I left Toulouse on Thursday the 30^th and headed straight to Toronto. After an awful layover in PHI, I was through my 2 flights and safely in Toronto. I met up with my parents who I hadn’t seen in a few months and we headed to Joe Rockheads for the team Canada uniform presentation. It started just as we got there and we were reunited with the rest of the team. The 31^st was mostly a rest day. I met up with the rest of the Joe Rockheads team to give them some tips for the world cup and had a nice lunch with them as well

June 1^st was qualifiers and it was down to business. Because my world ranking is 2 and Dimitrii couldn’t obtain a Canadian visa, this meant that I was first out again! I was pretty excited to be competing in Canada again and I could tell there was a good buzz in the crowd. I was first out and the qualifiers just seem to suit me. One after another, I kept flashing the boulders. By the 4^th flash, I was confident I’d flash the 5^th as well. I even slipped a bit on the last move of 5, but managed to catch myself and still flash the boulder. I got 5 for 5 in qualifiers and a standing ovation from the crowd! I think they really like seeing a Canadian come out first and flash all 5 qualifiers. They could also see that all the other World Cup athletes weren’t flashing all of them either, which meant it wasn’t just a walk in the park.

After the qualifiers, only 2 Canadian men advanced to the semifinal round, me and Miles Adamson. On the women’s side, we had 3 of them make the cut including Stacey Weldon, Elise Sethna and Kerry Briggs.

Semifinals were the morning of the 2^nd and I was last out. I spent a good 2.5 hours in isolation just puttering around and talking to the other athletes. I did a normal warm up and was ready 10-15 minutes before my shuttle was ready.

All in all the semifinal round went pretty well. I did the first slab problem in 2 tries before getting absolutely shut down on the 2^nd boulder. I just couldn’t do a hard move around the lip. I personally thought the foot was a bit low. After a close call with some black tape on number 3, I managed to flash it and had 2 boulders in 3. I knew the last boulder was going to be important because as I was doing 1-3, I could tell boulders 3 and 4 were getting done. I also knew that Jorg had done all 4 boulders. My goal was to flash number 4 and hopefully advance to finals.

My first try was good, but I missed this weird crimp that was slightly blocked by another hold. My second attempt was the same as my first. I took a small break and tried a third time, falling on the 1^st move… I knew I was going to have to wait for one final attempt. I rested for what seemed like minutes, but was realistically 50 seconds. I thought my finals spot was riding on this attempt because I didn’t think 2 in 3 would pass for finals.

I turned around to the crowd with 45 seconds left on the block and asked them for a bit of help. They knew what I wanted and started to cheer like I knew they could. It worked and I sent the boulder that try! As I topped the boulder, they cheered like I had just won the competition, maybe also knowing I would advance to the finals. I waved to them and jumped down. My next thought was if I made finals. I looked around and found my mom and mouthed “Is it enough” and she just nodded. I was pretty relieved and super stoked to be in finals on home turf. I looked up to the crowd and said “thank you” as it them who psyched me up that extra bit. I then found out that I was already in finals with my first 3 boulders which I found kind of funny but oh well…

As it turned out I would’ve been 6^th place with my first 3 boulders and I moved into 4^th place by sending the last one. With me in finals was a nice roster including Kilian Fischhuber, Jakob Schubert, Jorg Verhoeven, Rustam Gelmanov and Rei Sugimoto.

After a stop by Tim Horton’s, I was back in isolation waiting for finals. An hour after that, we were presented and went through preview. The problems looked pretty good and we thought they were all doable.

The first boulder in finals was a dyno around a small corner, then straight up the arête. I managed to flash it along with a couple other guys. A few of us took 2 attempts after mis firing on the dyno.

The second boulder was in the corner feature and looked pretty weird. Rei got zone and Kilian sent it. When it was my turn, I must’ve had a brain fart or something because I didn’t problem solve very well for those 4 minutes. We had all previewed to go left hand straight up then do a small mantle before working left. When I tried it like that, it seemed super hard but I thought I just needed to try harder. As it turns out, you were supposed to palm the left wall and go up the corner instead. I spent 4 minutes trying to go straight up instead of up the corner. To top things off, I did actually manage to get straight up twice and try a small dyno towards the left. Because I knew the dyno was possible, I didn’t look for any other way to do the boulder; I just kept trying it like that. It sucks that my brain shut down like that because looking back on the problem with the corner, I think I could’ve done it. I had to walk away from that problem with nothing to show for it.

