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This week we finally had tryouts. They were done in the form of a red point style comp which is one of many types of competition formats. In this specific format of competition the climber is given a sheet that they will use to record the climbs that they completed throughout the allotted time. When the time is up the competitors turn in their sheets to the judges and their top climbs, usually top four or five, are scored based on difficulty and number of attempts. In this specific case we were given an hour and a half to complete the four most difficult climbs we could in the gym. Normally all climbs would be given a number to signify how many points it would be worth, but since this was a public gym that was not an option. Instead every color of difficulty was given a point value. This scale from lowest to highest goes: green, orange, yellow, blue, pink, then white. Also since the people who climbed at the gym often had an advantage since the routes had not changed from the weeks before at least one climb was required to be from the new set of five routes. On my card I was able to finish three pinks and one blue each only taking one attempt. However this was only because I climb at this gym often with my friends and the team

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After the competition I felt like a baby waiting for my invisible family to return and say “Peek a boo.” Only in this case I was waiting for an email or just some sort of confirmation that said “congratulations you are a Penn State funded climber.” It wasn’t an easy waiting process, but eventually when cleaning up the stadium Sunday morning in the pouring rain confirmation did come. I had been told that I officially earned my spot on the true Penn State Climbing Team. While this did only lead to more questions with few answers, I was able to find some answers that never had questions. I had been told things like when we would be practicing, how much freedom I would have to incorporate my own training (which was not a lot) and how many times I would expected to clean the stadium. Luckily this number was only two and I learned that after my second time cleaning it. The questions that I wanted answered mostly were how much funding does the word “funding” entail for a new team like this? Am I going to have to find transport to all the competitions or will it be provided? Then the question that seems unimportant, but I really wanted to know the answer to. Would we be getting Penn State Athlete Bags? That is probably the least important question I could be asking, but it was still glued to my mind. The thought of being a Penn State athlete even just for a club seems pretty cool, so I will be holding onto that title in my own mind.