YOOOO !! I did a bouldering comp this week-end !!

After severals months of skiing & mountaineering, it was good to restart climbing.
I had a good training with two days in Fontainebleau and three days in Annot.

With a big group of friends we headed to El Cogul, and after a lot of stops (to buy wine 'y jamón'...) we finally arrived, to climb some good "spanish problems". We start by night with a nice prow (as a special preparation for the X-tones comp...)

Paintings by Ben Bert

Saturday morning, the qualifications : Sixteen boulders problems for warming up, fiveteen cool and one eliminante. I did the best qualification, in a "Jérôme Meyer's" style... I explain the strategy :
You look for the betas, and after a huge mental work, you try a flash attempt !! That's a pretty good way to keep skin and power...



The day was really hot and we had only three hours to climb.
The qualifications deadline was ten boulders minimum, and besides, Mike Fuselier missed the Finals because he forgot to give his paper to the judges...  ;-))

The best problem of the day was a huge prow. Chris did it first, he was really motivated to compete. This motivation inspired me a lot...
He was not here for sightseeing, and he was right !  I tried to remenber that for the Finals...

The picture of the highball's prow, by Chris Sharma.
Clic to enlarge it. Photo by Fred Labreveux.

*** FINALS ***

The final game was at night time, in a kind of quarry.
It was nice, the climbing was interresting and for a comp it was ok, but that's not the kind of problems I really like...

I tried to be as motivated as the other climbers, but it was not my style. After one hour of easy problems, we started to attempt the four hard problems.
A diedral with a very slippery left foot. Just too hard for me (five tries !!). During this time Klemen and Bruno sent the left and the right problems.

At this time Mike said to me :

- "if you climb these two problems, you can win !!", I said :
- "Ok dude"...

After few tries I sent the left one. My arms were really tired but my mind was full of energy and inspiration.
I tried the right one flash, and sent it after a good fight. At this time, I didn't really know whether Bruno was like me or he had more tries.








I tried the last problem do-able for me, but I had only twenty minutes to send it. Klemen was close to succeed as well!! I started to try with him.
If I did it, I was sure to win.
After a couple of tries, it was the end of the comp and my last try for this double dyno : I jumped, and I was close to reach the left hand!! What a shame!!!

Daila Ojeda in the traverse, with the slippery left foot.
Photo by Fred Labreveux.

Afterwards, there was the big fiesta and an unexpected football game on a tennis playground...
The next day was a great day with Erwan's birthday.

It was also weird, because two friends of me were in the hospital.
I was happy to win the comp and sad for them, I hope everything will be allright for my friends....

We finally had a long "french private party" for the pleasure to be with Erwan and the Petzl team.

Thanks to all the organization, Ferran and Key...
To be continued !

A tout !!
Tony...