Hips & Grips JiuJitsu & Climbing Camp

The Adventure of a Lifetime!

Ever since interviewing Almine Barton for her Hips & Grips Camp, I was enthralled by the idea of a Jiu-Jitsu and climbing camp for women. What an amazing experience that must be! I was starting to be a little jealous of the ladies who got to go on the trip. Imagine my delight when Evelyn Sutton sent me to report on the camp for Jiujiteira Magazine. January 15, 2022 could not come soon enough!

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Story, photos and videos by Charlotte McKingley

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DAY 1 – ARRIVAL

I stepped onto the airport grounds of Orange County’s John Wayne airport at 7:30 Saturday morning. In a few short hours I would go from sunny California to sunny Colorado. The trip was uneventful other than the realization that the Denver airport was massive. 

I got a little taste of what Colorado would look like from pictures Almine sent, but as I flew over the Rocky Mountains, I realized that I was going to be in for a treat. The mountain peaks were capped with snow and the skies were graced by wispy white clouds. 

When I landed in the Montrose airport, there was decidedly less snow than I was expecting. Despite that, the wilderness of Colorado drew me in. There would be an adventure to be had—I just had to get off the plane, meet Kelly and ride our shuttle 45 minutes to Ouray.

Prior to arriving in Montrose, I had coordinated with 10th Planet white belt Kelly Hurst on renting a shuttle. After tossing my bags in the back of the van, our driver took us to the gorgeous town of Ouray, Colorado. He regaled us with stories of Ouray, Telluride and the surrounding area.

When we finally arrived at the designated meeting place, I finally met Almine for the first time in person. Even from down the street, her enthusiasm was contagious. She was ecstatic that all of the ladies were coming in for the camp. She was enthusiastic, upbeat and filled with good energy. I knew right away that this was going to be a phenomenal experience.

After meeting up with Easton Training Center blue belt Jen Ritzke, Hips and Grips Jiu Jitsu blue belt Yesenia Carpenter, Mexico’s Alliance Jiu Jitsu Monterrey purple belt Lola Carsi and Colorado Springs Gracie Barra first degree black belt Vanessa Waltz, we all walked down to the local grocery store to pick up sustenance for the following five days. The store also sold bottled oxygen. I remember thinking “Who would buy that? It seems like it’s for schmucks!” Little did I know how useful that can of oxygen would be.

When we all arrived at the house, we were awed by the enormity. To call the residence a “house” would be an understatement. The better word would be “mansion.” Despite its size and the fact that I kept getting lost trying to find the pantry, the house soon became cozy. I bunked downstairs with Jen, Lola, Kelly, and blue belt Amy Barry.

The end of the night was marked by climbing legend Kitty Calhoun coming with a colleague to help us get our ice climbing gear fitted. This included making sure our boots fit right, our crampons fit the boots, we had the appropriate helmets, everyone had signed the waivers and so on. After this, Almine sat us down in a circle to explain how the camp was going to work, introduce ourselves, introduce 10th Planet second degree black belt Amanda Loewen and also Colorado Springs Gracie Barra first degree black belt Vanessa Waltz as the instructors. Then it was off to bed so we could wake up early to get to the climbing park.

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DAY 2 – ICE CLIMBING WITH THE GREATS

Sunday morning we woke up before the sun had crested the mountain peaks. We were out the door and at the gates of the climbing park with the intent to get in line before the onslaught of ice climbers. We were mostly successful. 

We split into two groups: beginners and those with some experience. Those that had less experience climbed on the “kid wall” with one of the guides. My group went with Heidi “Almighty” Wirtz and Kitty Calhoun—two legends in rock climbing. Despite being legends, they were both very self-effacing, though it was clear they knew what they were talking about. 

On the trek to our specific route, Yesenia and I fell behind the pack, huffing and puffing. Despite our huffs and puffs, the heaves intended to pull more air into our oxygen-starved bodies did not do anything. I thought longingly of the bottled oxygen back at the store. In the end, I was the “shmuck” who needed oxygen.

When we made our way into the gorge where our ice routes were, my first thought was of how similar the ice wall looked to the frozen waterfall in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. My second thought was how breathtaking the entire view was. There was ice in front of me, snow below me and bare rock behind me.

