The Sheffield world cup was the 2nd last bouldering stage of the year. Although there has been 5 previous world cups this year, I’ve only been able to attend 2 of them. My first world cup of the season was in Vail and the second was in Eindhoven where I placed 16th and 2nd respectively. Coming off an amazing result in Eindhoven, I was pretty pumped up for the competition in Sheffield. At the same time, I was a bit scared, the last time I came 2nd in a world cup was in Vienna 2009. The next competition I did after Vienna was Eindhoven 2009, where I had my worst place finish in a bouldering world cup, 25th. I try not to repeat history like this so it just made me nervous in qualifiers.

We left Amsterdam with the Dutch team because we were on the same flight. We had an hour to kill before we were supposed to board so we perused around the airport for a while. We found a massive turbine and decided to play tourist and take some corny pictures. Here’s one of Mathilde standing in the jet turbine of the 747.

And of course, I decided I would try to mantle into it. It’s actually really really hard, like groping two massive metal slopers…

Now getting back to the competition, we finally took off, and an hour and a half later we were in Sheffield. We found our hotel and had dinner at a quaint little restaurant on the main street near our hotel. The next day we took off for isolation. Because I didn’t have my car anymore, it was a bit harder to get to the comp. We did the 1.5km walk to the isolation area with time to spare. It was pretty funny what kind of food they gave to us in isolation. Usually it’s kind of a free for all with the food, but I guess here they wanted to keep order so they gave us a sheet of paper with what we could take. Naturally, I just took everything so I could choose a bit later. This was the the selection that I was given/took. It just said pop, pop, so I decided to take a couple of Coke’s.

The qualifying round was really good. Like I said before, I was really nervous going out. After a few hours in isolation warming up, then a brief bus ride to the competition venue, I was next to go out. I ran out super nervous and glared at my first problem. All I could think about was how many holds were on the wall and how I was going to grab all of them. Usually in world cups, you have to use all the holds, I guess this problem was special because I ended up skipping a bunch of the holds, I think…

After flashing the first one, I was feeling good. The great thing about flashing your problem is that you get a 7-8 minute rest for the next problem which is a heck of a lot better than spending an entire 5 minutes trying to figure out a problem, then only getting 5 minutes of rest still feeling pumped. My second problem was pretty much figuring out how to navigate around a big feature. I figured because I’m strong in heelhooks, that it’d be no problem. It was a bit tight in the middle of the problem, but I found the equilibrium on the strange feature and sailed to the top, flashing another.

When I came out to look at the third problem, I was a bit surprised to only find a handful of actual holds. Instead, it was navigating another huge feature. This one looked more height dependent than the first two. Never the less, I jumped on and squeezed myself up the wall. Before I knew it, I was thrutching towards the final jug and somehow caught it. I was psyched that I had flashed the first three problems, and I was feeling good.

I think we need more problems like this in North America. I find that whenever I’m at a competition in North America, it’s so simple to read, or it’s just a super hard problem. These types of problems take a bit of just trying to problem to figure it out. Half the battle is figuring out the problem and then the other half is being strong enough to do it!

When I came out for problem 4, there wasn’t a feature in sight. I knew it was going to be one of those super delicate just off vertical problems. Usually I struggle in these types of problems because I’m not very tall. The sequence was pretty clear so I hopped on. After my initial sequence didn’t work, I figured out the hard move in the boulder as I was climbing it. I got all the way up to the last move, just to have my heel hook pop out just like in the picture below because I didn’t have enough weight pulling me towards the right. I rested for a full 2.5 minutes, then did the problem second try.

The last problem was in a big dihedral and it looked like I needed to use some flexibility. I didn’t really know how to do the moves, but when I stepped on, it became pretty clear. After almost ripping my crotch apart in the “stem”, I managed to get up to the top volume and leap for the top, flashing the problem. Not bad, 5 tops in 6 tries. I knew I’d be among the highest ranked and sure enough, I was tied for 4th position with one other French competitor.

I was super excited that I had just made semi finals. It turns out, you had to do at least 4 problems in less than 7 or 8 tries. My friend Casper from the Netherlands missed the semi finals by only one fall… and he had completed 4 problems… ouch!

After an epic walk back to my hotel (3km) and another dinner at my favorite restaurant in Sheffield, I was already looking forward to going to sleep. It was a pretty long day and I was tired. I knew semi finals would be hard the next day, but I never would have though THIS hard.

