Orville's Comp Blog

Recently I attended a competition, The Gun Show, at the Spot in Boulder Colorado, It’s part of the ABS and the Spot bouldering series. There were almost two hundred people competing there, many of whom where some of the best climbers for their age I’ve seen. The head problem setter there is Carlo Traversi and by far some of the best setting I have had the pleasure to climb.
My personal results were third place in youth B, a standing I’m very proud of. My scorecard didn’t look like what it should’ve but I proved sufficient. I flashed all five of my problems, A8, A9, A10, O1 and O3, yet I couldn’t manage to get anything more even though I had all my problems halfway through the comp. I’m eagerly waiting for my next opportunity to climb at the Spot, competition or not.

Although I didn’t have huge expectations for the bouldering competition at the Front Idaho, it didn’t disappoint. The comp, Boise Boulder Fest, was a typical three-hour red-point format, (and to prevent from crowding) had two different comps with an onsite comp for the finals. To qualify for the finals you had to get top five over-all from both sessions, regardless of division. Despite the small gym size, the Front had more than enough problems to keep me busy all comp long.

I managed to get into the finals in third place overall, but didn’t complete any finals problems. On the first finals problem, the third move is a sideways dyno to a sloper that I managed to grab, but my feet swung and cut my hands off the wall. When I landed, I mildly twisted my knee and sat out for the rest of the finals. My favorite problem at the comp was an easy V8 that I didn’t manage to finish, but I’m confident if I was back there now it would be a piece of cake. It was a crimpy beginning to a gaston to a sloper-crimp then a big move to a mini-jug and finished on edges. I got to the second to last move, took my hand off of the bottom hold and my top hand was to tired to hold my weight. I enjoyed the comp, and it’s shaping up to be a good season!