SCOTTISH YOUTH CLIMBING

2011 YCS Round 1 Scotland North

2011-03-09T13:04:00.001-08:00

At the Inverness climbing wall in the North Region, 21 girls and 21 boys competed, with routes set by MCofS coaches Neil McGeachy and Mark McGowan. British Team members Steven Addison, Nikki Addison and Dylan Mackenzie, along with Ellen MacAskill attended as volunteers to help out on the day along with MCofS Coach (and stand-in AYC for 2011) Ruairidh Mackenzie and Anna Wells and a host of other parent volunteers making it a great day. The Highlander Youth Climbing Club had a stand at the event selling various goodies to raise funds. It was good to see some new climbers in the 8-10 age category but it was Keri MacLennan again who won the girls competition. The boys 8-10 was a harder fought competition and the top 4 had to be separated by a superfinal to determine the first place witch went to Thomas Ryan. In the 11-13 category, Emily Eadie showed she has come on a lot in a year to take first for the girls, whilst Stephen Dent took first for the boys against Rory Cargill who has moved up from the 8-10 category this year, but still managed second place. Reuben Green and Henry Kerr had to be separated by count-back to determine third place (to Reuben). In the girls 14-16 cetagory, Amy Anderson was joined by Sophie Harper and Sofie Hvide who moved up from the younger age catagory this year. Sophie took the win. In the boys, Ruairidh MacAskill, who moved up a category this year, did well against some seasoned climbers and took second place after count-back frm Scott Donaldson, but Malcolm Bradley took a clear win. Well done to everyone who took part, and a big thanks has to go to Inverness leisure and their staff for hosting the event this year and to all the volunteers for making it possible.

The new routes set for the competition will remain available for a while - why not go along and try them - see how well you can do?

2011 YCS Round 1 Scotland South

2011-03-09T13:02:00.001-08:00

Scotland South YCS Round 1- The Peak Stirling

We had 45 climbers turn out at The Peak Wall in Stirling on Saturday 5th March with many new faces particularly in the 8-10 boys group. The route setters had been hard at work the previous day and had set some interesting routes that even tested our demonstrators - GB team members Angus Davidson and Rachel Carr. In most groups it was down to the wire before we could write the winners' certificates.

Top marks of the day go to Rory Whyte for a perfect 480 in the Boys 8-10. Newcomers Matthew Fall and Declan Currie took second and third place in that category. In the Girls 8-10 Rhiannon Freireich just missed out on a similar score due to a ‘feet on features only’ route which caught out a number of the competitors. She was joined on the podium by Holly Davis and Emma Davidson, second and third respectively.

The 11-13 categories were the busiest and hard fought to the end with only 10 points separating the top three spots in both boys and girls.

In the Girls Gabriella Stewart triumphed with an excellent final route climb marginally beating Eilidh Vass Payne into second place by 2 points. Elle Hogarth's first time success on the final boulder problem put her in third place on count back over Claudia Charlwood in fourth.

In the Boys 11-13 William Bosi held his cool to take first place just ahead of Robert Davidson and Sam Harland-Sendra both in their first year of this category.

The 14 - 16 Boys and Girls all climbed as a group and had to contend with some very tricky routes and ‘features only’ boulder problems. Down two points going into the final route Rebekah Drummond put in a spirited climb to gain an extra hold and take first place over Abigail Blunt in second and Christie MacLeod in third. Euan King fought hard for his extra hold that gave him first place ahead of Jamie Drummond second and Alexander Bosi in third. With only 3 points separating these three future rounds are going to be exciting.

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make it a smooth operation and an enjoyable event for everyone involved. Bring on Round 2.

2011 GB Team Inaugural Meet, Sheffield

2011-02-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

The GB Team 2011 Inaugural Meet at Sheffield on 12/13 February brought together 19 of the team selected following the Open Youth Competition in Liverpool in November.

With an uncharacteristically respectable start time of 10am we were able to have a leisurely breakfast before pitching up at Climbing Works for a day of bouldering. With only one new member added to the team following Liverpool, it was a bit of a family reunion and the climbers settled into their groups really quickly. Youth B and C worked alongside one another, as did Juniors and Youth A. While they started off around the various CW circuits, the parents had a quick meeting and got a peak at the new Mountain Hardware shell top the team will be issued in March. We then settled down on the comfy leather chairs to drink coffee and talk climbing. After lunch came the fitness tests – pat downs, push ups, sit ups, lock-offs, typewriters, pull ups, etc. Some excelled, others went away realising they needed to do a bit more work away from the wall. The results were all logged and improvements will be expected at future team training days.

Some of us were able to get together to share a meal in the evening. Despite the best attempts of the Sheffield one way system to keep us away a superb time was had by all and the food and staff at Wagamama were excellent. Wonder if they’d like to sponsor the team?

The Sunday morning schedule started with a 9.30 run. Only Ian Dunn could be described as enthusiastic as the climbers gathered in the rain outside The Foundry comparing aching muscles from the day before. Thirty minutes later some very red-faced and slightly soggy runners returned. With a short pause to catch breath and gather up kit it was then into the Foundry for more training on the boulders, 45o board and some routes. After a quick lunch, which tested the Foundry’s toastie machine to its limit, it was back into the cars to try and find the location for the Nutrition talk Sheffield Hallam University. Despite careful programming of Satellite Navigation systems, fate once again stepped in and put a road repair crew right outside the entrance for which we were looking. Several hurried phone calls ensued, that resulted in John Ellison standing on a street corner waving us down and sending us through the gap with the ‘no entry’ signs. Like a perfect tag team he then handed over to Ian to lead us through the corridors to the meeting rooms.

Youth B & C, with parents in tow, then sat through an interesting talk from Audry Morrison primarily on the need to hydrate and the best sources. The climbers were pleased when she didn’t ban chocolate, merely said that eating directly before a climb would have no beneficial result – a sports drink was a better option but only if supplemented by eating a healthy diet and getting lots of sleep. Her promotion of milk as an ideal nutrition and hydration source is sure to raise the prevalence of smoothies at climbing walls in the future. Unfortunately time meant that the workshop had to be cut short, but after giving out her email address and offering to analyse climbers’ food diaries there will no doubt be further opportunities to investigate this area of performance support in the future.

To round up the day Ian then took Youth B and C through a range of simple exercises they could do at home with a yoga mat and light weights before it was back into the cars for the long journeys home. All-in-all a very worthwhile weekend. Thanks to everyone involved in pulling it together.

2011 BBC's

2011-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

British Bouldering Championships 2011

The BBCs 2010 took place in the middle of a leafy Sheffield park during a sunny day June 2010. The boulder wall was shaded by a circus tent and the spectators sat on their picnic rugs and cooked on barbeques. Six months later the BBCs 2011 were being hosted by the Outdoor Show at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands on a cold and wet January weekend. The Bouldering wall was dwarfed by the huge exhibition space.

The Juniors had been scheduled for the Sunday but we were lucking to arrive in time to see the Senior finals on the Saturday evening turning up to hear that Natalie Berry had made it through. Unfortunately our representatives in the senior male event hadn’t been able to garner the 94 points required to qualify for that final. Calum Forsyth, still not 100% with continuing growth plate problems, achieved a credible 20 points for 46th place, while Robbie Phillips with 60 points was 18th out of a pool of 55. Given that many of the competitors train only on boulders these two predominantly lead climbers could be proud of their achievements.

Natalie, again know for her leading over her bouldering, climbed well among a posse of GB Boulder team members, topping her final problem to secure herself 4th place, but the star of the evening was Shauna Coxsey who made all of the problems with ease demonstrating why she chose to move over from the GB Junior Climbing team to the GB Senior Bouldering team last year.

Sunday dawned wet and foggy. Boys were first and the 40 competitors swarmed the stage to complete the 10 problems in the 2 hours allotted. Tactics varied with some sending the four easiest problems in their first 10 minutes. Other walked around sussing each problem and deciding in which order they should be attempted. Leave a hard problem to the end and you may be too tired. Use up your energy on 3 hard attempts without success and you may not top an easier problem first go and loose points. Friends went round and discussed moves, watched successful tops in the hope that they could replicate the moves and studied falls in the hope of avoiding the same dangers. For spectators there was the occasional hiatus as competitors gathered their remaining strength before the next problem, but it soon became clear which were the tricky problems and cheers would go up when the first top was made. It was impossible to tell who had made the finals until the top 8 were announced. Unfortunately Edinburgher Fraser McIlwraith (14) who had topped 8 with one problem left fell heavily off his first attempt fracturing and dislocating his arm and ending his first championship endeavour. Despite this he finished 9th. Fellow Scot Angus Davidson (12) finished with 70pts (16th) and Jamie Drummond (15) scored 64 pts (25th). As the first foray for each of them they all vowed to return next year.

Rachel Carr (14) was the only Scottish girl to take part and having achieved 12th place last year had her sights set on the final. With Seniors Natalie Berry and Robbie Phillips providing advice and support she topped 6 problems with relative ease before coming a cropper on a nigh impossible pink dyno that only one competitor (Ellie Rymer) topped. Further problems on volume holds saw her finish with 60 points and an agonising wait for the announcement of the finalists. Unlike the closely grouped boys where finals qualification scores ranged from 84 to 90 the girl finalists qualified with a points range 48 to 81.

Whereas the Senior finalists had all come out at once and climbed one at a time, the Junior boys and girls were brought out in reverse order and climbed a problem then rested. With 5 minutes to attempt each problem things ticked over at speed and towards the top of the pack every problem was full. Topping first go meant you had the remaining minutes plus your 5 minute rest period to sit facing the spectators – a nerve wracking prospect which all the youngsters took in their stride. The girls’ first problem posed a problem to a few of the climbers but most topped first go. The second was a reach to a small hold that had even the top qualifiers struggling. From the audience viewpoint dynos are always exciting and the 3rd problem with its two handed grab then tricky balance flummoxed all until Rachel stuck it first go. The final problem saw the first 6 girls fail to reach the bonus hold then Molly Thompson Smith showed that it was possible but unfortunately couldn’t take it all the way to the end. Tara Hayes the first qualifier held her nerve through to the end with a polished final climb to take the title with 4 tops. Rachel with 3 tops finished second with Molly in third with two tops. As these three also form part of the Youth B GB climbing squad they will no doubt continue to share podiums throughout the year.

Liverpool Open Competition 2010

2010-11-29T12:38:00.000-08:00

BMC Youth Open Competition - Liverpool Awesome Walls, 27th November 2010

With 114 competitors turning out on a chilly Saturday morning this year’s winter YOC was marginally quieter than last year, but the competition was just as hotly contested. There were only 16 Scots taking part as some of our more experienced climbers were out with injury after an extremely long competitive season. Nevertheless we managed to get 13 climbers into the Finals and bring home two First and two Second places.

As well as an Open competition the event was being used to help GB team management select their squad for 2011. Everyone was competing in their IFSC categories for 2011, so there were some new faces and often a new group of climbers to pitch skills against. Zippy, Tom Randall and Neil Busby had set some exciting routes and they were testing from the start. Even so over a third of competitors (39) managed tops on their easiest qualifier in the 8 groups. This dropped to 12 on the harder qualifier and over the course of the day only 9 competitors went through to the finals with 2 tops.

Youth C (12/13yrs) saw many climbers competing for the first time at this level and while nerves were apparent on qualifying routes, scores were relatively close going into the Finals route for both the boys and girls. A tricky triangular volume proved too much for most girls but Inverness’ Emily Eadie made that all important ‘positive climbing move’ from the volume to gain a + and take 2nd behind Carmel Moran. Gabriella Stewart (Loanhead) was pleased with her 6th placing in her first YOC.

