Archive
IFSC Bouldering World Cup 2015 #1 – Toronto + CWA Dyno Comp & Stuff…
Toronto happened last weekend and my climbing hold company Kilter was proud to be the hold sponsor. I didn’t get to watch it on time (watched it later) so no full coverage here but my friend John over at Mantle Press Media and I had a conversation about the event for his podcast Chalk Talk. You can listen to it (and find other great podcasts with a variety of climbers and industry folks) on iTunes or over at his site http://www.mantlepressmedia.com. Listen to our conversation and rewatch semis and finals here:
I was busy with the Climbing Wall Association Conference and Setter Showdown at Earth Treks Golden all weekend. We threw a big after party for the CWA at The Spot on Saturday and had another crazy dyno comp with tons of holds from Enix, Element, Kingdom, Nicros, Kilter, UP, Enterprises, Rock Candy, and Metolius. We’re taking some of the dynos down to make some wall space and preserve the problems we had up before cramming so many holds on that wall but don’t worry, some will stay up.
The Setter Showdown was a setting competition in Golden where 24 setters from different gyms came to test themselves in 3 rounds. When the day was over each setter had set 3 problems–two individual and one coset–on pre-assigned walls with pre-assigned holds and pre-assigned grades. The judges, who were Louie Anderson, Mike Helt, and myself, had to watch the setters and give scores for how functional and creative the problems were and how technically adept the setters were. It was a long two days and fairly difficult to judge but everyone had a good time I think and lots of friendships were formed. There should be a video coming soon and I’ll post it.
That’s all for now, sorry there aren’t more photos. Scour Facebook and I’ll post more soon.
SBS X Parkour Jam Rundown + Open Final Results!
Paul flipping out the window at the start of the Parkour course.
Parkour Jam was pretty amazing. We’d never done a comp quite like this before and it took a little longer with setting and forerunning to incorporate the parkour course elements but when all was said and done we ended up with 52 new boulder problems and 2 parkour courses.
The first six hours of Saturday were staggered groups of youth climbers. Teams from all over the place came to compete and we had over 250 kids!
Colin Duffy working hard on O3.
The adult session was from 5-8 and it was cool to see the rest of the problems get sent, even O10 got done! After the adult session scorecards were in we quickly shifted to the parkour demo race.
Our partners at Apex Parkour jumped out our office windows, jumped from boulders to I-beams and back again, ran up walls, and cleared huge gaps. The end of the first course was a jump to double downward dyno to wall run to jump and grab a swinging bone. Only Paul was able to stick the last move for the win. The second course ended with the guys clearing the huge entryway gap by jumping from the railing by the Font boulder to the railing by the Beach. The courses were crazy to watch and the Apex guys went all out, with more than one of ’em taking a big fall while trying their hardest.
After the Parkour course wrapped up we jumped back to the Open Final. The top 6 men and women from the redpoint round were the open finalists.
~
Kilter Women Finals
The Kilter Women’s final was set almost entirely with 2 sets of Kilter’s newest holds, the Teagan Kaiju 1-3.
Teagan Kaiju 1-3 in purple.
These holds aren’t even on the website yet, but you can order them by emailing sales@kiltergrips.com. There were also three Sandstone medium 2 slots at the top, the same set that was used in the Toronto World Cup.
The female finalists were all from Team ABC as athletes or coaches so we got several nice shots of the group. Here’s me showing ’em off:
Lillian Friefeld, Megan Mascarenas, Margo Hayes, Brooke Raboutou, Nina Williams, and Stella Noble. Jackie presenting.
Qualification order:
1. Megan Mascarenas
2. Nina Williams
3. Stella Noble
4. Margo Hayes
5. Lillian Friefeld (first Spot final!)
6. Brooke Raboutou
~
Here’s how finals went. All photos from JoAnne. Thanks JoAnne!
Brooke wrestling the 2nd Kaiju hold on the Kilter Women’s final.
Brooke came out first and we were worried cause she’s so short but she quickly perched up on the start Teagan Kaiju horn and made her way to the next. The 2nd big move required flipping your right hand and Brooke didn’t flip but she did give a few really solid jumps for the 3rd Kaiju and she almost stuck it. Good effort Brooke!
Lillian giving it her best shot.
