Breakaway Success of the Year

Alex Johnson

The 2008 Bouldering World Cup, held in Vail, Colorado, last June 6-7, saw the world’s strongest women — Lisa Rands, Alex Puccio, Anna Stohr, etc. — test their mettle. So many spectators’ reaction when they saw Alex Johnson topping the podium might have been, “Who?!”

Johnson, 19, started climbing in a Wisconsin gym in 1999 and, despite good performances nationally and in international speed events (and 5.13 redpoints at the Red River Gorge and Rifle), long remained under the radar. Vail was her first World Cup, a win she parlayed into serious momentum over the summer and autumn, with sends of two V11s — Chaos Canyon’s Sunspot and Poudre Canyon’s Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves — in her new home of Colorado. Then on August 25, Johnson made a one-day send of the crimpy Clear Blue Skies (V12), at Mount Evans. “I don’t think I approached climbing any differently this year,” says Johnson. “Things just really started falling into place.”

Honorable Mentions

• Jonathan Siegrist, climbing only four years, for redpointing Colorado testpieces like Vogue (5.14b/c), Grand Ol’ Opry (5.14b/c), and Must’a Been High (5.13c R).
• Brad Weaver, also climbing four years, with sends like the Red’s 50 Words for Drama (5.14b/c) and Transworld Depravity (5.14a).