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Sharma, Ovchinnikova Win
Bouldering Fun In the Hot Arizona Sun
April 15, 2000

As the sun warmed the high desert rock at 8am, the starting horn sounded, sending over 400 eager competitors off at a fast walk on the dirt road that headed towards the boulders. Within minutes, the crowd gradually dispersed, as groups of competitors split off to their chosen boulder field or toprope wall. For each competitor, the goal was simple. Climb as many problems near your maximum ability, with your eight best problems, i.e. highest point count, counting for your cumulative point total.

	Chris Sharma

The field of this year's comp contained many of the country's top climbers. For the men, Chris Sharma, Tommy Caldwell, Jason Campbell, David Graham and Wills Young, the winner in '98, were on hand. In the women's field, 1998 champion Elena Ovchinnikova, Katie Brown, Tiffany Campbell, Beth Rodden and Stephanie Forte were among the competitors.

By 9 o'clock, the men's overall competition turned into a competition for 2nd place, when Chris Sharma sent a toprope route on the Laser Wall, one of two available 6000-point problems. He opted not to do a warm-up and shortly after the 8am start he began to attempt the route. On his fourth try, he topped out on the route and effectively ended the competition. Classic Sharma style, of course. The last time he turned in a scorecard at Phoenix, 1997 (he climbed but did not turn in a scorecard in 1998), he won in similar fashion, when he sent a 2000 point problem that had never been climbed before.

"As the 1pm deadline approached, competitors scrambled to fill their scorecards to meet the eight score maximum..."

Katie Brown, a potential winner, opted to take a relaxed approach to the comp. "We're not trying anything really hard today," said Brown early in the day, as she and partner Beth Rodden looked for fun problems to do. "Today, it's all about being mellow," chimed in Rodden.

With its festive nature, the PBC differs from most climbing competitions. In indoor competitions, competitors are not allowed to share information on the route. At the PBC, competitors freely share beta (information on how to do a route) and cheer each other on with genuine enthusiasm. At a difficult 2000 point traverse in the Maze area, a group of the top boulderers in the country, including Sharma, Young, Graham, Campbell and Obe Carrion, exchanged info on the nuances of the route and exhorted each other to try harder.

As the 1pm deadline approached, competitors scrambled to fill their scorecards to meet the eight score maximum. Tommy Caldwell quickly dispatched a few 100 point problems to round out his score. "I'd only done five problems," said Caldwell, "so I had to run around and try to do a bunch of problems at the end."

Some competitors were stymied by certain problems and weren't able to complete a full card. "I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew on a few of the problems," said Jason Campbell, "I immediately threw myself at the first 1500 point boulder problem I could find. I found out later that it had never been done since the holds had broken. It was pretty futile, I wasted all my skin on the first problem. Strategy is really important at these things and I think that showed today. But, I had a really good time today."

	Tiffany Campbell

In the afternoon, when the contest was over and the competitors had time to rest a little and re-hydrate, there was a dyno competition on an artificial wall set up in the vendor area of the festival. The field, thinned a bit by those whose finger tips were too shredded from earlier in the day, featured dyno artists like Chris Sharma, Obe Carrion and Tyson Atwell, for the men, and Tiffany Campbell and Pauline Hsieh for the women.

The dyno comp followed a simple format. The wall featured several dyno problems from easy to extremely difficult, with corresponding point values. The rules were simple as well: "Three falls and you're out and once you've completed a dyno, you can't do it again," said PBC head honcho Jim Waugh. The competitors cycled through quickly, tagging the simple problems first and then progressing to the big leaps.

As the competition heated up and the field narrowed, some spectacular dynos were thrown, some of which hit the mark and some of which did not, producing some spectacular falls down to the pile of bouldering mats at the base. Unfortunately for Mike Auldridge, the pile of bouldering mats was slightly askew. After hitting a spectacular 30 point double dyno late in the competition, he jumped down to the waiting landing zone, where his right leg found a gap between the cushions, resulting in a broken ankle.

Tyson Atwell won the men's dyno, having outlasted the entire field before taking his final fall. Pauline Hsieh showed the best leaps of the women, even though she was sporting a fully taped, sprained ankle that she hurt before coming to Phoenix. Despite being very immobile with that leg, she still hit some very solid dynos.

At the end of the day, as the desert cooled down and competitors wrapped tender fingers around containers of their favorite beverage, the results were announced. For the women, Elena Ovchinnikova, retained her overall womens' title by a 500 point margin over Tiffany Campbell, who was only able to complete five problems for her score, while Alli Rainey took 3rd. Katie Brown's mellow approach still earned her the 14-19 Women's Non-Local division title.

The overall men's winner was Chris Sharma, with 11,900 points. Erik Harrison took 2nd with 5100 points, less than half of Sharma's total. Sharma emphasized that the fun he had that day was more important than the win. "It was really nice. I just really enjoyed the day," he said, "I haven't climbed for a while because I was sick and it was really fun to be climbing."

"It was my first time to Phoenix and I can't believe I've never come to Phoenix ever, but I'll always come back..."

All the top climbers emphasized that contest was really about fun bouldering, not hardcore competition. Tommy Caldwell, who took 3rd in the men's overall, said, "It was great, I had a great day of bouldering, but got really worked, definitely." David "Stickboy" Graham, competing for the first time at Phoenix, put it succinctly, "Rad, man! I had a really great time."

Stephanie Forte showed that even with a full-time job, you can still have fun and climb hard, as she took 1st in the women's 30-39 age group over Bobbi Bensman. "It was really fun. I don't usually compete, so this is only the second time that I've ever done a competition. It was my first time to Phoenix and I can't believe I've never come to Phoenix ever, but I'll always come back."

A shout must go out for perennial event organizer Jim Waugh and his dedicated staff of volunteers, from the office staff, who made sure that every competitor was properly registered, to the judges, who sat out in the hot AZ sun to verify completed problems. Without this enthusiastic group, the PBC would not be possible. Next year's competition depends on getting enough sponsorship, but hopefully they'll get enough, so start training now and make sure the skin on your fingertips is toughened up.

—Matt Stanley, trading soggy Seattle for blazing Arizona for MountainZone.com