The Bouldering World Cup 2010 stayed gripping up to the last problem! Munich's '72 Olympic stadium provided a worthy location for the final event. Of all the potential winners, only Chloé Graftiaux dropped the ball and didn't make it to the finals. In the finals Akiyo Noguchi won by the narrowest margin possible - Anna Stöhr needed one more try for the only problem the girls could climb in the finals.
Route setting was very "russian style" as many competitors put it, meaning rather rock like moves on bad holds, what tends to favor either, well, russians or … rock climbers. Since Adam Ondra is the best rock climber in the world right now It was no surprise than that he won the event and with it the overall Boulder World Cup 2010.
As usual you can check out the results here. We rather let the (moving) pictures do the talking, so watch our clip below and stay tuned for our route setting survey video among the top competitors here very soon! For our reports of the 6 previous Boulder World Cups please read on ...
It has been a while since the rock climbing world and the competition scene could agree on one champion. In 2009 Adam Ondra climbed the most not only hard but also diverse rock routes and won the World Cup. There is nothing super human or magical about Adam, he just brings, for the time being, the most complete climbing skill set to the table.
It is the nature of human progress that we learn. By watching the clips posted here and elsewhere, we will learn about climbing and therefore improve. Somewhere in the world a talented girl or boy, say 12 years old, who watches Adam, Johanna, Chris and all the other great climbers of our time, will be a far better climber in five years time than those guys ever could be! So read on, watch those clips, watch them again, discuss them - we will keep on making them, for the future of climbing!
An alert mind that allows for quick descision making. Check! A huge repertoire of movements from lots of hard climbing already in the age of sixteen. Check! A body that won't hold you back. Check! Voilà, now you can virtually run through the notoriously overhanging Puurs competition wall! Demonstrated by Adam Ondra winning the IFSC Climbing Worldcup in Belgium Saturday night! His style is so efficient that we foresee that in the future everybody has to climb like Adam! The videos below let you compare the top 3 climbers of the men's finals and the women's superfinals (due to poor route setting in the finals, more about that later) to analyze their different styles. The indisputed winner Johanna Ernst for example climbs faster and apparently effortless through those endurance monsters, from the qualification routes to the superfinals. Check out the complete results here ... note: the videos below are again of very high HD quality and need a fast connection and computer. If you experience problems watching them, please watch them on our our youtube channel instead!
Das Mammut Blocmaster Boulder Festival in Innsbruck war wohl das stärkste international besetzte Bouldermasters in diesem Jahr: alles was Rang und Namen im Boulderzirkus hat, traf in der Tiroler Landeshauptstadt ein und so war das Starterfeld gespickt mit Kletterern aus den vorderen Rängen der Weltrangliste bzw. die Plätze eins bis fünf waren geschlossen vertreten.
The BAZ! team managed to pull off another great event with the fourth incarnation of "Boulderen An Zee" at Scheveningen Beach. Even more climbers, better conditions (at least for bouldering, sun bathers were shivering) and the incredible atmosphere when the sun sets and the finals start... Stay tuned for more soon!
above: Planet BAZ! Friday, 20:00 CET, 14h to go before the comp starts. (If you are interested in what it takes to pull off such an event, check out the BAZ! blog.)
The BAZ! 2008 has been the best climbing related event I've ever been to! Around 700 climbers from all over the world met to climb on 200 carefully crafted problems, the best youngsters and adults made it into the enthralling finals that took place in front of a magical sunset (these guys are friends with all weathergods too!). Everything was top notch at the BAZ! 2008, with the help of more than 100 volunteers (!!!), they built 3 huge "boulders" and the final stage. They had DJ's, live music,impressive light, good food and some of the best route setting by any standard.
That all this can happen in a country without any rock doesn't come as a surprise, without any significant alpine tradition, the Dutch developed a very modern approach to climbing. They have some of the best climbers in the world, the biggest Fontainebleau site (and the nicest Bleau guide) and now:
above: birds eye view of the BAZ! site, thurday, 28.08.08, -44h till lift off
The BAZ! 2008 has been the best climbing related event I've ever been to and so the documentary about it became almost 35 minutes long. The first part tells you the logistics of such a huge event and gives some impressions of the open contest. The second part is about the finals with lots of split screens to compare climbers and some incredible fisheye close-up footage.
