Chris Sharma

Chris Sharma – Sport Climbing
Twenty-five years into the “bolted revolution” and it’s hard not to feel like elite sport climbing has lost its luster. Link-ups, bouldering starts, and third-try-Beta-flash shenanigans — the mind reels. Then there’s Chris Sharma, who mainly devotes his energies to first ascents with staying power. This year it was Jumbo Love, a 250-foot 5.15b at the remote desert fortress of Clark Mountain, a limestone amphitheater in California. Three years after first trying the line, Sharma sent it on September 11. He clipped only 14 bolts, risking monster falls and calling on an Olympic-caliber athleticism built by training on “easier” (5.14+/15-) enduro pitches in Spain and through multiple attempts on Jumbo Love itself. “About Chris’ tenacity on the route: that’s just how he works,” says Ethan Pringle, who’s tried the climb. “He may not seem strategic, but underneath that calm, uncaring facade, he knows [just] what he wants.” Consider that Sharma, fit from his big send, shortly thereafter went on a 5.14-onsighting spree. Congratulations Chris!

Paul Robinson – Bouldering

Paul Robinson

On January 1, 2008, Paul Robinson, now 21, kicked off a year climbing more than 80 V11 or harder problems with his second ascent of Terremer (V15/V16), at Hueco Tanks, Texas. Shortly thereafter, Robinson placed first at the 2008 ABS Nationals Championships while attending classes at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Then it was Midnight Express (V14), Boulder Canyon, The Fly (V14; on TR), Rumney, and a third-place finish in the Bouldering World Cup in Vail, Colorado — all before bouncing out to the Rocklands, South Africa. There, climbing with fellow hardman and good friend Daniel Woods (among others), Robinson rocked the house with the third ascent of Amandla (V14) in an hour and a half, with Woods also nabbing an ascent just days later. In Switzerland, Robinson finished his streak with 30 problems rated V12 to V14. Unfortunately, on October 14, Robinson fell off the final move of a Magic Wood bloc, breaking his left tibia and tearing ligaments. Recuperating at his parents’ New Jersey home, Robinson is reportedly already training again. Right on Paul!

Alex Johnson

Alex Johnson – Breakaway Success of the Year
The 2008 Bouldering World Cup, held in Vail, Colorado, last June 6-7, saw the world’s strongest women — Lisa Rands, Alex Puccio, Anna Stohr, etc. — test their mettle. So many spectators’ reaction when they saw Alex Johnson topping the podium might have been, “Who?!” Johnson, 19, started climbing in a Wisconsin gym in 1999 and, despite good performances nationally and in international speed events (and 5.13 redpoints at the Red River Gorge and Rifle), long remained under the radar. Vail was her first World Cup, a win she parlayed into serious momentum over the summer and autumn, with sends of two V11s — Chaos Canyon’s Sunspot and Poudre Canyon’s Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves — in her new home state of Colorado. Then on August 25, Johnson made a one-day send of the crimpy Clear Blue Skies (V12), at Mount Evans. “I don’t think I approached climbing any differently this year,” says Johnson. “Things just really started falling into place.” Congratulations Alex!