Austria-Cup Hallein

Hey folks:-)

It has been quite a while ago that I wrote a post, althought there happened a lot in the last weeks. Maybe that's the reason why I didn't manage to find some time to write about all the recent happenings. Probably I simply was a little bit lazy concerning my blog ^^. However, this post concentrates on the bouldering Austria-Cup which took place on the 9th of March in Hallein (Salzburg). It was the first competition of the Austria-Cup series 2013. I've already participated twice in this comp and it was always great fun to try the hard problems and to watch the stars of the Austrian national team. Therefore I was psyched to be part of the event. Let me say right away that it was a black day for me and that my performance didn't even come close to my expectations. Nevertheless, it was nice to see some of my friends again and to watch the finals. 

We arrived in Hallein at half past 12 after 3 hours of drive and I started straight away to warm-up. At 1pm it was our turn to climb. The seniors and the juniors stardet in one category but there were different rankings afterwards. The 8 boulder problems looked pretty hard as well as interesting and rich in variety. As usually  one of the problems was much easier than the others. I started with that one. The starting hold was a decent edge, followed by a volume with two holds attached. From the volume I continued grabbing another good hold. The last move was a little bit longer than the others but due to the good holds still very easy. 

Me on the warm-up boulder

I felt a little bit shaky while I climbed this boulder but I was in cheerful spirits for the following problems. Next I tried a boulder which started on two edges. The third hold was a big round sloper which I knew from our gym in Graz. After the sloper there was a quite good-looking sloper followed by a big blue sloper and a neon green ball, marking the top. The first move felt easy so I grabbed the hold which I knew from my training sessions. Then I put my left foot high on one of the starting holds and catched the next sloper which turned out to be a quite good one. Next I repositioned my feet and tried to grab the big blue sloper. That one turned out to be even worse than expected. I couldn't hold it and fell. I tried the problem 4 more times and in my second try I managed to stick the big blue sloper. The last move was quite dynamic, so I jumped towards the neon green top hold but I couldn't stick that one. My next tries looked similar, I always touched the slopy top hold but I didn't manage to stick it.

desperately trying to get some grip on the blue sloper

Disappointed I went to another boulder problem. It basically involved one mantle on a huge orange hemisphere. Watching the stars of the national team it looked quite easy. Nevertheless, it turned out to be quite tough for me, as I hardly ever practice moves like that.

tackling the huge hemisphere volume

I tried it several times but I didn't manage to get on the top of the mega volume. I decided to go for another one. The next problem I tried was basically  a dyno from a decent edge to a big donut shaped volume with two slopers attached. I tried it quite often and I came really close to holding the donut but I couldn't stabilize my swing.

trying to stick the mega donut

From now on I was quite frustrated, additionally I cut my finger on the starting hold of the dyno. I tried one more boulder, then I went back to the slopy boulder and to the one with the orange hemisphere. I couldn't do any of them. I guess I was simply too fed up. So I finished with one Top and 3 bonuses on 39th position (full results: http://reini-sport.at/bou_ergebnis.php?idklasse=12&idbewerb=970&rgsort=1). Considering that there were 40 competitors that's really poor. I felt strong and I were psyched for this comp and I know that I could have achieved a by far better result but it simply wasn't my day and additionally I was a little bit unlucky. Of course I was upset after my performance but I still reminded myself that everyone can have a bad day and especially if it comes to competition it can happen quite easily that one messes things up. In the evening I watched the finals which were an impressive spectacle. In the men's category Jakob Schubert won and in the women's category Anna Stöhr took gold. I think these two don't need any further introduction :-D.

The next day I've already forgotten my disappointment and started to prepare myself for the 5th Bouldernight Cup which should take place in the CAC gym in my home town Graz in one week. I'll write about that one in my next post :-) 

Keep climbing :-)

Some more pics (taken by my father, thx by the way ;-))