Brittish Junior Climbing Team

Two weeks ago I travelled down to Liverpool for the British Team Trials, and finished in 5Th position. When I came home from school today I had got a letter from the BMC telling me that I had successfully got onto the team. (YEA HAA!!)

Tooling Series Final 2009

Saturday was a 6.30 start, we travelled down to Fort William for the final of the tooling series.

This round was a bit of a serious competition between me and my mate Dylan Mackenzie, because the winner of this round would win the series trophy!! We had like 4 hours to try and complete the Qualifying round routes, so me and my dad raced round most of the routes, trying our best to Finnish but of course we ran out of time!

The final route was going up the articulated wall which was overhanging, I was out climbing second and I took 7 minutes to get to the top (I was SO pumped!). then Dylan got to the top, so we had to have a supper final which was also on the overhanging was but on the mens final route. I was out of isolation first and managed to get just under half way and popped off going for a long move to a crappy hold. Dylan got to the hold just below me!!

Thanks so much everyone that run this fantastic event and the sponsors Lyon Equipment. I hope there is one next year!!

Here is a link to a video posted on Scottish tooling website:

Team Trials

Friday morning I travelled down to Liverpool for the British Team trials. We stayed the night in a hotel, woke up at about 7 o'clock looking forward to the breakfast to find it does not open until 8 (girr!). I got to the wall at 8 o'clock, really psyched for the comp I got my number and looked at my routes, My first route did not look too bad but my second qualifier looked really hard. After about one hour of warming up I got on my first route, I really liked it it was not too hard about 6c/ 6c+, But my second was really hard, about 3 clips up the wall there was three slopers that were close together, you had to rock over onto the first one then get your hands sorted then go out to a small crimp out left, that was probably the best move in the comp!! then I managed to climb up to the second last clip, I climbed passed it first then had to climb down the hard move then clip it (that got me really pumped) then finally only managed to touch the next hold. I was told after the route was graded 7c! After attempting the two qualifying routes I was in 2nd place going into the final.
I went into isolation at 4 o'clock then came out to read the route around 5, My final route was on the massive overhanging wall, After reading the route I went back into isolation for another hour, then was really psyched for the final. I came out and started to climb my route, I managed to get just off half way up the route then I should have moved my foot up and caught the under cut, but I didn't move my foot up then I popped off!
I finished 5th over all, and had a really good day :)

Glenmore lodge Dry- tooling round 4

Last Saturday I travelled to Glenmore Lodge for round four this years tooling series. Last year I went to this round as well and it was amazing with the weather being really snowy and cold, but this year it was totally different because about 20 minutes into the competition it started to chuck it down with rain, by the end I was drenched and could not feel my fingers. Athough it was Tipping it down I still really enjoyed the routes.

After about one and a half hours of climbing in the rain we had a final which was thankfully inside, but the one problem I had was that my gloves were soken wet and my hands kept sliding out of them anyway I still went into the final and came second by about one point!!

I am now totally phyced for the final at the Ice Facter in two weeks.

I was given a video of the finals taken by Craig Harper, once I have worked out how to upload it I will put a link here:

Extream-dream Dry- Tooling Round

Saturday was round Three of this winters tooling league. Extream- dreams tooling round is always the best with funky logs and boards that you have to plant the axes into. We had 11 amazing/ funky routes to do and then the final on the 13 meter roof. One of my favorite routes were in the boulder cave, it included of three logs one of them about one meter long, that you had to slide down (as it was slanted) then figure of four onto a smaller one, swing to another log then slam the axe into the finishing plank of wood that was bolted to the wall. In the qualifying round I got 110 points along with another two Juniors.

There was 5 of us in the final on the roof and I was climbing last, after watching the others on the roof I was really phyced up, After getting half way over the roof I was happy then I managed to get to the last clip and I was pretty pumped, after clipping the last clip before the lower off I was trying to get my axe out and I droped it, but I managed to do a funky move and got the lower off with one axe and then won!!

More results can be found here:

Sports Climbing

This afternoon I went to Moy Rock, my local crag, met up with a few friends and done some climbing!!

After doing a few warm-up routes, A friend suggested that I should try these 2 routes:

1. Little Teaser (20m) 6b+ **
   
2. The Ticks Eat All the Midges 7a+ **

But instead of climbing The Ticks Eat All The Midges I went up the wrong line and climbed Cloak and Dagger 7a ** which I thought was pretty good but really pumpy trying to climb over the small roof to the lower off.

