Fairbanks-area climbers had a chance to meet fellow climbers and check out the year's new routes at Saturday's competition in the Student Recreation Center.

The Farthest North Climbing Competition is held annually at UAF. Organizer Richard Hallock said it was his fourth year organizing the event, although it was the event's sixth year in all.

When the day started, the wall was free of the white chalk residue that climbers, including female winner Rachel Steiner, carry toothbrushes to wipe off of the rocks with. But by the end of the afternoon, they were pulling out their toothbrushes again.

Hallock and three other route setters enlisted the help of rock wall users to remove all the old routes from the wall and clean the everything. Afterward, the four route setters, who also acted as the competition's officials, spent hours dreaming up and placing the routes for the competition.

Climbers were given a little over two hours to climb. They could try a route as many times as they wanted, and climb as many as they wanted, as long as they weren't keeping other people from climbing a route, but only their top five climbs were counted in the final tally, Hallock said. Reporting their climbs was on the honor system, he added.

Routes were marked in one color of duct tape below each hold. V's indicated the starting holds for the climbers, who had to start from a sit. Boxes marked the final hold.

For a climb to count, climbers were expected to show control of the last hold and stay for a few seconds. Merely touching it and letting go wouldn't be enough, Hallock said.

According to Hallock, the 22 climbs were given point values that ranged from five to over 200. Higher point values usually equated with more difficult routes. Shirts were awarded as prizes to the top male and female scorers.

Although it took the five climbs that she did finish to win with 175 points, Steiner said that her favorite climb was one she never did.

"I liked that route even though I didn't get it," Steiner said of route one, her favorite.

Steiner will have plenty of chances to climb the route in the coming months. The competition is the only time the wall is cleaned completely each year. Otherwise, it goes unchanged other than an accumulation of dirt and new routes put up by other climbers.

Blaine DeWalt, Mark Nelson, Colin Tucker, and their fourth co-winner, Andy, were part of a group of men working together to climb a route known as the yellow route.

Nelson and DeWalt devoted a lot of their time to the group trying to scale it. The four tied for the men, each earning 285 points.

The men alternated through the yellow route over and over, talking amongst themselves and trying to figure out what the best way up the wall would be.

A crowd formed around them as they took turns trying different toe and hand positions to give them the force to reach the top.

For Steiner, the heart of the competition was the camaraderie of working together to figure out the particularly difficult routes, much like a climber does when they're outside on real rocks.

"I like how many people show up," said Steiner. "It's fun to climb with lots of people, especially when you know them all."

Climbing three to four days a week when she isn't injured, Steiner did seem to know everyone, even if she is just a senior at West Valley High School.

This year, she said, she's had injuries that kept her from climbing as much as she'd like. As she attempted to climb the route she dubbed her favorite, a variety of people wandered over to spot her and lend advice on how she might scale the wall.

Even those who didn't get recognition for their score earned a prize.

All but one of the more than a dozen participants won a door prize, and everyone, even the spectators, got free pizza.