Unfortunately it went the same way for problem 3 and I was even reading it for the most part correctly. It reverse started in the corner and grabbed two crimps. From there you had to come around a circle feature and blindly go-again to two small crimps. I never completed that move. For this move, there were a few things that were shutting me down. The move was far, blind, around a corner and did I mention far… The holds we were catching were also rotated slightly gaston. All of this combined just shut me down and I never stuck the move. Personally, I hate doing a move to a hold I cannot see. There’s something mental about physically seeing where I need to get to before doing the move. Even if I lean back, see the hold, then lean back in before doing the move I don’t mind. This was a full blind move for me and like I’ve been saying just destroyed me. Second problem in a row that I had to walk away with nothing to show for it.

It’s tough walking away from 2 problems with nothing. I tried to shake it off in isolation and just concentrated on the last boulder. If I flashed it, I knew I could come 2^nd – 4^th depending on how many other people did it. I went out pretty excited and looked at the boulder again. I got on and the first few moves were big and hard. As I was going for the zone, I knew my left hand was a bit low on the sloper. As I stuck the zone, I tried to re adjust my left hand but the swing was too big and I fell… another error. I took a minute rest, got the crowd as psyched up as I could and sent the boulder 2^nd go. Even on my 2^nd go, it was really hard. I got a great applause and shouts from the crowd as I topped the second boulder and as I jumped down Anna Stohr sent her 4^th boulder securing either 1^st or 2^nd place to the screams of the crowd.

The last 3 climbers for the men all flashed the boulder putting me 6^th at the end of the day. It’s a bit upsetting to be last in the round but I try to think about just having the chance to be in finals and on a good day, maybe I would’ve flashed the second problem and won the comp… Looking back on the finals the next day, I can see all the errors that I made and I admit that I felt pretty tired in finals. That still doesn’t mean I couldn’t win, but things didn’t click for me on that particular hour and I know I can’t always be on the podium. There also always has to be someone who comes last in finals, today it was me.

Kilian walked away with his second victory of the year with Jorg and Jakob completing the podium as well. On the women’s side, Anna won her 5^th World Cup of the year with Akiyo and Alex in 2^nd and 3^rd.

Full results can be found by clicking: WOMEN or MEN.

I am now traveling to Denver where I’ll spend a few days in Boulder before heading to Vail for the next round of the season!

I’m pretty excited as last year in Vail, I felt really strong. It helped that I’ve been making finals more consistently and I hope I can keep it up! I feel good, feel strong, feel light and feeling healthy!

Since the last one in Log, I’ve been staying with Katha Saurwein and Jorg Verhoeven here in Innsbruck. In the 4 days we had between the competitions, we climbed once on Tuesday at Tivoli. On that training day, there was pretty much everyone I knew in Innsbruck all training somewhat together. It was a bit packed in the bouldering cave but lots of strong climbers so creating boulders was super easy.

The Wednesday and Thursday that followed I tried to rest as much as possible knowing that competition weekends are always hard on the body and recovery is essential. I played some piano with Jorg and managed to get a few bits of some nice songs on film. We tried doing a duet, but learning new songs after not practicing for half a decade proved to be difficult.

The competition started in Friday morning for the men with climbing starting at 10am. One thing to note that I’m very proud of is that I was first out in one of the ranks because my world ranking was 2^nd! I thought that was pretty cool as it’s the highest it’s ever been. I was the first climber on the circuit and flashed 2 problems and did the other 3 second try. I misjudged the distance to the final hold on one boulder; I tried a very bad method on the third and missed catching a hold on the 5^th for each one of my falls. I finished the round with 5 in 8 and was pretty confident it was going to give me a good ranking.

