Greg Ward sets routes Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, for a USA Climbing youth local speed and sport competition that will be held this weekend at High Point Climbing.Climbing enthusiasts may have noticed some changes in parts of High Point Climbing’s downtown location this week.
But they’re just temporary.
The Broad Street climbing gym known for its flashy exterior architecture is gearing up to host more than 100 climbers ages 9-16 in a USA Climbing local sport and speed competition Saturday.
Participants from across the Southeast will descend on the city, hoping for good early season climbs to help them prepare for regional, divisional and, eventually, the national championships.
“It’s mostly competitive climbers,” High Point assistant manager Tony Levy said. “We do get some recreational climbers just trying to see how they do individually, but the majority are thoroughly competitive.”
Part of High Point’s top rope room and pit area is closed this week as the staff configures unique and challenging climbs for the gender- and age-specific categories that will comprise Saturday’s competition.
It’s a fun project for the gym’s director of route setting, Cody Grodzki, to oversee.
“What we do is take off all the day-to-day routes we have on the wall and we set competition-specific rock climbs that no one gets to climb until the day of the competition,” Grodzki said. “We’ll go through and put all the new routes on the wall, and then all of our guys will take the time to refine them and make sure they’re set at the right heights.”
This isn’t High Point’s first time hosting an event sanctioned by USA Climbing, which is the leading national organization for competition climbing. The gym hosted a sport and speed divisional competition and a local bouldering event in 2015.
Climbers wanting to progress to the regional competition must compete in two local events first.
“A lot of these kids, even though they don’t go to school together or climb together day to day, they go to these events across the Southeast and compete and hang out,” Grodzki said. “It’s a welcoming atmosphere.
“It’s a competition and people are trying to compete and win, but it’s not the same atmosphere as something like high school football.”
High Point will host another local sport and speed qualifier April 30, two weeks before the next rounds of the climbing season begin.
The youth sport and speed regional competition for Tennessee climbers is May 14 in Morrisville, N.C. The division competition is June 18-19 in Charlotte, N.C., and the national championships are July 14-17 in Kennesaw, Ga.
The climb toward those events will start for some on Saturday.
“It is actually really competitive for the kids to get through to nationals, and it all starts at the local level,” USA climbing communications director Angie Payne said. “It’s beginning of the season for them.”
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.