All fun and games at the Humboldt Rumble
Caption: Kids beginning their climb. Photo by Demarco Trammell
The appreciation of rock climbing brings Humboldt Park residents together for the Humboldt Rumble.
First Ascent Climbing and Fitness, located at 2950 W. Grand Ave., hosted their third annual “Humboldt Rumble” bouldering competition this past Saturday. Bouldering is a form of rock climbing performed on an artificial rock formations without the use of ropes or harnesses. Children and teens of all ability levels; intermediate, beginner, and expert competed for great prizes, and there was coffee and bagels for competitors and their families. In this competition, the objective was to see how many times the climber could make it to the top, it was the parents’ job to keep score. The children were placed into two groups, one group consisted of younger kids and the other group consisted of teens.
Grant Drutchas said his favorite moment of the day was watching his son, Hudson, be happy and persevere over challenges.
“Just seeing the joy he has over improving time after time as he does, it’s really cool,” he said. “It's fun just to watch them have the sticktoitiveness, you know that it's a it's a neat experience,”
Dustin Ayers echoed a similar sentiment about his daughter, Sasha. “She keeps falling and falling and keeps working at this one problem, and then finds a way to get past, it’s the most gratifying thing to see,” he said.
At the end of the day, prizes were provided by event sponsor, Moosejaw, an online retailer that specializes in outdoor recreation apparel and equipment for snowboarding, rock climbing, hiking and climbing. Moosejaw has been sponsoring events at First Ascent for the past two years and has operated within Chicago for the past four years.
For first prize, the winner received a hangboard, a chalk bag and a Moosejaw t-shirt. The second place winner received a rock swing set, a chalk bag, and a Moosejaw t-shirt.
According to First Ascent youth instructor Grace Dipenbrock, she loves the sport of rock climbing because of how it keeps the mind engaged and the community it builds.
“It's a really fun and challenging sport as far as mental stimulation and it's a really great workout and it challenges your mind and your body at the same time, and it's just a really fun community of people,” she said.
Gym manager Jesse Slobodin expressed how this event brought back great memories for him. “ I mean it’s great for me because I’m going to age myself, 20 years ago that was me out there you know, stressing about which climbs I was going to get on and how I was going to do and now it’s fun to see from the other side.”