I left Thursday afternoon and went to Raleigh and got to see my old roommate and good friend Ross. We went out and saw some Irish hardcore with a few odd friends, random…
By noon the following morning I was Southwested up to Boston and into Gavin, Max, and Brooksie’s arms. I stayed up late glazing vegan doughnuts with Brooksie while Gavin and Max slaved in the gym getting ready for the comp.
Bright and early we headed to the gym and the most insane prelims unfurled as a group of very strong open men went to war. The competition included a handful of very strong men; Vasya Vorotnikov, Mike Foley, Dave Wetmore, Dan Bates, and others. Prelims was very close and ultimately it came down to a 4 way tie between Dan, Foley, Dave and myself with final prelim results being:
1st Vasya, 2nd Me, then 3rd Dave. Vasya fell once in qualifiers…
To fully understand the format that Max and Gavin came up with for finals might take some explaining so here goes, if you can follow… Top 3 competitors climb on 2 finals problems (8 minutes each) and the object is to collect cash money taped to the wall in various positions across the route. There was $200 in bills taped to the wall, a $10, two $20s, a $50, and a $100 so there was the potential to make up to $400 from bouldering to the top of both climbs but any money that the other competitors were unable to get to went into the “pot” and was awarded to the finalist with the most cash at the end of finals. There were multiple problems within each problem set and it was up to the climber to choose which way he wanted to go to get to the bills and to strategize the best way to be able to collect all the money in the 8 minutes given. The money was replaced for each new climber so everyone had an equal shot.
Then finals happened…
Heart of Steel Bouldering Competition By Taylor de Lench.
Dave and I were extremely tired from the 4 hours of prelims so we were only able to grab a total of $100 off the wall. Then Vasya, nicely warmed up from prelims, destroyed and collected all the cash with what looked like relative ease and it was off to problem #2. Problem two had some interesting bat hangs and campusing but Dave finished early, too pumped to do anything else, and I was only able to snatch $50 off the wall while tickling a $50 bill on a few wild dyno attempts. Then the Vasya storm come through again and mopped up the remainder with some nice moves. Vasya banked over $1000 after collecting the pot and it was off to the after party and a very late night…
Vasya Crushing in Finals.
Hears of STEEL.
Woke up too early and headed to the airport and 12 hours later I was in Boone… A very epic 3 days and mad props to Max and Gavin for throwing such a wild comp having the vision that could one day change the way comps are run. This format is exceptionally good for spectators who don’t understand the typical finals format and makes it very easy to get into. GET THE CASH.
Thanks again to everyone that helped me get too and from the airport.
Busted back + hungover + bored = Philly Airport...
Oh and Doug is PREGNANT. So...
This week is going to be a lot of work and then off to Charlottesville to take care of my mom for a couple of days and set at Rise Up in Lynchburg.
Till then…
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