After a similar warm-up, snacks, and ride to the competition, I was going out for my first problem in semis. The first problem went up the same wall as Qualifier 1. I hopped on and managed to get to the last move. The last foothold on this boulder problem was ridiculously slippery. As I was going for the last hold, my foot popped and I sailed towards the ground. I took a decent size rest, and sent the problem second go. Not bad for my first problem, second try!

What came after, I just can’t really explain. I don’t have any pictures of the second and third problem because I didn’t make it past the second move. The second problem was a weird pinch out right and made a ridiculously long move up and left to a sloper. There was NO WAY I was going to reach it by standing on the foothold, so I tried to jump a few times, I tried a really high heel hook, but nothing. I didn’t even get zone. The third problem was similar. They decided to put the two worse footholds on the starting footholds which cause me to fail. Similar to the second problem, I didn’t get past the third move until my last try. On my last try, I fell trying to hit the zone hold, but it was such a long move. The fourth problem was also height dependand. I have a picture of the fourth one, but I’m not even on the wall, I couldn’t get past the second move, the holds were just too far apart. All in all, I’d say the semi finals were just wayyyyy too height dependant. Sucks for me but I didn’t touch a single zone hold after the first problem. Problem two, three, and four, big 0′s on my scorecard. So overall, I could’ve just take off my shoes after the first problem and saved me 30 minutes of pure agony of going out, trying problems and just failing… Oh well, win some lose some.

The crappy part was that I finished 7th, even with only 1 top in 2 tries, and 1 bonus in 2 tries. The 6th place went to the Japanese who flashed the first problem and got two bonuses… dam!

I know I’m behind in my posts, I’m in the process of writing a blog about the World Cup in Sheffield. I’ve been super busy.

A quick resume would be this. After Sheffield, I was in Amsterdam for a couple of days, then went to Nancy for a few more days, then stopped in Basel to meet some good friends for a day. Now I’m in Chamonix!!

I just topped both my qualifiers, and tomorrow is semi’s, and then maybe/hopefully finals??

There’s a live web-cast which is accessible by clicking HERE!

The link has been down for a while, but it will hopefully be back up soon!

The climbing times are listed HERE in the online PDF. Semi-finals will be from 2-4pm Europe time, so 5-7am Pacific. Finals will be a lot easier to watch because they will start at 8pm Europe time or 11am Pacific.

In the coming days, I’ll be putting together the final touches for the Sheffield post and then anther one right behind that one for my first Lead world cup of the year!!

Another world cup has finished and I’m sitting him reminiscing about it. I wish I could climb like I did in semi-finals and finals in every competition I’ll ever compete in. During both those rounds, everything seemed to just click. I’ve had other competitions that I’ve felt similar to this. Last year in 2009 when I came 2nd in Vienna world cup, I also felt this feeling. The feeling that I’m talking about is when you realize that you could actually win the competition you’re competing in. It’s an amazing feeling and although I didn’t win this one, I climbed at my full potential and came 2nd by a fall, I couldn’t ask any more than this.

One of the hardest things to get your mind away from is chasing results. If I climb well in a round of competition in a world cup, I don’t care what place I end up, I’m just happy that I did my best. Someone else that is stronger or fitter or luckier than me will win that day. Sometimes when you climb your best, you end up winning, sometimes when you don’t climb well, you still end up winning. Sometimes when you climb your best, you win, and sometimes when you climb your best, you don’t win. It’s a vicious circle and that’s why I tell every person I know to just try and climb to their potential. Climb as best as you can, and be happy with your result. For me, I love the feeling of having an awesome round of competition. Last year, when I made finals a few times in lead, I was exhilarated when I fell off the competition wall because I knew I had climbed as best as I could and I didn’t care what place I came. Sometimes I did well, sometimes I didn’t, it didn’t matter.

