Gravity Brawl -- Wrap up

So... first, the results... 'cause I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seat (and by "results" I mean how WE did -- not the pros, and not all the other classes :) ). Tim Ashley and I both got 3rd place in the beginner class (men's and women's respectively)!!! And for our efforts we both recieved a Mammut Bouldering Messenger Bag. Its a really nice bag that's got seperate spots for your shoes, chalk bag and clothing. It'll be great for the gym. (The offical Gravity Brawl results should be posted later today for those who may be interested in such things).

The New Jersey Rock Gym has a pretty neat setup. They've got a Bouldering wall in the middle that has an observation deck on top where you can take pictures of people climbing up from below. I'm pretty pleased with the pictures I got of Dave and Vincent.

Nine of us came up from Go Vertical (Philadelphia) to the Gravity Brawl. We got to the comp around 9:30, which gave us plenty of time to scope out the gym and all the problems (over 120 of them!). Juergen was very pragmatic about the whole thing and created a "hit list" of all the problems he wanted to attempt. I was less so, simply keeping a mental list of the problems I thought were doable and mentally walking through the various problems. I estimated that I'd be able to play on the 200-300 point problems and ended up guessing correctly.

This might be a good time to explain how bouldering comps work:

The comp is typically broken into 2 parts: a red point session and a pro session. The pro session inculdes the qualifiers and the finals where some REALLY amazing climbers get to show us how its done. The red point session is the part where I participate.

In the red point session, all the bouldering problems are given a point value. To get the points for a problem you have to climb it completely without touching any holds that are not part of the route. You lose 5 points for each fall. So if you finish a 250 point climb on your 3rd attempt, you'll recieve 240 points (-10 for the two falls).

Within the redpoint session there are various classes for both men and women. The class break down varies from comp to comp, for the Gravity Brawl it was:

• Men's:
  • Beginner: v0-v3
  • Intermediate: v4-v5
  • Advanced: v6+
• Women's:
  • Beginner: v0-v2
  • Intermediate: v3-v4
  • Advanced: v5+

So, basically you want to climb at the highest point level of your class.

You get a certain amount of time to get in all the climbs that you can, and your top five highest scored climbs are counted towards your final score. So there is a bit of strategy to the climbing. You want to warm up a bit on some easier climbs, but then progress pretty quickly into some more difficult climbs while you still have the strength. Near the end of the day you only want to spend time on climbs that will improve your score (those that are ranked higher than your lowest scored climb).

I think at the end of the day, my top 5 scores were 280, 275, 275, 270, and 250. The last climb I was working on was a really neat 300 point problem. I'm going to see if Tim or Juergen can reproduce it at the gym so I can play on it. It starts off on two decent jugs (nice holds that you can easily grab onto), then you lay back onto a long green fin that you have to pinch with your left and then cross your right hand and pinch above your left. My arms were exhausted after climbing all day and I just didn't have it in me to hold on and balance like I needed to. Hopefully they can make up a decent version of it for me at Go Vertical so I can practice the moves.