BOULDER — After breaking a heel in a gymnastics accident three years ago, Margo Hayes tried indoor rock climbing to keep her upper body strong while her foot healed, and she fell in love with the vertical sport.
Now the Boulder seventh-grader is focused on climbing, and she is an American Bouldering Series youth champion who loves to compete.
“I love that feeling, probably because of gymnastics, of having butterflies in my stomach,” said Margo, 13. “If I get at the bottom of the wall and look up, you’re just like, ‘OK, how can I do this?’ I love that feeling of anticipation and excitement.”
Margo is a member of Team ABC, a competitive youth team that works out four to six times per week in sessions that typically last three hours or longer.
“I really love testing myself and trying to do things that I’m not sure I can,” Margo said. “Because when I do them, they feel great. And even when I don’t, it motivates me even more.”
Four-time World Cup champion Robyn Erbesfield Raboutou, the founder of Team ABC, coaches a group that won the team title at a national bouldering competition in February. She also oversees a noncompetitive group for children 7 and older.
Team ABC is in its “rope season,” training for regional championships this month (Albuquerque), divisional championships in June (Boulder) and national championships in July (Atlanta). Team ABC finished second nationally last year in roped climbing.
“They get out there and they accomplish something,” Raboutou said. “Whether it’s better than the day before, better than the week before or something that they’ve been working on for months, it’s that feeling of accomplishment. . . . A parent can’t give it to them, a teacher can’t give it to them. They give it to themselves.”
One day last week, Team ABC climbers Max and Mia Manson spent three hours gleefully bouldering and climbing the soaring walls of the Boulder Rock Club.
“It’s really fun because you try a route and you can’t make it,” said Max, 10. “The next day you come back, maybe it’s a weekend instead of after school, and you feel a lot better. You can just go up and make it.”
Mia was like a spider, outstretched arms and legs seemingly glued to the walls she was climbing. It was hard work, but it was play too.
“I think it’s fun, just getting to climb around and get strong,” said Mia, 8, who can climb difficult routes rated 5.12. “I think I want to try and make a 5.13 next year, or maybe even this year.”
Their father is Pat Manson, who set a Colorado prep pole vault record (17-7 1/2) in 1986 that still stands. Sometimes he pulls on a harness and plays on the walls at BRC.
“I always look around and see all these grown-ups out here — they’re here to play, right?” Manson said. “The kids come here and they play, but they work out really hard. The coaches are excellent. They lead the kids up really hard stuff, they’ll give them real specific things to try, but they’re still out here playing. It’s really fun.”
Raboutou starts children in a program called ABC for Kids, the initials standing for agility, balance and coordination. She has a special room at BRC where kids 3-7 can begin to experience the sensations of climbing.
In addition to offering a competitive outlet, ABC trains kids to climb correctly so they can tackle Colorado’s great outdoor rock climbs with relative safety.
“I love both so much,” Margo said. “I just love being outside with nature. When you’re climbing a sport route, you’re just up so high and you look down, it’s amazing. That’s another feeling that I really love.”
The mission statement of ABC for Kids is “to encourage children to become independent, self-reliant students who take a lifelong responsibility for their own enrichment.” Raboutou brings a lot of zeal to the process.
“It’s always my hope that every child finds something that grabs them like these kids have found with climbing,” Raboutou said. “Climbing has grabbed them, and they’re good at it. It makes them feel really big.”
More info: ABC for Kids and Team ABC on the Web at
Phone: 303-443-KIDS
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
