North America Semifinals

North American Climbing Championships in Montreal.
Here are the partial results after the semi-finals. There were 10 climbers in the semis but 8 made it to the finals.

Men open
1. Sean McColl
2. Zeb Enberg
3. John Bowles
3. Peter Grill
3. Mauricio Huerta
6. Bret Johnson
7. Brock Tilling
8. Benoit Dubois

Women Open
1. Paige Claassen
1. Emily Harrington
1. Tiffany Hensley
4. Melissa Lacasse
5. Erin For
6. Victoria Cartwright
7. Mykael Ann
8. Melanie Mercier

Those are all open climbers that will be climbing Sunday, you can watch the live feed on www.drtopo.com.
The competition so far has been running smoothly and is a success. The men semi was hard right from the start. Many junior men and open men fell right from the start. Then the men that could negotiate the tricky face afterward were stopped by a sick match on a stalactite. The crowd went wild each time the men cut loose as they tried to match. The 2 or 3 that succeeded fell just after, trying to pull the lip. Then came Sean McColl, who looked so solid he should get renamed Sean McCool. He even managed to chalk and rest on the crux sloper thanks to a clever bicycle on the stalactite.

The women pool seems tighter than the men. Emily Harrington, the favorite to win the comp, struggled a bit on the semi-final but managed to clip the chains. Two other women send the semi as well, 18 year old Paige Claassen and 17 year old Tiffany Hensley. It seems like these two could have had it easy in their age group. But prop to them, they decided to compete in the open field, giving a serious challenge to Emily.

As far as the young kids go... Well, they are much stronger than expected and most of them on-sighted the semi-final and the route setter will have some tweaking to do tonight...

Will see you Sunday, either in Montreal or in front of your computer.

Alex Gerrits
DrTopo.com