My Story of Triple Crown

I have wanted to place in a Triple Crown ever since 2006 when I competed in my first Triple Crown, and watched Kate Reese McGinnis tear up the HP40 boulderfield. I couldn’t believe it when I heard she had sent all V7 and above! I was astonished; 10 problems in one day over V7, including “Slider” and “Suspicion”, who was this girl? I hadn’t even heard of her before. I placed 4th in Open that year with 4728 points. My scorecard included boulders from V2 to V7. Not enough to even get me into third place in Open.

For a long time I was stuck somewhere in the middle of the Advanced and Open categories. Not wanting to sandbag the advanced category, I competed in Open for 3 years (2006, 2008, and 2009). In 2008, I decided to do the whole Triple Crown, all three events. My best score: I barely broke 5000 points in the LRC event. I didn’t place, making fourth overall. I took with me my experience to 2009, and came fourth overall again. I had done much better than the previous year and ended up with a Hound Ears score of 5421, a fourth place score of 5864 for HP40, better than the last year but still not good enough to place, and 5800 at LRC. I was burnt out and not happy with my fourth place result.

I took a few years off. The Triple Crown requires a lot of effort, A LOT, to do well and keep pace with the locals who know the boulderfields. Ten of the hardest boulder problems you can send in a day is difficult to accomplish and training for it requires a much different set of tactics than trying to send harder and harder grades. I wanted to spend more time projecting and less time sending problems I had done many times before. I eventually got much stronger, sent V10, another long-time goal, and relocated to Chattanooga, the heart of Southern bouldering. I ended up with the most fantastic climbing partner, my husband, Mike.

Then I was inspired to try the Triple Crown this year. I am stronger and lighter now and my new husband was wanting to compete. He was coming off an injury. Repeating old problems he knew wouldn’t hurt his injury, was seeming to help him get back into shape. I was bored and angry in the gym and wanting to climb outside, but it wasn’t quite the season for projecting yet. So we decided we would compete in the Triple Crown.

I came up with a dream list of problems. The list I had wanted to put together for previous Triple Crowns, but could never execute. I decided I would only do problems I loved doing, that way the competition would still be fun. I was surprised the first time we went out to LRC and got on some of the problems that had come easy to me in previous years. They didn’t feel so easy in 85 degree heat and 98% humidity! But the temperature and humidity kept creeping down and I got very good at feeling comfortable sticking to moves I was slipping from.

It was strange for me to be bouldering in the heat. Once I attained a certain level in bouldering, I turned my nose up at climbing in the heat. I didn’t like lowering my expectations and my motivation was undermined by the drop in ability with the heat, so I quit climbing outside during the off-season. But circuiting added a new element of motivation. I dropped my level of expectation and the focus was on trying to do the ten hardest problems I could do given the conditions. While I couldn’t send my projects, I could send a pretty good list of V7 through V9 in the hot and humid weather.

Comp day was here. I was excited and ready to go, and ready to win. I forced myself into my go-to attitude of success. I knew no one could beat me, or at least that’s what I told myself. Kasia was turning her attention to the West, and I thought, "it’s my turn now".

And then suddenly people were disappearing into the woods and onto the boulderfield. The comp was on. I waited in line for my first warm-up, “Incredarete”. It was a V2. I’m sure there was a time when I couldn’t do the first move on this problem but I cannot remember it. But here I stood on the Organic pad looking up, incredulous. After 5 tries, I could not get my foot to stick on the first move!!! I was embarrassed, but passed it off to nerves, and after the fifth try I said to myself, “OK, move on, don’t get upset, just go to the next warm-up”. I proceeded to “The Main Event” and did it with no effort, locking off the crimp. That was all I needed to get my thinking back on track.

Next up was “I Think I Can”, a crimpy V9 infamous for its variability in difficulty for different body types, but on my circuit, normally a warm-up. However, some of the key holds in the middle of the boulder problem that I was accustomed to using, were taped off, a small pocket and a key foothold. I was worried I would have to revise my strategy right off the bat, but I still had my three tries according to my rule. After three tries, I have to move on to something else. On my first attempt with the new beta I was hesitant, and tried to adjust in an uncomfortable crimp and slipped. I came up with a plan of action for my next try and decided to execute. I wouldn’t adjust on the crimp, I would use it how I grabbed it, and throw for the next crimp. I was unstable on every move with the new beta, but climbed through it to a ballsy jump to a jug at the end. This send was all I needed to get me pumped.

