L’Argentière la Bessée and Bardonecchia. Analysis of the new bouldering trends 2004

The bouldering competitions are surely the ones that have had the biggest success in the last years. Without taking anything away from the world of difficulty, the appointments of this kind, competitive and not, take place almost everywhere, encountering always more success.
Different reasons are at the base of this trend. First of all, bouldering represents the emergent specialty in the variegated climbing world. The new climbing generations have discovered climbing through the gyms, which are mostly bouldering rooms. The approach to the specialty is therefore a direct consequence of reality, with the beginners going towards specific sport directions, and only later they begin with the activity also in the crags or in the mountains.
Another reason of the success of bouldering is of financial nature, fundamental aspect for the organizers of climbing competitions. A bouldering competition, in general, needs much lower budgets that an equivalent difficulty competition. Therefore many places that are interested in proposing climbing as a sport event prefer to choose bouldering instead of the traditional “difficulty”. There is also the issue of that the bouldering competitions are very spectacular, usually more appreciated than the classic difficulty, also if not everybody agrees with this last point.
At the end, you have to note a last important aspect, also this one a child of modern times. The competitions for the sake of it seem to have reached a plateau in their evolution. Stimulus and enthusiasm are not enough to let grow the activity, if it remains concentrated on a single sport event. New ideas are needed, in short.
In the last period things have been changing, though. Like in other realities, let’s think to the evolution of ice-climbing competitions, the organizators try to put together the sport event with a meeting for everybody, professionals and passionates. Companies of the sector like Petzl and La Sportiva have been the route setters of the project, once again they were able to intuit the trend of the market, proposing a new way to experience the activity. Let’s remember the first tries of the meetings of Tralenta (2001 and 2002), organized by Petzl, then the meeting in Ailefroide last year, to reach the Melloblocco, on which La Sportiva and Petzl had been working for a couple of years, and that has been realized with the collaboration of the Alpine Guides of Lombardia. To remember, at the end, the Petzl event in Targassonne, where 500 climbers met in the French Pyrenees, during the last weekend of May.

The freeclimbing spirit

Things change, in short, and it is nice to be there, we must be there. It is our duty to think about new solutions for the passionates of climbing, because today our sport is always more a heritage to defend, for its characteristics that make it different from any other sport specialty. So different that the “freeclimbing spirit”, 40 years after its genesis, that happened at the beginning of the Seventies in Yosemite Valley, continues to be very healthy. It is always more a way of being, a form of collective identification, also if it’s different from what it used to be, in those days the climber was much more an alternative hippie than the health-conscious athletes of today.
This is also a sign of the times, the symbol of a mutation in being. The new generation expresses new requirements. It’s up to the interested people to understand these needs and to try to satisfy them. These are the years of the “freeclimbing spirit”, where the sport event marries always more the concept of “climbing party”, where champions and simple passionates climb on the same boulder, where in the evening people talk about climbing in front of a beer, listening to live music and looking at the videos of the day.

L’Argentière La Bessée (Fra), 28-30 July
Fourth leg of the Bouldering World Cup

At the end of July the Bouldering World Cup reached the Briançonnais area, and more precisely L’Argentiere La Bessée, a small village of the French Hautes-Alpes, that represents the symbol of a mentality that tries to make the best out of the mountain environment.
L’Argentière is the energy center that makes alive and dynamic the whole vertical environment of the region, thanks to its initiatives (ice-meeting in January and climbing meeting in July), that by now have become, at all effects, the reference point of the entire sector.
And if the work of the Alpine Guide Gerard Pailheiret has allowed reaching the 14th edition of the Ice Climbing Event, we hope that the lavishly invested energy of François Lombard can give the same results with the time, because we have reached by now the second edition organized by the French champion. This year the event has been perfectly organized, taking attention to the dates, the potentially interested companies and the logistic support. Further, the competition has been officially combined with the bouldering meeting of Ailefroide, in order to offer a complete appointment to all climbing passionates.
The reached result has been an event unique in its kind, with a dozen booths of different companies and five-six thousand passionates.
The competition starts on Wednesday, July 28, with the French Youth Bouldering Championship, where almost two hundred climbers compete on the several available problems.
The next day the debut of the World Cup. The girls begin with the qualification in the morning and the finals in the evening. Russian Olga Bibik wins, in front of surprising Juliette Danion, while the reigning World Champion, Sandrine Levet, must be satisfied with the lowest step of the podium.
On Saturday it’s the turn of the men’s category. Victory for Stephane Julien, second place for the reigning World Champion, Italian Cristian Core, while Daniel Dulac is third.

