2021 USA Climbing National Team Trials – Male Lead Final

i think winter has become my favorite season here that's when you get those dramatic views brings out all the colors and the gray pops and it just i feel like it's kind of like mecca or the center of the universe it's not a fluffy place to come it's not a feel good boost your ego it's just like you get a beating yeah if i can only find one place for the rest of my life it would be yosemite since 1966 we have viewed walls not as obstacles but as opportunities from the big walls of yosemite to the high peaks of the himalaya we were searching for a personal kind of freedom in this pursuit we found a community strengthened by different stories experiences and perspectives this community has shown us that the only way forward is together oh here we go battles no one hears about we drop into the middle of firefights to rescue others and act as one man air traffic control towers we're the ones who go before all others [Music] join the fight uh so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to the usa climbing national team trials presented by yeti we are in memphis tennessee where the best climbers in the country have gathered to compete for a national team spot after a year away from competitions we're at the beautiful high point climbing and fitness here in music city following a close semi-final these athletes are preparing to give it their all we're back for the men's league finals and the athletes are currently out there for their root preview i'm megan martin alongside alex johnson and alex today's semi-final round for the men was absolutely grueling and had quite a few surprises yeah there were a lot of upsets i'm not super shocked with the finals list but there were definitely a few names i was expecting to see in there that we're not seeing yeah and some of the athletes that we are seeing in the final kind of slipped a lot earlier than we expected them to let's go ahead and take a look at that start list right now so remember that the person going out first is the eighth place finisher so we're going to start off the competition with timothy kang followed by quino francia ben hannah colin duffy alice earnsberger nathaniel coleman ross fulkerson and sean bailey now alex who is your pick to end up on the top of the podium tonight well i have soft spots for both tim kaine and ross fulkerson but tonight my pick is going to be shawn bailey he's a cool calm collected very confident root climber he trusts his feet i like his flow and i think he's going to come out on top who's your favorite like you said it's kind of hard to pick a favorite in such a talented field but honestly you can never count out colin duffy he is one of the olympic qualified athletes that is competing today and he did not have his best semi-final round so knowing his mentality when it comes to competitions he's always in it to win it so i'm expecting that he will really turn it on in the final tonight and give us a good show and really fight for that number one spot so we're gonna go ahead and get things started in a couple minutes you see the men are still doing the last couple minutes of their preview and we'll get things going soon with timothy kang stoke to watch for climbing quick look there at colin duffy getting in the last few seconds of this preview actually i'm not quite sure how much time they have left but they're still moving around from every angle to check out what exactly they're gonna need to do on this route and i was looking at the route earlier and there's a lot of screw-ons on these bigger holds that they put up there so you kind of do need to move around a lot to make sure you see everything and a lot of the screw-ons that they've attached are the same color making it a little trickier for the athletes to see every hold from the ground yeah we've seen a few of them out there with binoculars um getting a better view which is an approved accessory for previews no cheating see those binoculars there for timothy king and ben hannah reppin usa climbing with that mask again the athletes are masked up if you did not tune into our broadcast earlier we are following very strict coveted protocols here all the athletes are competing in masks we ourselves are in masks sorry if you hear a muffled sound every now and then what's interesting about climbing is the camaraderie you know they're they're breathing together they're firing together you see nathaniel and ross sort of sussing out beta it's not it's not this cutthroat competitiveness that's like one versus the other it's the collective against you know the root setters they're almost fighting against the root centers it's not just the root itself exactly and that that is something that sets climbing apart from so many other sports and it's it's been really nice to see how that has stayed strong within the community no matter how big it's become because climbing has really grown exponentially even since when we started climbing and then go back to way before we started climbing it just is ever growing so since those core values are sticking i think that's a really good sign for the future of climbing totally it's great to see especially with climbing becoming an olympic sport there was like always worry about it becoming a little more competitive between athletes and i haven't seen that at all i'm right there with you i think there is more camaraderie and especially with you know the addition to the training center now that's a place where athletes can go train together where they might have lived in different states before but now they're all culminating in the same area and really getting to train with each other and push each other and bring the best out of each other timothy king will stay out here because he is the first climber competing so the rest of the men will go back to isolation so with the first glance at the root you'll see that there are a lot of bigger volumes like i was kind of talking about before um you see a few tick marks that the root centers actually decided to put on some of those holds because there are those red screw-on holds that'll be harder for the men to see from down below so i think they were kind of trying to help them out a little bit with that but when i was talking to the root setters earlier this is going to be a very challenging route very different from what we saw earlier with