The Ascend climbing gym held its second annual boulder competition, the Boulder Brawl, on April 5. The event, located in the Fieldstone apartment building, brought in beginner to advanced climbers all wanting to test their skills.

The Boulder Brawl has become a highlight of the semester for the growing climbing community.

“When you think of competition, you think of comparing yourself to other people,” Julia Talbot, the department assistant at Ascend, said. “You think ‘oh no, what if I’m not good enough.’ This is something that we want all abilities to feel challenged here. I think with UMass Ascend gym, it is the UMass community, so we kind of get to level it down a lot.”

The climbers have three hours and an unlimited number of attempts to complete as many routes as they can. A route is a path or climb that a climber follows. The climbs were numbered between one and 42, one being the easiest and increasing in difficulty as the numbers increase.

Each climber was given a scorecard to keep track of their points. A tally scored the points: one point if you finished the climb in one try, two points for two tries, three points for three tries and so on. The lower the number of attempts, the lower the score, and the lower the score, the better.

People cheered on peers as participants attempted get their best score on challenging climbs.

“I’ve always felt that Ascend is one of the best beginner-friendly climbing gyms you could ever find,” Sean Kelly, a junior sports management and economics double major, said. “It was my first gym. I’m very new to climbing. I started back in October, so having a comfort spot like this and offering a competition, I knew I wanted to compete.”

The competition has made a positive impact on the community. Climbing competitions can be intimidating as individuals must compete against themselves and typically remain on a section of the 14-foot wall by themselves as people watch. Some competitions are made to be more challenging and competitive, which can be discouraging to newer climbers.

Another deterrent for some competitors is the sport having a greater male population compared to females. Despite being in a male-dominated competition, Abbie Lowry, a junior biology and public health major, felt that the community was very welcoming.

“I do think a lot of the time I am sometimes the only girl, but honestly, the guys I climb with are so nice,” Lowry said. “I’ve tried to get a lot of my friends who are girls to join, so I feel like that’s also helped increase the ratio.”

The Ascend gym is free for any undergraduate student with a UCard, according to the RecWell site. All climbers are required to complete a climbing orientation, regardless of their climbing experience.

Sam LoConte can be reached at [email protected].