Bouldering World Championship 2023 : Story of a boulder

[@kylehill]

This was *extremely* well-made. Bravo.

[@Nyitemare]

Couldn't agree more

[@reaganfriedrice5058]

Back up, Kyle Hill is everywhere now. 🤔🤔

[@BramHeerebout]

Only now I realize what a huge risk this was for the setters individually and for the IFSC as an organization. As far as I am concerned it was an enormous success. I loved the mystery and the esthetics of the holds. I loved the movement they forced. The fact that Mika won was a bonus. I did tear up for a bit. Beautiful movie too by the way ❤

[@climbing_thomas]

seeing Mickaël Mawem hype himself up, secure the zone and the win was the coolest moment in this competition! and thank you for the insight into the holds and manufacturing, i hope to see them one day in commercial gyms as well!

[@Dave1507]

Those things look too much like a safety risk to be put up in commercial gyms, at least to me, that is.

[@aa-xi8bc]

⁠@@Dave1507my local gym has been doing climbs with no-tex holds for a while before that comp (technically the holds had texture but they were set so that it’d be impossible to use the texture, so essentially no-tex). We’ve never had issues or injuries afaik, sure they can be scary as footholds sometimes but those problems are usually too high a grade for inexperienced climbers to get on those and risk hurting themselves anyways. And even if they were a safety risk, well let’s be honest there’s plenty of other safety risks in climbing gyms that would be equally or more concerning.

[@icyfigher]

My biggest fear in climbing is seeing no Tex hold in a gym. I never liked dual tex and I actually saw one no Tex and the thought of seeing them again creates fear in my eyes. Yeahy for this move it was good and maybe there are few other moves, but please not Standard holds. Nobody likes outdoor climbs that are all washed up in comparison to before. The same is the case inside.

[@Dave1507]

@@aa-xi8bc so your reasoning is "Well, climbing is dangerous, so let's just make it a little more dangerous!"

[@aa-xi8bc]

@@Dave1507 No. What I said is it is comparable if not less risky than other climbs at the gym. Climbing is not safe, but a climb with no-tex, in my experience and opinion, does not make the gym more dangerous. Of course if *you* don’t feel safe on them that’s valid, you can just chose to climb other problems instead. Not every problem is going to please every climber anyways.

[@AllegraClimbingPsychologist]

It's incredible to see the story of a single boulder. I got emotional. Amazing work!

[@vadimdelakian7665]

Superbe ce parallèle entre la réussite de Pierre, des ouvreurs et de Mika, très belle vidéo !

[@BoulderingHighlights]

The exploration of movement never ends

[@goGOgetITnow]

12:22 chills... wow

[@Kiwivolant]

La vidéo, les grimpeurs, le montage, les prises, tout a été absolument magnifique. C'est le summum du court-métrage d'escalade. 👏🔥✨

[@Harris.L]

Such a beautiful short documentary, thank you so much!

[@climbjacksprat]

Your videos are as good as your holds: absolutely world class. Congrats to everyone involved in their successes

[@eliotrocks1]

Outstanding piece of filmmaking, top notch production, legendary talent 👏👏👏

[@raoulphilippon9493]

Vraiment excellent travail je l'ai montré à des amis qui ne grimpent pas du tout qui ont été pris aux tripes Félicitations

[@TheAlbinoskunk]

Wild that they vacformed over an existing hold rather than make a new form for such an important set of holds. Will be interesting to see if they develop the transparent no-tex holds further in the future 😊

[@OlivierFRscooter]

Great film that highlights one of the most controversial aspects of competition bouldering. I feel like while this specific boulder turned out to be a grand success in terms of innovation, its most important part was to create separation in a clear way. That is the problem that is even highlighted in this video, the routesetters don't know until the last moment if a boulder will work out as intended or not. In my opinion this last year there has been too much risk taking by setters, sometimes bringing beautiful stories as this one, sometimes giving morphology dependant boulders, sometimes getting 6 flashes in finals. If it were to me I'd go a bit more classic all together especially in the finals, as it is very underwhelming as a spectator to see innovation taking the lead in front of separation in terms of values. The setting became more important than the sport itself in the end

[@greenmattt]

There's always an incertitude when setting, sometimes a minor change could transform an "impossible" into a "not that hard" boulder. This is how it works even with more "traditional setting"

[@OlivierFRscooter]

@@greenmattt I agree, but you cannot argue that all the experience and background the sport has on more classic setting makes it less of a risk. I have set myself a bit and even at my low level, it's very clear how friends could break or have a different opinion than me on funky things I set, while having the expected challenge when it's crimps and tension

[@flip_lange]

I feel like going more “classic” might sound good, but the problem is: the more classic boulders probably have the smallest margin for error, either they get flashed by every single athlete or the shut everyone down…

[@CameronWatkinsKerr]

what you don't understand is the climbers are so ridiculously strong these days that if the route setters didn't experiment we would get 6 flashes of every boulder every time

[@ggrimpecom]

​@@CameronWatkinsKerr that also happens at lower levels (youth or local comps). As soon as the "I'm understanding it while I'm doing it" part of the experience is small, the outcome becomes very on-off, like it would normally happen in simple athletic feats. A moonboard-style ladder problem will get too many flashes and fails even if submitted to a field of primary school kids - it can be very enjoyable as a climber, but not a the best for show and separation. The question for top level routesetters is more if there's still "learning experiences" for the athletes, drama and uncertain results, to be found outside of the "party trick" and "cheeky coordination" stereotypes. But I'm not a top level setter and for sure I have no answer!