In the boys Angus Davidson (Edinburgh) had an excellent climb on a complex Finals Yellow route that had been used previously by Youth B boys. His final score of 29+ beat most of the older boys and gave him the Youth C title 6pts clear of his nearest rivals. Fort William’s Stephen Dent finished in 7th place in his first YOC.

The largest turnout was in the Youth B (14/15yrs) category which had 42 climbers. This was 10 more than last year demonstrating the level of interest amongst this age group (the youngest category that competes as the GB team on the International circuit). From Scotland there were 5 girls and 2 boys.

While there were many gutsy performances throughout the day, with heart stopping foot slips recovered, determined campus grips held for an inordinate length of time while feet sought a hold and brave lunges for that extra + point, the climb of the day went to London’s Molly Thompson-Smith who, despite having just moved up to Youth B, had an outstanding Final route on a tricky Green to the left of the Barrel Wall. This 7c climb had previously been the 2nd qualifier for the Youth A girls and Elite GB team member Kitty Wallace had achieved a near top 35- score. Molly had the crowd cheering loudly as she achieved 34+ a mere touch away from Kitty’s position and an example to all climbers who claim they aren’t tall enough to make moves. Molly is at least a foot shorter than Kitty. Edinburgh’s Rachel Carr took 2nd with Nikki Addison (Inverness) 4th, Rebekah Drummond (Brechin) 7th, Megan Saunders (Broxburn) 11th and Alexandra Blunt (Edinburgh) 15th.

There were 2 Scots among the 23 competing in Youth B boys and scores were close going into the final route. Dylan Mackenzie (Inverness) clinched first place thanks to his 2 Qualifying route top outs and Alexander Bosi (Edinburgh) finished 16th. It was Dylan’s second win that day as he had already won the Scottish Tooling Series Youth title despite missing the final round in EICA: Ratho that coincided with this competition.

The Youth A boys were also out in force with 20 competitors and with most of the current GB Youth A boys moving up to Junior next year this was perhaps the most unpredictable group. The climbers were warned that they were tacking their hardest route first so that they didn’t get too discouraged. Steven Addison (Inverness) finished in 5th behind winner Sam Brannigan (Newcastle) with Glencoe’s Alasdair Johnstone taking 10th place.

Scotland had no competitors in the girls’ Youth A (16/17) or Junior (18/19yrs) categories which were won by Kitty Wallace and Catherine Whiteman respectively.

The girls’ Junior group had only 3 competitors. By contrast the Male Junior group was 17 strong and sported 3 Scots. Scores were close going into the Final, once again on the Green Barrel route, now altered from a 7c to an 8a. Luke Tilley took the title with Paul Williamson (Glasgow) 4th, Ross Kirkland (Edinburgh) 7th and Calum Forsyth (Ratho) 9th.

The day ran smoothly thanks to Rob Adie and his team of volunteers and it was good to see some of the more experienced climbers, who were out with injury, sharing advice and words of encouragement to those new to the scene. Although some climbers were disappointed with their climbs on the day, many more were pleased with their achievements and the valuable experience they had gained. The next Youth Open Competition is on 30th July in EICA: Ratho. It would be great to see a few more Scots taking part.

Avril Gall

2010-08-22T06:15:00.001-07:00

Some Vids of EYS Imst

2010-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Heres a few clips and pics of some of the young blades in action on the wall at the EYS Imst Austria.

Stevie On 2nd qualifier

Dylan On 2nd qualifier

Dylan on !st qualifier

johny on 2nd qualifier

IMST Colors Report - Angus Davidson

2010-06-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

Angus was recently selected or the 2010 IMST Colors Youth Open Competition. He was joined by fllow Scots - Gabbie Stewart, William Bosi & Niki Addison. Below is a report rom Angus on his ffirst experience of international competition;

Imst was great. It was a great experience right from the start. Exiting all the way through.

It was amazing exploring Imst. Visiting the centre, going to the restaurants and doing lots of walks, but my favourite thing was the Alpine Coaster. Going up in the chair lifts and going down really fast in your own personal vehicle. The scary thing was the speed, you’re in-charge of the brakes and how fast you go and I recommend it to anybody.

You would expect to have a good nights sleep but no, Church bells ring at 6:00am which woke me up early. You had to be up at 7:00 to get your breakfast and get to the wall for 8:15.Tough times. The wall was fantastic, very steep, but flat at some points and all the climbs were set already. You had to switch from different types of climbing as some were powerful, some sustained and some were just ridiculously hard. Demos were there to save us from the nerves of "how are you supposed to do that?". They made it look easy =-(.The routes had a range from 6b+ - 7b+/7c.It was very efficient up to 10 climbers climbing at once. I topped 5 out of my 6 routes and I ended up in 9th position by the end of the day.

It gave me a lot more confidence for the 2nd day which was tough because the routes were a lot harder. The easiest grade was 7a+/7b and the hardest was 7c.It was a challenging day! The good thing was there was a pizza place upstairs. They did great pizzas and it had a great view of the mountains stretching up into the clouds. A great place to go. For most of the day you had to stay focused. I was in the zone and I topped 2-3 of my routes. I was climbing the best that I could. Overall I came 9th in Europe. I am very pleased of what I have done. Finally the nerves where over and I could relax. Later on that day we went to this tiny cafe just outside Austria. My dad told me how to order a coca-cola in German, but when the order came it was a rhubarb crumble. Thanks Dad.

The experience was ended as I arrived back home, and got into my nice warm bed.

Font Trip - Gabbie Stewart

2010-04-29T04:11:00.000-07:00

I am so lucky. Neil Gresham asked me to join him and his group for a whole week of coaching in Fontainebleau in France. I went with my mum & dad and we flew to Paris and then drove down to the gite we would be staying in with Neil and the others. We arrived on Saturday night after getting stuck in traffic around Paris, I was also very nervous because the rest of the group were all adults and I only knew Neil. Neil had two other coaches with him, Steve and Shaun. That night Neil introduced us to the group and explained a bit about what we would doing over the next week. Everyone was very excited – especially the adults who couldn’t get to sleep that first night.

On Sunday when we woke up it was raining but that didn’t stop us and we went off to Couvier to tackle our first boulders. I had never seen anything like the huge boulders we found, they were huge... and wet and slippery but we still managed about three hours climbing and it was fantastic, I didn’t know which boulder to try first. We got back to the gite and after we had our evening meal Neil, Steve and Shaun showed us the video of our climbing that day and pointed out our faults. It was a bit embarrassing but everyone learnt something.

The next morning it was sunny and I was even more excited. I ate lots of pain au chocolate and we headed for the forest!! At first the boulders were a little wet and so we looked around and checked them out while they were drying. When we started to boulder it was amazing, it is so different to bouldering indoors, I definitely prefer bouldering outside. The boulders are really technical and have REALLY small footholds so you have to be very balanced when you are on them. Before you get onto a boulder you have to arrange your crash mat into the right place depending on the angle of the problem, clean your crash mat with your towel, clean your shoes with the towel or your feet will slip off REALLY easily. Then you're off!!!!!
My climbing buddy today was Becky, who is a very good adult climber, she really nice and we give each other pointers on each problem and advice on how to tackle it. Shaun, the trainee coach, was great to work with and really helped me on the harder problems in Font. By 5pm my feet were killing me and I had to go back to the gite. I was exhausted by the time we were finished, after 5 hours training. That evening Neil showed us more video footage of the day going over general things we were all doing incorrectly and also individual points to work on.

The following day we went to Franchard Isatis and Franchard Cuisiniere, they were only a 10 minute walk in between and were both amazing!!! The problems are colour graded from white to yellow to orange to red to black to white again. I had a good morning and completed 10 red problems and nearly did a white problem (the hardest level). After about 2 hours it started lightly raining so we walked down the road to Cuisiniere. After warming up on a few slabs and trying a few red problems I asked Neil, if I could try something harder so he showed me an overhanging, reachy and awesome problem!!! I chose a sequence and brushed the holds. I was ready to try it! I had my first go and fell off just after the middle bit, it involved lots of heel hooks and big reaches. After I knew I could do the start of it I tried it from a standing start but I noticed there was a huge dyno to the next hold so I tried different places to put my feet and finally got it from standing start. My fingers were really red and nearly bleeding! Neil said I could have tried to join it all up if my fingers had been undamaged but said I shouldn’t because the skin was so thin. I still tried it because I had worked so hard on it but unfortunately fell off at the huge dyno. After that problem I climbed some reds and blues because my fingers were really sore. Not only me though, all the adults were suffering too.

On Thursday we went to a place near Noisey. It was beautiful, as good as all the other places we have been to. Although everyones fingers were still red raw and some were even cut we still had an amazing time. To warm up we did this really hard crimpy slab, after two goes I got up it, and so did Becky. It was very hard and was even harder if you had finger tape on. I didn't feel very warmed up so I tried another slab but I think I warmed up my throat more than my body because 3/4 of the way up there were two lizards, I screamed when I saw them because they gave me such a fright but I went to the top anyway and climbed as fast as I could on the way down!!! I was warmed up after that so I asked Neil for a harder problem to work on so he took me to this reachy, overhanging, juggy problem. It was a kind of traverse then it went up at the end. I really enjoyed this problem.

Since it was April Fools day, the night before Viv and I planned some tricks that we were going to play on Neil for a joke. The first one was putting flour in his chalk bag, it was really funny when he put his hand in and found out it was flour! The second one was when he was showing us a boulder problem we put big sticks and two pine cones in his chalk bag, he got a fright! The third and final one was placing a very heavy rock at the bottom of his climbing bag so he would be carrying extra weight when he lifted it up!

After all the pranks I got back to climbing and Neil set me another challenge, it was another reachy problem with no footholds! We joined in with some German women and used their crash mats. I had my first go and got to the same place as they did. My second go I got to the same place again, came off and went over on my ankle because the rocks underneath the crash mat were uneven.
I watched Neil do a very technical boulder problem then had to go home. My ankle was really painful!

Every evening Neil, Steve and Shaun would give us feedback on the days climbing, giving us individual comments and more general comments using the video footage. On the Friday it was raining and we couldn’t climb, my ankle was still sore and so I couldn’t climb anyway. Neil gave us a talk on training and diet and then we all had private feedback from the three coaches which was very scary. I was last to go through and so had to wait for about 2 hours. Because my ankle was sore Neil gave me a piggyback, they were very nice and gave me lots of helpful feedback.

I absolutely loved my week in Font and hope I can go back very, very soon. Thanks to Neil, Steve and Shaun I learned so much and would love to do more outdoor bouldering.

Gabs is sponsored by La Spotiva & would like to thank them for helping her with providing shoes for this trip!

News Flash - Scots in Spain

2010-04-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Jonnie & Paul on 2008 MCofS Ceuse Trip

West of Scotland climbing machines - Jonathan Stocking & Paul Williamson have recently been on a sport climbing trip in the North of Spain. They have been receiving the guided tour of Santa Linya cave & Terradets from Ex pats - Alan Cassiday, Tom Bolger & Lynne Malcolm.

Both youngsters have managed to tick some extremely impressive stuff on the trips with Jonathan ticking his first 8b & 8b+ red-points & Paul ticking his first 8b red-point (4th go!) & first 8a flash also. To have achieved grades like these at such a young age is nothing short of phenomenal. Especially when you consider that Jonnie's hardest red point before the trip was 8a+ & Paul's 7c!!!!

Both climbers would like to thank the MCofS for receiving financial support to help with funding this trip!

