Deep Water Soloing 2015: Men's qualifications

[sawyl]

The afternoon of the DWS competition was dedicated to the men's qualifiers. The problems went from relatively easy — even I could have sent the first one — to a tricky but do-able middle problem to an extremely hard third problem with a very difficult dyno on the penultimate move that only a handful of people managed to stick successfully.

Rory Bascombe making very light work of the first problem.

The second problem featured an early dyno up from a volume to a large blue feature:

Adam Scott sticks the first dyno.

This was followed by a swing through on the wrecking ball...

Gary Anning swings through. I couldn't resist including this photo — I just love the photographer's expression of delight!

with a reach out to the handhold on the left:

Elliot Vanstone campuses off the wrecking ball

Then it was back on the ball, with a brief sit followed by a move up to a pair of tiny crimps on the volume above:

Andrei Burton, the very last person to compete, working his way into position

The last couple of moves were very tough, with an unforgiving sloper just before the final jug:

Local Quay hero Jacob Straw was one of the few to make it to the end...

... but alas, he didn't quick make the dyno!

The final problem featured a nasty start and a hard move up passed the first overhang that separated out a number of the competitors:

Jacob was one of the select group who managed to make it up to the purple section.

Once past that, the problem featured a tricky little traverse and a dyno to a very unfriendly orange volume.

Philip Rose in mid-move...


...and safely on the volume, at which point he got a huge cheer as everyone realised he was going to be the first person to send the problem.

After which, almost no-one managed to complete the problem until a late flurry of senders towards the end — corresponding with a cluster of very strong climbers on at the end of the order...