The Heart of Steel Bouldering competition was this past weekend.
The Staff at t he BRG did an amazing job setting up again this year bringing on even more excitement than last year. They worked with the folks over at Brewers to fashion what was deemed “The Dark Crystal”. This feature, cooncealed by a tarp, was revealed at the start of the final round. The tarp dropped and there was this spinning diamond that swung freely in the cave. The crowd crazy. Everyones jaw dropped when the tarp did.
Here is some pics from Jon Glassberg’s site "Louder than 11" from earlier in the week when they first hung this beast in the cave. A finalist last year (and my poster boy if you will) he helped out the BRG Staff this year and set some amazing routes. Jon has a pretty cool site. You can check it out here...
Climbing on this was a dynamic task on all axises imaginable. I was fortunate to be able to at least hang on it the week before the finals as it was covered up as soon as it was hung.
They also had this 3’ diameter semi-sphere fashioned just for the comp. This all made for some sweet images as the climbers twisted and contorted themselves in ways I don’t they could have anticipated.
So how do I some up the spirit of the event…well as a fairly avid indoor sport climber myself, I have to say it is about the overcoming of a personal challenge. I would say that even though by the end of a LONG day of climbing for the competitors there are ultimately 3 Guys and 3 Gals competing against each other for the top spot in the finals, the crowd there understands that is about working out the problem and overcoming it. Trying, failing, try again, failing, and trying again until you get it. That to me is truly the spirit of the Heart of Steel.
This was never made more apparent to me then when Rob D. from Phili was up last for the guys on the finals wall. After a couple of minutes I could tell that he was not going to be able to get this route down like the other two finalists had, however he kept hoping back on as the crowd cheered him on. He was going for this HUGE dyno move (essentially a flying leap from one spot to another) that he missed twice. Everyone started cheering for him “COME ON ROB!” “GET IT ROB!” , I was one of them. Eyes focused on his target, he went for again and this time his hands stuck. Feet and body still swinging out wildly from all the momentum, he held it! The crowd went nuts! It did not matter that we had seen the previous two climbers get it on there first attempts. That was Rob’s challenge and he sent it. All the other climbers there know that feeling and at that very moment they were all right there with him. HEART OF STEEL!
I spent the previous week planning some remote camera set-ups and ended up only sticking with one, but what an angle it was. I made what amounts to large smooth stud that screws into there wall which I attached an adjustable stand head to use that as my remote camera mount.
This is one of my favorite shots. Sasha tops out on one of the ladies final routes and plucks a $50 from the wall. Remote camer with a fisheye lens. you can see me on the ground (just to the right of her head in the frame) triggering it.
Here are the finalists and man, can they climb. Worth the mention, Vasya (orange top)and Francesca (blue top)repeated there visit to the finals again this year as they did last.
Check out all the images we took here...
You can can also check out all the videos of the final climbs here on Thomas Sherman's Blog.
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