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Angie Payne Is Going Big!
Angie with the bags. Photo by Keith Ladinski
One of our favorite Boulder-based boulderers, the wonderful Miss Angie Payne, has headed off on a major expedition with Keith Ladzinski, Mike Libecki, and Ethan Pringle. Payne has started a blog where she will talk about the expedition (and other climbing-related stuff) and so far it is quite good. See it here – Angie Payne Blog.
What does this have to do with The Spot? While checking out her expedition info I realized that Angie’s athlete page on trip sponsor Mountain Hardware’s site has an interesting section where she talks about a moment that changed her climbing. The moment she is talking about happened at the 2010 Battle In The Bubble.
Angie was a major competitor for many years, though in the mid 2000’s she seemed to retire from comp climbing for a while. Then she got hurt, came back, began competing again, and a few months later became the first woman in the world to climb a confirmed V13 when she did The Automator at Rocky Mountain National Park.
It is cool to read that the Battle In The Bubble competition was so much fun for Angie and that it had such a positive effect on her climbing life.
Angie’s comments on the Mountain Hardware site
To see her whole Mountain Hardware athlete profile (which is pretty good reading) click here – Mountain Hardwear | Athlete Angela Payne – Climbing
And the picture she is talking about? Taken by none other than Ben Alexandra. Check it out:
Angie’s big smile | photo by Ben Alexandra
Have fun in Iceland and Greenland Angie!!!
New Wall Grand Opening, Team Austria, and a Setting Update
Today, Wednesday, June 2, is the grand opening day for the New Wall. What does this mean for you? FREE CLIMBING ALL DAY!!! So bring your friends who aren’t members to check out the gym and talk them into joining! We are also offering $5 daypasses on Thursday and Friday, and a summer membership special of $125 for 3 months of climbing. They’re really good deals, so don’t miss out.
Carlo is jumping to the blue ring (below the purple Hueco). So far he is the only one who has stuck this dyno out the belly of the new wall.
Last week we finished the post-Battle gym reset, and this week we’re adding a bunch of problems to fill the walls in better. Yesterday it was the Font, and today, I’m not really sure, you’ll have to come by and see! Also yesterday, the Austrian team (and one of the Germans) showed up at the Spot to prep for the upcoming World Cup in Vail. It was quite fun to watch them climb on the semifinals and finals from The Battle in The Bubble.
Team Austria at The Spot
World Cup winners checking out the Battle semis
See you at The Spot today!!!
DRCC Women’s Semifinals Video
The setters all attended semifinals so we could get a good feel for how the competitors were climbing and make sure we didn’t need to make any tweaks to the difficulty of the finals problems. I brought the little Flip camera my mom gave me for my birthday and shot some video of various people climbing various problems. This video is of the DRCC Women’s Semifinals problems (though the first two are non-DRCC cause we didn’t have enough holds). Most of the women who competed are in it, though I missed Audrey Sniezek and Kristen Felix–sorry girls! The edit is pretty rough cause I didn’t have a ton of time, and I decided that comp background noises would give you a better feel for how things were going than a techno track would, so the original noise is in all the clips. I’ll put a guys one together when I have time. Enjoy!
Battle in The Bubble – Men’s Final 5 – Technique Thoughts
Obviously, Men’s Final 5 had to be a really hard problem. The bulk of the problem was set by Jonny Hork, who took one look at the big purple Climb-It tufa and set to work screwing it on the steepest part of the roof.
First hold on the wall.
The ladder was sketchy (flimsy aluminum on wet plastic) so Jon decided to help Jonny out a bit. Anyways, with a bit of input from the rest of the team and a lot of his own ideas, Jonny put up what turned out to be a spectacular final problem. One of the most interesting things about it is that, after a few tries, both Daniel and Julian were getting high on the problem, but Daniel was besting Julian by two moves (even before he stuck the final hold in the dramatic finish). Here are some pictures I took of their last tries, cause it’s interesting to see what’s different:
Julian
Julian sticking the Halo hold
Throwing his heel in the Halo
Doing an incredibly powerful flag move to the hold far out left.
