72 Athletes from over 20 countries competed during the popular Teva Mountain Games. Climbing was the focal point and drew thousands of spectators.

This 2nd Vail Bouldering World Cup grew on what was learned from last year.  The athletes loved the bouldering problems. There were more spectators during the entire competition, even qualifiers. Thousands of people came to watch during sunny weather. TV and media coverage was extensive.

Climbing was exciting and the excellent route-setting team was able to bring fun and mix up the field. There were unexpected moves on the problems which served to break-up the competition nicely.

Team USA was strong placing 3 men and 2 women in finals. France placed 2nd in the team rankings and Austria, 3rd. The crowd cheered all competitors, helping Jain Kim (Korea), Natalie Gros (Slovenia) and Ana Stohr (Austria) up the wall with their roars. The Russian, Rustam Gelmanov was hurt going for the finishing hold on the final men’s problem and was reportedly doing okay by the time of this report.  Crowd favorites, Kilian Fischhuber, Paul Robinson and Daniel Woods also gave a show to remember. Kyle Owen (USA) competed in the finals of a World Cup for the first time.

Germany’s Jonas Bauman was the Men’s winner, Daniel Woods (USA) 2nd and Kilian Fischhuber (Austria) was 3rd. For the Women, Alex Puccio (USA) placed 1st, Alex Johnson (USA) was 2nd and Akiyo Noguchi (Japan) placed 3rd.

We look forward to the IFSC Vail Bouldering World Cup the same weekend next year.