Seven Months Off Leads to V14 Breakout Season
After a seven month sabbatical, Team Canada's Oscar Baudrand returns to climbing with his best season yet
Progression is not linear. While climbers may nod citing their own experience of plateaus and break-through performances, a second narrative remains in opposition. Climbers expect a direct correlation of consistency to progression. Sometimes the body needs a rest. Sometimes, the breakthrough comes from time to recollect.
Meet Oscar Baudrand. While many Canadians are familiar with the local competition circuit, not all of Canada’s strongest athletes reside within our Northern borders. Buadrand, Sean Faulkner, and Allison Vest each have set up shop in omne of the rock-climbing capitals of the United States: Salt Lake City.
For Baudrand, coming to Salt Lake was the result of happenstance and then choice. He and his brother Victor were born in Quebec City. At the age of one, Baudrand and his family moved to Burkina Faso. After another couple years, the Baudrands would move again taking up residence in one of climbing’s favourite destinations: Thailand.
Born to climbing parents, Baudrand and his brother began the sport in Crazy Horse. For such young climbers, this introduction to rock wrangling via genuine rock climbing comes almost as a surprise. The steadily increasing indoor scene has shown larger numbers of plastic-originating climbers. For Baudrand, outdoor rock climbing has always been a part of his climbing experience.
Leaving Thailand, Baudrand found himself in Salt Lake City, Utah. His mother worked in the mining industry. Once more moving, but this time to Senegal, the now highly international under-ten-year-old found his mother wanting a more permanent place of residence. Having fallen for Salt Lake City, the Baudrand’s laid down roots in the western city.
Reflecting on his upbringing, Baudrand recalled his earliest memories in driving up to Crazy Horse every other weekend. Given time, Baudrand found his legs in competition climbing and began working with Momentum Climbing Gym’s Palmer Larsen.
He reflected on that connection. “I have been coached by Palmer Larsen and the Momentum Team for nine years now. I think Palmer knows more about my climbing than I do… He has watched my climbing over the years, the kind of climber I am, and it’s really cool to have him on my side and be coached by him four days a week.”
Larson and Momentum’s expertise would build Baudrand into an elite climber prepped and ready for the open international field. Still, like many climbers, Baudrand found his ambitions momentarily roadblocked by the pandemic. While many climbers scrambled to find a way to train through this period, Baudrand found solace in other adventures.
“In the pandemic, I took a seven-month break from climbing.” With the gyms closed and outdoor climbing somewhat less accessible than he might have preferred, he took the opportunity to hang out with his father. His father still works in the high-travel world of the mining industry and so, when his father landed in Salt Lake to weather out the pandemic, the older and younger Baudrands took the opportunity to bike around the western United States. While climbing often has trouble imagining a life apart from progression, Baudrand thought his break beneficial.
“I was climbing non-stop since I was four so I think it was a much-needed rest. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take a break from climbing because you can make up those gains pretty fast. If you’re talking physically and technically, your technical skills will always remain. We are seeing a lot of Olympians taking a one-month break from climbing after the Olympics. It’s because they need it. They’re burnt out.”
In professional form, Baudrand returned to climbing with a renewed stoke. Earning back his fitness and aptitude, he joined his brother and Faulkner in representing Canada on the Lead World Cup Circuit.
He was stoked. “It was really cool to be able to do the comps I would watch when I was super young.” Ever modest, Baudrand could not believe he was living this aspiration he had held since youth. “I was actually able to do it! Everyone is so humble there. It’s really surprising. Everyone is just having fun in qualies. You don’t feel competitive at all. It was nice to be able to get the experience without any expectations.”
As this was Baudrand’s first year in the Open category, he could only learn more from each competition. Then came Chamonix. After a strong round, Baudrand found himself standing amid the field of semi-finalists. In the past, Team Canada struggled to have athletes make it to this highly competitive round. Where McColl generally offered that consistency, the Olympics adjusted his regular World Cup schedule. In his place, both Oscar and Victor carried on through to the second round.
Baudrand mentioned that he would likely have expectations going into this year. “If anything, I am really excited to hopefully be on the team again this year. I feel like after my long break during the pandemic, I wasn’t able to give everything I had. I wasn‘t able to present my potential at World Cups. Hopefully this year, after some hard training and some motivation, I’ll be able to prove myself. I would like to make it on the World Cup Circuit again and hopefully make a finals in lead next year. That’s a big goal of mine.”
\While Baudrand aims to specialize in lead, the long-time lover of bouldering has found great success in ripping double-digit blocs this summer.
“I have surprised myself quite a bit,” he laughed. After completing his first V13 in September, Baudrand moved on to fire off an incredible day in Wyoming. He completed seven double-digit problems in a single day. On his first day in Rock Shop, he fired off a single 8a in the UFO Roof where there resides several challenging link ups. In the second day, “I had done almost all of the moves in the roof and so I was able to do all of the link ups in that roof.
“I was actually stoked,” he said. “I started out with a send of Bust a Lung V13 and then followed it with Giving Tree Sit and The Smoking Tree. I think I did four double digits in that roof, and then, later on we went to this pretty crimpy boulder that was 8a maybe 8a+, but it was not my style.”
The skin intensive problem eluded Baudrand, but not for lack of trying. Only after three hours on the bloc did Baudrand find himself moving on. Having wrangled Faulkner into staying, the pair watched their crew depart. Baudrand tempted Faulkner with a suggestion that they could hit Zef, a brutal V14 just off the road. After ticking his last three double digits of the day, the pair descended on Zef. On that day, Baudrand did not try it.
“It looked way too hard. Zach Galla was also trying it. He didn’t try it that much the first day but it ended up taking him two sessions. He’s so strong and for him to be struggling on that boulder has gotta mean it’s hard. I had barely done V13 at that point. My first one was a week before, so no way was I going to do V14.
“The next weekend Sean was really stoked so we decided to come back. Palmer tagged along as well, and in the first session, I think I did every move, but was nowhere close to linking it. I maybe put it in two links, but yeah even if you put that boulder into two links, it doesn’t mean you’re close. It’s really weird that way. Somehow I miraculously pulled it out of my ass.”
This ascent makes Baudrand the youngest Canadian to send V14 this year, and while he may consider himself lucky, Baudrand has been on form. He ticked yet another monstrous problem, Show Your Scars V14, and took bronze at the NACS Lead comp in BC. Baudrand is ready for 2022. It will be exciting to see his season.
Featured image by Sean Faulkner
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