Rock the Blocs 2025 Wrap Up
A huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Rock the Blocs 2025 bouldering festival over the weekend! The event drew participants from across North America to the Okanagan Boulderfields Recreation Site to sample the high quality bouldering and to celebrate our local community. This was our 11th time running the event, and even the smoky skies did not deter climbers coming out and enjoying the weekend!
In total, we had 218 participants attend the event, with 20 children and youth. On Saturday, the competition ran from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, followed by awards, raffle prizes and giveaways. We had 75 climbers enter the friendly competition across 10 categories based on age and experience. This year, we also had a total V-points challenge and an extremely popular scavenger hunt.
Women’s Open winner Maria Cheng (left) and Men’s Open winner Ty Siddon (right).
The winners of each category were:
Men’s Open
Ty Siddon, Kelowna (31 V-points)
Jared Gillis, Calgary
Marc Eveleigh, Calgary
Women’s Open
Maria Cheng, Coquitlam
Maisie Ainslie, Kelowna
Susan Trinh, Calgary
Men’s V6 and Under
Sean Henderson, Coquitlam
Khonnor Macleod, Kelowna
Jordan Dominguez, Mexico
Women’s V4 and Under
Ashley Rabinovitch, Kelowna
Kendra Haskett, Kelowna
Sarah Yamamoto-Ishida, Kelowna
Men’s V3 and Under
Xander Appels, Kelowna
Gavin Brader, Kelowna
Jordan Daponte, Kelowna
Women’s V2 and Under
Morgan Beckley, Kelowna
Tara Wallace, Vernon
Madi Wark, Kelowna
Men’s Masters
Quentin Trollip, Kelowna
Women’s Masters
Rachelle McCrae, Vernon
Boys
Nico Mutus, Kelowna
Bradley Mutus, Kelowna
Girls
Lily Basset-Smith, West Kelowna
Natalie Mutus, Kelowna
Hazel Johnson, West Kelowna
Total V-Points Challenge
Lucas Walker, Kelowna (101 V-points)
Scavenger Hunt
Sam Volk (Kelowna)
Élodie Paquin (Kelowna)
KT Nguyen (Kelowna)
Alex Wood-Seems (Kelowna)
Jamie (West Kelowna)
Chris Yaretz (Kelowna)
Xander Appels (Kelowna)
Asia Borg (Kelowna)
Amaia Markley Aslani (Kelowna)
A tremendous thank you to all our sponsors, who generously donated tons of gear, passes, and swag. With their support, we were able to raise over $4,000 for the Okanagan Bouldering Society! We would like to give special acknowledgements to Gneiss Climbing, Deadpoint Climbing, Arcteryx, Flashed Climbing, and TW Outdoors who went above and beyond in donating raffle prizes and giveaways, as well as providing on-site freshly-brewed espresso, free chalk refills for everyone, and much needed Starlink. We also want to acknowledge all the local small businesses and local artists that were willing to support the event. Please support them in return!
Gniess
Deadpoint
TW Outdoors
Arcteryx
Flashed
UnParallel
Kaya
MEC
Climb on Squamish
Lattice
Solution Climbing
Grifter Climbing
Royce Blackstock
Quentin Trollip
Bright Jenny
Madrock
La Sportiva
Climb Base 5
RockGarden
Beyond the Crux
Valhala Pure Vernon
Firesen Studio
La Rose Serenity Spa
MAPLE3
Cool Hand Print
In the evening, spectators came to watch the traditional night session on the imposing highball Purgatory V9. Only one climber completed the problem this year, Ty Siddon, topping out in the dark using a headlamp to the cheers of the crowd filling the slope below.
Many of the attendees stayed Saturday night to climb again on Sunday, or take one of the clinics being offered. We had a great turnout, with over 20 clinic participants spread among the Women's Bouldering Clinic, the Intro to Bouldering Clinic, the Highballs Clinic, and the Introduction to Scrubbing and Developing New Boulders Clinic.
A big thanks to the Board of Directors (Robson, Isaac, Loïc, Jonty, Chris, Rohan and Will) and our volunteers (Moira, Ella, Eddy, Flavie, Christopher, Alec and Zoë) for putting on such a smooth event. Finally, a big thank-you to KAYA for help and support during the event, making sure the Boulderfields guide was accessible to everyone over the weekend!
We can’t wait until next year and Rock the Blocs 12!
Photos courtesy of Moira Pearson (@sewmuchclimbing), Max De La Barrera (@maax_man), Paul Dempsey (@molotov_ape).