Ubuntu

In between the rain showers I went up to the camel to get back on my project Ubunto 8A. I managed to link the whole main crux section today, and was feeling pretty strong on it, but some of the lower holds were still damp and slippy so could not link the whole route.

Project

Last night I headed up to the camel with Guy Robertson. I have always wanted to attempt a 8a outdoors, and last night Guy was on one of the 8A's at the camel. I went on it afterwards and guy was giving me some of the beta. I managed to do every individual move but could not link it all together, so my project for the summer is to link the whole route together.

Guy on the 8A

Me attempting the 8A

The Camel

As I have a new rope, Gri-Gri 2 and shoes I thought it would be a good idea to head out sport climbing, plus the weather was great.

New Shoes

Recently I was given a pair of La Sportiva boots from Martin Bergerud from Lyon Equipment, and received my boots a few days ago. I choose to get a pair of La sportiva Solutions, which I really like, they have got to be my favorite pair of shoes I have owned.

Scottish Champs

This year the Scottish championships was at Ratho again. The day was awesome with some fantastic routes, thanks to all the route setters.

In the qualifying round I was joint first with Dylan Mackenzie, so in the final I really needed to climb well to beat him.

There was four of us in the final and the final route was really crimpy and my kind of style. I was 3rd out of isolation to climb, and i looked up to see the last swinging clip to get an idea of where the last climber got to. Once I climbed past the swinging clip I was happy, but fell off one clip above that. Then Dylan was last out to climb and he slipped off a few holds below me.

I was happy with my win!

Home Boulder Wall

Last night Pete and Rhys Langlands came up to my garage to do some climbing on my 45 board as its better than our local wall!!!!
Rhys on a mediam circuit.

It was a good nights boulder session, hands are wrecked today! But my back is still sore from the weekend.

EYS Edinburgh 2011

Saturday was the first round of the European Youth Series, it was held in Edinburgh. On Friday night I was told I was climbing 28Th. I was happy about that because it gave me plenty time to get warmed up and could watch some of the good competitors in youth A. As I was warming up I pulled a muscle in my back which did not affect my climbing but was sore.

The first climb was on the old competition wall (the white one), and i managed to get 23rd position as it was a hard move onto the second volume. The second climb was up the center of the new completion wall (the big orange one). It was a supper pumpy route and i got flash pump then fell off, but manged to get 24th position.

I got 24th position in Youth A Lead this year, I am kinda happy but i could have done better. for my next competition i am going to work on my endurance so i don't get flash pumped again.

Aztec Tower

Last Monday I took a day trip up to Aztec tower in Gairloch, as the weather was amazing. I done a few of the easy routes and the E1 Coquistador which I really enjoyed.

Moy Rock

Today the weather was scorching hot, so I was keen for some climbing. I decided to head to my local crag Moy rock just out side Inverness.


I had a fantastic day climbing in the sun, it felt like being abroad.

Goat Crag

The other day I was up in Gairloch climbing, and I went to Goat Crag. I have been to this crag before a few years ago. My plan for going up there was to get something reasonably hard. I done a warm up 6c then was not to sure what I should get on. Richie Betts surgested that I should go on Mactalla 7A+ *** which I managed to flash, but got supper pumped at the top!

British Team Training Weekend.

This weekend I was down in Leeds, for the EYS tryouts. We were climbing at the Leeds climbing wall which is spectacular. These tryouts were important because it gave the British team's, management team an idea of who should be climbing at the Europeans this year.

On Sunday we went to the Depot boulder wall and had a training session. This was the first time I had been to the Depot wall and it was massive, my favorite part of the boulder wall was the overhanging roof. After about an hour of warming up/hard problems we had to do two hard training sessions.

• One of the sessions was on the campus board and we had to do 1-3-5 with feet on the screw-ons for three minutes, then 6 minutes rest. We had to do five sets of that (That was a awesome and solid session!)


• The second session was with Tom Randall and we were giving a hard boulder circuit, and we had to figure out 15 moves from the start of the problem then complete that 15 moves five times with 15 seconds rest in between. This training session was to help complete a hard boulder circuit, where you had to break the problem down into smaller sections to help complete the circuit.

After lunch we were told who was going to compete in three of the Europeans and the worlds this year. I was chosen to climb in the first European in Edinburgh. :) After that we got given our new team kit which is well smart and awesome! Thanks to Mountain Hardwear and The Epiecentre The British Team have a new website here is the link. The website keeps you up to date with what the Team are up to.

Climbing Strong

This last few weeks I have been really impresing myself as I have been crushing 7c's and getting an 8a at Ratho along with getting an 8a+ the other day at my local wall.
Last weekend was the YCS competition which I was demoing at and Neil Mcgeachy and Mark McGowan came up from Edunburgh to set for the competition, as well as setting a few harder ones for me to try. They set three 7a/+, two 7c/8a's and one 8a+, Mark set the 8a+ expecting me to take a few sessions working it while infact I managed to complete it in 4 ground up attemps! So I just hope in two weekends I am performing good on the day so I am picked to climb in the first EYS in Edinburgh.

8A, Done!

