Tryouts for students wanting to join the climbing team started last week on February 2nd for Cohort A and ended February 11th for Cohort B, students are excited to start a new season and anxious to begin competitions.

Their competitions have been limited. There are only two scheduled so far with the hope that more can be scheduled in the future.

 “At this time we only have two competitions. Those are at commercial climbing gyms in Grand Junction and Eagle,” Coach Codey Meyers said.

The competitions will be held around mid March and early April with the season ending on May 1st.

“It’s all because if Covid,” Junior Ash Brown said, “Some schools are more locked down than others.”

For competitions, this restricts what the Montrose climbing team can do as far as interacting with other teams

Unfortunately COVID has affected their season a lot and students will be required to wear masks for the entirety of practice and at competitions.

“Masks have to be worn at all times,” Meyers said.

Normally the season starts around November, but this year it will be a significantly shorter season with fewer teams participating in competitions.

“It’s unclear if we’re even going to be able to go to state [this season],” senior Logan Righter said. 

Even though it’s been a difficult start for the climbing team, students hope that they have a successful season. 

“We are all so supportive of each other,” Brown said. “In many sports you are competing against teammates for spots, but in climbing everyone gets to play so we can get so excited about each other’s accomplishments.” 

Practices will be four days a week and have strict rules to keep students safe such as having to wear masks at all times and social distancing.

“At this point practice will be a normal four days a week. Everyone has to wear their masks all the time and we are keeping cohorts separate,” Meyers said.