First Meeting

The long wait is finally over...

The Cal Poly Climbers will be having their first general meeting this Thursday!

Thursday, November 17
11:00-12:00
Building 186 (Construction Innovations) Room C203

Welcome!

Hey Climbers!  Welcome to a new school year and a new beginning for our climbing team.  This year will be the first year we are recognized as an official Cal Poly club!  Once we have all our final paperwork submitted, we will have our first meeting of the year where we will welcome new members, introduce our officers, discuss the upcoming year, set some goals, and have a great time getting to know each other.  Please remember that the club is open to anyone who loves climbing, no matter what your ability is!  Please invite your friends :)

In the meantime, check out some of these upcoming events:

Poly Escapes Climbing Competition

Thursday 10/13 Time TBA

Poly Escapes Climbing Wall, Cal Poly Campus

Reel Rock Film Tour

Friday 11/1 8:00 PM 

Downtown Centre Cinemas

Cranksgiving Bouldering Comp 

Saturday 11/12 10:00 AM

SLO Op Climbing

Where in the World are the Sloopers?

The school year is ended and the Sloopers have dispersed across the world for summer time adventure.  Have a cool picture of yourself in your Sloopers shirt?  Send it in and we'll post it on our blog!

Jason

 in front of the Hæstahjallafoss waterfall in Iceland

2011 CCS Nationals

The 2011 CCS season culminated on Saturday with Nationals, held at Mesa Rim in San Diego, California.  The event was spectacular!  The routes were great, the competition was fierce and the turnout was huge.  Schools in attendance included (note that not all of these schools have official teams, but students who attend these schools were there): 

Humboldt State University

Sierra Nevada College

USC

UCSD  

University of Central Florida (team champions, 3rd year straight!)

Florida State University

University of Florida

Baylor

Southern Methodist University

University of Texas

Yale

RIT

US Military Academy

US Naval Academy

University of Virginia

Western State College

Colorado State University- Pueblo

Adams State College

Oklahoma State University

Alex at the start of a very long route

The competition was red-point format, which means that you can try each route as many times as you want.  Your top three routes and top three boulder problems are counted for your final score.  Yes, that is right, the Sloopers had to rope up and climb routes!

Sloopers Laura and Adam climb side by side

The Sloopers had three team members competing- Alex, Laura and Adam.  For all three of them, it was the first time roping up in a very long time and the 65 foot tall walls were very daunting indeed.  After four hours of hard work they turned in their score cards and waited for the results.  In the meantime, Laura participated in the speed climbing portion of the competition.

Laura speed climbing

Finally the results were in...

Alex got 2nd place

and he was out of first by only 5 points

that's right.. sponsored Asana climber Dan Beall had 7,808 points and Alex had 7,803!

Awesome job Alex!

Oh, and despite not being on ropes for a full year, Alex received the highest amount of points in roped climbing!

If you have not had a chance to see Alex climb, please take the time to do so.  It is truly inspirational to watch someone with as much determination and passion as Alex work their way up a rock face.

Alex attempting a tricky 5.13

On the female side...

Laura took 5th

which is not too shabby either.

Laura heel hooking her way up a funky 5.12

The Sloopers could not have experienced such great success without the tremendous support from our families and friends who were there to cheer us on.  Thank you Biale Family, Patton Family, Jason, Chelsea, David, Israel, Patrick, Allie, and Haley for being there at the competition.

Another huge thanks to our sponsors: House of Bread, Ready Set Oats, Evolv, and SLO Op climbing!

And of course, a huge shout out to John Myrick, the director of CCS for starting this wonderful series and putting on another great event.

All photos by Michael Patton.

More photos to come in the near future!

Sac Town Smack Down

Saturday marked the end of the regular season for the Collegiate Climbing Series in California.  A wonderful season culminated in a fun weekend in Sacramento where the Sloopers competed in Regionals. 

David cruising up a problem

The competition was held at Sac State at their brand new wall in their brand new rec center!  It was a beautiful facility and we got to be a part of the first competition ever hosted there.  All the Sloopers showed up ready to crush and they didn’t disappoint!

