Tour de Bloc 2015/16 Kicks Off in East and West

The 2015/16 Tour de Bloc tour kicked off in Montreal and in Vancouver on Oct. 24.

The 13th annual competition circuit started the season at Allez Up in Montreal and The Hive in Vancouver.

At Allez Up, the six top climbers of the day for men and women went head to head in an exciting finals round. Both were stacked with strong climbers. There were 70 men who competed in the open qualifiers and 36 women.

The qualifications were held in the main climbing space, but the finals were held on the new bouldering wall called Pop Up Bloc, which will be open to the public during certain hours.

After a hard series of problems, Pia Graham took home the win for the women, followed by Emilie Pellerin and Cat Carkner. In fourth was Audrey Larochelle, followed by Veronique Gosselin and Holly Kalyn Bogard.

For the men, Zach Richardson finished in first after an impressive finals round. He was followed by Julien Bourassa-Moreau in second and Sam Enright in third.

Longt-time comp climbers Seb Lazure and Fred Charron finished in fourth and fifth and were followed by Francis Bilodeau.

In Vancouver, The Hive, which recently opened a second gym on the North Shore, hosted the first Tour de Bloc of the year. In front of a packed room, Eric Sethna was in lead going into finals for the men and Sophie Buitendyk for the women.

Sethna held on to his lead through an action packed last round for the win. Simon Parton climbed his way up through the leader board for a strong finish in second and in third was Mat Johnson. Rounding off the top six were Sean Baily, Gavin Johnson and Kin Wah Lai.

For the women, Buitendyk maintained her lead and finished in first place. In second was Alanah Yip and rounding off the podium was Allison Vest. In fourth, fifth and sixth were Tiffany Melius, Celeste Wall and Alison Stewart-Paterson.

With some of Canada’s strongest competition climbers joining the Tour de Bloc circuit, the 13th annual bouldering series promises to be one of the most exciting to date.

– Be sure to follow the Tour de Bloc season here and at #tourdebloc.