The last few months have been busy at Eagle Climbing + Fitness.

The gym hosted two American Scholastic Climbing League events and a USA Climbing bouldering competition in November and December. Members of gym owner Larry Moore’s Junior Elite and Elite Talon squads have been traversing the state and even venturing into New Mexico to compete on both circuits.

“We’ve had some great success,” Moore said. “We’ve had a lot of athletes that are qualified for regional championships next month.”

Fifteen athletes punched their tickets for the USA Climbing bouldering regional on Jan. 11 in Colorado Springs. The top-13 finishers at the Region 41 event advance to the Divisional 4 championship (one of nine in the country) in Oklahoma City on Feb. 8-9, where they’ll battle for spots at the USA Climbing national event.

Most of Moore’s climbers couple their USA Climbing competitions alongside the ASCL calendar, which culminates in a region and state championship in February. The ASCL replaced the Colorado High School Climbing League in 2018 and requires participating schools to have have three athletes to qualify for a team score.

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One day after hosting the Nov. 2 USA Climbing competition, Moore and his route-setters recycled the wall for an ASCL Western Slope regular season meet. Eagle Valley won the team competition over Colorado Rocky Mountain School — last year’s state runner-ups — and North Fork as Brynn Lindal, Iris Sheldon and MaryBeth Friery placed first, second and fourth, respectively. The Devils middle school program swept the podium, with Lakelynn Wahouske, Ada Cole and Chloe Cavanaugh going 1-2-3.

“We’ve got a lot of depth, particularly with the girls,” Moore said. “(They’re) training and working hard and taking it very seriously and seeing great results.”

In addition to winning both home ASCL meets, Wahouske placed third at the USA Climbing event at the Gravity Lab in Durango on Nov. 16 and was fifth in the U15 category the next weekend in Santa Fe.

“She’s just really having a great year,” Moore said of Wahouske, who has been on the gym’s Junior Talon Elite team since its inception. “She’s working super hard. … This is probably her best season yet.”

Moore has hopped back into a coaching role with the junior team, which mimics the elite group in its intensity and focus, practicing three times a week for 2 1/2 hours.

“I think that’s been a big part of why we’re seeing so much success with those kids,” Moore explained. “They’re now practicing more, for longer, taking it seriously and really being disciplined.” 

Cavanaugh and Cole, along with sixth-grader Siena Katzenberger, have also posted impressive USA Climbing results. Katzenberger took the win in Durango, where Cole was fourth. In Santa Fe, Cole hopped on the podium in third. Meanwhile, Cavanaugh punched her regional ticket by placing seventh in Durango.

“The kids that are up and coming are really strong and taking the competitions — both ASCL and USA Climbing — really seriously,” Moore continued. “It’s been a pretty good season for those younger athletes.”

Katzenberger has been pining to put up varsity points since she arrived from Carbondale after her home gym, the MonkeyHouse, closed last year. As a 10-year-old, she scored 7,236 points in the first ASCL meet, which would have placed her seventh in the varsity event.

The boys have been strong as well, with Waylon Larson taking the middle school titles at both home competitions. Larson barely missed qualifying for a USA Climbing nationals competition last summer, placing ninth overall in the male youth C category at the USA Climbing Lead/top rope divisional championships. In an effort to be more standardized internationally, USA Climbing restructured the age categories this year to U20, U19, U17, U15 and U13 distinctions.

On the high school front, Dylan Hewitt was sixth as the lone Eagle Valley varsity boy at the Nov. 3 competition. Brynn Lindal took the girls title and repeated the feat on Dec. 7.

“She’s working so hard, not just climbing — but she’s in the weight room — she’s at that age where she has a lot of discipline and focus,” Moore said of Lindal, who was the top-placer at the 2024 ASCL state competition, finishing 19th. “She comes into the gym and trains on her own pretty consistently.”

Moore thinks Lindal has podium potential at the ASCL regional in Grand Junction on Feb. 1 and could vie for a top-10 finish at the state meet on Feb. 22 at Gripstone Climbing and Fitness in Colorado Springs. Her teammates, Iris Sheldon — who was second at the ASCL opener and placed 14th out of 62 girls at the 2023 state competition — and MaryBeth Friery make Eagle Valley a contender on the girls team side, too.

‘Stronger and smarter’ heading into USA Climbing post-season

In 2023, Moore sent three athletes to the USA Climbing bouldering divisional. Last year, four of his 17 regional qualifiers advanced to divisionals: Lindal, Friery, Waylon Larson and Finnegan McCurdy. In preparing for this regional, Moore and elite team coach David Roetzel are stressing the importance of being stronger and smarter.

“Climbing is so mental. It comes down to how you respond in the moment,” Moore said. “You can be strong enough, but if you’re in your head too much and not focused on what you need to do to accomplish the goals, sometimes that young, developing mind can get in the way.”

“We’ve really been focused on creating a stronger mental landscape for the kids to work in and develop their skills (and) build their confidence,” he continued. “And really work on what it is they need to be a successful, competitive athlete.”