Photo taken by Stevie Hammond

Scottish Tooling Series Round 1

Round 1 of the Scottish Tooling Series was held on Saturday at Advertical World. This year is the second year that the Scottish Tooling Series.

Saturday, the competition started at 10.45 and we Had 4 hours to complete 18 boulder problems/ routes.

In the Qualifying round I got 153 points out of 180. The final we had 1 route and I managed to get to the top !!!!

I liked the competition routes, but I think that they would have been a little bit better if some of the routes were harder with sketchy holds.

Some more information can be found here for the Scottish tooling series: STS


Here are some pictures: (thanks to the Scottish tooling series website)

EYS

This weekend was the British round of the EYS and I was one of the GB team members to compete in the event. This was my first EYS competition and I was really excited, I was totally psyched.

The Friday night we were told our starting place for the first route, and I was climber 120 and was climbing 16th on the first route.


Me on my first route.

I felt really strong when I was on my first route and was really happy that I got to the second last clip.

A pic of me climbing my second route.

My second route was really hard and had a few long moves at the start, which made me use most of my energy.

After this weekend I am now placed 33rd in europe in youth B boys!!!!

Sport Climbing

Went climbing at Moy rock tonight, the weather was really good and managed to get a few routes done before it got too dark. I have not been out in ages as I have been training for my comps, and really enjoyed getting out.

EYS Training day

Last weekend was a 3 day training session for people competing in the European Youth climbing championships at the end of September, I was reserve in the boys group B.

Day 1 (Friday)
We started climbing 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon. Day 1 was a hard fun boulder competition, which included of 20 boulder problems. At about 4 o'clock Dave Binney (head coach of the British team) came and gave us a lecture on how most of the European and world competitions run.

Day 2 (Saturday)
Saturday started in the lecturer Theatre on how we should warm up and route demos.

Warm-ups

On a event final the isolation area opens at 7.30am and closed at 8.30am. At 8.30am route demos start, and 8.45am first climber is out to climb. So if you are climber number 1,2 or 3 you will need to be warmed up and ready by 8.30am, which means you will need to be in isolation at 7.30.


Route Demos

When Dave Binney was telling us about the route demos we had to take some notes. I learned a lot from what I was told about route demos.


At 12 o'clock after we had been talking about warm-ups we were all send down to the warm up area, and try and warm up in a small space with a lot of people in only 1 hour, just like it would be like in the EYS. It was quite hard to warm up in a smallish place because people were fighting to get onto the wall. After 1 hour of warming up we were all sent out to climb 2 routes.

At the end of the day Dave Binney came over to me and said one of the other climbers injured there finger and could not climb in the EYS, and offered that if I wanted I could take the place!!

Day 3 (Sunday)

Was a mock EYS competition, so we had to get up at a silly time and be in isolation. We had to be in isolation one hour before route preview so the first 3 people could warm up and be ready to climb. We all went out for route preview and read the route, after 6 minutes we were all sent back into isolation and carried on our warm up. During the day the judges put in some Technical faults in (Eg a spinning hold or a clip that was the wrong way or something like that) the idea was so we were aware of what to do if this happened in the comp.

Tooling

Only 5 weeks to the first of the dry tooling comps so I put up a couple of training routes in the Cave.

Here is a clip of me dry tooling last year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXUFDDY5ElQ

BLCC 2009

Last Saturday was the BLCCs, which was held at Ratho climbing wall Edinburgh. I was in the Junior category (U16), We had to climb two routes graded between 6c+ and about 7c.
My first route was about 7b (I think) I managed to get 3/4 of the way up until a really long stretchy move spat me off.

My second route was about 7c I managed to climb about 25 moves up and was trying to clip one of the quickdraws off a small slopper/ crimp then my right arm got flash pumped.

Over all I came 20th, I would have liked to finish in a better position.

Applecross bouldering

This weekend I managed to persuade my dad to take me to Applecross so I could do some bouldering, the weather was scorching hot about 25'C. I went to sand bay boulders and managed to get a little bit of bouldering done, despite the weather was really hot and there was lots of horse flies biting at my back and legs.

Me on MOD Traverse V4+

We were going to stop off at Torridon boulders on the way home, but it was getting late in the day and we had no food or water left, the nearest shop was 20miles away, so we headed home as the weather forecast for the following day was heavy RAIN !!

