The Southeastern Climbers Coalition

For those of you who weren't able to make it out to the HPRocks event, it was definitely a good time missed. Slopers were slapped and jugs were thugged, Good People was down, and Ben Henson stole the mic. Click to read the review from Birmingham's own, Brooks Walker.

Tyler Willcutt raffles the people's choice of haircutt.

THE COMMUNITY:

I have a dream. One day Prius drivers will mingle with mud busters, VW buses will mingle with BMW's, boulderers and sport climbers will bump fists, and more girls will want to climb outside. Gumbies and OG's will walk together, ignorant of the others status in our feudal climbing society, and psyche will not be reserved for v13's. Lucky for us, HP has no v13's, our vehicles are hidden from sight, everyone was obviously here to boulder, and the OG's are becoming more political. Everyone was happy. The event was a fantastical success, and we raised enough money to buy out almost all the seats in three screens of Avatar, so eat that James Cameron. Basically, the South has been becoming the best community of climbers in the world. We raise more money, give more stuff away, and have more numbers in our phones than anyone else on earth, and you can take that to the bank. Welcome to HP Rocks! climbing comp/music festival.

THE MUSIC:

The atmosphere at this event is so chill. All day, as you are climbing, good simple man music seems to be just around the corner...until Lenior Swinger's Club shows up. Anyone who was present at the 2009 Triple Crown Comp at Hound Ears knows what I'm talking about. Recall the band who's lead singer screamed into a vacuum cleaner for the better part of their performance? Well, they kicked off the night with a round of comical punk and 80's death-metal antics to shake up the crowd. Leanna Culp, a local Birmingham singer was a big hit during the day, taking the song "Scrub" and some Outkast hits and giving them the country twang they always needed. Following all this was Jesse Payne and then a follow up performance of last years Incredible Sandwich. Of course, Ben Henson, who became famous for rapping Snoop Dog and Eminem lyrics on stage at the aforementioned Hound Ear's comp, made his comeback debut with a new rendition of a classic Pearl Jam ballad and a remix to his last single, "Sharma Arms." We'll be hoping to see more of that guy in the future.

THE CLIMBING:

The humidity hovered around 40% all day, the pressure was up, and the temperature topped out at 58 degrees Farenheight with no clouds in sight to make for a great dry hands day on the stone at HP40, and yes I have a barometer/thermometer/hydrometer in my car. The format was upgraded to being endurance based, so a competitor could do as many problems as they could within their category. This is a great idea for future outdoor comp formats, so Triple Crown, please take note. Brad Weaver, the overall men's points winner also has a rundown of his impressive tick list at his blog, b-weaver.blogspot.com-- inspiring to say the least. Another notable win was local strongman, Jeremy Watson's stonemaster scorecard of 125 problems. Youch!

THE BOOTY:

The prizes were off the chart this year with many competitors coming home with packages worth $300 or more. In other words, there were many crashpad/climbing shoe combos given away. BIG THANKS TO ALL THE SPONSORS FOR PUTTING SO MUCH GEAR UP FOR GRABS. These are the guys who supported the event, so buy their products until next event: The North Face, Five Ten, La Sportiva (finally), Evolv, Rock Pillar (new guys ponying up), Asana (crashpads galore), Black diamond, So Ill, VooDoo, Dolamite, and one of my favorites, Dead Point Magazine.

IF YOU LIVE IN BAMA AND YOU ARE A CLIMBER (and over 21), buy Good People products as they have been a recent generous sponsor of our events. Also Alabama Outdoors and Mountain High were probably one of the main components in the mega amount of prizes. Big thanks to them, and don't go buying "lightly" used ropes on Ebay when these guys are around the corner.

FINALE:

As I was cutting Tyler (Willcutt) Timberlake's pampered poodle curls on stage in front of 50 cheering folk, I thought, "man, now here is a guy that has his ducks in a row; here is the altruistic, philanthropic, selfless character of the new generation, and this guy really needs some color-- and maybe a Paul Mitchell protein rejuvenation treatment." In a state of "five sheets to the wind," he had stumbled around collecting money/votes for different haircuts to raise funds for the Alabama Bouldering Fund. As I inched closer to his scalp trying to mimic the look that had been chosen by our generous climbing community, I couldn't help but notice that there was a new smell in the air (not that); it was the smell of new beginnings. This year, 2010, has brought the establishment of a new era in southeastern ideology, progress. With the newly founded Alabama Bouldering Fund, the opening of First Ave Rocks in Birmingham, the publication of the HP bouldering guide, and the inauguration of a new SCC president, Paul Morley, we southern climbers have found a leadership to build around, and if HP Rocks! is any indication of the future of climbing in the South, then I'd say we're on the straight and narrows to good times.

