“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
– John Muir
While acclimating to the high elevation of the Andes mountains and touring the beautiful capital city of Quito, I had the opportunity to train for Pan Ams with the Ecuadorian and Chilean National Youth Climbing teams. The outdoor gym I climbed at was in the Coliseo General Ruminahui athletic complex right in the middle of Quito. The Ruminahui facility is where all of the Ecuadorian national athletic teams train for the Olympics. This was a new and exciting experience for me because I had never climbed before on an outdoor speed wall.
There were many differences between the speed wall in Quito and the indoor walls I climb on in the US. First off, there was a lot of humidity in the air. This made the holds slightly slippery. It was especially tricky to make sure your feet did not slip off the holds. The bright sun and the heat also threw me off at first. I never had to deal with either of those conditions inside a gym in the US. The sun is very bright in Quito because of the 9,350 foot elevation. The sun sometimes nearly blinded me when I was climbing making it hard to see.
The texture of the speed wall was nothing like what I had ever climbed on. The wall was made of plywood with chipped black paint. It was somewhat slippery, a little greasy, and looked like it had been there for a few decades. Instead of the wall being painted with “grit paint” like in the US, the wall had tar paper in the areas where you placed your feet. Placing your feet on the slippery, wooden wall resulted in a slip, but the tar paper placements were just right so you almost always placed your feet there. I was surprised at how well I climbed on the wall despite its differences. The Ecuadorians are very crafty at building economical yet highly functional speed walls.
Since the elevation of Quito is 9,350 feet, the climbing experience was very different. This was a drastic change from the near sea-level altitude in Austin that I had been at just 24 hours before. I had to adjust to the high altitude very fast and this was wearing on my body, but I was able to persevere and still run some fast times. Speed climbing at altitude is much more tiring. Normally, you are able to do a few runs before you start to feel fatigued. At altitude, especially that of Quito, after the first run, I already felt tired when being lowered down from the top of the wall. You need to continuously eat and hydrate when training at altitude or else your body will quit on you.
While I was there, the head coach of the Ecuadorian climbing team was also there. He gave me many helpful tips for training at altitude. I had never climbed at such an altitude and it was helpful to talk to someone who had trained at those conditions for their entire life. He was very knowledgeable about speed climbing. He helped out with belaying and getting everything set up. He hand-belayed me multiple times. Along with him, members of the Chilean National Team were also there. The Chilean coach also gave me great advice on how to climb in Ecuador efficiently. I was able to climb with them and they helped me train for Pan Ams.
While I was there, I was hand-belayed, which I had only done a couple of times at USA climbing events before they instituted auto-belays for all competitions. Hand-belay is very different from auto-belay. With hand-belay for speed climbing, you are supported by two humans and there is a small chance for manual error. Unlike regular sport climbing where one person belays you, with speed climbing two people are required because the rope is moving so fast. The first person guides the rope through their Grigri belay device on their harness and controls the breaking while the second person (the “puller”) pulls the rope very fast in order to keep up with the speed of the climber. The puller is basically pulling out all of the slack in the rope which accumulates so fast in speed climbing. The auto-belay is a spring-loaded machine that pulls in the rope at extremely fast speeds when climbing up and gently lowers you down when you come off of the wall. Auto-belays are a luxury at the bigger gyms as they are expensive and can cost over $2,500. They do not require anyone to operate them and are much safer than hand-belaying. Auto-belays are also great because you don’t have to recruit two people to belay you when you are speed climbing. You have to have some very nice friends for them to belay you for hours while you are speed training.
Overall, the training in Quito was awesome! It really helped me get adjusted to the walls in Ecuador. The advice from the Ecuadorian and Chilean coaches allowed me to adjust quickly to the different environment. I would not have done as well at Pan Ams had I not trained in Quito. It touched me that the coaches and climbers from Ecuador and Chile were so helpful even though I was on Team USA and would compete against them in a few days. That’s what’s so great about the sport of climbing. Everyone is family no matter where you go.
