IFSC World Cup - Boulder, CO

Two weeks ago, I headed off to Boulder, Colorado (again) for my second World Cup of the season! I had a great time and placed a respectable 23rd. I feel that I did well for how stacked the competition was, but I know I could definitely have done better.

The weekend started off by flying out with my mom to Denver on Friday morning, then driving out to Boulder that afternoon for the opening ceremonies. The competition was kicked off in grand style by a parade straight through downtown Pearl Street with all 13 National Teams present, and a bongo-playing marching band leading the way. Reminded me a lot of France a couple years ago... gotta love Boulder. The parade wrapped up in a local tavern with the head of USAC and some IFSC delegates speaking, and free food for everyone. Afterwards, I hung out my good friends Alex David Johnson and Ben Hoberg as well as the Canadian National Team for a while before heading back to our hotels.

The competition that followed was incredible. The next morning, I climbed both of my qualifier routes, climbing well on my first one, and decently well on the second one, high enough to put me in the top 26 to move on to semifinals the next day! I was pretty happy with being able to move on, considering I hadn't even gotten past qualifiers at my first World Cup in Briancon, France.

Psyched on making it to Semifinals!
Photo: Alton Richardson
The qualifier routes were really fun and bouldery, with many distinct cruxes all the way up. It was very interesting to be climbing on World Cup-style routes with American holds and moves. After speaking to one of the routesetters after the comp, Mike Helt, my suspicions were confirmed when he told me that it was a vastly different style of routesetting that was unique to that specific comp. In Europe, the routes start off hard and stay hard, with some difficult sequences all the way through. At typical US comps, the routes progressively become harder and harder as you go up the wall, with distinct crux moves and the obvious "crowd pleaser" moves that make American routesetting such a spectacle to watch, not to mention climb. It was definitely intriguing to see how the hybrid of European influence combined with American holds, power, and showy moves created some of the most fun routes I have ever climbed in a competition. Awesome job, routesetters!

The next day, I headed into isolation for the semi-final round of the competition. It was pretty cool to be in iso with some of the world's top climbers, but at the same time I tried to get myself psyched up to climb as much as possible. When we finally got to see our route during preview, we were not let down. The climb was a super powerful line straight up the main headwall, with multiple volumes weaving in and out of blue Teknik holds. The top looked formidable as well, as the last few moves were giant reaches on tufas that were spaced at least five feet apart.

When it was my turn to climb, I put on my shoes, chalked my hands, took a deep breath, and grabbed the starting holds. I made it past the first few cruxes, but right before the intimidating roof section, I fumbled a clip, lost my composure, and fell. As I was lowered quickly to the ground, I realized I should have waited an extra couple moves before clipping, which would have saved me the effort of trying to clip from so low. Oh well. 23rd place wasn't too bad for my first year of World Cups ever.

Climbing in Semifinals
All photos: Alton Richardson

On the bright side, I did get the opportunity to watch the finals later that night. Getting a chance to see the top 8 men and women in the whole WORLD climb on the biggest stage of professional climbing is not something you get to see every day. Although the American Team generally got destroyed by the incredibly strong European teams, we did manage to get perennial crusher Sasha Digiulian and Boulder's own Matty Hong into finals!

The finals routes looked INCREDIBLE. The women's route snaked up the right side of the main wall with some crazy-hard sequences thrown in, while the men's was running up the left wall, looking equally impossible with a huge dyno in the middle and what looked like a no-feet, forced 360º spin in the middle of the roof.

Matty barely squeezed into finals in 8th place, meaning that he was the first male competitor to go. As soon he walked out onto the main floor, the entire crowd shook the roof with deafening yells and cheers. I thought I'd heard loud before... I was wrong. It was without a doubt the loudest crowd I've ever heard in my whole life. This is including when I saw Joe Pavelski score the winning goal in overtime in the Stanley Cup playoffs to a sellout crowd of over 17,000 in San Jose. That loud. For over 5 minutes, the crowd yelled itself horse for their hometown hero (myself included) as he pulled through the bottom crux, cruised the giant dyno, and pulled off an amazing rose move through the volumes section. When he came off several moves later, the crowd gave him a standing ovation the likes of which I don't think I'll ever see again.

Matty Hong in Finals.

The rest of the finals were incredible too. Sasha did very well, coming off in the same area as everyone else and still putting her in a respectable 7th place. Johanna Ernst of Austria dominated the women's field, coming off within a hold or two of the top. On the men's side, fellow Austrian Jakob Schubert pulled off an unbelievable climb to give himself his 6th consecutive World Cup win in a row. (*This past weekend he won his 7th in a row in Amman, Jordan, which no professional climber has EVER done before. Nice job dude!!) I got the chance to chat briefly with Jakob after the comp, and when I asked him about the final climb, he told me that when he got to the 360º spin, he initially didn't know what he was going to do, but went with his gut instinct and gave the crowd even more reason to cheer him up the wall by completing the spin with one arm. When the president of IFSC, Marco Scolaris, spoke to the crowd after the comp ended, even he acknowledged that the turnout in Boulder was "the hottest crowd on earth!"

