What's Behind Boulder #1?

A deeper dive into one of only untopped men’s finals boulders this season.

Another week, another World Cup. I’ve been following this season more closely than I have in the past, which might be contributing to my lukewarm reception of most of the events. After watching athletes on 150 boulder problems, it starts to become an amalgamation of moves that makes the memory a bit hazy.

The finals round for Innsbruck had some striking boulders for the men and women. Cheeta print volumes, tropical colored Rock City holds, and mint (really has been having a moment this season) Artline holds had the walls popping, even if the actual climbing left a bit to be desired.

One boulder in particular had me feeling some type of way.

The first boulder of the Men’s final round was one of the only untopped men’s finals boulders of the entire season, the other being the second boulder in Curitiba. A boulder that initially had me excited as the first few climbers began to work their way through it, quickly turned into disappointment, frustration, and yearning for understanding.

So what can we discern from the broadcast?

It seems simple…

The title for the boulder is “Power Coordination” in the Online Observation scan. This is something we and the athletes have seen countless times before. At first glance, I’d say it's even easy to read. There's no complex foot movements, no camouflaged holds, and no fluff.

The boulder begins with a nearly vertical dyno to paddle off of an Artline Mercy. This is followed by an undefined upper body coordination sequence (will talk more about this later) to the zone. This is capped off by what at first glance looks like one of the easiest “coordination” moves in the World Cup all year: a lache down to a volume that you redirect off of to grab two holds.

This is a CliffsNotes version, but for these athletes, this is one of the easiest coordination combinations you can throw at them. Considering we’ve had 180° campus paddles this year, this should be a walk in the park. Right?

Uneven Tempo

Routesetters often refer to the different “speeds” of a boulder. This refers to the actual movements being fast or slow, or the intensity being high or low. Maintaining the ebb and flow of these is often what correlates to success. A boulder does not necessarily need to climb in the same style, or push athletes to physical exertion every move. A proper balance of ingredients will determine the most capable athletes.

This boulder is an example of a high fluctuation of intensity. Over half of the competitors flashed to zone, and all of them were easily able to get back to zone repeatedly. On top of this, there was no definitive sequence to the zone. There were three (1,2,3) main ways the climbers were attempting this move, and none of them seemed harder or easier than the others. A double clutch, cross-through, and toe hook were all utilized. I’m all for success, but a clear sequence makes it easier for a spectator to discern what the boulder is trying to accomplish and allows the climbers to highlight their specific strengths and weaknesses.

View of the boulder from Online Observation

The second half of the boulder told a different story. Upon seeing the Online Observation footage and watching the competitors preview the boulder, the target foot for the lache seemed incredibly far away, nearly an entire body length for most of the competitors. After comparing the Online Observation video and the final boulder more times than I’d like to admit, the volume was not moved to this height last minute. The Online Observation videos are taken at some point earlier in the day or week (I’m not exactly sure when), and you can occasionally spot differences from the Online Observation video and the final boulder if the setters make last minute tweaks. This means that someone – routesetter or forerunner – likely did this move in its final iteration.

Hard to Learn

The 4:00 minute timer is a gift and a curse. It creates the drama and pressure that we all tune in for, but it also restricts the routesetters to giving the athletes something they can solve in a short amount of time. It's a fine line to walk and one wrong step can deem a boulder unsuccessful.

All of the athletes got to try this move at least 3 times, with some getting up to 6 attempts. The first six athletes made little to no progress. A few were able to get their hand on the target hold, but their bodies were too far from the wall to reel back in and gain control. Repeated attempts were inconsistent and wildly varied. From gauging the athletes' reactions and my own, I was leaning towards the boulder being impossible for the first 24 minutes of viewing. It isn’t often you see some of the best climbers in the world being shut down by a boulder that appears to all parties involved as “simple”.

The last two competitors, Dohyun Lee and Sorato Anraku, were able to give us some more insight.

Dohyun came the closest to topping and you can view his full attempts starting here. He was the only one that seemed to make some visible progress on this move during subsequent attempts. Most competitors were opting to aim for the first hold and try to control it instead of paddling through. Dohyun opted to continue his momentum and paddle through to the 2nd hold. He had 5 attempts total, with only 4 tries at this move as he fell to zone on his 2nd attempt. His third attempt was the closest and he was making forward progress to the finish hold. Although he was making progress, it still looked unlikely that he had enough momentum to carry through to the finish, or power to gain a little extra height off the left hand sloper. I do feel like if he had a try on this move on his 2nd attempt it would’ve been enough understanding to get the top on his 3rd. His 4th and 5th attempts were rapid fire and regressive from his earlier ones.

