Massacre Report

[seanT]

On Febuary 18th, Mountain Equipment Co-op and Ground Zero Climbing Gym hosted the 5th annual Valentine's Day Massacre Bouldering Competition. This year's event, "The Royal Rumble", saw climbers bash away at over 40 problems for 6 hours straight. After a brief break for the $50 dyno comp, the top 4 men and women went head-to-head in the deathmatch finals: 6 problems, 40 minutes, winner takes all. When the dust had settled, 2 climbers emerged from the rubble to claim what was rightfully theirs...the coveted WBF belts! Big congrats to the new World Bouldering Federation Champions: Andy Fraser and Andrea Makkay. This year's event was the most exciting and dramatic ever with both Andy and Andrea being pushed right to the very finish. With 10 minutes left to climb, second place Mike Kohler cracked the last finals problem which put him into first place. Fraser HAD to send and only had a few minutes left to do it. Keeping his usual cool demeanor, he latched on, bore down and fully crushed!!! Victory was his! At the same time, the drama was also unfolding in the women's category. With exhaustion setting in to their arms, it was hard to tell who was going to nail which problems. But after risking brain injury, Andrea commited to the upside down hanging by your toes finish on problem 4, which sealed the deal for her! She then slumped into a giggling, blubbering wreck of a climber. Job well done!
The Massacre saw close to 50 climbers ranging in age from pre-teen to 50+. Climbers came from all over the region and from as far away as Maine and Montreal. All ability levels were represented. It was very cool to see the junior climbers battling it out. The junior men cranked hard all day and the junior women's field was small but those kids have heart. Kudos to Jr women champ, Karley B, barely 4 feet tall, just 10yrs old. Brand new to climbing, she almost got the first 10 problems! You might have seen her on Global or ATV as this year's Massacre got some great TV coverage.
If you were not able to be there, here are some highlights of the day:
Ben Smith climbing problems 1-10 in his gloves to save his skin for the finals.
Luke Buxton blowing off the finish and face planting in front of the Global TV cameras.
Colin "super" Powers running his fingers through his hair to show control on the finish of problem 26 and detonating off at the same time.
Colin"super" Powers catching his special lady friend Jen Stevens as she went flying off the finish of problem 12.
MIke Kohler crushing the white problem on the 45 degree wall and putting the fear into Andy F.
Speaking of the Fear...the Fear and the Prozac Princess had great Tshirts on all day...if only someone had spilled some water.
Emily Robinson's send of the bizarre steming dyno on the 45!
Jack Bennet's sweet flappers, not 1 but 2 big juicy ones.
Seeing the smile on someones face after sending something that they had been working on all day was really inspiring. Lindsay, Geoff, Pat, pretty much everybody.
I would like to give huge thanks to all the climbers who came out to support this event. It makes it all worth it to me when I look at the crowd and see everyone having a great time, cheering each other on, and enjoying the problems. There are not too many competitions where you will find "rivals" sharing beta. The fact that it happens at the Massacre is a testament to the good nature and cameraderie of NS climbers and we should all give ourselves a pat on the back. I would also like to thank Mountain Equipment Co-op for their support. The hardest part of putting on a comp is trying to get some great prizes to give to the climbers and MEC definitly came through. Without them, climbers would have been getting oranges for prizes! Ground Zero is honoured to have their support for this and other events. So GO there and buy some stuff! Having pretty much single handedly set all the problems it is hard to thank the route setters but Conan did lay down some of the sickness in the pod so he gets some props. The people who are behind the scenes as usual deserve a big thankyou also. Jesse, Kyla, Andrea for all the hold scrubbing (seriously they scrubbed every single hold you climbed on!), Scott Ferguson for helping add up the scores, Jodi at MEC, Caledonia for donating the Cds for every participant, Adam Benjamin for designing the wicked logo on the back of the shirts, Kevin Brooks for coming up with the soundtrack Massacre 5 "What have you done!?!", and my wonderful wife for keeping me going with coffee and sandwiches.

Thank you all for coming out and supporting this wicked event. You inspire me to keep it going and next year will be even better...can anyone say tagteams?
Sean T

[Zamboni]

Attention MEC staff and Management, thank you for supporting our small community. It's greatly appreciated.

Cb.