Tales of an MC - Dark Horse 2

Another Dark Horse Competition is in the books. Last Saturday, November 5th was a new experience for me in a lot of ways. I've been MC'ing and setting for the Dark Horse Series since we started in 2009 but this was the first comp that we held in the new expansion in Everett. So sick!!!! It's like the area was built for big bouldering finals. With a ton of new volumes from Motivation, a new area to set in and a head full of ideas, the crew and I went to work. We got the foundations up quickly for almost all 8 finals problems. Within the next couple of days we had run and tweaked them down to some amazing boulders. All very unique, all unbelievably awesome. We had mono switches, very technical sloper moves, a crazy bat hang bicycle and a whole lot of big move mayhem...all on the most aesthetic set ups I have seen!

A look at the finals area (Photo by Pat Bagley)

The whole week leading up to the comp was filled with hard work, drama, laughter and an amazing amount of climbing. I feel like we came through in fine form with only one blowout among the crew (I think a record for a Dark Horse comp). With all of the madness leading up to a big competition like this one, there is always the anxiety of hoping everything will run smoothly. It plays a huge toll on your body physically and mentally. By Saturday we are all ready to crawl into a corner somewhere and sleep, but the show must go on.

We had over 120 competitors show up to throw down, we tried a new format for the citizen's portion where we staggered starting times for the pros and amateurs. This way the open competitors have an extra hour and a half in the bouldering area without huge crowds to narrow it down to the final six males and six females. It made for a little mini finals during that time, it even gathered a crowd watching some of the hardest qualifiers go down. After the citizen's round we again had the Young Guns Finals, these kids continue to amaze me and it's easy to see the future of climbing watching these kids throw down.

When the pro finals rolled around, everyone herded into the expansion and awaited the action. The feeling in the air was full of energy fueled by an amped up crowd.

The crowd from the view of the MC

When the microphone crapped out I thought the night would be a bust. All this anticipation leading up to the new expansion with tons of new volumes and some sick climbers. But I would not go silently into the night, I threw the mic down with a thud and continued to scream for an hour keeping the crowd pumped up and loud as hell. They did not disappoint and neither did the climbers. The finals did their job, spitting off some and provided moments of greatness throughout. Definitely a success, and regardless of a few set backs, it's hard to believe that the rapid growth of the Dark Horse Series will not continue. We'll continue to go bigger and better and provide a sick show for all. Thanks to everyone that came out to crush and support, without the fans, this would not be what it is...awesome!!!

Here is a video provided by the Louder Than 11 crew...