2006 Rock Master Climbing Competition

September 2 – Men’s and Women’s Onsight, Speed Climbing, and Women’s Bouldering
The event continued on Saturday morning at the crag of Massone, right outside of Arco, where Josune Bereziartu, Daniel Andrada, and Yuji Hirayama showed up for a morning climb among friends, photographers, filmmakers, and the usual crowd.  After some photo ops and interviews, we all headed back to the Coliseum for the female onsight comp. 

Maja Vidmar, 21, from Slovenia, and fresh off a 5.14b redpoint (Osapski pajek, in Osp) brightened the scene, almost reaching the top of the wall, followed by the French bouldering legend, Sandrine Levet, who fell right below her, a few inches from the top.  American Emily Harrington climbed very smoothly, placing third before Kathrina Saurwein from Austria and 16-year-old Charlotte Durif, this year’s world champion from France. The two-time Rock Master champion Angela Eiter didn’t do as well as predicted, falling early, but still holding her place amongst the top five, leaving Martina Cufar, Slovenia, sitting in 9^th.  

The afternoon proceeded with the male on-sight comp, in which “Ramonet” Julian, a Spaniard from Catalonia (last year’s Rock Master winner), compensated for his petite size with a-near-the-top climb that brought him an inch closer than Jorg Verhoeven, 21 from Holland.  In third place was Tomas Mrazek from the Czech Republic, who found the time to say “Hi!” to the spectators while sending the route a few points above Flavio Crespi, the 26-year-old Italian and a recurrent presence here at Arco.  David Lama placed only seventh, and Patxi Usobiaga 11^th due to a sudden fall. 

At 8 p.m. we were still there, watching the sun set behind the climbing wall, yet the day was still young, with men’s speed and women’s synchronized bouldering still to come. 

The speed comp took place on two vertical green panels with directional blue arrows draw on the surface, more resembling a 100-meter dash than a climbing competition. The athletes were secured with a bright-yellow body strap connected to a toprope, and their starting platform looked like running blocks. After pushing the timer with their right foot, the climbers left the platform with “Ready, Attention, Go!”  Then, they ran up the wall and started monkey-jumping from hold to hold, gunning for the red buzzer at the top. They were so fast that it was hard to keep track of them with a camera, let alone the naked eye. The Russian Synitsin dominated the race, followed by his co-national Vaytsekhovsky in second place.  Last year’s champion, Olesky from Poland, came in third place, but set the comp record time of 10:52 seconds, shaving a whole 8 milliseconds off his previous year’s time. Hroza from the Czech Republic came in fourth. 

The nighttime women’s bouldering event was perfect in its execution and moving in its fairy-tale setting. Four 18-foot boulder problems hidden in the greenest, most remote corner of the stadium came alive as shining little boulder fairies entered the scene accompanied by glorious music and high-resolution reflectors. 

The problems, set by the Fountainbleau legend Jacky Godoffe and Italian strongman Alberto Gnerro, consisted of very technical moves on huge volumes and little crimpers, averaging a scant five holds per wall. Definitely not so problematic for Anna Sthor from Austria, who, with smoothness and power, flashed all four problems, winning the comp without the slightest hesitation. The Russian super-champion, Olga Bibik, and Ukrainian world champion, Olga Shalagina, both failed on the second problem, and missed the last hold on the fourth boulder, to tie for second place, with Helena Lipenska from the Czech Republic, finishing third.   

After a fresh beer with the director of Kletter, and Emile, a writer from Limits in Nederland, I was ready to hit the mattress for a long, rejuvenating sleep and I didn’t even compete -- I only watched!