the um semifinal route that was all like slab invert but now we're actually going to have them pulling you see a nice close-up on that tick mark hold there's a dual tech screw on it's going to be quite powerful all the way through and the root setters actually again came up with a name because they love to do that it's kind of a new thing within the last couple years giving the roots a name and this one is called tiny dancer and the reason for that is there is a piano match um just the setters right there taking a seat underneath the route hoping that they did everything they could to make it challenging enough for the men but not too challenging to not see a top where do you think the crux is megan so it's going to start to get tricky coming out of those blue volumes you kind of are on from there and that's about halfway up the route and going up a little further is where that piano match i was talking about after that really shiny dual text hold there's a hole to the right that has a screw on on it and that's where that piano match will take place which is why it's called tiny dancer in honor of elton john but actually the very end of this route is also going to be difficult the very last move is basically a dynamic movement from those last two volumes to the last hold that's actually not even that good close-up on those tiny little screw-ons on the volumes there this is an awesome view and then we get to see how bad like they're not in code crimps you know they're they're slippers there's like chairs so they're gonna have to clip off of those using only their hands and their feet and and watching the root setters four run earlier it looked males hard they were shaking they were grabbing jaws to pull up so that because the clips were so difficult so wow all these men all these men will be on siding so it'll be really interesting to see how they get through those clips because some of them are really awkward which is actually a trend we've been seeing in the last five years where the clips are kind of part of the cracks right i'm excited for this i think this looks like a really awesome route it's a little reminiscent for me of the world championships in hachiochi where we watched nathaniel and drew and their uh olympic qualifying run and yeah it looks cool the setting has gotten really interesting over the years like you said so i'm excited for this and i believe this is the first time we're gonna see timothy king in a adult final so that's really exciting he just missed finals in 2018 he was one spot out so it's really cool to see him here and like we said if you were listening to the earlier broadcast he's been sport climbing a lot so i'm not surprised at all to see him here but it's nice it's nice when everything clicks because competitions you never know you could be as prepared as possible but things can just happen we saw a lot of that earlier today athletes as prepared as possible with super spontaneous slips and i'm sure the men are pretty psyched to see this on a more overhanging wall as you can see tim is moving way faster than he was earlier on the other route since it was so technical you couldn't find that same rhythm it was almost like just cautious climbing so we're gonna see a lot of the men quickly move since they're going to be on their hands more and which means they'll get pumped up definitely a style they're all more comfortable with definitely have to note his nail polish again since yes in case you missed our earlier scientifically proven to improve crimp strength painting your nails nice knee bar rest that he found way more comfortable than the semi-final no hands that was quite uncomfortable he's got good time so far so he can take a second to like milk that rest a bit and the strategy here is you know how long do you stay in the knee bar to rest versus like how much do you want the clock down you know is it a restful knee bar or is it kind of do you have to finagle in and out of it and that kind of makes you more tired this does look like a more secure knee bar rest but he does have to keep his hand on at all times so he is still getting a little bit pumped here and there between shakes but looks like he's ready to get moving even if they're not that pumped when they get to the knee bar it's sort of just like revving yourself up emotionally for this section with these bad slimpers really moving moving into the blue and red volumes he's about to get to where it's gonna start turning up he's currently at 17 points when if he matches us he'll be at 18. one of our first trickier clips i'm excited for this move right here i think this might be our yeti move of the day potentially really nicely done so this is where that piano matches doesn't look like much of an issue for him not for someone who paints their nails nope scientifically proven exactly now after this you don't really have a moment to breathe this is where everything's gonna start to get really difficult and a little more strenuous nice high foot i'm gonna have to get another high heel after he makes this clip he looks like he's moving really comfortably and confidently yeah it's really great to see him out here you can tell that all of the time he's been putting into lead climbing has really paid off because he looks very confident getting out of that little wrap up in the rope at this point in the game the ultimate goal is to make the us national team and that's what this whole event is but when you come out for finals there's not another round and so it's almost like the pressure's off and you get to just have fun and try hard and let it all rip you know choosing not to make that clip kind of prove showing that he is a little too pumped definitely a great choice to go for the points versus trying to clip since they're not worth points anymore as we switch to those ifsc rules really great climbing by tim got his leg wrapped up in the rope so he might have gotten a little bit of rope burn but i think he's gonna be okay but really great that's the first price you pay to make the team a little rope burn not that big of a deal take a look back at his awesome rest that he found he looked super comfortable in that rest and with how much time he had on the clock he was able to just milk it for a while this is where it really started to turn up and he kind of had to just keep moving choosing to not make that clip and just go for more