Jakob Schubert in Finals
Photo: Josh Levin
After the comp was over, I hung out with Alex, Ben, and the Canadian Team one last time before heading back to my hotel for some sleep. The next day, I shadowed some classes over at CU Boulder, which turned out to be a really good experience. I could definitely see myself going there now for college, although there are many other schools to consider out there as well.

With the weekend over, I headed back home. This competition showed me how much fun it is to compete, and how much further I still have to improve to do well in these competitions. I look forward to competing in the next World Cup in the US next year in Atlanta. Until then, I have a lot of training to do!

Results:

Men:
1 - Jakob Schubert - AUT
2 - Sachi Amma - JPN
3 - Romain Desgranges - FRA

Women:
1 - Johanna Ernst - AUT
2 - Mina Markovic - SLO
3 - Momoka Oda - JPN



Check out this sick video and write-up from the LT11 Crew of the competition:

http://jonglassberg.lt11.com/2011/10/13/2011-ifsc-lead-world-cup-boulder-colorado/

2011 IFSC Lead World Cup - Boulder, CO - Movement Climbing + Fitness from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

CommRow Grand Opening and Tahoe Climbing

photo: Boone Speed

This past weekend I traveled up to Reno, Nevada to attend the grand opening of a new gym called CommRow. Boasting one of the best bouldering areas in the country, (thanks to our good friends over at Vertical Solutions) the only official 15 meter speed climbing wall in North America, and the tallest climbing wall in the world, (over 165 feet of vertical climbing) this gym definitely lives up to its expectations as one of the top climbing gyms in the world.

IFSC Speed wall at night!
photo: Boone Speed

The bouldering area
photo: Alex Johnson

CommRow is actually part of a larger “Urban Adventure Destination”, consisting of the two-pitch outdoor climbing wall, the indoor bouldering area, two live entertainment venues, a 136-room hotel, and dozens of small tapa-style restaurants scattered throughout the venue. I first heard about the wall about six months ago, after seeing blueprints for the wall online. Over the summer, I was officially invited to the grand opening by one of the event coordinators, Johnny Blomquist, which I immediately confirmed.

The whole day was INCREDIBLE. I drove up with my parents and friend Hannah Donnelly (a member of Zero Gravity Climbing Team) to Tahoe the night before the big day, and drove the rest of the way to Reno the next morning. When I first set my eyes on the wall, I could barely believe it.

Situated right in the middle of downtown, CommRow is visible from all directions you could possibly think of. Silhouetted against the beautiful morning sky, the wall curves surreally up into the atmosphere and towers above the other buildings adjacent to it.

photo: Rod Grossman

I spent the whole day hanging out around CommRow. Alex Johnson, Jon Cardwell, Emily Harrington, and Dave Graham also showed up to the event, and we spent the day climbing on the new bouldering walls, teaching clinics, and eating the bar food from downstairs (the taquito stand was probably the best).

photo: Hannah Donnelly

photo: Rod Grossman

photo: Hannah Donnelly

Running the Speed Climbing Clinic
photo: Rod Grossman

photo: Rod Grossman

photo: Rod Grossman

Brian Sweeney trying out the 15m IFSC wall
photo: Rod Grossman

Team 5.10 autograph signing (with Eric Wang)
photo: Rod Grossman

At the end of the day, “Spiderman” Dan Goodwin got to officially open the wall by climbing up to the top of the multipitch wall and cutting the giant 20-foot ribbon and setting off fireworks that lit up Reno’s night sky. It was quite a sight to see.

Yes, that small speck on the right wall is a person.
photo: Alex Johnson

The next day, I headed out to a climbing area called Big Chief for a day of sport climbing with Hannah and some friends from Reno including Lucas Larson, Eric and Jenna Wang, and Hanna Grossman. Lucas and I both sent Totally Chawsome (12c) on our first go, and All Guns Blazing (13a) on our second go! It was great to go outdoors with those guys, can’t wait to get back up to Tahoe and try some harder climbs up there. Steep Climb hopefully soon?

Big Chief
photo: Hannah Donnelly

Getting the beta on All Guns Blazing
photo: Eric Wang

Working the first moves of All Guns Blazing (13a)

photo: Eric Wang

Next weekend, I will head out to Boulder, Colorado for the IFSC World Cup. It will be the first sport climbing world cup held in the US in over 20 years, and I’m pretty excited to be a part of it! Stay tuned, the competition will be broadcast online at http://www.ifsc.tv/ next Saturday and Sunday. Psyched!

Castle Rock/Indian Rock Clean Up Day

What a week it's been. I am writing this post from the cozy home of Claudiu Videscelu, one of the coaches I've been working with in preparation for the Youth National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. I just left California on Monday for the rest of the summer, only having spent a total of 6 days of it at home.

