Tour de Bloc 8: Nationals at Climber’s Rock

Magnus Midtbø focused on the final prize

Once again, the culmination of the Tour de Bloc was held out here in the Toronto region. This time around Burlington gym Climber’s Rock was the host for the biggest climbing event in Canada (yet!)! This year’s field was very impressive and the largest ever for Nationals, including about 60 Men competitors and 31 Women open competitors! Because some strong Europeans and Americans showed up, they ended up taking 13 women and 14 men to the final round. Super strong field on both sides! Very impressive.

Check out my favourite photos of both days below (qualifiers and finals). You’ll find lots more photos of the Nationals on my flickr photostream. You can also visit the Tour de Bloc site or my flickr photostream for all my pictures of the Tour de Bloc 8 season.

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Tour de Bloc 8: True North – Men Finals

Ayo working problem #4

This is my second installment of my True North pictures. Make sure you check out my first post with all the women finalists. Sorry for the late photos. I finally managed to upload them! Enjoy!

Like I said last week, the competition was pretty awesome to watch. Dustin did a great job at putting up spectacular problems and the crowd loved it! I personally can’t wait to see the nationals (unfortunately, i will miss the regionals!) coming up in April.

Check out my photos for the men finals below. You can also visit the Tour de Bloc site or my flickr photostream for more pictures.

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Tour de Bloc 8: True North – Women Finals

Erin almost topping out problem #4

The True North competition was pretty awesome. It was the first time this year that eight women went to finals (thanks to the 24 women competing in the qualifying rounds). Pretty cool! Dustin and his crew of setters put up a really good show, with some technical climbs (featuring brand new friction holds – ladies’ problem #1) and some simply spectacular (See my next post for men’s finals)! Even though the final problems were quite hard for the girls, they were all sent except for problem #3. The competition was stacked with strong climbers. It almost looked like nationals!

Stay tuned for the men’s finals photos. They should be coming up soon this week. Let me know which ones you like!

Check out my photos for the women finals. You can also visit the Tour de Bloc site or my flickr photostream for more pictures.

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Tour de Bloc 8: Gravity

Dustin walking problem #4

Last week’s comp at the Gravity Climbing Gym was another great Tour de Bloc competition. With head route setter Jody Miall on premise, we knew we could count on him for some really good finals. Thankfully, we had a great turn out for the competition and the finalists gave a great show! Props to Dustin and Stacey for their extremely convincing win this week (wow!). Dustin, we’re already excited for the next leg at True North Climbing in about a week!

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures from the comp. Visit the Tour de Bloc site or my flickr photostream for more pictures.

La compétition de la semaine passée Gravity Climbing Gym fut un autre succès! Avec Jody Miall sur place pour préparer les problèmes finales, on pouvait s’attendre à quelque chose de beau. Plusieurs compétiteurs (et compétitrices) forts se sont bien placés et les finales étaient vraiment le fun! Félicitation à Dustin et Stacey pour leurs belles victoires bien méritées. Dustin, on a déjà très hâte pour la compétiton de True North Climbing dans une semaine.

Voici quelques-unes de mes photos préférées de la compétition. Allez visiter le site du Tour de Bloc ou mon photostream flickr pour plus de photos.

Men

  1. Dustin Curtis
  2. Mark Button
  3. Sebastien Lazure
  4. Travis Van Ryn
  5. Ayo Sopeju
  6. Eric Sethna
  7. John Bowles
  8. Pete Woods

Women

  1. Stacey Weldon
  2. Sasha Vince
  3. Erin Ford-Zieleniewski
  4. Iyma Lamarche
  5. Kacy Wilson
  6. Eve Switzer

Erin cruising problem #2

Kacy working hard on problem #2

Kacey walking up problem #4

Mark wrestling on problem #3

Mark eyeing the next hold

Sebastien going for the hand-foot match

Mark crimping a foot hold

The crimp/foot hold
That’s right. That’s the foot hold some of them used as a crimp. Sick!

Tour de Bloc 8: Boulderz

Boulderz was the host of the fourth competition in the Eastern division this year. Although the gym is quite a bit smaller than other venues, they managed to create space by splitting off the climbers into three groups (two on Saturday and one on Sunday). Andrew and his team of setters (Chris Muzilla, Tony Berlier and Aaron Eden) did a great job at putting up problems for both qualifiers and finals. Even though two of the men’s final problems, #2 and #4, were maybe slightly too hard, they still made for a great show! More importantly, they also seperated the finalists pretty well. Congrats to TJ Quan for winning his first ever Tour de Bloc competition! Once again, team Allez Up did very well!

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures from the comp. Visit the Tour de Bloc site or my flickr photostream for more pictures.

La quatrième compétition de l’Est était à Boulderz la semaine passée. Malgré le fait que le centre d’escalade est plutot petit, les organisateurs ont quand même réussis à créer de l’espace en séparant les compétiteurs en trois groupes (deux le Samedi et un le Dimanche). Andrewet son équipe d’ouvreurs (Chris Muzilla, Tony Berlier and Aaron Eden) ont fait un super bon travail avec les blocs de qualifs et les blocs de finales. Malheureusement, deux des problèmes de finale des hommes étaient un peu trop difficile (#2 et #4), mais ils étaient quand même super intéressant à regarder! Ils ont aussi fait une très bonne séparation des finalistes. Je me dois de féliciter TJ Quan pour sa toute première victoire dans un Tour de Bloc! Et encore une fois, le team Allez Up a très bien réussi la fin de semaine passée!

Voici quelques-unes de mes photos préférer de la compétition. Allez visiter le site du Tour de Bloc ou mon photostream flickr pour plus de photos.

And now for the results:

Men

  1. TJ Quan
  2. John Bowles
  3. Ayo Sopeju
  4. Dustin Curtis
  5. Travis Van Ryn
  6. Max Dugal
  7. Remy Chrusten
  8. Andreas Lerch

Women

  1. Eva Pepin-Helie
  2. Erin Ford-Zieleniewsky
  3. Cloe Legault
  4. Iyma Lamarche
  5. Pia Graham
  6. Hedvig Lokay

TJ qualifying strongly
TJ qualifying strongly.

Cloe finishing problem #2
Cloe finishing problem #2.

Erin working problem #4
Erin working problem #4.

All stretched out on problem #1.
All stretched out on problem #1.

Dustin showing off on problem #1.
Dustin showing off on problem #1.

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