Val Daone, Ice Masters World Cup, Italy 2008

Myself, dad and Rhys Dobbs flew from Preswick airport to Milan where we picked up a hire car and my dad drove about 95 miles to the village of Val Daone, as we got nearer and higher the snow got deeper and deeper, we got to where we were staying at 22:00.

The next morning we went for a walk to see the climbing tower, it was awesome, I could not figure out how I was ever going to be able to climb it at all.

As I was the youngest climber to ever have climbed in the competition I was asked by Riccardo Milani, the orginiser if I would light the torch at the opening ceremony on front of crowds of people, some VIP's.
On the day of the competition I was put into isolation along with 12 other competitors non of them spoke english so it was very lonely and did not help my nerves !!!!

Riccardo also asked if I would agree to be filmed for an Italian TV company RAI, teaching an Italian boy how to Ice climb which I agreed to.

You can watch the TV show here

Katherine Shirrmacher

No 4 in the training sessions set up by Scott Muir at Extreme Dream for the Scottish Youth Climbing Team, we were at a lecture last night by Katherine Shirrmacher about her climbing career then a training session this afternoon with her.