Climbing Narcissist » American Bouldering Series

Registration Opens For 2012 ABS Nationals

Narc — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:15:25 +0000

Registration is now open for the 2012 edition of ABS Nationals.

This year’s comp will be held in Colorado, but rather than taking place in the usual spot of Boulder it will be held a couple of hours south on I-25 at the Colorado Springs Auditorium in Colorado Springs. The joint USA Climbing-UBC Pro Tour event will be held February 24-25 with a citizen’s comp on the 26th. If this year’s comp is anything like last year’s, which was won by Sean McColl and Alex Puccio, it should be well worth tuning in for.

Registration Opens For 2012 ABS Nationals from Climbing Narcissist

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2011 ABS 12 Nationals Final Wrap-Up

Narc — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:58:27 +0000

The 2011 edition of ABS Nationals is in the books with Alex Puccio and Sean McColl winning the event in exciting fashion. In case you missed it here a few posts from over the weekend to get you caught up:

Of particular interest if you are looking for a blow-by-blow recap would be the live blog post in which I tried my best to keep up with the action as it unfolded. Climbing Magazine also has a recap of how each problem went on their website.

There has been a lot of reaction in the comments of a few of those posts with people registering their opinions on all aspects of the comp from the scoring system, the rules governing who makes it to finals as well as numerous comments about the broadcast. I’d like to thank everyone for sharing their opinions. I know the guys from ne2c are absolutely reading what you are saying, and they are absolutely using your feedback to help shape future broadcasts so keep it coming.

From my point of the view the comp seemed like a success. The fact that it was even broadcast for everyone to watch was a big improvement. While there are many thoughts I have about the event I thought I’d just share a couple of things I thought went well and a couple of things that could use some improvement.

What went right

Compared to years past which saw the event held in gyms like The Spot that weren’t really designed for holding large events the move to hold the comp in a large warehouse was a big plus. The Vertical Solution walls that were built for the event looked great and they allowed for each gender’s finals problem to be climbed side by side which made spectating easier, at least for those of us watching at home.

For those of us watching at home the live broadcast has improved greatly compared to prior years. The use of things like replay and a separate booth of commentators instead of the house MC gave the event a much more polished look and sound. The rotating cast of co-hosts that joined host Jason Danforth in the booth was a nice touch as well, particularly Christian Griffith who I thought added a great deal of insight with his comments.

What needs work

The one main critique I have had in the past and continue to have is about the “zone hold” scoring system used. I’m not sure what the correct answer is since all scoring systems have their drawbacks, but as Peter Beal points out in his recap of the event the scoring system used for ABS Nationals that:

seems to reward competitors for calling it quits halfway through a problem is not going to bring out the best from the athletes. Given the small number of holds, a point system that rewards real effort and close efforts up high on the problem should be workable. The bonus hold system appears to treat all efforts between the bonus hold and the top as the same and that doesn’t seem right.

There was also a real problem keeping viewers informed about where climbers stood after each round of climbing concluded. A leaderboard was shown after the first round but unless I missed it this was the only time such a thing was shown. A couple of mentions were made about who was in first as the event progressed but it was unclear, for example, what each climber needed to do on the final problem to have a chance to win. To make matters worse, the broadcast ended without even announcing any of the standings other than who won, and apparently not many people stuck around to see the awards handed out in person either.

Athletes & Setters

Here are some of the posts from competitors and route setters about the comp:

Men’s winner Sean McColl wrote a great blog entry detailing his progression through each round of the comp. On winning he had this to say, “Words can’t really explain how happy I felt, or maybe my English vocabulary just isn’t varied enough but I felt like I was walking on the moon.”
B3Bouldering’s Jamie Emerson has an excellent blog entry up from the route setter’s point of view
7th place finisher Kasia Pietras calls the comp “one of the best” she’s ever been to
Alex Johnson, 2nd place finisher and U.S. National Champion for the men, writes on his blog saying “[I] cannot describe to you how ecstatic I was when I had found out that I had placed 2^nd in the 2011 Open ABS Nationals”
14th place finisher Dave Wetmore offers up his opinion on the comp
Jon Glassberg pulled double duty finishing 23rd in the comp and taking pictures and editing a highlight reel of finals

Media

And finally, here is some media of the event (if you see something I missed let me know in the comments and I’ll add it):

2011 ABS 12 Nationals Final Wrap-Up from Climbing Narcissist

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2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Final Results

Narc — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 05:48:56 +0000

Whew. What a finish. Congrats to Sean McColl and Alex Puccio for winning 2011 ABS Nationals in impressive fashion with flashes of their final problems. Here are the final standings:

Men’s Final Results

Women’s Final Results

Sean McColl
Alex Johnson
Kyle Owen
Ian Dory
Austin Geiman
Zach Lerner
Matty Hong
Nic Sherman