holds which was very smart in terms of strategy oh yep that's it i was like he pulled up for the clip but decided not to does it get the plus here super uh i'm maybe i don't know i would give it to him if i was a judge i would but we'll have to wait and see if they decide to give him do you know sequential plus like would he have had to throw with his left hand because that's the sequence in order to get the plus i don't think it is sequential but he is walking away with 33 points so it seems as though they did not give him the plus i feel like i think it's sequential like you have to at least throw like it would make sense on the route and not just like the sail cat jumping out the window you know totally i know there's something about going towards the hold but it doesn't specify with the chance like with the appropriate one but it looks like that's how they just judged it so moving forward that's how they have to judge it for the rest of the athletes quinno francia up next 16 years old new to the adult competition scene we saw him at team or the combined invitational this is team trials the first ever team trials and he has excelled in lead climbing on the youth side and he did quite well at the combine invitational as well so it'll be really cool to see if he can get a high point our first of two vertical world team athletes in lead finals coin and sean bailey although sean john has graduated he's a he's a an alumni yes of the vertical world team just like tim moving quickly through this beginning section it's kind of a nicer entree into the route whereas the semifinal route was really precarious at the beginning so it's nice that they gave him a little break with the final route let him like relax as they entered before they make it really difficult in the semifinals it wouldn't have been surprising to see athletes time out because the start of the route was so slow but this seems to be a much faster pace and i don't think we have anything to worry about here not so in the knee bar like tim was looks like he just now decided to put it in but he's still in a different position it doesn't look like he found as good of a spot tim's knee bar was a little further back deeper quinn's gonna keep on moving which that's another part of it with knee bar specifically if you don't find the right spot right away there's no point in trying to hang out there and figure out exactly what to do because you're just wasting energy yeah if you don't fit it's just a lot of biceps working yourself in oh yeah the shin decks is what they call it another nice flat hold sloping volume [Applause] that's a cool pit of the whole wall looks like he's got a nice tow hook set up there but it's gonna be a really aggressive release he's really gonna have to go into that shoulder nicely done activating that shoulder muscle to get the gas on piano match like you were talking about earlier struggled with it a little more than tim did he also had his foot higher so i think that might have changed the body position a little bit a little bobble on that heel hook great climbing from puno francia looks like he will be below tim kang but really nice to see him out here that was really cool he like overshot that i feel like hopefully you can see his finger mark that specific move i think kind of stressed him a little bit and probably kind of made him over grip a little bit after that and he got pumped a little faster than he probably meant to he thought he was falling and lost seven layers of skin when your heart starts racing you're like oh my gosh i'm falling no i'm not i'm still there 23 points for quino francia that'll put him currently in second place as we get ready for our next climber to come out which will be ben hannah from salt lake city utah i'm sure king is very excited as you can see he's like hang loose [Laughter] very pleased with his climbing it was very impressive when there was like one move after the piano match he went to hit that sloper and it's it's like pretty quiet here because there's no fans but we're significantly farther away from the wall and i heard that whole slap he dunked on it for sure he definitely did ben hannah originally santa fe new mexico but currently living in salt lake city to train at the usa climbing training center or tc as the kids call it the kids he was one of the athletes earlier who was really climbing the route a little more dynamically than everyone else everyone else was kind of moving really slow since it was slab so i i can only imagine he's gonna be extremely psyched to be on these powerful dynamic moves they're definitely his style and really in his skill set he's a fast and confident climber and we can see this like out the gate yeah he's swinging as long as he just doesn't go too fast it sets it in check tactic that some of them use i know that kyra and i have talked about this when we did lead world cups is our endurance is significantly less than some lead athletes and so for us our strategy was go as fast as you can touch as many holds as you can and try to you're racing your pump essentially as far as you can as fast as yeah i'm on that same program athletes who climb like slow and smooth that was not the method for me really nice play through this lower section getting ready to get into the more difficult section of the route it's kind of nice it gradually builds which sometimes it's like on you off on off but this is a nice gradual build really to the end hard hard move there maybe even harder than our potential move of the day here that tow hook to the slopey it's a lot of tension with that left yeah they're walking that move actually they have so much shoulder power it does look nice i just did a move like that outside you did so this is about the last place where he can shake out before he has to kind of keep moving with otherwise i think it's just too difficult to take one hand off the hole you kind of have to have all points on moving forward lots of tension involved for these next 10 or so moves i said this earlier and i'm going to say it again tonight when the women are climbing but these are some of the best looking roots and bowler problems i've seen in a competition maybe it's because they've had a year to brainstorm but everyone's creativity is bursting but i agree with you this these boulders and roots have been so impressive and so fun to watch and they're doing a great