The USA Climbing Youth National Championships are just days away, and a Duluth representative will head there to make the Northland proud.

Mia Eberth has been climbing for six years, and a goal that was once farfetched has become a reality.

“It’s always been kind of like a goal, I guess, but kind of a long-term one. It used to be a really long-term goal. I was like, ‘Oh, it would be so cool to go to nationals.” But then a couple years ago, I was getting closer,” said Eberth.

Mia will head to theUSA Climbing Youth National Championships held in Salt Lake City, Utah, to put her skills to the test against the best competition out there.

Her coach, Manuel Mendoza, says as long as she gives it her all, then she’s a winner no matter what.

“If she can do the best that she can and she feels that she left nothing out there, then I’ll be happy with that for sure,” said Mendoza.

Mia will compete in the ropes division. which she describes as;

“You start at the bottom with your rope and then you clip on the way up to the top and you try to get as high as you can.”

From the beginning of her climbing journey, Mia has stood out above the rest, which proves that her trip to nationals is no joke.

“I moved up here in 2022, and when I came in, met the team, it was very obvious that Mia was extremely talented, extremely strong,” said Mendoza. “So I’ve been working with her for the last two years on everything between like endurance, power, strength, climbing ability, and kind of taking some of those skills that I had from Rochester up here, and she’s been doing nothing but progressing.”

For the athlete and coach pair, they’re both looking forward to being on the national stage for the first time, especially taking on the challenges that lie ahead on the routes.

“I’m looking forward to trying some like new routes on new walls,” said Eberth. “Like the walls out there look really cool. They’re like outdoors. So I’m excited for that.”

“Seeing all the routes that are going to be put up, the climbs that are going to be put up are created by some really high level setters and Olympic level climbers that are going to be there,” added Mendoza. “So just getting to see all the really cool routes and the super strong climbers competing to be super exciting.”

The USA Climbing Youth National Championships from Salt Lake City are from July 7th to the 14th, and hopefully Mia can climb to the top of the leaderboards.