Thursday, August 28, 2014

2014 Tour de Frank! One Month To Go!

After a great deal of thought and planning, we are psyched to announce the time, format, and location of the 2014 Tour de Frank!  For those who may not be aware, the Tour de Frank is a celebration of Alberta's best bouldering area, the limestone blocks of Frank Slide in the Crowsnest Pass.  It is both a fun day of bouldering in the southern Rockies with your friends, and a way to meet climbers from other areas. It is structured like a competition (complete with a range of categories), but the focus is on fun and the challenges of bouldering!


The Tour de Frank will be held on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.  It follows a format borrowed from the Hueco Rock Rodeo.  Participants will be provided with a score sheet with a list of ~70 hand-picked problems in one area of the Slide, with difficulty ranging from V0- to V8+ (including three unclimbed projects!).  They will then have five hours (from 10:00 - 3:00) to climb as many problems as they wish.  The six hardest problems climbed by each climber will be used to calculate their score for the day.  The focus is on fun, so if you are a novice or a serious boulderer, we'll have problems selected to ensure you have a great time!

We're working to get some of the typical perks associated with an outdoor bouldering event in place; coffee and muffins in the morning, juice and water during the day, and a BBQ after the event is over.  With a little luck we'll have a slackline set up as well.  We are hoping to run a trash pickup event before and during the comp to help keep the area clean. 

Bring your bouldering mat, chalk, coffee cup, friends, and your excitement for bouldering to Frank Slide on Sept. 20!  We will have copies of the new bouldering guide available for people to use, and knowledgeable locals will also be on hand to steer people to the problems.

The autumn is usually quite dry in Southern Alberta, so we're not expecting rain.  If, however, the forecast two days before the event indicates that heavy rain is expected, we will post online that the event is cancelled/postponed.  Cross your fingers that it's not necessary!

More details to come soon!  Mark the day on  your calendar!





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