job challenging these athletes kind of a surprising ball there for ben it looks like he just couldn't hold the tension with his heel tim's a little bit taller and he kind of lurped to it a little bit better and the heel stayed so ben had to kind of generate a little bit more making there be a bigger swing and it's a little bit harder to control i also think he might have wanted his hands in a different orientation potentially yeah but he should end up with a 25 plus oh they're getting 23. interest oh sorry i read the root map map wrong no i didn't no ship it yet it should be 26 plus unless they gave me the wrong route interesting well we'll have to get back to it yeah no on the scoring that i have here it's 26 plus and this this route that we're seeing today as opposed to semifinals semifinals um there were only 20 something points on the whole route and so it was like a bit of a shorter route sort of you had to compact the difficulty and condensed movement a little bit and here there are 39 total points and so about 10 moves more today so that is a 26 plus for ben hannah just a little miscommunication i think with the judge there's some camaraderie for you maybe he got a back cramper they're bouldering so they have to prepare themselves this isn't their last day of competition not hardly this is the first so injuries or strains or anything like that we have several pt's in the building but if your friend is there and he can help you give you a massage nothing better than that colin duffy 17 years old from broomfield colorado stepping up for his finals climb i'm sure everyone recognizes him as he is the one of the olympic qualified athletes and the current pan american champion where the last final he was in for lead he topped the route so let's see if he can do that again cool to see both of our olympians in finals in both disciplines uh both the men made lead finals and both of the women made bouldering finals and for me what's what's cool about that is that this is this event doesn't matter to them they've already qualified for the world cups um they have a buy and so this from their perspective is training and practice and this is the last time that they're going to get to do the format where they can do all three disciplines before the olympics this august and so they're looking at this as training and practice and so it's really cool that it seems to be like they're paying off and they're they're not peaking at this event they're on a completely different training block than some of the athletes who are here trying to qualify for the us national team our olympians are maybe just starting their training block and interesting it looks like he went a little bit too far past his trying to fix this mistake yeah a really good use of swinging that draw over but this is really precarious hopefully he can find a way to get in that knee bar and get some of that energy back that he handled that really well honestly i think i feel panicked um i would be flash pumped already totally like you were saying though this is different for the olympic qualified athletes they are peaking later but it is nice to see that they're they're in a nice spot already just given how they competed this week and this this competition schedule will be more grueling than what they will see at the olympics in the combined format so this is the best training they could get right and it has to be a confidence booster for them making finals against athletes who are maybe only doing a single discipline this week weekend whatever day it is it's like six days of comfort four days of competition lots of lots of rounds [Laughter] it's hard to know it's a little over a weekend definitely needs to recover after that mishap down low struggled less with that move than we've seen some of the other athletes so that's a good sign now that release move into that gaston he's a little bit shorter than the few athletes we've seen before him so he's gonna have to generate a little more oh easy peasy nails [Laughter] i feel like that's a move he's specifically very good at i feel like he lives in that position a lot climbing so he probably saw that and was like okay i'm good it is kind of hard to see where those screw-ons are even though there is a tick mark which has kind of been a theme for the men's roots because in one of the first qualifiers which you all didn't get to see but there was a hole that was like that as well where all the athletes had to kind of look back to try to find it and there was no tick mark so very kind of the route setters to include those giants just trying to make these athletes the best they can be really close to that bolt hanger with his left foot but skated over it nicely which that's been an issue of competition so all the athletes are very aware of that these days nice view over the shoulder of what looks to me as brad weaver one of the root setters it's hard to tell from the back of his head but i think that's him admiring his handiwork the handiwork of the tiny dancer root even though colin had that mishap down low he doesn't really look that taxed and he made that clip so he'll be able to keep moving whereas tim could only go so far without being called off because he didn't oh trying to get his heel on that left jib um but it looked like his heel was between the two red screw-ons it puts him in first place still i believe he is in the same position as tim because he's either going to get a 33 or 33 plus losing his shoe from that heel hook gotta tighten them a little bit more i've had i mean we've all had that happen before really nice creativity and problem solving here going ahead and grabbing that quick draw with his foot which is legal to do he's just moving it with his foot you can kick it and it can swing as long as you don't you can you can even push it with your hand you just can't weight it so really smart and the sign of a season competitor yeah so right there he was looking for one of those red screw-ons but his foot was just right between him and didn't get to connect and then his heels slid off he looks disappointed but he shouldn't be looks like they're going to give him the same score as tim king so he'll be at 33 which puts him in first place right now but we still have three more really strong competitors to come and you know that he wanted to do more and felt like he could do more and having that malfunction