BRYCS Round 1, The Ice Factor, Kinlochleven

Today we travelled to Kinlochleven for round one of the BRYCS 2008, I finished in second place, Dylan beating me by ONE point.

Steve McClure

Today was the last in the training sessions set up by Scott at Extreme Dream it was with Steve McClure and it was really good, I was in the afternoon session along with Nikki, the two Ellens, Rhuairdh,Tom & Alastair.



Steve with the afternoon training session

He gave us some really good tips. Steve also tried the project that I am working on just now with Scott and graded it 7c+/8a which I am really pleased as I am only two moves away from the last clip.

Steve on Scott & my project



Just to end a fantastic day Steve asked as he was staying on for a couple of hours to boulder if we wanted to join him which myself & Nikki did, getting 2 hours bouldering with one of the best climber around....... Me posing with Steve !!

Sass Fee,The North Face Ice Climbing World Cup

Today myself, dad, Scott Muir & Andy Turner left Aviemore at 06.00 to drive to Edinburgh airport to fly to Geneva then on to Sass Fee to compete in The North Face Ice Climbing World Cup. It is held in a car park with 10 floors.

I was drawn to climb in 49th position which I was happy with ( not having to climb first !!)


The routes were really hard, the first few moves involved granite holds which were very scetchy before pulling onto a large ice block which swiveled!!. The whole competition was being filmed for The Adventure Show which is to be shown on BBC2 Scotland in March.

I finished in joint 75 position in the mens difficulty competition.


I was persuaded by one of the camera men to take part in the speed climbing competition which I did and really enjoyed, the fastest time was set by a Russian in 14.28 seconds, I took a little longer !! but made it to the top of a 60 foot verticle ice wall and finished in 23rd position overall which I am well pleased with.








We had a morning to spare so me and my dad took off up the nearest cable car then walked high up the nearest peak, we never had time to go to any summits but the views were brilliant.

Huntly's Cave

Today we went to Huntly's Cave, it was really cold but we done some great routes.

Me on Slot direct (severe **) Ellen on Slot Direct
Nikki on Slot Direct

We also climbed Right Hand Grove (V Diff *) and Cave Route (Hard Severe ***)

Gaz Parry

Today we had the 5th of the training sessions this time with Gaz Parry

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.