Fox Chapel teen a rising star in climbing world

Gavin Youkers just keeps climbing off the charts.

Youkers began rock climbing four years ago at the age of 9 while at Climb North in Wildwood. It was there that his love of climbing was launched by his coach, Justin Mech, and his teammates.

“It was fun,” Youkers said. “We had nothing to do, and I thought rock climbing sounded fun, so we looked online and found Climb North. After I tried it one time, I was hooked.”

“I started following climbers on Instagram, like Daniel Woods, Alex Puccio and Colin Duffy, who is in the Olympics right now and I met at nationals last year,” he added.

Youkers has advanced to the national level the past three years with USA Climbing, and to the semifinals once.

This year was by far his best.

At the USA Climbing Youth National Championships held July 13-18 in Reno, Nev., the 13-year-old Youkers progressed from the qualifying round (top 73) to the semifinals (top 20) and finally the finals (top 10), where he placed seventh in the Male Youth C Bouldering Division.

“My goal was to make finals, but I wasn’t really sure that I could do it,” Youkers said. “My expectations changed after I did really well on the first day. When I came in third that day, I was feeling more confident going into the semifinals.”

Advancing to the finals was not a certainty for Youkers, as he participated in the last two rounds with a finger injury.

“In isolations before the semifinals, I was finishing warming up and I got a deep splinter in the middle finger of my right hand from the warmup wall,” Youkers said. “It was bleeding a lot, and I couldn’t get the splinter out before it was my turn to climb. So I was pretty shaken up going out there, and it was very hard to climb with that splinter in my finger. It was also stressful knowing that if it started bleeding while I was climbing, it would be a big ordeal because you are not allowed to bleed on the wall.

“In between the semifinals and finals, my parents drove to the store and bought a bunch of stuff to try to get the splinter out and stop the bleeding. We tried all kinds of different things, but the thing that worked best was anti-bleeding spray first, then we wrapped that finger with athletic tape.”

What are isolations?

“All of the climbers have to go into an area before the competition where we can’t see the walls and wait while the other people compete,” Youkers said. “Then when we come out to climb, we see the walls for the first time and have to figure out how to do the route in four minutes. This year, I was in isolation for a long time because the female Youth C climbers went first.”

USA Climbing is the national governing body of the sport of competition climbing and promotes three competition disciplines: bouldering, sport climbing and speed climbing.

The judges in Reno adopted the same scoring method used for the sport’s Olympic debut in Tokyo.

“There are three disciplines in climbing,” said Youkers, who will be in eighth grade at Dorseyville Middle School this year. “Bouldering is the only one where you don’t have a rope and the walls are 20 feet or less. Usually, in bouldering, all of the moves are pretty hard, unlike lead climbing where the walls are much higher and it’s more about endurance, and speed climbing, which is obviously about being fast.”

What are the most difficult aspects of wall climbing?

“Learning technique and mental stuff,” Youkers said. “It’s not that hard to get strong. You just have to do a lot of training. But it can be tricky to know how to read a route and best climb it.”

Today, Youkers enjoys climbing at a combination of places in the Pittsburgh area, where the climbing community is extremely supportive. Youkers recently joined and predominantly trains at Iron City Boulders, as well as at Ascend Pittsburgh and on his home MoonBoard.

“The gym that I primarily train at now is new and doesn’t have a youth team yet,” Youkers said. “I have been working with Dean Privett there for now. They will have a team and a coach in place for the next climbing season.”

During the pandemic shutdowns, the Fox Chapel teen, his father, grandfather and several friends and relatives built a detached garage at the Youkers residence. The garage became home to his MoonBoard and other training equipment.

Youkers traveled to Bend, Ore., for nationals two years ago.

“So he’s gotten to see some really cool places because of his competitions,” said Becky, his mom. “Some of his favorite things about traveling is getting to do some outdoor climbing at places on the West Coast and visiting areas like Lake Tahoe, which he might not have seen otherwise.”

Although Youkers trains for climbing six days a week and climbs three or four days, he also competes in track and cross country.

But his year-round focus is on the wall.

“One day, I want to be a professional climber,” Youkers said. “A lot of the professional climbers are not in an organization. USA Climbing is what you need to be in to go to the Olympics, I think. There are lots of other competitions though, like the World Cups and different ones in different countries.

“In the next few years, I want to make the podium in a USA Climbing national competition.”