Around halfway through the round, it started raining pretty hard and the first boulder in each group started to get wet. They immediately suspended new climbers from starting and kept the others in the cycle. 30 minutes later, it was pouring rain and they were just waiting. They restarted the competition about an hour after that when the rain passed. By then, I was back at the house watching the live stream. It turns out that they tried to put people back on the first problem but it started raining again. They were forced to cancel the first boulder. Note: It is possible to cancel one boulder in the qualification round due to unforeseen events. The one thing that could’ve eliminated this problem was to just build a roof over the first boulder as it was off to the side. This wasn’t the case and as I mentioned above, they cancelled the first boulder.

Another thing about canceling the first boulder is that it changes the results (obviously). For some climbers, most notable Jan Hojer, they moved from not making semifinals to just sneaking through. For others they went from just in to just out. Overall, it sucks to have to cancel a boulder but I saw the wall and it was getting drenched so it wasn’t possible for everyone to try it.

For the women, because of the wall without the roof, the route setters tweaked the other 4 boulders a little bit harder and also held the qualification on 4 boulders.

I finished 2^nd in my group and there were a few ties for 20^th which led to 22 advancing to semifinals. They were held the following morning just after noon. It was nice to have the extra time to sleep in and just relax in the morning. I was once again back in isolation getting ready for the 4 boulders. It was a nice day with a cool breeze to keep it from getting too hot. I was 17^th out and from what I could hear from the isolation zone, the boulders were pretty hard. We had a slab problem to start the circuit that we guessed hadn’t be done by the time I was getting ready to go. I was to follow Kilian Fischhuber which is always fun. I was sitting on the on-deck chair when I heard him top the boulder rather quickly. Being a local to Innsbruck and the first to top the slab, the crowd let out a monstrous roar. Knowing that the boulder was possible, I managed to flash it! I also flashed the 2^nd and 4^th boulder giving me 3 tops in total. I was the only person in semifinals to have flashed 3 boulders and soared into first place for that round.

As it turned out, you had to top 3 boulders to advance to finals with the exception of one climber, 6^th place going to Jan Hojer with 2 flash and 4 zones in 6. He was the only competitor to advance to finals with only 2 tops. Just out of finals in 7^th position was Jakob Schubert and an Italian with 2 flash and 4 zones in 7 tries, a mere try away from finals.

In finals with me was quite the lineup including Jorg Verhoeven, Kilian Fischhuber, Guillaume Glairon-Mondet, Dimitrii Sharafutdinov and Jan Hojer. To top it off, I got to climb last. I now find it a bit funny to climb last, sometimes there the added pressure but recently I’ve found it quite amusing. I just think about the semifinal round where I climbed better than them which means I can do it again in finals potentially. I know some climbers really hate climbing last but I find it’s all part of the game so I find it fun!

After eating, resting and some bike rides I was back in isolation warming up. Briefing, presentation, observation passed and we were all ready to climb. The boulders looked all good and all possible.

The first boulder started and was basically 2 moves. First move was a big move up either hand then the second was a big semi-blind dyno around a corner. From there, it looked painfully easy to top the boulder. Jan was first out and flashed the boulder in 30 seconds… oh my. This continued for every man in the finals, flash after flash. As it got closer to my turn, I started to get nervous. I was more nervous for the first move than the dyno as I didn’t know which hand to start with. Undeterred I went out with confidence and looked at the boulder. I knew exactly what to do and was excited. The first move was easier than I thought but the second hold wasn’t quite as good as I thought. I set up for the dyno and stuck it! The top out was easy as we thought and all the men flashed the 1st boulder.

The second boulder was a boulder all on volumes and looked like one of the harder boulders. As it turns out, it wasn’t hard enough either with every finalist flashing boulder 2 as well (Jan 2^nd try after slipping at the start).

Two boulders down and I was in the lead, I knew this.

The 3^rd boulder was a more technical one with what looked like a hard top. Jan first out again came back in under a minute flashing the boulder. We were worried that it was going to be like the 1^st and 2^nd boulder after Dimitrii went out and did it in a few tries a well. It was different this time with the last 4 finalists unable to complete the boulder.

On my turn, I stuck a hard move in the middle on my second try but was unable to stick the zone hold. I tried it 4 different ways and each felt equally hard. It was close, but I had to jump too hard and could never control the swing.

