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The New Mexico Tech Climbing Club’s 11th annual Box Comp took place all day Saturday, Nov. 8, out at the local climbers’ paradise, Box Canyon. 75 climbers were signed before the competition began that morning, and more rolled in and signed up on the spot that day.
This year’s Box Comp featured only the bouldering categories for men and women: beginner, intermediate, advanced, monster and century. For bouldering, climbers are only climbing routes that are relatively short and do not need a rope to be climbed safely, provided that they have the right equipment and experience. For safety, they are using bouldering pads for a soft landing, with people spotting to ensure that anyone falling lands on the pads as comfortably as possible.
These routes are commonly referred to as problems, because the climber (boulderer) must figure out how to get from start to finish with the available handholds and footholds. The sequence can be different for climbers of different heights, builds, and climbing styles, so each boulderer might solve the problem their own way.
The rope climbing categories from previous years were removed this year due to logistical reasons. NMT Climbing Club president Brayden Stidham really emphasized the efforts of the club and its members. It takes a lot of work to organize and see an event of this size all the way through.
“This event is entirely student run by volunteers in the Climbing Club here at New Mexico Tech. It’s a really cool event that brings in people from all over New Mexico, and it wouldn’t be possible without the help of the school.” Stidham said.
NMT club members created flyers to promote the comp, set-up the sign-up forms, contacted companies for sponsorship, got the special recreation permit from the BLM, hired a food truck for the day, organized a meet-and-greet the night before, arranged to have NMT’s search and rescue group be out on comp day, prepped score sheets, manned to registration table, tallied scores after, held the raffle, announced winners, cleaned up, and so much more.
Many of them also were able to climb alongside the other competitors once their duties were completed. Climbers certainly had some competitive spirit and set some goals for the day.
“10,000 and I’d be happy. It’s a beautiful day today.” NMT climber Max Strack said about a points goal.
Strack was entered in the “Century” category, where the goal is for the climber to do a lot of problems in order to get as many points as possible. Each problem listed on the scorecard is given a point value that is based mainly on its difficulty. For those competing in the other categories, beginner to monster, they tally up the points of their top six climbs for their total score.
The most common comment about goals for the day was, “Just to have fun.” Others also echoed Strack about the beauty of the day. A fun day out at the rocks with friends and beautiful weather was their goal.
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At the end of the day, Stidham and other club members were more than satisfied with how it all went for this year’s comp.
“It went as well as I could hope for. The raffle was short but sweet, and the food truck went smoothly. I think we had 85 participants by the end of the day. I’m really happy with how the comp went.” Stidham said.
