It has been a long while since I have had the opportunity to post, but the recent comp madness that ensued here in Boulder at ABS Nationals, and the plethora of new shapes that have been added to the Teknik line – have had me very excited to share.

ABS Nationals - Women's Qualifiers
With Teknik sponsoring the USA Climbing Series, and specifically ABS Nationals – the routesetting crew had loads of new shapes to work with and unveiled many of the new Teknik grips for the competition a few weeks back. Seth and Zoe have produced nearly 100 new designs in the past six months or so, all of which are now in production, but which many people have not yet gotten a glimpse of. I get the first look at the new shapes as they come out of production here in Colorado, and I have to say, I feel lucky that I am often the first to put these grips on a wall and climb on them.
Below are some details of the comp and images (generous thank you to Curtis Bullock – http://www.flickr.com/photos/snwbeast/ – and e-Grips for use of the photos) from the event.

Kynan...
The comp prep began months prior to the event itself, and my good friend Kynan Waggoner is the man who made it happen. John Stack of Vertical Solutions came to Boulder in early January and went like a bat-out-of-hell to get the amazing competition walls completed in time for routesetting.
Another longtime friend of mine, and Teknik’s – master setter Scott Mechler, was the Chief Routesetter for the comp and came in early on to do some construction preparation as well. As soon as we got the new grips in, we began assessing and organizing. I try to go into every comp I do with a bunch of movement ideas and it wasn’t uncommon for Scott, myself, and the other setters on the team to be discussing ideas over the phone or in conversations long before being on-site. But no matter what ideas you have, until you know what you are working with in terms of the wall terrain and holds, you cannot really effectively determine what you will be able to successfully create.

Scott Mechler - Grips Assessment
To start off, I want to talk a bit about some Teknik-specific boulders that we set, and I’ll follow the course of how the comp went in action, qualis, semis, finals… to describe some of them.
Qualifiers – One idea I had had for some time was to set a problem with tons of Teknik Fat Slopers. I had played around with variations of this in CATS with other shapes (“Big Balls,” “Small Balls”) but had yet to execute a really good “Balls” style problem in a comp. I ended up setting Women’s Q6 with 13 all orange Fat Slopers, and referred to it as “All Balls.” For how simple they are, Teknik slopers actually make for excellent outside-style climbing, where grip positioning, contact strength and core tension are essential. It turned out to be a quite difficult sloper-tension indulgence, and only Angie Payne, Sasha Digiulian, and Alex Puccio were able to complete it.
(“All Balls” Pic)
Another Women’s Quali problem, WQ3, featured some brand new Teknik shapes…

Meatlets and Minimeats
I never hesitate to use Meatiums, especially on a steep wall, and I put them up for Men’s Q3 which was intended to be pure power – straightforward, to divide the men from the boys. After some discussion, we thought it would be cool to also engage the women in this kind of climbing on one of the qualifiers, and thought we might just use this boulder, but tweak it down to the appropriate grade and height range. A few of the new grips that Seth recently shaped – Meatlets and Minimeats were added to the second variation, to create a crimp/pinch power problem to help split all the strong women. It did its job well, mandating both crimp lock-off strength, which we typically estimate the girls to have a great deal of, along with dynamic power and jump strength.
Qualifiers went well for both genders. It was a goal, over six problems, to create a very diverse set, that would be hard enough to split the middle of the field, but allow the real contenders to strut their stuff a bit. The womens’ round ended up splitting the entire field near perfectly, though on the whole it was a bit stout, with only the APs – Alex Puccio and Angie Payne – both topping all six qualifiers. The men’s was about what we wanted, 11 guys topped all the qualifiers, with 5 flashing all six.
Leading into Semi-Finals, we knew we had to step it up for the men, and that it would be a challenge to divide the top dozen or more, over only three boulders. Anyone who was lucky enough to see the live feed of Semi-Finals, would have gotten a glimpse of the new much-talked-about Hulk Feature on both the Mens and Womens SF1.

Magnus Midtboe working out the dihedral press - Hulk V. Beehive
The Men’s SF1 was technical down low on vert, to a tricky mantle press with the Hulk and a new e-Grips feature, the Bubble Wrap Beehive.

Portia Menlove hugging the Hulk.

Sarah Fullerton on the Hulk
Women’s SemiFinal 1 was a simple and elegant boulder set by Scott Mechler, with a jump start to the Hulk, great mantle to follow, and drive-by double-clutch move up high to two Fatty Fat Pinches to finish.
Most of the women were able to stick the first jump to the Hulk easily, but the mantle spit off quite a few. Those that did make it up to standing on the Hulk had a difficult sideways jump to encounter and only the strongest women sent.

About to crush the Blade Runner on Men's SF2. Daniel has bICEPS on his shoulders.

Desperately close to finishing Men's SF2 and a spot in Finals. This problem should have been much easier than it was.
Many of the men flashed the first boulder, but the second problem proved to be too much. This boulder was heavy on Teknik, with a Pinchtite start to big moves on Geeks, over some of the steepest terrain. A powerful sequence from a Fat Lip to the Bonus hold, and then from the Bonus down to a Blade Runner, really sapped most of the top men. Only a few were able to drop down to match the Blade Runner, and only the machine-man that is Daniel Woods moved a few moves further, campusing up to a Grasshopper, moving through a far-too-difficult pinch sequence, and then falling from the jug finish, heartbreakingly close to what would have put him into finals.
Women’s SF2 was long moves between jugs, and when I say jugs I mean, the biggest jugs known to mankind – the Super Villians. It worked out much better than the Men’s second semi, with most reaching the zone, and a handful of girls getting to the top.

