I’ve heard you pretty much live at this climbing wall. How old were you when you got into this?

I started climbing, at this same wall at the U of A, eleven years ago. I guess I started when I was eight and have been climbing ever since. It’s become a big part of my life. I’ve been to ten youth national championships, five world championships and a dozen other world cups. I’ve travelled all over the world for competitions or just for climbing outdoors.

You don’t look old enough to have been climbing for eleven years.

My first world championship was when I was fourteen and I was going to national championships at the age of eight.

Some people play soccer at age eight, you climb 100 feet in the air…. Fair enough. What’s the process when you compete in a climbing competition?

At most competitions there are no holds on the wall except the route, and it gets progressively harder as you go. In what’s called “on-site format”, you don’t get to see anyone else climb the route. A big part of it is being able to sequence the route and figure out how you’re going to solve the puzzle on your own.

Have you solved enough of the puzzles to get some solid results?

I’ve won a youth national championship and last year I was second at the Pan-American Championships. My highest finish at the World Champs is 20th.

Very impressive. So is climbing a big sport in Canada?

It’s still a very young sport, but it’s growing exponentially. At the Young World Championships, there were seven hundred competitors from forty countries. In Europe, it’s a totally different world. One competition was in a gym the size of the Butterdome. It cost twenty euros to get in and they had 8,000 people watching. I’ve been to contests in France with indoor style walls setup outside and they’ll have 12,000 people watching a final. It’s a huge spectator sport in Europe and Asia.

Well, in Canada we may not draw 12,000 people to a contest but I bet 12,000 people see this profile!