Gory Magazine

A few months ago my friend Lukasz Warzecha took some pictures of me climbing at Dumbarton rock, and this month some of his photos went in Gory climbing magazine, one of the best selling climbing magazine's in Europe.

YCS Final, London

On Friday myself and 4 other North Scotland team members flew down to London from Inverness to compete in the YCS final at Westway climbing wall, London.

The day of the comp was really hot but pretty well organised by the BMC, as there was not a lot of room for everyone (climbers & spectators).

I managed to get 8th place overall, I would have liked to have done better but as it was my first year in the oldest catagory and I was competing against guys a lot bigger than me, I am quite pleased with the result.

Overall Scotland North done really well getting 3rd place in the team results, beating Scotland South (5th place)... Thanks Ruairidh for the training :) :)

The Old Man of Stoer

About one month ago Ruaridh Mackenzie invited some of the Inverness Climbing Crew (ones that he has climbed outdoors with before), if we wanted to go up the old man of stoer. so this weekend 6 of the Inverness climbing crew went to the old man of stoer, along with 6 adult backup climbers. We camped Friday night so we didn't have to drive up in the morning, but it were thinking it may be a bad idea as it was chucking it down on the drive over.

On Saturday morning we got up at 8 O'clock and got ready. We walked in about an hour then I saw the old man of Stoer, It was really big and awesome.

We abseiled down to a sea level ledge and set up a Tirolean, which we needed to cross to get to the stack. Ruaridh went up first and set up all the belay anchors, We had a adult at every belay station so we could all climb to the top without hanging around too long.

After a couple of hours, all 12 of us stood on the very top of the Old man for a team photo before abseiling back down.

Wakeboarding

Yesterday Ruaridh Mackenzie offered to take me out on his boat wakeboarding, with some more friends. The boat was in the water at Doors beach, we went about 1/2 mile out and went on the board. Dylan went on the board first, and showed us what to do, It looked really easy but when I went on the board, I could not even stay on the board for 10 seconds!!Dylan wakeboarding



I really enjoyed attempting to wakeboard and would love to do it again.

The Scottish Final

On Saturday was the Scottish final, which was held in Extreme-Dream Aviemore, The temperature was really hot, about 25-30'C. In the morning we had to complete 15 boulder/ top rope problems, then go into the semi/Finals in the afternoon. Four of the top rope warm up routes were out side on a transportable wall, which was really good as we were in the sun.

In the morning I got 1492 points out of 1500, which made me manage to climb in the semi finals. The semi final route was on the roof, which I think was graded about 7a. Only three people out of my group got through to the final in the afternoon, which was also on the roof. I managed to get the end of the roof which was 7c and so did Paul Williamson. So we had to have a super final on the same route, keeping climbing it over and over again until one of us came off, we both had two goes at it, I managed to get to the 2nd last clip on my 2nd attempt, and Paul got to the end.

The Camel

I went to the Camel with some friends today, It was really cold but good climbing.

I managed to do three routes before we went home:

Inverarnie Schwarzenegger F7a 25m *

Stone of Destiny F6c+ 27m ***

Two Humps are Better than One F6b 23m *

Some Picts:

EYC Selection Day

On Friday after school I travelled down to Edinburgh and camped at Ratho camp site, for the European Youth Series Selection Day on Saturday. We had to be at Ratho by 8.00am for a warm up and to be given your number (I was number 51). We were giving a route demo for the first two routes but not a route demo for the final, the route demoing started at 9.45am and climbing at 10am, I was climbing 6th in my group. Our first route was a 7a which went up the new comp wall it was really pumpy but I managed to get to the top.


Our second route was 7a+ to the right of the comp wall but only went 3/4 of the way up, I managed to get to the last clip came off on a small crimp going to a under cut. After completing the two routed it put me into 7th place meaning that I could climb in the finals. Two hours later we got out of isolation and got 5min to read the route then back into isolation. I was out 4th to climb.


Our final route was about 7b+ , I managed to get about half way up the route because I was hanging on a small crimp and had to make a small dyno move to get to the next hold but I only managed to slap the hold not hold it. After climbing in the final I finished in 6th place which means that I have a chance that I might be picked for the European Youth Climbing Championships in September.

