Arco

No one from team GB made it in to the final in Fiera and the weather was awful. Our transport options decided that they wanted to go to Arco... so off we went. Katy and Ryan lent us their kit tent, spare sleeping bags and a bouldering mat to sleep on.

Poor Ben was lent a kit tent but didn't have a sleeping bag or mat. Dave, Gaz and Tony had sleeping bags and mats but no tent. They slept under a tarp that Audrey lent them! A motley camping crew.

Arco is stunning with good views across to lake Garda and fantastic steep limestone.

With a borrowed harness I enjoyed seconding a 30m 7a+ after checking out the area (including the local bear - Audrey's dog). I am seriously un-route fit. The moves were easy enough I just didn't have the stamina/power endurance.

I'd like to go back after reminding myself what this leading lark is all about :-)

World Cup Fiera

Doing a comp after a late night is not a good idea. I figured this in advance, however had booked flights based on the dates originally on the IFSC website that turned out to be wrong.

I got to bed just before 2am and had to be in isolation at 8am. I felt ok. Very glad that I had taken my own breakfast as the hotel one was naff - with sugared croissants, bread and some interesting looking meat on offer. Warming up seemed to go well although small holds felt really small.

We were amused by our gifts in isolation - a rope bag each. Although it will be useful to use just as a bag with a built in groundsheet... I probably should have used it to ward off the weather. It was pouring with rain.

On the first bloc I could see exactly waht to do. For some reason I just wasn't doing it. It wasn't because it was too hard. When I eventually made myself hold onto the part of the hold I intended to the problem felt fairly easy. Unfortunately my foot slipped just as I was reaching ovedr for the bonus. I fell off and had faffed so much that I was out of time.

Thankfully dry sqeaked boots on the second bloc were not required. A dyno to the bonus, followed by a mantle. I leapt for the bonus, then found myself facing the crowd briefly before I realised that I had caught the dyno first time. I quickly got over my surprise and after a couple of experimental movements made the mantle for the top. Hurrah I flashed it.

The next two blocs felt quite hard and both had a similar move in them that my shoulder wasn't up for. I also felt like I was lacking finger power. I gained a bonus.

I thought I had a chance on the last bloc but couldn't quite make a crossover move. Once again I needed to try using a toe instead of a heel. I finished 31st missing out on points by one place and thinking I had a chance until the last person climbed.

At the end of qualification the results board showed a different story though. It stopped updating after Katy was 9th and I was 8th!

After the quali I crashed. All I felt like doing was curling up in a corner and sleeping. I had been running on adrenalin and was actually knackered.

World Cup Vail

We arrived back in London on Sunday and flew out to Denver Monday. Gaz and Dave amused themselves for almost the entire 9hr flight with the in flight magazine which had some inspired 'everything you didn't know you needed' gadgets in including a tail gate hanging seat set for your truck. I made my way through several films. Pete my partner and team GB fan for the trip had started feeling a bit worse for wear and covered himself from head to foot in a United Airlines blanket (no mean feat for a 6'3" bloke) and mostly did an impression of a grey chequered ghost wearing a seat strap.


The condo at Antlers in Lionhead was lovely. Bigger than expected. Gaz decided that everything in the kitchen was modelled around needing to fit in a large Christmas turkey. The fridge was big enough to fit in... anything and anyone including Dave. The bedroom had a flat screen tv that Pete watched from his sick bed (he had flu and was in bed for several days).


Vail was either hot or cold with no in between depending on whether the sun was shining or not. I got more colour than intended watching my fellow competitors in the qualifiers, but froze watching the final. We had sun, rain and snow. Denver had a couple of tornadoes. We were concerned that the comp wouldn't happen at one point when the open air wall was wet through. The juniors climbing the day before us climbed under make shift tarps and the crowd couldn't see the climbing.

On Thursday evening we had an opening ceremony where we paraded with our respective country flags. The commentator ticked all the boxes eventually finishing with 'dude' just at the end when we had given up hope long after 'sweet', 'sick' etc. Everyone was totally stoked to be there!


The day of the qualifiers was luckily a dry day. The qualifiers were nails. Only one of the women's blocs was topped, but not by many. I feel that I climbed well and pulled off some really good moves, but not enough to get many bonus holds. I gained one bonus and came close to two others.

