EYBC - L'Argentiere - France - 2012

Three weeks ago the last round of the European Youth Bouldering Championships was drawing near and it was time to start packing. Between the last one and this; I had upped my training because I knew I needed to get stronger. So when it came to the comp I was feeling pretty good.

The comp was held in L’Argentiere France where I had been twice before. It helped a lot to know the area and to know where the supermarkets were. It was boiling the whole time we were there and I wasn’t complaining as I love the heat. On the day of the qualifiers I managed 3 tops and was close to 3 or 4 others. Only me and one other managed to get all the bonuses which made me feel a bit better about my result. I ended up in 13^th place. I thought I could have done a bit better but after seeing my overall European Junior ranking at 10^th, I thought that was pretty good. It was nice to see Dave Barrans and Ellie Howard cheering me on in the crowd.

Whilst at the comp we met some really nice people who put us up for a night on our last day there. The final was really good to watch however much I wanted to be doing it. Hopefully next year it won’t be just me going from Britain.

BBC's 2012

I’ve had about 12 months of solid indoor training, leading up to the BBC’s and the Euro’s and last weekend it was finally time for the BBC’s. This year they had decided to go with the official IFSC European age categories; meaning I was back in the junior category (born 1994 and 1993) which gave me 2 more years in this category. And after getting on the podium 3 years in a row in the junior category in previous years, I was hoping to finally win.

Cliffhanger had been called off the night before by the council but the comp was still to take place. I’d had a bit of a problem with my knee for a few weeks leading up to the comp but I had a few sessions with the team chiropractor and it seemed to be feeling alright on the day. I love big comps like this, where you get to climb with everyone you haven’t seen for a while and loads of other great climbers.

So the comp kicked off and I got straight on a pretty hard problem with a dyno and flashed it. This put me in a great mindset for the rest of the comp. In the end I managed to get 7 of the 10 problems with a score of 67 and 8 bonuses putting me in joint 9^th position; 1 place out of the senior final. Gaz parry just snook in and took the 8^th spot by 1 bonus hold. While I was a bit disappointed I was so close to making the final, I was really pleased with my performance. I took the junior title by a full 10 points. So I’m now the new Junior British Bouldering Champion.

It was a great comp with some good technical problems; just what I like. The final was great to watch, with Britain’s top climbers competing against each other it can only be a good thing. Hopefully next year I won’t be watching.

British Team Training

So after the BBC’s; I was having a chat with Nick Clements (the manager of the British Bouldering Team) who was really impressed with my result, as was I. And I ended up getting an invitation to go and train with the team at Boulder UK in Blackburn.

On the day I turned up to see most of the team there and we got stuck straight in. First of all we did 5 or 6 problems that Ian Vickers and Jamie Cassidy had set for the team to try. We went round in pairs and I was with Gaz Parry. I did all the problems which I was surprised with as I thought I would struggle to get any.

After that I had another chat with Nick and he mentioned the possibility of doing some competitions across Europe and maybe a round of the world cup. I was so shocked when he told me this but happily shocked as I didn’t think I was that good.

Then we did a couple of circuits which were pretty damn hard, but I still enjoyed it. After that I sat and listened in on the team talk discussing things like the new arrangements for the BBC’s and similar things. At the end of the day Nick invited me to another training session at City Bloc in Leeds and somewhere else in Preston. I gladly accepted and am pretty happy with the day overall.

This is a late update from late January

BBC's 2011

It’s been a while since my last blog update so here it is. The BBC’s were held early this year in January and in London instead of Sheffield. This meant no Cliffhanger festival to support it, but instead it was a central event in the outdoors show held inside the Excel Centre.

With it being in London there was a lot more travelling to do for some competitors including me. The journey down wasn’t too bad and didn’t take too long. When we got there we had time to have a quick look around, watch a movie and get a pre-comp meal, which consisted of soggy chips and fried cheese.

On the day we walked to the event which was only a minute walk from where we were staying and got took in to see the wall with all the other competitors. The wall was pretty much a flat overhang with a few volumes scattered about. This was a slight disappointment compared to the walls that had been produced in the last few years.

There was no problem with keeping warm this year as it was indoors and with all the people in there it got pretty hot. I would have preferred it to be outside in the summer but what can you do.

The format was different to previous years, with the seniors climbing on the Saturday and the juniors on the Sunday. As it was my first year in the seniors I wasn’t expecting a great deal from myself this year. We were split into two groups; A and B for qualifying. I was in group A which were climbing first. I was going pretty well I thought but there was half an hour less than normal which caused some problems. Towards the end of the comp I was trying for my second attempt on a problem that a lot of people were struggling on. The last move was a dyno which I do a lot of in training. I managed to catch it and almost came off but managed to stick it. This psyched me up and with about a minute remaining I jumped on one last problem and flashed it.

