Team WinS Sponsored Athlete
Inge Perkins
Over my life I have hiked religiously, cross country ski raced, down hill
skied for enjoyment, mountain biked, ran cross country, danced ballet,
played the violin, and studied hard for school. Now, as a freshman I continue
to enjoy these interests, however, I have added something new to this list:
climbing.
In 2002, I had two life changing experiences that have greatly contributed
to the type of person I am today. The first happening was in a large swimming
center in Norway. The center had just opened and I went there for the first
time with my friend. While experimenting everything they had, I came across
a climbing wall that rose out of the water. We tried it and I remained
attached to the wall until I reluctantly had to leave. While climbing,
I realized how satisfying, challenging, and enjoyable it was. The second
event was when I went to the movie theaters later that year. The film went
by the name of “Ulve Sommer”, meaning Wolf Summer. This was a Norwegian
movie that was filmed in Bozeman Montana. It was not only the setting that
caught my eye, but the passion the main character had as well. This young
teenager loved to climb, in climbing gyms or on rock face. I decided this
would be and extremely exciting sport to sample when the main character
saved two wolves by climbing a cliff with the wolves in her backpack to
escape. 2003 launched me in a new direction; I merged my horizontal sport
interests with this foreign vertical sport.
Returning
home to Bozeman, I signed up for climbing lessons and immediately feel in love
with this new endeavor. After a month of training with my teacher Brandon Smith
I was invited to join the Bozeman Climbing Team. Aaron Hjelt, an extremely
knowledgeable and energetic coach is the team’s director. I competed in my
first competition that fall; the event is the perfectly called Full Gravity
Day. After wining my age group I became more excited and attached. The following
year Spire Climbing Center opened and I competed once again in the event. My
interest grew, my training frequency increased, younger kids and peers began
joining the team as well. That spring I competed in more competitions and I
complimented my indoor climbing with outside climbing adventures. Numerous
competitions followed and I progressed to participating in regionals and divisionals.
I performed fairly well, placing 1st or 2nd until the spring of 2007 and the
previous spring I have placed 1st in every competition, including qualifying
for nationals. Climbing has become a large part of my life and I continue to
enjoy competing and climbing at local and foreign crags.
Over the
past year, I have also become a member of the Junior Mountaineering Team led
by Erin Taylor with assistant coaches including Peter Ramos, Pete Tapley, Jason
Leppi, and Alex Kosseff. This organization teaches you how to be safe and successful
in the mountains, whether it is rock climbing, backcountry skiing, ice climbing,
or mountaineering in general. We traveled to Cody for 4 days to ice climb,
Hebgen Lake to ski, City of Rocks to climb, and the Tetons to bring everything
we learned together. While in the Tetons we skied in Paintbrush Canyon, climbed
the Guides Wall, summated the Middle Teton, South Teton, and Cloudveil. I learned
an extensive amount last year through this comprehensive program and enjoyed
my self with the excellent instructors and the other team members also enthusiastic
about the outdoors.
I am now
training for another year of competing with the Bozeman Climbing Team, with
most of my competitions in the spring. I have returned as a member of
the Junior Mountaineering Team. I also plan to compete in local road and mountain
races. An element within me directs me to look for new interests and pursuits,
maybe I will try air snow boarding or para-skiing, of course playing my violin
simultaneously! While doing all of this I will continue seeking guidance from
my role model: my mom. I have learned you only limit yourself. This will
be without a doubt another exciting year!
2008 Teton Trip
Over the previous year I joined the Junior
Mountaineering Team, a group of high school kids who become educated about
the mountains, climbing, skiing, rescue, and safety. We ice climbed up
in Hyalite Canyon and took a final trip to Cody where we brought together
all of our skills we had gained in ice climbing. We rock climbed all around
the Bozeman area and traveled down to the City of Rocks with our families
to show them all we knew about rock climbing. We also backcountry skied
in the Bridger mountains, Gallatin Canyon, and up Hyalite. As tradition
we took a trip to Hebgen Lake as well to wrap up everything we learned
in the ski season. As a final trip to bring together all that we now knew
about mountaineering, skiing, climbing, and safety we traveled to the Teton
mountain range.
This was an extremely successful trip in many
ways, one being the amount of climbing we can complete in short period of time.
For example, summiting Cloudveil on Day one, day two from our base camp in
Garnet Canyon we decided we climbed the Middle Teton. We woke up at 3:00
AM to the sparkling stars above giving all the snow around us a dim luminous
glow. I shoved hot oatmeal down into my belly, smiling as it brought warmth
throughout. We began to trek up a snow field with crampons on our feet, harnesses
on our waists, backpacks hugging our shoulders, helmets on our heads, and helmet
lamps pointing the way. By7:00AM we were standing on the summit, with wind
blowing through our hair and flapping our clothes and pushing us to do more.
During our descent we felt this calling to do another summit decide to bag
the South Teton as well and successful we were! There we were standing
on South Teton at 9:00 AM and back to base camp by NOON for lunch. This
day was very successful because we accomplished many objectives and learned
first hand how skilled we had become and prepared we were.