Full Men’s results

Alex Puccio
Francesca Metcalf
Sasha DiGiliuan
Alex Johnson
Angie Payne
Tiffany Hensley
Kasia Pietras

Full Women’s results

Thanks again to everyone who tuned in for the live blog. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the show. More to come but until then you can read the live blog archive and check out a few screen caps I grabbed during the broadcast:

2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Final Results from Climbing Narcissist

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Live Blogging Coverage Of 2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Finals

Narc — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:22:20 +0000

Alright, let’s do this. Check back here around 7:45 MST where I’ll be live blogging the finals of tonight’s ABS Nationals. You can, of course, watch the event live as it happens, but for those who can’t watch or want to talk about what you’re seeing then this is the place.

Here is the running order for Finals:

Men’s Running Order	Women’s Running Order
Alex Johnson Matty Hong Nic Sherman Zach Lerner Ian Dory Kyle Owen Austin Geiman Sean McColl Full Men’s Results	Kasia Pietras Sasha DiGiliuan Tiffany Hensley Francesca Metcalf Alex Johnson Angie Payne Alex Puccio Full Women’s Results

2011 ABS Nationals Live Blog

Live Blogging Coverage Of 2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Finals from Climbing Narcissist

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2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Qualifier Results

Narc — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 13:41:22 +0000

The qualifying round of the 2011 ABS Nationals is in the books and here are the climbers you can see compete in semi-finals beginning at 10:00 am MST today:

Men’s Qualifying Results

Women’s Qualifying Results

Daniel Woods
Sean McColl
Brian Kim
Matty Hong
Carlo Traversi
Julian Bautista
Jon Glassberg
Rob D’Anastasio
Nic Sherman
Magnus Midtboe
David Wetmore
Chris Webb Parsons
Ryan Sewell
Alex Johnson
Austin Geiman
Garrett Gregor
Ian Dory
Josh Larson
Alex Manikowski
Zach Lerner
Kyle Owen
Mike Foley
Brian Antheunisse
Matt Wilder

Full Men’s results

Angie Payne
Alex Puccio
Sasha DiGiliuan
Alex Johnson
Francesca Metcalf
Dana Riddle
Kasia Pietras
Sierra Blair-Coyle
Chelsea Rude
Tiffany Hensley
Portia Menlove
Isabelle Faus
Sarah Fullerton
Courtney Sanders
Tyler Youngwerth
Lesley Ladlad
Kelly McBride
Shannon Lochridge
Andrea Szekely
Melissa Godowski
Victoria Cartwright
Audrey Sniezek
Sarah Shaw

Full Women’s Results

As you can see from looking at the full results 11 of the men finished all 6 qualifiers so there is a lot yet to be determined in the upcoming semi-final and final rounds.

Tune in to the UBC Website to catch all the action live as it happens beginning around 10 am MST this morning, and check back here tonight around 7:45 MST for a live blog of finals as well as full coverage of results, media and whatever else I come across regarding the comp.

Alex Johnson climbing during the qualifying round of 2011 ABS Nationals

Photo: UBC Facebook Page

2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Qualifier Results from Climbing Narcissist

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2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Starts Friday, Streams Live Online Saturday

Narc — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:17:42 +0000

The 2011 edition of ABS Nationals kicks off Friday in Boulder, CO. While the event is returning to familiar ground this year there a couple of changes worth noting.

The first big change is that the comp will not be held at one of Boulder’s climbing gyms, but rather a custom wall is being built by Vertical Solutions in a warehouse which should allow for more spectators and a greatly improved experience for those spectators. Here’s a little preview of the wall:

The other big change is that thanks to the new collaboration between ne2c and USA Climbing the event will be streamed live on the internet for the first time. The broadcast will take place Saturday on the UBC’s website at the following times:

Semi-finals – 10 am MST
Finals – 7:45 pm MST

There will be 3 rounds to the competition with the following format:

There are three rounds of competition: Qualifiers (6 problems) on Friday the 11th, Semifinals (3 problems) on Saturday morning the 12th, and Finals (3 problems) on Saturday evening the 12th The first two rounds will be run in the traditional format: multiple climbers on the wall at the same time and fixed climbing and rest periods. There are 4 minutes on / 4 minutes off for Qualifiers and 5 minutes on / 5 minutes off for Semifinals. The finals round will be held in the World Cup Finals format where all competitors climb on the 1st problem in order before moving on to the 2nd problem and if a competitor is already on the wall at the 4 minute mark, they can continue that attempt.

