Bouldering Event Draws 500-Plus

Photo courtesy of www.petzl.com/ Stephan Denys

Look out Phoenix, the next big bouldering event may be … La Targasonnic Freeclimb? Over the last weekend in May, Petzl invited its top sponsored boulderers, including many of Europe’s best and Dave Graham, Lisa Rands, Chris Sharma and Wills Young, to the once-obscure area of Targassone in the French Pyrenees. The bouldering festival ended up drawing more than 500 climbers for three days of climbing, dancing and video shows amid a “chaos” of granite boulders in sub-alpine woods and meadows. Despite some warm, wet weather, Young reports that many superb new boulder problems were done, including a “long-gazed-at overhanging arête that provided a seriously off-the-deck V9/10 of stunning quality.” Rands climbed two V10 problems and a V9 in a single day, and Dave Graham established one V10, repeated others, and fell from the last move of an onsight attempt on a V11. “More than anything, it was a very big and very fun event,” Young said.

Photo courtesy of www.petzl.com/ Stephan Denys