Since I had more experience top-roping than most of the other girls, I did a good portion of belaying climbers as the other girls learned how to belay. I really like belaying, so that was not a problem for me at all! However, when I actually got to climb, that experience was far better than belaying.

Ice climbing was unlike any other climbing I have ever done. I have top-roped, I have bouldered, I have lead-climbed, and I would be remiss to forget to mention the trees I have shimmied up! Ice climbing was a whole other experience. I was working with ice tools which meant I was not grabbing anything, and I had to kick my feet into the wall instead of stepping on a ledge. 

Despite the differences, there were many similarities ice climbing had with my other climbing experiences. I still had to make sure I had a good base, my hips were into the wall and I had good posture. For ice climbing in particular, it was really important to have a good base, posture and make sure you knew where you were headed. Sound familiar?

After our half-day of climbing, Jen, Vanessa, Kelly and I went to the Mexican restaurant in town before we met up with the rest of the ladies in the vapor caves.

Personally, I do not like small, confined, hot, steamy spaces. Despite my anathema to what is essentially most vapor caves, I went in with the rest of the ladies. We had to be quiet, so I did not last very long in the cave myself. Thankfully, there was another pool outside that we all congregated in where we could laugh, be loud and talk about how our day went.

At the end of the day, I fixed myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, headed down to the theater room with the other ladies and ended the night watching Journey 2: The Forbidden Island featuring Dwayne Johnson. 

Then, it was off to bed to get rested up for a day filled to the brim with Jiu Jitsu.

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DAY 3 – JIU JITSU WITH THE GREATS

Monday morning we woke up, ready and raring to go. We loaded up in the cars and were off to learn from professoras Amanda Loewen and Vanessa Waltz. Amanda taught in the morning, and Vanessa taught in the afternoon after our lunch break.

Learning from Amanda was a really neat experience—especially since she taught in the gi and is usually thought of predominantly for her no-gi. For someone who has won multiple FloGrappling matches and is currently undefeated in her pro-MMA career, she was extremely laid back. She very obviously knew what she was talking about and was candid with what she did or did not like.

One thing that I really remember from her lesson was that even though I might not use XYZ in my own game, it is still very important to know how to perform it. For instance, in my personal game, I do not use the “trap an arm, trap a leg” mount escape. I prefer to get to half guard then guard. However, it is important for me to know it for two reasons: what if I need to use it because my current method is not working and what if I need to teach it to someone else because their game would benefit from it?

After two hours of Amanda imparting her wisdom on us, we broke for lunch. I ate yet another PBJ sandwich and walked around Ouray a bit more to take photos of the quaint town. I met an older gentleman who had lived in Ouray his entire life. He showed me photos of the bighorn sheep that had come into town recently, the mule deer that hung around his mother’s house and the turkeys that paraded up the streets.

We hit a slight delay in our plans after our lunch break was finished. All the ladies left the community center, but little did we know that it had locked behind us. When we went to get in, we could not! After calling the various members of our group to see if anyone had the key, we determined that it was locked inside the building. Thankfully, the chief of police came and let us back in so we could resume our time of Jiu Jitsu.

For me, the highlight of the trip was learning from Vanessa. She has been one of my Jiu Jitsu idols for quite a few years, so getting to know her and learn from her was a dream come true! Her entire vibe and energy was very infectious. I did not stop grinning the entire time I was training.

We worked on a takedown that Vanessa dubbed the “Panda” where we put our hooks behind our partner’s knees, jumped on the back, let our weight drag them down and sleigh-ride them into backpack position. This was my favorite technique of the day. Even though I did not end up nailing the technique, I had a lot of fun with it. Jen, my partner, nicknamed me “lija” which means “sandpaper” in Spanish. Essentially, I completed the techniques as smooth as sandpaper (ie: not at all).

After Vanessa was finished teaching, we packed up and split up. Some of the ladies went to various hot springs around Ouray, others like myself went to the house to nab a shower. After we were all showered and clean, Jen, Lola, Kelly, and myself all made supper. No, I did not eat a PBJ this time.

