2006-09-29 Boulder Open at Karbin

Friday night I went to Karbin for a Boulder Open — a bouldering competition open to everyone who wants to participate.

I had never been to Karbin before. It's a very big place. This is the front desk and climbing shop. There are tables and chairs there too where you can sit and have a snack or a coffee if you need a break from climbing.

Beyond the front desk area, there is a central pillar with bouldering problems.

Most of the walls around the sides of the hall are covered with top-rope routes. There are also a few lead routes with built-in quickdraws or bolts.

The bouldering problems included in the competition were numbered one through forty.

Aside from the central pillar, the rear wall had many numbered bouldering problems. Like at Klättercentret, the problems were graded on a color scale according to difficulty. From easiest to hardest, the scale goes blue, red, black, white.

This problem consisting of gray-colored holds is rated red. It was one of the trickier red-rated problems, and I didn't quite finish it. By the time I had figured out the correct approach, my arms were to tired (“pumped” in climbing lingo) for me to finish it.

Still, I mangaed to complete 19 out of the 40 numbered problems, including this one consisting of yellow holds.

The bouldering problem rated #1 by the participants was this route of white holds which despite being rated blue (easy), was quite challenging. Daniela finished it with ease and grace, naturally.

The key to this one is to keep one's body as close to the wall as possible, and to move slowly and deliberately.

Here is anonther friendly face whom I've often seen at Klättercentret. I don't know how to spell his name, so I won't try here. Let me know, and I'll put your name here dude!

He has excellent grip strength.

See the hand marks on the edge behind him? That is a bouldering problem. One must use the edge only. I almost finished it, but not quite.



I chatted with this friendly girl, named Emily. She was trying the red-rated route of red holds. The only real trick comes at the end when a crossover move is required. Well, not really required, but it's the most obvious way.

Daniela was kind enough to take a few photos of me attempting the same problem.



The last hold is the red one marked with red tape, in the upper right of this photo. So the crossover with the left hand is the last move.

Here's another view of the overhang area of the rear bouldering wall. My favorite bouldering problem in the competition was the problem consisting of yellow-and-blue-colored holds.

Here, Emily attempts that problem. I like problems that start under and overhang and then move along and edge or out from under the overhang.

I saw many other familiar faces Friday night, but couldn't remember everyone's name. I had to ask Zindy to remind me of her name too. Sorry, Zindy! Now that I've posted a bit about her in the blog, I'll surely have no problem remembering her name next time. :) Here, she attempts a somewhat tricky problem of blue holds.

Around 21:30, the competition came to an end. There were no prizes for completing the most problems because everyone judged himself on the honor system. Instead, each participant had a chance to win prizes in a drawing.

Emily won a pink shirt!

This girl, whose name I never got, won a nice bouldering chalk bag.

And this chap won a black t-shirt. The prizes were provided by Karbin's sponsors.



Anna won a rather nice shirt.

At the end, the prize was given out for the folks who designed the most popular bouldering problem of the evening.

Remember the route of white-colored holds that I mentioned earlier — the one that Daniela was doing? Well, that's the one that was rated the best by most of the competition participants. These two were the winning designers.

I don't know how often I'll go down to Karbin because 1) It's located in the Southern part of Stockholm and I live in the North; and 2) I have paid for a yearly membership to Klättercentret, so if I climb elsewhere, it's more expensive. Even so, I really enjoyed the Boulder Open at Karbin, and I'll probably go back the next time they arrange a similar event. If you enjoy bouldering, I can recommend it. There are problems of all difficulty levels, so no matter whether you are an expert or just a beginner, you can find plenty of problems that are challenging and fun.