Rock Climbing Team News: November 2012

Rock Climbing Team Visits University of Texas, Pan American

Maj Harold Compton

rock climbingThe MMA Rock Climbing Team took their first trip of the year on Sunday, 11 November when they traveled to the University of Texas, Pan American to climb on their wall at the University Wellness Center.  Six cadets made the trip and they included Cadets Hudson, Banker, Sandford, Rogers, LeMaster and Wu.

For our newer rock climbers this was their first time climbing on anything other than the climbing wall at the Academy and they found the event to be very challenging and fun.  The features of this wall pushed them to the limit of their skill and they found that the hours of practice paid off as they took on the various routes.

Initial warmup work on the wall focused on bouldering problems and several were attempted and found to be extremely difficult.  Cadet Rogers showed his bouldering skill as he tackled one of the more difficult problems and after several attempts finally succeeded in completing it.

Rock Climbing Moves to the High Routes

rock climbingOnce all the climbers had a chance to warm up it was time to hit the high routes.  The wall at UT Pan Am adds an element of difficulty not found on the MMA wall; the UTPA wall leans outward from the ground all the way to the top so that the climber is working his arms much more than normal.  The wall have few places where a climbers can take a break to rest their arms so that by the time they reach to top of the wall their arms are really burning.  A great workout for all!

Cadet Wu was the biggest surprise to all.  Being the newest member to climbing he showed great tenacity as the worked the routes and demonstrated that he has a firm grasp of the techniques necessary for rock climbing.

rock climbingThe Rock Climbing Team wishes to extend their thanks to the staff at the UT Pan Am Wellness Center for providing safety belayers to all the climbers.  This allowed the team to get in much more climbing on this trip.  The team is also looking forward to a participating in a climbing competition to be held at UT Pan Am during early 2013.  This will be the fourth year that the team has competed against college level climbers.

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