Chandler Mountain Challenge

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Had an awesome time climbing at HorsePens40 during the Chandler Mountain Challenge on Super Bowl weekend. It was a crazy weekend with lousy weather, but an awesome to hang out with family and meet some new friends.

My cousins and aunt and uncle live in Birmingham, so we drove there on Friday and stayed overnight. My folks flew down from Troy, MI to see us (and my mom's sister). That was a miracle in itself, as my mom's health has prevented her from doing much for a couple of years now. Amazing what a little brain surgery can do for ya! (You heard me -- brain surgery.)

Anyway, we drove up to HP40 through rain and sleet on Saturday, hung out for an hour waiting to see if the weather would clear, and then...drove back to Birmingham. Comp postponed to Sunday...Super Bowl Sunday!

The family all agreed to climb on Sunday and hustle back for at least the second half of the "big game." So off we went on Sunday morning. And it was COLD! Too cold for Jackson to even want to climb for the first 4 hours of the comp. (Smart dude. He still won his age division even though he spent a few hours learning the finer points of checkers from Howard Schultz, the HP40 owners' father.) I know they say the cold air helps with friction, but if you can't feel  your fingers, what good does friction do ya?

Cassidy, Kimberly and I climbed...OK, Cassidy and I climbed. This was Kimberly's first time outdoors and she just couldn't do anything hard. I got so caught up in finding Cassidy and myself stuff to climb, that I earned the crappy husband of the year award for not paying attention to my wife. She persevered and toward the end of the day we found some routes that were perfect for her. She ended up taking 3rd place in women's!!! Cassidy took 2nd. My women rock!!!

As for me, I learned how easy it is for me to get caught up in good things and ignoring the best things. Taking care of my wife was a best thing, and it took me all day to do it - and, I'm ashamed to say, a few weeks to realize how bad I'd made her feel. I get so caught up in my own world so often that I miss the bigger picture.

As a husband, my job is to put my wife first - emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. Too often I forget to take care of her, often in the guise of, "I don't want her to think that I think she can't handle it." Honestly? That's just a copout. What I really don't want is for her to cramp my style. Pretty self-centered.

So guys, if you're reading this, here's my take: God gave us our wives and it's our job to take care of them first. Just like Christ takes care of his bride, the Church, to the point of taking on all the penalties for our sins. I am supposed to put my wife first, ahead of what I feel I deserve or I'm entitled to.

I can't wait to take her back to HP40 and spend the whole day finding routes she can climb. I want her to love rock climbing, not for me (OK, a little for me), but because it makes her feel like she's accomplishing great things. At our age, we need new accomplishments!

By the way, the folks from Solid Rock Climbers for Christ http://www.srcfc.org/ put this event on, and they did a great job, especially considering the conditions. I was excited to be able to share a little bit after the climbing. I talked about faith in a person - Jesus - not in a religion. The competitors were very gracious. I spoke quick...it was cold and there were prizes to be awarded!

Thanks to Brad Killough and his family, Ryan Bolen, Jonathon Parker and the Schultz's for a very fun day, and a good lesson.

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Photo credits: Kimberly Clemmer

Boulderpalooza 2010 - A Lesson in Fairness & Fathering

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Boulderpalooza 2010 is in the record books, with some shocking results for the Clemmer family.

Cassidy and I went up for the competition last weekend. Jackson's first flag football game was the next day, and he wisely thought he should attend the last practice before the game...which got cancelled due to weather 30 minutes after we left. Aauugghh!!

Anyway, we had a great time climbing. The comp was well set and well run. Props to the Gainesville Rock Gym and the sponsors for a fun, fun time. The ending is what was so surprising.

Only 2 Open climbers showed up (the highest level, kind of like 'pros'). So one of Cassidy's climbing friends who would probably normally climb Advanced jumped into the Open category. This makes sense, since there was a cash prize for 1st thru 3rd place in Open. She is a GREAT climber, and she finished with more points than Cassidy in the red point section of the comp; 3rd in the Open division. Cassidy finished first in Advanced. Everybody's happy!

Then, they decided that Cassidy climbed too well to be in Advanced, so they bumped her into Open, which has a finals climbing competition. Which would have been pretty cool if there wasn't a cash prize for Advanced too. So, she climbed in the Open Finals On Sight and finished 4th. No victory in Advanced, since she was bumped out, and no money in Open. Pretty frustrating, especially considering she's a teenager, not a pro, and she entered Advanced appropriately.