Ailefroide (Fra), July 31/August 1
International Bouldering Meeting

Tous a bloc! This was written on the poster of the French Youth Championship/ World Cup/ International Bouldering Meeting. In fact it is a concentration of sport climbing of the last generation: competition and meeting together, for the best result regarding the image of the specialty. And so it has been.
A lot of participants have found about seventy problems available. Each of them has tried the moves for six hours, auto-certifying his performance. The ranking, in this case purely symbolic, was just an excuse to give recognition to each category, nothing more. The offered prizes, more than one hundred, have been drawn among all participants.
In the evening of Saturday, all-you-can-eat for everybody, followed by videos and live music with DJ Lafouche (Laurent de la Fouchardiere, sport promotion manager Petzl).
During the two days it was possible to visit the small village of exhibitors, in the park of Chalet Hotel of Ailefroide. La Sportiva was present with the company booth, where it was possible to try on the Venom, the new bouldering slipper.

Bardonecchia (To), August 20-21
Fifth leg of the Bouldering World Cup

After three weeks it’s the turn of Italy. The fifth leg of the world circuit is in Bardonecchia, the town where the first modern sport climbing competition took place, in the by now far away 1985.
First day for the women’s category, qualification in the morning and final in the evening. High level of the competitors, with the best specialists of the category. The reigning World Champion, Frenchwoman Sandrine Levet wins again, pursued until the end by prodigious Giulia Giammarco, who misses her first international win after the last desperate dyno of Levet; third Russian Ioulia Abramtchouk, in good shape again after a opaque period.
On Saturday the men climb on the problems set by route setters Donato Lella, Marc Daviet and Laurent Laporte. To notice the come back to the competitions of Mauro Calibani, unfortunately not in top form. Absent the first of the world ranking, Austrian Kilian Fischhuber and Italian Cristian Core. A few problems with the route setting, during the final on Saturday evening. In fact only four of the six problems are solved, one of them only by veteran Salavat Rakhmetov.
Because of that the general ranking was less evident than usual. Victory for Daniel Dulac, followed by Swiss Matthias Müller, while the lowest step of the podium is for French Loïc Gaidioz.
A lot of spectators, that could have been more, if the temperature hadn’t been so low (6° C), and the show was less appealing for the passionates who came to the new sport amphitheatre, near the City Sport Hall.

Grange della Valle (To), Levi-Molinari Hut, August 22
International bouldering meeting

The bright mind of Maurizio Puato, local chef and strong bouldering specialist, has managed another time to organize the event combined with the Bardonecchia competition. A few differences from the last year edition. First novelty, the prizes, supplied by the sponsors of the event, coming with some special problems, that could stimulate, in an even more efficient way, the nervous fibers of the VIP climbers. Very appreciated the work of setting new extreme problems, of which some remained unsolved. Also the logistic aspect of the event has had its importance, like for instance the starting platform under the huge overhanging roof, built for the occasion with several mattresses and crash-pads, necessary to soften the falls of the numerous tries.
Among the presents many high level climbers: Mauro Calibani, Marzio Nardi, Serik Kazbekov, Marc Daviet, Natalia Perlova, Giulia Giammarco, Stefania De Grandi and Giovanna Pozzoli.
Wonderful sunny day, great satisfaction of the participants, who in the late afternoon gathered in the place in front of the Levi-Molinari Hut, for a farewell all-you-can-eat and the drawing of several prizes, with the live music of Mauro Mongiovì and Elio Cacchio.
Also in this case it has been possible to test directly on the field the efficiency of the new model Venom, designed purposely for the requirements of modern bouldering.
Oscar Durbiano