Run down on the First YCS of 2010 - Avril Carr

2010-03-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

YCS Round 1 South Scotland, The Peak Wall, Stirling
The Peak Wall at Stirling was an excellent location, compact but with a great variety of climbs and a superb café. We had 56 climbers taking part, making it the biggest ever round in South Scotland. We had an astounding 20 girls competing in the 11-13 age category and at the end of the day there was only 6 points separating the top five. None of the categories are clear cut making for an exciting series with everything to climb for. Two of the GB team came in to demo the climbs and were just as nervous about that as they are when competing.
The level of support for the climbers from parents and participants alike was terrific. Judges kept things moving and we were amazed to be handing out the certificates by 4.30pm. Thanks to the guys that set the routes, the volunteers that administrated, belayed and judged so ably and all the climbers and their parents for putting so much enthusiasm into the day. Next round at Glasgow Climbing Centre on 20thMarch. See you there.

Well done to all of the climbers and good luck in Round 2!

Result can be seen on MCofS website at http://www.mcofs.org.uk/ycs2010-results.asp

YCS North Sotland Round 1 results

2010-03-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Round 1 of the MCofS Youth Climbing Series

The day hosted by Climb @ Inverness Leisure went well with 34 competitors battling gravity, to get to the top of as many routes and problems as possible.
4 junior British Team members were on hand to demonstrate for the masses.
As allways i was very impressed with the standard of climbing but more impressed with the passion and enthusiasim and great encouragment displayed by all the young climbers.

Heres a link to the scores
http://www.mcofs.org.uk/assets/getactive/ycs10%20round1%20north.pdf

See you all at Round 2 -- il post some pics when i gets a chance - Happy Cranking

2010 Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships - Saturday 6th March

2010-03-01T04:48:00.000-08:00

These are the final details for the 2010 Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships. First of all, thanks for your patience whilst the Championships have been swapped over from Extreme Dream to Transition Extreme.

There will be two DJs playing live all day, commentary from top local climbers, and free individual event photographs available to all.

That’s not to mention prizes for every category, trophies for keeps, and of course a stack of top quality problems.

Email have been sent out to all those invited. If you know of someone who doesn’t have the info they need, please let me know.

Registration 0900

Briefing & Qualifying 1000 – 1300

Semi-Finals & Finals 1400 – 1630

Finish 1700

Registration forms available in advance by emailing – jf01@transition-extreme.com

The entry fee will be at the reduced price of £15 per competitor. Please pre-pay over the phone on 01224 626 279.

Entry on the day will be cash only and cost £20 – thanks for your help.

ð ENQUIRIES

Please feel free to contact the Event Organiser, Johannes Felter, with any questions you have – either 01224 626279 or 07896 823537 or jf01@transition-extreme.com

ð AGE CATEGORIES

Climbers will compete in the age category in which they finished in 2009.

This event is open to the Top 5 finishers from South & North regions in all three age categories, male and female. You know who you are!

ð TROPHIES

If you won one of the official granite trophies last year, could you please bring it along to Aberdeen – thank you!

ð MCofS ENDORSEMENT

Transition Extreme feel duty bound to make competitors and parents aware that this event is not officially endorsed by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. Competitors and parents should be aware that bouldering for younger children can carry an increased risk of injury due to the nature of the moves involved. Transition Extreme will use its wealth of experience and the best available advice to set problems to minimize these risks. Parents and competitors are asked to consider the physical demands of each problem very carefully prior to an attempt and if in any doubt should not attempt some problems.

All best wishes and we look forward to seeing you on the day!

“**NEWSFLASH MONDAY 1ST MARCH 2010**

The Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships is now open to wildcard entries from anyone who qualified outside the top 5 last season, or indeed didn’t qualify at all! Transition Extreme Sports Ltd. is a registered charity which wishes to see all unclaimed places in the competition filled up by budding young athletes. Places are available on a first come first served basis, and can be claimed by calling Transition Extreme on 01224 626 279. We hope this will make the competition even more exciting and offer lots of kids the chance to climb in a major competition. Anyone who did qualify in the top 5 last season should make contact as soon as possible to claim their place.

SYBC POSTPONED FOLLOW UP

2010-01-08T03:06:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

Just a wee follow up. Its already been brought to my attention that the BMC Leading Ladder final clashes with the proposed date of SYBC in april. I’ll review and get back to you when i can sort something else out.

Also, a big whoops by me was to state the SYCC date. This was done in assumption as it has always been held last weekend in May. I should however point out that we will not be hosting this event this year so i shouldn’t be confirming the date for it. Ruaridh and team up at Inverness will be taking on the SYCC this year, so best to contact Mr Mackenzie direct for details, although i imagine it will be around a similar date if not the same. Apologies, i’m on local anaesthetic for my eye at the moment and think its effecting my brain.....!

All the best,

Al @ Extreme Dream

SYBC 2010 POSTPONED!

2010-01-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

Regretfully after due consideration and with the continued cold and frequently snowy weather in mind we have decided to postpone the Scottish Youth Bouldering Championship 2010, which was due to take place 16th January. Recently the roads, when open, in Strathspey have been treacherous, with gritters/snow plows few and far between. With the forecast for continued indefinite cold weather and further snow showers on top we feel it would be irresponsible and unfair to expect competitors and their families to travel what are often great distances to the comp in these exceptionally poor conditions. I am disappointed to have to make this decision but feel it is the right one. I hope you understand my reasoning, and i apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you wish to speak to me directly i can be reached on 01479 812466 ext 31 or by email alan@extreme-dream.com.

A provisional date of Saturday 24th April has been put forward for the competition, sliding neatly into the biggest gap in between YCS rounds. I will be contacting Rob Adie at the BMC to ensure this does not clash with any coaching events or otherwise, and would also appreciate any feedback you as parents might have towards this revised date.

The Scottish Youth Climbing Championships 2010 will take place on Saturday 29th May 2010.

Once again my apologies for any inconvenience.

I hope other than this you are all having a great 2010 so far,

Good Climbing!

Al @ Extreme Dream

Local Talent - Eleanor Hopkins

2009-12-18T03:04:00.000-08:00

I recently caught up with Callendar based climbing machine Eleanor Hopkins. This extremely talented young athlete is one of the most exciting prospects within British competition climbing at the moment. Even though she is still relatively new to the sport, she has worked hard and is now competing at the highest level. Eleanor recently won the British Team trials in youth c category (which she still has two full years left to compete in), beating an extremely experienced and competitive field on her way to doing so. It is also worth noting here that the final route in her category, which Eleanor came very close to on-sighting, was graded 7c/7c+. This bodes well for competing internationally in the future, as these are the kind of grades she will be coming up against in her category.

Keep an eye out for this talented young lady, as she has all the potential and professional approach to her training required to step up to the international stage. I'm just looking forward to 6 years down the line when she will start doing battle with her idol in the senior category! I think a certain climbing super star will be pretty nervous about that prospect!

How old are you and how long have you been climbing?

I’m 13 years old (14 in April) and have been climbing for 3 years this Christmas.

How did you get involved in climbing?

I first got involved in climbing at an October Kids Camp at Callander (near Stirling), I tried out the wall and I was hooked, So my dad learned to belay and I got my first pair of climbing shoes and harness at Christmas. I started to go about once a week but became a bit more serious when I joined The Young Explorers of Scotland climbing and activity group and then went to my first competition.

What made you want to try competition climbing?

The second round of YCS wall was at my local wall so I went along, not really knowing what to expect and came 2nd, a couple of weeks later I went the third round and overall came 3rd. That meant that I had qualified for the British Final held at Ratho and from then on started to do more and more competitions and got more involved in the sport.

You recently won the British Team Trials/selection Competition, How did this feel?

It is the most amazing feeling when you know you have climbed to the best of your ability and all your hard work has paid of! I am very pleased and happy with my result and would like to thank my coaches for all the help they gave me.

You train more professionally than any climber I have seen. Could you give us a brief run down of how you train?

I train 6 times a week with one rest day:
Monday: At home, strength circuits and rowing machine circuits
Tuesday: Climbing at Ratho
Wednesday: At home, strength circuits
Thursday: Climbing on home board
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Strength and Conditioning Training at Herriot Watt University. Climbing at Ratho
Sunday: Climbing at Ratho

What would you say your strengths are?

Crimps, steep walls and training.

What would you say your weaknesses are?

Very powerful moves, slopers and dynos (but getting better!).

Have you climbed outdoors?

Only a couple times, twice at Malham and once at Benny Begg, on my first trip to Malham I managed to red-point my first route ever, Frankenstein 7a+.

Which competitor inspires you most from the British Junior competition circuit?

Natalie Berry

Which competitor inspires you most from international competition circuit?

Natalie Berry

What are your future ambitions (short term & long term)?

My short term ambitions are to do more outdoor climbing and compete at the EYS and Worlds, and my long term ambition is to qualify for the final in an EYS and on-sight an 8a outside.

What advice would you give to any young climbers reading this, who are thinking of taking up competitive climbing?

Climbing is an amazing sport at any age or level and if you are thinking about taking part in competition definitely go for it! Have a good time and give it your all but don’t be disappointed if you slip or fall, when I went to the British Finals the first time I came 27th and the following year I came 1st equal. Just remember to always stay motivated and set yourself goals that you can achieve and give it everything you’ve got! Always have a good time and enjoy what you’re doing.

Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships 2010

2009-12-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks,

Invites are on thier way out shortly by e-mail and snail mail for SYBC10 to all qualified competitors (remember top 5 in each age/sex group from YCS09) but just in case there's any doubt here's the definitive list of competitors, so you know what's coming!

Scotland North

Nikki Addison
Sofie Hvide
Dawn Longworth
Lauren Sandbach
Jessie Smith
Ellen Macaskill
Ellen Barber
Abbey Niven
Sarah Wardrope
Rebecca Kinghorn
Amy Ryan
Keri MacLennan
Rosie Slater
Caera Douglas
Ruairidh Macaskill
Scott Donaldson
Jamie Peden
Joseph MacInnesHall
Dylan MacKenzie
Steven Addison
Calum Irvine
Rhys Maslen
Alasdair Johnstone
Leakey Sam
Stephen Dent
George Kerr
Henry Kerr
Scott Robertson
Rory Cargill

Scotland South

Rebekah Drummond
Eleanor Hopkins
Lyndsey Forsyth
Rachel Carr
Sophie Stanistreet
Jaime Davidson
Abigail Blunt
Christie MacLeod
Abi Beautyman
Ashley Lawne
Claudia Charlwood
Kirsten Taylor
Rachel Tennant
Gabriella Stewart
Elle Hogarth
Alexander Bosi
William Bosi
Euan King
Michael Burrell
Angus Davidson
Gregory Gaughan
Calum Forsyth
Jamie Drummond
Andrew Barr
Alasdair Darroch
Robert Davidson
Jason McDonald
Harry Spence-McCarthy
Jamie Blair

The competition will take place at Extreme Dream Aviemore Saturday 16th January 2010. More details going out with invites and reggy forms etc..

Lets get ready to rumble!!

Al

Crushing Dunkeld

2009-11-03T01:09:00.000-08:00

I spent last Thursday Friday at upper cave climbing on remarkably dry rock, considering it was pouring down both days. I was joined for a sports climbing sessions by super strong British Team Kids - Jonny 'always moaning' Field, Natalie 'Fajita Wrapper' Berry and Robbie 'man sized power scream' Philips. Robby had already ticked everything at the crag, so was psyched to just get some training in on the rock. Nat and Jonny, however both had their eyes on ticking some of the local classics.

As always with these two, I was blown away with how easy they made everything look. Nat climbed here briefly when she was about 2 and a half & Jonny had never tried any of the climbs before! They started off by making light work of Hammish Teds, both flashing (Nat Retro)it with ease. Nat had tried the route about 56 years ago, but could remember nothing about it. They then moved on to the crag classic - Marlena. Nat got very close to flashing this route, cruising the technical crack section only to be denied the flash on the last move across to the chains. She then swiftly dispatched it with ease on her 2nd go. Next was Jonny 's go and he didn't disappoint! He made swift work of the crack section and after some aggressive snatching up the presses near the top he found him self clipping the chains. Not bad effort flashing your first 7c at 15. Especially considering the technical nature of the climb!

