2011 BBC's

 


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

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

Some Vids of EYS Imst

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

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

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

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!