THIEVES LIKE US: DECOMPOSED METAL SKIN

Holy frigging crap. After over 80 hours of work, countless hours of route-setting, countless hours of fore-running, 6 thai meals, 7 packs of CRANK FOREARM FUEL, and at least three days of actual real craziness the Heart of Steel 2010 comp is finally done. Over 170 competitors entered the arena on January 30th to try their hands at the boulder problems. There was free food, drink, pumping beats, free shirts and racebags for each competitor, and more climbing than you could shake a stick-clip at. AND THAT'S JUST THE QUALIFYING ROUND.

After the qualifiers were done, it was time to relax, enjoy throwing out thousands of dollars in gear, raffles, and more. And to watch the premier of Taylor De Lench's climbing film "SICK. Climbing in New England". There was a super finals to determine a tie-break between Zeb Engberg and Michael Bautista. In the end, Michael made it to the finals round to compete against Rob D'Anatasio and Vasya Vorotnikov. For women, it was Sidney McNair, Sasha DiGiulian, and Francesca Metcalf.

Never being one to do anything less than totally and completely off the wall and insane, we filled the gym with about 400 spectators, blasting industrial and black metal music, and eerie red lighting and smoke. The center-piece of the event was "The Dark Crystal", a 6.5' x 3' swinging/spinning feature that I designed in collaboration with the guys at Brewer's Ledge. This feature literally blew the minds of the finalists, and the onlooking crowd. It was pretty awesome to watch it all unfold. In the end, here is who took away the most money:

MEN:1st Vasya Vorotnikov, 2nd Michael Bautista, 3rd Rob D'Anastasio.

WOMEN: 1st, Sasha DiGIulian, 2nd Francesca Metcalf, 3rd Sydney Mcnair.

I'll let these amazing shots from George Lucoozi/ASA Photographic tell the real story.