Dominion Riverrock and Team VXI Review

Last weekend, I competed at the 2013 Dominion Riverrock Boulder Bash. I’ve been watching videos of this competition for years, and man did it look cool. After experiencing the event firsthand now, I can say with absolute certainty that it is the sickest, raddest, most awesome bouldering competition I have ever competed in. EVER. I guess you could say I had a good time.

Dominion Riverrock has been going on for several years now as an outdoor sports and music festival located on the James River in Richmond, Virginia. Two years ago, the event organizers decided to add a bouldering component, which quickly turned into the most epic climbing competition in the history of mankind under the direction of local routesetter Brent Quesenberry.

Brent’s vision was that instead of boring ol’ climbing walls for competitors to test their skills on, competition routes would ascent giant multicolored volumes suspended in an overhanging steel cage. What evolved from there became legendary: the Dominion Riverrock Boulder Bash.

Footage from 2011. Does this get you psyched enough?

This year, I headed out to Virginia to see how well I could compete against some of the best boulderers in the country. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with one of my good friends from the area, Riley Varner, whose family hosted Dalan Faulkner and Kyra Condie along with myself.

The competition ran over the course of three days, with bouldering qualifiers, semifinals, and finals occurring on Friday and Saturday, and speed bouldering all day on Sunday. In between rounds, Kyra, Dalan, Riley, and Danyelle (Dalan’s sister) were able to walk around the event, taking in all of the other competitions being held (slacklining and the dog jump contest were personal favorites). It was really cool to see these events happening concurrently with the climbing comp; it gave the spectators something to do all day long and kept them from getting bored from watching a single event.

Slacklining!
Photo: Dalan Faulkner

BMX
Photo: Tanner Rozum

DOGS.
Photo: Len Murtha

The competition itself ran smoothly given the weather constraints of the weekend, as the only disruption was that second qualification round was postponed for a couple hours due to a thunderstorm. The problems were extremely cool to climb on, as both the left and right walls had completely different styles: The right wall favored more sustained, pumpy moves, while the left wall’s moves on an enormous star feature were much more gymnastic and bouldery since the overall terrain was much shorter due to the angle not being quite as severe.

Photo: Dave Wetmore

After the qualification and semifinal rounds, I found myself sitting a very solid 5^th place heading into the final. I knew I would have to bring everything in order to move up in the competition. When we went out to preview the final climb, I knew I would be beyond psyched even if I didn’t make it very far. The climb traversed the right wall and incorporated nearly every single volume, with lots of dynamic movements and toehooks the entire way. It looked awesome.

When I finally turned around to face the wall to climb, I realized the crowd was way bigger than I initially thought, which put me a little on edge, but also gave me more inspiration to try my hardest. I ended up getting farther than I expected, coming off in the middle of the last overhanging bulge with an extremely hard pinch sequence. The highpoint that I achieved was only beaten by Jimmy Webb, the eventual winner of the competition, but Vasya Vorotnikov and Rob D’Anastasio both matched my highpoint and had a better semifinal score, which put me in 4^th place. I was stoked!

Video: Richard Levin

The next day, Kyra and I competed in the speed bouldering competition, which happened to be a new event at Dominion Riverrock this year. The competition was essentially a speed campusing event on the left wall, and was much more laid back than the bouldering event of the previous days. I figured not many people would show up to compete, but he number of competitors was increased dramatically by the added cash incentive of $500 for the overall combined best placement from both the bouldering and speed events.

The speed competition went smoothly as well, with the only minor glitch being that one of the photographers stepped on the timing system cable at one point, pausing the comp for 15 minutes while organizers reconnected the wires. Incidentally, the timing system that was used at this event was made by one of my friends from Colorado, Landon Cox. His laser timing devices (Twin Dolphin Timing) have been used at USA Climbing events for the past few years, and it was great to see his products at this event as well.

Kyra Condie placing 2nd in speed bouldering.
Photo: Backlight Photography

I ended up winning the speed competition ahead of Vasya and Jimmy, which meant Vasya and I tied for second overall with Jimmy coming ahead with the overall win. Below is some GoPro footage of the speed event, with the Twin Dolphin timers featured as the start mechanisms. I highly recommend them for any high-level event!

Myself (left) vs Vasya Vorotnikov (right) in the final round.
Photo: Mark Pownall

1st Place in speed!
Photo: Lizzy Keenan 

On a side note, this was my first time using the Five Ten VXI’s in competition, and they performed way beyond expectation. If you haven’t heard of them, they are an upgrade to the current Team 5.10 model, but are much more of a combination between the Teams and the old Projects, as the shoe is one of the softest climbing shoes I have climbed in. This gives them the ability to toe in on extremely overhanging terrain by allowing your toes to dig into any foothold and keep your core engaged through any sequence of moves.