Alex sticking the finish

A big congratulations to the Sloopers for getting 2^nd place as a team in the California region!  Humboldt took home a well-deserved 1^st place banner.

Congrats to the Regional Team Champions, Humboldt!

 Another huge congrats to Alex Biale and Laura Patton who won 1^st in the competition on Saturday as well as being crowned regional champions for the entire season.

The success continued with a 1^st place finish in the intermediate category for Josh Lewis.  Way to go!

 

Israel throwing for the top

 The Sloopers worked tremendously hard this season.  Everyone involved put in their best effort and should be proud of what we accomplished this season.  We are looking forward to Nationals on April 23, at Mesa Rim in San Diego. 

Good luck at Nationals, Sloopers!

  

Stanford Sweep!

This weekend the Sloopers headed up to Palo Alto for the closest competition of the season at Stanford University.

The competition was held on the Stanford campus, and the gym was packed with 50 awesome problems and many, many climbers.

All the climbers were supplied with lots of snacks and a pizza lunch.  The competition spanned a six hour period to ensure that every one had enough time on the wall given the crowds.  By the end of the competition, everyone was exhausted!

Tired climbers waiting for awards to be announced

It was another extremely successful weekend for the Sloopers, with Alex and Laura taking home first place finishes again in both the Collegiate competition as well as the Open competition.  The Sloopers and the Humboldt Rock Monkeys swept the competition and walked away with all the ribbons for the weekend.  It must have been the Ready Set Oats they all shared for breakfast!    

Laura does a funky maneuver en route to a successful send

David focusing

Alex pulling a burly move

Patrick crushing

Next weekend is our last regular season competition.  The regional championship will be held at Sacramento State University and the Sloopers are looking forward to another chance to get on some new problems, have fun, and bring home some ribbons!

Nationals is also quickly approaching... mark your calendars!  April 23 at Mesa Rim in San Diego.


Also, a huge thanks to the Patton family for hosting 13 climbers this weekend!

Rockin' Rockzilla

New team shirts.  Pretty cool!

It was a wet and rainy weekend as the Sloopers descended on Napa, ready to tackle the tough terrain at Rockzilla.  Team spirit was high as we all sported our new team shirts!  The problems were dynamic and powerful and the crowd was very energetic and supportive.

Patrick heel hooking on a tricky V4

As always, our sponsors treated us very kindly and sent us up to Napa with tons of delicious energy!  We got a scrumptious bag of bread, muffins and scones from House of Bread and three bags of Cranberry Crunch Time granola from Ready Set Oats.  Thanks to our sponsors we are able to eat well and have the energy to climb our hardest.

David and Josh eating some Pesto Feta Foccacia from House of Bread

Everyone climbed very well and got the chance to try lots of different boulder problems.  The competition was a great way to kick off spring break for the Sloopers, who just finished up their winter quarter at school. 

We sure are good looking :)

In the end, the Sloopers finished on top yet again!  Alex Biale took home 1^st for the men and Laura Patton took home 1^st for the women (she was however, the only female competing!)  If any one is counting that is five 1^st place ribbons for the Sloopers in only three competitions.  Way to go team!

Alex and Laura showing off their ribbons

Hello Humboldt!

Five dedicated Sloopers made the 500 mile trek up to Humboldt this past weekend to take on the second competition of the season at Far North Climbing Gym.

The Take-Out boulder at Far North
photo: David Hernandez

We fueled up with some natural energy from the delicious bars provided to us by our awesome sponsor, House of Bread.

You've gotta try these bars, they're amazing!
Photo: David Hernandez

Packed full of nutritious energy, we were ready to crush the competition!  We walked away successful again with a men's 1st place finish from Alex Biale and a women's 2nd place finish from Laura Patton.  All the Sloopers climbed very well!

First place finisher, Alex Biale making short work of a hard problem
Photo: David Hernandez

We were very impressed by all the fun and unique problems set at the gym

The climb with your scorecard in your mouth problem
Photo: David Hernandez

The 'do the splits' problem
Photo: David Hernandez

After the competition, we got to enjoy great company, and another huge dinner!

Photo: David Hernandez

All in all, it was another great weekend full of climbing, friends, psyche and excellent food!  We can't wait for our next competition, March 19 in Napa!