The next problem I was worried about was "Dr. Atkinson". I sent it for the first time last year in cold weather and I had sent it once this year when conditions were pretty good. But the key hold was very temperature dependent and required a lot of force on the pointer finger, and I could only pull into it with the best of friction. It is an understatement to say it was not a good friction day. The other issue was I had slashed that necessary pointer fingertip on a crystal on Cleopatra a few days earlier so I had tape wrapped all over my fingertip. The taped finger wasn’t bothering me up until now, but I couldn’t make it work on "Dr. Atkinson". I had to give up after my 3 tries and move on to "Now and Zen".


Me attempting the crux on Dr. Atkinson.

The organizers had also made Now and Zen different by adding an extra move onto the beginning but didn’t cause me too much of a problem.


Me topping out Now and Zen.

Mike and I proceeded to a few more boulders and Gina and Ray took pictures and carried pads. I felt like a rockstar with an entourage. We then went to “Spank the Baby”. Jill was there and I arrived just in time to see her send it. It was her first time sending this problem, always an awesome accomplishment for the competition if you’re a local, I think. I love getting a new send at a Triple Crown but I wasn’t expecting to get one.


Jill avoiding the tree dab on Spank the Baby

I tried to send “Spank the Baby” but kept falling where Jill had executed perfectly. I had had issues on that heel hook in the past but didn’t think it would be a problem. I even changed from my Shaman to my heel-hooking Talon but that didn't even work. I had to give up on it after spanking the baby too many times.


Me trying to get the heel perfect on Spank the Baby

I was in dim spirits because I had only done 3 problems and Mike had 7 already! I knew this inequality could happen and was prepared for it, but it was difficult to not let it get to me. He was almost done and I had almost a whole card to fill up!


Mike crushing Grimace.

Things weren’t looking much better when I went to “Man Hands”. The boulder was in the sun. Mike was giving me words of support but I interpreted it as he thought I wasn’t doing well and what I needed was to believe I was crushing. I got my feet set and then I was off. Sometimes I have a hard time starting because I know I will either succeed or fail and how I feel when I start will affect the outcome. I think, “Will I succeed now, how about now, maybe it will be better in five seconds, if I chalk up once more, if I brush the holds once more”. I made it through the crux and was getting ready to throw to the last jug and everything blew! My hands burst out of those little greasy seams and Mike caught me. Everyone was feeling my despondent energy. It WAS hot, hotter than I knew how to deal with. I had to pick it up here or I wasn’t going to make it.

I had seen a lot of strong girls in the boulderfield; among them Carrie Cooper, Sarah Grainger, Francesca Metcalf, Jill Sompel, Kaitlyn Honnold, even girls from other countries. I didn’t know who all was competing in my category but I knew there was some competition out there.

I tore the tape off my pointer finger, chalked up, pulled hard into those seams, and crimped my way through Man Hands like my life depended on it.


Me setting up for the crux moves on Man Hands

I felt so good on the top-out even though I was pumped! I was back in. From there I crushed the rest of the problems I got on. I even sent “A Face in a Crowd” which I hadn’t sent yet this year, and hadn’t planned on doing for the comp, because despite what people say, it’s freaking hard!!


Me on A Face in the Crowd

Both Mike and I had 10 problems and thought we were done. I had 7920 points. But somehow neither of us wanted to be done. We still had an hour and a half left and after my final problem, he wanted to go try Psychosomatic and I was wondering how I might get above 8000 points. The crew journeyed back into the boulderfield. Gotta hand it to Ray and Gina, they were truly a fabulous couple to spend the day with and they went back and forth across that boulderfield with us many times.


Awesome couple Ray and Gina

We met up with Zach Campbell at “Psychosomatic” who suggested we go to “Cloud Nine”. Mike tried Psycho a few more times and determined he wasn’t going to do it so we pressed on to “Cloud Nine” with Zach.

