Build My Own FeedBD Athlete Chloé Graftiaux reports from Melloblocco 2010
At this year's Melloblocco - the largest Bouldering Event in the world, held in Val di Mello in Northern Italy - Black Diamond was on the scene again, and our athletes displayed top performances. Adam Ondra and Chloé Graftiaux both flashed 7 of the 8 Final Boulder problems, winning their respective catagories. Here's Chloé's report of her experience at Melloblocco 2010.
Despite the bad weather, a few friends and I decided not to miss this massive Bouldering get-together, with over 2000 people on site. We all almost never got the chance to enjoy these great boulders, but we got lucky because just a short 3 hour sunny window dried all the granite boulders.
And what a Boulder-Orgy it was! People everywhere, climbers on every block and cameras flashing all over the place. All of a sudden, we had the feeling we were somewhere else: Umbrellas and beanies were replaced by T-shirts and sunblock, as the people crowded in and we had to wait in line to get on the rock.
Everyone enjoyed this nice weather, and was running in all directions to utilize this sunny period and to try as many problems as possible before it began raining again. We had a rough start but were able to have some fun on these hard moves.
Eight new boulder problems were chosen for the Mens and Womens contests, and they were all harder than last years: between 6c and 7c+. I was the only female to flash 7 of the 8 moves, but unfortunately couldn't nail the last one. I was happy to complete a nice overhanging problem, definitely 7c+, because those types of moves are usually not my thing. There was also one hold broken off, so that added even another challenge! In the Men's category, Adam Ondra was the clear winner, and the only one to flash 7 of the 8 problems.
In any case, we all went for it like mad on the edges and slabs of Val Masino till we had no skin on our fingertips and no more power in the biceps. I really look forward to another round of this next year, but hopefully with nicer weather!
- Chloé Graftiaux
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