Junior Savela rock climbs at national level

Elizabeth Goldman

Sports Editor

Junior Chase Savela competes in national-level competitions for rock climbing. He also uses his skills to coach younger children. Savela has been climbing since 2018 when his interest was sparked by attending a birthday party at Sender One LAX.

Since then, Savela has been training with Sender One LAX’s competition team three times a week and is on the climbing gym’s highest level youth team.

 “Rock climbing seemed really cool, so I had always wanted to try it out,” Savela said. “It seemed like something super big and exciting, and in 2018 I decided I wanted to try it out, so I did.”

Savela competes in three rock climbing categories: bouldering, rope climbing and speed climbing. In the summer of 2020, Savela placed 46th in the nation for speed climbing.

“Being invited to nationals for 2020 was really awesome; it was super cool to see so many national-level athletes in the same place,” Savela said. “I love how everybody has a different solution to each climb, and how everybody has their own unique climbing style.” 

Savela’s team competes in various qualifying events held at other climbing gyms throughout the year before attending regionals for each style of climbing in their respective seasons. Those who place well in regionals continue on to divisonals, which is then followed by nationals.

“I really like how teamwork comes into play where you can have a lot of people working together on the same rock climb,” Savela said. “It can be really cool to see people trying things out and then falling, but having each other there to help out and find new ways to do it.”

In addition to competing and practicing with his own team, Savela coaches a younger team made up of ages six to nine at Sender One LAX. According to Savela, it is fun to watch his students Junior Savela rock climbs at national level improve and hear them tell him about using what they learned in practice on their own climbing experiences outside of practices.

“I’m super appreciative of the work my coaches put in for me because it’s such an amazing experience to have somebody there to help figure things out and work on different techniques,” Savela said. “I’m very happy that I can give that experience to somebody else, and it’s amazing to see [my students’] improvement.”

According to Savela, he hopes to compete in divisionals and nationals this year. In the future, he would like to continue his climbing career through college.

“In the immediate future, I hope to go to higher-level competitions this year,” Savela said. “But hopefully I can continue rock climbing in whatever college I end up going to. It’s a fast-growing sport, especially since it was added to the Olympics last year, and I know there are plenty of schools already with rock climbing gyms for their students, which is pretty amazing.”