The 2nd day was spent on Silk Purse with both Nat and Jonny making good progress. Both look like they will tick the route next time they visit. We then finished off with some bouldering action at the base of the crag.

Finally I was treated to some rather unusual chat on the journey home. The 3 youth spent 50minutes (yes that's 50 minutes!) playing a word game that basically consisted of them speaking, but replacing the first letter of each word with a B. I spent 45 minutes testing my will power as I resisted the temptation to drive in to on coming trucks, just to make them stop! I am sure when I was a teenager, I had more interesting things on my mind than word games!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ross Kirkland - Putting EYS fitness to good use

2009-10-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

After competing in the Edinburgh round of the European Youth Series (EYS), Edinburgh based climber - Ross Kirkland joined myself and Adam Hughes on a short trad trip to Northumberland and the Peak. Ross Kirkland is 16 years of age and has been performing well on the British Junior Competition circuit for well over 8 years now, achieving some great results along the way like 2nd place in 2008 Team Trials and 8th in his first ever Senior British Lead Climbing Championships. This consistency lead to his selection in 2008 to the British Junior Climbing Team, thus allowing him to go on and represent his country in international climbing competitions.

Away from competition, Ross's other main climbing passion is trad climbing and he had been looking forward to putting some of the fitness gained through training for the EYS to good use on the rock. It has to be said though that bouldering is not one of Ross's strengths and he was curious to see how he would cope on the short powerful styles of climb found in Northumberland and the peak.

He need not have worried, as he took every thing in his stride and ticked his way through a very impressive selection of routes over the three days. The trip started off with a day at Back Bowden climbing with other Ratho instructors Pamela, Martin and Ally. Ross swiftly warmed up on the 'Arches' HVS 5a, then went on to solo the short and crimpy wall of 'Pin-Up' E2 6a. Ross stated that he really enjoyed both of these climbs, but was keen to attempt something a bit more challenging. Time for 'Lost Cause' E4 6b, a safe but brutally powerful and committing County Classic! If I am to be honest I thought Ross would struggle with the powerful nature of this climb! How wrong could I have been, with Ross making swift work of flashing it and even stopping mid route to remove his sweater (poser!). This was Ross's first E4 and was climbed in great style. Adam also had a great day climbing the 'Tube Direct' E5 5c, 'Lost Cause' & 'Uncouth Youth' E4 6a, all of which, Ross seconded. Ross finished off the day seconding me up the crags classics of 'on the Verge' and 'Right to Reply', both of which he cruised.

The second day saw us descend on Frogatt, keen to keep up the momentum of the successful first day. Ross had decided that he wanted to spend the day getting in some lower grade mileage. So he started off with a swift on sight of 'Strapiombante' E1 5b. His ideas for the day soon changed when he sat watching myself and Adam flailing our way up the huber Classic 'Stapadictomy' E5 6b. Realising it was safe, Ross decided to strap it on and give it a go. After a valiant flash attempt Ross dispatched the route ground up in good controlled style. Bearing in mind this is the boys' first real trip to the grit, this is a phenomenal achievement. Especially when you consider that he climbed his first E3 in June earlier this year. Ross basked in his glory and chilled out seconding Adam and myself on routes for the rest of the day.

We were joined on the final day by trad wad Tony Stone. Ross opted on a more chilled out session. Spending the morning bouldering around and climbing easier routes up to a grade of HVS. He rounded off the day with some exciting spotting duties while Tony on sight soloed the classic Pebble Mill E5 6b. Followed by seconding Adam Hughes' impressive lead of the same route. Sadly I didn't enjoy the same pleasure, managing to turn in to a gibbering wreck on the same climb, when I couldn't reach the final break, resulting in a rather feeble opt out for a safety line, much to the amusement of young Rosco! I will never forget looking down in a panic to see young Rosco rolling around on his back in hysterics. Loving how supportive my climbing partners are!!!!!

I was truly humbled by just how well young Ross performed on the trip, to tick E5 ground up on his first real trip to the grit is good going. I am sure there will be more big trad ticks to come from this young lad in the future.

For more Pics check out Adam's Blog

http://www.hughesmountaineering.blogspot.com

Local Talent - Glasgow Paul

2009-10-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

I first met young Paul Williamson ('Glasgow Paul') around 4 years ago, when he came along to our Saturday BRYCS club. It was very apparent from day one that he already had 2 of the most important traits required to succeed in climbing – 1. a determination to push himself, and 2. mutant strong fingers!

Paul has progressed through the ranks as a climber over the last few years with some impressive results in regional, national and international competitions. Five years on he is very much established him self as one of the most talented and promising young climbers on the British Competition Circuit.

Paul's talents don't stop at just plastic pulling either. Ever since a very successful first outdoor climbing trip to Orpierre in 2006, he has gone on to tick some very impressive climbs throughout Scotland, Britain and Europe. He is now also very much established as a member of the 'west coast dumby squad' and is well on his way to maintaining the Dumbarton tradition of pushing Scottish bouldering standards forward to new levels. Just a pity he is a Celtic fan!

Achievements to date:
2009 Scottish Lead Climbing Championship
2009 Represented Britain in European Youth Series and the Youth World Cup
4th 2008 British Lead Climbing Championships
2008 Was awarded full team status on the British Climbing Team
Multiple F7c red-points in France and in the UK
7B+ on-sights in France and in the UK
V8 boulders in the UK

Future Ambitions:
to climb in the Buttermilks in California
hopefully do some pretty hard boulder problems
to climb F8c one day (maybe at Dumbuck?)
to climb the Overlee project, (V very hard!?!)

Paul has recently been selected to represent Britain in the up and coming Kranj round of the European Youth Series. Good luck dude and get stuck in!

Thanks MCofS!

2009-09-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

This year saw 4 very successful youth climbing development events take place at EICA Ratho. These events were designed to support and motivate young Scottish climbers of all ages and abilities. As well as promoting participation pathways into the sport at all levels. These events could not have taken place without the support of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS), who provided funding to assist with the organisational and operational costs of running these events. They also assisted with the expenses cost of volunteers assisting on these days.

This continued commitment from the MCofS to supporting Youth Climbing within Scotland is very much appreciated by all of the kids, parents and volunteers, who benefit. As a coach, instructor and volunteer, who gains a lot from being involved in such initiatives, I believe that the level of enthusiasm and standard of climbing on display from young climbers in our country is truly inspiring. The MCofS is largely responsible for helping these young climbers through providing a network of support (i.e. coaching, competition, outdoor/indoor instruction and information).

2009 Mountaineering Council of Scotland Youth Development Event Details

Event 1 – Young Climbers Introduction to On-sighting (26.04.09)

Aims of Event
- To offer coaching and assistance to young climbers, who want to develop their route reading and on-sight climbing skills.
- To create more awareness of the sport & generate interest in what can be achieved in climbing.
- To show current pathways in place to assist young people in becoming more active within climbing

This day was a huge success with 3 separate work shops taking place aimed at supporting climbers from entry climber level, through to national competition climber.

The day started with a 4 hour mock competition for Scottish Based British Team members and young Scottish climbers on the MCofS Scottish Climbing Team. These talented climbers spent time practising the skills required for route mapping and putting this knowledge into practise on the wall. As a coach, it was truly humbling to watch the standard of young climber Scotland has to offer at the moment.

The afternoon activities were split into two separate sessions with British/Scottish Team members staying back to provide coached sessions on route reading to Youth Climbing Series climbers and Quick-draw volunteers offering introduction to climbing sessions to beginners.

Every climber to attend the event was given information about ways in which they can access outdoor climbing sessions, through initiatives like ‘MCofS Real Rock’ and
‘Adventure Edinburgh’.

Event 2 – Young Climber’s Introduction Demonstrations & Flash Based Climbing in Competitions (14.06.09)

Aims of Event
- To help prepare young Scottish climbers for this years 2009 Youth Climbing Series finals.
- To create more awareness in the activity and generate interest in what can be achieved within the sport.
- To show current pathways in place to assist young people in becoming more active within climbing.

This was a great day for every one who attended. Again the days activities were split into three workshops catering for complete beginners, Youth Climbing Series Climbers and National Competition level climbers!

The day started with a Mock Youth Climbing Series(YCS) competition for all of the young Scottish climbers representing their region at this years’ final. This event was also attended by various other YCS competitors from throughout Britain that wanted to test their skills against the Scottish youth! British Junior team members were on hand to offer tips and advice on competing to all of the youngsters.

The afternoon consisted of two sessions; with British & Scottish junior team members taking part in a workshop looking at gaining helpful information from watching route demonstrations. Top British competition climber- Alan Cassidy was on hand to demonstrate the routes and also offer tips on watching and learning from demos.

The mobile climbing Tower was also on hand throughout the afternoon to offer complete beginners the chance to try climbing. These future young climbers were also given the opportunity to observe the top level competition climbers in action and draw inspiration from what can be achieved in the sport!

Again every climber to attend the event was given information about ways in which they can access outdoor climbing sessions, through initiatives like ‘MCofS Real Rock’ and ‘Adventure Edinburgh’.

Event 3 – Introduction to Climbing – Summer School (04.07.09)

Aims of event
- To offer a full day of free climbing activities, aimed at introducing young people to the joys of climbing.
- To increase awareness of pathways into the sport through indoor climbing centres, Adventure Edinburgh and MCofS.

This event consisted of 3 climbing based workshops aimed at introducing novice climbers to bouldering, top roping and abseiling. These sessions were ran by EICA instructors and MCofS volunteers. Resident British Team Member Ross Kirkland was also on hand to offer encouragement and top tips to the kids throughout. The 30 youngsters that attended the event were also given the opportunity to attend a lecture & video by Pamela Miller on ‘Life beyond the Climbing Wall’.

Every new climber also received a goodie bag stuffed full of free gifts and information on climbing walls throughout Scotland, coaching programs at Glasgow climbing Centre, EICA: Ratho, Alien Rock, Extreme Dream, Avertical World and Inverness Climbing Centre, as well as initiatives such as Adventure Edinburgh and MCofS Real Rock sessions.

Event 4 –European Youth Series (EYS) Preparation Event (06.09.09)

Aims of event
- To prepare British competitors for the Edinburgh EYC. This takes place on 19th 20th September 2009.
- To create more awareness of competition sport climbing and generate interest in what can be achieved in the activity at international level.

This event was attended by all 34 British Team members representing the United Kingdom in this year Edinburgh Leg of the European Youth Series. MCofS and British Team coaches were on hand to run workshops on warming up within competition, dealing with isolation, watching demonstrations, route mapping and preparing your self mentally & physically. The event also consisted of a mock run through of an EYS, providing the competitors with valuable competition experience and time on the new competition wall at EICA:Ratho. Hopefully this day has played a part in helping our country’s young climbing super stars for their big day.

Running in conjunction with this event were reduced cost mobile tower slots and introduction to climbing sessions, ran by MCofS volunteers. New climbers were also provided with information packs and encouraged to watch the top British climbers in action throughout the day.

All of these events have been great fun for the 100’s of young climbers and numerous volunteers involved! Hopefully some valuable tips, advice and motivation has been passed on along the way too! Again a massive thanks has to be made to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland for making these events possible!

footwork tips

2009-08-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

The first and must important part of achieving good climbing technique is learning to use our feet effectively. We hear lots of people saying certain climbers have good footwork, but what does it actually mean?