I learned a lesson at Cloud Nine. I had never been on Cloud Nine, never seen video for it, didn’t know any beta, and didn’t know if girls had done it. The jug for hands was taped off and apparently increased the grade from V6 to V8. While I have done V8 in a day, I had never done it when it was over 80 degrees. I saw Mike and Zach do it easily and in my head wondered if it was possible for me. I noticed I was thinking negative thoughts. Tentativeness is a weakness of mine. I know some problems are height dependent and so I always wonder if this is one of the problems that I won’t be able to do. Both Mike and Zach had made a big move around the arête and I wondered if I could also do this move. I had a hard time figuring out the first move but learned it and then was stopped by the greasy sloper at the top. I couldn’t hang onto it. I was getting very close by setting a heel hook and throwing around the arête like Mike had done. Then I noticed a point on the topout much closer than where the men were throwing to. Next time on the problem I found the right spot on the sloper and locked off to the point. I need to keep in mind that there is always different beta, and I should never hold myself back wondering whether it is possible for me, of course it is!

The extra 200 points for sending Cloud Nine was enough for me to break 8000 points and I ended with 11 problems V7-V9 including a new send and a 10 problem score of 8172, crushing my previous Triple Crown records and winning the event! I had placed in a Triple Crown and sent my dream list. Mike won the Stonemaster category and we were both a very happy husband and wife!


Mike and I!!!

Next stop, HP40!!

Back to, or Rather, Beginning Summer Training

It is hard for me to imagine now, how I got to my current level in climbing, without doing much training. Not only have I not done much training, but in the past I almost had a disdain for training, okay, I had an outright disdain for training. I would even secretly make fun of people training at the gym. Or maybe I wasn’t necessarily making fun of the training itself, but what these folks were doing for training. It was almost like I knew somehow, that the guy dynoing V5 all over the gym wasn’t going to improve his climbing by doing more pullups. I also had some bad experiences getting injured during, after, and seemingly even before extensive training.

My ex used to tell me I had strong fingers and great footwork but I lacked “body strength”. I guess I didn’t know what on earth he meant, and at the time, I was too afraid the answer to a question such as, “What do you mean?” would destroy my fragile little ego. I imagined he meant that the functioning of all my body together wasn’t strong, or that my torso needed to be bulked up, or maybe even my legs were weak, but no, that didn’t really make sense. Body strength. I guess I still don’t really know what he meant; looking back I should have asked for clarification because I possibly could have been 3 years into training this so-called body strength already. Because as I sit here now, revelation in hand, it looks like I am in for the long haul of developing body strength right from scratch.

What I think my ex was talking about was upper body strength, the big muscles, shoulders and biceps, muscles women seem to have a hard time developing. I have just recently put it all together, after many years! So I thought I would write about it and hopefully save others with a lack of "body strength" some time and frustration.

Here’s how it all came about. It was when my husband Mike convinced me to train with him one night on his “Moon board” that I had a huge epiphany, actually both of us did. It was from then on that I will never forget that I am a woman and he is a man, and all women are women and all men are men. Sorry, but even the strongest women in the gym have the same shortcomings in terms of this body strength as I do. Mike and I were doing the hangboard. Mike was amazed at how I could hang from his Moon board with one hand on any hold, no weight taken, for seemingly however long I wanted. I was rather astounded that he could not hang at all, and had to use weight bands in order for him to complete the task. I thought I was a total hotshot. But then it was my turn to be astounded by his amazing strength. We went to one-armed lock offs and he casually held his weight for 10 SECONDS!!!! We kept on adding the bands for me and even with 5 bands, I could still not hold my weight up on one arm for 10 seconds. We have both climbed V10. How is it possible to have such combinations of strengths and weaknesses and get to such a level? That’s a question for another blog.

I once did an experiment at ACTIVE gym in Athens based on an hypothesis that arose from some personal experience and observation, because that’s what I do, experiments. I asked the women that were there in the gym to do 3 fast pull-ups. They were beginners and intermediate climbers alike, one girl was there for her first time in the gym and couldn’t even do one pullup!! I had to tell her newbie boyfriend to quit at around 9. None of the girls could do a fast pull-up like the guys could. Okay, so pretty elementary; women have a difficult time with pull-ups relative to almost any man, who is in shape. Given, that may be rare these days. But don’t you think someone like me, who has been climbing for 13 years should be able to do some fast pull-ups? NO. Don’t you think powerhouses like Whitney Boland or Jill Sompel should be able to hold themselves in an unassisted lock off for 10 seconds, NOPE!!!

