My First Bouldering Competition

Brandon and I recently did a bouldering competition at CrossFit Soaring Ledge in Holland. Brandon has done several comps, but this was my first. We had climbed once before at Soaring Ledge when it first opened in Holland, but we weren't impressed with the power-heavy setting style. So, we approached this comp with some hesitancy. As a physical therapist, I am also, for the most part, not a fan of CrossFit. So, entering a CrossFit gym and immediately seeing a banner advertising a chiropractic office was also a bit of a turn off. 

However, we ended up enjoying the boulder comp quite a bit. The setting style was impressively varied and skillful, and our fellow competitors were friendly. The comp started out with 18 boulder problems with difficult level increasing from problem 1 to problem 18. As difficulty increased, the points available increased. If the boulder problem was completed on the first try, the climber could take the max amount of points for the problem. A second try resulted in a point deduction. Three tries resulted in a further deduction, but once you reached three tries or more the point level remained the same. This was nice as it encouraged climbers to keep trying difficult problems without severe penalties. We all had 1.5 hours to work on the 18 problems. It was a free-for-all, and the climbs could be completed in any order desired. There were only about 20 competitors, so there wasn't much wait to work on the boulder routes. 

I performed very well in this portion of the competition, and I paced myself well. I even managed to complete problem 14, though 15-18 were near impossible for me. Many of the problems I got on the first time, which secured me more points. When the 1.5 hour were up and the scores were tallied, I was third place for the women (and not far behind 1st and 2nd place) and eighth overall. Exciting! Brandon had a rougher go of it due to a finger injury earlier in the week, but he persevered. 

Me pulling a pretty impressive, balance move on boulder problem #14 

After a break and a hot dog lunch, the second portion of the competition began. Three new boulder problems of increasing difficulty were set up. Each competitor had each boulder problem to themselves for 4 minutes to try to solve it while everyone else looked on. Competitors were given 4 minute rests between each of the three problems as well. If you couldn't make it to the top of the problem for the full point value, you could still collect points by touching a "bonus hold" about halfway up. 

The three new boulder problems were tough, especially after being worn from 1.5 hours of boulder in the first portion of the comp. The best that Brandon and I did was make it to the bonus hold on the first of the three problems. It was rather discouraging, but we consoled ourselves with knowing that we had done better in the first round. Many other climbers also had a difficult time with the new problems, but it was fun to watch some really impressive climbers complete or get close to completing each of the problems. 

Brandon moving past the bonus hold on the first of the three new problems

With a poorer performance in the second round, our rankings didn't change much. I stayed at third place for the women, which was still an accomplishment. Overall we did quite well for Soaring Ledge not being our home gym and for this being my first comp ever. I think we would do another comp at some point, though probably only once or twice a year. It was definitely fun to have 18+ new problems to work through at once. I like challenging myself, but I don't love feeling like I have to compete against other climbers.