USA Bouldering Nationals This Weekend

The USA Bouldering Open National Championships #bonc is happening Feb. 1 to 2 at the Deschutes County Expo Centre in Redmond (near Bend), Oregon. Sadly, though, it will be very hard (if not impossible) for Canadians to watch the exciting event.

USA Climbing recently partnered with ESPN (right before the USA Combined Invitational two weeks ago) and so, for the first time, this competition will be livestreamed on ESPN3, rather than Youtube. So, unless you have access to the ESPN platforms, you will have to wait for the Instagram vids and post-event reports. Hmph.

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. . USA Climbing Bouldering Nationals 2019 Build Day 2… DONE! . Starting to take shape! I hear if you build it… they will come… .

A post shared by Kessler (@kessoutwest) on Jan 26, 2019 at 7:48pm PST

Last year Nathaniel Coleman dominated the competition (and the whole National Cup series, for that matter). Still on his game, Coleman recently came 2nd at the Combined Invitational and is in first place in the national rankings. Matt Fultz and Ross Fulkerson are currently ranked 2nd and 3rd after the National Cup series.

For the women last year, Alex Puccio took home the title for the 11th time and Ashima Shiraishi came in a close 2nd. This year, after the National Cup series, the top-three nationally-ranked women are Natalia Grossman in first, Kyra Condie (who won the Combined Invitational) in second, and Michaela Kiersch in third.

Qualifiers are on Friday; Semi-finals start at 10am PST on Saturday; Finals are scheduled to begin, with athlete introductions, at 4:45 p.m. PST on Saturday.

If you aren’t able to watch it live-streamed, check back with us for results!

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. . USA Climbing Bouldering Nationals Build Day 5… DONE! . The athletes know these isolation walls are going to be sprayed with warm-up holds, but keep your eyes peeled for the hidden Paddle-Dyno and Handcuff 360 moves I’m going to sprinkle in somewhere… They’ll be there… Look hard. ? .

A post shared by Kessler (@kessoutwest) on Jan 29, 2019 at 9:59pm PST

NOTE: a condensed format of the Combined Invitational will be replayed on Sunday, February 3 at 5:00 PM EST. This would be worth a watch as there were some spectacular moments, esp. by Kyra Condie.