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Kids climbing the walls in North Vancouver

JUNIOR CLIMBERS training
in a North Shore indoor climb-
ing program are scoring high in
a series of competitive events
hosted by seven indoor climb-
ing gyms in B.C., Washington
and Oregon.

By John Moore

Contributing Writer

Not yet a year old, The Edge
Junior Climbing Program for youths
aged 14 to 17 is producing results
that are a surprise to the program's
sponsors.

“Most of these kids have only
been climbing for about six months
and they're climbing 5.11 and 5.12,
grades that weren't invented when I
started climbing,” says Edge general
manager Ed Fischer.

Ata meet held last month at The
Edge (2-1485 Welch St., North
Vancouver), North Shore juniors put
on a strong show in the men’s under-
18 as West Vancouver climbers
Andrew Stigemann and Mike
Shannon finished second and third
behind Vancouver's Jeff Maynard.

In the women's under-18,
Katherine Embacher, of North
Vancouver, finished second to like-
wise 15-year-old Seattle climbing
prodigy Ursula Holder, who was in
good enough form to take third in an
Open Women’s event so demanding
a tie for first was awarded tc
Vancouver's Rosemary Kajioke and
Robin Bone of North Vancouver.

Ten-year-old Elizabeth Cairns
took top honors in the under-13
women's event, possibly with a

slight “edge” in the personal coach-
ing department. Her father, West
Vancouver climber Andy Cairns,
took secend in the Men's Open
behind Seatle’s Will Catlin.

The juniors were on the walls
again June 4 at Seattle's Vertical
Club, where The Edve’s Derek
Junck got sandwiched for second
between homeboys Nath 1 Po oos
and James Wyland. The es
junior women, Katie Christ snd
Catherine Minshull, took second wid
third but couldn't top the
indomitable Ursula Holder on her
own vertical turf.

This series of competitive events
for juniors is among the first of its
kind in North America.

Sponsored by climbing gyms like
The Edge, The Vertical Club,
Vancouver's Cliffhanger, Rope's
End in Kamloops, Nelson's Gravity
Works, the Portland Rock Gyin and
Stoneworks in Beaverton, Oregon,
as well as the Archeteryx climbing
equipment company, the program
has evidently struck a loud chord
with teenagers throughout the
Pacific Northwest.

“We started out with the intention
of geting younger people involved
in climbing.” Ed Fischer says. “But
we soon found out that if we told 10
kids about it, they each brought [0
friends.”

Sixty juniors came out for The
Edge’s junior 12-person team.

Fischer is quick (0 pass on the
credit for the success of the program
to Edge instructor Sean Fader: “He's
done an amazing job. He devotes a
lot of extra time to the program.
He's totally dedicated to focusing on

OFF

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the kids.

Fader has been one of the prime
movers and shakers organizing this
vertical round robin.

“It’s taking up a lot more time
than T thought.” he says. “We want-
ed to encourage the development of
sport climbing. especially from the
age of about 14. We asked the kids
what they wanted and they said they
wanted competition and travel. So
we're giving ito them.”

Fader gets backup not only from
The Edge management, but from
instructors like Stacy Clark and
Mare Dube who are willing to go the
extra distance to encourage young
climbers.

Dube, who also teaches rock-
climbing in Squamish, has had the
juniors out on the Smoke Bluffs get-
ting the “feel of the real,” to teach
them route-finding and leading
skills, indispensable indoor or out.

Climbing is undergoing phenom-
enal growth as both a participation
and spectator sport, even attracting
television coverage in the Pacific
Northwest.

If you know someone between
the ages of 10 and 17 who needs
some serious non-horizomial motiva-
tion, try calling The Edge at 984-
9080. Irs not a baby-sitting service:
you may have to learn how to belay
(hold a rope). properly.

You may even get “the vertical
urge” yourself.

AS

Eat

NEWS photo Paul McGrath
OKRE OF the many junior competitors who scaled the walls at
The Edge indoor climbing centre takes a breather during the
junior climbing competition.

The Abbott Place Preview Centre is located 1/2 block south of
Water Street at 233 Abboit Street.

OPEN: Sat. & Sun. 12:00 - 3:30

Preview Centre: 683- 7033

p.m.
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