The rubber used is a new hybrid variation called MI6, which was used by Tom Cruise in the new Mission Impossible movie as he ascends the Burj Khalifa. After testing my new VXI’s on my home window, I confirmed this theory. This rubber is literally sticky enough to stick to glass. The stickiness wears out after a couple of days of being subjected to chalk and dirt, but after a quick scrub with a washcloth they are back to their old stickiness, good as new.

The VXI’s also bend much more than their predecessors, which gives them an added advantage of being capable of toehooking virtually any surface. This was especially noticeable on the final climb, where a key double-toehook allowed both myself and Jimmy Webb to power through a move that stumped many other competitors. There’s no doubt about it: The VXI’s are revolutionary.

Five Ten Team VXI's! Get yours this fall!

Thanks for reading! I would also like to thank both of my sponsors, Five Ten and Metolius, as well as my parents for helping me continue to compete at amazing events like these. This weekend I will be heading back to Hadley, Massachusetts for the 2^nd annual Ring of Fire competition. Stay tuned!

Good times :)

Training with a Champion

For the past month and a half, I have had the unique privilege of training with one of the best female sport climbers in the world, Charlotte Durif. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, simply enter her name into any respectable search engine and you’ll get a long list of career accomplishments, sponsor lists, her own professional website, and countless photos and videos of her being an all-around boss at competitions and outdoor crags. She’s also a five-time World Champion and is one of the few women in the world to have climbed 9a (5.14d). I’ve watched her compete at World Championships and World Cups for years, but never imagined I’d one day get the opportunity to train alongside her.

I first was introduced to Charlotte when I traveled to Atlanta last September to compete at a sport climbing World Cup held at Stone Summit, the largest indoor climbing gym in the US. After the competition, I found myself catching up with one of the French National Team coaches, with whom I had traded jackets with the year before. Upon hearing that I was going to school in Boston, he called Charlotte over and introduced me to her. It turns out that the Ph.D program she was enrolled in allowed her to take a 1-semester internship doing nuclear physics research at MIT, and she was looking for someone who knew the area decently well and who she could potentially train with.

After getting over my initial reaction (ohmygodimtalkingtoCHARLOTTEDURIF) and chatting with her for a bit, I discovered she was very amicable and spoke English quite well. I agreed to keep in contact with her over the next few months and meet up with her soon as she got to Boston in January.

When she finally arrived, I met her at the airport and helped her move into her dorm at MIT. From then on, we’ve been training several times per week as our work schedules allow, going to Metrorock and doing lots of endurance training on the lead and bouldering walls at the gym.

Climbing with Charlotte is inspiring. She climbs with such a calculated efficiency in her movements, as each hand and foot placement seems deliberate, precise. Her ability to read routes is nearly impeccable, (she can find kneebars and rests on almost every hold) and she never seems to get pumped. It is clear from her climbing style that she can dominate any competition that she sets foot in, and watching her in tricky roof sequences is like observing a choreographed dance routine flawlessly executed 50 feet over my head.

During one such training day, I was attempting to send my 5.13 project in the Metrorock arch, which I had fallen off the middle dyno on my first try and was getting really pumped sticking the lower and finish crux moves. She then proceeded to casually walk the climb twice in a row, and then gave me beta for a turn-around move that made the lower crux substantially easier. I tried the move, fought through the upper crux, and BARELY sent. It felt great to finally complete my project, but I was even more impressed by how casual Charlotte had made it look. Freaking europeans. Wow.

The great part about training together is that she we will subtlety attempt to outdo each other, always going for that one extra lap and pushing each other to keep a quicker pace through the route. She’s also really fun to talk and joke around with, and she’s a great addition to the Boston training group consisting of Shane Messer, Katie Lamb, Josh Larson, and myself.

Anyways, I believe training with her has greatly improved both of our climbing styles, (I push her to climb faster and be more gymnastic with her moves, she shows me how to climb smarter) and has prepared both of us extremely well for the SCS Open Nationals this weekend. She’s easily one of the strongest sport climbers I’ve ever seen, male or female regardless. Will this be the first time that the United States will see a French National Champion? I’d certainly like to think so.

Tune in tonight at 7pm MST (6pm PST, 9pm EST) to watch the finals at www.lt11.tv!

ABS14 Nationals: Training, Competing, Performing

Last weekend concluded the 2013 ABS National Championships. This year, I traveled out to Colorado Springs to compete in both the youth and open divisions, securing a semifinal bid in the adult category and my 5th National Bouldering Championship title in my last youth bouldering competition ever.

