Nugent – Third in Intermediate;

Katie Lamb – First in Advanced;

Fletcher Chen – second in Advanced.

The biggest news was Daniel Berman, 14, who climbed so strong in Advanced, that he was moved to Open (the hardest group) where he placed third!

Here is the video of what happened in the Finals.

Climbers

Women: Melissa Godowski, Natasha Barnes, Tiffany Hensley.
Men: Daniel Berman, Josh Larson, Vasya Vorotnikov, Dave Wetmore.