In my opinion the two most important factors of good footwork are;
1.) Being able to place your feet quickly and precisely.
2.) Being able to transfer your weight over your feet.

1.) Be quick and precise:
When we are placing our feet we should be aiming to use the front of our rock boot as much as possible. This means the inside edge, outside edge and the front point! This allows us to be precise with our foot placements when standing on smaller holds, allows us to twist and turn when climbing by simply pivoting on our feet, and minimises the chance of our feet slipping off.
Using this part of our feet also allows us to gain more force and height from the foot placement. Think about how your foot works when jumping, you flex your feet and push off from your toes. Its the same principle when flexing your foot to stretch for a distant climbing hold or flexing your foot when powering up for that dyno! Obviously, we also have to learn when it is appropriate to heel hook or toe hook (usually of very steep ground), but the majority of foot placements should be made as above.

How do we improve this?
It may sound simple, but looking at your feet when you place them helps. Make a conscious effort to look at the foot hold, and place your foot exactly where you are looking. If you are clumping around with your feet, banging them off the wall each time you place them or hoping about on a foot hold to readjust, you are wasting valuable energy when you climb. The easiest way I have found to practise this is to think really hard about it when you are climbing easy warm up climbs, slow down and really concentrate on placing your feet quietly in control. As you improve at this, begin to attempt climbing these routes quicker, but still be precise and controlled with your feet placements. Over time this will improve your footwork on all of your climbs. Another training tip I have for improving this is to attempt climbing boulder problems in the EICA: Ratho arena using features only for feet. This will help you learn how to trust standing on small holds, it will help you improve your judgement with foothold selection and it will also help build up core strength as keeping your feet on small holds when climbing steeper problems requires a lot of body tension!.

2.) Transferring your weight over your feet:
Spend time during your next session watching a really good climber on a route up our main lead wall. As they move up the wall you will see them transfer their body from side to side or twist their whole body each time they reach for a hold! The climber is doing this so that they can move their weight over the foot that they are pushing off, thus moving in the most efficient way. If your weight is over your foot when you push up on it, you use far less pulling energy in your arms! A really good climber to observe doing this is Nat Berry, as she is phenomenal at this technique in climbing. Her amazing level of flexibility in her hips, allows her to transfer her weight over any foothold regardless of how awkwardly placed they are!

How do we improve this? This is a really important skill to master, as the whole point of good technique is 'minimising the amount of energy used in our arms' ! The less energy we use in our arms, the longer we can climb on a route before we get tired. Learning to transfer our weight over our feet makes us more efficient at how we use our feet and reduces the strain on our arms, thus making us more technical climbers.
The best way I have found to practise this technique is to spend time on the slab areas in the wall. Practice climbing the routes with one hand, but really concentrate on getting the upward motion from your legs!. If you have to pull with your hand to make a move, stop and think about your feet and body position, then try again. Once you have mastered this, make things harder for yourself by attempting these climbs with no hands. You can place your hands flat against the wall, but you are not allowed to touch any of the holds. It is impossible to achieve this without transferring your weight over your feet!

Finally start experimenting with how we can use twisting to help us transfer our weight over our feet. Again use the slab area to begin with. Force yourself to only use the outside edge of your climbing shoe, in order to do this you will have to twist your whole body round each time you stand up on a foot. An easy way to think about it is to say to yourself - 'if I am standing up on my right foot I have to twist to face left, if i am standing up on my left foot I have to twist to face the right'!

Spend a bit of time each session concentrating on practising good footwork and you will become very good at using your feet. Remember, there is more to being good at climbing than just getting fitter and stronger! If we don't move well when we are climbing we are not going to climb to our full potential!

Warm up guidelines

2009-08-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, Recently I have been very impressed to see that many of the BRYCS kids have been making the effort to come in and put some additional training in away from the club. This is awsome, as climbing more than 1 day a week is only gonna help your over all development as climbers. Just thought I would use this forum to offer some basic tips on training that might help you on your way to rock stardom.

Tip number 1: WARMING UP AND WARMING DOWN!

This is the single most important thing to get right with your training, as failure to do it correctly may result in poor performance, longer recovery time between sessions or even worse injury! Remember kiddies if you can touch your toes, how are you gonna tie your rock boots up? Just ask Billy boy, he has been forced to climb in slippers for years coz he didn't stretch as kiddie!

Warming up is not something you should rush, it takes me between 25 and 30 minutes to warm up properly before I train. I ease my self in gently and concentrate on slowly getting my body and brain prepared for what it is going to be doing when I climb. Coming in and jumping straight on to a steep boulder is a bad plan of action and may result in your head exploding (OK that's a bit of an fib, but it could result in strained fingers or other climbing related injuries).

Three important stages of warming up;
1. Cardio Vascular- Before you do anything, you have to raise your heart rate. It is important that you get the blood pumping round you muscles and also warm up your body. You don't have to run a half marathon, but running round the arena a few times or running up and down the stairs a few times would be a good idea.

2. Climbing Specific- This stage should involve super easy climbing and it serves the purpose of warming up all of the exact climbing muscles you are gonna be using. It also gets your brain working and ready to climb. The key is to ensure that the climbing you do here is super EASY. Traversing the bottom of the lead or top rope wall is a perfect way to do this. Another good tip is to concentrate on your technique and footwork during this stage. Thinking hard about transferring your weight over footholds and being very precise with your feet. If you start a session concentrating on climbing well, then you are more likely to continue this throughout the rest of your session.

3. Flexibility - Stretching and basic mobility exercises are the third and final part of the 3 main warm up stages. You all know lots of good climbing related stretches. Think about every different part of your body you use to climb and do an exercise for it. If you are stretching, try to hold each stretch for at least 10 seconds. It is also worth including some mobility exercises like arm swings, leg kicks, jumping and hopping on the spot etc. These will help warm up your joints and muscles through a full range of movements. Remember guys flexibility is a huge part of being a top climber, so stretching is an important part of your training!

These stages are written in this order for a reason. You should try and avoid stretching or working flexibility before you have raised your heart rate or carried out some easy climbing. Stretching when your muscles/joints are still cold increases chance of hurting yourself when you are doing it. Finally, you have to note that the warm up doesn't stop there! you have to then gradually ease yourself into routes or bouldering. Don't just jump straight on a 7a or a grade 6 boulder problem. Start on a 4+ then work up to your 7a attempt.

WARMING DOWN is just as important as warming up, but it doesn't take quite as long. I spend 5 minutes doing easy boulder problems, traversing or very easy routes. I then finish off carrying out the same stretching routine I carried out for the warm up. Making the effort to warm down will help your body wind down after a session and will speed up the time it takes your muscles to recover after a session.

Hope this helps and keep up the hard work guys!

Profile of a Youth Climbing Series Champion.

2009-08-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

How long have you been climbing for?
I joined Rocksters in November 2007, but started seriously when I joined BRYCS February 2008.

How did you start climbing?
My mum’s friend Cicci took me climbing and I was apparently really good so I kept going once a week to Rocksters.

Where do you train? EICA Ratho

You were a gymnast before you started climbing, do you think this helped you?
Yes it’s made me more flexible and also helped me with some balancing skills.

What is the YCS?
Youth Climbing Series, it’s a climbing competition for children age 8 to 16.

Who should try the YCS?
Anyone who thinks they would do well or even enjoy it.

You were the 2009 YCS British Champion, how did you prepare in terms of training for this competition?
I went climbing 4 times a week and focused on the type of climbing I expected to be in the competition and built up my strength, I also ate healthily in order to give me more strength.

What is the hardest thing about dealing with climbing competitions?
Probably the fact that you’re not sure how good people are going to do, and possibly the fact that your competitors are watching you all the time.

Have you ever climbed outdoors? Where?
Yes I’ve been to Malham cove in York, Rosyth quarry just outside of Edinburgh and others places with the Quickdraw Climbing Club. I also climbed in Krabi (Thailand) this year as part of our summer holiday.

How does this compare to climbing in doors?
It’s different and can be more technical because it’s not as easy to plan your route.

What future ambitions do you have within the sport?
I would like to make it on to the British team, compete in the Europeans and hopefully the Worlds in 2010.

Do you have any tips for other young climbers that want to improve and do well in competitions?
Focus on doing well yourself and not how others are doing. Don’t be afraid to go for competitions and have fun.

Adam Hughes account of Italy/Austria Road Trip

2009-08-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

Climbers:
Adam ‘Begbie’ Hughes (Hughes Mountaineering)
Neil ‘Geek’ McGeachy (EICA: Ratho)
Jonathan ‘Weegie’ Stocking (British / Scottish Junior climbing Team)

After a conversation with Neil near the end of the winter season about the climbing he has been missing out on by sports climbing and cragging mainly in Britain, we got talking about the dolomites. By the time we had finished we were checking rotas, and had an objective, the Brandler-Hasse on the Cima Grande. At an apparent E5 (7a+) and one of the most sort after routes in the Alps, it was going to be good. After a few weeks talking about the trip we thought that it would be a good opportunity for Johnny to experience something different. Secretly, it was nice to have another rope gun along. This would be the first alpine experience for both of them, and what a place to start. So, the team was set, the goal an exciting and challenging one and training about to start.

Being the weakest link in the trio I was keen to get as fit as possible after a good winter season. Things started well, straight back on E3 to get the head back in gear and ticking 7b+ as the first sport route of the season. I couldn’t have hoped for a better start. Then at the beginning of April I hurt my back very badly. After going through the usual ‘it will be ok in a couple of days’ process it was clear it was going to be a little longer. Long story short, 4 months later, only 10 days cragging under my belt, we where in the Dolomites. Good job the other two are fit.

After driving for two days we decided to get the muscles moving on an easy route and see how we were climbing together as a three. We chose the South Face (Cassin Route) VII- (E2) on the Cima Picola. This is a short route at 300m with some good climbing and excellent situations. The perfect warm up and one I would recommend to people who are thinking of climbing in the Dolomites. All went well, as we moved quickly up the route with only a little bit of grip at the loose bold sections. Even the decent went well with only one minor rope jam in the 6 or so abseils down the rubble filled chimney, Result. Once we had packed the kit away we headed over the shoulder to have a look at the Cima Grande North face. It was just as big as I remembered from my last trip here, and from the look on Neil and Johnny’s faces it was a lot bigger than they had thought. With nervous excitement we were psyched to return tomorrow.

Thursday morning saw a 4 am start and an excited walk around to the route. We were the first people there and got started straight away. We had a mix of topos that I had found on the tinterweb, all of which where not overly clear about the starting two pitches. I started and thought that I had linked the first two pitches and belayed below a good looking pitch, pretty happy to be on the move. The others came up quickly and Neil took over for the next stint. After another pitch and a half the climbing was suddenly much harder than it should have been. Even after mine and Johnny’s helpful comments to push on and man up, Neil was back at the belay. It appeared that we had wandered onto the Super Directissima. A little harder than planned at E7. A quick retreat and a rather bitty chat with another Italian climber and we had the right direction, over there! Very helpful. We headed over there but things still didn’t go to plan. So we bailed, with the view of coming back tomorrow and going the right way, simples.

