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As usual the best ranked climbers climbed first, and since most of Team USA’s girls haven’t done any World Cups most of Team USA will climb near the end of the pack. Here’s a quick rundown of the problems, I’ll post results when the round is over.

The live commentator did a little interview with some of the women after they climbed. First was the #1 ranked woman, Austrian Anna Stöhr, and she had some interesting things to say. For one, she loves being in Vail. In regards to winning all the time:

I don’t think that I’m that much stronger than the other girls, sometimes I think I just had a bit more luck they they had. ~ Anna Stöhr

He also interviewed Alex Puccio about her qualifiers and if the altitude is affecting her at all:

I had a couple mishaps, I slipped off the top of the fourth one in the beginning. On the last one I slid off the start hold two times then I did it. It’s good to make your mistakes early on. I used to be used to the altitude when I lived here. Every year that I haven’t been living here it gets harder and harder. I feel like I’m going to throw up after each problem and I’m not even falling up high. I can’t imagine falling at the top and trying to climb them again. ~ Alex Puccio

And Shauna Coxsey, who was quite cheery despite a knee problem she’s been having that the announcer asked her about:

It’s just hindering me a little bit on certain moves. It’s a bit of a disadvantage but it’s more important to climb next year than this comp which is why I stopped trying on number 3. I’ll just see how it goes. Take it easy and not push myself on certain moves too hard.

On the altitude:

Altitude’s a disadvantage but it’s a disadvantage for everyone. You get so pumped and so out of breath, everyone coming back [to iso] looks like they’ve just run a marathon. ~ Shauna Coxsey

Shauna will be staying around the Colorado for the next few weeks to climb on Colorado rock, so let’s hope her knee stays strong and she gets to climb some hard boulders! After that she’s home for training, then out to Australia for more climbing, then back home for more training before the next Bouldering World Cup of the season, Munich in August.

Back to qualifiers. As we saw in the Spot last week, there are many extremely strong women here to compete. It will be exciting to see how everyone does here in Vail! Here are the first set of problems they were tested against:

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Women’s Quali 1

Start under a small hang, move over lip to slab, two blobs, out left to blob on volume and a volume with two jibs on it. Mantle up/undercling volume, stand tall, foot on jib, stand up to finish. Don’t move too fast to top or fall off. Some interesting methods were tried on this one.

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Women’s Quali 2

Start, grab blob, work left, heel, rock up right hand to volume, compress the arete on volumes.

Up to a blob bonus, rock over to the headwall on a volume to a challenging jump to and a challenging match on the finish volume.

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Women’s Quali 3

Steep and powerful. Start on pinches, one hold on flat wall, heel or toe up on start hold, committing move to first big hold in roof.

Match. Thuggy looking moves through roof with clamp feet. Keep the feet on or fall off.

Up to pinch, left to bonus hold (big matching hold just under lip)

Match bonus.

Over the lip left hand to the blue hold between the Enterprises E and N below.

Out right to white blob, match, up right to finish on Versa-pinch.

This last move seemed to be a bit of a surprise for most competitors who got there. It must have been farther than it looked as competitors including Shauna Coxsey and Angie Payne came slightly short of sticking it. To her surprise, Melissa Le Neve did stick it.

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Women’s Quali 4

Steep and powerful up an overhanging wall and an arete. Start on two balls, feet on pinchtites, jump to a bloctite with another bloctite just over it.

Lisa Chulich tried using the right arete to stand tall. It worked but she then tried to do a dynamic cross to the bloctite that she couldn’t stick. It looked like a toehook or just using the regular method would have been better for her.

Match the bloctites with a foot or feet up, power move to a small hold up and left,

…heel on…

then left around the arete to the bonus hold.

Balance on the heel and get right hand in vortex.

The sequence Angie tried for the end was: bump left into the little blue hold below the lip, right up to higher blue hold on headwall. I imagine next would be left hand into vortex, up to finish, but she fell here and didn’t get back before time ran out.

From there it looked like you could thrutch left to the last pinch or you could maybe flip the vortex and go right as a gaston then match. Don’t remember if anyone tried the flip method, most didn’t even get near the top of this one.

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Women’s Quali 5

Back to the vertical for some balance, stand-up, squeeze, and press moves on volumes. This one required the climbers to move deliberately with good body tension. The start seemed quite challenging, the middle ok, then matching the undercling bonus was powerful and matching the finish was no picnic either. Most who got to the last hold did figure out the match, but I saw at least one climber move too fast at the top and slip trying to match the finish before they’d gotten a solid body position.

Staying low like Shauna is here seemed the best way. Several competitors mantled up on the left hand and then tried to reach down and match. Mina Leslie-Wujastyk dropped back down to the position Shauna is in and matched. Melanie Sandoz (FRA) went for the match from the high position but her foot slipped as she brought her right hand across and she had to try again, fell repeatedly at the bottom and throughout the problem, and unfortunately didn’t finish. Briton Leah Crane fell in the middle but then got back up and tried a few things before eventually making the match without falling.

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Click Here to See Women’s Qualifier Results