Friday night’s events literally lept to a start as climbers lined up for a “dyno” climbing competition. Only the strongest athletes made the final round of the contest as entrants were faced with climbing problems whose holds were spread so far apart that climbers were forced to dynamically lunge between them, many times going four points off mid-jump.

For the finals the top three male and female climbers battled it out on the steepest section of the overhanging wall. Siemay Lee of Minden, Nev. and Anya Miller of Tahoe City, Calif. both climbed to the same height in the women’s finals but Lee took the win based on points from previous rounds. Marissa Linback of Reno, Nev. took third for the women.

The men’s finalists faced off on an uber-steep route that was supposed to demand several dynamic moves but winner Noah Kaufman of Minden, Nev. managed to complete the route statically (no jumping moves). Second place finisher Mike Lew of Reno, Nev and third place contestant Jay Lynn of Tahoe City, Calif. had to take to the air however. Both runner-up climbers threw several dynos and but couldn’t hang on to the top.

With the winners awarded all eyes turned to the slideshow screen as John Bachar presented an engaging and humourous account of his journey toward becoming one of the world’s most accomplished free-soloists (climbers who don’t use ropes).
“Free soloing is not about just getting away with something,” said Bachar as he showed slides of himself thousands of feet off the ground without ropes. “It’s about style and control - dominating the climbs you solo.”

After a full house Friday night, High Altitude Fitness packed the party once again on Saturday serving beer and wine, as well as plates of fresh fruit and sushi to those who came out to see the evening’s main entertainment - a presentation by legendary free climber Lynn Hill.

Using bold images and personal anecdotes Hill led the enraptured crowd through her life story as a standard-setting athelete. From her invincible teenage years in the 1970’s learning the ropes on the granite walls of Yosemite and Joshua Tree through her history-making first free ascent of “The Nose”, a difficult route on the steep prow of Yosemite’s El Capitan, Hill highlighted how her flexibility, strength, and dedication helped her “find solutions” that not only cast her deeply in love with the sport of rock climbing, but turned heads in the climbing scene as she pushed the sport and herself to ground breaking new heights. Wrapping up her presentation Hill touched on the project she is currently working on, an instructional video called “Climbing: Elements of Technique,” which is due out next year.

Despite all the eye-catching entertainment throughout the weekend, the reason for the celebration was not lost on the party people either. Both nights saw dozens of climbers scampering up the brightly colored holds on the shiny new walls, some attempting one of the 30 some routes that require ropes, others trying their hand at one of the nearly 40 challenging “boulder” problems that keep climbers low enough to the ground to not need ropes.

If you missed out on the weekend’s festivities but are still clamouring to climb at the new gym don’t despair. The climbing wall is open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends with drop-in day passes available for $16. Season passes are also available but rates vary. See www.highaltitudefit.net or call 775-831-4212 for further information.