We all knew it was going to come down to the last boulder.

The last boulder had a weird start where you had to run a bit and stand up and press into a few volumes. Well at least I had to run a bit; Jan could just grab the holds and step into the start, haha. After the first move, you had to transfer into an undercling and complete a compression finish.

Jan fell on the second move and we were left wondering for an instant. When Jan sent the boulder on his second go, we knew he had won the competition and we were all smiling back behind the wall. We knew Jan had done all 4 boulders and only Dimitrii could also do 4 but would come 2^nd due to attempts. As we tried to stay focus on the boulder at hand, we could only smile and be happy for Jan at the same time.

Dimitrii was 2^nd out and sent the boulder in a couple of tries securing the 2^nd place finish. Of the last 4 competitors, we were all tied going into the last boulder which meant 3^rd place was still up in the air. Guillaume was next and spent quite a few tries doing the first move and another couple in the middle of the boulder totally 6 tries. Kilian was after him and in true Kilian style flashed the boulder! Jorg was 2^nd to last out before me and knew if he flashed the boulder he would overtake Kilian in 3^rd position. Unfortunately he fell a few times on the first move and sent it 4^th try.

As Jorg was climbing, Jule Wurm from Germany flashed the last boulder and Anna Stoehr who was last out with me leaned over and said “Jule won as well”. I hadn’t been paying too much attention to the women as it’s hard enough to track the attempts for the men in your head. I also knew Anna had used a few tries on boulder 1 and 2. As it turns out, she had one try too many and by flashing the last boulder, Jule had also secured her first Bouldering World Cup victory.

It was finally my turn to go out and I knew exactly what could happen. If I flashed the boulder, I would once again be on the podium in 3^rd place, best case scenario. If I didn’t flash the boulder, I had another 3 tries to come 4^th. 5 tries total would land me in 5^th place and 7 or more would land me 6^th. I was only thinking about my first try as I was confident that in 3-4 tries I would just figure out the boulder. The hardest part is the first try, especially in a boulder as special as this. You never know what a run and jump is going to feel like until you’re running at it. The part that is also quite funny is that the INSTANT that you start the boulder, you usually know if you’ve done it the right way or if you’re already falling, it’s pretty funny actually.

I took a very long time to analyze the boulder even though we had gotten a nice preview before. I took long enough to preview it again and make sure I didn’t miss anything that Anna topped her 4^th and final boulder before I even started. Just after she had topped and gotten a huge ovation from the crowd, I knew it was time. Getting a little buzz from Anna’s fans gave me the little motivation I was waiting for.

I setup for the jump and pre planned my foot placements. I took a deep breath and started my run. A few steps later, I jumped up and pressed into the start. As soon as I left the ground, I knew it was a good jump. I stuck the start holds and stopped moving immediately. I quickly matched my left foot onto the ball and started thinking about what to do next. I remembered the higher foot and knew to use it. In that instant, I was pushing between the feet and the start holds and my left foot slipped, followed by my right. I slipped perfectly downwards and landed flat footed on the mat. I knew it had cost me the podium but I could only laugh and smile.

I think I was visibly smiling and shaking my head while I turned around and reached for my chalk bag. It’s hard to flash a boulder all the time, even when you know it’s possible. With my first try out of the way, I knew I still had to top the boulder. On my second try, I forgot about the second foothold and tried to reach the undercling with my feet too low. On my third try, I snuck my right heel up onto the foothold, matched the left start hold and slowly reached into the undercling perfectly. From there the rest of the boulder was pretty easy. As I matched the final hold, I knew I had come 4^th and I knew it was the end of the competition. The crowd cheered and I was happy.

I jumped down and waved at the crowd, it’s nice to finish with a top and I checked the scoreboard to be sure. My name was 4^th and Jan had indeed won by 1 attempt. My next immediate thought was to find Jan and congratulate him. He had been slightly robbed of his first victory last year in Vail due to hand jams. He’s also in generally just happy all the time and he deserved this win after flashing most of the boulders. I found him and gave him a big hug. He looked so happy and I was so happy for him as well. I also found Jule Wurm who had won for the women and congratulated her as well! I found the rest of the finalists, congratulated the other podiums and waited for the ceremonies.

