Edinburgh International Climbing Arena

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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