Climbing for a Cause
February 23, 2009 • By Scott Einsmann, Contributing Writer
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UREC’s Reach Out Climb has record attendance in support of former JMU student
HARRISONBURG, Va. — On Saturday climbers of all ages converged to the UREC atrium for the 11th annual Reach Out Climb hosted by UREC and Wilderness Voyagers.
The competition was organized by Rachael Finley, the graduate assistant for Outdoor Adventure, and the UREC Adventure staff.
All the proceeds from Reach Out Climb go directly to the Jared Neville Foundation. Jared Neville, a former JMU student and a passionate climber, was killed in a car accident in the spring of 2002. His parents established the Jared Neville Foundation to preserve and protect local climbing areas. About $2,000 was raised for the foundation on Saturday. All of the prizes and food were donated to Reach Out Climb by local vendors.
This was the largest Reach Out Climb ever with 94 participants, which is 10 more than last year. The participants ranged in age from 8 to more than 35 years old. Six schools were represented: Virginia Tech, Towson, UVA, William & Mary, Radford and JMU.
The competition was split into different heats for each of the different divisions: under 16 years old, novice, intermediate, advanced and the masters (35+), which was a new division for this year.
Each participant had a scorecard and received points based on the difficulty of the route and how high they made it up the wall, with the maximum number of points given for making it to the top without falling. Routes are specific holds that must be used to ascend the wall. The holds are marked with colored tape and each color represents a different route.
For tie breaks, climbers went head to head on the hardest routes. The climber who made it the farthest up or reached the top in the fastest time won the tie break.
Climbers cheered each other on and coached one another up the wall. This made for a friendly atmosphere.
“You see a lot of support and camaraderie among everybody,” said Aaron Childs, a UREC employee.
All 18 people who worked the event were volunteers including UREC employees.
The winner of the advanced division was Matt Behrens, a 16-year climbing veteran from Charlottesville.
Behrens received a perfect score by climbing all the advanced routes in one try without falling, which is known as a flash. Behrens was also the only person to complete the eliminator route, the most difficult route in the competition. Behrens knew Neville
“The work that they do is excellent” Behrens said about the foundation. “Any time you can get climbers together working towards bettering climbing it’s a win-win situation.”
Contact Scott Einsmann at einsmasp@jmu.edu
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