[@malotourneur46]

Génial du début à la fin

[@kolows]

au top comme d'hab

[@muumarlin1731]

Beautiful film!! Thank you!

[@ETCHDCLIMBING]

Big fan - love the story telling and perspectives!

[@BotchedBeta]

Phenomenal story. This was a delight to watch.

[@p.hoffmann7275]

your videos are just amazing!

[@shaniser74700]

Incroyable le montage ! Bravo trop belle vidéo !

[@Ultima503]

Awesome storytelling and great videography- really inspiring.

[@Carlton_climbing]

Superbe vidéo, un destin croisé incroyable et magnifiquement mis en lumière. Bravo !!! 👏👏👏

[@neptune7347]

Super vidéo

[@bosonail]

Image de fou et montage de dingue, vous régalez merci

[@TheSe77e]

why you didn't put in the footage of N.Uznik topping the problem?

[@draganandrei5356]

Yes, that would have been a good addition.

[@emg4889]

What is the song when Michael climbs at 10:30??

[@Armer78]

Appear all the songs at the end in the credits but i think this song is not correct. I can't find it. Awesome track!

[@achermannmathieu8468]

It is an original sound track composed by Jerome Achermann for the purpose if this video

[@Armer78]

​@@achermannmathieu8468Is possible to download?

[@ichouille]

toujours au top niveau les vidéos de chez flathold ❤

[@dirtjumpjw]

Wow routesetting is so crazy. Maybe more extreme them "the most dangerous Job" on DMAX. Love it

[@oldi6btm6t9d4]

Bravo Mickael!

[@nickyman007]

amazing hold

[@seanaugustinemarch1]

This is such a great video on such a fascinating aspect of indoor climbing. I think every boulderer at one point, wish they were a routesetter.

[@greenmattt]

la vidéo est vachement cool

[@FurEliseFlamenco]

Awesome video

[@motherlove8366]

Incroyable cette video

[@jeremiemaxit]

Énorme cette vidéo, je ne m'attendais pas du tout ça. Le sujet est vraiment intéressant, ça met en valeur ces artistes de l'ombre que sont les ouvreurs ! Le lien avec l'exploit de Micka Mawem tombait à pic.

[@jayt8a]

That was epic the dedication and believe is incredible and so rewarding for the people involved and the community 🥇🔝🙏

[@crossedbanach2883]

awsome!!

[@MiguelClimbs]

Obsessed with this video.

[@leonardo_magallanes]

Such a great video

[@agnar13]

Sublime vidéo du contenu au montage

[@antoine9498]

Nice video as always, thank you! Why was the absence of texture on the holds necessary for this move?

[@DarthDeth]

It was a way to add another level of challenge and separation for the competitors. Most of them would have been able to do the move easily if they used textured holds.

[@hermannwigers8321]

Because it forces you to rely on the momentum to keep moving through the holds. Since they are slippery it makes it closer to impossible to stop and just hang on them.

[@middle-agedclimber]

Wow, great short film, those holds look even more beautiful on closeups.

[@jankabatek9178]

IMHO these holds should have been introduced in one of the world cups (just like the Meiringen crack), and not at the wold championship. Their specificity makes the comp less about climbing prowess, and more about knowing the counterintuitive trick to make the holds work... good choice for a cup (allowing the athletes to learn and train this type of movement), but a strange choice for the most important stage of the season.

[@morkovija]

This is better than a movie. Fantastic video

[@lenzwe7775]

It's a real shame they didn't at least show Nikolai Uzniks top of the Boulder

[@flatholdofficial2304]

We had a limited time of competition footage, due to IFSC regulations. We therefore decided to focus our story on just one athlete.

[@adribier]

@@flatholdofficial2304 which happens to also be french, by pure coincidence

[@FlameIsLucky]

can I use some of this in a video? its so well done

[@flatholdofficial2304]

Hi there, please reach out at '[e-mail]'. Greater detail about your project will help us give you an answer. Thank you.

[@elooouan]

magnifique

[@rakugo]

I just hope the route setters at my local gym never find out about these holds.

[@draganandrei5356]

At my gym, they would use them and call the boulder V3.