Straining to reach the left hand hold, but he wasn't quite long enough in the position he was in to grab a hold of it well enough to move on.
It looked like Julian tried as hard as he could to reach that left hand, and he couldn’t quite get it well enough, so he fell off. That Halo he’s matched in is kinda slopey, and it’s pretty impressive that he did the movement the way he did. Let’s see how Daniel did it differently:
Daniel
Daniel kept his feet low and used a left foot heel hook on the tufa for the hand move out left.
He matched his right foot on the tufa, moved his left heel to a toe, and now he's in a good position to get his right heel up with his body already high.
With a high body and good heel, he can do the powerful move to the next high right handhold.
On his first two tries, Daniel did these same moves, but he seemed to be barely hanging on. Before this try he had a 2 minute rest, and it showed. In this sequence he is much stronger, and locked off much higher on his left hand and right heel, so the move to the high right hand isn’t so stretched out this time. Also, his foot cut isn’t quite as dramatic as the one you saw in this post: Battle in The Bubble Goes Off HUGE!!! This go, his last, he easily got his feet back on, hucked sideways for the finish hold, and somehow, magically, stuck it. The crowd went absolutely wild, competitors rushed the mats to hug Daniel, and everybody had huge grins on their faces. It was a fantastic ending to a great event.
More Battle in The Bubble!!!
Shannon Forsman with a good show on Women's 1
Photos, videos, and reviews of The Battle in The Bubble are pouring in. It’s worth noting that there was a mistake on the original finals score posting–Chauncy Cox ended up in 4th and Flannery Shay-Nemirow was in 5th. The mix-up was due to the fact that Flannery’s performance on earlier problems gave her a higher combined score than Chanuncy had, but Chauncy did better on the last problem they climbed on (W2) and since in the elimination format each problem is a blank slate, Chauncy’s performance progressed her to problem 3 and therefore she beat Flan, who suffered on the slab of problem 2. Make sense? I hope? Results for all the events (citizen’s, semis, and finals) are here: Results | The Battle in The Bubble | Boulder, CO
Flan racking up the points on W1. Too bad they don't carry over...
Video #1 is out–a highlight reel from Sender Films. Click here, and if it starts on the wrong video, scroll down on the right side–it’s the bottom one: Battle in the Bubble Highlight Reel on Spot TV
It was cold, but the crowd was pretty huge!
For some pictures by a guy who actually knows what he’s doing, check out these: Battle in the Bubble Finals – Bouldering Comp | Fullerton Images
There are also many pics showing up on Facebook and Keith Ladzinski took a bunch that will be showing up soon. Stay tuned!
Angie Payne Battle in The Bubble Spectacular Fall!
After a long hiatus from comp climbing, which included some outdoor climbing and lots of school and work, and then an ankle injury that stopped climbing entirely for a while, Angie Payne burst back on the scene and came a hairs breadth away from WINNING The Battle in The Bubble!
Set up on those tiny crimps!
It’s right there! Just grab it!!! After slipping off on her flash, Angie wanted to be certain of grabbing the hold the second time, so she pulled as hard as she could off the little tiny Climb-It crimps…
Soooooo close to the finish jug!
And then her left hand blew...
We're so glad she landed safely...Thanks Asana!
On her next try Alex Puccio promptly pulled it together and hiked the problem, and Angie, tired from her two laps, succumbed to a foot-slip at mid-height on her final try. Both girls climbed super well and we were proud to have them. Great job Angie and Alex!!!
Alex securing the win!
Battle in The Bubble – Climb-It Finals – Setting Women’s 2
Kevin trying out some weird beta for Women's Final 2
Setting for the Battle in The Bubble was a two part gig. The first part was at the Spot, where we set the DRCC semifinals problems on Tuesday and Wednesday (and then put up again Friday night). The second part was at the Boulder Reservoir, where we spent Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday setting, forerunning, and hoping it wouldn’t rain. Besides weather worries, non-gym setting presents some particular challenges to a setting team, a major one of which is the lack of padding at the base of the wall.
A blank slate - Women's Final 2 will go up the left corner
No pads, no holds, but nice wall!
