Climbing competition at Chapel Hill Community Center reaches new heights

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the founder of the rock climbing competition. Bill Webster founded the competition. The story has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

It was a rock-climbing competition that drew 14-year-old Fayetteville native Kai Lightner to town this weekend.

Lightner garnered a perfect score in the preliminary competition and later placed first in the men’s opener.

This past August, Lightner competed in his first International Federation of Sport Climbing Youth World championship in Canada and placed 4th in the 14-15-year-old age group.

He started climbing at the age of 6. A year later he competed in his first nationals.

“I always wanted to be really good,” he said, “Sounds cliche, but I wanted to be like the people I look up to.”

This weekend the Chapel Hill Community Center hosted the annual Dixie Rock Climbing Competition.

The oldest annual indoor rock climbing competition in the country celebrated its 25th year with an 80s theme.

More than 100 people competed in the event sponsored by companies including REI, Eno and Whole Foods.

The event’s founder Bill Webste r said he is excited the competition has become more popular after a decrease in participation the past few years.

“It was actually biggest in the first couple years because climbing competitions were new and exploding around the country, and there were actually very few gyms, so we had people driving around from surrounding states,” he said.

“We had to cut off and say we could only handle this many. As more gyms were built, the numbers dwindled. They actually got pretty low last year.”

Fresh hire Sarah Wolfe reenergized the event, Webster said.

“We hired Sarah who has breathed new life into the event this year,” he said. “She really did a lot of marketing, and the numbers are back up to over a hundred now.”

In the preliminary rounds, climbers could attempt six routes.

They would receive a score for the highest hold they touched. The top 5 scorers in each division during the preliminary round were invited to the finals for that division.

Kai Lightner’s mother Constance Lightner is glad he found success in something he enjoys so much.

“He always climbed everything,” Constance Lightner said.

“Baby gates at 6 months before he was walking. I had to take them down out the house because he thought it was like a toy for him”

She said her son discovered climbing when she took him to a rock-climbing facility to burn off some of his energy. He not only enjoyed climbing, but also the challenge.

“It was a challenge for him,” Constance Lightner said. “The first day he went to the gym ever he left in tears. They put him on something that he couldn’t do.”

city@dailytarheel.com