Erickson climbs to world competition

CRAIG PARRISH

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It takes a moment to digest the fact that Kayla Erickson can climb a 40-plus-foot wall in about 17 seconds, while competing against other climbers who have equal ability.

The 18-year-old Erickson, a climbing coach at Whatcom Family YMCA, placed fifth in the Female Junior group for 18- and 19-year-olds at the U.S. International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) tournament last month in Sunnyvale, Calif. That performance earned Erickson a spot on the U.S. team that will participate in the IFSC Youth World Championship Aug. 28-31 in Sydney, Australia. She will leave on Aug. 23.

The squad will take about 30 climbers ranging in age from 15 to 19, said Erickson, who spent the past two years at Whatcom Community College and will attend Montana State University in the fall to study chemical engineering.

Climbing competition is divided into two categories, Erickson said - speed and difficulty, which is "how challenging a route can you follow, and how far can you get on it." She's competed in both disciplines, while taking the lead in getting competitive climbing up and running locally.

"This past year, I have designed and coached the first competitive climbing team in Bellingham," Erickson said. "It's for ages 9 to 19, and essentially, they come to the 'Y' twice a week to train on a team, and they're required to come once by themselves, also.

"It's designed to physically and mentally prepare them for competitions, which are held every other Saturday, usually in Seattle or Portland."

Climbers work primarily on the YMCA climbing wall and combine core-strength training, Erickson said.

The sport is a fairly recent phenomenon, but it's not likely to stay that way.

"It has been going on for a while, but it's relatively new as far as sports go," Erickson said. "I've been climbing for six years come this September, and even in the past six years, it's exploded. It's become way more organized and more and more efficient."

In the California tournament, Erickson said she went through three levels of competition: preliminaries, semifinals and the final. Results for the meet were based on scores from the final only, but for U.S. team qualifications, times from each round were added together.

After qualifying for the U.S. team, Erickson admits she didn't have the mind-set to celebrate right away.

"I really struggled in the semifinals, so I ended up placing fifth. But that was good enough to get me on the team, and that was my goal," Erickson said. "It was the most stressful competition in my life. I was just relieved to be finished; the happiness came later."

Erickson qualified for the U.S. speed team, but not for the difficulty team. The wall she climbed was about 42 feet, which she completed in 17.07 or 17.08 seconds (about 21/2 feet per second).

"They were actually pretty slow climbs for everyone," Erickson said.

To travel halfway around the world and take on the world's best is a culmination of the work put in by Erickson, who said she couldn't have accomplished so much without the help of her father and her coaches, Sydney McNair and Tyson Schoene of Vertical World in Everett. She also credits Robert Noles, her first climbing instructor at the YMCA.

"The primary reason I'm going is because my coach has been extraordinarily patient with me wanting to pursue speed climbing," Erickson said of McNair. "She's come up with time in her schedule to help me train - for nationals and now for worlds - and endless coaching and training strategies to help me succeed."

Craig Parrish can be reached at craig.parrish@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2279.