Noooooo

A bit of a sore throat... a lot of a sore throat. Tonsils so swollen that the dangly bit in the middle was being pushed sideways by one of them, and I felt awful. Really really bad timing as I had two days of work left to get everything in order before travelling to my next World Cup comps. Then a whole month dedicated to climbing.

The reality was antibiotics for 10 days and feeling dozy most the time.

It was too late to cancel anything and I stood little chance of getting any refunds, so I rested as much as I could then went for it. After all, you recover quickly on antibiotics don't you?

So the comps - disappointingly I finished in the 30's in both Vienna and Vail.

Vienna: I was reportedly looking strong. I felt strong but tired quickly, not helped by the heat.

1. Flash;
2. Awkward hand swap towards the top of the bloc repeatedly;
3. Wave at the top hold, but too pumped to get it;
4. Wave at the top hold, but too pumped to get it after a few attempts battling with the penultimate hold;
5. Completely pooped.

Vail: I enjoyed it, but failed to get any tops in the comp despite pulling quite a few moves I was really pleased with. I made too many little mistakes, but learnt lots.

• Beautiful;
• Bouldered in Boulder (albeit on plastic at The Spot);
• Competed, campussed, cried;
• Bouldered on REAL ROCK at Der Klettergarden, Redcliff;
• Humming birds, hummers, hot-tubs, 'hugeness', h-awesomeness and high altitude;
• ... and just contacted about cloned credit card, grrr.

Vienna WC

I had a good World Cup in Wien and felt strong after my finger strength intensive.

I was the penultimate climber out which gave me plenty of time to warm up. I started well with a flash. The second bloc with chunky holds gained via heel hooks was not so successful. I messed up placing my hand incorrectly on the bonus and hung around for ages trying to correct. By the time I did I was wasted. I should have let go and repeated as the move was actually ok. I didn't have enough left to finish the problem but I believe I could have topped it if I hadn't hung around. The end moves looked totally do-able. Grr


I recovered well in the rest period to be faced with a really awkward double handed dyno from bad holds on the 3rd bloc. I caught it on my 7th go and topped with seconds to spare. Super - chuffed and somewhat surprised I moved on. Jon caught my leap on camera.


Only 2 others topped this bloc.

I went on to top the last two blocs to get 4 tops in 14 and all 5 bonuses. Angelica was congratulating me on making the finals, then the results were finalised... I was the only one with 4 tops not to qualify and only one other had all 5 bonuses. Unfortunately I had too many attempts placing me 11th in my group, 21st overall. I needed bloc 2 then I would have been 2nd in my group!! What a difference a couple of holds make.

Dave and Stewart crushed coming 6th and 8th. Dave 'won' the semi. Nice one.


I had a look around Vienna with Jee. I wanted to go on one of the Segways. Instead we went on foot, but saw most things. It's quite a compact place with lots of nice buildings, horse drawn carriages, tons of statues and several large gold balls.