Qualifier 1

The reason I’m writing all this is because I just finished 2nd at the world cup in Eindhoven. This is my best placing so far in boulder world cups. I guess you will argue the fact that I’ve already come 2nd in a world cup but it’s just as exciting to repeat your best position because it reinforces the fact that you probably DO deserve that position! This was my second world cup of the 2010 season, my first being in Vail. In Vail, I was 4th after the qualification round was had a sub-par semi-finals and fell to 16th. I was upset about this competition because I didn’t feel like I had climbed well in the semi finals round. My second one was this past weekend in Eindhoven. Last year, Eindhoven was the last world cup of the 2009 season. I didn’t even make semi-finals. I’ll throw out an excuse for that competition like most people would, and I would probably pin it on the 20 hours of driving, and the car problems on the way to the competition. Oh well. Having my 25th place position revolving around my head had me not completely on my game in qualifiers. I flashed 2 of the 5 problems and came close on another 2. After the dust had settled from that round, I was sitting in 15th place. I had done it, beat my last year! Click HERE for the qualification result. They had two different sets of boulders and they took top 10 in each set.

Qualifier 3

During the night and morning before the semi-finals, I had time to reflect on my results. I had made semi-finals and now it was game time. I didn’t have many places to fall, (4 to be exact) which means I could go all out in semi finals and not be too worried about my results.

On an abstract note, two of my good friends from Vancouver Ben Frisby and Kevin Shaw came to Eindhoven to watch me compete. They’ve started a 6 month vacation in Europe/Asia and they started a few weeks ago in the UK. I knew that they’d be going from the UK to Amsterdam so we coordinated it so that they could come watch the competition. I also knew that they were only going to be able to come on the second day which gave me a little added pressure to make the first round cut. Ben and Kevin are both basketball players weighing in at 6’7 and 6’4 respectively. I can tell you right now that they did not need a stool to be able to comfortably watch the competition.

I was 5th out for the semi-final round and everything was in perfect harmony. I ended up flashing my first two problems in semi-finals which automatically qualified me for finals. I didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out to make the cut for finals, you had to top 2 problems in under 4 tries.

Semi 1

The third problem was ridiculously hard, it started with a couple hard moves, to a big dyno, then a weird undercling and thrutch to the top. I stuck the middle dyno and flailed on the last move. I felt like I had climbed pretty well on the problem and wasn’t too worried about it. The last problem was easier than the third and I flashed it as well leaving me with 3 tops in 3 tries and all 4 bonuses in 6 tries. I waited around the competition for another hour as the higher ranked climbers finished their round. I was surprised when a few really strong climbers were unable to do the first two problems. I was even more shocked when the round finished and my name was pinned next to the little number 1 at the top. I had qualified 1st for the first time in my life at a world cup! The sensation was phenomenal! My goal for every world cup I enter is to just make finals. I think after I’m in finals, my new goal is to just win or be on the podium. The great part about being in finals is that usually everyone climbs well in finals, especially in bouldering. When there’s only 6 of you, you already know 50% of you are going to be on the podium. It’s such a great feeling. Having this feeling after the semi-finals made me pretty confident about the final round. I was also confident about placing first because I had visions of Daniel Woods winning in Vail after qualifier in first as well! The results of semi-finals can be found by clicking HERE.

Semi 4

The final round was quite a few hours after the previous round which gave me a chance to relax a bit. Mathilde wanted to train at the gym, so I went there with Ben and Kevin and made her another bouldering circuit. I chilled out at the gym while Mathilde did her training circuits. I showed Kevin and Ben the campus board which they tried a few times. By the time I entered the finals isolation, I was already ready to climb. I know that the finals didn’t start for a good hour and a half but I was already excited.

After an hour passed, all the climbers were in isolation warming up for the final. Because I was still warm from semi-finals I did mostly big moves and some hard moves just to get my muscles back into it. The presentation was next and then the preview ensued.

After looking at the 4 final problems, I was mostly concerned with the first two. The first boulder was a slightly awkward step up dyno with the corner of the wall, you kept going up the corner, got a slightly awkward knee bar and had to somehow grab the final hold out right. I knew it would be balancy and I’d just have to “feel” my way up the wall. The second problem had a weird start just getting off the ground, the middle of the problem looked like nice moves and the last move looked impossible. We were all thinking a massive knee bar but we really had no idea how to get to the last hold. There was a massive quarter sphere that looked impossible to grab that we were supposed to move 3 feet off of. The third boulder problem was a huge compression boulder. It went relatively straight up the wall, hugging this giant red triangle at the top. I was psyched to try that boulder because I’m usually strong on compression boulders and boulders that require any sort of heel hook. The last problem also looked like a cool one, it started by going sideways across an upside down triangle, then you had to mantle the triangle, and do a sideways dyno. From those holds, there were no feet, and you had to pull up to the finishing hold.

