Trade Show happenings...

The trade show was a blurr of activity full of schmoozing with old friends and new acquaintances. Most people conduct business and make new contacts, while the rest of us just hang out, kind of feel in the way, and become lost in the endless rows of booths. I fall under the latter. I met people with different goals. One person said she was going to bring home as much free stuff as possible, while the other was trying to take home nothing. Both are very doable. All I can say is thank god for Toasters. They filled my belly with delicious food multiple times.

The competition on Saturday was great fun and action packed with distant flashes of lightning and rain to add some excitement. Here are photos of the comp.
Mammut Bouldering Championships

Men
1. Chris Sharma
2. Ethan Pringle
3. Guillaume Glairon Mondet
4. Daniel Woods
5. Tyler Landman

Women
1. Alex Puccio
2. Alex Johnson
3. Sydney McNair
4. Lisa Rands
5. Sierra Blair-Coyle

Lisa Rands on women's final 4
Alex Johnson holding on to the top of women's final 2

Alex on number 3 climbing along side Lizzy Asher on women's final 4

Lizzy Asher and Alex Puccio give it their all

Lisa Rands on number 3 climbs along side Tiffany Hensley on number 4

Angie Payne climbing with a rainbow in the background
Angie casually campuses women's final 3

Lisa on women's final 1 dynos for the So Ill hands

Mike Call doing his thing

Jackie Hueftle drill in hand, worked her friggen ass off setting for the comp. Jackie and Joel Zerr are responsible for the badass setting of women's final 1. Thank you for all of your hard work and non-sleeping.
Kate, Shannon, and I spent Friday night forerunning the women's final problems until about 2am. It was so much fun. I am pretty sure all of us hurt the next day after trying these powerful problems over and over until they were tweeked to perfection.
Here, Shannon and Kyle discuss a move on women's final 2.
Kate forerunning

This hold is jug! Just kidding I have no idea what she said, but she was super helpful with technical input, and full of great ideas.

I took this photo on the drive home with my camera hanging out the car window.

Alex Johnson Sends Sunspot

Alex Johnson, of Fort Collins, Colorado (as of Sunday) sent Sunspot on Monday afternoon. This being her first trip to the RMNP in a year, and fresh in from Wisconsin (represent!), the elevation didn't seem to have an effect on this extremely talented athlete. She tried all of the moves once, then I forced her to try it once from the beginning to see if she could get a two peice. She started, and just kept climbing. As she gracefully jumped to the jug, she hung there and stared at me and said, "now what?!" I screamed, "FINISH IT!! TOP IT OUT!!!" Gym climbers! She almost dropped off like it was the finish hold at the world cup. We will straighten her out. She also sent it with only two small Organic pads and just me spotting (brave). This is her first V11, and the last rock that she climbed was a highball V8 on her trip to Colorado last summer. She has also done Body Karate, V9, in Southern Illinois in 2006. She was kind of mad she sent it so fast because she was so psyched to project it. Guess you will have to find something a little harder for you Al. Way to Go!!

bierstadt session

Last week Friday, Al sat up on a rock and snapped off some great photos of all of us climbing on Bierstadt. Enjoy. Flan is such a great spotter I will have you notice.

Steph looking casual.

Sequence

I kind of felt like throwing up