The World Cup Update: Grindelwald // Innsbruck

The last two couple of weeks Katrine Vandet Salling and I have been to the first two European Boulder World Cups.

The first one, last weekend, was located in Grindelwald.
I did not have any big expectations and saw this competition as the icebreaker of the season. The competition went ok. I did some small mistakes, but climbed the right beta every time and that's one big step forward. This year we got new national competition clothes and I did not think that climbing in some different cloth than usual would affect me. But because we got the cloth one day before leaving I didn't have time to test it. I had some problems getting comfortable with the new cloth, so my mind were not 100% focused.

A little borring problems - the setters saved the show for semi and finals, that's for sure. A lot of the holds were PU Flat Holds and PU Cheeta Holds so I had to get used to the friction.

In the competition I did 2 tops and 4 bonuses. Not enough to get to the semi Finals, but enough to make me realise that I was falling in the top of all four boulders. And if I can top that many today I will be in semi Finals.

Between the two competitions we drove to Magic Wood to relax. It was great to touch some perfect granite and think about something else.

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INNSBRUCK:

Back in Innsbruck after 2 years! This competition is something special - the level is so much higher than at the other competitions. The organisers have done this 11 times so they know how to make the athletes feel good!

I was very psyched this morning. I wanted to do better at this competition than last weeks result. I was confident after the training session in Tivoli two days ago. I felt strong and relaxed.

The boulderproblems were set with almost no PU holds so the friction was pretty good due to the rainy weather. In my group (A) the boulders were very difficult. Everybody struggled with the first moves on boulder 1,2,3. It's a shame to make the first move so difficult. If they wanted to be sure to get the semi split, they should have made some more risky moves that would have been easy to get to, but hard to execute.

I ended up with 1 top and 2 bonuses. If I had done the last boulder (which I fell off on last hold) I would have made it to semi's.

It's very frustrating to feel that I climbed so much under my normal level, but very rewarding to feel progression, both mentally and physically. Now I'm very psyched to go home and work on some of the weak points. Especially coordinated campus swings were both in Grindelwald and Innsbruck so I will definately be swinging some more in the future! I will sit comfy and enjoy the Semi Finals and especially the final show is something to look for! I would say that it will be Hojer vs. Dimitrii vs. Kilian! And Kilian always have an extra flash gear in Innsbruck so lets see what happens.

Pictures will be posted later!

B.