with his shoe that's never how you want it to happen but again this is training for him it's not about making the team because he is already on it so still good climbing from colin duffy and we'll see him in the boulders later this week and what we're looking for here is the us national team will be the top three athletes not including our two qualified olympians so nathaniel coleman and colin duffy will be skipped over in the counting for us team so if they're in the top three then we'll go to fourth and fifth for the us team but it's the top three ranked athletes not including colin and nathaniel because they're already on the team exactly ellis earnsberger of carrollton texas stepping up for his attempt at the finals route this is his first final two as an adult in a national competition he's been really successful on the youth side but really now getting into the adult competitions another one of our younger athletes where it's cool that they're coming out to these big competitions and really doing well we're seeing the field get younger and younger we and we tapped out so totally we're not helping it get older i saw that happening and i was like okay next i don't want to get beat teenager imagine how lisa rants felt way back when when we were 12. exactly they didn't have the 16 and up rule when we were doing youth nationals i mean adult competitions pca yeah ellis is moving really quickly through this bottom section he hasn't even taking a full minute yet cruising really strong this is that finals confidence like they have nowhere i mean you're trying to make the team but there's not another round to qualify for so you can really go i keep wanting to say rhymes with alls to the walls i have a feeling that's what you're thinking ellis is using that tow hook actually on the hole where a lot of the other men were just toe hooking on the volume but i think his method actually looked a bit better a little more secure though it does kind of create a bigger jump to that cast on but like we've seen that move isn't really challenging them as much as i originally thought it would it's a really good rhythm that he has going right now his last not even two minutes passing i'm sorry he's like speed climbing which is another discipline that he excels at as he got third at youth world championships in speed in 2018 so another fast climber really good save there getting on to that volume awesome stick way to fight they're getting a little pumped but really nice climbing by ellis berger in his first adult lead final very exciting just gonna put him somewhere below i'm hannah i think or no actually above then hannah right in between ben and tim really nice climbing fighting for that hold on the volume i mean just fingers on the undercling and pulling in as hard as he can i love to see when people are so pumped and they're just fighting for every hole and he did it so well yeah that mentality is one more move one more move and that's the kind of climbing when you come down you know you put everything out there so even if you don't finish as well as you want in the standing you know that you tried with all of your might to get as far as you could go for sure there's you can't like no foot slip no no totally it's not yeah he fought to the very end and he has to be proud about that we didn't see him rest as much as we've seen the athletes who came before him he didn't try to get into that knee bar at all and i wonder if he's one of those athletes who just he has to go fast and he's racing the pump we're still waiting on that score for ellis oh it's just come up 31. i'm seeing a plush but it looks like on the what you all are seeing said 31 but either either way he's still in third i would concur with ben hannah with the 26 plus so the worst alice can do now is fifth that's great for your very first adult 31 plus for alice earns burger nathaniel coleman our other qualified olympic athlete an athlete i'm sure we'll see at those back-to-back world cups in salt lake city i know everyone's excited about those it'll be two bouldering world cups and also a speed world cup so it'll be really exciting i mean everybody loved having the veil world cup so to have a world cup back in the u.s and it's one of the two yeah not just one but two which is the first time we've seen that and so there's our leaderboard he needs to get a 33 or more he can get a 33's and he's ranked higher in order to be in first but there's still another couple competitors to climb after him so anything above a 33 is ideal for him to end up in the top another one of my i know i've said this several times another one of my favorites i mean let's be honest i feel like they're all our favorites it's really difficult to chew it is and they're all so sweet just has like mental capacity to stay focused keep his mind in check stay calm he doesn't it's really cool to watch it's impressive it's something that i've always looked up to the way that he's able to just like meditate himself into a mindset where it's 100 honed in focus yeah i don't know if there's a competitor who is more present than he is while he's climbing maybe adam andra yeah but i was thinking more on you last time but right into that knee bar i'm curious to see if he rests i feel like he doesn't generally rest that much on roots maybe like a couple shakes and a chalk cruising right through he's been focusing a lot on his lead in his training and it's definitely looking like it's paying off he's moving really smoothly and really confidently yeah he just looks all around more comfortable in general which is nice to see i feel like he's always you could always watch him lead and you're like oh yeah he's bolder and now we're like nathaniel did you are you a weekly yeah that's what happens when you're in that combined format and you have to start doing all three then just get better at everything nicely into that shoulder move it really does that actually does look like the most fun move totally even if it's not the hardest it's got the most flair and they forced it which is cool you can't go around it i was talking to my mom today telling her the crux of how bolder i was doing was the second move and she was like well can't you skip it i was like if i could skip it it wouldn't be the crux so when you have not forced to move like that yeah he's really looking good and strong like he hasn't looked like he's tired