Lillian is a new face in finals for us and she gave a great effort, getting up under the roof before falling off.
Margo staying tight to move off the Kaiju to the Sandstone slots.
Margo looked like she was trying hard but she made good choices and managed to flash the final!
Margo sizing up the final Kaiju. She stuck it and won!
Since there were still 3 competitors to go everyone was wondering if the final was too easy, but Margo is one of those strong climbers who will come out of the middle of a field and win (she’s done it at SBS before) so I wasn’t too worried.
Stella on the final.
Next up was Stella, who is another strong small climber. Stella amazed everybody several times with the crazy moves she was doing to make her way up the Kaiju. I really hope someone got video. I’ll share it if I find it, because at one point both hands came off but she had a heel-toe cam and a foot press and stayed on long enough to recover her hands. The entire crowd was enraptured with her efforts. She made it quite far, falling off the final Kaiju before the crimps. Amazing job Stella!
The last two up, Nina and Megan, are always neck-in-neck for first at SBS comps and came into this final separated by one fall. Nina knew Margo had flashed so she knew she had to flash too and it looked like she got quite pumped trying to figure out the boulder as she was climbing on it. She put a lot of effort into going out the roof upside down, which didn’t work and probably made her very tired.
Nina under the roof.
She finally figured out to go hands first but didn’t have enough gas to finish. Next go she did a bit better but the sandstone crimps at the end proved too much and she fell. Good goes Nina!
Megan Mascarenas setting off through the sea of Kaiju
Finally Megan came out. She knew that Margo had flashed so she’d have to flash to maintain her 1st place. She gave a good effort but in the end it took her several goes to figure out the Teagan Kaiju before sending the problem for 2nd place. Good job Meagan! Want to see a video? Megan Mascarenas sending the Kilter Women’s Final at SBS X Parkour Jam.
Women’s Final Results
1. Margo Hayes
2. Megan Mascarenas
3. Nina Williams
4. Stella Noble
5. Lillian Friefeld
6. Brooke Raboutou
~
Urban Plastix Men’s Finals
We got a bunch of new UP to compliment our older UP and Jake put together a problem that he said “might be too easy or might be too hard, so probably it’s just right.” He used two of one of our favorite shapes, the Big Font Jug, some brand new Tremors (Tremor 3 and Tremors XL), El Fin, The Squeeze Set 2, an Epicenter jug for the undercling finish, and the Beanes ball slopers.
The male finalists were, in order of redpoint qualification:
1. Shawn Raboutou. We all know Shawn, and in this comp Shawn was the only climber to climb O10 for his first ever first-place qualification into finals.
Shawn laid out on the Urban Plastix Men’s Open Final.
2. Will Anglin is our buddy who moved to Golden Colorado to set and coach at Earth Treks. Will started shaping with Kilter and his Lost Slots were the challenging holds on the Open 3 problem on the Beach (in the pic of Colin Duffy above). Will flashed up to O9 but couldn’t quite do O10, falling repeatedly at the last move and ending up just behind Shawn going into finals.
Will showing off his first hold set, the Lost Slots.
3. Remi Arata is strong young climber and a regular at Spot finals and we were glad to see him back.
4. Nicholas Milburn has a history of 2nd places in SBS finals and we always expect great things from him.
5. Andrew Lee is a new face for us. Originally from Anchorage, Andrew now lives in Fort Collins where he runs a huge college climbing team.
6. Derek Anderson is also new for us and all I know about him is that when he got into finals (he was originally in 7th but one of the qualifiers, Tristan Chen, left before finals) all the Earth Treks guys went crazy. I’m assuming he’s a Golden boy then. Will update as I know more.
~
Men’s final rundown
Shawn at the top.
Derek and Andrew both gave good efforts but had trouble establishing on and moving off the Squeeze pinches.
Nicholas Milburn came out next and did some work, sending the problem 3rd try after falling twice on the cross to the first UP Font hold. Again, some were concerned the final was too easy if the 3rd person to try it sent it, but Nicholas is a strongman and a wildcard and we know he can do well on any final we set.
Remi Arata came out next. I thought there was a good chance Remi would send as well and he gave some solid efforts but couldn’t quite finish the problem, falling near the top on his final go.
