After the promise of Grindelwald, the World Cup round in Innsbruck, Austria was the biggest climbing spectacle I have ever witnessed. Shauna won her second gold and the atmosphere, crowd and climbing was amazing. This was in strict contrast to my climbing performance. I climbed like a new born foal trying to work out how to stand up on shaky legs that had never been asked to be stood on before and achieved my worst result to date.
I had to leave all this behind me and move forward, as ever, to the next competition in Toronto (Hamilton), Canada. I felt good despite the heat. I really like the venue for this competition as the form of the wall is quite suited to the creation of interesting problems . Also, it is quite intimate with the crowd, making for a good atmosphere.
I battled and did a lot of climbing, possibly a little too much, and came tantalisingly close to two tops among other things. However, I did not hold either top hold and came away with almost nothing to show for all my climbing. I finished the qualification by almost holding a final hold and crashing down into the chalky mat in a heap. I took my shoes off, packed up my kit and congratulated Sol Sa who had climbed just after me, as I knew she had climbed ever so well (5 tops). As I walked away from the scene I felt my eyes well up, the emotion of the competition surfacing. Shauna and Nathan collected me from the back of the tiered seating. A few words, good team support, and the moment passed. It was time to find out how we had all got on, watch some of the remaining competitors, prepare for the following day when Shauna would climb again. Onwards and upwards.
We had a little bit of time around the competitions to have a look around. We returned to Niagara Falls in Canada so that Nathan Phillips could experience the wonder, and Nathan Phillips Square for obvious reasons. Shortly after the Toronto competition we flew to Colorado and spent a few days in Boulder whilst gaining some adjustment to the altitude. We visited Mount Evans on the way to Vail (the next competition venue) and I felt on top of the world.
In the beautiful setting of Vail, we entered the next round of the World Cup. I battled hard, but couldn’t run sideways in enough balance, forgot to jump a couple of times, then finally got to grips with the fourth qualification problem. Phew. I came away to praise for my efforts on this problem, but overall, not too happy with my performance. I felt like I hadn’t trained enough and wasn’t powerful enough to be competitive. There were a lot of impressively strong, talented, powerful girls competing. Small mistakes count for a lot at this level of competition. I need to get it right and have more conviction. I came 33rd in Toronto and 31st in Vail.
Thanks to EddieFowkePhotography for the climbing World Cup photos: If you haven’t already purchased your copy of The Circuit issue 1 get it now from http://www.thecircuitclimbing.com/Buy (worldwide excluding North America) or http://store.madrockclimbing.com/thecircuit.aspx (North America)
We had a day to play before leaving the mountains and went to Independence Pass. We managed to do a little bit of climbing on rock between hail/snow/rain storms. I’d love to explore this area more at some point and climb in the stunning looking ice caves.
The drive back to Denver ready for the long haul home was epic. I battled with poor visibility as we experienced snow on the mountain passes, followed by heavy rain and spray on the lower ground (and a really worrying moment when we lost power and thought we’d broken down until Shauna noticed that the automatic had been knocked into neutral, phew).
One weekend off back in the UK, during which I climbed with the Hillingdon Mountaineering Club on a fun bouldering weekend in the Peak, then it was competition time again.
The British Bouldering Championships was missing the defending champion, but there was still plenty of good competition to be had. I thoroughly enjoyed the problems and pulled hard to gain 4th over three rounds, just short of the podium. I made some mistakes in the final, with a slip near the top of one problem, some rushing, and getting too tired during the final problem to finish it off (tickling the last hold). So close, and lucky that my mistakes, this time, did not cost me so dearly having already made the top 6. Congratulations to the new champion Michaela Tracy and 3rd time champion Dave Barrans.
I wore a new style of shoe for the British Bouldering Championships: the Boreal Dharma. I was so impressed with how good these shoes were after wearing them climbing twice, that I was really keen to use them in during the competition. Thank you Boreal.
Many thanks to Carol Hayes for the Photos from the final of the British Championships 2014.
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