The success of HP Rocks! taught me that we have a leadership that is going to move forward in 2010 and beyond to advance the climbing community into a collective that knows no bounds. In twenty years, we'll have accrued enough collective land to bail out AIG, get climbers a discount at participating Quiznos, and lobby congress into preserving all worthy rock below the Mason Dixon Line. So, with that being said, big thanks goes out to Adam Henry, Paul Morley, Joe Ortega, The Schultz family, and everyone else that these guys inspired to pitch in to make this event the success it was. Oh, and no pressure.

THE FUTURE:

We gonna buy us some land. Its not for hunting, fishing, dog fighting, or farming. We gonna just climb some rocks that God and Randomness placed on that private chunk of land that are just waitin for some scrubbin and lovin.

- Brooks Walker

Competition Results

Master of Stone

1. Jeremy Watson 26728
2. John Lindquist 19093
3. Jerome Houghton 13392
4. Jason Ruble 12502
5. Tim Slotton 6438
6. Matt Mendosa 3545

Has Been

1. Johny Vail 7024
2. David Hemphill 5933
3. Bo Cobb 1631
4. David Hauck 787

Crust

1. Tom Krajna 8048
2. R. Chambers 2131
3. Tim Hughes 1902

Mens open (V7-up)

1. Brad Weaver 20904
2. Josh Reyes 14447
3. Tyler Wilcutt 10242
4. Brooks Walker 9608
5. Casey Culp 8400

Womens Open (V6 and up)

1. Francesca Metcalf

Mens Advanced (V5-V8)

1 Nick Robinson 12126
1. Justin Jones 11379
2. Nathan Drolet 8847
3. Danny Aleksovski 7344
4. Nathan Smith 6570

Womens Advanced (V4-V7)

1. Natalie Hawley 3575

Mens Intermediate (V3-V6)

1. Bradley Killough 8424
2. Billy Brown 6665
3. Jared Wright 5950
4. AJ Luna 5352
5. Jonathan Hauck 5186
6. Elliott Brown 4690
7. Dave Barnhill 3261
8. Jonathan Stowers 3188
9. Sam Halleen 2454
10. Tommy Terry 2325
11. Jon Wiley 2227
12. Micheal Morris
13. Joe Didsiullo

Womens Intermediate (V2-V5)

1. Abi Wright 4236
2. Rachel Robinson 3929
3. Holly Mcmullen 2028
4. Allison Youngblood 1887

Mens Recreational (V0-V3)

1. Evan Powers 8184
2. Thomas Traweek 6772
3. Josh Goldsmith 6724
4. Andrew Massey 6527
5. Casey Perez 6060
6. Josh Brook 5771
7. Charles Cook 5629
8. David Miller 5587
9. Tim Herold 5279
10. Cameron Unterberger 4721
11. Chris Vella 4863
12. Patrick Mcclenahan 4738
13. ernardo Munez 4579
14. Patrick Price 4390
15. Chris Dorsett 4036
16. Zach Evans 3971
17. Danny Sarduy 3971
18. Cole Payne 3791
19. Matt Godbee 3472
20. Alex Ohman 3412
21. Seth Kromus 3303
22. Brannon Cox 3222
23. Blake Ellis 3157
24. Tim Spicer 3114
25. Tyler Bowman 3059
26. Lee Brevvington 3015
27. Kyle Nicholas 2969
28. Cory Clayton 2803
29. Chris Hardin
30. Mike Oneill 2729
31. Dustin Pohlman 2622
32. Cody Payne 2213
33. Kai Stewart 2151
34. Gustavo Illesas 2102
35. Philip Wilcheck 1920
36. Benjamin Lowe 1518
37. Brian Tupen 1300
38. Micheal Schneider 1171
39. George Marshall 978
40. Micheal Kerdes 841
41. Keith Schuberth 672
42. Girish Ramachandran 480

Womens Recreational (V0-V3)

1. Katie Whitcomb 10481
2. Amanda Cousino 4234
3. Kaitlyn Honnold 3820
4. Cindy Ng 3525
5. Martin Harvey 3077
6. Lauren Rose 1782
7. Ciera Fillyaw 1583
8. Samantha Lingg 1384
9. Jessica Sexton 1293
10. Brianna Greene 1164
11. Toni Sturtevant 1016
12. Kristin Kozelsky 836
13. Jamie Pohlman 590
14. Hanah Coe 330
15. Jennifer Stuart 214
16. Katherine Ohare

Kids

1. Ian Krajna 2048
2. Matt Oneill 1000

Note: BIG thanks to the First Ave Crew for putting this event on and to the Schultz Family. Big thanks to the sponsers as well. Oh yeah, $650 was raised for Steele!!