Competitors will be ranked according to the following criteria, in descending order:

Number of Tops

Number of Bonus Holds

Attempts to Top

Attempts to Bonus Hold

Looking at the running order for both the Men and the Women, things look pretty stacked as usual. Most of the top women like Alex Puccio, Alex Johnson and Angie Payne are scheduled to compete while the men’s side of things looks strong with a long list of climbers slated to try to dethrone multi-time champ Daniel Woods. Notable by their absence, however, are the likes of 2008 champ Paul Robinson and Chris Sharma who are both in Europe and Ethan Pringle and Dave Graham who are not psyched on competing. Who do you like? Can anyone beat Woods? Will someone not named Alex win for the women?? Let us know in the comments.

Past ABS Nationals	Men’s Winner	Women’s Winner
2010 ABS Nationals Results	Daniel Woods	Alex Puccio
2009 ABS Nationals results and wrap-up	Daniel Woods	Alex Johnson
2008 ABS Nationals Results	Paul Robinson	Alex Puccio
2007 ABS Nationals Results*	Daniel Woods	Alex Puccio
2006	Daniel Woods	Alex Puccio
2005	Daniel Woods	Portia Menlove
2004 and earlier	???	???
		.

Tickets for the event are still available at the ABS website if you’re in the area otherwise there is the live stream like I mentioned. Here are a few other pertinent details to help prepare you for the weekend:

*This was the first post ever made on this blog almost 4 years ago!

2011 ABS 12 National Bouldering Championships Starts Friday, Streams Live Online Saturday from Climbing Narcissist

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2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Bouldering Championships Highlight Videos

Narc — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:57:50 +0000

Here are a couple of highlight videos from the recent 2010 ABS Nationals won by Alex Puccio and Daniel Woods:

Women’s Highlights

Men’s Highlights

2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Bouldering Championships Highlight Videos from Climbing Narcissist

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News & Notes – 2/23/2010

Narc — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:55:30 +0000

News…

Anthony Chertudi has done the FA of Spirit Walker, a potential V14 that links 2 of his previous FAs at the 27th St. Boulders in Ogden, UT. Click here to see video of Chertudi doing the 2nd ascent of The Masterpiece (V13) in Joe’s Valley.
Sean McColl and Ethan Pringle both nabbed repeats of the Bishop highball Evilution Direct (V11). McColl sent the line ground up while Pringle worked it on a rope first. It’s worth noting that Pringle is still recovering from a debilitating shoulder injury suffered at last year’s ABS Nationals. Seems like things are going pretty well thus far.
Jon Glassberg recently completed his long battle with Dark Waters (V12/13ish) in Clear Creek Canyon, CO. First done way back in 2006 by Daniel Woods, the grade of Dark Waters has always been good fodder for a debate about grades. Check out Glassberg’s blog post for another good addition to the discussion.

Dark Waters (V13) from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.

…And Notes…

Formerly the Mammut Bouldering Championships, the newly minted Unified Bouldering Championships Pro Tour kicks off in Maryland on April 23 & 24 at the Earth Treks Roc Comp presented by Mountain Hardwear. Already scheduled to appear at the comp to compete for an $11,000 cash purse are the likes of Lisa Rands, Paul Robinson and some guy named Chris Sharma. Read the tour launch press release here.
Issue 9 of Deadpoint Magazine is now available
There’s been a bit of a shake up at the magazines published by Skram Media. With the departure of Matt Samet from Climbing Magazine, Urban Climber’s Editor in Chief Justin Roth has been promoted to Editorial Director of all 3 Skram Media brands.
Part 1 of Peter Beal’s interview series with former Climbing Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Samet
Urban Climber Magazine interviews 2009 Triple Crown winner Kasia Pietras
To put a cap on last week’s post about the 2010 ABS Nationals is this excellent write up from Rock & Ice and this gallery of images from Steve Woods
Jamie Emerson poses several interesting questions with regards to women and the world of high-end climbing
Episode 6 of The Season is now up on the Arc’Teryx website. This episode offers the first look at climber Matt Maddaloni and his “anti-cam” (shown above).
Pump Factory Road has the transcript from a recent edition of Climb Talk Radio with guidebook authors and first ascenionists Jason Haas and Tom Hanson. Several interesting quotes including this one from Haas:

But, I’ve been climbing a lot in the South Platte lately, and replacing some bolts down there and working on a guidebook for there. And talking to some of the old first ascensionists, they kind of regret their run-out routes, because people aren’t repeating them. Looking back on that, 20/30 years later, [they] really wish that they had done them in a different style. So, I think there’s something to be said for that, of looking back on your routes.

and this one from Hanson about everyone’s Sock Hands’ favorite chosspile, Castlewood Canyon:

Well, I think a lot of the rock has really cleaned up, so there’s not so much loose climbing anymore. I really think of Castlewood as a winter climbing area. It has one of the warmest climates on this side of Shelf Road, which is considered Colorado’s “banana belt.” Castlewood can often be the same way. But, in the summertime you really have to be aware of rattlesnakes. One day in particular, we encountered 28 rattlesnakes in one day. The place can really be infested in the warm summer months

Rock breaks, even on famous V13 super highballs. Be careful out there!
Via TheLowDown is this Kairn.com interview with the Huber Brothers:

Oh and I forgot to mention that this site is 3 years old as of last Saturday. Thanks to everyone for reading!