Andrea Szekely, with superb technique, engaged the toe-hook on one SUV to keep the core tension, while pulling full extension to the next SUV.

Fat Lip Mash Up
The last problems for each gender, made it especially interesting. Women’s SF3 began with compression on Fat Lips in a horizontal roof, to technique and lock-off strength above a difficult lip section. Again, Alex Puccio and Angie Payne, were the only two to complete it.
Men’s SF3 ended up really shaking things up. 360 pocket spinning led to a very difficult sloper, which, to Woods’ despair, was the Bonus hold. While others worked out the spin sequence, rocked a heel on a Low Fat Sloper, and reached up to hold the Bonus Beehive sloper, Daniel just could not figure it out, and his failure to reach the zone kept him out of finals. Sean McColl, on the other hand, gave the crowd a preview of what was in store for Finals. He was the only climber to gain the two Half Fat Slopers above the zone, and with pure determination, he compressed the grips, slowly raised and set his heel, and exploded to the finish, letting out an enormous scream.

Sean McColl showing what's up for Canada - The calm before the storm
This shows Sean just moments before the loudest moment of the entire competition, his sole send of Men’s SF3 and to my mind, what was one of the most impressive insights into a competitor’s pure mental force, on display physically.
Sean set things up well to be the expected winner for finals, but it’s never over til it’s over… Finals were a blast. It was a tight field for both genders, and ultimately, everything came down to the last boulder, which made for an exciting finish.
Women’s F1 featured powerful climbing out a steep roof to balance and technique up high. Those of you who have participated in or watched climbing comps in the past 6+ years have most likely seen many burly boys engage with the Pinchtite. (Zoe’s best ever shape, in my opinion.) However, it is rare that we’ve seen women squeeze their way through a Pinchtite in a roof, and something we wanted to make happen.

Angie Payne - WF1 - Beginning her perilous wrestling match with the Pinchtite.
Though the early Pinchtite encounter had bouted Angie, Sasha Digiulian, and Kasia Pietras, and Tiffany Hensley and Alex Johnson fell up high - Francesca Metcalf and Alex Puccio had no trouble at all on Women’s F1. Here’s a little shot of Alex after pressing out the Hulk, working through a couple Crickets and finishing up on the Teknik Logo Pinch.

Alex - No trouble on WF1

New Teknik - Hard Math
Women’s Final 2 featured the New Teknik Hard Math set – very technical sloper edges, on vert. This problem turned out to be very important, because though Sasha Digiulian had struggled on F1, she bounced all the way back to be tied for first with Puccio, after this boulder. Sasha lightly cruised her way up the boulder, while all of the other women completed a hard mantle but were then stumped, trying to work through the hardest of the Hard Math. And since Alex Puccio could not complete it, it also left open the possibility that on F3, any of the other girls might be able to step back in and have a chance.

Sasha in the preview, miming the correct grip position that probably helped her get the only send of WF2
The women then battled through a long and powerful F3. Francesca Metcalf and Angie Payne came achingly close to sticking a hard move past the bonus, but did not have enough power left. Alex Johnson, who seemed out of the running, blew through the power squeezing dynamic section, only to come off one hold from the top on a desperate sloper move. And in the end, no-one could beat Puccio, who, true to form, literally pounced through the hard zone pinch section, and burled her way to the finish jug..

Alex Johnson holds the swing on WF3

Alex Puccio - 2011 ABS National Champion
The Men’s Finals were just as exciting, but only after the first boulder, which, though fun to watch, had a finish that was just too far out of reach for the competitors. No-one did Mens’ F1, and so when they all moved on to the second boulder, a volume-centric arete climb, it was wide open.

Volumes Volumes Volumes
Men’s Final 2 was all volumes, with the exception of one VERY key hold – a new Teknik Big Sneaker – it may have been the only one of these guys revealed in the entire competition.

New Teknik - Big Sneakers 1
Though not without a great deal of effort and a few tumbles from the finish volume, five men preceded Sean in topping the second Final.

Nick Sherman - Step 1 of Triple Jump
Sean walked up as the last climber to attempt it, and knew that it had been sent multiple times. He fell a couple times down low, finally figured out the tricky triple-jump, and then went for the finish with just an ounce too much dynamic movement. He held both hands on the ledge of the last volume, his feet swung out first, testing his core to the limit and lifting and knocking him back off to a hard fall on the mats.
Men’s Final 3 was all that was left. The real dark horse and crowd favorite of the competition was young Alex Johnson, a midwestern kid who now lives in Colorado and gave a strong effort.
On his first attempt at MF3, Alex cruised through the low section of long moves between Fat Pinches and Runts. I don’t know how tell he is but when combined with his overall reach and great strength, he’s going to be a challenge to set for in the future.

Alex Johnson being long on MF3
From the big moves down low, Alex went up through two Fat Slopers, and powered out right to a Fat Pinch. In a brave move, he then tried to skip straight to the finish with a huge dyno. He was close to making the grab… too close for a routesetters’ comfort.
Most of the other men made good progress through the last final, getting up through the middle, to at least one of the two Fat Slopers, but then struggling through a pinch power section just before the finish. California kid Kyle Owen may have came closest, performing well in his impressive style, but Ian Dory and Matty Hong also did well. Sean stepped up last, knowing he had to flash to win, and promptly destroyed the boulder with a great display of confidence.
As a routesetter, you never know what will happen, but sometimes your instinct and the climber’s actions align, and in this case I felt like I just knew that Sean would flash. The crowd blew up and Sean held on to the finishing Fat Lip hold for a few moments to take it all in, then dropped to the mats below, taking the American title with him.
The ABS 12 National Championships: Stop #1 of the 2011 UBC Pro Tour. Boulder, CO. from NE2C on Vimeo.
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