at all so it'll be interesting to see when he gets up into these blue volumes if he's able to keep this momentum going and a lot of his calmness i know is comes from his breath he focuses a lot on his breathing and his pace and not just the pace of his climbing but the pace of his heart rate and the pace of his breath he's very intentional with his climbing and he hasn't clipped yet which it seems to be better to clip a little earlier here but it's not impossible to get back into that clip though he is getting farther and farther away from it which is tricky but just going to go for the points not sure it's hard to tell because he looks so solid i can't really tell it could purposely did that or if he kind of underestimated where he should clip from but either way it looked like he gave a little sigh of frustration when he fell and i wonder if he just he knew that he should have clipped sooner and he did have a little bit more left in the tank that he wasn't really able to showcase to us tonight he should still have that high point after this really impressive smooth climbing he got control right here of that 34 hold and he should have the plus because i mean he even touched that hole not that usable surface is a thing anymore it doesn't matter if you touch it it's just the movement but from the looks of it he should be at 34 plus which would put him into that first place spot really nice climbing and nice to see that lead training paying off for sure he should feel really excited this being march and knowing that the olympics are in august that he's seeing this much progression at this time definitely and there's even still time left to get even better you know 100 i'm definitely interested to watch his speed too because i know he's worked a lot on that as well 34 plus for nathaniel coleman moving him into that first place spot with just two more climbers to go oh i'm sorry they didn't give him the plus that's so weird it's always up to the judge's discretion but that honestly doesn't make any sense to me but again up to the judge's discretion and as long as they judge fairly throughout and the same then it's all good a little look over there at the kiss and cry with all the men nice so nicely socially distanced from one another in those awesome yeti chairs that are super comfortable we were sitting in them earlier spectating before running yeah we didn't bring our shoes so we were just watching before running this time oh it looks like they changed it back to the 34 we were saying they should have megan and i judge what is going on ross fulkerson getting ready to get on this finals climb really nice climbing from him earlier today as well as in the qualifier he was one of the men who did top a root in the qualifying round so he's been pretty on fire these last couple days which is really nice to see not surprising but it's always nice to see things working out the way um someone's capable of climbing in a competition because it's always roll of the dice sometimes in competitions yeah he's also had some super impressive outdoor scenes lately down in st george in the hurricane and i wasn't sure he was coming but it's super cool to see him yeah a lot of these athletes i was unsure if they were gonna come just because they have been spending so much time outside but it is nice to see them back in action and i do think having not done a comp for a while it kind of made everyone a little more excited to get back in the game and with those world cups coming up in salt lake i think everyone wants to be a part of them and this is the only way that you can is if you come to this competition unless you're already a olympic qualified athlete back to back salt lake world cups that'll be cool i don't have to i don't have to travel just drive downtown a lot of a neighborhood renovation happening in preparation for these world cups as well actually they're uh they're completely redoing the street it's gonna be an outdoor venue and it i think it's gonna be pretty awesome nice weather won't be too hot and you know there are no spectators in tokyo for the olympics so if you want to see some world-class climbing that is where you're going to need to go in order to get that experience right they used to happen it used to happen in vail used to be the world cup in vail and now they've they've moved it to the salt lake and it's you don't just get one chance you get two don't ask to stay at my house you're talking to me or them no you can stay at my house okay cool i don't want anybody calling me to save my house really smooth through this lower section about to get into the more cruxy part of the route going for that toe hook on the actual hold just like we've seen a couple of the athletes do but not all of them seems to be a more secure method three fingers yeah a sloth grip i can't do that i hurt both my ring fingers and i used to be able to do that but my middle fingers hurt apparently so now i keep that's a i think that grip is more on your tendons than it is on like your forearms and so it is a way to rest and get less pumped but definitely the minute you close your fingers like that you get pumped like way faster you can hear him breathing it's gonna start moving a little quicker super nice like deep rhythmic breaths paige clawson told me that's the only way to sport climb is to make sure you can hear your breath if you can't hear yourself breathing you're not doing it right and i think it feels true when i breathe like that i get some like self-conscious but it really does make you feel less pumped and feel like you can climb for longer so you can see his mask going in and out without heavy breathing or deep breathing and all the climbers this weekend week however long we're here for a very long time are in masks the entire time throughout the competition and so a lot of them have had to try to figure out which masks are best for climbing and competing because when you do take those deep breaths um sometimes they sort of cover your mouth and it's hard to breathe and breathing is so important in lead climbing that a lot of them tried several different masks hopefully landed on something that they felt confident with really good save on the swing there but kind of threw him off for that next move almost looked like he was gonna get his leg wrapped up and throat but luckily that's gonna end up happening really nice climbing from