(Photo by Will Carroll)

Another weekend in Ratho. I went down to Ratho for a fun boulder competition, and finished 3rd. It was a awesome fun enjoyable boulder competition, all of the problems were awesome and I really appreciated them all.

After I finished the competition I wanted to go and try an 8a on the hanger wall I was on before, I was phyched for the route. I got on it and topped it out. I was pleased as this was my first 8a I had completed.

British Team Training

Friday I travelled down to Sheffield, England for the first British Team event of the year.

Saturday we were at the Climbing Works, a bouldering venue in Sheffield. The bouldering wall was massive and awesome with loads of circuits and boulder problems. The first thing we had to do was complete 40 problem circuit, then we could get lunch followed by doing an easy circuit as fast as we could then a fitness assessment. In the assessment we had to do several different exercises:

• Tap downs, for two minutes
• Sit-ups, as many as we could complete in one minute.
• Lock-offs, For 15 seconds on each arm.
• Pulups, 20 continuous.
  Type writers, 15
• Dead hang on the campus board, for one minute.
• Dead hang on 45 sloapers, for one minute.

Day Two

Sunday we went to the Foundry climbing centre which is also in Sheffield. Sunday morning started with a 30 minute jog around the Foundry climbing wall. The run killed me as I don't have much aerobic endurance which I need to work on. After the jog we were straight into training. Ian Dunn and Tom Randle set two training sessions which each lasted an hour.

The first training session I done was anaerobic capacity, which is when you find a 13-16 move boulder problem 80% of your maximum and do it 10 times with 3 minutes rest in between each attempt, you should not manage to complete all 10 reps, you should be failing around the 8Th rep if the grade is right.

The second training session I done was a core session. We were giving 8 different core exercises to do each lasting 1 minute, we had to complete all 8 of the exercises three times. This core session lasted 30 minutes.

For the last 30 minute of the session we were giving 8 climbing pacific movements we had to complete on a overhanging board.

After a morning of climbing we headed over to Sheffield university to get a lecture on sports nutrition from Audrey Morrison and some stretching exercises with Ian Dunn.

This weekend I have learnt a lot of different and new training methods which i can now use. My next event is next month in Leeds which is a semi competition and it decided who will be competing in the European competitions this year.

Awesome training day!

After a few months of training at my local wall and my 45 board, I have been feeling that my training has not really been improving my performance, but when I was at Ratho today I was proven wrong. I was at Ratho with the HYCC and I was doing on site climbing, I attempted 4 routes at my limit:

• 8A - Managed to climb past the 7c+ lower off and fell at the last section.
• 7c - Flashed
• 8A+ - Fail! It was on the long lead wall, and at the moves were really technical. The route was not my style.

After feeling so strong when I was climbing today I am now proper phyched for training. Woow bring on the comps!

EICA Ratho

Today I travelled down to Edinburgh to climb at the fantastic EICA Ratho. As its still winter Ratho was soo much colder than my local heated wall, and I found it harder to get warmed up and stay warm. The main overhanging wall at Ratho has been re-set and there is some fantastic new routes up.

My trip to Ratho today has showing me that I really do need to train on my stamina, soo all that 4x4s I hate doing, I must keep it up!

Home Boulder Wall

The boulder wall in my garage has been changed several times, from three flat panels, to one flat panel, 20 degrees over hanging wall, 45 board and a small 90 degrees panel on the roof. Its awesome to train on. Last summer I spent more time in my garage than I did at my local wall, I could put my music up loud and set as hard as I wanted to.

Today I spent the afternoon resetting circuits, so I can get back to hard training. When I am training on my 45 board I usually train for up to two hours, usually doing hard circuits!

Right now I am training for the British team assessment which is in March, it might decide who goes to the European competitions this year, its hard for me this year because I have all of my Major exams, but I will still try my hardest to keep up my training. Where I live there is only one climbing wall and the next is 150 miles away down in Edinburgh, and in my local wall the hardest route is 7c. It really sucks but I just have to train more on my 45 board and travel down to Edinburgh more often.

Coire An T-Sneachda, Cairngorm

Yesterday I went to Corie An T-Sneachda Cairngorm, for my first multi pitch winter route. I was taken up the start of Hastons line then finished up Hidden Chimney. This being my first multi pitch winter route I was excited and when I was climbing adrenaline was running through my body. The weather was stunning there was blue Sky's and was not too windy but occasionally I got spin drifts blowing in my face, the ice and snow was nice and compacted and the route was in great condition. The climb was easy but some parts it got quite technical, but I really did enjoy myself I am so phyched to get out more and do more easy climbs to get my self used to winter climbing.

Me half way up Hidden Chimney

At the top!

New Year!

Now its the new year and I got back on the British Junior Climbing Team, I need to start seriously training again. Hopefully I will get picked to climb at some of the European Youth Comps again this year. If I do get picked my first event would be in Edinburgh on the 21/22 May, and the IFSC Youth World Cup in IMST Austria is from the 25th-28th of September.


Apart from all my competition climbing I hope I will manage to get out Ice Climbing before the session is over, and throughout the year I want to do lots more outdoor climbing and maybe a sports climbing trip abroad!