RUSH Boulderfest 2009

On the weekend I took part in Minsk boulderfest RUSH 2009 (bouldering is a kind of rock-climbing on low rocks without safety equipment).
The competition was held all day Saturday (qualification) and Sunday (finals). There were reporters, television and stuff.
Qualification was divided into 3 sets 3 hours long each. With 25 routes and long queues. 5 routes for the finals and one super-hard route for anyone interested with a separate prize.
Altogether there were 182 climbers of different ages from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. And one baltic-latvian-EU-representative. Guess who.

"And where's my flag?"

Even the competitions in climbing have a special atmosphere. It's not a competition between people, but more of a struggle with your own self. This produces respect and understanding which you feel in the mood and attitudes.


After the qualifications we had an afterparty with a free well-deserved pint of beer for every climber.

The finals were a different kind of spectacle. Both mens' and womens'. When you understand how much strength and time these people gave to climb like that, you can't ignore a feeling of great respect.

A guy from Kiev won mens' competition.

From Minsk - RUSH Boulderfest 2009

It felt like he did not compete, nor follow the results, nor count the points for different routes, but he just climbed everything he could. No emotions, calmly and precisely he climbed all 25 qualification routes, all 5 final routes and the super-hard route as well. A machine, not a human.

Anyway, I got great pleasure from climbing, it's not like anything else. Besides I met new and interesting people and even made it onto television.

My photos

Links:
Organizers' photos (club Han Tengri) - qualifications

Organizers' photos - finals

Results

An article on tut.by (belarussian news portal)

And video from ONT channel: