Climbing festival Luch in St. Petersburg 2013

At the beginning of July I participated in climbing festival Luch 2013 in St. Petersburg. It's been a while since I've been in Russia and I already forgot how it feels. Public was very cheerful! Thanks a lot! I had very nice few days!!!
I will try to write it poetic. Enjoy!

Before coming to St. Petersburg, I was not climbing already for three weeks. I was totally occupied by organization of Salewa Rock Show in Asia (Seoul, Korea and Beijing, China). During those three weeks I felt like a real super star! Very warm Asian public, extremely friendly people and lots of new impressions from unfamiliar for me cultures.

The main point is that I didn’t have enough time to train properly. I knew that I have no other choice as win in St. Petersburg. First, public will not understand that, second, sponsors J Haha.. and wife will punish))))))))

I had to figure out the way to train: bottles with water instead of dumbbells, doorposts and any other places in hotels where I could hang instead of climbing gym. At least I didn’t have problems with stretching, you can do it everywhere.

I had a plan to fly from China to Eindhoven and next day fly to St. Petersburg.  But sponsors changed my flight from China to one day earlier. Therefore, I could train a bit and spend one more day with Tanya. I even will not mention how rare we see each other.

Everything goes fine; I arrived to St. Petersburg and immediately got the feeling that I will have rest there. Next day I had Master class for media. It is a bit boring for me, reporters don’t know much about bouldering and you need to have patience to speak with them.

The festival started. 300 people will compete in qualification. I choose first group to have cleaner grips and start fighting problem after problem. Here comes surprise: one problem is very difficult. I know that it meant for me, but I can’t do anything, I didn’t climb for a while. This problem stimulated me and I remembered that I need to be impudent.

Semifinals and finals were as in fairytale! Lots of people, all together they support climbers. I spoke with so many people in breaks and after start so my throat was dry every 20 minutes.

When public is that supportive, you try to satisfy and entertain them. I always liked it. Maybe only at the beginning I was afraid of big crowd, but as soon as I understood that it can be helpful, I started to use this support.

Maybe never I was so impudent on the problems, difficult to explain. The once who saw it will tell you in details.

Thank you my dear public!

P.S.: This box on the photo is my prize 🙂

More about bouldering competitions you can find here.