Will Anglin looked super strong and after slipping on his first try re-calibrated himself and sent the problem 2nd go in good style.
Shawn knew he’d have to send quickly to keep his first place and he flashed the problem in good style for the win.
I will find pictures of everybody soon when more pics are posted. Til then, here’s a video of Shawn’s flash
Check out Urban Plastix holds here: Urban Plastix
~
Men’s Final Results
1. Shawn Raboutou
2. Will Anglin
3. Nicholas Milburn
4. Remi Arata
5. Derek Anderson
6. Andrew Lee
~
Unofficial results for the redpoint round in these links. Please let us know if we got anything wrong by emailing events@thespotgym.com.
~
Thanks for coming out. See everyone at Psychedelia next month. Better start on your alien abduction themed costumes!!!
FA in Lincoln Lake for Jake
Jon Glassberg has shared this photo of Jake on the FA of Cookie Burger, a V6? highball at Lincoln that they put up the other weekend. Want to know more about Lincoln? Check out: Lincoln Lake Bouldering
Michael O’Rourke at Psicocomp!
Mike and Carlo about 1/2 way up the wall.
We didn’t get to watch or cover Psicocomp this year, but luckily LT11 was on the scene and they’ll have highlights soon. Til then, they posted all the head-to-heads on their youtube. You can see Mike vs Carlo as the 8th video on the full men’s bracket playlist here:
Here’s the women’s rounds:
Ian Dory is an American Ninja Warrior!
Ian at the Denver Finals
Our very own setter and coach Ian Dory joined several other climbers and competed on American Ninja Warrior in Denver this season. We are so proud of Ian! Want to see how he did? Rewatch the Denver Finals at this link:
American Ninja Warrior Denver Finals 2014
Click forward to around 54 minutes to watch Ian, or start from the beginning and watch climbers and Spot friends Brian Arnold, Matt Wilder, Keith Allen Peters, Alex Manikowski, Paul Kasemir, Noah Kaufman, and of course #mightymeagan Meagan Martin.
Nice job Ian!!!
New Setter – Michael O’Rourke
Michael O’Rourke (MO)
Mike is a strong climber and a rising young star in the comp scene and outdoors, where he’s constantly searching for first ascents. He’s put up boulders like The Phoenix in RMNP and has made repeats up to V15. Check out his bio here: Michael O’Rourke The Spot Setter Bio
MIke in finals at ABS Nationals 2014
Setter Profile Update: Ian Powell
If you’re around the Spot much you probably know Ian Powell. He spends most of his time shaping holds for his company, Kilter Grips, but sometimes he sets a problem or two for us and they’re always interesting and creative. His initials are IP, check out his profile here: Ian Powell Setter Profile
On a side note, we’ve got the full Kilter line 2x over at The Spot and we love setting with them. Click here to check ’em out:
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #5 – Toronto, Canada – Qualis & Semis live feed
Photo of Austrian crusher Killian Fischhuber in qualis by Udo Neumann. Check out that volume to the left!
We are happy to share that seven Team USA athletes made it through qualis and into semis in Toronto. Unfortunately there is still no qualis live feed (and won’t be one this season, I guess) so I can’t say what happened besides the results. The IFSC site is slow this am, probably because everyone on this continent is checking at this very moment to see how it went and see who to watch during the semis live feed today.
The Team USA athletes to watch today with their qualification place are:
Alex Puccio (3rd)
Angie Payne (10th)
Claire Buhrfiend (17th or 18th?)
Meagan Martin (20th)
Team USA Men’s Semifinalists
Michael O’Rourke (15th)
Vasya Voritnikov (18th)
Rob D’Anastasio (19th)
Attempt to see the quali scores for yourself (Men’s) Women’s
~
We are especially excited to watch Mike O’Rourke, as he recently began setting at The Spot on a part-time basis and he’s quickly become one of the team. GO MIKE!
Watch the semifinal live, feed starts at 8:45am Boulder time:
Meet Kevin!
Kevin Cuckovich (KC)
I just realized I published Kevin climbing Big Worm before I even introduced him. Kevin Cuckovich has been setting with us since this winter when he helped out at a comp and did such a good job that we decided to keep him. Check out his setter bio here: Kevin Cuckovich.
The Spot Route Setting Blog 