Boulder 3

Yes! I’m bouldering again!

Thursday I tried some problems and noticed I could jump off again….Conclusion: I could participate in the last bouldering comp of the season! Sweet!
This comp was in Monk Amsterdam. My first time there and I was pleasantly surprised by the great atmosphere and fun walls. The best thing of the day was to see many friends again that I had not gotten to since I’m back in the Netherlands.

The competition format has been changed while I was in the USA.
Instead of a qualification round in which you could try many boulder problems as often as you wanted, there were eight selected problems in which you could get five tries each. This is far more exciting and gives it a mental competition aspect.

Failing during my first try in the first boulder problem was quite a shock… It made me feel weak.
I gave up after three tries, moving on to another problem. Thank god, I flashed that one. It gave me a little more confidence and I could enjoy the other problems a lot more after that. When I came back at the first problem later on, it felt pretty easy. I was probably not warmed up enough in my first couple of tries.
The problems were pretty technical with tiny crimps or slippery slopers. I had a hard time.
In the end I topped five problems, just enough to be qualified for the finals.

Slippery sloper pinches. Many people ended up using the bolt hole as a mono. My fingers are not made for that, but luckily I could pinch the hold hard enough to finish the boulder.
Credits: Sytse van Slooten

Running-jump start. The moves after were way to hard for me 😉
Credits: Sytse van Slooten

Slab climb. I couldn’t finish it. Only one person (Daan Groskamp) managed to climb it.
Credits: Sytse van Slooten

The final round consisted of three problems with volumes, crimps, jumps and heel hooks (for the left knee unfortunately ;)). Though it was a little bit to technical and slippery for me, it was fun to be able to try the problems. Couldn’t stick the jump at the first problem, didn’t find a way to switch hands in the second

problem and did not have the nerve to go for the last hold at the third problem.

Watching the other girls in the last problem was amazing! It came down to an exciting battle between Vera and Nikki. Both struggled with the jump start of problem #3 and they made some mistakes half way up. In the end Nikki topped the problem in her last seconds. Vera got to the last hold. We all thought she had it and then she slipped off!