The podium for the men was Jan in 1^st, Dimitrii in 2^nd, and Kilian in 3^rd. For the women, it was Jule in 1^st, Anna in 2^nd and Akiyo completing the podium in 3^rd.

Full results can be viewed by clicking either of the following: WOMEN or MEN.

I had a lot of fun in this competition and always delighted to be in finals. I also try really hard to benefit and appreciate the times I’m in finals. I find it makes it much more fun, it relaxes me and I remember where I am. I hope it shows while I’m climbing and I love the cheers from the crowd. My next world cup is in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I’m hoping the home town crowd will be able to cheer me onto my next finals and then who knows!

This past weekend in Slovenia, everything seemed to click at the right moments and it ended as perfectly as I could’ve imagined. I normally describe each boulder to some length but I’m going to skip over most of qualifiers and semifinals to save the reading for the final boulders. For those of you who are superstitious, I did change a few things in my routine which I’m sure some of you will find funny.

The competition started on Saturday morning with men’s qualifiers at 10am. I was up pretty early for breakfast and into isolation an hour after that. I was 2^nd out in my group so warmed up pretty fast and go ready. One thing that was noticeably different than the previous competitions was that this one was outside under a tent and it was much cooler. I always feel better when it’s like this because I like climbing when it’s cold out. It was raining, wet and cold which kind of reminded me of growing up in Vancouver, Canada!

The first boulder in qualifiers is worth describing because I found it extremely annoying. You had to kind of run or step-up for the first move before grabbing the start hold. It wasn’t even a hold, rather a foot where you could only grab it with your thumbs as a small undercling. It was super annoying and it took me 7 tries to do the first move; I then flashed the rest of the problem. In the next 4 boulders I flashed 3 and did one second try. I finished the round with 5 tops in 12 which put me 5^th place in my group.

At first, I thought the problems were going to be too easy but as it turned out, you need to do 3 tops in 5 tries or better to make it through.

Because the women were scheduled to start a few hours even after we were done, I went back to the hotel, ate lunch and watched the live stream of the women with the Austrian Men and Jorg Verhoeven.

This paragraph has nothing to do with climbing and more superstition, just skip it if it doesn’t interest you. So I was out for dinner with the Austrian team and was sitting near Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stoehr. We were on the topic of funny things we do while competing or climbing. They aren’t really superstitious so a lot of the stuff was coming from me. One of the big things that encourage is routines in competition. I read an awesome article on Michael Phelps about how he prepares for every race, it’s exactly the same. It made me think about my routine and how engrained it is in my head. I don’t even have to think about what I’m doing and it’s always the same. Now border lining on superstition is what I wear during the competitions. Ever since I used a certain pair of jagermeister  boxers during a bouldering competition, I did well. From that point onwards, I always wore those boxers in bouldering competitions. I have another pair that I wear for lead climbing as soon as I realized that loose fitting boxers don’t fit extremely well in Mammut’s Harness Shorts. I explained this to Anna and Kilian and being smart people they obviously pointed out that “maybe” I’m doing well but another pair would get me a win. As I am a man of habit, I’ve always just enjoyed doing things in my routine but thinking about it more, I thought I’d give something a try. I figured it would make the story that much more interesting so I switched into a brand new pair of boxers for the semi-final and final round…

Finals Problem #1

The next morning was semi-finals which were started a bit later. I was out 11^th and was feeling good that morning. I did almost the identical warm-up as before the qualifiers and was excited to climb in the semifinals.

To sum up the semifinals, it went well enough that I passed through to finals, but it was close. I flashed boulder 1 and 3, did boulder 4 on my second go and couldn’t do the first move of boulder 2… Epic. If I would’ve had one more try in any of my boulders, I would’ve finished in 7^th place yet again. Luckily this wasn’t the case and I squeaked into finals tied for 5^th place with James Kassay of Australia.

In Finals with us were Cédric Lachat, Jan Hojer, Dimitrii Sharafutdinov and Thomas Tauporn.

