2016 Tour De Frank Bouldering Festival This Weekend

By | September 15, 2016

A little information from Trent Hoover regarding the 2016 Tour De Frank Bouldering Festival for this weekend.

This Saturday, September 17, 2016! A chance to get out to Alberta’s greatest bouldering area for a day of climbing with friends new and old! Special thanks to Trent Hoover and all those people who have dedicated time to organizing this event!

Location

This year’s Tour de Frank will take place in the House, Frictionary, Commodore, and Heart of Frank Sectors at the western edge of Frank Slide. To get to the area (if approaching the Slide from the east, i.e. from Calgary or Lethbridge) drive westward across the Slide, parking in the large parking lot on the SOUTH side of the highway. If you drive past the parking area, you’ll soon be in Frank (houses and a gas station), which will provide you with ample opportunity to turn around and drive back to the designated parking lot.

Parking

Park your vehicle in the large parking lot on the south side of the highway. Angle park if possible to maximise the number of vehicles that can fit in the lot. After unloading your vehicle, CAREFULLY cross the highway to the marked trail head. A very short walk down this trail will lead you the House Boulder (the HUGE boulder visible through the trees) where we will have a Staging Area set up.

Come and find us!

There will be a table set up at the Staging Area starting at 10:00. The Staging Area will be beside the huge House Boulder, which will be very evident as you head into the area. We should have free coffee and muffins for everyone, so feel free to stop by and fill out a registration slip / draw prize ticket. If you arrive a bit early and want to pitch in, we’ll have a few trail-building and trash cleanup events to keep you busy. When you sign in, you’ll get a score sheet with the list of problems on it, with climbs that range from “easy beginner” to “as hard as you can handle!” We’ll have free guides available to help you find the problems listed. We’ll start event orientation at 10:45, and the event will kick off at 11:00! You’ll have six hours to climb as many problems as you like! A horn will go off at 4:45 warning you that you have 15 minutes left to send your last problem and get ready to head back to the Staging Area, and a long blast of the horn will go off at 5:00 to end the event. Bring your sheets back to the Staging Area, hang out with your friends, and we’ll get the draw for prizes started shortly thereafter, followed by an announcement of the winners of each category!

Have Fun!

The emphasis of the Tour de Frank is on having fun climbing with your friends! Fun means different things to different people, though, so we have problems of all grades ready to challenge you! There will be ten categories for the event, so when you register, choose one: Youth (male/female, 11 and under), Junior (male/female, 12-17), Beginner (male/female), Experienced (male/female), and Open (male/female). If you simply want to show up and learn about bouldering at the Slide, and not compete, that’s fine! Register at the Table regardless to eligible for a great draw prize!

Need Help?

There will be volunteer guides to help you find problems you will enjoy; simply look for the people in red shirts! We’ll also be running a brief Introduction to Bouldering Outside Clinic for those who are interested in learning the basics of outdoor bouldering at The Slide, including how to choose a problem to try, how to arrange mats in the safest way, and how to spot another climber safely. If you want to participate in the clinic, simply sign up at the table when you arrive. If you don’t have a bouldering mat, don’t worry; we will have a handful of extra bouldering mats you can sign out.

See you there! Check out the Facebook event page for more details, and the Southern Alberta/Rockies Bouldering page on Facebook for photos of the Slide, and http://theclimbinglife.blogspot.ca/ for lots of information about bouldering at the Slide.