A less enthusiastic 4 am start and an even less enthusiastic walk back to the route saw us ready to start again. We all felt a little pressure to get up the route and this made things a bit more focused. Armed with a better sense of direction I ran up the first pitch. The second pitch involved easy but bold climbing that went sideways, down, then up. No wonder we got lost. After this things became a lot more obvious. We made very good time, block leading and climbed at the same time as two seconds. After what seemed like a very long E5 already, we arrived at the crux section. Johnny did a sterling effort linking a solid 6b pitch into the first 7a pitch. After some hard sustained climbing he ran out of quick draws short of the belay. This gave us all an atmospheric hanging stance. I took over and did a short section to get us to the main, better belay. From here Neil went into over drive, leading the next three hard pitches. A truly inspiring thing to watch as he power screamed his way though some extremely tiring sections. Things eased off after this but tiredness and frustration at the never ending final sections

caused some entertaining mood swings. I earned my keep on the last five or so pitches which took in some bold and less solid climbing to take us to the top. With not much daylight left, cloud coming in fast, we needing to descend quickly. This proved to be a bit difficult. It appeared that only one of us had remembered to bring a head torch. We managed to descend the abseils with the help of a French couple, but with no head torches the down climb sections were too dangerous. This was the first time I have been benighted, and hopefully the last. After a very long and cold night with much manly hugging to keep warm, the light came back and we could pick our way down the descent. By 7am we had made it back to the car and could finally get some food, but what an experience.

After a rest day and some fishing we decided to leave Italy and head to Austria. Johnny has the world cup coming up and needs to do some hard sports climbing to train. He had heard about a valley called Zillertal near Innsbruck, so off we went. It was a Sunday when we drove over, thinking that this popular tourist valley would have many tourist info office to help point us in the right direction. NO! It would appear that they don’t do Sunday. After driving around for about three hours looking for crags in this Austrian Mecca of granite sports climbing we decided that another rest day was not the worst thing. Next day we had more luck at the tourist info, but no luck at the climbing shop. Looking through the window we could see all the guide books on the desk, but the shop only opens 3pm to 6pm (what is that all about). More frustration and pastries later, we were 30 euros down but new where we headed. I have forgotten to mention that it also appears to rain all the time in Zillertal. So, having found some steep looking crags in Ginzling, we finally got on some rock. The climbing was awesome. Due to everywhere being mostly wet, even though the weather improved as the week went on we climbing in Ginzling the whole time. This was no bad thing. There are many sectors, but we where based in the Bergstation. Sector By The Way provided some good routes to warm up on, as well as breaking up the trudge up the hill to sector Sterne. Despite the climbing being very burly and bouldery, we all enjoyed it. Johnny flashed a hard 7c I was working and made very short work of his first 8a+. Neil made a quick ascent of 7c and worked a number of harder climbs. I even managed to on sight a hard 7a+, which felt like something special after the preparation I hadn’t had for the trip. The final day climbing before the drive back saw us doing a little bouldering. With no mats and some bad landing we didn’t push things out. It only when you climb on the boulders you can see how this would help on the routes, a good way to get used to the rock and climbing style.

Overall, a successful trip with some excellent climbing in fantastic setting. Defiantly recommended.

Thanks to my sponsors Edelrid for great kit.
Jonny would also like to thank his sponsors Metolius, Evolv & Prana. He would also like to thank the MCofS & Birnie Trust for financial support towards the trip!

Comp Report from Alan Cassidy

2009-08-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Scotland's young climbers' training seems to be paying off at both the British bouldering and leading championships. All the young Scots put in great performances on the day with some very positive climbing and showing of the talent that lies in abundance these days north of the border.

Nat Berry made the smooth transition from Junior to Senior taking the BLCC crown at Ratho with consumate ease. Mutant only just describes Jonny Stocking who did the deed in the junior males at both the BLCC at Ratho and the BBC in Sheffield. He was joined on the podium by another young Johnny, Jonathan Field this time who's training paid off with a fabulous 2nd place in Sheffield and was only denied 3rd place on the BLCC podium by the presence of a foreign vistor in the form of Israeli climber Alon Gurman who took 2nd place.

There is great strength in depth in the junior field with the list. Ellen McCaskill took 4th and 6th at Ratho and Sheffeild respectively and was joined in the Ratho final by an up-and-coming name; Eleanor Hopkins, a strong tip to take on the mantle of Nat Berry in the future. After less than a year of starting to lead climb she grabbed 6th place. By all accounts both competitions had great showings from all the other Scottish juniors.

In the seniors Ross Kirkland’s battle with qualifying route 2 was great to watch and as young climber continuing to improve the future is getting brighter in the senior competition too. As for the more senior seniors, Roddy Mackenzie put a few demons to rest and got into a well deserved final at Sheffield where he finished 6th and Alan Cassidy surprised himself and many others with his 4th place at Ratho
And for those who say "but what have they done outdoors?" the answer is quite a lot really! The highlights (but by no means the only things going on) belong again to Mr Stocking; flashing 8a with Mussel Beach at LPT and working his way through the trad. Onsighting E5 is a doddle E6 has been ticked and the Brandler-Hasse is in the pipeline...the future is in safe hands.

Comp report from - Alan Cassidy British Team Member
Alans sponsors include- Pod Sacs, Metolius & Evolv.

Brandler - Hasse Training

2009-07-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Jonny Stocking, Adam Hughes and myself are about to set off on a Dolomites adventure, with the aim of ticking the classic 17 pitch E5 'The Brandler Hasse Route' on the Cima Grande. This jaw droping line follows a steep crack and corner system up an amaizing lime stone pillar and was first freed by German rock star - Kurt Albert in 1987. It was also famously solo'd by Alex Huber in 2002. We will most definitely be using ropes on our attempt as I tend to turn to jelly on the shortest of high ball boulder problems without a rope.

Adam has already climbed the 'Comica Route' on the same face, but Jonny and my exeprience of big rock routes only goes as far as trips to Gogarth and Mingualy. Not quite on the same scale! Because of this lack of experience, Jonny and myself decided that we needed to put in some extra training preperation for the big trip. With this in mind we headed to the classic North East sea cliff venue of Earnshaugh. This is a rather esotoric crag, that on first apearances looks as though it is about to fall down. Thankfully the rock quality is much better than first appearances might suggest and the crag offers a number of quality single and multi pitch lines in a steep and atmosheric setting.

We had decided that we were going to practice functioning at a level similar to that of Brandler Hasse Route in as quick and efficient a manner as we could. So we set our self the target of trying to climb the 3 classic 3 pitch E5 lines of the crag. As we hadn't arrived at the venue until after 3pm we both agreed that even if we were tired or we were running out of light, we would still ab in and attempt to climb all three in the one evening, or deal with the situation if we could not.

We started off with probably the most tried of the routes at the crag - Necromancer E5 5c, 6a, 5b. This is probably the least steep of the 3 routes and after a steep 5c Jamming pitch, you are faced with some rather thin 6a climbing on a sea grass covered slab. After a bit of scetching and flailing around the crux we soon found our selves sitting at the top of the crag avoiding the temptation to chill out in the sun and jumping straight back on the abseil.

Jonny had his sights on his first E5 onsight. He was determined to attempt the crux pitch of 'Prehistoric Monster'. A steep thuggy and yet technical 6a pitch with a huge amount of exposure. Quite a pitch to jump on for your first E5 onsight attempt! Things started of smoothly as I lead up the initial 5b pitch and began to bring jonny up on second. However, as he reached the belay it became apparent that he had left the guide book at the base of the crag. I then lowered him back to the base to retrieve it before attempting the crux pitch. Again Jonny climbed the first pitch, this time with the guide book in hand and proceeded to psyche him self up for the E5 onsight attempt. He was looking very focussed and geared up with speed, deperate to get the attempt underway. He then chalked up and prepaered himself to get stuck in. This build up was cut short by his useless belayer (myself), managing to drop one of his rock boots from the stance. A stupid mistake that would have much greater consequencies in Italy! A rather fed up jonny, lowered off again to collect the rock boot and climb the first pitch for a 3rd time. Finally he was ready to set off on his pitch. As always with Jonny, this went smoothly and he made the pitch look more like V diff than E5, and we soon found our selves sitting at the top of the crag, trying to avoid temptation to chill out.

As the light was starting to run out, it seemed to take a lot more motivation to ab straight back in this time. Yet back down we went and headed for the final of the 3 star classics 'Thugasaurus'. After Jonny climbing the first pitch, which was the same as the last one, for the 4th time today-sorry dude! I set of on the middle 6a pitch which lead to awesome steep juggy sustained climbing through a series of roofs and corners. Then Jonny quickly dispatched a steep technical fingery 6a pitch too finish. We finally got our chance to chill out at the top of the crag.

No sooner than we had pulled up the ab rope, the realisation started to dawn that we had only climbed 9 pitches similar to the difficulties expected on the Brandler Hasse and we were both Knackered. Add another 8 much longer pitches to the equation and I dont even want to imagine how we will feel. After a short conversation it was decided that another Italy training trip was in order and we both agreed it was agood idea to head to Gogarth within the next fortnight! Bring it on!

The Old Man Of Stoer

2009-06-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Ruairidh MacKenzie took a group of 6 kids & 6 adult belayers (all who have climbed outdoors with him before) to the Old Man Of Stoer, the trip had been an idea of Ruairidh's for a couple of years.

We all arrived on Friday night and camped at the lighthouse leaving at 10.30 on Saturday morning for the hour walk to The Old Man of Stoer.

If we had listened to the weather forecast the trip would not have gone ahead but Ruairidh assured us that all would be fine and sure enough we could not have had better weather.

low tide was at 12:10 and all the kids were geared up and abseiling down to the ledge to wait for the other 7 climbers already on The Old Man to have their climb before they crossed on a tyrolean.

All 6 kids made it look easy and were all up standing on the top for a group photo before the long abseil back down, scramble back up the cliff and back to the tents for much earned food and celebrations!!

2009-06-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Scottish Youth Climbing Championships 2009
- Results

A massive thanks to all the competitors and thier families/tag-alongs for making the SYCC09 go with such a bang! The standard of youth climbing is phenomenal in Scotland at the moment, and all of the kids who competed should be proud of themselves. Scott and I were tweaking final routes til 1 in the morning trying to account for the raise in standards but they still weren 't hard enough! Please note that all SYCC09 competitors automatically qualify for the Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships, and will recieve invites once a date has been confirmed, probably in the autumn. It looks like another exciting year in prospect with funds secured through the MCofS for further youth development thanks to the working group and its parents. Scott will keep you all posted with more news of this soon.

Without further ado:

8-10 girls

1st Rachel Tennant
2nd Rebecca Kinghorn
3rd Elle Hogarth
4th Amy Ryan
5th Gabriella Stewart
6th Kirsten Taylor
7th Rosie Slater
8th Keri Maclennan

8-10 boys

1st Stephen Dent
2nd Scott Robertson
3rd Jamie Blair
4th Robert Davidson
5th Rory Cargill
6th Henry Kerr
7th Alasdair Darroch
8th George Kerr

11-13 girls

1st Nikki Addison
2nd Rachel Carr
3rd Dawn Longworth
4th Rebecca Drummond
5th Lyndsey Forsyth
6th Sofie Hvide
7th Ishbel Henderson
8th Megan Saunders

11-13 boys

1st Dylan Mackenzie
2nd Angus Davidson
3rd Ruaridh MacAskill
4th Alexander Bosi
5th Jamie Peden
6th Euan King
7th William Bosi
8th Scott Donaldson
9th Joseph MacInnes-Hall

14-16 girls

1st Jaime Davidson
2nd Ellen MacAskill
3rd Abby Niven
4th Christie Macleod
5th Ashley Lawrie
6th Abigail Blunt
7th Ellen Barber
8th Sarah Wardrope
9th Jessie Smith
10th Abi Beautyman

14-16 boys

1st Paul Williamson
2nd Steven Addison
3rd Callum Irvine
4th Alasdair Johnstone
5th Rhys Maslen
6th Calum Forsyth
7th Sam Leakey
8th Scott Grosdanoff
9th Jamie Drummond
10th Andrew Barr

Thanks again from all at Extreme Dream, and hope to see you all pulling hard at the wall, or the crag soon.

Al @Extreme Dream

Youth Climbing Series Final - Preperation Event

2009-05-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

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!)

