Hotter Than Chicken 2019 - Climb Nashville
The 4th annual Hotter than Chicken bouldering competition was the spiciest climbing event of the year...
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Selling out at 250 competitors, climbers traveled from as far away as California, Wisconsin, New York, and Florida to compete in this totally unique, over the top event.
On August 3 (Nashville’s official “Hotter than Chicken Day”) onlookers watched in amazement as 200+ masochistic and regretful citizens’ round competitors devoured as many of Hattie B’s (Nashville’s premier hot chicken supplier) spiciest chicken tenders as they could in the allotted 15-minute eating window.
They all sweat cried and punished their innards as the clock counted down on their opportunity to multiply their climbing score by finishing the tenders. Post-suffer-fest, they took to the climbing walls to test their meddle against 70 boulder problems set by some of the nation’s top routesetters including USAC Level 5 and World Cup routesetter, Brad Weaver.
The clock wound down on the climbing portion of the competition and the evening block party commenced. With free beer, games, swag, a vendor village, and a 3-story inflatable water slide, competitors stayed entertained while the interior event space was transformed in preparation for an epic final showdown.
At 7:00 pm, the doors of Climb Nashville re-opened for HTC’s Fire Finals where the Open category’s top 6 male and female qualifiers would square off under the lights and FX in front of a 500+ person crowd.
In this special finals format, competitors would climb in the typical 4 minutes “on”, 4 minutes “off” format...but they’d have to choose - would they rest in their 4 minutes “off” or devour hot chicken in an attempt to multiply their climbing score?
Well, everyone knows you have to eat to win...so they ate...and they ate...and they climbed...and they puked...and they ate some more.
For the women, crusher Katie Lamb came out on top in terms of climbing points but it wasn’t enough to beat Arizona’s Flannery Shay-Nemirow’s lesser point total multiplied by her dominant 8 tenders eaten.
For the men, Texas-based Austin Purdy climbed well and devoured an impressive 15 tenders in front of the raging crowd to claim first place. The winners each took home $2000 (made possible in large part by La Sportiva) and one of two coveted ClimbAxes (a custom made ax forged from mid-century steel and one-hundred-year-old Tennessee Hickory).
Perhaps the highlight of the day was Climb Nashville delivering on their promise to donate 4 meals for every tender eaten on Hotter than Chicken day to Second Harvest of Middle Tennessee food bank. Thanks to the competitors on HTC Day, Second Harvest will be able to provide an additional 2200 meals to those in need.
Hotter than Chicken is one of the most exciting days of the year for the climbing community in the South, and increasingly, the nation. The Nashville community welcomes everyone to join us on this thrilling day in 2020 as we continue to crank up the heat and push the limits of what should be acceptable.
