By Maxine Speier
On Saturday, November 21st, Dogpatch Boulders hosted the final Touchstone Climbing Series competition of 2015. Climbers from across California and from all of the Touchstone gyms gathered in San Francisco to take part in the bouldering comp and to witness the cash-prize finale showdown.
The competition, which was open to climbers of all levels (and free for Touchstone members) got started at noon. The Touchstone Routesetting crew had worked tirelessly at Dogpatch Boulders over the past week, putting in 12-hour days to fill the entire gym with nearly 90 brand new problems that challenged the climbers’ strength, flexibility, endurance, and imagination.
As the event got underway, and more climbers arrived, music blared over the PA and the chalk in the air formed a visible cloud through which you could see climbers waving scorecards, falling off climbs, spotting and cheering on strangers, and taking part in the excited chaos.
“I just flashed two V4s in a row!” shouted 14-year-old Jonah Kelsey who climbs on Team Touchstone’s intermediate team at GWPC in Oakland. This was Jonah’s first bouldering comp. “There’s so much to climb here!”
Behind Jonah, another group of climbers stepped back to watch as pro-climber EthanPringle navigated the top of a red V11, accidentally (and audibly) slamming his hand into a volume as he made the send. People clapped, “way to go!” as Ethan jumped down. “Ow,” he said, shaking it off.
Other people in the crowd had come more to spectate than to climb. Athena Jiang, a member at Mission Cliffs and an experienced ropes climber was excited to check out one of TCS’s bouldering comps. “It’s good to see so many familiar faces and such great energy.”
Around the corner, Carlo Traversi, another pro-climber and last year’s first place winner of the bouldering finale, was putting work in on a pink v10. As he fell back down to the pads, one onlooker said, “all the hard moves are always at the top, see?!”
By 4pm, the pizza had arrived, and competitors who were done for the day filled up on slices and beer from Speakeasy Brewing and got ready to see who of the over 350 participants would make it into finals. In the finale, which was livestreamed for the first time, the top three scorers in the men’s and women’s categories from the day’s event, and the highest scorers from the entire bouldering series would go head to head on three boulder problems, with four minutes on each problem to make it to the top.
There were eight male and eight female competitors, who came out in pairs to climb each of the three problems in their gender category. The gym was packed with spectators sitting on the pads and on the topouts, and spotlights beamed down on the climbers. Touchstone programs director Ryan Moon emceed, urging the crowd to cheer louder and counting down the tense minutes.
Men’s Finalists:
Ethan Pringle
Tyler Landman
Andy Lamb
Joe Diaz
Radu Popescu
Liam Vance
Dan Beall
Michael O’Rourke
Women’s Finalists:
Elise Buser
Audrey Lim
Sarah Pearce
Ana Stirniman
Lizzy Asher
Kara Herson
Katrina Louie
Lila Neahring
The first men’s problem, which moved from a techy start to a crowd-pleasing dyno, went down quickly, getting sends from nearly all of the competitors.
The women found themselves faced with more of a challenge on the first problem as one by one they struggled to navigate past a set of volumes. After five finalists had attempted the problem with no sends, Kara Herson was up. With loud cheers from the crowd, Herson quickly reached a high point first go, and then steadily made her way to the finish hold. The send train continued with two more successful tops from the remaining two women, Lizzy Asher and Ana Stirniman.
The second problems tested both the men and women on their slab technique. Joe Diaz was up first on the men’s problem and was able to read the beta and balance his way up to use a strong left heel hook and some powerful crimp strength to make it to the top. Following him, the problem saw five more sends, but not without a fair amount of struggle as the men tried to balance on the starting volume.
The women’s problem featured a similar balancey start, followed by a dynamic move to a good hold and then a tricky sequence at the very top to the finish hold. Up first was Aubrey Lim, who, repping a Touchstone rental chalkbag, made it to the top on her second attempt to a chorus of loud cheers. All eight female competitors successfully sent the problem, five of them on their first go.
Entering the third round, it was still unclear who the night’s winners would be. The first three pairs of competitors put in numerous attempts as they struggled to work out the moves. With no sends in either category, the energy at Dogpatch was growing as everyone wondered who, if anyone, would make it to the top of the final problems.
The fourth pair, Liam Vance and Elise Buser, both made progress on the climb. Buser worked her way up to a big cross to a jug, moved left to a sloping undercling, and stood up into it to reach for a small crimp to the left, just three moves from the top, but fell there. Meanwhile on the men’s problem, Vance fought his way off a teardrop-shaped volume through a tricky and powerful compression sequence, almost making it look easy, but couldn’t get any higher on the climb.
The fifth pair, Michael O’Rourke and Lila Neahring got the crowd cheering even louder. Neahring fell reaching for the same crimp as Buser. O’Rourke, on his second attempt, reached a high point on the men’s problem, sunk in a kneebar for a rest, and looked like he might be the first to finish the climb, but then fell going for a left-hand crimp, just one move from the top.
Kara Herson and Andrew Lamb were the next pair out. Herson fell off that same tricky crimp on the women’s problem. Lamb, who had not fallen on problem 1 or 2, made the men’s problem look almost too easy as he quickly floated up to the kneebar on his first attempt, stuck it, chalked up, and then made the next two moves to the top. The crowd cheered like crazy for the first send of the men’s final problem.
The last two competitors on the men’s problem, Tyler Landman and Ethan Pringle, both followed in Lamb’s footsteps and made it to the top, but not without getting spit off it a few times.
Of the last two competitors in the women’s field, Lizzy Asher was up first. She worked her way up to the same high point as everyone else, reached for the left hand crimp, and stuck it. Everyone in the gym was yelling as she crossed to a second, equally awful crimp, and then grabbed the finish jug, flashing the third women’s problem.
Ana Stirniman, climbing after Lizzy, joined in on the send train, and floated up the climb, even making the crimps look like maybe they weren’t so awful after all. She grabbed the finish jug with her left hand, held on, but then jumped down without ever matching her right hand on the hold.
According to competition climbing rules, all competitors must always show control of the finish by matching hands on the final hold. By not doing so, Stirniman’s attempt did not count as completed. After being told of her error, Stirniman tried to repeat her send, but was clearly upset and distracted and was not able to make it to the top again within the 4-minute window.
Although it was a heartbreaking moment for Stirniman, she still walked away with second place behind Lizzy Asher, who took home the $1000 cash prize. Women’s third place and $250 went to Kara Herson. There was plenty to celebrate as all the climbers headed out of the gym and into the San Francisco night. “I’m just so happy to have even made finals,” said Pringle, who won second place behind the No-Fall-Champion Andrew Lamb. Men’s third place went to Tyler Landman.
Watch On-Sight Finals Check Your ScoresEndless thanks to everyone who helped make this comp at Dogpatch Boulders such an awesome event!
