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Back-to-Back V12s by Colorado Women
  EnlargeAlex Johnson at the 2008 Mammut Bouldering Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 9th, 2008. Alex Puccio and Alex Johnson battled it out to the end each flashing three problems and reaching the same hold on problem 3. That left judges counting attempts on the third problem to declare Puccio the winner. Photo by Dave Anderson
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 EnlargeAlex Puccio bouldering near Boulder, Colorado. Photo by Wade David
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Alex Johnson and Alex Puccio each have climbed V12 boulder problems in the mountains of Colorado, the first two by women in the state.
Johnson, who just moved from Wisconsin to attend Colorado State University, made the first female ascent of Clear Blue Skies on Mt. Evans, which some climbers have suggested may even be V13.
A day later, Puccio completed the FFA of the The Marble Sit (V11/12) in Rocky Mountain National Park. Puccio spent parts of three days on the climb, which she called “by far the hardest boulder problem I have done yet.”
The two women, each 19 years old, are the top two competitive boulderers in the United States. In June, Johnson won the first bouldering World Cup on U.S. soil, at the Teva Mountain Games. In August, the two women were neck and neck in the finals of the Mammut Bouldering Championships, with Puccio getting the edge by a tiny margin. Puccio and Johnson also went one-two at the national championships in February.
Dates of Ascents: August 25 and 26, 2008
Sources: B3bouldering.com, Climbingbum.blogspot.com, 8a.nu
