Bouldering in Joshua Tree

Bouldering in Joshua Tree
Ronnie 15 feet off deck on the classic White Rastafarian.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

USA Paraclimbing





The adaptive climbing competition movement, referred to as “Paraclimbing”, here in the United States, took a huge step forward on February 23, 2013. USA Climbing offered Paraclimbing divisions for Males and Females as part of the Citizens’ National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The competition was redpoint style, challenging competitors to log their best 5 boulder problems (of 40 to choose from) on their scorecard in three hours, and was held alongside able-bodied competitors with no special modifications to the problems.
Cranking down hard.....

Kareemah enjoying the day's challenges.
Corey wishing he was missing the left leg instead of the right on A9....
Getting high above the crowd on A6
In an extremely competitive men’s field, Craig Demartino, of Loveland, CO came away with 1st place, edging Ronnie Dickson and Pablo Franck, who battled to a tie for 2nd place. Corey Ramos and Perry Parkongruparkorn rounded out the men’s field in 3rd and 4th place, respectively. The lone female competitor, Kareemah Batts, of Brooklyn, NY came away with 1st place on the other end. Ronnie Dickson (who placed 6th at the 2012 Paraclimbing World Championships) noted that “This is the most competitive that the field has ever been...I started competing in 2007 and it has always just been Craig and I battling for the top two spots, but now I can feel the pressure as other athletes are joining the sport and stepping up their game. I feel like I have made huge strides in my climbing, so I have not gotten any worse, but the field is just that much better.”

Can't even say how much I love this group!

The next USA Climbing event in which there will be Paraclimbing divisions offered is the 2013 GoPro Mountain Games to be held in Vail, CO from June 6th-9th. It is anticipated that there will be a larger turnout for this event, with 10-15 Paraclimbing athletes expected to attend.

The climbing wall and crowd at the Mountain Games.


Craig getting it on problem A6
Scoping out the climbs.









Paraclimbing Committee Chairman Craig Demartino (bronze medalist at the 2012 Paraclimbing World Championships) notes, “2013 has been the year to establish the building blocks and foundation of the program. The events chosen were easy to implement among the lower limb amputee climbing population. 2014 will be a much more ambitious year in which we hope to offer many more categories within the Paraclimbing Division and also host a Paraclimbing National Champinships. To this point, that we will have a much stronger representation at the 2014 Paraclimbing World Championships, which will be held in Gijon, Spain.

If you are interested in more information about USA Climbing’s Paraclimbing offerings, please contact Craig Demartino at craigdemartino@aol.com or Ronnie Dickson at dickson.ronnie@gmail.com
For more information about USA Climbing, please contact Ally Kupcewicz (info@usaclimbing.org) or (303) 499-0715





Corey Ramos getting his flagpole on....

My not quite as good flagpole.....












1 comment:

  1. Great! Nice to know that more is happening on this front and 2014 there will be even a stronger showing at World's. Certainly going to contact you or Craig about keeping up to date on the paraclimbing offerings.

    ReplyDelete