Part 1 of my summer trip: Atlanta!
During that time, I took a short break from training after the SCS Division 1 Championships (after taking 1st in Sport and Speed). I hung out with some of my friends and prepared for a community service day at Castle and Indian Rock, the two local bouldering crags closest to where I live.

I had been planning doing a community service cleanup at Castle for over two months with my friend David Cordero, after originally coming up with the idea about a year previously. My goal for the day was to coordinate cleaning up trash around the crag while getting people involved in the climbing community and getting them out in nature at a beautiful state park.

However, about a month ago, I learned that Castle Rock State Park was slated to close in the fall due to state budget cuts. Thankfully, it received federal grants from the US government, allowing it to stay open. This turn of events made me realize how significant these places are, and made it all the more important that our project succeed.

Before the event, I coordinated a raffle for the participants of the cleanup to offer an incentive to show up. I would like to give a huge thanks to all of the sponsors involved, including Marmot, Evolv, and REI, who all donated backpacks, t-shirts, water bottles, and even playing cards. Planet Granite donated rental climbing shoes and some shirts for the raffle, Orchard Supply Hardware donated trash bags, and Noah's Bagels contributed over 15 pounds of bagels for lunch. Thank you so much for helping out!

Raffle Prizes!

The day started out well with 14 people showing up at Fremont High School and carpooling over to my friend Kevin Ott's house to pick up crash pads for bouldering later on. We then drove up to the Indian Rock parking lot, arriving at around 9:30AM. At 10 we started cleaning up trash (mostly glass) around the base of Indian Rock for a good two hours, using the bags and gloves provided by Orchard Supply.

All photos: Cole Carter

We started by walking up the hill on the Indian Rock side, only finding minor trash fragments, but cleaning up as many pieces we could find. It wasn't until we got to the main Indian Rock boulder that we really found a lot of broken glass. It seemed like people had been throwing glass bottles off the main rock for a long time; we found countless shards of glass all over the ground in that area, shining on the ground in a rainbow of colors.

The cleanup crew at work:
All photos: Cole Carter

It was sad to see so much trash in such a beautiful area, but it felt good that we were helping bring it back to its natural state. We stayed around there the most, although we did make it down the hill behind the main rock a little ways, finishing around noon.

In the end, we picked up over 67 pounds of trash! Some of the more interesting things we picked up included full cans of juice, tennis balls, empty wrappers, intact glass bottles, empty shotgun shells, and even a cell phone battery. The area around Indian Rock was much more clean than when we started, but there is still a lot of trash left over that we didn't have time to get. Definitely coming back next year!

All photos: Cole Carter

Empty shotgun shell

Tennis ball!

After we finished our cleanup, the group hiked back to the parking lot for the raffle and bagels Noah's Bagels provided for lunch. Around this time, Ranger Edward pulled up and collected our volunteer paperwork and even hung out with us during lunch and participated in the raffle.

All photos: Cole Carter

Starting the raffle!

Calling off playing cards, which we used as raffle tickets. Thanks, Marmot!

Group photo!
Left to right: Chris Swanson, Josh Levin, Ranger Edward, Stacey Collver, Ricardo Gomez, Ryan Kashi, Omer Hit, Mona Nguyen, Brett Ashton, Vishesh Jaggi, Roy Barnea, Rich Kaercher, Matthew Salmanpour, Jason McCrorie, David Dobervich.

When everybody had finished with the bagels, we all went across the street to Castle Rock State Park for some bouldering. Everyone had a great time and got to the top of at least one boulder problem. Brett entertained all of us near the end with his pad-on send of The Spoon (v1), and even Mr. Dobervich (my calculus teacher) sent it after him using similar beta.

Hiking up to Castle.

Working a v0 at the Magoo's.

Matthew and Ricardo checking out the moves.
photo: Cole Carter

Matthew sticking the crux.

Roy post-send on another of the classic v0's at the Magoo's.

The Crew chillin' in a cave at Castle Rock.
photo: Cole Carter

When we finally returned back to the parking lots to make our way home, I had a moment of reflection on the day as a whole. As a group, we cleaned up almost 70 pounds of trash, had a hugely successful raffle (thanks to all of our sponsors!) and got to eat a great lunch and get kids climbing in a beautiful environment. I am very satisfied with the final result, and can't wait to come back next year!

I would like to take one last time to thank all of our sponsors (Planet Granite, Marmot, Evolv, REI, Orchard Supply, and Noah's Bagels) and everyone for coming out and supporting such a great event. We couldn't have done it without you!

The rest of my summer is ahead, with one part done. Next stop, US Nationals in Atlanta next week, followed by my trip to Europe for the rest of the summer! On the list are Italy, France, Spain, and Austria for an adult World Cup, the Youth and adult World Championships, and lots of climbing outdoors. Keep posted and thanks for reading!