We brought our meals down to the theater room and watched Jungle Cruise, another movie featuring Dwayne Johnson. When the movie ended, we all went to our shared room, got ready for bed, and went to sleep in preparation for the next day’s adventures.

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DAY 4 – TAPPED OUT

I woke up on Tuesday not feeling well. I had woken up every hour on the hour the night before, I had a migraine and I had a sore throat. The altitude sickness had officially gotten me. Due to my ailment, I was unable to go climbing for the second day. 

I spent most of the morning in bed, trying to stay away from the light and chugging water as much as I could. By around 10:30 a.m., I was feeling well enough to go into town with Jen.

The town of Ouray was gorgeous. It is called “America’s Switzerland” and they are correct with their thoughts. The town was definitely modeled after a quaint, European town. This made it seem even more like a “fairy tale” getaway. We went inside almost every shop in Ouray looking for postcards and other accouterments. There were several places selling handmade pottery, one shop dedicated exclusively to socks and four different t-shirt places.

After lunch, when we had gotten back to the house, I reorganized my suitcase and took a nap. When I woke up, my migraine had come back, so I unfortunately had to miss out on going to the open mat where the girls got to roll with each other and the professoras.

Despite not being the day I anticipated, I still had a good time. The ladies were all extremely caring and helpful, empathizing with my ailments. That in itself made me feel better because I did not have to go through altitude sickness on my own.

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DAY 5 – DEPARTURE

Thankfully, I woke up Wednesday morning with a minor headache, no sore throat, and a full night of sleep. I was ready and raring to get to learn from Amanda yet again. At the same time, I was extremely sad that my time with the camp was up. I felt as if I had been with the ladies for several weeks instead of several days. To see my suitcases packed up and ready to leave was depressing.

Once I got to the community center where we had our mats set up, it was much less depressing once Jiu Jitsu started. Jen had to teach a class at her gym the following day, so I was her uke as she practiced the techniques she was going to teach. 

Once the lessons actually started, we worked on review from the past couple days and then worked on some berimbolo-style techniques. For me, this was really fascinating because at my home gym in Post Falls, Idaho, there are a pair of brothers whose main desire in life is to literally roll into the backpack position. Fingers crossed, with Amanda’s lessons, I will be able to do that to them now!

Due to my flight being at 3:00 p.m., I had to leave before I could learn from Vanessa again. Though that was sad, I enjoyed riding to the small airport with two other campers. We got to the airport, dropped off our bags, and waited in one of the four gates for our plane to leave. One hour plane ride, a three hour layover and a two hour flight later, I was on my way back to my university in sleepless L.A.

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REFLECTION

When The Lab MMA purple belt Diane Ditko explained in my last article about how amazing the ladies were and that the community and relationships were worth the trip, I did not entirely believe her at first. However, after experiencing it myself, I definitely concur.

How many times is one jiujiteira met with the opportunity to meet people from all over the continent? There were people from the East Coast, Oregon, Colorado, and even Mexico that attended the camp! You would not necessarily get that at a tournament. Furthermore, we were not competing with one another: we were there as iron sharpening iron.

The unique thing about Almine’s camps is that each camp is going to be vastly different from the last. For the last camp, there were predominately white belts that attended. This camp, there were quite a few higher belts, blue belts, and a few white belts. The energy and dynamic is going to change from camp to camp as well based on the ladies that join and the location of the camp.

My recommendation? Listen to what Almine says before camp starts. If she tells you to get your cardio up because it will help with altitude sickness, do it. You will thank her later. Second, if there is oxygen being sold somewhere and you are from a place that does not sell oxygen, get the oxygen. You will thank yourself later. Also, water is a cure-all, so make sure you drink plenty of water before, during and after the trip. It would also be wise to stock up on EmergenC, Airborne, Advil, and Ibuprofen. Trust me. 

Finally, make sure you take the time to get to know the ladies around you. There is so much you can learn from them whether it be Jiu Jitsu or life experiences. Get out and do things you might not normally do—who knows when you will be back in that particular area again? Each camp experience is what you make of it, so make sure you make it the best for you. 

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Campers share their experience:

Learn more about Hips & Grips JiuJitsu Camps and sign-up for their next camp coming up this October with Professora Sophia McDermott and Professora Heather Woods:

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