Climbo 2013

Well, with the World Cup in Kitzbühel, this year's competition season has started.
This past Saturday the "Climbo", a traditional bouldering competition in South Tyrol, was held in the Salewa gym in Bolzano. The Climbo is always an amazing competition and a good opportunity to meet a lot of friends. So I was really excited to get to climb with many nice people and to give my best in the comp.
The last few years I've always been super motivated and confident to climb well, but this year it was a little different. Of course I was super motivated but actually not that confident to do a good performance. Why? Well, I'll explain you why.

About a month ago I found out that Sido, a super famous German rapper, would come to Brixen. Obviously I didn't want to miss out such an amazing event (which eventually turned out not to be that amazing at all) but as luck would have it, the date of the event was the 3rd of Mai, the day before the Climbo would take place. Consequently I thought that I would not be in a good shape the day of the competition and I had to accept that. Fortunately I was totally wrong.

I went through the qualification round feeling strong and not even a little bit tired. I made one stupid mistake which cost me the first position, but I also knew that I had the chance to make up for this little mistake in the final.
After hanging out in the sun, eating an awesome burger, drinking a beer and playing cards, my fingers started to sweat because I couldn't wait to finally climb the final.
The time in isolation was as boring as always. I did a good warm up session and felt ready to crush!

First boulder                                                                       (c) Egle Kirdulyte

First boulder: flash. Second boulder: flash. Third boulder: third go.
I was sitting in first place after the first three problems with one more top than Steve, who was in second.
When we went out to have a look at the boulders, before the final started, the last problem was looking quite easy. So I knew that I would just have to climb this last boulder to win, what made me even more nervous.

Second boulder                                                                 (c) Egle Kirdulyte

The time passed and finally it was my turn. I brushed the holds and went for a good flash go. All of a sudden I had to struggle with a move, which I thought would be easy, and fell off the wall. Oh no!! I absolutely had to climb this boulder problem. I thought to be sure that I would be able to climb it, but now I was struggling with a move which seemed to be an easy one. Ok, I just had to keep calm.

                                  (c) Egle Kirdulyte

The next go was as frustrating as the one before and the time was running out. I jumped onto the problem for the next try with a minute left on the clock. I fell off again on the same move but I found out a little trick to make the move easier. I had time to make one last try.

I was totally pumped and extremely tired. My fingertips were almost bleeding and my body was sore. Nevertheless I was happy. Yes, I was super happy. Sitting on top of the fourth problem in front of an amazing crowd, knowing that I had won, was one of the feelings I'll never forget. The last two years there has always been missing a little bit of luck to win the Climbo and now I had finally won this competition. What an amazing feeling!!

The winner in the girls category was Andrea Ebner and apparently it is a good idea to go out the night before a competition as she was at the Sido concert too =)

On the last boulder                                            (c) Egle Kirdulyte

The Climbo was a cool event and the next weekend I'll already be climbing my next competition, my second World Cup in Log Dragomer. It is nice to be allowed to take part at all these comps but what I'm really looking forward to is some rock. Hopefully I will find some time in between all the days I'm spending on plastic, to get to climb outside again.