Yeah, those are boards under there, and the boards are sitting on steel framework. Fun times. Good thing Asana brought us some beefy foam!
So Women’s Final 2 was a joint effort between Max Zolotukhin and Kevin Jorgeson. The terrain was challenging–a partial slab/corner with a little kicker roof in it on the left wing of the left wall. Luckily Climb-It gave us some cool slopey holds to use. It was obvious from the start that the problem would climb into the corner and then out of it. Kevin and Max experimented with different versions of a stem sequence, and ended up with a pretty good skeleton of holds on the wall. Then it was time to try the problem. Because of the pad shortage, forerunning had to be a concerted effort where we worked together and were all in the same area at the same time. This was good for Kevin, who couldn’t figure out how to get out of this mess he got himself into:
What now Kevin?
Actually, he was just trying to figure out what competitors might do besides the intended sequence. A big part of forerunning is trying to figure out ways to cheat the sequence and skip holds/moves/major parts of the problem.
Kevin sizing up the dyno potential
When climbing in a comp, choosing to cheat a sequence (by dynoing, or climbing up naturals or footholds, for example) is a risk you take. If you make it, it pays off big. If you fall off, you’ll often have fewer points than someone you may have touched (but not controlled) a higher hold than if that person climbed on the actual holds. In the picture above, if Kevin dynos and misses, he gets points for the pocket in his left hand, let’s call it 6. Someone else might go right to the jug (7) and then fall off. That person is further in the sequence than Kevin is, and therefore gets more points. However, if Kevin catches the dyno he gets the finish hold points, say 10, so he’d beat the person that fell on 7.
The dyno looks impossible, so Kevin turns his attention back to the hold he should be going for--the next in sequence.
Instead, Kevin will climb the problem in the correct sequence. If you were at the comp or watched it online you’ll know the problem that the girls climbed on looked a little different from this one. That’s the main reason we forerun–to dial in the difficulty and movement of a problem. In this case, it is possible to flip around like Kevin is, but it’s more secure to stay face into the corner and reach with right hand instead of left to the pocket, so that’s what all the girls did. Forerunning helped us recognize the superior sequence and fix the problem to support that sequence (i.e. we added a push hold for the left hand and took off unnecessary holds). We also experimented with different styles of lean-in stemming movement, including a pushing match on a sloping roof hold. Ivo, one of the forerunners who also built the wall, was able to climb the problem no matter what the weird stemming sequence was. He liked the push sequence as much as the lean sequence. In the picture below, Max’s friend Gavin is going to try out the push:
Gavin trying the roof push version
Then an Asana pad showed up, and we were extremely psyched to test it out:
Kevin about to jump. The Women's problem on the left is in another middle stage.
More to come!!!
Battle in The Bubble Goes Off HUGE!!!
The sheer power of Daniel Woods | pic Jackie Hueftle
The Battle in The Bubble was fantastic. I know, it’s immodest to say how amazing it was, but we at the Spot and the Professional Climbers International are so proud of the setting crew, the climbers, the Sender guys, the AV team, the lighting guys, Ian the skydiver, the volunteers, the vendor village participants, the kayak and paddle board demonstrators, the APEX parkour guys, the Vail Valley Association, Red Bull, Wahoos, Avery, Avid 4 Adventure, Mix 1, Gibbon Slacklines, everyone who tried David Garcia’s ATG challenge, and the staff from the Spot for taking many unlikely variables (and lots of doubters) and putting together a spectacular show. Thank you everyone for your hard work to make this the best climbing event Boulder has ever seen.
Women's winner Alex Puccio and men's winner Daniel Woods on their final problems | pic Jackie Hueftle
We’d like to thank all our sponsors, but since this is the setting blog I’m going to focus on the setting-related sponsors here.
Thank you Climb-It, for all the awesome holds in such striking colors!
Thank you ASANA, for all the neck-saving crashpads!
Thank you to Ivo, Travis, and the rest of the crew from Walltopia, for building these spectacular walls. We’re looking forward to getting them up in the Spot!!!