2009-05-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

Extreme Real Rock Trip

2009-05-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Spain limestone trip

2009-04-20T04:02:00.001-07:00

I have just returned from a trip to Terradetts in the north of Spain with ex BRYCS/YCS climbers Greg Boswell, Ally Swinton and Jonny Stocking. Although the weather was not the best, 2 weeks of solid rain and snow! some pretty radical ticks were achieved by the squad!

Terradets is a huge single pitch limestone fault with almost 50 top class 30m+ sport routes ranging from French 7a - French 8c+. The routes either follow never ending Tuffa systems up the steadily overhanging left hand end of the crag, or they force their way powerfully through the massive cave and overhanging sector at the right hand end of the crag. The variety of terain and style of route at this crag makes it the perfect destination to both push your on-sight climbing and get stuck into a project or two on the same trip.

We were given the guided tour to the crag from ex EICA: Ratho BRYCS coach & world class sport climber Tom Bolger. It was pretty phenominal watching him dispatch 8a onsight after 8a onsight and come very close to ticking another French 8c+ through the steepest cave I have ever seen. The only thing preventing the chain being ticked being an absolutely soaking head wall for the whole 2 weeks we were out there.

The Scottish kids were on fire as usual and despite constantly being frustrated by wet tuffas and swamp like approaches to the crag, every one mannaged to push their sport climbing grade. Fife climber Greg Boswell mannaged to build on a quick early season tick of Hammish Teddies and red pointed his first ever French 7c 'Avant Max'. He also came agonisingly close to ticking his first French 7C+, falling off the last move on his last repoint attempt on the last day of the trip.

Fellow fife climber Ali Swinton also had a productive trip, ticking his first 7c+ redpoint on 'Energy Posativa' and coming very close to ticking 8a on the trip also.

Finally Johny Stocking was on fire as always, nipping out after blowing away the competition at the Leading Ladder Finals. Johny spent the trip making light work of everything he tried being stopped only by wet rock from ticking his first 8b. He also made a very impressive flash of 'Primera Linea' French 8a. I wonder if 16 years is the youngest Scottish onsight or flash of French 8a!

All in all it was a good trip and every one made the best out of bad conditions. If you want to check out photos or read more about the trip chech ot Greg's blog on;

http://www.gregboswell.blogspot.com/

EICA: Ratho / Mountaineering Council of Scotland - Introduction to Onsighting Event 26/04/09

2009-04-20T03:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Just reminding everyone that there is a youth development event at EICA: Ratho on 26th Apri. This event is open to all climbers from YCS level - through to British Team level climbers. The day will consist of lots of onsight/comp practice on a range of new comp style routes set specifically for the day. The day will be split in to 2 halves with British Team Climbers (& invited guests) attending a workshop from 10 am - 2 pm, where they will have a range of national competition style routes to test their skills against on our new Hanger Comp Wall. YCS level kids are welcome to attend this session as spectators and draw inspiration from watching our country's best competition climbers in action.

The 2pm afternoon session will be open to any climber, who has entered this years YCS series. It will consist of a 4 hour workshop with coaching tips on onsight and competition tactics. Plus there will be a range of YCS Comp style routes to test your skills against throughout the afternoon. There will be British/Scottish Team Coaches and British/Scottish Team members on hand to offer top tips and encouragement throughout the afternoon. Please book on to this through phoning 0131 333 6333 it is completely FREEEEEEEEEEEE of charge, so don't miss it. I know it is the day after the YCS, but it will be well worth making the effort to attend!

If you have any other questions, contact me at neilmcgeachy_1@hotmail.com

2009 YCS Round 2

2009-03-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

The second round of the YCS was held on Saturday at Inverness Leisure Climbing Wall for the North of Scotland kids and at Avertical Wall, Dundee for the south Scotland kids.

The full results can be found on the MCofS website or here:

There is also a few photos uploaded to Picass web albums, they can be accessed here:

I apploigise for maybe not getting photos of all the kids.

2009 1st Round YCS Series

2009-03-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

The first round of the 2009 YCS series of regional competitions were held at Transition Extreme in Aberdeen for the competitiors in the north of Scotland & at EICA Edinburgh for those in the south of Scotland.
The full results can be found here:
And on the MCofS site here:

There will be a link and photos posted on this blog asap.

Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships 2009 Results

2009-02-12T12:23:00.000-08:00

Boys 8-10

Angus Davidson
William Bosi
Rory Cargill
Jamie Pedan / Robert Davidson
.
Scott Robertson
Mikey Burrell
Ruaridh Middleton
Alisdair Darroch

Girls 8-10

Rachel Tennant
Gabriella Stewart
Rosie Slater

Boys 11-13

Dylan MacKenzie
Stevie Addison
Ruaridh MacAskill
Alexander Bosi / Euan King
.
Murray Peden
Daniel Tennant
Calum Wylie

Girls 11-13

Jaime Davidson
Dawn Longworth
Eleanor Hopkins
Rachael Carr
Nikki Addison
Christie MacLeod
Lyndsey Forsyth
Megan Saunders
Olivia Stewart

Boys 14-16

Calum Forsyth
Calum Irvine
Alastair Johnstone
Liam Watson
Gregor MacGillivray
Scott Grosdanoff

Girls 14-16

Ellen MacAskill
Jade Longworth
Ellen Barber
Hannah Scouller
Jessica MacAskey (out injured)

1st Annual Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships

2009-02-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Sunday 8th February @ Extreme Dream Aviemore 11am - 5pm

Scotland's first youth bouldering championships will deliver a national ranking system for young boulderers across the country. A unique open competition featuring 15 qualifying problems on all types of angle and testing all types of climbing style!. Top quality problems and a fantastic atmosphere are guaranteed!.

Competitors will be briefed at 11am and have 4 hours to attempt 15 qualifying problems with just 2 attempts per problem meaning the pressure will be on!.

There will be finals held from 3.30pm until 5.00pm followed by the results and prize giving, The perfect way to kick off the youth competition season. There will be categories 8 - 10 years, 11 - 13 years and 14 - 16 years (as in YCS)

Entry is £15 plus wall entrance (£5).

To book your child's place please e-mail alan@extreme-dream.com or call Alan on 01479 812466

MCofS Youth Climbing Series 2009

2009-02-04T14:20:00.000-08:00

MCofS Youth Climbing Series 2009

APPLICATION FORMS NOW AVAILABLE

The YCS09 competitions will start with the first event on the 7th March.
If you are between 7 and 16 years old and have some experience of climbing at indoor climbing walls and would like to have a go at this fun event, have a look at the Competitions page (for full information, venues and dates).
Complete the application forms and send to us here at MCofS.
Note: For the lower age categories (7-10 and 11-13) you need to have been top-roping / bottom-roping climbs and bouldering at any grade to take part, but to compete in the higher age category (14-16) you need to be confident at leading on indoor walls.
You can compete at all three rounds and try and get into the British Final, or simply compete at the event near you and see what its like.

Go on – give it a try, its fun!

Scottish Mixed Masters Final 2008

2008-12-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

The final of the Scottish Mixed Masters was held at The Ice Factor, Kinlochleven on Sat 20th Dec 2008.

There was five under 16 entrants, three boys & 2 girls, the results were:

Final Climb Off:

Boys: 1st Steven Addison

2nd Jonny Field

3rd Dylan MacKenzie

Series Winners after 5 rounds:

Boys: 1st Steven Addison

2nd Dylan MacKenzie

Girls: 1st Ellen Barber

2nd Nikki Addison

British Team Trials 2009 Results

2008-12-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well done to all who attended the team trials, the results below are taken from the BMC web site.

The following juniors have also been ivited to train with the senior team to smooth out their transistion from junior to senior competition - Nat Berry, Rob Mackenzie,

The following competitors will invited onto the British Junior Lead Team 2009:-
Girls: Natalie Berry.
Boys: Ross Kirkland, Jonathan Stocking, Paul Williamson, Jonathan Field,

Aspirants for the Junior Team:-
Girls: Jaime Davidson, Jessica McCaskey, Ellen Macaskill,

Aspirants for the European Youth Series:-
Girls: Eleanor Hopkins,
Boys: Dylan McKenzie.

There will be further Junior Team Trials in 2009 to select a larger team that will compete in the European Youth Series at EICA in Sept. 2009 and the World Youth Championships in Sept. 2010. Keep an eye on this section of the website for further information.

British Team Trails 2008

2008-12-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend the British team trials are to be held at Ratho with the juniors on the Saturday and the seniors on the Sunday.

Good luck to all entering, the results will be posted here as soon.

Scottish Dry Tooling Series 2008, Round 3

2008-11-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

Round 3 was held at Extreme Dream in Aviemore with a great assortment on routes from swinging logs, hanging boards to a brilliant final on the 13 meter roof!!

I again have limited photos so if anyone has others please let us know

There were 4 juniors entered, 2 boys and 2 girls.

Boys:

1st Steven Addison 97 pts

2nd Dylan McKenzie 74 pts

Girls:

1st Ellen Barber 70 pts

2nd Nikki Addison 50 pts

Scottish Dry Tooling Series 2008, Round 2

2008-11-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

Round 2 of the dry tooling series was held at Ratho on the 15th Nov and saw a few more juniors enter.

I was not there and don't have any pictures of any of the juniors climbing so if anyone has any shots let us know and they can be added to this post.

The results were:

Boys:
1st Jonny Stocking 100 pts
2nd Jonny Field 90 pts
3rd Steven Addison 77 pts
4th Dylan McKenzie 57 pts

Girls:
1st Ellen Barber

In the over 16s
1st Robert McKenzie 100 pts
16th Ross Kirkland 67pts

Scottish Dry Tooling Series 2008, Round 1

2008-11-30T11:56:00.000-08:00

On Nov 8th Avertical wall Dundee held the 1st round of a series of 5 dry tooling competitions to be held at various walls around Scotland over the next few weeks

Sadly there was only three entrants in the under 16 catagory: Steven & Nikki Addison and Ellen Barber. but it never stopped them giving it there best shot.

Nikki Addison

Ellen Barber

Steven Addison

There were 15 routes with 2 hours to complete as many as possible, 10pts for 1st attempt, 7pts for 2nd attempt, 5 points for 3rd attempt if your arms could hold out that long!!

The results were:

Boys:

1st Steven Addison

Girls:

1st Ellen Barber

2nd Nikki Addison

2008-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,
This is some detail regarding up and coming youth climbing events that are due to be held at EICA: Ratho over the winter. The Team Trials event is only open to kids that are taking part in the team trials. The junior bouldering comp is open to any one that is under 18 years of age. All booking for these events, have to be made through EICA: Ratho's booking department on 0131 333 6333 or at the front desk in person.

Up and Coming Youth Events at EICA Ratho

Team Trials Preparation Junior Training Meet

Date: 30th November 2008
Time: 12 – 5pm
Cost: £15 per person
Details: With the British Junior Team Trials due to take place on the old and new competition walls at EICA: Ratho on the 6th & 7th December. EICA: Ratho are running a coaching workshop to help prepare young climbers for the challenge of competing in the event. The day will be ran as mock competitions with routes from 6b- 8a being set for the event on our competition walls. This will give the young climbers the opportunity to gain valuable experience of climbing on our walls, as well as an opportunity to fine tune their route reading and on sighting skills. There will be EICA & MCofS coaches on hand to offer technique tips and advise on preparing for the Trials. This event is open to any young climber that is entering the 2008 Team Trials.
Booking Details: 0131 333 6333

2009Edinburgh International Climbing Arena: Ratho Junior Bouldering Championships
Date: 18th January 2009
Time 10 – 6pm
Cost: £10
Details: This is a fun boulder competition open only to climbers of 18yrs or younger. The competition will be split into 3 categories - under 18’s, under 16’s and under 12’s. Each competitor will have 7 hours to attempt 20 boulder problems and will get varying points for each problem depending on the number of attempts they need to complete it. This event will provide the perfect opportunity to gain some valuable competition practise in the build up to the 2009 ‘Youth Climbing Series’. The day will finish with a prize giving ceremony in our Raeburn Suite. Every climber under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a responsible climber during the event.Booking Details: 0131 333 6333 Cheers Guys & hope to see you all there, Neil McGeachy (Mountaineering Council of Scotland/ Edinburgh International Climbing Arena)

Scottish Tooling Series 2008, Round 1

2008-11-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

The first round of a series of 5 dry tooling comps was held at Avertical wall, Dundee on the 8th of

Nov 2008.

