Some live feed is better than no live feed.
That seemed to be the consensus among the 700 7000-odd climbing fans that were watching online as Daniel Woods and Chloé Graftiaux won the Bouldering World Cup at the 2010 Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO.
Woods ended the drought for American men in Bouldering World Cups in decisive fashion as his 2 topouts meant he was the only male competitor to finish more than 1 problem. As is his habit of late, Woods came out and closed the show in exciting fashion by getting highpoint on Men’s #4 even though his victory had already been sealed. Well done.
Graftiaux narrowly defeated Anna Stohr in a very hotly contested women’s field that the routesetters seemed to have trouble separating all day. Over the course of Finals and Semi-finals, the top 5 finishers all completed the same number of problems and reached the same number of bonuses with only their number of attempts separating them.
Here are the final results with each competitor’s place coming into Finals in () next to their name:
| Men’s Final Results | Women’s Final Results |
|
|
It will be interesting to read reaction from climbers and setters on how they felt the problems went in Finals. As an observer with an admittedly poor vantage point the Men’s problems seemed to revolve mostly around a dyno of some sort which gradually lost its excitement as all the men struggled over and over again to make the huge leap at the end of Men’s #3 and almost all the men struggled mightily to hold the swing on a long jump at the beginning of Men’s #4.
Daniel Woods going for the long move on Men’s #4
For the Women the first 2 problems went down pretty easy, and an unintended sequence on Women’s #2 that allowed a couple of the women to stem their way to the finish hold left at least some of us online spectators scratching our heads about the rules constituting control of a finish hold (apparently just touching the hold is enough?). Women’s #4 did help the comp end on an exciting note though as a send by any of the Women would have given them the victory and a couple of the women came off on the very last move.
Clip from the end of the Live Stream
As I alluded to the event was streamed live on UStream by the folks at Rock & Ice with Executive Editor Alison Osius doing commentary along the way. Overall her commentary was helpful and well prepared with the only real negative in my mind being the occasional cheer into the microphone. The feed itself was somewhat mediocre given that it was from a fixed angle off to one side of the venue which prevented the audience from seeing at least one of the Women’s problems entirely. The single angle also made it difficult to follow the action when the Men’s and Women’s problems were not right next to each other on the wall which was the case for at least half the night.
Compared to the multi-camera setup used at the recent Battle in the Bubble and the comps put on by the ne2c guys, the Teva Mountain Games World Cup live feed wasn’t nearly as advanced. Some feed is certainly better than no feed, but the aforementioned groups really raised the bar as far as live feeds are concerned in my opinion. It seems time for the World Cup at the Teva Mountain Games, to me the premier climbing comp in the U.S., to join them.
That crazy dyno on men’s #4 looked like it could have easily caused some career-ending injuries. The setters are lucky nobody got hurt.
loading...
How did Rock and Ice get Linda Ronstadt to do the commentating?
loading...
first off enjoyed watching the show. Like you said some shots are better than no shots but there really need to change a few things. Multi angles and a different announcer. As climbing gets bigger and more main stream it needs to follow the lead of snow boarding having young well known climbers doing the announcing. Just my opinion. Alison Osius did a good job but they should have more of a youthful spin to it.
I think the reasons there are only dynos is for the crowd factor. This is the best way to get folks who are not in the sport to enjoy it. Friend watched a little with me and was bored out of her mind. The only things she liked were the all points off dyno on 2# and 4#.
loading...
Narc, I’m glad you weren’t the only one noticing the bad camera angle. It’s the freaking world bouldering comp! Teva should be ashamed. NE2C and the Bubble had clearer video and more cameras. However, I did notice a mounted camera from a crane(?) moving here and there from the crowd. Was BigUp here or something or LouderThan11? Second, what’s up with all of the problems involving a dyno? Someone could get hurt. I think I saw DW do a belly flop on the fourth problem. Enough with the dynos for the top outs I think.
loading...
Did Adam compete?
loading...
Ondra? No.
loading...
I was at Vail and would like to chip in.
Overall, a fair assessment (though I can’t comment on the live feed not having any knowledge of it)
I know that the route setters were not satisfied at the end of the comp.
The finish of W2 was unsatisfactory in several ways, but the principle problem revolved around the use of a volume at the finish ( even though there was a hold on the volume, the box marking encompassed the whole volume).
loading...
Is it just Me, or are those wall’s just a tadddddd Bit 2 tall .
loading...
Your right and as a matter of fact IFSC rules state that the lowest part of the body of the competitor shall never be higher than 3 meters above the landing mat. It sure looked a lot more than that.
loading...
The live feed actually had 7,000 views. The 700 number the Narc noted was the number of folks who watched if from the Ustream page, as he did.
loading...
Hmm if Chris Webby or Ethan P had made it into the finals, I doubt they would have even attempted mens #4. Another shoulder injury would be disastrous.
Who else thinks if Sharma had been there, he would have absolutely crushed? All those long dynos…
loading...
Yea . . . 4sure Chris would of crushed that dyno on #4 and got that blue thing D. didn’t even touch.
loading...
That exact thought crossed my mind as well regarding the structural integrity of the competitor’s shoulders. Glad to see that no one appeared to get hurt.
loading...
My bad, thanks for the correction Duane!
loading...
Duane, the counter was also visable on your site so I think you are full of shit. The lame Ustream “live feed” you set up counts all views (even the embedded ones) just like vimeo does. Nice try though. I doubt 7,000 people visit your site in a month
loading...
Truthteller,
The 700 number was the number of people watching at any given moment via the Ustream site. It’s not the total number of views. Go to Google analytics and you can see the traffic for yourself for the live feed page on our site.
loading...
Unless you fall in a very, very odd way, you’ll be fine falling from the top of the wall. I competed in the citizen’s comp earlier today, and the landing is by far the best I’ve ever seen.
As for it being too tall, I doubt the IFSC would have allowed the three past events and the two future events if the wall did not fit the criteria.
loading...
Pretty not psyched on all these dynos.
Set some real climbs please.
loading...
I dont think a comp should be decided untill its over. also those problems are ridculous, thats not fuckin rock climbing.
loading...
( ( ( acrobatic-bouldering ) ) )
loading...
The rules say that the Top hold has to be “attained by two hands”.
This attaining normally means holding it with two hands in a stable manner.
But as the whole feature was the finisching hold and that the girls could Stem in the corner in this case it was enough to “grab” (touch) the underside of the feature.
Sometimes the finishing hold is just a box taped on a flat wll that has to be “held” from a no hands rest.
About the height:
Yes the falls where higher then 3 meters but the passing is very different from anything else we see at worldcups. It seems like the mat used for the pole vault (high jumping)
loading...
Sorry, typo:
but the paDDing is very different from anything else we see at worldcups.
In response too:
“As for it being too tall, I doubt the IFSC would have allowed the three past events and the two future events if the wall did not fit the criteria.”
The Wall does NOT fit the criteria. Period.
However you can always change the criteria. It seems that he IFSC and the organization have done just that given the quality of the padding.
loading...
Mens problem 4 made me cringe. That dyno was ridiculous, in a bad, bad way. The other problems looked pretty good. Mens #2 looked interesting in between the two goofy dynos.
loading...
The Dyno for problem 4 was fantastic to watch.
Maybe a bit to difficult.
But as far as i feel not dangerous for holding the hold or landing when missed.
However in general it was not nice to see that the dynamic moves where the most difficult ones.
The best move was the dynamic move to the bonus hold of problem one. Very nice to watch. Not difficult to reach but difficult to hold on to.
loading...