Today was a beautiful day, so I went up to Flagstaff Mountain to get a day of outdoor climbing in and hang out with my friends. After hiking around I discovered an amazing boulder with two obvious projects on it. After messing around on the left one I discovered a sequence that works, and a few tries later it was in the bag. I ended up calling in Botslayer and think the grade is around V10. Here is a picture of the crux move:
Today was finally a nice sunny day here in Boulder, so instead of going to the gym again I went out to Eldorado Canyon with my friend Sticcs. Since we didnt want to make the hike to the Lost boulder, I decided to get on The Heist, a problem I almost did last year but never really finished up. This problem follows a line of cracks up a nice 45 degree wall, with a crimpy crux right at the end. In total it is around 16 moves long and clocks in at V12. After figuring out the moves again, I was able to climb it second go from the start after falling at the end on my first go. I am very syked to climb it so fast and definitely feel a lot stronger then I did when I tried it last year.
Last weekend I competed in the 2010 ABS Nationals in Alexandria, Virginia. I had been training a bit before the comp, focusing my sessions on comp style problems and climbing with Paul and Daniel a bunch. Unfortunately I got sick jsut before the comp, not too bad but just enough to affect my performance. The qualifier problems were very well set, with a good variety of powerful and technical problems. I was able to qualify for finals in 9th place by finishing four of the six qualifiers.
In the finals I felt even worse the the day before. Since I had nothing to lose I tried really hard despite teh sickness and was still able to do pretty well. The first problem was a little tricky but not too powerful, so I sent it on my third go after fumbling the finish dyno twice in a row. Problem #2 was a lot harder and purely powerful, so I couldn't really climb well on it and didn't even end up making it to the bonus. Problem #3 was also powerful put involved a tricky campus sequence and a heel hook, so I was able to make it to the bonus on my first go but no top. By the time I reached problem #4 I was completely drained of energy, so all I could do was give it a good a muerte go and see how far I could get. I ended up getting the bonus and making it four moves past before my arms gave out. I got the second highest on the problem after Daniel, who fell on the finish move!
While I thought that the qualifiers boulders were very well set, I feel that the finals could have definitely been a lot better. First off, the setting was very straightforward and didn't involve any super technical moves. Every single problem was power-based and it made it obvious who would be the winner. This type of setting does not allow other competitors to do well compared to Daniel who is by far the strongest in the field. In Europe, where problems are a perfect variety of powerful and technical moves, the winners are never the same and more and more people can battle it out for first place. I believe that this would be a lot more exciting for the climbers and the crowd as well, which in turn would produce a much better event. Also, the finals problems were way too hard and most people could only get one or zero tops. Only four people were able to top more then one problem, and three of those were on problem #2. Not even Daniel was able to complete problem #4 (he climbed it after the comp though!). Had the problems been a little easier, the field could have been broken up a little better! Finally, I personally hate the zone format and think that it is by far the worst way to run bouldering competitions. It gives no incentives for competitors to continue trying a boulder once they reached the bonus but cannot complete the problem. It is also boring for the crowd because they see one person get 6 holds higher then another, but little do they know they are still getting the same points, or maybe even less. Had the zone format not been implemented, the scoring would have been a lot more fair and it would have given competitors motivation to try to get a hold higher each time for more points.
Check out this latest interview with one of my key sponsors Redpoint Nutrition!
http://climbingholdreview.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-redpoint-nutrition_15.html
Here is a video that my friend Joe Kinder recently produced about the La Sportiva Solution. Check it out !
Daniel Woods Loves the Solution from La Sportiva on Vimeo.
"This content was shot in the Gorges Du Loup, which is in the South of France. It is a great summer spot with the beach near, a beautiful gorge, and some test-pieces that kept us busy for a month and a half.
Daniel impressed all of us, including the locals with his fanaticism and efforts he put in each day. He would try one 9a and immediately after run over to jump on an 8c+, and then 20 minutes after that he would attempt to onsight an 8b! It was one of my favorite times in Europe this year and mainly due to hanging out and climbing with Daniel.
