Like a lot of kids, Kyra Nelson loved to climb on things as a toddler.
One local playground had a mini rock climbing wall, and Kyra was instantly drawn to it, so her mother, Tracy Nelson, looked up climbing classes for kids. She put Kyra in classes at The Circuit and ClubSport Oregon Adventure Center.
More than a decade later, Kyra is still climbing. The 16-year-old from Tigard has been competitively climbing for four years, and as she continues to reach new heights in her climbing, she has competed all over Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
“I’ve always loved climbing on everything,” said Kyra, now a sophomore at Horizon Christian High School. “I just wanted to join a team for a little bit and try it out.”
The bouldering season just started in October, and Kyra is off to a fast start. She has competed in three competitions this year and scored a first-place finish in her age division in all three competitions. She is ranked at the top of the Under 19 division in USA Climbing Region 12.
Up next for Kyra is the January regional competition in Bend, Ore. If she finishes high enough there, she qualifies for the divisional competition. Her ultimate goal is to go beyond the divisionals and reach the national competition this upcoming summer.
“I like seeing improvement,” Kyra said. “There are grades, and the harder the route, the higher the grade. I like getting to a new grade.”
Another thing Kyra likes about bouldering is the change in courses. The way the sport works is each climber has four minutes to scale the course. Until their first attempt at climbing, they aren’t allowed to see the course. When the round starts, they are turned around to face the climbing wall, and then they have four minutes to get as high up as they can.
“I’m a bit nervous, but I love the format,” she said. “It’s really fun. The four minutes go by really fast. It can be stressful.”
If the climbing isn’t hard enough in a time crunch, another issue that can pop up is bleeding. Climbing is obviously very strenuous, and if you get a cut while climbing, you have to get down until the blood is cleaned off, and the clock doesn’t stop.
Kyra said she had a competition last year where all her fingers were ripped open while climbing.
“It took up all of my time,” she said.
The worst injuries she has had while climbing are a broken wrist and a strained tendon, which kept her out of competition for two months.
Kyra said her plan to try and stop her fingers from ripping open is to do finger exercises and just keep climbing more and more. Along with finger exercises, she does a lot of arm, leg and core training. She also climbs two to four hours every single day.
Her mom said it’s not too scary watching Kyra climb up 18 feet, even with the possibility of injuries.
“If they fall off, they know how to land,” Tracy Nelson said. “They’ve got big mats on the floor. If she were climbing outdoors, that would probably scare me more.”
Kyra has tried outdoor climbing, but she found that a bit frightening. It wasn’t the scenery or danger of climbing outside that scared her, though.
“I didn’t like how many spiders were in all the rocks,” she said.
Bouldering isn’t a sport at high school, but a lot of colleges have club teams. Kyra said she hopes to climb in college. Bouldering is a growing sport, and competitive climbing has been in the last two summer Olympics and is scheduled to be part of the 2028 games in Los Angeles.
