Competing at the World Cup in Vienna was a bit of a last minute decision for me.

My final year in med school had been pretty busy and I wasn’t finding as much time to train as I’d hoped. I was quite out of shape when I started training in February, and at that time I was only planning on competing in a local Tour de Bloc, knowing that I was going to miss nationals to attend a friend’s wedding in Italy. I needed to get strong quick, so I increased my climbing sessions to 2-3 hours, followed by an hour or so of working the campus board and doing pull ups, push ups and sit ups. As it turns out, I didn’t attend the TDB in Canmore, the one I originally started training for, and then couldn’t compete in the Edmonton TDB due to an ankle injury. However, I managed to make it to the Calgary competition, my first comp since the 2008 TDB Nationals. Given my short training period, I was definitely happy with how I climbed. I really think all that campusing made a huge difference!

Just before I booked my flights, Marshal German insisted that I check the World Cup schedule and find one in Italy to go to. The World Cup in Vienna fit into my schedule (almost) perfectly and I booked a return flight from Vienna before I was even registered, or even knew for sure whether or not I could be registered.

For the next two months I continued to train harder than ever. I started running more often, kept up with my conditioning and tried to do some onsight style climbing sessions. I had a few sessions where I felt really strong but was also still having discouraging sessions where I felt frustrated and weak. I was told I was overtraining but didn’t think I could afford to take time off or taper down because I knew it would be hard to find climbing time on my European vacation.

I tried to keep my expectations for Vienna low. By the time I got there, I had been in Italy for two weeks, partaking in my fair share of pizza, pasta and wine, without having a single climbing session. My few runs, which resulted in two rolled ankles, followed by some push ups and sit ups, had done little to make me feel fit to compete. Luckily, I managed a light session at a gym in Vienna (which was huge compared to my home gym!) two days before qualifiers. Although my power still felt decent, I could feel my arms getting tired after only an hour. I was not expecting to beat very many European climbers and revised my personal goal to be not finishing last. Placing above the top 40 would have been a success.

Isolation was intimidating! Being the only Canadian climber, surrounded by so many people who I’d read about in magazines, left me feeling a bit out of place. During my lonely warm up, I managed to chat with a few English speaking girls, who explained the group format to me and commiserated with me being the last climber out. I didn’t feel exceptionally inspired by my warm up but left iso with the thought that everyone there was expecting me to finish last, so even if I did I wouldn’t really be disappointing anyone.

The qualifying problems were so much fun! My favourite one started on a triangular volume, moved to a round volume and involved a backwards-feeling flag under the volume while manteling yourself up to an undercling. It was a bit tricky and not really my style, so I was psyched to flash it! Most of the qualifying problems felt pretty easy; I couldn’t believe that I flashed four and did the other one in two tries. Making semi-finals was definitely more than I expected of myself.

Semis were a bit of a blur. I should have flashed the first problem but underestimated the jugginess of the last hold. The second problem was really fun, once I resigned myself to committing to a dyno. I don’t dyno often and I definitely don’t do it well; sticking it on my first try was extremely satisfying. The third problem was the coolest, even though I didn’t get very far on it. There was a big move to a featureless volume, as a pinch, that I was really close to sticking on my second go. However, I felt my arms fading fast and couldn’t muster the strength to have a strong repeat effort. The last problem was a bit techy with moves that I found awkward; my foot kept popping on the move up to the zone hold and I was too tired to do the next move, a big unreeling move off a bad sloper. By that point, however, I was so excited that I had finished two semis problems that I didn’t care.

I think I could have climbed marginally better if I’d been able to touch plastic a few more times in the weeks prior to the comp. There are always what ifs, though, and knowing that I exceeded my own expectations was a great feeling.

The finals problems seemed more technical than the semi-finals and it was interesting, and a bit frustrating, to see really strong climbers struggle with exceptionally high feet and challenging finishing moves. It was almost a bit of a relief not to make finals! I would love to try those problems now, though. What I hate most about out of town competitions is not being able to get on the problems again and not having the opportunity to attempt the problems that I didn’t get to try during the comp, because I was definitely too tired from semis to even contemplate strapping on my shoes after finals wrapped up.

On a side note, I want to mention that “Team Canada”, as I had been nicknamed, had its own cheer squad. At the wedding in Italy, I met two friends of my friend who came to Vienna a day early to cheer me on, snap some photos and take a few videos. It was nice to know that I was not really the only Canadian there!