The student run Milton Outdoor Club (MOC) in conjunction with the Milton Academy Outdoor Program hosted the 5th annual MOC indoor climbing competition on Sunday February 23. This year’s event was the largest yet in terms of competitors, with students from Milton, Nobles, GDA, Loomis Chaffee, Exeter and Tilton.
The event allows students to do a lot of climbing in a fun environment. During the two- hour morning round, climbers ascended as many marked routes as possible. Each route carried a score; climbers with the highest scores after round one were put into a finals round in the afternoon.
This year’s competition had three categories with five to six students in each of the categories. The beginner and intermediate routes featured a long traverse and then ascent of the center section of the east wall while the advanced climbers traversed and ascended the overhanging west wall. During the finals round, all the climbers are put into “isolation” so they cannot watch the previous climber. Each climber ascends the marked route; the highest climber wins!
This year the top three place winners in each category took home prizes. The prizes were all donated to the Milton Outdoor Club by various sponsors including the AMC, The Boston Rock Gym, Sterling Ropes, Nicros, The American Alpine Club, and Bob Smith’s Wilderness House. The student leaders of the Outdoor Club solicited sponsorship by writing letters and calling each prospective sponsor company.
In the beginner category Chris Dwight of Nobles took third, Carl Noblitt from GDA took second and Hannah Sylvester from GDA took first place. In the intermediate category Mike from Loomis took third, Colin Flaherty (Class III) of Milton took second, and Russel from GDA took first place. The advanced category was swept by Milton climbers. Liz Cummings (Class III)—after only one winter of climbing—and Alex Seitz (Class II) tied for third and Dermott McHugh (Class III) finished an extremely close second to the first place winner, Tom Myers (Class II).
After the awarding of prizes, the rest of the sponsor donations were raffled. Every climber went home with something from one of the sponsors in addition to the event T-shirt. Everyone was a winner.