The most important thing to note here is Dohyun’s foot and hip positioning. He enters the wall nearly starfished, with his right foot pointing alongside the horizontal edge of the volume. This volume appeared to be lower profile than the athletes wanted, so getting as close as possible to the wall and keeping his feet turned outwards allowed him to maintain his momentum without pushing himself too far from the wall on the lache.

Dohyun mid lache, so close to the wall he is nearly bumping himself out with his chest.

Sorato’s attempts were good, but a little less convincing. You can view his attempts starting here. Sorato’s best attempt was his second attempt at the move, similar to Dohyun, barring his fall to zone. He had a similar approach with his feet by turning his foot perpendicular to the volume. However, Sorato is a bit shorter than Dohyun, the former standing at 5’6” and the latter at 5’9”. Sorato opted to gain the first target hold with both hands and try to completely stop his momentum. He looks like he slows down, but it's hard to tell if he would’ve actually stopped because his left hand slips down from the dual textured part of the hold. From this attempt, it looks unlikely that Sorato would’ve been able to do the paddle beta that Dohyun attempted. His subsequent attempts were regressive from his second.

Sorato with similar positioning to Dohyun, his right foot and knee are turned ever so slightly more inward.

Did height make a difference?

Is this boulder, dare I say it, reachy?

After pulling some heights from trusty Google, there were some interesting trends. Dohyun, Hannes, and Toby were the tallest competitors at 5’9”. Mejdi, Sohta, and Nicolai are 5’8”. Sorato is 5’6, and Max is 5’5”.

A vast majority of the competitors were around the same height, with Sorato and Max being the outliers. Before Dohyun and Sorato’s attempts, height looked like it was impacting the boulder as the competitors were hitting the hold straight armed and unable to begin the second motion of pulling through. The boulder also looked especially difficult for Max, who had a hard time even reaching the outside dualtex part of the hold. Mejdi and Max are especially talented at coordination, so it was surprising to see them struggle so much and make little progress on repeat attempts.

Dohyun and Sorato were on the opposite ends of the height spectrum for this final and both “almost” did the move. I do think Dohyun’s extra height helped him do the presumably intended paddle through to the finish. As mentioned before, it would be difficult to envision Sorato doing the paddle considering his body position on his best attempt.

I wasn’t able to find each athletes’ reach measurement, which would also impact the conclusion of the reachy discussion. However, I think it definitely had an impact, and the boulder could’ve been tuned a bit to be more equitable for the competitors.

What's the Verdict?

The routesetters took a risk, and it didn’t pay off.

The listed setters for this event were Tsukuru Hori(Head), Maelys Agrapart, and Max Ayrton. There are additional setters and forerunners for the IFSC events that are not listed. Tsukuru is the head setter of B-Pump in Japan, and has won multiple World Cup medals. Maelys works as a (head?) setter for Arkose in France. Max has extensive competition setting experience and has competed at the world cup level. All of this is to say that these are some of the best setters in the world and they know what they are doing.

We may never get to ask them questions, so we are left to speculate.

Setting is a game of calculated risk, even at the highest level. It would be convenient to ask the setters “Hey, what went wrong here? What did you actually want?”. Realistically, I don’t think there's ever a clear answer as the potential outcomes are limitless.

Although this boulder didn’t get a top, the round still played out well and there was separation. This concept was slightly too complex, intense, or risky to pull off in the 4 minute time window. This reminded me of the 2023 Hachioji jump to press move that was only done by Mejdi post-comp. The video shows multiple routesetters doing the move in forerunning, but it proved to be too complex for actual competition. This press move ended up being recreated at multiple training camps, comps, and World Cups. It is now regularly seen, and many athletes are capable of doing it.

If you aren’t taking risks you won’t get a reaction from competitors or spectators. If you aren’t getting a reaction, your work is going to be forgotten. These setters were not afraid to take a risk. Albeit it warranted a negative reaction, it became memorable because it strayed from the line of neutrality.