Saturday, December 12, 2009

Earth Treks Timonium American Bouldering Series Comp Photos

Today at Earth Treks climbing gym in Timonium, MD Eva competed in the fifth and final leg of the local American Bouldering Series / Friction Bouldering Series indoor bouldering competition.  Her next comp is the ABS regional at The Gravity Vault in Upper Saddle River, NJ on January 16th.  

This was our first time at Earth Treks in Timonium and it is a beautiful climbing gym.  It was big (so it did not feel too crowded), and the climbing problems were varied and good.  It was a long day.  Because there were so many youth competitors (over 100) and only twelve climbing stations, the comp was extended to four hours, from 10:30 to 2:30.  We spent two more hours after that waiting for results to be announced and did not get back to Alexandria until just after 6:00.  

We car pooled up to the comp with Eva's friend Ellie and her mom Janice, and that made the drive go by quickly.  Eva's friends Emma and Rebecca were also competing, and we saw lots of other familiar faces from other comps so Eva was in a comfortable environment.  She got of to a slow start climbing and the waits for each climb were long, so she only carded one finished climb in the first hour.  After that she picked up the pace quickly, and ended up with five successful climbs by 12:30.  Eva had several very strong climbs and ended up with an overall score she thought was pretty good.

While Eva was climbing, I was trying out a new camera, the Canon 7D.  I have been using a Canon D20 for several years, and it is a wonderful camera.  However, digital SLRs follow the same trend line as PCs, and the 7D is about four generations ahead of the D20.  It is way too early for any objective assessment of the new camera, but my initial impression is that it is fantastic. It's low light performance and focusing speed and accuracy were both evident today.  I have not even had time to read the manual, and now I can't wait to dig in and really understand the camera's capabilities.  I tried today to get photos of a variety of our friends and other people we see regularly at the climbing comps.  

Eva did do well today in the comp, ending up with another First Place in Youth D Female.  This was the last leg of the five event Friction Bouldering Series, and Eva also placed first overall in the series, so it was a good (and very tiring) day for her.   She is looking forward to Regionals.  

Posted via email from Bill's posterous

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