It has been a lesson for us both. The good news is, of course, at 15 she got bumped into the top division of a comp with prize money involved. She beat the next climber in Advanced by a ton of points, and every route she completed she did on her first try (a "flash").  We've learned about pacing yourself for finals a bit, and Cassidy got great exposure to the sponsors (hello, La Sportiva? My daughter's shoes have holes in the toes and she LOVES her Solutions! Hint! Hint!), as well as practice climbing in front of a crowd that should help her at Sport Climbing Youth Nationals this year, Lord willing that she qualifies.

I also had to learn to control my emotions as I spoke to the organizers about the decision they made to bump her up. It was a compliment to her climbing, but perhaps not a "fair" decision in light of the circumstances. I was impressed with Pat from the gym, who listened to my frustration, expressed their reasoning clearly, and allowed that though they felt the made the best decision they could under the circumstances, they might not make the same decision the next time they faced this situation. I think I kept my cool, explained my feelings as a dad, and a coach.

Pat said they would have a debriefing and maybe ("I can't promise anything") they would be able to do something for her. (They gave TONS of stuff away through raffles and she got shut out of that as well. Including free La Sportiva shoes..."Hello? La Sportiva? Did I mention Cassidy's Solutions have holes? Oh, I guess I did.) I haven't heard from them and I don't know if I will. It would be nice for them to follow up.


It's been perhaps the greatest lesson to me as a father. What better opportunity to help your children learn to face adversity and the "unfairness" of life (in a fallen world) than something like this. I wanted to tell her she was robbed! The people running the comp had it in for her! It would be so easy to put her in the position of being a victim. And I'm sure a little of the leaked out.

But I was proudest of her reaction. She was, of course, devastated at the lost opportunity to win the Advanced Division in an adult bouldering comp, and especially the 300 bucks that went with it. But after a little while of crying on daddy's shoulders (oh, did THAT suck! my heart was breaking...), she pulled herself together. Her facebook status later on that evening showed her positive attitude:

boulderpalooza was a blassst. and im such a beastly climber i got bumped to open from advanced. hahaha.

 Wow!!!

So, lessons learned:

• LIfe is not fair. (Duh!)
• My daughter has an amazing capacity to overcome adversity and not be mad at the world. I am still working on this.
• My daughter is a gifted climber. Beastly.
• Being a dad often means helping your kids deal with frustration, not fixing it.

Oh, and one more thing. I won the Men's Beginner division. Haha! The prize? A new rope and a pair of climbing shoes. (Evolv shoes. Cassidy wants La Sportiva's. She's loyal.)

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Photo: Cassidy on the first of 3 routes in the Open finals. Thank you to Patrick Gallagher for posting this pic on his facebook photo album, Boulderpalooza 2010

Great Times Climbing in Ch-ch-chattanooga

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That's the sound of my teeth chattering. Took my son Jake to Tennessee last weekend to camp and climb. We had a great time (mostly). The highlight was probably waking up Saturday morning to snow on the ground! We went with friends from the gym, including my buddy Ike who is the camping and climbing uber-guide.

The climbing crowd is really interesting. Kind of like surfers in the laid-back mentality and the relational style. I heard the phrase, "Awesome dude!" about a million times. A fair amount of drinking too, so not super kid-friendly, although I doubt most of the adults saw it that way.

Jake had a tough day at the comp on Sunday. We had climbed outdoors two days already and we were both pretty tired. He still ended up finishing 4th in his age group!

Here was the most interesting part of the weekend to me: surrounded by young, energetic people, all of them really love the outdoors and the challenge of climbing, yet no realization of where all of this must have come from. An appreciation for beauty and creation, but no affinity or interest (it seemed) in the Creator. I loved what we were doing and even who we were doing it with, but I still felt pretty out of place.

x-treme rock climbing = x-treme victory

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the first sport climbing series competition in florida for 2009 was this past weekend. the whole family went on the 4 hour drive down - left at 5 am. ugh!

the gym - x-treme rock climbing miami - was extremely cool. high walls, roof climbing, even a stalagtite.

cassidy was awesome. she climbed in the youth female b category and she WON! this picture is actually from the bouldering competition she won last month, but it's a cool picture of her hanging off a climbing wall.

