Question: When is a boulder problem not just a boulder problem?

Answer: When the very existence of the said boulder problem changes the way millions of people look at climbing competitions.

The recent bouldering World Cup that took place in Vail Colorado during the Teva Mountain Games did just that when it shook the American comp scene to its foundation.

No other comp in US climbing history has had such an affect on so many people. From the 7500 spectators that watched the twilight finals to the 50 different countries that sent 80 climbers; the Vail World Cup showed that US climbers and comps are on the map for good.

It also showed that Americans have a lot to learn about hosting international events. Qualifiers for insistence were a pretty sad affair with most of the problems being too hard for the field with hardly any tops. The style of problems, which ran to the thug-n-tug side of things, were also not welcome by some of the Euro’s.

The unique scoring method used in international competitions was also playing tricks on the setters. The “bonus hold” was used pretty randomly without much thought as to the best place on the problem it should be. Any time a setter mess’s with the scoring you know there’s going to be trouble.

So after qualies the question on many peoples minds was: Is this going to be what the rest of the comp is going to be like? Is this the best the Americans can do? But those same people forgot that this was a three round competition and anything can happen.

And it did happen during semi’s that the setters rallied and showed what they really could do. Lead by USAC Chief Kynan Waggoner and IFSC Chief DongHyun Kim the setters Jamie Emerson and Mike Moelter set problems with a variety of styles from American power to Euro funk. The problems also did their job in breaking up the many ties that came out of qualies.

These were some of the best problems of the entire event and arguably the best round of competition from a setters perspective. The problems were all creative with good use of the wall features and holds. The spread was also good on the mens side with the eventual winner, Killian Fischhuber, flashing all the semi problems and the rest of the field falling in line behind him.

One the womens side semis was almost as good with three of the four problems being sent.

Finals

Finals came on Saturday night and brought with it 7500 people into the competition venue to watch history being made as the first American World Cup came to a climatic finish. Killian Fischhuber was the clear favorite even over local hero’s Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson and proved his dominance by .

And on the womens side it was going to be a throwdown between Austrian crushers Anna Stohr and Katharina Saurwein and Americans Alex Johnson, Alex Puccio and dark horse Tiffany Hensly.

In the end the Austrians proved why they are the best climbers in the World by taking three of top podium spots. Take a look at the results on the IFSC site. Perhaps the best moment of the comp was watching Fischhuber flash the final problem of the finals round. The announcer, Timmy O’neil, had erroneously said that Killian needed to “flash this problem for him to win” This of course was not the case but it certaily made for a good show when Killian actually did it!

Fischhuber said after the event, “I did not know a single hold on the wall and the problems were very different from what is usually found in World Cups; very powerful” All of that didn’t seem to phase him and perhaps because of it he became the hero of the games

A Learning Experience

The issues that came out of qualifiers should not be a surprise when one considerer’s that this was the first round of the first bouldering World Cup on American soil. USA Climbing, the governing body for American comp climbing and the organizers of the event, definitely will take what they learned from hosting an international event to make the next one an even bigger success.

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