This two week Colorado experience has definitely been one of the best times of my life, and I am extremely grateful to be able to live out this lifestyle, balancing my studying with traveling and competing with some of my best friends. Now that I am able to look back and reflect on the trip, I can conclude that these results did not come without a great deal of training, competition preparedness, and mental focus.

A week prior to the Open National Championship, I participated in a 4-day training camp hosted by US Team Coach Shane Messer. This training was some of the best I have ever done before a national event given the time constraints of president's day weekend. Throughout the weekend, myself and 40+ other athletes from around the country did countless onsight drills, flash-format exercises, and crossfit-style workouts put together by Melissa Godowski. After the camp, I felt more mentally and physically prepared for nationals than I have felt any year before.

Step 1: Training: check.

Shane doing what he does best.
Photo: Emily Varisco

Earthtreks head coach Ellis Whitson getting some holds out for onsight training.
Photo: Emily Varisco

One of the most useful aspects that I got out of the camp was a routesetting perspective provided by Brent Quesenberry. If you didn't know Brent, you would never guess he's run 4 marathons and has more climbing expertise than most competition routesetters today. During one of his lectures on routesetting, he described the three influences on US bouldering competitions today: the Tony Yaniro style, (straightforward movements on directional holds) the showy American flair, (double-clutch dynos, bat-hangs, figure four's, etc) and the subtle European volume style that has begun to appear more and more often.

Brent (left) and Ellis being amazed by the climbing abilities of very small children.
Did you know Brent was also responsible for hand-building hundreds of wicked volumes and for this?!?
He's also one of the nicest dudes you'll ever meet.
Photo: Emily Varisco

The climbing abilities of Arabella Jariel (11 years old)
Photo: Emily Varisco

According to Brent, these three styles combine to form the modern-day US bouldering competition problem. This style was epitomized to a point by my 2nd semifinal climb in open nationals, in which competitors had to start facing the crowd and maneuver through hold-less volumes for 5 or 6 moves, then make a committing dyno to a good horn, then campus and power their way through the last couple slopers to the finish. When I turned around and saw this climb, I broke it up into three sections in terms of styles, which made it much easier to read and execute. Unfortunately, I was only able to get just past the dyno and ended up 19th overall in semifinals, but it was still my favorite problem of the competition.

Step 2: Competition preparedness: check.

Lots and lots of volumes.
Photo: Tom Condie

Photo: Tom Condie

The jump!
Photo: Dylan Huey

Photo: Climbingnarc.com

The only thing that was lacking for me to complete the climb (and potentially make it on to the final round) was lack of willingness to dig in. On any given day in training, I am confident I could have pulled off the move I fell on with a couple tries, but that is not how competition works. Comps are all about how well you can perform right NOW. The added pressure of these types of situations makes competition climbing all the more interesting, and rewards competitors for "bringing their man-pants" as Nicholas Milburn so eloquently puts it.

Nicholas Milburn brings his man-pants. Do YOU?
Photo: Tom Condie

Coming back the next weekend for the youth competition, I knew I had to put my try-hard face on in order to do better than the weekend before. Fortunately, in finals, I was able to borrow an iPod from one of my best friends (and now Vertical World team coach!) Alex Fritz, which helped me zone in on the three finals problems that the setters had prepared for us. With the added focus and pressure of finals, I was able to dial in my movements and complete all three boulder problems for the win! This time was especially gratifying since this is the last year I am eligible to compete in youth competitions.

Step 3: Performing under pressure: check.

Photo: Tom Condie

Now for the fun part! Here are some photos and videos from the event:

Charlie, once again proving his arms are larger than his legs.
Major props for him even competing this weekend, he pushed through 2 hernias to make finals!
Photo: Tom Condie

Brendan Mitchell winning The North Face Young Gun Award!
Super deserved, Brendan is one of the nicest and most humble kids in the sport today.
He also crushes 5.14.
Photo: Kim Mitchell
Photobomb: Tyson

Joe Gifford majestically reppin' the glorious country of TEXAS.
Photo: Tom Condie

Caption this photo?
Photo: Dylan Huey

Trying to figure out the correct beta on problem 2 in semifinals. This was not it.
Photo: Tom Condie

Me and my partner in climb, Cicada Jenerik!
It was both of our last years competing in youth after competing together for over 10 years.
Photo: Scot Jenerik


National Champs!
Photo: Tom Condie

Youth Highlights!

I would now like to take the time to thank my entire family for coming out and supporting me at this competition, it really means a lot that you've been there for me since day 1. I'm especially proud of my brother Yuri, who is now getting back into climbing after a 7-year hiatus, who competed in the citizen's competition alongside my dad! You go, bro. Everyone look out, we got another Levin on his way to the top.