Heart of Steel 2010 Wrapup

The last couple weeks have been nothing short of overwhelming.  From trade shows and competitions to climbing outside, staying out late and getting up early, the whirlwind is finally over…  for the next couple of weeks.

After leaving Salt Lake City last weekend I headed to Boston to set boulders for the Heart of Steel competition, hosted at the Boston Rock Gym.  Setting for this competition differs vastly from your conventional ABS or local comp.  To understand Heart of Steel you have to think of it like a game show, putting professional athletes against unique challenges (the finals routes) in a desperate attempt to grab cold hard cash off the walls in front of a 300+ person crowd.

Prelims is like any other competition with a red-point round of top six boulder problems and the top three men and women advance to finals.  The qualifying round locked in Rob D’Anastasio and Vasya Vorotnikov in 1st and 2nd and Michael Bautista and Zeb Engberg went to war over the coveted 3rd place seat going into finals.  Michael and Zeb ended up tied exactly for 3rd after the prelim round was over so Max Zolotukhin and I whipped up a “Super-Pre-Final-Fianls-Round” that would eliminate a climber based on a sudden death high point challenge.  Michael ended up victorious in the face off by a narrow margin and the stage was set for finals.

I attended Heart of Steel during the inaugural season in 2009 and knew that 2010 was going to be a big year for the competition.  I got a text from Gavin Heverly a few weeks before I headed to Boston containing a photo and two words: “Dark Crystal” and a picture of a giant, free spinning feature that was painted black and red that hangs from the roof in the cave at the gym.  I realized then that Heart of Steel was going to be a lot bigger and better then last year…

Here is how Heart of Steel works: there were two finals “problems” for both men and women, each containing $200 placed strategically on the walls for the climbers to get.  Climbers start in the same place each time they fall and can come off the wall, down climb, or dyno to the cash at any time.  There is only one rule.  Get the money and get paid.  Each climb has a $10, $20, $20, $50, and $100 bill for the climbers to snatch off the wall with the higher denominations being harder to get.  Any money left on the wall by the competitors goes into the pot and the overall winner gets the remaining cash.  These boulder problems are more like sport routes that have the competitors climbing long and sustained lines that zig zag up the wall.  Vasya and Michael beasted their way up mens #1 and Sydney Mcnair, Sasha DiGIulian, and Francesca Metcalf all put on a great show on their first climb, I think at one point Michael flew off the wall into the crowd as he jumped for a crisp $50 bill…

Finals #2 was in the gym’s cave and hanging right in the center was the free spinning crystal.  The cave was revealed to the giant audience in a dramatic curtain drop with smoke, strobes, lights, and metal blaring over the speakers.  It truly was perfection.  The crystal was attacked by the women leaving Sasha in 1st, Francesca in 2nd, and Sydney in 3rd.  The men went to war on Max’s finals route creation and with the assist of a “life line” were able to ride the free spinning and swinging feature to a crowd pleasing finish.  Vasya absolutely destroyed and successfully defended his title from last year with Michael in 2nd and Rob in 3rd.  Truly there is no first place winners only climbers who were able to grab more cash off the walls.  The great part about making finals is that you will get paid.

All in all the event was unreal.  Organized, promoted and thrown to perfection but there was one small problem.  How do we make it bigger and better next year?  You couldn’t cram one more person in the giant room that finals was held in and the walls are limiting in size so whats next?  We have a year to figure it out and I’m sure that Max and Gavin will not let us down and with a gym owner like Chris O’Connell that is pushing the limits of indoor competition climbing to new levels, I am sure we will not be disappointed.

My pillow for the week in Boston…

Special thanks to George Lucozzi and ASA Photographic for some of the best competition photos ever.  Great work!