The past year

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The past year has, I think, been brilliant.

At the begining of 2015 I won the MY series and qualified for the national finals.  I came 15th in my new category and had fun with my friends, Kirsty, Isla, Gwen, Hannah and Emma.

I am doing the comps this year as well, but my goals have changed.  As I’m now really quite small in my category  I have decided to climb more dynamically, jump and not be scared to fall off.  I go, have fun and smile.  I will still always try my hardest, of course, no matter where I come.

I have been outside a lot this year, here is where I went:

  • Churnet Valley
  • Burbage South
  • Stanage Plantation
  • The Roaches
  • Raven Tor
  • Horseshoe Quarry

At Horseshoe Quarry, I did my first outdoor lead – Like ice, like fire 6a. Doing that route I felt scared lots of times,mostly when clipping. All I had to do was swallow my fear and just believe that I was safe, which sounds easy when you say it like that, but trust me, it’s not. The exhilaration when I clipped the last clip was overwhelming.  I couldn’t help shouting out, YES!!!

Not all trips have to be tough and wreck your fingers, my example is my trip to The Roaches. This wasn’t  exactly the most hard core trip that I’ve ever had.  I went with my club – TYCC – and just had fun. We climbed up some rock faces and then camped there for a night. BBQ food and films were enough to send us all to the land of dreams as soon as we got into our sleeping bags. It was  loads of fun and great to be with my friends from TYCC, we even saw a calf taking its first steps and named it Gunter. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Outdoors at Burbage South

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I don’t know about you, but we’ve had some very nice weather in this last week of my Easter holidays, so we went up to the Peak District to climb outdoors.

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Five happy climbers sitting on a rock

We decided to go to Burbage South Valley for a change, and there ended up being twelve of us altogether: Alex Norton, Kai Paling, Zac Brown and Ellie Dixon were there, as well as our parents.

We had a great time ticking off problems on the green and yellow circuits in my guide book, Peak Bouldering, and it gave me a chance to practice slab work and trusting my feet on practically nothing. I also enjoyed wriggling up a crack called The Trough on The Pig – I felt just like Tom Randall!  We made a video, which I really love, and hope you enjoy.  I’m going back to Burbage with the Tower Youth Climbing Club in May and hope the weather is as good.

https://vimeo.com/124277952

Next stop, BMC YCS Finals in Ratho, 25th April!!!!!!!!!!

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Going up The Crook

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Fun in the sun

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That’s enough for now

ROCfest 2015

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Two weeks after my tenth birthday I went up to Rock Over Climbing in Manchester to compete in ROCfest 2015.  I was competing in Girls 10-12, and had just been off school with tonsillitis all week, so wasn’t expecting too much of myself.

I still wanted to go though, because I knew lots of famous climbers would be there!

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Look whose car I found!

The problems were good, I flashed 16 out of 25 and was pretty pleased with how I climbed, all things considered.

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Dangling!

I met my friend Gwen again, who climbs at Boulders in Cardiff, so it was good to see her.

There were some cool challenges that we could do to earn raffles tickets.  These were a leap of faith from the top of a wall to a trapeze, which was hard but satisfyingly thrilling, and also a table traverse which I did width-ways and length-ways, twice!  Check out the video!

I was also able to get my signed T Shirt back.

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So happy!

It has signatures of lots of famous climbers from all around the world, including Adam Ondra, Alex Puccio, Akiyo Noguchi, Jule Wurm, Kilian Fischhuber and Sean McColl, amongst others.  I am so happy to have this: it is VERY cool!

Midlands Youth Climbing Series 2015

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A summary of the MY Series

I have just completed the Midlands Youth Climbing Series 2015, competing in Girls D for the first time.  There were five rounds this year, which was one more than last year, but this time the lowest scoring round was to be dropped.  We competed at Wolf Mountain, Creation, Alter Rock, Big Rock and The Climbing Station (but not in that order).  Big Rock was definitely the oddest round because one route was set on their new indoor grit wall.  This meant that all the features were in for hands and feet, and I flashed it, but my fingers got pretty sore!

There were nine girls in my category altogether, although they didn’t all come to all the rounds.  I won each round, sometimes 25 points ahead of second place, but sometimes just 3!  I had a great time, and it was nice to make some new friends in this new category.