There were only three entrants in the under 16 catagory: Steven & Nikki Addison and Ellen Barber.

There was 15 routes with 2 hours to complete as many as possible, all three juniors doing there best and managing to get a shot at most of the routes.

Boys:

1st Steven Addison

Girls:

1st Ellen Barber

2nd Nikki Addison

World Youth Championships, Sydney 2008

2008-08-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

A big well done to all the kids who travelled to Australia to compete in the World Youth Championships in Sydney, all the kids done really well.

The Scottish Trio were:

Jonny Stocking 4th

Natalie Berry 9th

Robert MacKenzie 21st

The full results can be found here:

Scottish Kids in Ceuse

2008-08-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a 2 week trip with MCofS Scotland South kids to the sport climbing paradise of Ceuse in the South of France. Jonny Stocking, Paul Williamson, Jonathan Field, Ross Kirkland and slightly older ex BRYCS kid Robbie Phillips all came along to sample perfect varied limestone on one of the best sport climbing crags in the world. Considering this was almost all of the kids first big sport climbing trip abroad, they all performed exceptionally well and achieved some excellent ticks to boot! More importantly though a great time was had by all, lots of new friends were made and everybody managed to improve their chess playing skills on the long drawn out rest days...... Special mention has to be made to Ross Kirkland- who went from having never really played chess to being untouchable at it by the end of the trip!!!!

The main emphasis of the trip was for the kids to concentrate in getting as much on sight mileage and quick redpoint ascents as they could. Thus giving them the chance to get comfortable with climbing on real rock, establish what grade they are comfortable at ticking quickly and also learn all of the rope work skills required for sport climbing outside. The first few days were spent getting used to the never ending treck up the side of a mountain to get to the crag and climbing loads of lower grade mileage. This allowed everyone to get a feel for the climbing style and put them in good stead for attempting harder routes later in the trip. I truly can not believe how talented this group of lads are. It has taken me years of climbing and training to get to the grade these kids were cranking on their first real climbing holiday. The fact that they were able to transfer their indoor climbing ability so quickly to climbing on real rock is testament to how talented these lads are. It truly is going to be and exciting era for Scottish climbing over the next few years if this generation of kids keep up their training and appetite for getting out on real rock. Bellow is brief tick list of a few of the impressive ticks achieved by the lads in Ceuse;

Tick List for Trip;

Jonny Field
Super Mickey f7b (redpoint 2nd go)
Bibendium f7b+ (redpoint)

Ross Kirkland
Super Mickey f7b (flash)
Au Sud De Nulle Part f7b+ (onsight)

Paul Williamson
Corps Entrager f7b+ (repoint)
Vagabond f7c (redpoint 2nd go)
Blochage Violant f7b+ (redpoint)
Au Sud De Nulle Part f7b+ (onsight)

Jonny Stocking
La Collanetts f7c+ (redpoint 2nd go)
Berlin f7c (redpoint)
Makach Walou f7c+ (flash)
La Couler De Vent f8a (redpoint)

Roby Phillips
Mirage f7c+ (redpoint)
Vagabong f7c (onsight)
Tenere f7c+ (redpoint 2nd go)
Rosanna f8a (redpoint 2nd go)

A great time was had by all and everybody returned full of motivation to get out climbing in the UK for the remainder of the season. Watch this space for photos of the trip!

British Bouldering Championships Sheffield,2008

2008-07-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

A few of the Scottish kids headed off down to Sheffield this weekend to take part in the BBC's held at the Cliffhanger outdoor event in Millhouses Park, Sheffield.
In the girls section Jamie Davidson came 4th in the qualifier finishing 6th overall, Jonny Stocking climbing as hard as ever to finish 1st overall in the boys with Jonathan Field doing great to finish 5th in the qualifiers, [9th overall], Dylan MacKenzie finishing 13th and Alastair Johnstone 20th.

The full results for the juniors can be found here:http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=2669

Creag a' Bhancair

2008-07-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Two of the crew from south Scotland [Jonathan Field & Ross Kirkland] who are heading for Ceuse on Monday for a sport climbing holiday were joined by Stevie Addison from north Scotland on a sport climbing training mission at Creag a' Bhancair [Tunnel wall] today, a trip orginasied by Scott Muir who was there helping the boys out with some climbing tips on what to expect when they go on holiday.

Learning to figure out routes from a guide book

The boys then went on to do a couple of dogged climbs before going for the lead on Uncertain Emotions 25m F7b***

EICA, Ratho BRYCS Club Summer Break

2008-07-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
Firstly I would just like to congratulate all of the scottish kids on yet another fine display at the YCS finals this year. I think it is fair to say that the standard of climber at this years final was one of the highest ever seen. Keep up the climbing and hard work training guys!
The EICA, Ratho based BRYCS Club is breaking up for the summer and will not be starting up again until the first Saturday of October, in preperation for next years competition series. I am keen to provide advice to the kids and parents with regards to structuring their training and climbing while the club is not running. If any of you want to get in touch with me regarding this, feel free to drop me a call at EICA on 0131 333 6324 or email me on neilmcgeachy_1@hotmail.com.
Also keep an eye for future posts on this blog and the EICA, web site with regards up and coming youth climbing events such as a Fun Route Competition to celebrate the opening of our new Competition walls. There will also be some up and coming photo's and info regarding the older Scotland South kid's trip to Ceuse in July!

BRYCS 2008 Final, Ratho

2008-06-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

What a fantasiic day with some tremendous climbing skills shown by all the kids giving the route setters one massive big headache with 5 out of the 6 catagorys having to go through to a SUPER FINAL !!!! which even after that, four groups had to settle for joint 1st places !!!!!

The report from the BMC can be found here: and the full results for all the rounds & the final can be found here:

Once again I have lots of photos & video shots of the kids climbing which will be published here within the next couple of days.

If anybody has any other pics of the kids climbing let us know and it can be added.

Scottish Youth Climbing Final, 2008, Extreme Dream, Aviemore.

2008-06-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for any delay in posting the results:
8-10 Girls:

Rachel Tennent

Karyna McCormack

Rebecca Kinghorn

Amy Ryan

Lauren Sandbach

Niamh Taylor

Gabriella Stewart

Elle Hogworth

8-10 Boys:

William Bosi

Angus Davidson

Henry Kerr

Scott Robertson

Jamie Peden

Robert Davidson

Rory Cargill

George Kerr

11-13 Girls:

Jamie Davidson

Eleanor Hopkins

Dawn Longworth

Nikki Addison

Sophie Stainstreet

Rachel Carr

Sofie Brekke Hvide

Christie MacLeod

Sarah Wardrope

Eilish Bruce

Rosa Becci

11-13 Boys:

Dylan MacKenzie

Steven Addison

Gregor McGillivray

Ruairdh MacAskill

Cameron Carroll

Alexander Bosi

Rhys Edgar

Jake Scollay

Daniel Tennent

14-16 Girls:

Ellen MacAskill

Jessica McCaskey

Jade Longworth

Jasmine Ryan

Abi Beautyman

Ellen Barber

Abbey Niven

Nicola Munro

Whitney Fobister

14-16 Boys:

Johnny Stocking

Ross Kirkland

Paul Williamson

Liam Watson

Alastair Johnstone

Calum Forsyth

Jonathan Field

Tom Jones

Scott Grosdanoff

Over the last week I have been handed 2 disks with over 200 photos of the final, I will try to get one of each of the competitors added here within the next couple of days. If anybody else has any photos of the final let us know by leaving a comment and we will try our best to get the added.

Jonny Stocking, EYS Wuppertal, Germany

2008-06-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic result Jonny and the test of the team in Germany. Full report from the BMC can be found here:

Scottish Final, Extreme Dream

2008-05-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

Good luck to all the competitors tomorrow in the Scottish final at Extreme Dream , Aviemore.
It's looking to be an exciting day with some fantastic climbing to be seen by the best kids in Scotland!!

Good luck to you all.

The full results should will be posted here with pictures [hopefully] as soon as possible after the event.

2008 Youth Climbing Series Coaching Day

2008-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Have you qualified for this years YCS series final at EICA, Ratho?
If so EICA, are running a day long training event aimed at preparing competitors for the challenges they will face at this years final. Our highly experienced coaching staff will be on hand to give tips on specific competition tactics and our BMC accredited route setting staff will have set a mock YCS competition for each age category on our competition wall and bouldering cave. This will be a perfect opportunity for climbers to get some experience of competing on our competition wall before the big day. This training day is open to all climbers , who have qualified for this years YCS final!

Sunday-8th June
10am – 4pm
£15.00 (prior booking essential)
For Bookings Call: 0131 333 6333

2008-05-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

FINALS SOON TO HAPPEN

Sorry for taking so long to get back on the case. I decided to get rid of all the negative rubbish and get back to the start with just good information on all the kids success stories and bin the politics.

I have also got Neil McGeachy and Jimmy Addison authoring to keep the site more up to date with Scotland wide info.

We will soon get invites about the Scottish Championships Final on the 31st May at Extreme Dream so don't worry about not recieving stuff yet. If you are top 5 you are through and entered.

We need all BIG first place trophies back please - make sure they come on the day or you'll need to deliver them personally. It would be nice either to recieve itr again! or pass it on to the next Scottish First Place.

I'II keep more information posted about forthcoming events.

Thanks for all parents support with Coaching sessions over the winter with the stars - it certainly has paid off up here and I look forward to seeing Scotland South at the final.

Good Climbing everyone

Scott

Farletter Crag

2008-05-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Friday night training went outdoors this week as the good weather was still with us, so 5 kids that arrived at the wall along with Scott and some of the parents headed off to Farletter Crag for some outdoor climbing.

Eilish on her first ever outdoor climb, climbing Farrlake severe

Steven climbing Ceasefarr E2/5c*

Ellen also on Ceasefire E2/5c*

Nikki on Farrplay E1/5c

Scott also on his first trip outdoor climbing doing great on Farrout E3/5c*

[appoligise for poor quality of pictures but between the two cameras we had between us, tonight they both decided that they did not want to perform as well as the kids !!!!]

Huntly's Cave

2008-05-05T02:41:00.000-07:00

May day holiday and a few of the kids from Extreme Dream took advantage of the great weather and headed out to Huntly's Cave for the day.

Ellen on Double Overhang HVS /5a***

Jade on Dead Tree Wall VS/4c*

Nikki on Dead Tree Wall VS/4c

Steven on Double Overhang HVS /5a***

Other routes the kids climbed

Hanging Grove E1/5c*

Huntly's Jam E2/5b*

Right Hand Groove Vdiff*

Slot Direct severe*

Dead Tree Wall VS/4c*

Double Overhang HVS 5a***

Diagonal Direct E1/5c*

Cave Direct VS/4b

Huntly's Wall E3/6a**

Scottish Youth Climbing Series

2008-04-26T03:38:00.000-07:00

Full results from the last three round of the YCS can be found here.