Now that I have fully recognized the value of training my body strength weakness, I want to go full steam ahead! Of course that’s what I want to do. You’d think you could just jump right in full steam! But no, there’s a catch, just like developing technique, or finger strength, or anything climbing, these things take time and loads of patience. If you read the small print on any of these training methods, even for those nice big large muscles, you need to use caution, lest you end up injured.

My plan was to do 1 session of campus board training, 1 session of lock off training and 2 sessions of bouldering at TBA per week. No hangboarding because I already have strong fingers. Within the first week, I had my first ever case of elbow inflammation!!! First ever I swear. Why? I think because my body is so accustomed to putting as much weight as I can on my feet. From what I have read, the elbow is the weak link. All those big muscles and tendons all connect right there in the elbow at a small little joint and are easily inflamed.

So, bottom line is that I had to stop all training, recommended in the fine print to prevent tendonitis, and I am realizing I will have to develop this body strength over a much longer period of time than I had previously thought. Argh. My message to all women out there, start training body strength gradually NOW!

Getting out of a Plateau

It’s been a long time and a lot has happened since the first blog. Writing a dissertation doesn’t lend well to blogging I’ve noticed. However, dissertation-writing has lent well to improving my bouldering. I came to Chattanooga in December, wondering what the season would bring. Each season, I think, and even write down somewhere that this could be The Season, THE Season! The season that I’ve tied all my hopes and dreams into, perhaps done some training that will finally work, perhaps something different will happen and I won’t sustain a finger injury. Well, this was THE season I’ve been waiting for - for about 5 years.

I finally climbed V10, not one but two and a whole bunch of V9s. V7s and V8s were easy. In fact, I thought Chaz Warren’s goal of 9 V9s would be pretty cool so I tried to copy-cat him. Also, I have a little philosophy that in order to be able to say you climb a certain grade, you need to climb that number of boulder problems of that grade so it gets harder as you get better. For instance, you need to climb 5 V5s to be a V5 boulderer and 9 V9s to be a V9 boulderer. This resolves the ambiguity when someone is trying to size you up and inappropriately asks how hard you climb. It really doesn’t matter, it is just a fun little game. I ended up with 11 V9s or harder!

Anyway, I probably jumped up 2 V grades, which by the way, and frankly, I feel I deserve since I have been in a plateau for 5 years or more.

So now you might wonder how I finally got out of this plateau; did it just miraculously happen because that’s what just happens one day. I don’t think so.

I am a scientist so I feel I can’t really answer this question in an unbiased way. Many things changed in my life in December that could have contributed.

1. I realized that women must train differently for bouldering than men. I emphasized dynamic fast pull ups and dynamic movement in general to try to increase my dynamic abilities.
2. I completely changed climbing partners and began climbing with people with a similar attitude, at the same level of climbing, and who aren’t afraid of failing for the benefit of improvement, and love to project.
3. I moved to Chattanooga where I began climbing at a gym with world class climbers setting problems and had outdoor climbing available whenever it was not raining. As a consequence, I didn’t get worn out from driving three hours to boulder fields. I slept in, waited for it to warm up, met my local climbing partners, and perhaps some Athens drive-ins, and drove 20 minutes to the boulders.
4. I started climbing on rooves again.
5. I seriously started projecting V10. Up until this year, I kept saying I wanted to send V10 but I had not really tried to send one in a LONG time. You have to get on V10s if you want to send them, lots of them.
6. I read Dave MacCleod’s “9 out of 10 climbers” which hugely influenced me. Thanks Jill.

