14 June 2017
Also Schubert complain about route setting
Many have complaint about the trend with less steep and parkour route setting in Boulder World Cups which we also did see especially in the qualification in Vail. Jakob Schubert has expressed it nice on his Facebook. (c) Wilhelm Heiko
"3 out of 5 boulders were slabs and only one boulder was pure fitness on holds, some might say that's the new style of bouldering, but in my opinion it's bad setting. Bouldering shouldn't only be about standing on your feet.. When you are done with Qualification and feel like you haven't even climbed today since no boulders were exhausting at all it just feels wrong to me.
I like to fight in boulders, feel the physical strain. Sure slabby boulders are part of the game but they shouldn't be the most important thing in my opinion. Crimps, slopers, pinches, big moves, campusing, jumps, coordination, toe hooks, heel hooks, power endurance,...there are so many things, that's what I love about this sport.
To be fair, it was difficult for the routesetters because the wall in Vail is not great and they did a very good job in both semis and finals. But still I wanna shout out to all routesetters to try to set more diverse in the future in all rounds and especially also in Qualifiers, I don't think the randomness that some Qualification rounds had are good for this sport. there shouldn't be only crimpy boulders nor only volume boulders nor only slabby ones.. lately holds have fallen out of favor and huge volumes that look cool have taken over, but a mix of both of them would be the best in my opinion.
The style of a lot of boulders has nothing to do with rock climbing anymore, that's a fact, whether you think it's good or bad is a matter of opinion. In my opinion some funky boulders are definitely fun, but I don't think we should forget the origins of this sport! Peace!"
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