Asana pads, Walltopia walls, Climb-it holds. And Brazilian strongman Felipe Camargo forerunning Men's Final 1.
Finally, we’d like to thank all the spectators for showing up, enjoying the festival, and hanging out through the cold (but luckily dry!) weather to watch the climbers battle it out. It was an amazing evening, and it could never have happened without the support and hard work of so many, but if you hadn’t come to watch it would have all been for nought. We hope you all had an excellent time and were psyched out of your minds when Angie and Alex and Daniel and Julian battled it out on the final problems.
This picture of Alex Puccio high up on Women's 4 isn't particularly special, until you notice Julian Bautista taking flight in the background. Thanks Asana, for saving his butt.
There’s so much to write about this comp, and so many pictures to share, so stay tuned for pictures and video in the coming days. I’ll do a full write-up as well. Until then, here are results:
And a few bits from others who came to the event:
Peter Beal’s Battle in the Bubble Review
Pictures from the redpoint round and pro qualifier | Fullerton Images
DRCC Semifinals Holds Arrive!!!
NEW DRCC HOLDS!!!
So last night (though it’s still tonight to me, cause I haven’t gone to bed yet!) we stripped the entire gym in preparation for tomorrow’s semifinals setting.
Nice Slot!
Then we spent some time playing with the DRCC holds that arrived earlier today. They really went all-out and sent us some incredible color combinations and unique comp pours.
Some DRCC Dual-tex masterpieces
Their Dual-tex is the best any of us have ever seen. It literally feels like you are touching glass–it’s that slick. Another nice thing about the DRCC is the way they put little love touches on their holds. Like these veins on the back of their bolt-on volume:
Sweet Veins!
Notice the proliferation of t-nuts on this baby. They're all sunk straight into the polyurethane, and are perfectly straight!
And the many options they gave us on the volume for screws, or bolts. Oh, and the striped colors? That took some serious effort. Thanks Brian!!! And Vince, and Nick, and Allison! We are really psyched to get these beauties up on our walls!
Oh yeah, and here’s my favorite touch:
It's not a very good picture, but see the little heart on this baby?
And one more, with Jay Jay and her favorite hold:
"It looks like I got shot!" She says.
So make sure you come to the Spot on the morning of Saturday, May 15th, for the semifinals of the Battle in The Bubble! You’ll get to watch the pros climb on these holds and problems, which is awesome cause they’re the only problems from the comp that will stay up in the gym (except for possibly some dojo citizen’s problems), and you’ll have the pros’ beta so you can try and climb them yourselves!
Thanks Detroit Rock Climbing Company!!!
Climb-It’s Kyle Owen to Compete in The Battle In The Bubble
So Cal climber Kyle Owen will be representing Climb-It Holds as he does his best to bring home the big $$ at The Battle in The Bubble. Kyle is no stranger to Boulder, and he’s no slouch in competition either. Last year he surprised everybody when, as a member of the 2009 USA Climbing Bouldering Team, he earned one of only 6 spots in Finals against a very stacked field at the Bouldering World Cup in Vail. Here are some pics I took of his dramatic solution to Men’s Final 1:
Kyle psyching up for the end of Men's Final 1
Deciding to go for it
Jumpin' like Jordan
Stick!
After a great performance he ended up in 5th–an amazing result for a climber who literally came out of left field to best many international competitors far more experienced in World Cup style competitions. Here is a video of the event: Kyle Owen Climbs in the IFSC Bouldering World Cup Finals, 2009 on Vimeo.
Almost sticking the last move of Final #4!
He’s a nice kid with a great attitude and a bunch of potential, and we are extremely excited to see how he does at The Battle in The Bubble. Wanna know more about him? Check out:
This interview with Urban Climber–Drive: KYLE OWEN
This video Garrett made from a trip they took last year–Garrett Gregor, Kyle Owen, Carlo Traversi & Alex Puccio Bouldering In Yosemite & Hueco Tanks
And this video Carlo made of Kyle doing an amazing sideways dyno at The Spot–World Record Campus Dyno? | Dead Point Magazine
See you at The Battle In The Bubble!
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