Team Scarpa, represented by sponsored athletes Michaela Tracy and Nathan Phillips, won the first Boulder Brighton Battle of the Brands competition on Saturday 12th September.

Part of the Boulder Brighton Autumn Climbing Festival, this was a unique exhibition comp format where the athletes set the problems for each other, making it a double test of climbing and route setting skills.

Teams from Scarpa, La Sportiva, Evolv and Boreal were represented on the night, with a male and female athlete competing from each brand. Each pair set two problems during the afternoon as local climbers looked on with interest, locking down the beta on their own blocs but unable to test the other athletes' creations until later that evening.

At 8pm the festival gathered in front of the comp wall, the lights went off, the disco ball lit up, and the athletes came out to show off their best moves.

Team La Sportiva started off strong, with Molly Thompson-Smith and Jim Pope coming out of isolation first, both managing to top their own blocs in front of an excited crowd and some big tunes from DJ Shreddie.

Diane Merrick had to pull out all the stops to get to the bonus on her fiendishly hard bloc, further than any of the other women, while Boreal team mate Andi Turner got busy winning over hearts and minds with some strong moves and a crowd-pleasing vest.

Matt Cousins, representing Team Evolv with Storme Biggs, was under pressure to perform having won every open competition at Boulder Brighton since the centre opened in 2013 - and was looking good after a couple of rounds.

But it was Nathan and Michaela from Team Scarpa, looking strong from the start, who ultimately took the title. Nathan took all four tops in just five attempts, beating all the other men, while Michaela only just missed out on top female score to Molly Thompson-Smith, by one attempt.

All in all, it was a great success - and the Battle of the Brands 2 is already being planned for next year. The athletes' problems will be up for people to climb at Boulder Brighton for the next couple of weeks.

Final results:

Winners: Scarpa (Nathan Phillips & Michaela Tracy) 
Runners-up: La Sportiva (Jim Pope & Molly Thompson-Smith) 
Third place: Evolv (Matt Cousins & Storme Biggs) 
Fourth place: Boreal (Andi Turner & Diane Merrick)