Along with 3 of my fellow competitors, I was attacked by a banner with a lump of wood attached to it whilst I was attempting the last bloc. Despite gaining a rest and half a minute extra of climbing time due to this technical incident I got no further. I was greatly inhibited on one bloc due to my shoulder, but on the whole it behaved itself and didn't break. Phew.

I came 29th - hooray points despite being joint last with 8 others! I am pleased that I could climb at all so to get in the top 30 was great.

The men's qualifier was also nails and most the lads faired no better than me with one exception. Tyler in his first World Cup qualified and made it through the semis to the final where he came a very respectable 6th. Check out the BMC article here. Nice one Tyler.

The altitude (2500m) was noticeable but it didn't feel like it affected my climbing performance particularly. Arriving a few days before the comp and doing some training probably helped. The dutch team said that they felt it a bit - however they are used to being at or below sea level!

The Vail World Cup was part of the Teva Mountain Games. Other sports included speed bouldering, freestyle kayaking, mountain biking, trail running, mudrunning, dock dogs to name but a few.

We saw some wildlife - sparrows, magpies, and humming birds! I couldn't make it up. Thankfully we didn't see any bears, but the convalescing Pete saw a chipmunk.

p.s. despite what others may suggest, we managed to eat quite healthily most the time. whilst surrounded by steak houses, burger joints etc. However, on our final morning we had eaten all our supplies of cereal etc and had to hunt out an alternative breakfast.... the diner was full so we had to settle for a pizza joint! I chose a pizza with pineapple and had a fresh orange juice with it (yes, I'm trying to make excuses). Others choices made were Caesar salad, steak sandwich and fries and soup with garlic bread!! Yum, yum breakfast.

World Cup Grindelwald

... oh dear....

I left the Scott Wilson office in Chesterfield to catch the train to London and all of the displays were out due to the rain. Thankfully the trains were running on time and I had a pleasant trip to London.... The following morning we checked into City Airport and went through to departures. We bought water and breakfast and were then told that our flight had been cancelled.

Luckily we were tranferred to flights only an hour or so later going to Basel via Frankfurt. We arrived to a showery, but beautiful Grindelwald a few hours later than expected to a hotel with a balcony facing the North face of the Eiger and surrounding peaks.

The qualification blocs were good and well protected from the weather rolling over the peaks behind. Unfortunately I only topped the first bloc, during which my freed up but now weak shoulder moved out of joint. Try as I might I couldn't pull off the moves I thought I should be able to after this and frustratingly was just short of everything. I finished a disappointing 35th with a very sore shoulder.

Thankfully my shoulder has stopped hurting after a rest and I continue to do the strengthening physio exercises.

World Cup La Reunion

What a stunning location for a World Cup event - a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. We arrived early on the Tuesday morning giving us a few days to recover from the travelling prior to competing on the Friday.

I was pleased to be randomly selected to climb second in the qualifiers, before the heat of the day. I flashed two blocs and got 4 bonuses. I qualified 12th ahead of some of the Hall finalists.

During the warm up for the semi-final my shoulder seized up and I struggled to warm up properly. The heat got the better of me and frustratingly I wasn't able to pull properly. I flunked the semi, coming 19th, knowing I could and should have climbed much better. But hooray - my first semi-final and my first world ranking points.

I am now ranked 54th in the world and 27th in the IFSC 2008 World Cup.

All of the photos can be seen on the Reunion Island website here.

World Cup Hall

The flight into Innsbruck was amazing - along the valley with snow capped mountains.

I climbed quite well but missed a couple of tricks through inexperience. I flashed the 1st and last qualifier problems and tried the intermediate 3 lots of times so was pleased with my power indurance. I came 41st.

CWIF

I entered the Climbing Works International Festival yesterday. It took me a while to get going on the 30 qualifier problems, but after a wobbly start I managed to crank up 195 points putting me in 6th position for the semi-final (16 places).

Arghh, I slipped off the first bloc with a greasy hold. After a brush I got it ok, but was frustrated not to have flashed it. I missed the bonus on the second bloc by a whisker, then completely misread the 3rd. After wasting lots of energy I worked it out and got the bonus.

Hurrah, the 4th bloc was just my cup of tea and I felt like I had recovered well. On the first go I got to within a couple of moves of the top, but my fingers slipped as I went to move up. After a short rest I thought 'this time', but I had hit the wall and didn't have enough left to finish the job :-(

I finished 9th. Vera from the Dutch team won, with Michaela and Audrey 2nd and 3rd.