It was high time to celebrate for North Tahoe rock climbers over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend as Incline Village athletic club High Altitude Fitness threw a two-night grand opening bash for its new climbing gym.

After two years of hard work on the addition of the 32-foot high climbing wall, gym owner Jason Burd pulled out all the stops for the momentous occasion, hosting a 'Dyno' climbing competition and a slideshow by renowned hard-man climber John Bachar on Friday night and a food and wine tasting paired with a presentation by legendary climber Lynn Hill on Saturday night.

Friday night’s events literally leapt to a start as climbers lined up for the climbing competition. Only the strongest athletes made the final round of the contest as entrants were faced with climbing problems whose holds were spread so far apart that climbers were forced to dynamically lunge between them, many times going four points off mid-jump.

For the finals the top three male and female climbers battled it out on the steepest section of the overhanging wall. Siemay Lee of Minden, Nev., and Anya Miller of Tahoe City both climbed to the same height in the women’s finals, but Lee took the win based on points from previous rounds. Marissa Linback of Reno took third for the women.

The men’s finalists faced off on an uber-steep route that was supposed to demand several dynamic moves, but winner Noah Kaufman of Minden managed to complete the route statically (no jumping moves). Second-place finisher Mike Lew of Reno and third-place contestant Jay Lynn of Tahoe City had to take to the air, however. Both runner-up climbers threw several dynos and but couldn’t hang on to the top.