News & Notes – 2/23/2010 from Climbing Narcissist

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2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Bouldering Championships Final Results & Video

Narc — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:38:47 +0000

Finals for the 11th edition of ABS Nationals went down Saturday night in Alexandria, VA and it sounded like quite the show. Daniel Woods topped a strong men’s field and Alex Puccio edged out Alex Johnson (again) with some surprises following them on the podium, especially on the Men’s side of the ledger. Here are the top 5 finishers:

Men’s Results

Women’s Results

Daniel Woods
Matt Bosley
Robert D’Anastasio
Zach Lerner
Magnus Midtbø

Full Men’s results

Alex Puccio
Alexandra Johnson
Francesca Metcalf
Sasha DiGiulian
Sierra Blair-Coyle

Full Women’s Results

Complete records are hard to come by but I believe this was Woods’ 3rd win in the past 4 years while Puccio has won 4 out of the past 5 years losing a close battle with Alex Johnson last year.

Of course, if you weren’t in the gym you really had no way of seeing the action unfold which is unfortunate in my opinion. Jamie Emerson tried his best to keep us posted via his twitter feed but he reached Twitter’s limit right as the heavy hitters were starting to climb. Garrett Gregor was also at the comp posting videos to twitter via his cell phone which was certainly better than nothing. Hopefully this will be the last year without some sort of live stream.

For pictures of Finals you can check out Ben Carlson’s site.

Report from routesetter Chris Danielson

Excellent pictures from Caroline Treadway. Part 1. Part 2.

Good discussion about the comp scene in posts on B3Bouldering here and here.

Gabor Szekely’s thoughts from a competitor’s perspective

I’ll update this post as more media becomes available.

Here are 4 videos of Daniel Woods:

Daniel Woods completes problem 1 of ABS Bouldering National Championships from Lu on Vimeo.

Daniel Woods completes problem 2 at ABS National Bouldering Championships from Lu on Vimeo.

Daniel Woods completes problem 3 at ABS National Bouldering Championships from Lu on Vimeo.

To be clear, this last video was taken after the comp. Thanks to B3 for clarifying.

Daniel Woods, final problem. Wins ABS National Bouldering Championship from Lu on Vimeo.

2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Bouldering Championships Final Results & Video from Climbing Narcissist

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2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Qualifiers Results & Videos

Narc — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:08:10 +0000

ABS Nationals is in full swing now in Alexandria, VA, and despite concerns about the weather it looks like most of the competitors were able to make it for the Open qualifying round yesterday. Jamie Emerson was on hand tweeting live updates which he promises to do once again this evening for the Open finals beginning some time around 7:30 PM EST. Until USA Climbing finally does something like ne2c did this past summer with the Mammut Bouldering Championships this is probably the best option for live “coverage” of the comp.

Here are the climbers who qualified for finals tonight:

Men’s Qualifying Results

Women’s Qualifying Results

Paul Robinson
Vasya Vorotnikov
Daniel Woods
Magnus Midtbø
Jimmy Webb
Robert D’Anastasio
Julian Bautista
Carlo Traversi
Gabor Szekely
Adam Markert
Matt Bosley
Alex Johnson
Paul Wallace
Joshua Levin
Kyle Owen
Eric Paulsen (No Finals)
Zach Lerner
Ryan Olson

Full Men’s results

Alex Puccio
Audrey Gawrych
Elizabeth Asher
Alexandra Johnson
Sierra Blair-Coyle
Francesca Metcalf
Sasha Digiulian
Kate McGinnis
Cicada Jenerik
Isabelle Faus
Chauncenia Cox
Michaela Kiersch
Taylor Clarkin
Audrey Sniezek
Amy Lipschultz

Full Women’s Results

On the media front, Jamie has a few pictures from the Women’s qualifying round up on his site and Ben Carlson has some images from the youth comp going up on his site.

Here are a few videos that made their way online, if you see any others feel free to share them in the comments.

Paul Robinson on Men’s #5

Alex Puccio on Women’s #6

Jimmy Webb on 3 of the qualifying problems

2010 ABS Qualifiers from Jimmy Webb on Vimeo.

2010 ABS 11 Nationals Adult Qualifiers Results & Videos from Climbing Narcissist

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