After a long journey, I currently find myself in Millau which is southern France, enjoying the amazing patisseries and prepping myself for my first comp of the year! On Sunday we are off to Font for a couple of weeks! Pretty psyched!!!

You can watch the comp live at the IFSC Website

Here is a video from my qualification round last year in Innsbruck… Hopefully this can happen again this year!

So what is the Direct finish??? Well as I have said before, my aim wasn’t to just start at the bottom of the cave and climb to the top the easiest possible way (Not saying that there is anything wrong with that for those who choose to do it and its still far from an easy option). There are four established problems that originally made up the wheel of life and whilst some of the crux moves can be traversed around to make the line easier I wanted to start at the lowest part of the cave, then follow the established problems; X-treme Cool, Sleepy Hollow, Cave Man and Dead Cant Dance and rather than taking the early exit out right I wanted to complete Dead Cant Dance up and slightly left which is the highest point of the cave and in my opinion the grandest line of the cave! So I started at the lowest point… Followed the established line of classic problems and finished at the highest point.

So… 12 months after sending the original WOL, I returned to the Hollow Mountain Cave after a nice morning of bouldering with friends. Not feeling particularly fit, or strong… I decided to jump on X-treme Cool and just climb as far as I could before falling off (just as I had many times before). I climbed through X-treme Cool, Sleepy Hollow, struggled my way through Cave Man and hung around trying to get some feeling back into my hands before tackling the link up crux of Dead Cant Dance… Feeling pumped, I then kept moving… Made the very shouldery move with my right hand, moved my foot, reached up with my left hand (The move which I have fallen off many a times) and much to my surprise I was still on the wall… Oh F*&k I thought to myself… I’m still on which means it really is game on time! Knowing that my mate William had my back and was moving pads I just went for it! From that point it is a further 10 moves to make it to the lip and it took everything that I had to keep going. Fortunately being the stubborn person that I am, letting go was not an option so I just kept moving, fighting all the way and before I knew it I was sitting on top of the cave and at the time what felt like the top of the world!

Whilst the finish moves dont feel that hard in isolation… No one can say that they are easy after climbing all that way and I sure had to put in everything that I had just to remain on!

A question that lots of people have been asking is obviously about the grade… To be honest I dont know! Maybe it does deserve a route grade… But I dont climb routes so wouldn’t know where to start to give it a number. Others think that a boulder can only be as hard as the hardest move… Is that in isolation or does it count how hard it is after climbing all that way? All I know is that for me, it felt a hell of a lot harder than the original. I climbed a specific line and welcome anyone to repeat it and give me their opinion of it.

So… Another question people have asked (Obviously people who don’t know me)… Did I use knee pads? Whilst I don’t mind if other people decide to climb it that way, I personally didn’t use them (It’s a personal choice). I feel that wearing knee pads changes the line completely as there are rests that can be used that in my opinion are not possible without them. The first accent of the WOL was done without them, I climbed the original line without them and wanted to do the Direct without them… So I did.
For travelling tourists who don’t have the time to commit to the cave that I have and just want to start at the bottom and climb to the top then I think they are a great option and I still respect the people who have done it that way! It just wasn’t the way I was going to do it.

Before you ask… Yes, there is footage and it will be released when the time is right!

Whats next on the hit list? Who knows… I still work full time and only manage weekend trips away to the grampians so for the time being its just going to be fun sessions on the rock with great people. Training starts in the new year so we will see what that brings as it gets closer!

I have now competed in 2 bouldering world cups and have 2 to go this year.
The first was in Slovenia and the second was a couple of days ago in Vienna, I had a great time at both of them and felt quite good on the wall. I topped out on 2 boulders in the first comp in 8 attempts and then 3 boulders in 5 attempts in the second comp!

Still not enough to get anywhere good in the ranking game but still a lot of fun and I have heaps left in me!

Well we are about to jump into the car and make the 8 odd hour drive to Magic Woods so will re post some time when I get a chance out there!

Thanks to everyone for all of the suppor during the comps!

Take care and have fun!

So… comp day is almost upon us… Tomorrow will my first ever bouldering world cup and the first of 4 that im competing in this year! It’s all very exciting and rather daunting at the same time… To be honest I have no idea what to expect but It’s going to be a great experience no matter what!!!

