As some of you may know, we have a thriving Climbing Club at Palmer. We have about 50 regular members each year that meet at CityRock two days a week all year long and climb together. We try to keep it somewhat of a secret and don’t usually show up to club crawl or market ourselves because CityRock doesn’t have room for more Palmer kids. But word keeps spreading because it’s so much fun, so it seems like a good time to tell you more about us.
While we are a club open to anyone at Palmer including other teachers (see me in room 236 if you want to know more), what you may be less aware of, is that we have also had a competitive climbing team for nearly 15 years. In most years there are a few serious athletes among the club members who are as dedicated to their sport as any other athlete at Palmer. They train between 10-20 hours a week for most of the school year. Many of these athletes do quite well at regional, state and occasionally at national level competitions and go on to climb as college athletes. We have had 2 students that attended Palmer in the past 10 years that were national champions in their age groups and a few others that have gone on to professional climbing careers. Climbing as a sport is exploding around the world and it even made it’s Olympic debut in 2020 and is returning to the Paris 2024 games this summer.
This year the team is one of the most enthusiastic and dedicated I’ve coached in my career. More students than ever have chosen to try the competitions and it has been an amazing season. Out of 30 athletes, our boys and girls team had 12 kids qualify for the Regional Championship this past weekend and I’m proud to tell you the boys and girls teams both finished 2nd in our region and Salome Lloyd made it on the podium in 3rd place. The following athletes also qualified for the State Championship event this coming Saturday, so please congratulate them if you see them and wish them luck at State:
Liam Cornish and Micah Joiner qualified for the boys varsity wave.
Harper Cayton and Jonas Crolley qualified for the boys jv wave.
Salome Lloyd, Zoe Hubel and Hannah Phillips qualified for the varsity girls wave.
This year the State Finals Competition is being held in Colorado Springs. If you want to stop by for a short while and watch these amazing competitions and support them I know they would appreciate it and they are fun to watch just like other sports. Each competition is 3-4 hours long but you’re welcome to come watch for as little as 20-30 minutes during any part of the comp. (See the schedule below)
Gripstone Climbing and Fitness
6220 Tutt Blvd
Colo. Spgs. CO, 80923
8:30-12:30pm JV Wave
1:30pm-4:30pm Girls Varsity Wave
5:30pm-8:30pm Boys Varsity Wave