you can actually watch her climb at the miami gym here. she makes a scary move at the end that looks like she's going to fall - but she just goes for it and holds on, hanging by one hand.

jackson couldn't compete with his arm still in the cast. we go to the orthopedic doc tomorrow to find out if he (a) keeps the current cast, (b) gets a new cast or (c) gets the cast off and starts rehab. obviously, we're hopin' and prayin' for option c.

the team aiguille kids - our gym team from aiguille rock climbing center in longwood, fl - entered 8 of the 10 divisions and won 5 of them, taking 1-2-3 in 2 of them. our kids really, really climbed well, especially for the first competition of the season. we're proud of them all.

coaching rock climbing is way different than coaching soccer. that's for sure!

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courage and victory!

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the kids competed at the american bouldering series florida regionals at aiguille rock climbing gym today. in the morning, jackson took 4th in his division and cassidy won hers in the youth competition. kind of a weird competition, where the kidsstay sequestered until its time to climb. they don't see the route til its time to climb it and then then have 5 minutes each to climb 5 routes with 5 minutes in between.

in the afternoon, they participated in the 'citizen's comp', basically, the adult competition with everyone who wanted to compete from around the state. jackson climbed himself into the advanced category (!).

cassidy entered the open division - basically, the best climbers in the competition. she made it to the finals, and finished in second place! my 14 year old beat every woman in the comp except the 24 year old who flew in from Kansas City for the event! what's more, cassidy has been sick all week and hasn't climbed since last saturday. she was in bed from sunday through thursday, and felt awful most of the day. she is amazing!!!

i'm so proud of them both. jackson for coming along so quickly, and cassidy for overcoming ridiculous odds and finishing second to someone with 10 years more experience, and beating everyone else. my kids ROCK (climb)!

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climbing comps and stuffy noses

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tomorrow's the big day - regional bouldering comp and then a citizens comp in the afternoon. cassidy's been sick since sunday morning. in bed sun morning to thurs morning almost non-stop. she made herself take a 1-mile jog/walk this afternoon to get her muscles going. she's either going to rock and roll or crash tomorrow! what an adventure!

jackson is determined to climb better than ever. he will, too. he's a stubborn kid. once he decides to do something, he gives it his all.

i haven't decided if i'll climb in the afternoon or not. 'game time decision.'

watching a movie with my family and in-laws this evening, i really had a sense for how much i am blessed. we get on each others' nerves sometimes for sure, but it's nice to be with a group of people who really love each other.

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boulderpalooza!

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my kids rock!!! my son took 3rd place in his age group (beaten by a couple of boys with a lot more experience than him). my daughter took first in her age group, and beat a 17 yr old for first in all the girls.

they are so awesome!

some outrageous video from my friends in montana

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i've worked with harvest church a couple of times in billings, mt, with man in the mirror. these guys have a great ministry with their men, 'harvest wild men.' they also have some ridiculously funny videos.

go here to their video vault and check 'em out. my personal favorites are the 'man law' ones.

this is a fantastic example of reaching men with manly, resonant language. i gotta think jesus is chuckling every time one of these is played.

did i mention ... they have climbing walls in their lobby. so cool.

www.harvestweb.net

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going to maryland for a men's event

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i'm going to frederick, maryland to conduct a rewired event for their men's retreat this weekend. it's always something i look forward to doing, yet i always have to miss something to do these. this weekend, i am missing... BOULDERPALOOZA!


boulderpalooza is in gainesville, and it's the biggest bouldering comp of the year. the kids are going with friends from the climbing gym. they'll have a blast because the gym is really set up well for bouldering. kimberly has a memorial service to go to for one of her best friends mother.


to top it off, kimberly's parents arrive saturday afternoon as well.


anyway, as i prepare for this weekend, i am praying that God would refresh me and speak thru me. the last few months have left me a bit weary, but i have a growing sense that he has something for me - and our family - in the coming year.

here's a video i did a while back that churches use to promote rewired events...
http://mitm.rev-media.com/asx/mitm_wired_high.asx

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ouch!

i've got this wicked pain in my right arm from climbing. it's right above my elbow on the inside of my arm. plus, i fell about 6 feet from the top of a bouldering problem and landed standing up with my legs locked - just felt the impact right up my spine. my back hurts too.

i am either an recreational athlete with the aches and pains of training and improving...or just an old guy.

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