I will try and re post after the comp with details…

How is it all going to work??? (This is to the best of my understanding…)
Well there are about 74 male competitors and we have been split into 2 groups for the qualifying round.
This means that there are 2 sets of qualifying problems… 1 group gets one set of problems and the other group gets the other… The problems are completely different and we do not try the other groups problems. Both of the groups will be climbing at the same time. (So there will be 10 guys on the wall at the one time)

There are 37 guys in each group and the top 10 ranked competitors from each of the two groups will make up the 20 guys who make the semi finals! I am climbing 26th in group 2 and have bib number 23.

Each group gets 5 problems in the qualifying round and we have 5 minutes to attempt each and then a 5 minute rest between each problem…

The comp is being streamed live and can be seen here http://WWW.IFSC.TV/ (We are 8 hours behind Melbourne time)
And a starting list can be found here: http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1387&cat=ICC_MB

2012 has involved lots of work and heaps of training! Mid last year I decided that I wanted to try my luck on the international bouldering circuit and enter some of the 2012 bouldering world cups…
Hence the work (to save) and the training (to try get strong)!

Between myself and Will the psyche has been high and the training hard! Who knows if it will help with the funky setting im sure to get at the comps… One thing for sure is that its been a hell of a lot of fun and Will for one is crushing harder than ever!!!

On the 15th April myself and Claire depart Sydney. After stopping over in Johannesburg and then Dubai we will finally arrive in Munich where we will start the Europe leg of our trip! After getting ourselves settled in Europe we will make the drive to Slovenia for the first of my comps… More details to come as it happens!

What else am I doing over there?
Well I have entered 4 bouldering comps… 1 in Slovenia, 2 in Austria and 1 in the USA. In between the comps there will be a little touristy stuff and plenty of time playing on real rock. We are then finishing off our trip in South Africa (mostly Rocklands) where we will be joined by Will!

Super psyched and very excited for this 3 month trip with Claire!!!

Will try and keep my blog up to date with whats happening while we are away and photos to accompany.

Cheers,
James

BD athlete James Kassay bouldering in Hueco Tanks, Texas from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

People have been asking about my history with the problem so I may as well tell all…
I first visited Hollow Mountain cave back in September 2001 when I was 16 years old.
I completed the first of the 4 problems that make up the wheel in January 2002 (Cave Man).
In April 2003 I completed both the first half and second half of the wheel and it was then that the whole problem caught my eye.
In the following 8 years I have been to the cave on many occasions and have of course played on the problems and attempted the wheel many times. I have always gone through phases of being psyched on it and then other times where I have walked away for anywhere up to 12 month at a time uninspired or just over it… When it started becoming a chore I decided to leave it for a time that I could enjoy it for what it is rather then doing it because I felt that I had to.

Call me stubborn, crazy or out right stupid if you must but climbing the full length of the cave wasn’t just a matter of getting from one end to the other the easiest possible way. Ethan was confused as to why I didn’t want to use the “easier beta” of putting on knee pads and milking the knee bar rests that are otherwise impossible to use…
Ultimately I set myself a personal goal and that was the way I was going to do it.

To me, it was never a matter of ‘IF’ I was going to do it but a matter of ‘WHEN’…

I know that there are a lot of people out there who are going to give me a hard time (more over the internet than in person) about how long it took me to complete the Wheel of Life but to be honest I couldn’t care a less what they have to say! There are currently only 3 people who could honestly give me a hard time… Dai Koyamada, Chris Webb Parsons and Ethan Pringle! (The only other people to have completed this problem)
If anyone else wants to give me a hard time then they are more than welcome to come, complete the problem in a shorter amount of time and then ill listen to what they have to say…

Is that it for me in the cave??? No way! I may have completed the Wheel of Life but for me that was never the line… The Wheel of Life bails out right at the end of the cave and takes the shorter path. My line of choice will take the direct finish up the highest point of the cave… Will it add another grade? No… It wont. But it is a harder finish and a more impressive line to take! I hope to get the FA of this in the not too distant future…

What grade do I think it is??? Thats a great question… Im not a route climber and as such am not going to give it a route grade. I figure that Dai has a pretty good idea on things so im going to run with his V16/ 8c+. Im not doing it for the grade but I sure as hell will take it!

Whats next for James Kassay??? Well whats the fun in giving everything away??? Lets just say it involves lots of bouldering, a few international flights and maybe some competing…

Until next time… Climb Hard, Have Fun and ALWAYS remember to smile!!!

Smitten the movie. Team Teaser Five. from Smitten the movie on Vimeo.

More details here: http://www.facebook.com/Smittenthemovie