On Friday, November 4th my sister began her journey to China for the 2016 Youth World Championships. Even as a competitive climber that travels around the country fairly often, this opportunity is amazing. Although the competition stretches from November 7th to the 13th, Piper is only climbing on Thursday the 10th.In the competition circuit, there are 3 categories of climbing: lead, bouldering, and speed. Each category of climber competes separately and they each test different strengths.
Lead climbing requires a long route (usually 40 feet or higher), and the climber will take the rope of with them. Unlike some other types of climbing, the rope is not attached to the top before starting the climb. Instead, every couple of feet, the climber will get to a bolt, where they can clip their side of the rope into the wall. In order to ensure their safety, they continue this process up the entire wall. Leading tests many different strengths, but is usually centered more around endurance.
The second type, bouldering, uses a much shorter wall. Because the wall is only 10-15 feet high, no rope is required and "crash" pads are placed underneath the climbers. Bouldering is known to test your dynamic movement and your shouldery* strength.
The last category, and the one that Piper is qualified to compete in is speed. The name is pretty self-explanatory, but it is a little more complicated. The "IFSC Speed Route" is exactly the same every time it is set- down to the degree of the hold's angle. The official route is 15 meters, and the speed climbers seem to fly up the wall. Even as someone who sees world-level speed climbing on a regular basis, it's astonishing. Although there is a lot of muscle memory involved, the intense workouts and training work to tone every muscle and squeeze every ounce of explosiveness and power into each move.
Climbing kicks off at 9:30 a.m. with lead climbing. After the awards ceremony for the lead climbers at the end of the day Wednesday, bouldering and speed are set to start the following morning. Female speed qualifications and finals are packed into one single day, with only an hour of rest and recovery time in between the sets. Over the next three days, bouldering finishes up as the seven-day competition comes to a close.
All of the information about the competition can be found on the IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) website- including the exact hours for climbing. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that there will be a live-stream because of its location. The videos should be up the day after recording, which is probably better for those of us in the US because of the time change. No matter how much we want to see how someone does, it'd still be nice to get a few good hours of shut-eye.
Even though Piper will only be climbing for a few dozen seconds at most- the rest of the competition isn't something to miss out on either. Keep an eye out for Janja Garnbret (Slovenia, Female Youth A), Piper's idol and a legacy in the competition circuit. From closer to home, Ashima Shiraishi (USA, Female Youth B), known as one of the best climbers in the world at only 15 will surely be furthering her impressive reputation. Another climber to watch out for is Michigan's speed climber and a family friend Max Hammer. After winning Speed nationals in 2015, hopefully he can make a name for himself internationally by climbing well this competition.
Please wish Piper good luck, and do your best to watch her climb. Unless something goes wrong, it shouldn't take too much of your time (pun intended).
*Definitely not a technical term, 'shouldery' usually refers to movements that require open-hand strength and body tension (which is usually hard on the shoulders- hence the name)*
