Eight strong women,

eight blank boulders, eights sets of 32 holds, a super enthusiastic audience and an unbelievable amount of cameras…. Was a combination that made for a super enjoyable competition, for both competitors and audience, with an electrifying atmosphere.

First we were each randomly allotted a section of wall,

then we had one hour to create a boulder problem. There were no limits on what we could do, other than that we had to climb our own boulder! Then after a much-needed break, we were individually called onto the stage and asked several questions about the boulders we had just set. The recurring question was “Do you think you can climb it?” Only then did the real competition begin…

We had one and a half hours to climb as many of the boulders as possible.

Bronx Rock is in Wesselling, a small industry village between Bonn and Cologne, not very noteworthy, but it just happens to be where my mother (and family) finally ended up living after the 2nd World War… They were very shocked when I told them where the competition was being held!

“Just bolt anything on!”

Several members of the family still live in the area, and so one of my cousins came with her two children.
My two nieces sat down next to me and watched intently as I went to work on my boulder. I had a few problems coming to grips with the plastic holds at first, and spent far too long finding the right combination of holds for the first three moves. It all got a bit too much for my youngest nice when by half time and I still had only three holds on the wall, and she started yelling at me to “Just bolt anything on!”

An hour of setting is surprisingly tiering,

and our break constantly interrupted by countless questions from various different reporters and companies… everyone seemed to have a camera and notebook! When our climbing time started I realized that my problem was a little harder to link than I anticipated. On my third attempt I succeeded to climb it, but unfortunately I was too tiered to climb more than one of the other boulders. It turns out that indoor Bouldering is rather different to climbing endurance routes in Spain!
It was a great competition; I really enjoyed the format and the opportunity to climb with a group of strong women on boulders we had set. Each problem was very different, and all were very well set.