Rock the Blocs 2024 Wrap Up
A huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Rock the Blocs 2024 bouldering festival over the weekend! The event drew participants from across North America to the Okanagan Boulderfields Recreation Site to sample the high quality bouldering and to celebrate our local community. This was our 10th time running the event and it was bigger and better than ever! The hot weather brought the climbers and not even a surprise Sunday-morning thunderstorm could keep everyone from getting back on the rock.
In total, we had 355 participants attend the event, with 31 children and youth. On Saturday, the competition ran from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, followed by awards, raffle prizes, challenges, and giveaways. We had 195 climbers enter the friendly competition across 10 categories based on age and experience. This year, we also included four bonus challenges on the scorecard to encourage more variety of participation. We had the maximum total problems challenge, the maximum total V-points challenge, the most difficult single problem challenge (i.e. the crusher challenge), and the tour-de-fields challenge. This last challenge, in which climbers had to climb 8 problems from V0-V2 distributed throughout the entire area, was popular with the crowd and saw 9 completions!
The winners of each category were:
Men’s Open
Ty Siddon, Kelowna (29 V-points)
Alex Kenyon, Las Vegas
Oliver Bidrman, Kelowna
Women’s Open
Caiya Ainslie, Kelowna (23 V-points)
Sophie Buitendyk, Victoria
Wafa Anam, Vancouver
Men’s Intermediate
Royce Blackstock, Kelowna
Connor Punch, Kelowna
Cole Broder, Kelowna
Women’s Intermediate
Julie Gagnon, Chilliwack
Liz Mutus, Kelowna
Sophie Viger, Chilliwack
Men’s Beginner
Pat Monteith, Kelowna
Marcus Lee, Montreal
Joseph Fuller, Kelowna
Women’s Beginner
Viviane Girard, Squamish
Xiaotong Duan, Las Vegas
Keandra Mundy, Kelowna
Men’s Masters
Justin Van Sickle, Kelowna
Byron Hayes, Kelowna
Khrishna Nacua, Chilliwack
Women’s Masters
Alicia Waters, West Kelowna
Boys
Nico Mutus, Kelowna
Bradley Mutus, Kelowna
Girls
Eileen Cid-Langlois, Kelowna
Lily Bassett-Smith, West Kelowna
Amaia Markley Aslani, Kelowna
Total Climbs Challenge
Lucas Walker, Kelowna (63 climbs)
Total V-Points Challenge
Lucas Walker, Kelowna (97 V-points)
Crusher Challenge
Ty Siddon, Kelowna (V11)
Tour de Fields Challenge
Sergio Bell, Kelowna (12:09 pm finish time)
Owen Smith, Golden
Sam Volk, Kelowna
Nathaniel Smith, Vernon
Lucas Rodriguez, Lake Country
Jared Borsheim, Kelowna
Sam Paupst, Kelowna
Viviane Girard, Squamish
Xiaotong Duan, Las Vegas
A tremendous thank you to all our sponsors, who generously donated tons of gear, passes, and swag. With their support, we were able to raise over $4,000 for the Okanagan Bouldering Society! We would like to give special acknowledgements to Gneiss Climbing, Deadpoint Climbing, Arcteryx, Flashed Climbing, and TW Outdoors who went above and beyond in donating raffle prizes and giveaways, as well as providing on-site freshly-brewed espresso, free chalk refills for everyone, and some evening entertainment. We also want to acknowledge all the local small businesses and local artists that were willing to support the event. Please support them in return!
Gniess Climbing
Deadpoint Climbing Co
Arcteryx
Flashed Climbing
Kaya Climbing
TW Outdoors
Lattice Training
Send Climbing
Black Diamond
Madrock Climbing
Climb On Equipment
The Hive
The Rock Garden
Beyond the Crux
Climb Base 5
Hoodoo Adventures
Valhala Pure Vernon
La Rose Serenity Spa
Bright Jenny Coffee
Onsight Care
Solution Climbing
Firesen
Sports Clips
Green Bean Reloved
Maple 3 Water
Cool Hand Print
Before the prizes, competitors tested themselves with the pinch block challenge, the hang challenge, and the pull up challenge. In the evening, spectators came to watch the traditional night session on the imposing highball Purgatory V9. This year, we saw some impressive firsts: Sophie Buitendyk looked strong and controlled as she climbed her way to the first female ascent, while Matthew Witwicki got the first flash. A total of four climbers completed the problem, topping out in the dark using headlamps to the cheers of the crowd filling the slope below.
Many of the attendees stayed Saturday night to climb again on Sunday, or take one of the clinics being offered. We had a great turnout, with over 40 clinic participants spread among the Queer Intro to Bouldering Clinic, the Women's Bouldering Clinic, the Intro to Bouldering Clinic, the Bouldering 201 Clinic, The Easy Highballs Clinic, and the Introduction to Scrubbing and Developing New Boulders Clinic.
A big thanks to the Board of Directors (Loïc, Jonty, Kayla, Mike, Will, Robson, and Chris) and our volunteers (Moira, Isaac, Garret, Quentin, Eddy, Felix, Spencer, Maddy, Katie, Jesse, Edith, Rohan, Lizzy, and Zoë) for putting on such a smooth event. Finally, a big thank-you to KAYA for help and support during the event, making sure the recently launched Boulderfields guide was accessible to everyone over the weekend!
We can’t wait until next year and Rock the Blocs 11!
Photos courtesy of Dan Welte (@weltedan), Moira Pearson (@sewmuchclimbing), Quentin Trollip (@rocknpaper77), Robson Wong (@robson_makes_pie), Loïc Markley (@yukonloic), and Queer Climbing Kelowna (@queerclimbingkelowna).