Scorecard for the competitors, they have to strike out an attempt box depending on whether they reach B1, B2, or top!

Friday night marked the 2nd segment of the Level Up Boulder Series 2013! This time, with the competition being held at night, hence the additional "setting sun" in the logo above!

There were about a total of 30 climbers all cranking hard at Climb Asia. It was really heartening to see so many of our climbers come together to support this idea. This idea that grew from inspiration after my trip to Japan. Having a community of climbers come together, it was almost like a mass climbing session! What strike me the most was seeing some new budding talents, especially from the polytechnics, coming down and really showing us oldies what they've got! haha. (okay, im not THAT old.. but still! Those youngsters were screaming and really crushing some routes man!)

When the clock started and everyone got down to business, you could really see the climbers going at the route right from the start! This time, I put on my climbing shoes and dive nose in into this whole mess. Boy, was it tiring! There was so much psych and the fact that the routes posed a huge possibility of completion that kept me going. Even though by looks (and eventually feel) the routes were hard, my eager self took up the challenges that night and I truly had a lot of fun! Thank you to Aaron, Hazlee, Yan and Mut for testing and setting up the volumes and routes that night! We had 7 routes due to the space constraint, but that didn’t dilute the effect those routes were meant to give. They became our official tile brusher and maintenance crew in order that climbers could have the maximum stick power! Haha. I added in 15 minutes so that the crowd had more time to try out and work on the routes.

The crowd at Climb Asia for Sundown:

Here are the results for that night!

I excluded myself because I had eyeballed the route beforehand, and I just wanted others to have it more. :) Congrats to all my winners!!

Mens (Left to right):
1st - Dennis (SAF)
2nd - Ron (Team SMU)
3rd - Nicholas (Team Climb Asia)


Womens (Left to right):
1st - Lynnette (Team Climb Asia)
2nd - Felicia (Native Shoes)
3rd - Vanessa (Singapore Poly)



We had a super final showdown on one of the roof routes as we had a tie in the Mens category. Thank you to the sponsors Sticki and SoiLL from Climb Asia for providing the prizes! The results were tabulated with the same format although we added in points to make the calculation process easier! This time, climbers filled out their scoresheet after the whole event, which might have caused them some confusion in the route numberings! Hm.. something I have to work on then! Haha.

Overall, this competition is pretty much home based, and informal at times. Haha. I changed the holding area for the briefing to the cave on the first level, but luckily everyone was around the gym so it was easy to gather them. Didn’t get to show my thanks and ask about the climbs from those who left earlier. We didn’t cater too much for the ladies in that the routes were “manly” climbing styles. My idea was intended to raise some standards and allow the girls to feel and try out the routes that guys were doing. I grew up climbing these kind of routes and setting outside my zone and wanted to see if it applied the same way. But I also realized that pushing it up too much may demoralize some and hence I thought we could do something new the next time: Japan created a shared route system whereby everyone climbed 8 routes, 4 of which were easier and 4 were hard. So this time, maybe LBS could move in the same direction. 4 womens routes, 4 routes that women and men would share, and 4 mens routes making a total of 12 routes. But all in all, everyone would still only do 8 routes. So the spread of tops and bonuses would be the same for men and women, and everyone would feel just as accomplished and (gym entry) money’s worth!


I organized this series with my things and goals in mind. At first it was to mimic the competition format in Japan and to see what it was like in Singapore. Our competition drought in the beginning of the year spurred me on as I was itching to generate a new wave of psych for bouldering. Slowly, as I talked to some people, got feedback and formed new visions, LBS 2013 became a means to reach out to the community, give opportunities, bridge the standards and motivate and encourage our climbers who were getting ready for the big competitions. With this, route setting has become more than just planning and putting up tiles. The ideas, the criteria, style and limitations had to be considered. Aaron stepped up and offered to help me routeset so that I may compete. Haha. Grateful for it, so that I may see and feel what others feel. His mindset was simple, he too wanted to contribute back to the community in his route setting. And I was proud this gave him the chance to do so. Im not sure where the next LBS 2013 will take us. Ive had many ideas, like holding it in school gyms, or catering to the secondary and jc students. These things will not be easy to carry out, with aspects of space, safety, STUDENTS!! Hahaha. But we’ll see.

Really got to give a huge shoutout to Climb Asia for being so supportive. From color tags, to prizes, to the space and being so flexible with us tramping all over their gym! Haha! Thank you very much!

Intermediate wall and some of them on routes 1 & 2.

Kai having a go at route 3, set by Felicia. This ending is not easy, not easy at all. Takes a lot of confidence.

The crowd on the main Advance wall. 4 routes on this wall front.

Results from LBS 2013 OS. Nice even scores! Well done routesetters!

1st place winner for Womens category, Kai Xuan.

1st place winner for Mens Category: Nicholas Lee from Climb Asia, sponsored by La Sportiva

Planning this event was not easy, despite the small scale. But there was certainly alot of learning points that I could take away from this. The timing and advertising of this competition was micro, just a facebook event or word of mouth. Early morning climbs were not taken to with enthusiasm, haha. But climbing draws people and we started the event later than expected.

Thanks to bella, I've now got a cool logo for thi series. Am hoping to do up a shirt too, to show off my pride. HAHA. I was blessed with sponsors from apparel Grimpe, adidas watches and chalkpots from people who wanted to motivate climbers. THIS, is a community competition and I think its triggered a spark. :)

Routesetting came by easier than I thought, given that there were only 8 routes and the tiles were already up on the wall. Taping the routes up was underestimated and I took 1 hour to out all the tapes up on my own. :p I think I'll do it better next time, probably the day before. I missed afew holds while I was taping and I think this would affect the tries and efforts of the climbers. But thank you to my routesetters out there, for bearing with my inexperience (first time being chief route setter!) and also helping me learn more about the stylesof climbing.

I tried to enlist the help of my vjrc kids, but they were caught up in training, hence there were no route judges for the day. HAHA. It was all on integrity, and given no attemptes were considered, it was easier to keep track of the scoring in the number of bonuses and tops.

Overall, I feel kinda proud of myself for having a go at this unknown. I never imagined I would host everything on my own. Or that people would respond. Of course I would like to see more people, as well as carve a strong competitive vibe in this, but standards will slowly raise, and people will come to Level Up. Someone gave me an incredible idea for the next series:

Level Up Boulder Series 2013, Sundown.