He stands by his statements in the video and believes that the Solution is the best shoe ever made and he uses it for everything.
The edits were done over the past few weeks. I find editing great for the rest days where you can be productive and still incorporate what I love more than anything... climbing. " - Joe Kinder
Yesterday I competed in the Highball Competition at The Spot. After coming in third in the qualifiers, I entered finals with hopes of a difficult, finals problem. The finals turned out to be way too easy, around V9, and three of us ended up doing it, all flash. Since they beat me in the qualifiers, I ended up coming in third place. Paul Robinson won and Adam Markert got second.
Here is a video of me in the finals, courtesy of Jeff McKinnon:
Men's Final Gabor Szekely from Jeff Mack on Vimeo.
Here is the video of me climbing Direction, V13 and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, V12 in Bishop. Check it out !
http://www.deadpointmag.com/dpm-hd/78-gabor-szekely-on-direction-and-heroun
Yesterday I felt sick all day so I took a rest day to heal up, but today I felt a lot better so I decided to go climb. I spent the day trying my project Direction, V13, and ended up falling off the finish move three times with no success.
Well, in a random change of events, yesterday we decided to bail on St. George and make the 6 hour drive to Bishop, CA instead. There were numerous reasons for leaving St. George, but in a nutshell it was too cold, we weren't syked on the hike, and the routes didn't inspire us enough. After all the routes / training I did in the past few months, I am a little burned out from sport climbing and am having a lot more fun on difficult boulder problems lately then on hard sport routes. This is how things typically work for me; motivation comes in waves and sometimes I am very syked for sport routes, and at other times I am really syked on bouldering. I think this is a great strategy and allows me to improve at all aspects of climbing, instead of narrowing in on just one approach. I am really syked to start bouldering a lot more in the next few months and see how far I can push my limits; My goal is to climb numerous V13 boulders and try to complete a V14 by next summer.
Well not a lot has happened since we got back from Slovenia.. As I mentioned in my previous post, I got sick before the World Cup and couldn't really climb in the comp .. Well all the traveling really wore me down after that, and since then I have still felt kind of sick almost every day. Im sure you all know this, but being sick SUCKS .. you don't have the energy to do anything except lay around in bed, and even trying to climb is just depressing and makes oyu feel even worse. I have only been climbing once since I got back, and motivation is just way too low right now to go "training" in the gym. Instead, I have been playing an insane amount of online Poker and working on finishing my video from Kranj.. the qualifiers/semis should be coming out really soon and the finals should also be done by next week or so.
Well I am sitting here in my Hotel in Kranj right now, thinking about what happened over the past three days and I am pretty disappointed.. long story short, I somehow got sick the day before the comp and continued to be really sick on the entire plane ride over here. I was hoping it would somehow subside by the time qualifiers came around, but the day of qualis I woke up feeling the worst yet, with a fever, an upset stomach, and absolutely no energy to climb. At that point I realized it was over, there was no point in even trying to climb since I should just be resting up trying to recover. But whatever, since I am in Slovenia I figured I might as well just go for it, why not.. well it turned out as expected, and after about 10 moves I ran out of energy and fell on both routes. I still somehow beat 20 people though, not that it matters at all.
The time has come, the training is finished, and me and Paul are off to Slovenia! Game on! The past two weeks have been all about getting ready, preparing as much as possible to challenge ourselves against the world's best in the final lead event of the year. We are both feeling really strong, although its pretty impossible to tell how we're going to do. The physical shape is very important, but in the end it's the mental aspect that will decide if we make a mistake or give it our all and do as well as possible. This has always been one of my biggest problems in competitions, not messing up and giving it all I have, but this time will hopefully be the turning point!
Yesterday I made the 3rd ascent of the classic CATS testpiece "Green Hornytoad". This powerful 8 move bloc has always been really hard for me so Im really syked to finally finish it up. The only previous ascent have been Daniel Woods and of course the CATS legend James O'Connor.
