Climbers and acroyogis united last weekend in 麻豆社国产to hang out, climb on the rocks and move among each other.聽
In its third year, the Rampage Festival is a place for like-minded people to meet and get involved in the yoga and climbing communities.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a nice community of people trying to do something all together and it鈥檚 pretty relaxed and enjoyable,鈥� said Alexis Vergalla, who came up from Seattle along with 20 of her female friends to get a feel for 麻豆社国产bouldering.聽
The women made their way from problem to problem, testing out the granite and seeing how climbing varies here compared with their home crags.
聽Vergalla is an organizer of She Rocks, a group of female climbers from Washington.聽
鈥淭his is a celebration of climbing outside. We can all get to boulder and talk more than at a roped festival. It seems like a really nice community that鈥檚 pulled together,鈥� she said.聽
Though her foremost passion in climbing is to get out in the alpine, Vergalla appreciated the structure and atmosphere of the Rampage Festival.
聽While it is structured as a competition 鈥� with open, intermediate and advanced categories and winners for each 鈥� the underlying intention is to get people out climbing and to build up the community.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing the amount of prep that went into it as far as marking out trails, and signing up volunteers to show people around,鈥� noted Vergalla.
聽Leading up to the event, there were some concerns raised by the 麻豆社国产Access Society with regard to maintaining a no-trace ethic and overcrowding of the boulders for other climbers. The society set up a table during the day to help address these concerns.
Rampage organizer Jeff Yoo said that they mitigate potential negative impacts of climbers on the forest and greater community by keeping participants informed and by having volunteers act as tour guides to help new climbers learn the etiquette. 聽
聽The event was supported by many other organizations from Vancouver and 麻豆社国产including: Blurr Design, Climb On, Counterpart Coffee, the Hive Bouldering and Arc鈥檛eryx.
When things wound down at the base of the Chief, participants, volunteers and the community at-large headed to Ground Up Climbing Centre for a barbecue, beer and a high-flying dyno competition.聽
Climbers competed to see who could make the biggest, most improbable movements on the plastic holds at the gym.聽
The festivities continued later into the night at Kinsmen Campground where many people camped out.聽
All said and done 167 participants signed up to climb at Rampage, with hundreds more taking acroyoga courses, participating as volunteers and stopping by to check it out. People came from as far off as Portland to participate and enjoy the community.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to see everyone come out and support the community,鈥� said Yoo. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just excited to get people out there climbing.鈥澛�
The Rampage Festival is a volunteer-run event, with proceeds going to Climb and Conquer Society 鈥� a Vancouver-based charity with a mandate to provide climbing to disadvantaged youth.聽