ross fulkerson definitely not as well as he wanted to do but he did look really strong the whole way through i think he just maybe needed to rest a little longer down low because he did start to look pretty pumped in that upper section maybe a bit of overgripping as well but still really nice climbing and it sets them up in a good spot to still qualify for the team because like we said before you we're skipping nathaniel and colin when it comes to choosing the us team so it's the top three not including nathaniel and colin and so as it stands now it would be tim ellis and ross we have one athlete left sean and we'll see where the cookie crumbles there but ross's position is not bad to keep going to world cups exactly he is in a really great spot but we do have sean bailey coming up and he the last time he competed on on a lead route he also topped it at pan american championships so it's definitely a possibility here today i also think this route is very much sean's style when we were sequencing and asked to give our our favorite picks that's sort of like his name popped into my head first it's a very sean bailey-esque root i definitely agree with you there's our standings currently with nathaniel coleman in first colin duffy in second and timothy kang in third with one one climber to go sean bailey originally seattle washington sometimes salt lake city sometimes boulder colorado recalls him justin bieber [Laughter] she just kind of moves around the last fever he's also been focusing on a lot of climbing outside but mostly bouldering not his music [Laughter] he's another one who's climbed v15 and 515 along with and like in the last year right they all kind of just did it at the same time pretty pretty impressive and it's cool too because they all went out together no but it is cool that they all went out together and they were projecting together and it's that camaraderie that we see and they've got they bring it to the club too yeah limits get pushed when we work together sean bailey clipping that first draw on the final route getting into that rhythm it's way less stressful watching this bottom half yeah for sure in the semi-final less clenching i feel like they have to feel the same way which i would be interested to hear how they're feeling needs to clip here to avoid that minor mistake that we saw calling me earlier nicely done it is cool how that can get forced on roots and i feel like that's been happening for probably like a decade at this point where you'll find draws or clips where if you miss it at that hold there's no way of coming back from it and you kind of have to just scramble and try to get as many points as you can afterwards so really important to have the right strategy when it comes to clipping such an unfortunate mistake too nicely into that bicycle on the volume for sean bailey moving quickly into that next hold we've seen some of the men pause there for a little longer easy that was cool he didn't do like come out of the bicycle or even pop off the blue hole he just campused it that was the first time that we've seen that i feel like that's something he does a lot which is always really cool to watch especially because i feel like i can't float like that right i'm just really inspired when i see him do that he's not really looking tired at all to me i feel like he is been very efficient this entire time with his foot placements and he's pretty good with his um hip flexibility and heel hooking some men are not necessarily as into heel hooking i feel like my fiance always makes fun of me when i throw my heel above my head he's like what are you doing but sean is definitely one who has pretty flexible hips just a nice little shake it doesn't look casual he still looks like he's chewy just needs to do a couple more moves there are a few climbers that i absolutely love watching climb just flow and movement and style the style's not really talked about and climbing that much it's talked about a lot in skiing and snowboarding like someone's flow and style can make them a better skier or a more favorite athlete and just got the high point from timothy king down to fourth now let's see if he can get to that final hold it's a difficult move not gonna be able to do it but what a show from sean bailey in amazing form so fun to watch and exactly how i would expect him to climb on this route totally really he's got to be pretty happy with that you always want to top but he definitely gave it his all here we see this campus move when he stuck the shoulder i just enjoy watching him climb his flow and his style someone said in skiing once that bad skiers wear baggy pants because you can't see their like bad style of skiing and i don't feel that way about sean at all i think it adds to the flow of his movement i agree it was really nice to see him go quickly off the last hold to the finish hold because that's exactly what the setters wanted to happen almost like a paddle dyno exactly so 38 plus for sean bailey putting him in that first place position earning him a spot on that national team with those two olympians following behind him which will move down to the fourth and fifth spot to round out the team which are unofficially tim kaine and ellis earnsberger yeah barring any appeals but everything looked pretty straightforward for me yeah great separation on this route uh we only see one tie really and that that wouldn't have happened if colin had probably nailed that uh heels exactly and that would have been a perfect round you know yeah man the setters are killing it this weekend this is some of the best separation i've seen in a long time maybe it was just not being at comps for a year everyone's like we're just so excited to be back we've really had a year to figure it out it better be good they've been home dreaming about this for an entire year all the men in the kiss and cry taking a few moments to talk about what they did nathaniel right there miming exactly what he did at that top volume it's so funny we this has always happened you can't wait to talk about how you felt what you were doing what what did you do how did it work for you it's so cool how much communication there is after the round and i can like totally imagine what shawn is saying right now like he strives for perfection and he wishes he would have finished the route like obviously he's stoked that he won and he's happy with his