I must say that I’m excited by the fact that I’ve managed to make it into the semi-final round in 13th Place. The current U.S. males that will be entering the next round (in order of placement) are Paul Robinson (1st Place), Chris Sharma, Daniel Woods, Carlo Traversi, Mark Hobson, and Kyle Owen. Not sure on the placement of the females so far (cause Alex can’t seem to remember), but Alex Johnson is currently in 1st Place and Alex Puccio is currently in 5th as the top U.S. females. It looks as if the U.S. is dominating quite well. The problems in my opinion were extremely HARD for both categories. However, they were well set and covered a variety of styles. It was interesting to watch how the majority of the Europeans performed on problem number 4 which was a steep, powerful, body-tension dependent problem on incut edges. Most Euros simply fell apart on this boulder showing that they didn’t exactly possess the necessary strengths that Americans find to be an essential part of the bouldering experience. I hope to see more of these types of boulders today. Anyways, send your best wishes to the U.S. team and I sure hope that we can fill as many podium spots as possible.

Peace.