Tierra Boulder Battle 2013

This is a few weeks late, but I’m posting it anyways. You may have watched this comp on the live feed, which was pretty good as the comp was going for high production value and in many ways they delivered. I’ve got a link to the feed video at the bottom of this page. There are other reasons this event was sweet, and those reasons include:

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The Climbers

Small field, invite only, all world class female boulderers. As event organizer Björn Pohl said, he invited who he wanted to see compete. Competitors were:

Alex Puccio (USA)

Matilda Söderlund (Sweden)

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk (UK)

Melissa Le Neve (France)

Therese Johansen (Norway)

Anja Hodann (Sweden)

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The Benefits

Instead of win-only payment: travel, accommodations, and 800 euro were paid to each competitor just for going.

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Comp Format

Three day event, but only a single day, single round comp. Finals only.

First day, all climbers to go the gym, each climber sets a boulder problem for the comp. All competitors get a 2 hr “work” session to climb on all the problems.

Next day is a rest day with dress up photo shoots and other fun activities.

Next day is Comp Day.

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The Event

Climbers are introduced as they are lowered one by one down through fog to the bouldering area.

The intro

Another perspective

Only one person is climbing at a time. The whole field moves problem by problem and each climber gets a few minutes to try each problem. Easy to watch all tries from each climber and have live video without anyone  missing any of the action.

The first climber of each problem is the setter of that problem for the first 5 problems.

For the last problem climbers climb in reverse order of standing, so current 1st place climber goes last.

Winner gets the huge Tierra Boulder Battle hold, they all get other prizes too.

The Grand Prize and finish hold of the final boulder

It looked like a lot of fun!

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The Afterward

I am torn on doing an event play-by-play. I’ve got the screenshots for it, but you can just as easily watch the “backstage pass” here:

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Results

Sorry to Mina for posting this, but here’s the top of the heap: Matilda Söderlund (2) Alex Puccio (1) and Mina Leslie-Wujastyk (3) trying not to fall off the extremely shaky podium.

4. Mélissa Le Nevé

5. Therese Johansen

6. Anja Hodann

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More

Puccio Wins Tierra Boulder Battle in Stockholm | Climbing

Alex sussing out the weird start of Prob 2 (set by Mélissa Le Nevé). Despite the strange movement, Alex crushed it!