[@ragna830]

and Nikolai Uznik topped the Boulder!

[@breezyclimbing]

Fire

[@jakeparker1287]

Awesome film.

[@snake_plant]

I feel it was a bit unfair if this was completely sprung on the athletes as something they would never have had the opportunity to practice on - especially seeing some have to quickly experiment with water which not all may have had to hand (interesting if skin serums/humectants get added to the toolkit along with chalk after this!). Definitely exciting as an option moving forward though.

[@groghnash]

they had one of those holds in isolation to practise on

[@snake_plant]

@@groghnash ah I see! That's a little better to know. Still wouldn't compare to the sheer volume of practice they'd have using commercial Tex/dual Tex holds in varying positions but I suppose the main thing is that they all enjoyed the challenge.

[@britneyshusten]

Climbing is all about thinking out of the box

[@snake_plant]

@@britneyshusten agree to an extent but I think that should come more from unique setting rather than surprises in holds. In a pro competition environment athletes and coaches need to have a rough idea of what to train for (hence why olympic comp wall layouts are announced in advance). It would be like if crazy obstacles such as the swinging holds on ropes or 360Holds spinning volumes like you see in some niche gyms were suddenly included in comps and before being commercially available - might be a fun twist for spectators seeing how they adapt but I'd imagine if you were a competitor training standard holds for months and lost a comp as a result of being caught by surprise it might be different.

[@flip_lange]

They also climbed on one of them in the semis.

[@Captain-Jack-Climbing]

I have to say French and Japanese people really pushed the progression of climbing. French people invented GriGri and also many new types of holds. Japanese people pushed the limit of climbing. Why these two countries? 1. French people have a lot of vacations, they can explore as much as they can. 2. Japan has a strong discipline to do things perfectly. So if people want to invent new things, they must be low pressure and able to enjoy life. If people want to push the limit, they need to be disciplined as Japanese.

[@gallanonim6535]

A weak argument. The French pushed the progression of climbing in the early 80's, than it was developed by the Germans and Brits (Wolfgang, Ben). In 1996 Alex Huber (Austria) established the first 9a+ (Open Air, Schleier Wasserfall) and Stefan Furst climbed another one the same year (Qui, Geistershmidtwand). Later Chris established 9b (Jumbo Love, Clark Mountain) and Adam the first 9b+. First 8c OS - Japanese, 8c+ OS - Spanish, 9a OS - German, 9a+ Flash - Czech. As for bouldering: 1st 8A+ USA (Jim Holloway mid 70's), 1st 8B, 8B+, 8C Switzerland (of course Fred). First 8C+, it's hard to tell: Core, Ondra, Woods, Robinson). First 9A - Finland. Can you name any French or Japanese people that pushed the limits of climbing in the last 3 decades? I know Seb or Dai, Ryuichi and many strong climbers, but I'm asking about a new level in a discipline of climbing?

[@ilian7646]

banger

[@pedrocorraljaramillo8942]

History was made that day! There is going to be a before and after in routesetting aftar that moment!

[@santinosartoris]

Leave it to the French to make a fantastic film out of anything

[@bensnead666]

Cool story however I don’t know any climber who would want to climb on this type of hold, competitor or otherwise. The no tex artistic setting has strayed too far from what climbing should, in my opinion, be be about; cool holds that are appealing to climb on and appealing for spectators to watch. Holds with no texture are neither. As a fan I don’t want to watch climbers put water on their hands for a couple moves then stop in a desperate position to try and chalk up their wet hands in order to stick the last non frictionless hold. Myself and a lot of climbers I know would really appreciate seeing more tension/power/skill showcase problems and less strange textureless blobs on the wall.

[@nickhenscheid369]

Personally I loved seeing this in the comp. You gotta throw something new and innovative at the comp climbers to keep it interesting. Do I want these holds in my local gym? Heck no, but I love watching them on screen!

[@A2intact]

content

[@adribier]

Unnecessarily pretentious, but cool to watch nevertheless.

[@Gorwee]

"The story is incredible"... 🤔 Let's put it in context. The move: paddle dynos exist since years, nothing new. Holds idea: Transparent holds existed some time ago, no tex-holds existed some time ago, and a lot of boulders in comps make climbers use no-tex parts of holds for feet or hands, nothing new. The setter admits failing several comp setting on his idea and spend a whole day on this one boulder to finally make it work... If all the setters did the same you'd need a whole month to set 1 comp and a disaster at results. It makes for a good story but that's nothing to praise. Yes it's hard work, yes the boulder did eventually work, yes you can be happy about that, yes tell the story, but maybe keep it humble...👍

[@elabbit]

These holds are a joke.

[@enderlain385]

It was fairly shi*ty. If you could stop on the no tex holds coz you know of a way to apply liquid and others don't, you've lost the point. If the intention is for them to continue to the good hold and only using the others to get there, they've failed.