I get the feeling more and more that Salt Lake City is the center of climbing for the entire country. This is so awesome. The other day I was chatting with a buddy at Momentum right before getting on some routes and noticed someone familiar out of the corner of my eye. Is that?! No, it can’t be. Wait, yeah, that’s Dave Graham! For those of you unfamiliar with the climbing world, Dave is one of the most famous American climbers in the world, with ticks of both 5.15a and V15. In short, he’s mutantly strong, inarguably one of the best climbers in the world. The best part: he’s as skinny as I am. Gives me hope!

Yesterday I went back down to the gym to do a bit of bouldering before checking out the Comp that was going to go down at 5. It was pretty cool, especially cuz all these world-class climbers were messing around in my home gym! Chris Sharma, Graham, and Joe Kinder all made appearances with Sharma coming out on top with a dramatic finish. He doesn’t even compete that much anymore but seems to like Salt Lake quite a bit, with a previous win at the bouldering competition in August. I wish I had taken some pictures but I forgot the camera for my battery. Err, that sounds kinda creepy but you know what I mean.

So the comp was cool, not as cool as the Ouray Ice Fest but still pretty rad. You can’t really compare the locales, Ouray is stunningly beautiful while Momentum is, well, a gym. It’s a pretty good looking (and hugely comprehensive) gym, but, well, y’know.

If nothing else it got me even more psyched to keep cranking away at the gym to get stronger and stronger. I’ve been working out on my roommate’s hangboard we installed in the stairwell and have already noticed a benefit from it. Can’t wait to get back on the rock this spring!

edit: Today this feeling was reaffirmed when I ran into a group of about six pros climbing at Momentum, including Graham and Alex Puccio…