Scottish Youth Climbing Championships

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Two weeks ago we made the long journey back up to Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Ratho so I could compete in the MCofS Scottish Youth Climbing Championships.  It was a great event and it was nice to see some of the girls from the BMC National Finals again.  I flashed both the qualifying routes and went through the the final in joint first.  This was my first time in proper isolation, which was a bit weird but OK.

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Climbing the final route

Our final route was graded F7a+ and I climbed as high as just one other girl.  The difference was, she did it in 3mins 2secs and I took 3mins 27secs, so I took the silver.  I was very happy with this, and with how my climbing has developed over the summer holidays.  As ever, we made a little video, which I hope you enjoy. IMG_3711 I am now getting ready for the Midlands Youth Climbing Series again, which starts at Alter Rock in less than two weeks time.  I’m in Girls D this time, so am looking forward to testing my skills against some harder climbs.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Summer Bouldering!

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I have climbed a lot over summer, and some of that has been the bouldering league at The Depot, Nottingham, and the Junior Bouldering Competition at The Climbing Station, Loughborough. The Junior Bouldering Circuit at The Station was set by Tom Randall, and included problems from V0-V6.  I was very pleased to crack 18 out of the 20 problems, and was particularly pleased with topping number 19, which was a V6.  There’s a short little video from the circuit here:

I placed 2nd in the under 12s, losing out to my friend Jaimin Metcalf, who did brilliantly! Climbing StationI took part in four out of the five rounds at The Depot, Nottingham, and won the female 7-11 category.  The final round was a great event, with free pizza and lots of climbers.  I even won a raffle prize!! IMG_3610

Back at Stanage Plantation

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On the 30th July I went back to Stanage Plantation, along with Alex Norton and Kai Paling.  Kai’s dog, Milo came along too!  We had another great day, although it was different from last time as the bracken was out.  Kai and I spent a lot of time playing, exploring and getting lost in it as, in places, it was over our heads!

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See what I mean!

 

I climbed the V4 Slot Sit Down again, as well as the Black Arete, Lone Slab, a couple of things on the Business Boulder and, of course, the Pebble Traverse.  I also had a good go at the Lone Ranger.  This time I managed to go home with more skin still on my fingers.  I think I’ve definitely learnt to trust my feet more and am getting more used to working out how to get up a line without having a set of holds to follow.  It’s very different from climbing inside, but I do enjoy it.

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When we got home there was a nice surprise waiting for me from Alpkit….

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My favourite colours!

Thanks Alpkit!

Have a look at the video above to see what our day was like.

BMC Youth Climbing Series Finals!!!!!

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Big CAC picture at Ratho!

On Saturday 28th June I travelled up to the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho to compete in the national finals of the BMC Youth Climbing Series.  I had been training hard and felt ready and psyched to be going.

 

I was first to climb in my group, up route number one, which I topped easily.  Boulders one and two were flashes, as was route number two.  Boulder three proved more difficult, and I didn’t get the footwork needed to top this one.  Route number three was up a big set of tufas, and I, along with most of the group, popped off just over half-way.  This put me in 6th position overall, which was just outside what I had hoped for, but still an improvement on last year’s 9th.  I was really pleased to have flashed four out of the six climbs, and knew that the others were possible.  I was also excited to have met members of the GB Team, and got a new CAC T-shirt!

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Me and Molly!

I went back to Ratho on the Sunday, and sorted out more of problem three and the final route, as you can see on the video above.  I left Edinburgh really happy, determined to keep working hard and looking forward to climbing outside in the summer holidays.

Climbing at many walls!

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Thanks to the funding from Leicester City Council, I have been able to travel to other climbing walls recently, as part of my training for the BMC YCS National Finals.

I always enjoy going to new walls, and reckon I’ve climbed at 17 different walls altogether, in the last year.  I like different ones for different reasons.  For example, I really loved the kids’ boulder circuit at The Climbing Station, Loughborough, as it gave me a challenge without setting things out of my reach.

I like the long routes at Awesome Walls, Sheffield and Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Ratho.  Here’s a picture of me nearing the top of the 30m wall at the EICA.

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I’m near the top of the green route – can you see me?

When I was at The Foundry, Sheffield, just a couple of weeks ago, they had a brilliant route up a set of tufas, which meant I could practice my lay-backs.

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Like a monkey!

The Tower, Leicester has been a great place to do endurance training, by doing 4x4s up the overhanging panel 15.  I’ve also been able to concentrate on using features here.

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I do think it’s very important to go and climb at as many places as possible, so I’m really grateful that the funding from Leicester City Council has helped this.

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