This past weekend a large group of Ohioans traveled the 1400 miles to compete in the second leg of the
Triple Crown event at Horse Pens 40. The Triple Crown is a series of three bouldering competitions spread across three boulderfields, and three states.
From the TC website
WHAT IS THE TRIPLE CROWN? The goal of the Triple Crown is twofold. First and foremost, the mission is to raise funds for two organizations dedicated to maintaining climbers' access: the Southeastern Climbers' Coalition and The Carolina Climbers' Coalition. These two organizations have been instrumental in the acquisition of land for the climbing community, in a region that is riddled with access issues. Secondly, this unique event will once again provide a tremendous opportunity for vendors to promote the sport of bouldering, which has quickly become the focus of the ever growing climbing community. 
There were six of us that drove down from Athens and met up with three more from Athenians, three from c-bus, and three from the nasty. With our powers combined we created a force to be reckoned with.
We arrived on Friday afternoon to temps in the high 60's and a campsite that was awaiting our tents, thanks to the crew from C-bus. We started the night with introducing the first timers to the boulders of
HP40, they were amazed at the concentration of this southern boulder destination. We all had an early night in preparation for the full day of climbing we were committed to in the morning.
Awoken to the commotion of climbers beginning their morning routines and smell of coffee was a
pleasant start to the day. We all signed in at registration and picked up or event shirts, free swag, and comp guide books. They gathered everyone under the pavilion, went over the rules and unleashed the mob of 400+ into the boulder field. Dylan and I however decided to enter a new division the morning of. This new category was called star chaser; the idea was for us to compete by climbing the best problems in the entire field. This meant that instead of getting the points for difficulty we got the number of stars used to rate the problem. The competitor at the end of the day with the most stars was the winner. The problems could be as high as a three star classics or a pile of sand with no stars. Both Dylan and I attempt problems as hard as V5 for three stars. By the end of the day we were both spent and sore from the local classics.
By then I had complete 56 problems for a total of 96 stars for 4th place.
Now there were some others in the group that managed to pull off a better day. Conan from C-bus had planned out his day a month in advance. He had a list of problems he had sent before, along with a few new ones to try and walked away with a score of 4322 to secure 2nd place. Right on his heels was another friend Eric with 4298 for third. After the second event, Conan sits in first place overall for mens intermediate, and Eric in 4th. Good work guys!
Shane, also from A-town, brought his A game along for the 9 hour car ride. He managed to rack up 2139 which was only good enough for third place, however he is sitting pretty going into the final event with 225 point lead over the guy in second place. That is a whole extra problem for his category, beginner mens.
So that being said we all have some training to do for the next event to hold our spots or advance for a win.
A write up from Dead Point Magazine can be found
here. Along with a Video
here, which has a couple of the Ohio crew in it.
Over all Triple Crown standings can be found
here.We have one month to get ready for our next leg of the series at
Little Rock City aka Stone Fort.Until then...
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