I was already really excited to be in my first finals of the year. It’s a bit crushing to be close and yet never pass. There was a good 3 hour break before I even did anything. I ate some lunch then cruised back to the isolation zone where I read and drank from the free coffee machine for the better part of 2 hours. It was nice and relaxing. Slowly the other finalists filtered into isolation and began to warm-up.

Because of semi-finals earlier that day, I was warming up for under 15 minutes before I was warm. I decorated my jacket with a few stickers, put on my competition clothes and packed the rest of my bag.

We were shuttled to the competition venue and it was raining, I was happy. We had our presentation followed by observation and I was pretty excited. All the problems looked doable. They had pretty basic looking sequences with a few complex looking starts. We didn’t really know how to start problem 2 or 3, but after the start the moves looked more obvious.

The first problem was a hard corner start with a dyno finish. James was first and I was pretty sure he sent it with his last attempt. I therefore knew the problem was doable. I ran out and checked out the problem. I now take my time before starting the problem even with the preview. It makes sure that my body doesn’t forget any of the moves I find. I stepped on and did the first few moves easily. I lined up for the dyno and looked up, it was pretty far. Now was the moment that I got to decide whether to dyno left hand, right hand, a quick double clutch or both hands at the same time. I knew the last hold was a mega jug so I decided right hand only. I also knew I just needed to get up high enough and I could probably control the swing. I leap and had the brief sensation of flying. I stuck the final hold extremely well and controlled my swing. First problem flash couldn’t have gone better! From behind the wall where we would wait, it was pretty obvious to guess how many tries we were taking. On top of that, we openly discussed where we got in how many tries so I knew I was the only one to flash the boulder. What was also good is that all the finalists completed this boulder in a varying amount of tries.

The second boulder was one with a bunch of triangle volumes. Of all the boulders, after the first move which was strange, I thought I’d feel in my element. The first move had no feet and a big iron cross type of move. You had to hike your feet up really high and then do a big move. From there, it was just volume climbing on the triangles. As it turns out, none of us could complete the problem with almost everyone getting the zone. I felt kind of close on my first and last try but the stickiness of the volumes felt so bad and I couldn’t complete it.

Going into the third problem, I knew I was still in the lead with 1 flash. I also could feel like this was going to be quite a deciding problem because the 4^th was compression in which I feel in my element once again.

It sounded like James did well in the boulder but he was unable to complete it. I ran out and stared at a cryptic problem. It was a “choose your own adventure” boulder as I put it because they set the problem to mirror each other so you could choose to go left or right. I stepped on, looked up tried to move and pretty much did nothing. The little thumb holds were a bit too far for me to get to. I spent a second try trying to generate a bit of momentum but failed. On my third try, I randomly switched start feet on the volume and put my left leg up instead of the right. It pushed my weight towards the right and I felt it natural to reach down and palm the volume. It felt like it was working so I crossed over and slowly mantled up onto the eye volume. From there I could stand up and grab a micro undercling. I put my left foot on the start hold and started to solve the next part of the puzzle. It was a weird cross over that I thought I’d fall if I just lept at the hold. Weighing my options for a brief moment before dismissing them is a complex battle in the mind. You don’t want to make any decisions too fast in case they are the wrong ones, but if you take too long, you might be too tired to do ANY sequence if you are too tired. I shook my left hand quickly and re grabbed the undercling. I re adjusted my foot well on the start hold and decided to hand foot match. With a little push from my right hand it was working and I got my foot on without opening the barn door…

I got up onto the zone hold and felt confident. I brought up my feet and reached for the final hold. I hand foot matched slowly and was soon matching the finish. I was exhilarated; I knew this was a super important problem. It had only taken me 3 tries as well which put me at 2 tops in 4. Of the other 4 competitors behind me, 2 completed it Dimitrii and Jan.

Because of how many tries they took, I anticipated that Dimitrii had 2 tops in at least 8 and Jan 2 tops in at least 6. Going into the last problem, I kept repeating in my head “If you flash this problem, you will win”. I was thinking flash, second try, or maybe third but I knew I was only to be able to try the last hard boulder a maximum of 3 tries.