There was one problem that I didn’t get chance to try but it looked pretty solid anyway so I was pleased with what I had done. Now I just had to wait while the second group had their climb and wait to see what the results were.

When the sheet went up everyone gathered round to see how they had done. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had finished 14^th. With it only being my first year in the seniors I was very pleased with myself.

I stayed around to watch the womens qualification and the finals. I also got chance to have a look around at the rest of the outdoor show which was pretty cool.

I came back the next day to watch the juniors as some of my friends were competing that day. All in all it was a pretty good do. I still prefer the sun though.

Winter Comp Season Begins

After a long break, the winter competition season is starting again and the first at Rock Over Manchester on Saturday was a success. With a large turnout including the British Bouldering Team it was sure to be a good comp.

Qualification consisted of many interesting problems including a swinging ball, which apart from the occasional easy problem were all quite hard. I was however pleasantly surprised when I saw Dave Barrans from the British Team fall of a problem that I flashed.

I didn’t make the cut for the final, not that I was expecting to as it is my first year moving into the adult category. However I did manage to just make it into the 7th-12th place playoffs, coming 12th in qualification, which I think was quite good considering I was the youngest to make it in by 4 years.

The playoff was a new thing to me, as I think it was to most of the other climbers. There was one long problem and we had a minute to view it. Scoring was done on who completed it, or if more than one person completed it, it was done on the time it took to complete it. Seen as no one completed the problem, the person who got furthest won.

I didn’t stay to watch the final but Dave Barrans Ended up winning. All in all it was a pretty good day, and I’m looking forward to all the other comps coming up over the winter. 

This picture shows me attempting the playoff problem.

Tout A Blocs 2010

A couple of weeks ago I went down to the French Alps for a holiday with my family, but also to take part in the European Youth Bouldering Championships which took place as part of the Tout A Blocs bouldering competition at L’Argentiere-la-Bessee.

We went down the day before to register, and check out the wall and the problems. The layout was 4 blocs on the main stage, another bloc and an indoor area.

I thought the first qualification round went quite well at first as I did I bit less than half of the problems. Then while waiting on the campsite for the afternoon qualification it started to rain. We went down anyway to see what was happening and we were told to come back the next morning. We came back the next morning and it was still quite wet as there were thunder storms over night. So it was then rescheduled for early that afternoon and the time was reduced to an 1hr 15 minutes from 2hrs. We were then explained the rules by someone who spoke English and we had got it all wrong.

Originally we thought it was like any other bouldering scoring system where you get 10 points for a completed problem, but it was different. Each problem was worth 1000 points and those points where shared between the people that completed that problem. This was frustrating as I had done quite a lot of easy problems in the earlier qualification. So I just decided to try lots of hard problems in the second round and class this completion as a learning experience for next time as I didn’t have enough time to do as many problems as I could have with the full 2hrs.

The second qualification was a bit weird as it rained for about 20 minutes in the middle of it but they didn’t call it off. But I still managed to get one of my hardest problems in the middle of the rain on one of the outdoor blocs. In the end I came 17th out 50 odd competitors which was not bad considering that I didn’t know the rules.

The senior final was pretty awesome, which was held on the main stage in the dark. It was packed with spectators all cheering on the competitors. The problems all had some sort of leap in them which were all very impressive to watch.

 It was a fun competition and it looks good for next year as I will be in the same age group. After the comp I still had another week of holiday to look forward to.

My First Blog - The BBC's 2010

Over the past season I have been training and competing indoors a lot in preparation for the junior BBC’s and the European Youth Bouldering Masters in France this summer. The BBC’s at the weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I qualified for the final in second place with a score of 87 out of 100, sitting behind a score of 90 from Barnaby Ventham. Seb Smith and Joe Swales who I climb with at Leeds also made it into the final which made it a bit more interesting.

It looked like it was between me and Barnaby based on the qualification scores. There was a significant gap between us and the next place qualifiers. In the final I flashed the first problem along with a few of the other finalists. The second took a few more attempts but got there in the end. The third was a bit more tricky and no one topped it, but I was so close, as I held the last hold but couldn’t hang on to match it. I was the only one to get to the final hold and if I’d held it I would have won. The last problem was on a big overhang, it was tough but a few of us managed to flash it.

Despite making every move in the final, I came out 3rd because I had too many attempts on the second problem. This was a good result but I am a bit disappointed on not getting 1st, as that was my aim for the comp having finished second and third previously. The first place was taken by Edd Mowbray who was the most consistent climber on the problems that were topped. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and I’m still in training for the comp in France in July. After that I hope to get outside a bit more.