2002 season started on January 1st. with the early morning drive to Vienna, continued with flight to Moscow and ended on the train to Kirov. Klemen had been putting up OK with it.

At that time I was knocked out by a huge, bad strain in my lower back. I thought my climbing won't even begun. Then, Sue did one hell o a job massing the injuried part until I was ready for the comp.

Pitztal comp a week later was another show in the sportlights. The structure was leaning at all angles and traditionally - we saw another day, climbing on the Pitztal glacier. With Rich Marshall and Ben Firth this time.

Here, Klemen's back was due to get hurt. And he hurt it badly with some help from belayer. It took 2 weeks for him to recover and he missed one comp because of it.

Valle di Daone - a new structure for bouldering competition. Very long, hard routes were set up and they killed every climber. Sooner or later.

Great effort from the organizers - Maurizio Gallo and his team.
Saas Fee comp reached its limit on it's contemporary location. The natural granite wall no longer offers enough traps for the climbers.
 
The red lines were melted away. I came down all red over my shoes and gloves, and I was hiding the corpus delicti from the eyes of the judges.
Organizers tried to spice things up with improvized structures, such as horizontal bars and drytooling passages. Quite successfully, I must say.

Canadians made a different approach: Water tower/control tower/spaceship/ techno-flower resembling structure with huge overhang set up on the Abraham plains above Quebec city, provided good grounds for the IWC finals 2002.

Seen from the edge of the roof, Rich Marshal looks hopelessly small and far away from the last belay point.