As I walked to the on-deck position, I could feel the nerves building. I put my shoes on just like I had all weekend and started to get ready. As nervous as I was, I was also very calm. I love competing and I live for moments like these. During the whole competition, your ultimate goal is to win. Not everyone has a chance like this to win; 1 boulder. There was now 1 boulder standing in the way of my first boulder victory, if I flash it I win… I knew this, the crowd knew this and I’m sure everyone watching the live stream had figured it out as well.

It even briefly crossed my mind that if no one did the last boulder, I could also still win. I quickly stopped thinking about that and focused on doing the boulder. From what I heard James didn’t complete the boulder; I didn’t really have time to think whether that was good or bad at the time. If you’d ask me now, I still don’t really know. All I knew is that it was my turn and I was running out to my boulder.

I gave my scorecard to the judge and turned around to the beast. It had what seemed like simple moves; 8 of them, perfect. I took a good extra amount of time to get psyched up. I knew every move by heard and roughly where my feet had to be as well. Stepping onto the wall, I couldn’t hear anything. I was once again completely inside my own head, right where I wanted to be.

First move was with the left hand followed by a quick foot match and a clutch with the right. I felt like the swing out was really hard but my hands stuck to the volumes and I stayed on. I quickly matched the start hold and placed my left foot out left. I turned in my knees to match and rotated the other way to reach up left. I was really happy that my right foot could stay on the start hold for the move up over the volume. I matched feet and knew a hard move was coming. I looked at the next hold and swung my leg for momentum. I stuck it pretty well but re adjusted without putting my feet on to get it well.

Immediately my right leg came up onto the volume and my left was hand foot matching. I did it slow to make sure I did it right and came in with my left hand. It was a grip that I love; 3 fingers in one divot, thumb around the corner and pointer finger in another random divot. I got it good then released the heel hook and had both feet on the volume. I threw as hard as I could around the right to the second to last hold. It stuck and it felt good. I pulled up a bit and looked at my feet. Last decision of the boulder; we had previewed foot on the volume and jump as a drive by, but then I saw a potential heel hook… As I brought my left heel onto the orange hold, it felt bomber and I could feel my heart flutter. I brought my right foot as far right as I could to counter balance and committed to the cross. I did it well as I could and grabbed it exactly where I wanted to before releasing the heel. I knew before releasing my heel that I had sent the problem. The heel came out and I made sure I matched as quickly as possible.

Words can’t describe how I felt.

In my head I was saying “you won one, you did it”. At the top of the boulder I just started screaming. “YES”, “YES” is all that came out while fist pumping with one hand and locking off with the other. People tell me it’s moments like that in which I’ll remember forever. I can tell you that I won’t be forgetting that moment in many years to come. I can still remember how it felt to win my first Lead world cup. (photo left by Jensen Walker)

Everything that followed was a bit surreal. I jumped down, waved at the crowd and felt on top of the world. Knowing that when you top one last problem you win the competition is a feeling that not all world cup winners will get.

Sometimes no one does the last problem and the winner was actually decided after 3, or 2, or sometimes 1… I was lucky enough to have this moment and am thankful for it. I stepped off to the side to let the other climbers come out. There was still 2^nd and 3^rd to be decided and a winner for the women. I went back behind the wall to pack up my stuff and they all knew I had already won, most of them congratulating me even before they had started the 4^th boulder.

At the end of that round, I had won my first bouldering world cup, Jan Hojer got his best World Cup result with 2^nd and Dimitrii completed the podium in 3^rd. Maybe a bit strange that I won my first lead world cup in Slovenia as well! Something about the weather reminding me of home?

I also owe a huge thanks to so many people for helping me train and always encouraging me. These things are not possible to obtain all by oneself. A special thanks to my Mathilde Becerra for being there the most for me and most notably at every training session!

I know I’ve just typed up a storm, I can only hope you enjoyed reading my adventure. The day finished with the podium ceremony, some interviews, autographs and an anti-doping drug test. Anna Stoehr won her 4^th World Cup of the year (all 4 for that matter) followed by Melissa Le-Neve in 2^nd and Shauna Coxsey in 3^rd.

For full results for, click either WOMEN or MEN.

I am now in Innsbruck happily awaiting the next World Cup which will be here on Friday and Saturday.