Olympic Boulder Breakdown // The UNCLIMBED Final, What Was The Beta?

This weeks boulder breakdown takes a closer look at the now infamous olympic boulder that was ZERO tops in the Men's Final. We look at some clues as to what the beta was and how the athletes could have figure it out, along with discussing the difficulties that come with setting such a high level competition with super high stakes.
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[@hannahmorrisbouldering]

I've been really enjoying these breakdowns. Really interesting to get a setter's insight into familiar problems!

[@impactroutesetting]

Thanks! Let us know if there’s anything in particular you’d be keen to see analysed

[@AsteaFrosty]

@@impactroutesetting I was hoping to see a video of someone actually climbing this route to the top! Is there no such footage? :3

[@impactroutesetting]

Unfortunately not! Nobody got further than the clips in the video

[@TristanCleveland]

Wow, I really appreciated this! I always wondered what the intention was there. And the analysis at the end was spot on. 👌

[@fernandoalmansa8690]

its interesting that tomoa did manage to figure out he had to use the right hand on the pinch but didn't really realise he needed to use it as an undercling! Maybe it shows how instinct leads the way but it needs a little help from the concious brain!

[@crystalding5589]

This is what I’ve been scouring the KZbins for, thank you!!!!

[@alastaircampbell8651]

I love this level of analysis, great work.

[@MatheusHCTorres]

Your videos are amazing, exactly the type of content I was looking forward to see on youtube climbing

[@jimmyflipper8093]

Very interesting analysis and insight. Thanks guys, keep up the good work. 👍🙂

[@alexh117]

Keep these nice videos coming. I really enjoy learning more about routesetting by your content.

[@impactroutesetting]

Great to hear! Planning on doing these weekly if we can. There’s tons more we would like to cover too!

[@Seld0mSeenK1d]

Great video. I’d been waiting for someone to analyse this boulder

[@impactroutesetting]

Hope it shed a little light!

[@broliclobster5045]

Adam Ondra's pinwheel of doom

[@ryanrhoades5574]

Beautiful commentary

[@impactroutesetting]

Thanks 🙏

[@fks8218]

“Lovely stuff” not my words Michael, those are the words of Shakin Stevens.

[@nekomancer4641]

the national flower of Japan is Chrysanthemum. Which is also shaped like that & being yellow. Maybe that's the origin of the shape

[@aspuzling]

If you flip the pinch into an undercut it would shift your body to the right which would make coming through to the left with the right hand harder. I can't visualise how that method would make it easier.

[@impactroutesetting]

Not sure it would move you rightward as you tend to be able to lay away much further from an undercut than you can off of a downward pulling hold. Anyway, that’s the way the testing team did it, so it definitely worked!

[@aspuzling]

@@impactroutesetting ok I think I see what you mean then. Thanks for the reply!

[@flyingface]

is this bad route setting?

[@impactroutesetting]

I wouldn’t say so, I’d say that they got pretty unlucky that no athlete read the sequence. Also goes to show the importance of having 4 boulders in a final rather than 3, as having three in this case meant this boulder was incredibly important and something like this had a huge effect on the results

[@IWkris]

Interesting boulder but the imperial flag imagery is a bit troubling...

[@impactroutesetting]

I did see some mention of this after the event. I very much doubt the Route setters were making any sort of political statement with this and it’s purely coincidence

[@Khan_2025]

I like difficult settings. This was difficult but in a bad way. I think this type of route setting is annoying.