(note: the clips above are of the best and fattest video quality, if you have problems watching them, consider our youtube channel instead)
Recipe for a fantastic boulder contest:
Invite 12 very different climbers, all with various backgrounds, 6 girls and 6 boys. Have a cool venue ready, with clean structures that allow for creative route setting that challenge all skills for bouldering. Let them pick straws, one girl and one boy share one section on your structure. Leave it open to them if or if not to coorporate, just ask them to care for each others safety. Let them put up problems, apply as few rules as possible, provide the girls with 2 additional (bad!) holds to compensate for reach etc. Do the ranking / prize thing Melloblocco style, each problem is worth x €, divided through the ascendonistas so nobody returns empty handed. After them setting for one hour, do something for your audience, get into the climber's head, ask them for the idea behind their problem, some might have one, some not, the crowd loves world class climbers talk about climbing!
Than it is bouldering time!
Your job is done, from now on the thing flows by itself! The climbers support each other, the vibe is friendly and the air electric. Some unexpected turns are to be expected, boys get grey hair over "easy" girl problems, girls cheat by solving macho moves with girl technique. More grey hair for the boys! After 90 minutes everybody is wasted beyond believe and you have clear, undisputed winners. (Jule & Jonas in this case) Everybody is happy.
The Boulder World Cup 2009 was gripping to the last problem, at least for the boys. Until Rustam Gelmanov couldn't do problem # 3, the outcome was totally open. All the three candidates, Kilian Fischhuber, Gabi Moroni and Rustam had shown flawless performances in the qualiification and semifinals and are truly incredible boulderers but at the end it was Kilian who showed that he is the most complete of them all!
When defending champion Anna Stöhr failed to qualify for the finals, it was clear that Akiyo Noguchi would be the new queen of bouldering. Akiyo barely made it into the finals, but then, with the tail wind of here overall win, showed an incredible performance!
The main ingrdient for any climbing comp is the route setting and I can not praise the quality of the international route setting team around Reini Fichtinger highly enough! Each problem was different and in the end everybody agreed with the outcome. Well done!
Jonas Baumann, who won the Boulder WC in Vail unfortunately didn't have a good day and didn't pass qualification. His fifth place overall is still a great success.
The BRI is still the only format that gives the crucial element of any comp back into the hands of the climbers. In 2007 we invited eight of the strongest, but very different German climbers to put up their own problems and climb them afterwards. In 2008 we had a tremendous event with the eight invited women from all over the world. Now, this year we feel that we matured enough to invite both men and women! As the last two years we would like to have very different climbers here, not only your usual competition suspects.
With the World Championsships in Munich and the World Games hosted in Duisburg, 2005 has been an exciting year for German climbing! Watch our pictures and videos here!
Als der Kletterweltcup in Dresden gerade endlich so richtig klasse zu werden versprach, war er auch schon vorbei. Die Finalrouten waren geschraubt, die Scheinwerfer ausgerichtet, die Kletterer in der Isolation und die Zuschauer scharten erwartungsvoll mit den Hufen, als ein dramatischer Sturm alle Hoffnungen auf ein unvergessliches Kletterfinale an der Elbe zerstörte. Dabei hätte diese Veranstaltung wirklich einen Höhepunkt gebraucht, denn sie war bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt mit Ausnahme der eindrucksvollen Szenerie der Dresdener Altstadt sehr mittelmässig gewesen. Im folgenden haben wir die erfreulichen und die negativen Aspekte des Weltcups in Dresden zusammengefasst.
"Du verbesserst dich nicht, wenn du meinst, eine erarbeitete 8b sei besser als fünf 7b's onsight!"
Tomáš Mrázek, geboren 1982, begann im Alter von fünfzehn Jahren mit dem Klettern in Stránská bei Brno. Schon nach 2 Jahren kletterte er seine erste 8a. Nachdem er das Studium an der Fachschule beendet hatte, widmete er sich total und professionell dem Klettern. Im Jahr 2000 wurde er tschechischer Meister... Seit dieser Zeit gehört er auch bei internationalen Wettkämpfen zu den Besten. 2001 wurde er Vizeweltmeister in Winterthur (Schweiz) und Junioren Weltmeister in Imst (Österreich). Im gleichen Jahr gewann er auch den prestigeträchtigen Rock Master in Arco (Italien). Ausserdem folgten im Herbst noch zwei Weltcupssiege. 2002 wurde er zweiter im Weltcup und ihm gelangen einige schwierige Routen, wie zum Bespiel die erste Wiederholung von Huji Hiraymas UNDERGROUND, 9a. 2003 wurde Tomáš in Chamonix Weltmeister und kletterte eine weitere 9a – SANSKIJ PAR in Osp (Slowenien). 2004, Gesamtsieger des Weltcups. 2005 wurde Tomáš zum zweiten mal Weltmeister und bei den World Games zweiter.
