I arrived early, got registered and went over to join Jamie and Abi route mapping. This helped a lot because it got all the moves into my head. We then all went off to the sports hall where we warmed up, with a good old game of tunnel tig... and stretches.
We got called into the wall and were to start with the hardest of our boulders first, which was a bit odd but the rest of the wall was taken and that's all that was left. I was 4th to go for this one and watched everyone before me. Most people topped it first time, taking time working out the moves. When it was my turn to go I was pretty nervous. It moved off a juggy hold and a feature to start off with, then up to a small sloper with your left hand bringing your right hand up onto a feature to balance yourself. It was then a long reach out to a feature, which was the finish. I managed it quite well and didn't find any of the moves too challenging. Probably V3/V4.
Out next route was an Orange lead, the easiest of our leads. It was basically jugs the whole way up which meant everyone topped it easily. 5+/6a ? We then moved onto our next boulder, which was our medium graded boulder (this was also the one that turned out to be my nightmare....) It was only 3 moves. It started with two hands round an arete and we had to get our feet on and stay in control for 2 seconds. Then it was quite a big reach up to a higher part of the arete and once you got this it was a dyno to a massive jug at the end. Didn't look to bad I thought to myself watching others on it. Then when I got to it my thoughts changed quite a bit as I fell of the first move. This changed my whole view of the route and probably put me in a negative frame of mind for the rest of it. My second and third try both ended the same way. I don't even think I would grade this, it was that odd! After this I was gutted!! To say the least!! ( I think my facial expressions showed it all ) This boulder had put me into last place, which meant I felt like the competition was over, even though we still had 2 climbs and a boulder left.
I was in such a negative mood after this but after a talk off Jamie, Grant and Gary (and some noodles) I felt like I still had a chance of coming back.
Our next thing to do was the easiest boulder. Jug, Jug, Jug. Not surprisingly everyone topped this again. Probably V0/V1. We then went straight onto our medium grade climb. It was a Green climb, with mostly pretty decent jugs, pinches and edges all the way up. The hardest part was probably not letting your foot move over past the white line, where we weren't allowed our feet. The line was only about a foot away from the climb so when you tried to flag or balance yourself you had to be really careful. Apart from this, it was quite an easy climb and again everyone topped it. 6b?
We then had a bit of a rest and it was then time for the last Orange climb. I was told it was a 7a+. It was full of rubbish pockets, small crimps and slopers. Mostly crimps though, which was good! Although added into that was big moves to slopers (bad!) We watched Rachel demo it for us and that cleared up some thoughts I had about how to do certain moves. I was 6th to go on this climb and after watching everyone on front of me fall off at various parts of it, I was pretty nervous. The first two clips were easy, using really positive pockets then up to some good crimps. Although hearing a shout of "Go Gromit" by Jamie kind of put me off. The next part was then some laybacks on some edges which wasn't too bad and then up to a small crimpy, slopey hold which could only fit two fingers. I managed to clip off this which made the next move a lot easier. It was then up to a sloper and then a small pinch, and a big move up to another sloper. The next part was the hardest, it was out with your left hand to an undercut crimp then out with your right hand to another undercut crimp and then a big move up to a big pinch. I managed to do this quite easily because I got my foot up high, although by this time I was starting to shake a bit, (but a power scream seemed to help this, SAAH!) Then it was crimp and jug for finish. I topped it which felt amazing.
After working out the scores, i had come second because topping the last climb had given me enough points. I was soo happy considering I had been last earlier. Jamie came first after topping everything! Well done mate! Abi got sooo close to topping the last climb (2nd last clip) which put her in 3rd place!
We had a little prize giving at the end when we recieved our certificates. It was pretty embarrassing having my name called out, and then hearing cheers of "Go Gromit!" (thanks guys)
It was a really good competition and we managed to get Me, Jamie and Abi all in the top three which was awesome! Well done to Jamie for coming 1st, Abi for coming 3rd and everyone else who took part in the comp!
Bring on Glasgow !
1st,2nd,3rd (Jamie, Me, Fraser)
Nice one Beast!!!
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