7. I saw Will Smith’s inspirational video which also hugely inspired me. Thanks Thomasina.

8. I had few work distractions such as courses and field work as I was only writing my dissertation on rest days, my focus was bouldering.
9. For most of the season I did not have a boyfriend which is highly unusual.
10. I lost a lot of weight and was about 10 pounds lighter than previous years.
11. I changed my attitude about being shortish (5’4”) which compared to other women is average but relatively short compared to my male climbing partners who are both 5’11”. Dave MacLeod has a good argument for why it is actually better to be short and once I learned how to climb using the benefits of being short I quickly made progress on long moves. I never want to hear another person say something is reachy. Changing my attitude from "I might not be able to do that because I’m shortish" to "there is probably a way I can do that dynamically or if I climb tall" made a big difference.
12. I laid off the crimpy problems for the most part and focused on powerful climbing.
13. I saw a physical therapist about some back issues I was having and he noticed I was pulling from my neck instead of the big muscles in my back, weird, but physical therapists rule, they are the real GOD if anyone is truly seeking the truth. I made a concerted effort to change how I pull.

So there are many factors that I could attribute my success (at finally coming out of my plateau) to. Shedding the scientist in me that would really like some hard data, I could guess at the four most important; 1. Positive serious climbing partners, 2. The weight loss, 3. Living next to boulderfields, 4. Attitude change and all the repercussions associated with it.

So now my bouldering comrades (Josh Spegal and Michael Wohner) and I have a little competition to try and keep the progression moving forward. We have a set of three V10-V11 boulder problems; Lord of the Dance at Dayton Pocket, Zion at Rocktown, and Biggie Shortie at Little Rock City. The first of us to send all 3 problems receives an all-expense paid trip to Hueco Tanks for Thanksgiving from the other two! This little competition is to try to motivate us all to climb V11 since none of us have done it but also to work on our weaknesses. All the problems have something each of us have weaknesses in. We have all started training hard for the coming season. I'm really planning on sending all three first!!

So here is a video of me doing a few problems at Rocktown.

BionicRats and RottenEgg from Patti Newell Nickerson on Vimeo.

This is us

This is us: Jill Sompel and Patti Nickerson, brought together by the American climbing dream.

For a long time, I wanted to climb with women who were as psyched on climbing as I was. I wanted a female climbing partner, I wanted to go on a road trip with a female. I had never been on a climbing road trip with a girl friend... not girlfriend tee hee. In the South, the only people I had really ever climbed with were men, be it boyfriends, married men, men that wanted to get with me, or just straight-up climbing partners. But men approach climbing differently than women. I knew this from my time spent climbing in Hueco. I found it to be rare for my male climbing partners to want to sit under one boulder problem all day long with the prospect of not sending for weeks at a time. From my personal experiences and watching other talented climbers over the years, I have found that this is how problems get sent that are at your limit.

In the south, there just aren’t many excited women wanting to go out and try hard with other women. I was psyched but just got stuck in the typical female climber stereotype of the girl that climbs with her boyfriend. My boyfriend was the only one that wanted to go on road trips every weekend, camp out somewhere and spend the whole weekend rock climbing. Where were the girls? I always thought I needed a boyfriend to climb on hard problems. And for a while, that’s what I did. 

Jill was over here wondering the same thing. Her goal of creating a beta series for women proved that it was difficult to find women who had their own climbing objectives. She had this goal of producing a series of videos to help other female climbers send boulder problems with beta that was relevant to them.  Most of the climbing videos out there are of men using beta that we could never use! She knew that these videos would get other ladies psyched to try things they had not thought were ever possible. And this is exactly what happened. 

We both knew motivated girls existed. As I was watching Jill’s Lady Beta videos I was thinking, well here is a gal that is climbing hard boulder problems and totally excited about women in climbing. Meanwhile, she was out there watching the videos of my beta and thinking this girl must be psyched about bouldering, why have I not met her yet? So, here we are: two women, psyched, both watching videos of one another and sending hard problems because of the other’s beta… but we hadn’t yet met in person.

Jill is a mature 24 and I am a young 39. For some reason, this works out, because no matter what, we are both learning from each other regardless of the age difference. It just reiterates the fact that it doesn’t really matter how old you are or what your life experiences are or anything at all really... It all comes down to the fact that we are all excited about the same thing. In essence, we have a passion for climbing and nothing will ever change that. 

So we met, became instant friends, agreed on the necessity of having female climbing partners and the next thing we knew we were at the Moss Man corridor at Little Rock City exchanging beta on the only two problems in the corridor. And what do you know, BAH! Both problems got sent. And this is just the beginning. 

This is our blog, love it or hate it, get psyched to grapple some grips.

Here is our first video. Enjoy!

MossMan from Patti Newell on Vimeo.