MERIDIAN, Idaho — This week National Champions will be crowned in the Treasure Valley.
The USA Climbing Yeti National Championships are being held at Vertical View in Meridian and Asana in Garden City.
Athletes will compete throughout the week of the event, with the first day of competition starting on Wednesday, October 11. A full event schedule can be found on the Vertical View website.
Local brothers Jimmy and Joey Catama are working hard to keep the trophy here in the Treasure Valley. Jimmy is competing in the event and his older brother, Joey, will be his coach.
The family is full of climbers. It was something the Catamas gravitated to when they were young.
“We just fell in love with something that gave everyone a challenge," Joey Catama told Idaho News 6.
Jimmy started climbing because of his older brothers. Joey, like Jimmy, grew up competing, and as he became an adult he competed both on the national and international scale.
Now, Joey gets to coach his younger brother.
“We’ve always seen him as the little kid who’s at the youth competitions at his age category and age bracket and finally there’s none of that," Catama said.
Going into the competition, Jimmy is looking for motivation outside of the leaderboards.
“I think I’ve been starting to tap into the reason why I climb because it’s helping me climb physically, mentally, a lot better than I’ve ever expected," Jimmy said.
Jimmy says he's still trying to figure out his "why". It's a similar problem his brother had to figure out when he was climbing. Something he says is deeper than the physical sport.
“If I'm giving all myself, that’s everything physical but everything beyond physical which also means spiritual," Joey said.
