Boven Roc Rally Difficulty Competition 2012

Report by Greg Borman

I’m sure most of you reading this want to know how hard the top guys and girls climbed.  Well I will tell you it was impressive!  But more impressive was the spirit that the climbers competed in.  But this is not one of those articles that waxes on lyrically about the magic of climbing and hides the results at the end. I hate those.

So, to the meat and potatoes of it.  The competition scoring was based on 8a.nu’s system with some small changes to discourage repeat ascents.  Less than 50 points separated the top three in the men.  Sadly only 2 women competed but the results were very close.  As the final points don’t really make sense without a long explanation I’ll equate them to an average climbing grade.  The competitors were scored on their three top routes.

Andrew Pedley won with an average grade of 31.  Brian Weaver came 2nd beating Kim Robinson, the visiting Tasmanian, by 15 points both averaging a grade of 30.5

Claire Hewer, the other Tasmanian, took first place in the women’s event from Naureen Goheer with scores of 26.5 and 26 respectively.

Now for the magical tale.  Seeing as we are talking about hard climbing let’s start with the hardest route sent over the weekend.  That honour goes to Brian Weaver for his repeat of Lab Rat (32/33).  Andrew Pedley made the 2nd ascent of Brian’s new route Mutation.  This for me was one of the remarkable moments in the competition.  Andrew, having found a new sequence, proposed a down grade of the route from 33 to 32.  He could have unquestionably taken the points and sewed up the competition on the first day but his sportsmanship wouldn’t let him.  Brian having belayed Andrew’s ascent agreed that the down grade was fair.  This was also taken well as he had put a lot of time and energy into this route and was dreading the Pedley down grade.  The comment was actually passed at the base before Andrew’s send “if you down grade this I am going to be so angry.”

Kim Robinson also showed great sportsmanship in the competition.  He had decided to go the on-sight route and failed miserably on the first day scoring no points.  He came back strong on the second day with on-sights of two 27s and a 28. When he handed in his score card he had all routes marked as 27 because he felt that with his height “Condor” was more like 27 than 28.  He may be right but those were 50 points he didn’t need to sacrifice.  The boys may have walked away with cool prizes but sportsmanship and fair play were the real winners.  Corny I know but it is true.

In the women’s event Naureen repeated some of her hardest Boven sends but narrowly lost out to Claire’s on-sights of some impressive, not so easy to read Boven routes.  It would be nice to see some more of SA’s strong woman gutsing it out next year.

Now I know I have just dwelled on the winners but the spirit throughout the field was excellent.  Alan, Steve and Tim showed great grit and almost always sported a grin (yes even surly Steve).  Special mention has to go to The Lumberjacks, Scott and Trent, who were fully costumed out and cranking.  It would have been great to see Scott’s much desired ascent of “Bovenator” but I’m glad I didn’t have to see those tiny shorts in a harness.  Some images you can’t scrub from your mind.

Till next year Ladies and Gentlemen. Train hard and come give us a run for our money.
Greg.

Final Results:

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