The North Face Cup Japan 2014 and more
March 02, 2014Life has been rather busy since The North Face Cup Japan 2014 in early February. I've since started my teaching practicum and have begun to finally go full swing into teaching.What time I dont spend doing up lesson plans and working on my next lessons, I spend it coaching the VJC netball girls. Perhaps for this few weeks I will cool down on my climbing intensity and really work reality for now.
I did a small Q&A for Onsight Climbing Gym for their online news bulletin:
Do check it out for some details! And they cover some of the local climbers and happenings at the moment as well! :)
I feel that I must truly write about this trip, as its been a really awesome one! Sure beats the previous one I went to, for that I am truly grateful for the opportunity once again and the grace of God to allow me the win in Boulderactive 2013 back in August.
I was bound for Japan about 3 weeks after school started for the year, together with Ponti Hardiyanto from Indonesia, who also won the Open Men category for Boulderactive 2013. Prior to this, I was neck deep in paper work, trying to apply for my leave and clearance from the ministry to go to Japan, making sure that my lessons are taken care of, homework all done, etc. All messy and unsatisfactory conclusion aside, I did go to Japan (and made sure I did, no matter what!!) I paid for my own tickets this time, with my hard earned prize money from the previous few local boulder competitions I participated in (yay!).
I arrived in Tokyo 3 days before the competition.My first meal of the day was at this nice udon place that Yuji brought us to:
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| Having udon and tempura |
It was really cold when we got there. It had snowed the day before and temperatures were low. I guess I was quite prepared this time, and tried not to let the cold get to me either. Made sure I had ClimbOn to keep my skin tough and not tear too easily!
That first day, I met Caroline Ciavaldini and James Pearson who were also guest climbers for The North Face Cup this year. Daniel Woods and Kim Jain were not able to make it though. So we went to this gym called Caramba nearby Iruma to boulder and climbed for the day. The place was really nice (but really cold! because it was night by then and cold just seeped in through the walls)! Had to constantly sit near the heater to keep my shoes and fingers warm.
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| Caramba Gym |
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| steamboat! |
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| Group photo! |
Base Camp on the first day of qualifying was packed! As usual, the kids wow-ed me and I spent a good amount of time reading the routes and watching people's beta. Really psyched for my competition the next day!
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| Even helped Base Camp shovel some snow for the fun of it! Snow was calf deep at the end of the night. Crazy! Walking in it was easy at all. :p |
Semi-finals for Division 1 was different from last year. There were some changes in the wall features and more technical balancey routes were set. That said, I felt that all my training 5-6 months before had come to this and I was ready for it! (Even more so, because I touched rock and it was like magic because you dont get these in Singapore.. haha) I managed to finish 5 out of 8 routes and placed 7th position in all, missing finals by 1 spot! Exceeded my expectation of hitting top 10 (or better last years position). I knew that going to finals would be the next step. I flashed through the powerful overhang, but got stumped by a bridgey and slopey route. But I still managed to clear those crucial ones before the time was up! Did not manage to try 2 routes AT ALL and thus held no bonus to rise me up to rank for the finals. I really had fun during the climb. We had 50 minutes this time, and climbed together with the Division 1 guys. It was amazing!
Heres one of the routes I did:
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| Semi-final results for Div 1 women |
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| Getting reachy on this undercling volume move |
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| My first route of the day, a balance slab problem which I took my time on. :p |
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| Some Singaporean represent at Base Camp! |
After the competition, it was rock trip time! We drove down to Nagoya but got stuck in traffic due to the heavy snowfall. We reached in time for the Athlete slideshow presentation for The North Face. Really inspiring to here Akiyo talk about her goals for climbing, how Toru started climbing and what Caroline and James were up to and how climbing changed their life.
Here in Singapore, sometimes its hard to look outside the happenings of our society and see the beauty of things around us, of how climbing can connect us and bring us places. How things more than money and work and material possessions can mean so much more. How opportunities are made, and present themselves. It made me think back on my own sponsorship back at home, and how it is near impossible to achieve and ask for the same things these athletes are given, simply because we work differently. I believed that I would have been able to begin to change some things, to actually work something out between The North Face SG. So much ideas and dreams just exploding at the seams! I was psyched this trip, really psyched for climbing and so much more. But alas, reality strikes back and worked-jud has to go back to work.
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| The North Face Athletes |
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| Touristy jumpshot - A must! Overlooking a town, reminds me of Qingdao, or even HK. |
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| Diamond Slab. V6. Sent this! Technique level up! |
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| With Aaron who came one this trip as a route setter for the comp! |
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| Groupie shot! |
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| Crimp start for a V13. Couldnt start! |
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| Comfortable route! Cant remember the grade, but there was a throw to this good ledge! |
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| Captured a rainbow at this highball boulder |
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| On a dicey route at Komiyama, really painful and small crimps here. Photo credits to Eddie Gianelloni. |
Till next time,
J
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