Page 10 - Aug_2014

Serena

Rocks It!

11-year-old picks her route to

the top of competitive climbing

Story by Evan Johnson

Photos by Mike Ketcham

HARTLAND, VT. — Serena Ketcham tilts her head back and looks toward (she’s just returned from a trip visiting her grandparents in the Midwest and has

the top of a punishing 5.13, tilting at a steep angle as it soars to the ceiling.
been resting). But she shakes the lactic acid out of her small arms and hands,
With her feet firmly planted on the floor, Ketcham scans the pink tape indi- repositions herself and gives the move a final, intense attack. This time, the
cating the route and moves her small hands in pantomime from one small crimp move is clean and from the floor 50 feet under her, looks effortless. The handful
to the next.
of other climbers in the gym hoot and holler in encouragement as the youngest
“The planning is important,” she says. “You look at the holds and figure out climber in the room slams a crushing grip on the finishing holds.

how they work together.”
She zips back down the floor with her smile wide in a toothy and tired grin
and rests on a crash pad. The rest look on, impressed; no
Ketcham positions herself on the starting holds and be-
one wants to try to match her. gins to climb. With her father Mike on belay, she practically
Minutes later, Ketcham sips a Gatorade and discusses her
dances her way through the first moves. On this route, Ket-

passion for climbing. School starts in just a few days and cham has broken the route down into three portions that
while she’s looking forward to classes again, she’s even more she’s been practicing individually for the past weeks. Today,
excited for the coming climbing season.
she wants to complete all three in sequence before the wall
Ketcham lives and goes to school in Hanover, N.H., but is stripped and a new route is put up.

climbs on both sides of the border at the gym in Hartland, The first pitch is moderate but manageable, requiring
Vt. and at another in Concord, N.H. She also competes on some technical foot placement and an offset gaston move
two teams; one at the Green Mountain Rock Climbing Club with her elbow out and her thumb pointed down, but the
gym, and, even though she’s going into sixth grade this fall, real crux of the route is at the end of the second pitch. With
another at a middle school level.
a left foot positioned on a wafer-thin piece of plastic, she

She is 66 pounds and four feet, six inches tall, but the extends her right above her hip, hooking her heel on the
team’s youngest climber is quickly establishing herself end of a two-foot long rail. Then she tries to pull herself up.
among the best.
Her foot slips on the first two attempts and for a moment,
After joining her school’s team, Ketcham was tapped by
it looks like this one might have to wait until next time
Serena at her home gym in Hartland, VT.

8 VTSPORTS.COM
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014