The full results can be found here: http://www.thebmc.co.uk/bmcNews/media/u_content/File/competitions/EYS_Selection_Day_Results.pdf

YCS Round 3

Saturday was the third and last round of the YCS which was held at the Ice Factor Kinlochleven. We had to get up at 6:00AM to travel down to Kinlochleven, as the competition started at 10:00. I managed to get two of the boulder problem's and three holds off topping out in the third, and topped out in two of the routes and got 3/4 of the way up the last one. Alasdair Johnston and I got the same final score, so we had to have a climb off. I was first out in the climb off and managed to get about 1/2 way the route before my foot slipped off, Alasdair got to the 2nd last hold and slipped off (well done Alaster!!).



Here are some of the results from some of my friends.


Age group 11-13 girls:
Nikki Addison 1st
Dawn longwoth 2nd


11-13 Boys:
Dylan Mackinzie 1st
Ruaridh Macaskill 2nd



14-16 Girls
Ellen Macaskill 1st
Ellen Barber 3rd

14-16 Boys
Alasdair Johnston 1st
Steven Addison 2nd
Sam Leakey 5th
Lewis Deacon 11th

Thanks very much Ruaridh Mackinzie and all the other route setters, Climbing wall's and the MCofS for donating prizes and hosting a really good event.

The results can be found here:

Ardmair

On Saturday I went to Ardmair with some friends, It was a really good day as weather was nice and warm.

I managed to get 4 routes done:

Moondance 20m Vs 4C * (led it)

Sculptress 20m HVS 5A ** (seconded it)

Primitive Dance 30m E2 ** (top roped it)

Burning Desire 25m E5 6B**** ( Seconded it)

Here are some pics:

Dumbarton Pics From Lukasz Warzecha

The other day I resevied some photoes from Lukasz Warzecha when we were at Dumbarton rock.

Thanks very much Lukasz!!

Dumbarton

Today I went to Dumbarton with my Dad and met up with a professional photographer Lukasz Warzecha , he was taking some pictures for a Polish climbing magazine Gory. I have always wanted to go to Dumbarton to see E11 Raphosady. The weather was really good and I managed to get a lot of climbing done. Most of the boulder problem holds are really polished and do not have very good friction but I managed to get some problems done. I didn't manage to get any routes done because all of the routes I wanted to try were either wet or had slippy green slime over them.

Photos from Lukasz Warzecha still to come!!

Brin Bouldering V4 Success

After going to Brin last Wednesday and attempting Spank The ramp V4, I wanted to go back and complete the problem, so today I went back to Brin With my dad and was working Spank The Ramp. I spent a long time on it trying to get all the moves, but it paid off as I eventually got it.
I think the hardest part of the problem for me was the sitting start as reaching the first hold was a problem!!





Spank The Ramp V4

Duntelchaig

Today I went to Duntelchaig climbing and after climbing on Friday evening there I wanted to go back and climb Sweeney's Crack 15m severe. I started climbing up Sweeney's Crack and finished up Bent peg HVS. When I got to about two meters below the top I had to do a big rock over to get to the next hold.

Next I wanted to have a go at Slings E1 5b**. I managed to get about two moves from the top

before having to come off as I could see no way of getting the last couple of moves. :(

Duntelchaig

Yesterday evening I went to 70ft wall, Duntelchaig to do some trad climbing with my new gear that I kindly received from Climbing Technology. The weather was really nice and warm. We only managed to do 2 routes as we were running out of daylight!!. I warmed up on Swastika, Severe, then I went onto Razor Flake HVS 5A, I felt really comfortable on it and most of the gear was bommer!!

Creag Bhaeg

On Thursday I went to Creag Bheag sport climbing with some friends. The weather was really good, nice and warm, I warmed up with a traverse along the whole of the crag which took about 5 min!!

I managed to do 5 different routes: (dont know the names as we had no topo)

One 5+

Two 6a+

Two 6b+

On the crux of the 6b+

I had a really good day and want to go back soon.

Brin Bouldering

Today I went to Brin, Bouldering with some friends. We spent most of the day there and we managed to do lots of climbing.



Some pics of us climbing.

Ellen



Me attempting Spank The Ramp V4
Ellen on Lichen It V0
Me on Flakes V2

Ended the day working Lip Trip V4 on The Block, managed to get halfway along.

We had a really good day out and cant weight till next time !!