RRC Archives

How can anyone call bouldering easier than another form of climbing? Are you really that good? And tell all the G-rats and plasticheads that bouldering, and more specifically gym bouldering alone is not a sport. Driving hours through flatness to pull down sick probs set by great climbers with the newest sickest holds, hours spent tweaking, bringing it to a surreal flawlessness, and this is all practice? Ha.. Go to an ABS comp this year and try to say that bouldering is easy, practice, or not a sport. Here's just a "few" upcoming boulder comps in the kentucky area. Ill be there, if you wanna see how good you really are:

01/08/2005 ABS6 Comp Climb Nashville Nashville
01/15/2005 ***ABS Regional (ABS6 Comp) Planet Rock Ann Arbor
01/15/2005 ABS6 Comp Upper Limits St. Louis
01/17/2005 ABS6 Comp Sport Rock II Alexandria
01/22/2005 ABS6 Comp Cleveland RG Euclid
01/29/2005 ABS6 Comp Climbing Center Knoxville
01/29/2005 ABS6 Comp Rocksport Louisville
02/05/2005 ABS6 Comp Raleigh Rockyard Raleigh
02/12/2005 ABS6 Comp Miami University Oxford
02/12/2005 ABS6 Comp Inside Moves Byron Center
02/21/2005 ABS6 Comp Sport Rock III Sterling
02/26/2005 ABS6 Comp Higher Ground Grand Rapids
02/26/2005 ABS6 Comp Inner Peaks Climbing Center Charlotte
02/27/2005 ABS6 Comp Vertical eXcape Evansville
03/05/2005 ABS6 Comp Hester's Fitness Louisville
03/19/2005 ABS6 Comp RockQuest Cincinnati

-A full list of comps for season6 is on rockcomps.com

"with the newest sick holds"

Jesus.

Of course bouldering is easy. Heard of V0?

I think one of my favorite things about the sport of bouldering is that I get to finish by climbing on top of something...topping out instead of just reaching a pair of chains and coming back down...don't get me wrong I still love sport...hate cracks...but in the gym this annoys me bc I can't really finish by topping out unless it's a gym like The Spot in Boulder which was cool bc they had free formed boulders that you could top out on...

I also notice that competitions normally include just bouldering...at least in America it seems...how many roped climbing competitions are there? and especially how many crack rope climbing competitions are there?

oh lord more gym climbing.

lots of trad routes top out too. 8)

longlegsrule wrote:I also notice that competitions normally include just bouldering...at least in America it seems...how many roped climbing competitions are there? and especially how many crack rope climbing competitions are there?

USA Climbing sanctioned comps are usually top-rope/leading. Unless it's the Youth Bouldering or JIBS. ABS comps are, of course, bouldering. They both run different schedules (ie: USAC Nationals in the summer, ABS Nationals in February).

Bouldering just works out better for competing, more routes can be sent with less waiting, and not so many volunteers are needed for belay, judging etc. No cracks or natural features are included in comps, because locals would be stronger on those routes being as they had a chance to do it before everyone else. ALSO the U.S.A.C. (formerly uscca) is roped climbing and bouldering, ABS is all bouldering.

ABS comps are also cool becuase you can try any problem theyve got up, beginners can try a v10, and dave tieri can get on a v0 if he wants, whereas at USAC you are assigned a specific set of routes/problems for the division youve signed up for. Its usually a combination of 6 or 7 routes and problems that may or may not suit you.....either way get in line.

hashplant5 wrote:No cracks or natural features are included in comps, because locals would be stronger on those routes being as they had a chance to do it before everyone else.

there's usually a crack comp in Lander WY every year, but I'm figuring you were talking about indoor comps. Also the Phoenix Bouldering comp is held every year outdoors where the boulders can be climbed at anytime by any one and a local hasn't won since one of the first comps there. Home court advantage ain't everything

when/where is the crack comp? that would be rad to see.

As a person dedicated to bouldering Im not shure if I can call it the hardest dicipline of climbing, but would realy like to. I look at boulder probloms as this, a crux without a climb. You crank past some super hard moves and then go for the top. dont get me wrong top outs are fun, sometimes scarry but not bad. If You ask me what the hardest dicipline of climbing is I might just have to say big wall. Think about it, Hualling a huge pig or a few, hooking, nutting, general shit you find on A5 That shits hard. But then just watch what happens when you take an all around aid climbier and set him/her in a boulderfeald and watch what happens. Same with a person who boulders they might die. As fare a pure movement goes Bouldering and geting blown it where its at