There was a great turnout for the 2024 Yukon Climbing Championships Bouldering Competition.

The Championships were held Sunday at Porter Creek Secondary School.

Thirty-two youth and 13 adults/junior women competed in the event.

The Star stopped in to catch the adults in action.

Loic Markley had just completed climb 24 in the Championship setup.

“It was very tricky. Small, thin holds, but once you figure out the sequence, it wasn’t too bad.”

Markley said the day was going well.

“It’s been great. A lot of fun. Good to see some old friends and climb on new problems … it’s always fun climbing on new volumes (climbing features) where your hands really stick well to the holds.”

Markley started climbing in Whitehorse about 20 years ago. He now lives in Kelowna.

“It’s fun to see it grow from just a very small club at the old F.H. (Collins) gym to where we are now with the climbing gym.”

Markley said he tries to come back as often as possible.

“Now that there’s a growing climbing community and a lot of passionate people putting it together, it’s been fun.”

He added he’s looking forward to the new climbing facility in Whistlebend, expected to open in the Fall of 2025.

Markley finished first in the adult Adult Rec category with 1263 points.

Ethan Allen finished second to his old friend Markley with 1132 points.

“It’s just fun for me.”

Allen said he was just there to support his two boys, Eiger and Esker.

“They went before me and I saw that my scoresheet was looking pretty good. I probably can’t do it for much longer but I tried hard so that I could put the kids in their place a little bit,” he laughed.

Allen said he was getting back into climbing now that his boys were getting older.

“It’s great. My dad and my sister are climbers.”

Allen said they tried to get the kids into climbing when they were younger, but they weren’t at that stage yet.

“Now they’re into it, so it’s kind of cool to have a family activity that we can all do and enjoy.”

Allen said his old friend Markley got him to come out for the Champs.

“He messaged me on Friday and said, ‘I’m coming into town. You guys doing any climbing?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, there’s a competition on Sunday.’ He was like, ‘I’ll go if you’ll go.’ Otherwise I wouldn’t have.”

Savanna Wang, who’s only been climbing since last April, was also trying out the Championship climbs.

“It’s really difficult. It’s more difficult than last time. It’s fun though.”

The last event was the Climb Yukon bouldering competition in November, 2023.

Wang came in third in the Adult Rec/Junior Women category with 331 points.

Nelly Bouevitch was climbing with Manuel Sidler.

“It’s so fun,” she said. “It’s a mix. Some of the routes are really hard but it’s such a good challenge.”

Regarding climbing, Bouevitch said, “It’s really personal. I like that it’s a social sport and we can really cheer other people on but also you can really see yourself grow.

“Your biggest competitor is yourself. You have an idea of what you can do, and sometimes you really surprise yourself.

“It’s really cool when you figure something out. It looks hard and you say, ‘OK, I’ll just go for it’ and it works, it’s really awesome. You just get a high from it. I love that.”

Bouevitch added, “I think I did good. I surprised myself on a couple routes. I did better than I thought. And then on other routes I struggled but it was all good. It was all fun.”

She finished second in the Adult Rec/Junior Women category with 758 points.

Sidler, who finished sixth with 774 points, said he had fun as well.

“There were some good hard routes that I couldn’t get up, but that was kind of the point.

“I’m more into outdoor, like lead and crag climbing, so bouldering is a challenge for me, but it’s still really cool.

Stephanie Routley took the Adult Rec/Junior Women’s crown with 797 points.

“I think it went well.”

Like Wang, Routley found the routes were harder than in November.

“These were a lot harder, so it was kind of fun.”

Routley said figuring out a strategy was more challenging than the last event.

She added it was great to be able to climb indoors during the winter for something to do.

Gerard Garnier, head coach of Climb Yukon’s youth programs, said the day went “great.

“I think our biggest turnout yet. The kids did super-well, so that was exciting. Every event is just growing.”

Garnier said the youth competition was a qualification event for competitions in B.C. and Alberta in the next couple of months.

“I think that’s what makes climbing so cool. It is competitive, but they’re all cheering for each other at the same time.

“They’re not trying to beat each other; they’re trying to be their best. Very strong camaraderie, but trying to win, to be competitive.”

In the Youth D Girls and Boys, Aiko Wellman-Gagne finished first among the girls with 333 points.

Isaac Rainey took the boys category with 451 points.

In the A/B/C Girls, Aira Yoshimura scored 786 points to finish first.

Asher Johnson captured the A/B/C Boys crown with an impressive 1071 points.

For complete Yukon Champs results, go to https://www.climbyukon.com/yukon-championships.html