Chris Sharma

The four routes themselves resembled four themes, containing four inhuman climbing problems. The first route angled out ever so slightly the entire way up. The second had an oblong pyramid slowly sloping down in the middle of the wall. The third resembled a big wave with several inverted moves under its crest. The last was your standard overhang to wall to overhang, climaxing on a roof undercling hold leap of faith — the big dyno. Finalists had six minutes with as many tries as possible on each route. The crowd knew each previous climber's attempt and began barking louder with every new hold attained.

"The final finale found Chris's last dyno deluxe launch a winner and the crowd erupted. Chris chose for a bit of spontaneous showboating by hanging from his toes from the top. It was, well, awesome..."

The men went first and everyone had trouble with the second route's pyramid. Yuji Hirayama got the crowd to its feet on the third route, with two attempts ending inches from the top.[check out Yuji's video interview]

Stephane Julien then topped out and kept the crowd's attention, his every hold bringing him closer to bronze. Francois Petit pulled out two top outs, powering past the competition before him and winning the crowd over by finishing the final two problems. Other heroic attempts were made by Salavat Rakhmetov, of France, who attacked every route with French style to finish sixth. Daniel Du Lac showed even more French flair with his stylee sun hat on the wall, landing him seventh.

Having qualified first, Chris Sharma kept the crowd waiting. He started slow with several attempts on the first route before topping out. The second route found him two holds from the top, hugging the pyramid before slowly slipping off. Before he started the third route he removed the reggae from his ears and let the hometown crowd help him ascend the final two walls. The final finale found Chris's last dyno deluxe launch a winner and the crowd erupted. Chris chose for a bit of spontaneous showboating by hanging from his toes from the top. It was, well, awesome.[check out the Chris's video interview]

The ladies came next with Mee Sun Go wowing the audience with her strength. Mee, and the majority of the following females, all had troubles reaching the top with over half of the field missing out on the top altogether. Elena Choumiolova and Jylia Inozemtseva both came closer than any before them, maintaining third and fourth, respectively, for Russia.

Then came the French women. Liv Sansoz found the top of the fourth route to the crowd's delight, but at the same time they were realizing that America's hope and first to qualify, Katie Brown, was having troubles on route two. [check out the Liv's video interview]

French co-conspirator Stephanie Bodet on the other hand proved the pyramid could be done by a woman and seemed to only gain strength from there. Katie continued having problems with the problems and by the last wall it was evident that whatever had propelled her to qualify first yesterday was gone today. Stephanie took the last route with relative ease compared to the rest of the women and shrugged her shoulders as if she surprised herself.

The highlight of the day rode with Sharma and everybody wanted a piece of him. For this somewhat foreign piece of the X Games, the young Californian fit right in along side Tony Hawk's historical first here today. The Games will go on and apparently ESPN has cleaned out everything including the clouds for this Bayside Xtravaganza. Team MountainZone.com West has summits and singletrack beckoning back north and so, bids you all a wunderschön Fourth.

— Hans Prosl, smiling with sunstoke for MountainZone.com

Preview
Thursday, June 23

B is for Bouldering and although it's not new to you, it is to the X. The good news is that it's not about ropes or harnesses, and all about mats cushioning the blow below burly, maddening, man-made objects. Falls are frequent and heckling is encouraged...oh wait, that's snowboarding.

Stephanie Bodet

The beauty of the bouldering is the style element. You get to attempt the "problem" (the bouldering route), as many times as you want in the time given. BUT, if you are truly made of stone and you do it "on sight" (your first try, start to finish), you are rewarded bonus points and the respect from all.

So you can see this is about muscle and quick snapping reflexes and not endurance and energy conservation. This might change up who's on top and offer a chance for some fresh faces on the podium.

The prelims start on Sunday and the boulders drop all but the finalists on Monday. So stay dialed to see where the Americans stand on Bouldering.

— Hans Prosl, dealing with his "problem" for MountainZone.com