Observation

Kilian and Me in our element

We were off! After about a minute on the first problem, the first climber in finals came back and I knew he had flashed it. The hard part about competing in finals when a climber comes back so quickly is the intimidation factor. You just have to keep your head clear and know that you can do it as well. You have to also not get discouraged if you fall a few times, or even are unable to do the problem. The next 3 climbers flashed the problem as well. I knew that if I could get by this first problem and hopefully flash it, I’d have a great finals, I could just feel it! I went out and jumped on the problem right away, the first two moves were easier than I had anticipated and I was just a corner away from the finish hold. It was much harder than it looked, but I managed to get around the corner with a slight knee bar and pull up to the final hold. First problem done, and I knew I was still in first.

Problem two was much harder. The first 5 climbers before me took their full 4 minutes so I thought no one had done the problem. After the finals were over, I found out that a couple of them had in fact done it near the end of their time. Irregardless, I went out and flashed the zone hold. While I was trying to get from right to left, I fell matching one of the holds. I re-examined the problem and tried it a second time. This time, I kept a toe hook around the right wall until I had gotten both holds. From there, I released my toe hook and used the swing to get my feet onto the left sidewall. From there, I knew I could get my knee bar in on the quarter sphere. I got my knee bar in super high and started bringing my body around. I was actually quite surprised at how close the final hold was. It occurred to me, that I could probably get two fingers on it from here! I reached up with my right hand and I was right, I left a bit of room for my left hand and managed to get two fingers on it, one from each hand.

Final 3

Like in preview, I was excited to try the third problem. I was a bit less excited to try it when I realized that Adam Ondra had flashed it, but I was still pretty excited. I went out and on my first attempt, I flashed the zone again but quickly realized that my right hand was not supposed to be on the zone feature.

Final 3

I still tried to do a hand-foot heel match, but fell in the process of bringing my other hand in. I quickly concluded that I’d keep my right hand on the arrête and not on the feature. I rested for over a minute and gave it a second shot. Keeping my hand on the arrête was money, I got the heel in pretty easily and started working my way up the top of the feature. I don’t remember much of the top, just that I was using both my forearms on the feature and that it was slightly awkward because I knew I didn’t want to fall so high up on a problem. Luckily I figured it out and was matching the finishing hold as the screams of the crows came into realization.

Starting the fourth problem, I wasn’t sure what place I was in. I knew I was sitting in podium contention but I didn’t know how many tries everyone had done so I was a bit lost. In reality, I was sitting in second, and by the time I was going out, I had secured second place. Kilian Fischhuber had also sent the problem first or second go which meant that the problem was possible. I knew in my head that if I could send this problem, I’d win. I also knew that from the screams of the crowd that Killian had sent the problem. My first try, I got up to the dyno. During the preview, we knew that the hardest part of the problem was going to be setting up for the dyno and catching it. We thought that the last move wouldn’t be too too hard. During the 4 minutes, I fell on the dyno a couple of times, then I wondered if I was doing it right. I tried it a different way and quickly realized that we were doing it right. I took my last 40 seconds to re-focus and get ready for a final try. At the 2 second mark, I stepped onto the problem. For those unfamiliar with the world cup finals format, you can step on the wall at 1 second remaining and even though your time has expired, you can finish that last attempt. I sprinted through the first 4 moves up to the dyno.

Final 4

I let out a scream to get me psyched up and shot up for the holds. Although it was my closest attempt to sticking the dyno, I still came peeling off the wall, unable to complete the problem.

After 4 problems in finals, I ended with a score of 3 tops in 5 tries and 4 bonuses in 4 tries. Sadly, Dmitry Sharafutdinov from Russia had 3 tops in 4 tries, beating me by one fall. I’ll admit, I was pretty crushed that I came second by one fall especially because I knew that last problem was the key. I also knew that if we had tied, I’d have won in count-back. I quickly went from being disappointed to extremely happy. I knew that I had done extremely well in finals and my second place position was still amazing. I had done it, I had come 2nd in another world cup bouldering event! On top of that, the climbers in this finals were all ridiculously strong, 4 of them having won bouldering world cups previously.

Full results of the competition can be found on the IFSC website or by clicking HERE.

My results can be found HERE.

Now I’m in Amsterdam for a few days and I’m off to the world cup in Sheffield, UK this weekend!