Squamish Rampage crowns its winners

An annual local climbing competition has awarded its winners.

As of Aug. 13, Squamish Rampage crowned the top athletes in bouldering, sport climbing, and, as of this year, traditional climbing.

Organizers say trad climbing was added due to popular demand, and this year marks the first year all three major disciplines of outdoor climbing were featured in the competition.

Rampage was at first a bouldering competition started by Joseph Wong to raise funds for the Squamish Access Society and provide money for Climb and Conquer, a charity for underprivileged youth.

However, as of last year, Wong has handed over the reins to a new group of organizers, and the competition has evolved.

This year's event occurred in the two weeks leading up to the awards ceremony.

Participants were given a list of climbs to tackle, and those who completed the most in the least attempts made it to the top.

In addition to competing, organizer Jeff Yoo said workshops and clinics were provided during the weekends of the competition.

"The…thing that I really feel is being lost with the explosive growth of climbing is that there's, I guess, less mentorship opportunities for beginners and people who are just transitioning from indoor to outdoor," said Yoo.

"So we really wanted to provide an opportunity…for those people to learn and teach them about outdoor stewardship."

The event also took the opportunity to highlight new routes in Squamish.

"Over the COVID pandemic, there's been so much route development," said Yoo. "So I think people were really, really excited to check out a lot of the new boulder problems and routes that were developed over the past couple of years. And, yeah, it was a great event."

There were about 170 people registered for the event across all divisions. All proceeds were donated to the Squamish Access Society.

There were separate 1st place awards for males and females for the highest bouldering and sport climbing categories.

The results are as follows:

— Bouldering —

Cruiser (V0 to V2)

1st: Alice W.

2nd: Mark V.

3rd: Elisa Cho

Crusher (V3 to V5)

1st: Marie Andrace Racine

2nd: Justin Exley

3rd: Jean-Francois Plouff

Sender (V6 to V8)

1st: Alex Kenyon

2nd: Yitao

3rd: Sean Vanderluit

Rampage (V9+)

1st: Lucas Uchida (Male) Lara Sirovica (Female)

2nd: Jake Scharfman

3rd: Dillon Elliott

— Trad Climbing —

Cruiser (up to 10b)

1st: Oscar Ayala

2nd: D(@climbthatd)

3rd: Janet Park

Crusher (10c to 11b)

1st: Michael Woo

2nd: Drew Latta

3rd: Thomas Roy

Sender (11c to 12b)

1st: Colin Moorhead

2nd: Nick Epsom

3rd: Peter Lemanski

Rampage (12c+)

1st: Felix Bourassa-Moreau

2nd: Dan Gosselin

— Sport climbing —

Cruiser (up to 10b)

1st: Sean Henderson & Oscar Ayala (perfect tie for first)

2nd: N/A

3rd: Sarah Semkow

Crusher (10c to 11b)

1st: Michela Phillips

2nd: Benjamin Barrett

3rd: Aliica MacGregor

Sender (11c to 12b)

1st: Drew Latta

2nd: Katie Sampat

3rd: Eric Zecchel

Ryan Scott missed podium due to attempts

Rampage (12c+)

1st: Alex King (Male) Tanager (Female)

2nd: Cody Abercrombie

3rd: Janice T