Youth Climbing Series Final - Preperation Event

Have you qualified for this years YCS final? Or did you miss out and would like to gain valuable experience before next years series? If the answer is yes to either of them, get booked on to the MCofS/EICA/Quickdraw YCS Preperation Event. This day long coaching event will consist of lectures and workshops from Scottish & British Team coaches looking at how we get the most from our climbing in YCS finals. There will also be various British Team kids on hand to offer tips and encouragement throughout the day. There will also be a fun 'Mock' YCS comp on the day, with comp style routes and boulders set to test your skills against. Thus, giving you all valuable experience of competing before the big day arrives. If you want to perform well in the YCS, make sure you dont miss this event!

Date: 14.06.09
Time: 10am - 4pm
Cost: ITS COMPLETELY FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! (thanks to the MCofS, Quickdraw Club and EICA for funding it!)

Booking: Advanced booking only on 0131 333 6333. Or at desk in Ratho. (Limited to 30 slots, first come first served basis!)

Extreme Real Rock Trip

On the 16th and 17th May EICA: Ratho coaches Neil McGeachy and Neill Busby ran a trip to the sport climbing Mecca of Malham Cove for Scotland South British/Scottish Junior Team members. For all of the kids, this was their first trip to a crag notorious for fiercely technical routes that are almost always hard for the grade!


Over the two days the young climbers tested footwork and route reading skills on a selection of routes and after a bit of time adjusting to the new challenges of climbing outdoors, they soon started ticking of some of the classics the crag has to offer.

Rachel Carr made a highly impressive sport climbing debut , managing to on-sight 'Begozzi and the Ledge Lizzards' 6A+ as well as top roping a selection of 6C's and 7A's. Callum Forsyth also made an impressive start to his sport climbing career, by top roping a selection of classic routes from 7A - 7B. Eleanor Hopkins was on fire as always making swift work of red-pointing 'Frankenstein' 7A+/B, as well as top roping a selection of other 7A & 7A+'s. Jonny Field carried on from a successful debut season to outdoor sport climbing last year, with numerous on sights of 7A+'s & 7B's including 'Yosemite Wall', '7th Aardvark' and 'Something Stupid'.

As a climber and coach, I was truly blown away by how easily the young climbers transferred their indoor climbing skills to real rock with such ease. Especially at a Crag as technical as Malham Cove!

European Youth Climbing Series - Selection Day

European Youth Series (EYS) - Selection Day

The 19th & 20th of September will see EICA: Ratho hold their first ever round of the European Youth Climbing Series. This event will bring together the top junior climbers from all over Europe to test their skills on EICA's world class new Competition Wall - 'The Hanger Wall'.

As host nation for the event, the British Junior Climbing Team are allowed to enter 6 competitors in each of the six categories. Normally there are nowhere near this number of junior climbers on the British Climbing Team, therefore action was taken to hold a selection event to highlight the best 36 young climbers in the country. The EYS Selection day was held at EICA: Ratho on Saturday the 9th of May and saw over 70 of the country's most promising competition climbers descend on Edinburgh with the dream of gaining a chance to represent their country on the international stage.

The event consisted of 2 qualifying routes for each category, with the top 10 placed climbers progressing to the final. A selection of British Team coaches were also on hand to study the form and skills of the climbers on the day, to ensure all possible information was collected with regards to finding the best young climbers for the job. As usual, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland - Scottish Climbing Team rose to the occasion and showed some tremendous displays of strength and determination that lead to some very impressive results for the Scottish climbers.

Once again Scotland has shown at a national event that their youth climbers at right at the forefront of competition climbing. Congratulations to all who took part and good luck in the forthcoming British Championships and in September at the Edinburgh EYS! Also a big thank you has to be made to Edinburgh Leisure who once again assisted with route setting and made the EICA: Ratho climbing arena available for the event free of charge. Their continued support along with that of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland is currently helping Scottish youth climbing progress to exciting new levels within the sport.

Results for Scottish Kids:
Youth C (Year of birth - 1996/1997) This category are too young for EYS and were there to gain valuable experience!
Female
1st Eleanor Hopkins
2nd Nikki Addison
3rd Rachel Carr

Male
3rd Dylan MacKenzie

Youth B (Year of birth - 1994/1995)
Female
4th Jaime Davidson*
11th Ellen Barber
14th Christie Macloed

Male
4th Alisdair Johnstone
6th Stephen Addison

Youth A (Year of birth - 1992/1993)
Female
4th Ellen Macaskill*
5th Jessica McCaskey*
6th Jasmine Ryan
11th Abbey Niven

Male
1st Jonathan Stocking*
2nd Ross Kirkland*
4th Paul Williamson
6th Jonathan Field
11th Callum Forsyth
12th Liam Watson

Juniors (Year of Birth - 1990/1991)
Male
1st Robbie Philips*
3rd Connor Robertson
4th Jaimie Barron

* Climbers who have gained a place on the British Team for September's EYS. The other climbers will be assessed again on their performance in July's British Climbing Championships.