This weekend, Grip It Climbing Gym will play host to the Tour De Bloc in a doubled billed event for both Climbing Escalade Canada and the Alberta Climbing Association. This time around, Squamish Climbing Magazine thought it best to check in with a local climber who will be competing in the event. Lucas Colleaux is a 20 year old climber from Saskatoon, SK. He has competed in a number of indoor climbing competitions across western Canada and the US. He is your darkhorse for this weekend’s Tour De Bloc.
Squamish Summers (Lucas on the left). Photo by Nikita Taylor ©
Hey Lucas, how is it going?
Hey Tim I’m doing very well! Always busy living the dream!
This weekend, the Tour De Bloc will be hosted in your hometown. How do you feel going into the weekend?
I’m definitely excited for this weekends competition and, at this point, I’m just trying to keep a level and steady head. I absolutely love competitions because the problems only exist for a few moments and you only have one chance to feel those moves before they’re taken down and rearranged for the next competition. It forces you to focus on the moment because you might not get a second chance to try again unlike outdoor climbing where the rocks in some instances haven’t been moved or altered for millions of years. That being said, I don’t prefer one over the other!
Competitions in Saskatoon are incredible! They do an amazing job of bringing everyone together as a community, and I think this is the first time where we’ve had outside professional route setters come in build some madness for people to play on.
Saskatoon has developed a number of strong climbers over the years. What is it about the city of bridges that keeps you going?
I think the reason Saskatoon has created some rock monsters is because of our location and climate. When its -40 outside there’s not much else to do except head to the gym, pull down on some plastic and dream about the summer days on rock. For myself as a student, there isn’t much id rather do than to go into the gym see some smiling faces and have a good time. It definitely beats doing homework or not doing anything at all like watching TV. In all honesty, it is the local legends that inspire me to improve and push my limits while ignoring limitations such as location.
Competition climbing. Photo by Nate Lo ©
Which local legend stand out in your mind?
The first one is obviously Jason Holowach. In 2012 he got off the injury couch and walked effortlessly into a first place at a Calgary Tour de Bloc and blew everyone’s minds and ever since he has been dominating the competition scene. It’s a privilege to be able to watch him climb through V10s so effortlessly and even flash a few despite limited outdoor bouldering experience.
The second local hero and true legend is definitely Nels Rosaasen. He doesn’t need much explaining! I strongly recommend googling his name. He created the NKR1 which is my all time favorite hold and crushed PCAs back in the early 2000s. I was much too young at the time to have been able to see any of these things for my self, but every now and then, about once a year he shows up at the gym (arriving from the farm) and will levitate all of our hardest projects. Every now and then you hear whispers of some madness that he threw down back in the day, like beating Chris Sharma in competition.
The Third local legend is Justin Stirrett or better known as Whipper J. The name kind of speaks for itself. He is an all around crusher climbing multiple 5.14s crushing in old school comps with the other 2 legends and doing some insane alpine climbs. I love listening to all of his stories. The 3 of these guys bring a lot of heart and spirit to the climbing community and have all helped to put Saskatoon on the climbing map!
Is there anything that you have done this year that is different than other years when training for the Bloc?
This year for training was definitely unique as I cut my finger while trying to eat an avocado out in Squamish after a long day of climbing. Its definitely one of my more embarrassing stories so I won’t focus on that too much. The first half of the season was just about healing my finger and then pushing everything I had into late night training sessions after long and busy days of school. This year I’ve tried to focus on being more systematic with training and writing everything down into a training log, as its a great way to track improvements and force goal realization.
Small holds. Photo by Tony Truong ©
Any special moments in Squamish this summer (besides cutting your finger)?
Squamish was incredible in every way. My strongest day there was my first one. We headed into the forest and climbed every V4-V5 we could find and I had success on everything I tried! later that evening (around 11pm) we headed to the fuzz and I managed to send it in under 20 minutes! I was definitely stoked but trashed my skin and never fully recover for the rest of the long trip. It taught me a lot about patience and taking the time to accomplish harder sends rather than attacking everything with full force right out of the gate. That being said I kind of blew it as far as projects go, but i can’t wait to bring this new knowledge into my next rock trip and into this weekends competition. I think the most life changing moment in Squamish was lying on the roof of my van and staring at the chief underneath the stars. It made me realize how much I loved the process of growing as a climber and got me stoked on the hard days of training because I know that someday soon I will be back in Squamish playing on hard boulders!
A number of different competition formats have been implemented this year, what are your thoughts on format, isolation, and the comp scene in Canada?
The comp scene is definitely inconsistent, and that’s something that I would like to see improve. It seems that every year there are different rules with features (volumes), starting holds, jump starts and overall formats. However I absolutely love the comps we have in Canada, especially the Tour de Blocs. Having a circuit that travels from climbing gym to climbing gym is such an amazing idea and could definitely standardize the way we do competitions. Overall I think Canada is still young in competitive climbing especially after watching the ABS american national bouldering Series as they had amazing camera work, incredible publicity and amazing route setting. As for competition format I like both onsight and scramble formats equally and really want to be making finals more consistently.
You train at Grip It. What’s cool about the community there?
Our community at Grip It is pretty incredible to the point where its definitely become a second home. Everyone is super friendly and having someone like Jay run the show is incredible. He gets things done and is always looking for ways to make it bigger and better, so that alone is inspiring enough to want to be a part of the growing community. Among the Grip It crew are some amazing climbers that are always motivated and that’s plenty to keep the energy levels high to push the training even in the middle of winter.
Photo by Nate Lo ©
Favourite training activity?
My favorite training activity is definitely anything power. I absolutely love Dynos, campus boards and hangboards and I love seeing the improvement that comes from these activities. I definitely need to focus on flexibility this year, but I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.
Being pretty far away from outdoor options, what do you do stay psyched?
Although we are far from outdoor destinations there’s always a way to get to the mountains. Being far away from them is special because every time I return I realize how appreciative I am for them and it allows me to never take for granted the time that I have there. As weird as it is i get psyched on the challange and the effort it takes to get outside and sometimes that means jam packed weekend trips or the van lifestyle alternative. 🙂
After the comp, what’s next? What’s on the agenda?
After the comp I will be training and planing out my next outdoor adventure. I have been throwing around the idea of Iceland, but at the very least I would like to spend more time in Canmore and project some overhangs at Acephale. If this weekend goes well it is my dream to go to nationals and one day world cup. I will probably start focus some time on studying and doing well on final exams, but after that its open season!
Thanks Lucas! Great to hear from a local Saskatoon climber. Stay tuned to Squamish Climbing Magazine for results Saturday!
For a full run down of the event, please check out the Tour De Bloc website.
Photo by Kristofor Ohnander ©