Team Shirts

Team shirts have been ordered!  Get excited!  Want to make sure you get one before they're all gone?  

E-mail Laura at patton2189@yahoo.com to reserve your size!

(Click on the picture to make it grow!)

Success in Sonoma

The Sloopers loaded up their cars and headed to Sonoma for their first competition of the season this past weekend.  With 10 competitors from the team making the journey, it was a great showing for the first outing of the year.

Top: Israel, Patrick, Jason, David, Alex
Middle: Chelsea, Tyler, Trevor, Asa
Bottom: Laura and Ready Set Oats

The competition was stout, as we all vied for space in a packed to capacity gym at Sonoma State University.  There were 8 schools in attendance which speaks volumes for the rapid growth that CCS is experiencing in California!

The Sloopers are looking fierce

The team came home with two ribbons, a first place finish for female Asa Palm, and a third place finish for female Laura Patton.  It looks like this season will be another successful one for the Sloopers.

First place finisher Asa

Aside from the competition, the Sloopers got to experience one of the best parts of CCS- meeting climbers from other schools.  We were graciously hosted in a beautiful teepee not too far from campus, where climbers from several schools combined forces to assemble delicious burritos and to roast s'mores after the competition.

The season progresses rapidly, with our next competition only a week away!  We will be making a very long journey up to Arcata to compete at Humboldt State's competition.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you House of Bread

The Sloopers would also like to thank our other new sponsor, House of Bread.  House of Bread was also founded locally and serves up delicious, fresh, and healthy bread everyday.  In addition to bread, House of Bread also makes muffins, scones, energy bars and more!  House of Bread makes their products with fresh natural flour, high fiber whole grains and pure honey!  Their bread is free of chemicals and artificial preservatives.

House of Bread will be another important source of energy for our team during the 2011 season.  In SLO, House of Bread is located on the corner of Higuera and Marsh.  Thank you again House of Bread for supporting our team!

Thank you Ready Set Oats

The Sloopers would like to say a huge thank you to our new sponsor, Ready Set Oats.  Ready Set Oats is a delicious granola product that was founded here in San Luis Obispo and is produced locally.  It comes in three flavors: Vanilla Victory, Cranberry Crunchtime, and Cherry Champion.  It is made with healthy ingredients and contains no preservatives!  Ready Set Oats are packed with whole grains and Omega-3 and Omega-6.

Ready Set Oats will be a great fuel for our climbing team.  We are excited to form this partnership and spread the word about Ready Set Oats to the San Luis Obispo community and to the climbing community.  The product can be found locally at Scolari's and New Frontiers and is great as a nutritious breakfast or snack and can be paired with yogurt or snacked on plain.  Thanks again RSO!

Season is fast approaching

Good Morning everyone!  Our 2011 season is quickly approaching with our first competition in Sonoma in less than two weeks!  Spirits are high while the Sloopers prepare to take on a tough competition field this season.

Exciting news!  We have another sponsor on board to support the Sloopers in their efforts this season.  The details are still pending but I will let you know when everything becomes official.  Remind your friends and family to follow our blog to give our sponsors more publicity and exposure :)

Also, we will be having a potluck next week to psyche up before our competition and organize carpools.  The potluck will take place on

Tuesday February 22
7:00 PM
at the Margarita House

See you there!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Sloopers' blog!  The Sloopers were founded in 2009 to give local college students an opportunity to meet other climbers, grow the local climbing community, and compete in the sport of rock climbing with students from other universities.  

We train together, go climbing together, have potlucks and travel to competitions all over California!  We are looking forward to the upcoming 2011 season and hope to continue with our past success.  We started out as a one person team in 2009 and have grown exponentially since then!

Our past results include four top 3 finishes at Nationals, three top 3 finishes at Regionals, and many top 3 finishes at local competitions.  We couldn't experience success without the dedication of our team members, or support from sponsors and followers.  Thank you for your help!

We would especially like to thank our newest sponsor, Evolv.  They hooked our team up with a great deal on climbing shoes.  Be sure to check out their great line of products the next time you are in the market for a new pair of climbing kicks.