The yearly climbing competition at the rock wall in the Health and Wellness Center was held on Saturday. This year is the first time that the event was held by the Climbing Club instead of Outdoor Adventures at UNK.
The Climbing Club was made this year and currently has 27 members.
“The students have had a lot of involvement in organizing it,” said Ivie Shelton, sports management graduate. “It’s been a good opportunity for them to organize their first event as the Climbing Club.”
According to Haselhorst, the climbing competition had a good balance of both people who came back from last year and climbers who were in their first competition.
“We just have a big freshman class and new class of climbers, and this is their first experience of a rock climbing competition,” said Isaac Haselhorst, sophomore exercise science major.
Haselhorst was one of the people working with the climbers and rock wall during the competition.
“It’s fun to be able to be there for their first experience at a competition and we are hoping for them to come back next year,” Haselhorst said.
Haselhorst said the rock wall at the gym is smaller, but that is advantageous since it builds a smaller community that feels more personal.
“[The community] is always one of the biggest pulls we have at the rock wall, just how supportive and encouraging it is,” Haselhorst said. “I’ve been at the competition for maybe two minutes and I can already see that the people watching are always cheering people on.”
One of the climbers at the competition, sophomore health science major, Hayley Blackstone is a regular climber at the wall and called the people surrounding it “encouraging” and “supportive.”
“They are always offering help when they can,” Blackstone said. “They are always pushing you to keep going.”
Blackstone started climbing at the rock wall because of one of her best friends’s encouragement. When the competition came around she said that she would “give it a shot.”
“It’s my first climbing competition and so far I am having a lot of fun,” Blackstone said.
The climbing competition featured new routes and volumes on the rock wall so that no climber had an advantage. Volumes are the angles that the wall bends at as it goes up.
“You get used to that old stuff so it’s fun to change it up,” said Dominic Meza, junior math major.
The climbing competition also brought in spectators from outside the regular climbing community.
“It’s definitely different having just people outside our usual climbing community watching, but it’s a cool atmosphere,” Blackstone said.