performance but he wanted to finish the route 100 he did everything he could honestly he could have just moved a little bit faster but those are your men's lead finals results with sean bailey in first nathaniel coleman second column duffy third timothy king fourth ellis earnsberger fifth ross fulkerson six ben hannah seventh and rounding it out in eighth is quinofrancia so if you're looking at the scores you can see that colin duffy and tim king have tied with a score of 33 and the reason that colin is ranked ahead of him is it goes to count backs and colin qualified higher going into finals than tim and so that's how that tie is broken and luckily we did not have a tie and count back because then it goes to time which is a whole nother thing but we'll maybe explain that on another day because it didn't happen so it's not [Laughter] necessary so unless it is so make me look taller yeah that's good that's good does it look like i'm looking at the camera right now whatever sean that was amazing climbing that you had today how do you feel about that finals route um yeah i'm psyched it was an awesome route um and i'm honestly just trying to catch my breath right now but yeah it was a sick route um kind of opened up a lot there's some flowy climbing and then a few really risky moves so yeah it was fun to climb on how did you feel about the last couple moves they were a little more dynamic and kind of not something we see a lot at the end of a route for sure um yeah it was cool i mean it was it was super risky again it was kind of some bouldering style movement and when you're really bricked pumped it's hard to do that stuff so it was fun to get the challenge and the last competition you competed in was the pan american championships and you just missed out on an olympic spot and that was a lot of pressure and just a grueling time period how does it feel to come back to a competition and walk away with a win oh um yeah i mean i got close a couple times in toulouse and then at pan americans again so you know what happens is competition but i was glad to get a little break and now i'm psyched to be back at it so how how important is it to you to be on this team um yeah i mean i've been trying to compete world cup for a bunch of years now and um like four years maybe this is my fifth year even i'm not sure but you know it's something i've been doing for a long time and it overtakes my whole summer and you know most of my years so yeah it's special to me for sure and we're going to be able to see you in the bouldering but we're excited that you are on the team for lead and wish you the best of luck in bouldering great job good thank you so we are going to see results here on the podium we'll get to see our podium um in a few minutes and super fun hearing what sean had to say about the route um trying to do those the dynamic kind of finish moves when he was bricked pumped and that's something that i think we can all totally relate to and and i'm super stoked to see him on the world cup team for the summer for lead roots uh i really enjoy watching him climb and obviously he's a favorite of mine for several reasons and i'm really excited to see how he does in world cups i know he's made several finals and i want to see him on a world cup podium so i'm really rooting for him sean's been on a bouldering world cup podium before but as far as i know i don't know that he's been on our lead world cup podium someone in the chat can correct me if i'm wrong stand by for awards if you guys want to see some of that clap from home we'd like to hear it because there is no crowd here today in memphis shout out to our event sponsors this is the 2021 usa climbing national team trials presented by yeti and the north face cliff petzl gnarly here at high point climbing and fitness it's really awesome for them to host us they shut the gym down for five days so they could host this event and considering how gyms have been doing in the midst of the pandemic super gracious for them at this time we will be presenting the awards brought to you by yeti presenting our awards today are bruce mitchell president of usa climbing mark norman ceo of usa climbing keith gressel general manager of high point climbing and fitness and jessie markowitz mountain marking martin mountain marketing manager for yeti winning the bronze medal and already representing the usa as an olympic qualified athlete is colin duffy [Applause] winning the silver medal and also already representing the usa as an olympic qualified athlete is nathaniel coleman [Applause] winning the gold medal and the 2021 national team trials and representing the usa and gaining a position on team usa is sean bailey foreign [Applause] and now announcing our two other athletes who will be representing the usa on the national team ellis sorry timothy kang and ellis earnsberger [Applause] congratulations guys and we're really excited to see what you do on the national team thanks everyone for joining us and please tune in to the women's finals at 6 00 p.m eastern oh wow 6 p.m central sorry everybody women's bouldering finals and congrats again to these men and putting on a great lead show for us okay [Music] [Music] i think winter i think winter has become my favorite season here that's when you get those dramatic views brings out all the colors and the gray pops and it just i feel like it's kind of like mecca or the center of the universe it's not a fluffy place to come it's not a feel good boost your ego it's just like you get a beating yeah if i can only climb one place for the rest of my life it would be 1966 we have viewed walls not as obstacles but as opportunities from the big walls of yosemite to the high peaks of the himalaya we were searching for a personal kind of freedom in this pursuit we found a community strengthened by different stories experiences and perspectives this community has shown us that the only way forward is together [Music] the battles no one hears about we drop into the middle of firefights to rescue others and act as one-man air traffic control towers we're the ones who go before all others [Music] join the fight uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: USA Climbing

Views: 92,036

Rating: 4.8559556 out of 5

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Id: 8Ge4SjEOmOA

Length: 85min 45sec (5145 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021