Bellingham’s own Vail Everett, 18, who has been climbing since he was 3 years old, was crowned the 2024 Boulder National Champion earlier this month.
“It still feels surreal,” Everett wrote in an email from his dorm room at the University of Utah this week. “I am very happy with my entire performance throughout the week.”
Of the more than 100 bouldering athletes who competed at the 2024 YETI National Championships in Salt Lake City from Oct. 12–16, just six men and six women advanced to finals.
With long limbs, strong fingers and a good strength-to-weight ratio, Everett is a well-rounded climber and prefers to climb dynamically with fast, powerful movements. Climbing competitions generally have three events: bouldering, lead climbing (roped up) and speed climbing. Everett doesn’t speed climb but excels in both lead and boulder, which gives him the perfect mix of power, endurance and longevity through a competition. At nationals, he was the only male climber to make it to finals in both disciplines — he finished eighth overall in lead and claimed the win in boulder.
The championship title was only the most recent achievement in Everett’s decorated history as a competitive climber.
He began his climbing career clambering up the indoor wall at the Whatcom Family YMCA and started competing at age 8, commuting to Seattle to train with the Vertical World Climbing Team. While preparing for competition in Bellingham was challenging at times, he took advantage of the community’s proximity to high-quality outdoor climbing in Index, Leavenworth, the Cascades and Squamish, British Columbia.
Everett has attended youth national championships every year for the past decade, claiming the USA Climbing Youth National Championship title in 2023. He attended the Youth World Championships two years in a row for lead and bouldering, competing in Seoul, Korea, and Guiyang, China.
Everett graduated from Sehome High in 2024 with an associate degree thanks to the Running Start program through Whatcom Community College, and he’s now pursuing a degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Utah in Salt Lake City.
The USA Climbing training center is in Salt Lake City, and Everett has found that resource, paired with the high density of strong climbers in the area, has been productive for his growth as an athlete. The outdoorsy culture and recreational access of Utah doesn’t hurt either — SLC feels a little like Bellingham, Everett said, just drier and warmer (for now).
He has his sights set on international competition — the next big event is Team Trials in early March, and the results from that combined with nationals will determine the 2025 U.S. national team, which will travel to compete at World Cup events around the world.
“Apart from competition climbing, I am psyched on getting to climb outdoors before the snow comes in and training for Team Trials starts,” Everett said. “My main goal for the future is to make the U.S, Team for bouldering and lead and to represent the U.S. on the World Cup circuit.”
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
