Words With University Bouldering Series President

The University Bouldering Series (UBS) is a relatively new comp circuit in Canada aimed at university students.

Max Summerlee is the president and one of the co-founders of the UBS. Climbing for 20 years, he has spent time competing and climbed in the Tour de Bloc (TDB) nationals in 2012.

“I have been working in gyms and setting at comps for a good part of my life and last year I also had the good fortune to run the first ever Youth Bouldering Nationals, hosted by Climber’s Rock in Burlington,” said Summerlee.

He is currently the general manager of Basecamp Climbing, which opens in Toronto this month. The other co-founder is David Albert-Lebrun who now lives in Vancouver and is in charge of heading up the West Coast chapter of the UBS.

Gripped touched base with Summerlee as the UBS prepares their first comp of 2016, which will be a at the Guelph Grotto on Jan. 16.

When did the UBS start?

The UBS was started by the two of us and our mutual friend, Ali Sutherland, back in 2011. The competition was originally pitched to be just for Guelph students, but our scope quickly grew when we gauged the interest in it and before we knew it the first comp had nearly 150 competitors.

How many comps the first year and how has it grown?

We base our comps around the academic school year, so after the first comp it wasn’t until the next fall that started into it again. Since then, we have grown steadily with about six competitions per year. This year will be first season we have expanded out of province.

What is the format like? 

Our format for the regular season competitions, is a standard scramble format competition: three hours, 50 problems, two signatures from competitors. But the UBS isn’t just about individuals, it is about team competition and at the end of every season we have a Team Finals.

The format is unique. The day of finals we run a standard scramble format qualifying round and then when all the competitors have finished, we tally the scores and combine the top three men and the top three women’s scores from each school to produce a final ranking.

After we have done this tally, the top three schools (thee men and thee women from each school) will be taken into our team finals. For that, we set a flight of three men’s problems and a flight of three women’s problems for the athletes to tackle. As the comp starts, all three teams are brought out and put in front of a problem, men and women at the same time.

The teams are given two minutes to look over the problem they are in front together and then it’s time to start. All the competitors who qualified in third place are up first, thee men and thee women, all climbing at the same time. These competitors are given four minutes to attempt the problem in front of them, with the obvious goal of sending the problem in as few attempts as possible. After their four minutes is up, the second place competitors are on the wall, with even less time to attempt the problem, thee minutes and 30 seconds.

And then, we culminate with the firsst place competitors, with only a brief three minutes to try and send their problem. When all competitors have run through the problem, the teams will then rotate to the next problem in the flight (taking another two minutes to look over the problem together) until all three teams have completed all three problems. The idea is that the three climbers work as a team to spot each other and figure out the best beta.

Is it only for university students?

The UBS is for registered university or college students, although in some select location we offer other categories, including Alumni in Ontario and a public category at ClimbBase5.

Do you advertise at universities?

Most of our advertising has been done by word of mouth, although we tend to circulate posters to Ontario gyms and universities that have their own clubs or facilities. Our budget is small so we really depend on our amazing competitors to keep spreading the word.

What university has the most climbers?

This year, it is looking like the University of Western Ontario is bringing out the biggest group of competitors, although traditionally McMaster and Guelph have strong showings.

In March, you will have your first comp out west, how are people taking to it and why Climb Base5?

The interest seems positive so far, but as with anything new there is still that period of anxious anticipation about when registration will take off. The competition isn’t well known on the West Coast so we have been doing our best to make our appearance out west through the connections and relationship we have managed to make through the growth of the series so far.

Luckily, we have a relationship with Kaleb Thomas (who is always up for a comp) and Daniel Poggi, who was very insistent on making the UBS happen. We owe a lot to them for taking a chance with us.

Will climbers from Ontario be travelling west?

We aren’t sure if any climbers will be traveling west for the event at Climb Base5, but you never know. We consistently have climbers coming up from New York to compete in Ontario events, so maybe.

There is the Tour de Bloc and the National Series, how does the UBS fit in to the bigger picture?

The UBS hangs out on the periphery of the comp scene, for the moment. We have been spending the last few years getting on our feet and working out some of the kinks of running competitions (it’s actually a lot of work) so there is no direct correlation between us and the TDB and National Series, although I am happy to announce that many UBS athletes have gone on to compete in the TDB (and vice versa).

Hopefully there is a future that sees the UBS having a place with the other series as part of a comprehensive national system.

What’s the future of the UBS?

We’ve been rolling with the punches and making it up as we go along, but the “plan” has always been to grow this series, to help legitimize climbing as a sport in Canada and most particularly, on the varsity scene. Most provinces, more comps, more climbing.

– The first West Coast event will be held on March 19, for more info on all comps, visit here. Follow the UBS on Instagram here.